I'm a bit puzzled at the Right to Bear Arms choice.

+1 Strength to Colonist. So... does this mean each peasant you convert into a dragoon gets +1 strength, or is it for something else very minor?

It's either that, or the 50% bells boost, and I'm curious for input on this.

Unarmed colonists get +1 to strength, but this doesn't affect armed colonists. Since unarmed colonists can't attack, this is good for defense if you don't have enough guns to arm all your colonists.

Gahhh. Well those would be definitely weak units indeed then! I think that only would apply to a player who sereously screwed up.

I believe that with "right to bear arms" if a colony is attacked an you have colonists in the garrisons they will defend at STR 3 + modifiers. If colonists do NOT have a right to bear arms only the 1st colonist will fight and if/when they lose ALL other colonists are destroyed.

I just finished a game where I ran out of guns but had 8 or so colonists in my capital garrison and when the king knocked out the soldiers and 1 of the colonist the rest gave in. I was not able to test what would have happened if I had chosen "right to bear arms"; whether each one would have defended as opposed to all of them losing but I am thinking this may be the case.

Nah, it just means they are a bit stronger, like soldiers, but without any added bonus.
So if the king comes a'knocking, get your farmers n' such out of the farms, and into the streets. Of course, a better alternative is to just stockpile guns and horses...

Hmm, tested this last game, seems my city couldn't defend it'self. One battle and they all gave up.

Heh, I chose Right to Bear Arms, but it didn't really matter, since my dragoons and soldiers beat the king's forces to a pulp in forested hills and such.

It seems to me that it doesn't really matter what kind of choices you make with your constitution anyway:

Right to Bear Arms vs. Controlled Arms - +1 colonist Strength vs. +50% Liberty Bell production - If you need the colonists to protect themselves, you seem to have failed (at least I can't see why you'd give your colonies up freely o_O). Controlled Arms, well, I can't see why you need the Liberty Bells, since there's no Foreign Intervention in Civ4Col. The only thing you'd need those for is to boost your rebel sentiment bonus, but I don't think that's going to change significantly during the few turns of war of independence...

Monarchy vs. Elections - Trade with Europe or 100% Liberty Bell production - okay, so you can trade with Europe. So what? You can't really ship anything there (cause your coast is full of Man-o-Wars), and you need all your colonists to defend your colonies (Except the ones breeding horses and making weapons). You don't really need the liberty bell production, since there's nothing to accomplish (No foreign intervention in Civ4Col), except maybe to boost the "rebel sentiment" bonus you get a bit.

Manifest Destiny vs. Native Rights - Manifest Destiny is absolutely redudant - by the time your colonies are rebellious enough, the indians have "donated" their camps to you anyway (Or you have razed them :P) and you really shouldn't be at war with any other factions than your mother country at this point. Native rights - well, okay, you MIGHT get some indian factions on your side but I haven't seen them do ANYTHING. It'd be nice to see Monty's mounted and armed braves to surprise the king's forces, but... bleh.

Slavery vs. All Men are Free - +25% to resource harvesting or +2 population in all cities - All Men are Free ABSOLUTELY wins. I can't see why anyone would pick slavery, since you really need colonists and fast to fight. With 5 settlements, that's 10 people - 10 dragoons more.

Separation of Church and State vs. Theocracy - crosses to Liberty Bells or crosses to production - again, I don't see why you'd need the Liberty Bells. Production bonuses may be nifty (to get some more tools and horses, as mentioned). Even so, I think it's better to just arm the preachers and give them horses as well.

Wow, the constitution doesn't really matter at all! Maybe, if you could draft it e.g. at 25% Rebel Sentiment (and then declare independence later, at 50%), it might have a bigger effect - but as it stands now, it's a pretty useless feature.

Slavery can be good in OCC, or the two city gambit. But, yeah, freedomn seems to be the way to go, and is probably the easiest exploitable part of the game.

I thought the same thing about trade with Europe then realized that you can get to Europe via the western route and it is unlikely that the King will have the covered.

I thought the same thing about trade with Europe then realized that you can get to Europe via the western route and it is unlikely that the King will have the covered.

Oh yeah, that's true. But even so, that doesn't really help you, since you aren't really manufacturing anything but guns, horses and cannons after the DoI. Well, I guess you could sell whatever you have in your warehouses, and with that money, you can do... what? Nothing, really :P

Slavery vs. All Men are Free - +25% to resource harvesting or +2 population in all cities - All Men are Free ABSOLUTELY wins. I can't see why anyone would pick slavery, since you really need colonists and fast to fight. With 5 settlements, that's 10 people - 10 dragoons more.

I pretty much agree with most the stuff, except for this. I think it depends on your strategy. I like to put a lot of food specialists in my cities, and form the terrain to match. That way, I can pop units = many dragoons/soldiers very fast in rapid successions. So even though I miss out on 2 freebies early, in my 50-100 long war, I will be getting much more in return than that 1-shot bonus.

So.....

And BTW, I always chose Trade with Europe. I will often sneak around ships there, and then buy really cheap units like fishermen or farmers, and then instantly convert them to military units once I bring them aboard. It's much cheaper that way than buying expensive Vets or cannons that ramp up to 2K a piece in no time.

Oh yeah, that's true. But even so, that doesn't really help you, since you aren't really manufacturing anything but guns, horses and cannons after the DoI. Well, I guess you could sell whatever you have in your warehouses, and with that money, you can do... what? Nothing, really :P


You can buy either cannons or veteran soldiers which is both very useful in some circumstances.

You can buy either cannons or veteran soldiers which is both very useful in some circumstances.

Yes, but they get more expensive and usually in this stage of the game your economy has stopped because everybody is handing a gun. So no more rum to sell means no more cannons to buy. I always found it more economical to produce the cannons myself.

Right to Bear Arms vs. Controlled Arms - +1 colonist Strength vs. +50% Liberty Bell production - If you need the colonists to protect themselves, you seem to have failed (at least I can't see why you'd give your colonies up freely o_O).

I always give up my colonies freely because I set up a decentralized economy and buy all my guns from Europe. Since I have no need for the colonies and no hammers to build fortifications anyways, I move most of my troops out of the colonies and into forests and fight the war outside the cities.

Actually Monarchy is absolutely crucial for my play style. I always have 2-3 heavy goods producing cities. When independance comes I just leave them making goods. All of them have warehouse expansion and are as high on liberty bells as possible, that way their production is doubled. Now warehouse expansion sells goods at 50% of their price to europe. So I'm about at same as sending goods to Europe with ships minus the micromanagement. I tend to get up too 500 gold per turn and that is then used on quick cannons production or fortresses or whatever I need.

I think it doesn't really matter what you choose, as long as you have the way to fight against the King troops.

I made the win against the King, at a late stage, by pulling so many vessels on the water that the man-o-wars had a lot of trouble arriving to land, and the few troops that arrived were killed by the local populace (had been pumping out guns and ships for a long time before WOI). So if you have enough army, and enough populace (say a lot of big town pumping up populace), the king will probably have troubles going into you, specially if you can stop some man-o-wars along the way....

Well, my last game the REF only had:

12 Inf
7 Drags
6 Art

LOL!


In that case, it really didn't matter what I chose, so I took the All men are Free option, as I didn't expect the war to last long enough to make any difference in production bonuses.

I still think that +1 to colonizers is sorta bugged, it just doesn't seem to really work for me. MOST the time my cities fall without a single citizen picking up a gun to even fight. Maybe I just don't understand this game mechanic, like all the other flawed ones.

I always give up my colonies freely because I set up a decentralized economy and buy all my guns from Europe. Since I have no need for the colonies and no hammers to build fortifications anyways, I move most of my troops out of the colonies and into forests and fight the war outside the cities.

Be careful here. What happens if ALL of your colonies are captured, but you still have soldiers in the field? Do you lose automatically there? I would think the game would require at least 1 colony to still be under your control....

No you don't, at least not from one of my games. You can lose your capital (no other cities), and then retake it with your artillery the next round. You can also wait multiple turns before taking it back.

In fact, if you lose all cities AND fighting units, you can still win the game if you have a ship in europe and some cash to buy new units.

Oh yeah, that's true. But even so, that doesn't really help you, since you aren't really manufacturing anything but guns, horses and cannons after the DoI. Well, I guess you could sell whatever you have in your warehouses, and with that money, you can do... what? Nothing, really :PRush builds. Like, oh, say, cannons.

I still think that +1 to colonizers is sorta bugged, it just doesn't seem to really work for me. MOST the time my cities fall without a single citizen picking up a gun to even fight. Maybe I just don't understand this game mechanic, like all the other flawed ones.

In order to profit from "colonist garrison" with Right to Bear Arms you need to have colonists in garrison, not working inside the colony.

Only those colonists will defend with power of 3. Those still working in city do not have any defense, nor would jump to defense if no unit is in garrison (exempt if having guns in warhouse, when they would convert to soliders on attack).

Well thats a bit silly. If my colonists are not working inside the city, then I'd have them already outside armed with guns in the first place.

Still, if you do not have enough guns...

Anyway, I just noticed one disadvantage when using "bare colonists" as defenders.

They will always defend last. For example, if your city has heavily damaged solider or cannon they will still defend first, before colonist, although colonist could have better chances against the enemy.

Be careful here. What happens if ALL of your colonies are captured, but you still have soldiers in the field? Do you lose automatically there? I would think the game would require at least 1 colony to still be under your control....

You Don't even lose if the only asset you have is a native Mission, Which is very bugged, Although the king will win a European victory when time runs out

yeh, just it end turn 40 times to find out, had two native join found a colony and die.

Oh yeah, that's true. But even so, that doesn't really help you, since you aren't really manufacturing anything but guns, horses and cannons after the DoI. Well, I guess you could sell whatever you have in your warehouses, and with that money, you can do... what? Nothing, really :P
Yeah, I'm kind of bummed about how Col has turned out.

It's a trading game where money seems to be the object, but it doesn't really do anything. If you could buy mercenaries (more than just the cannon), or, I dunno, do something with the cash after independance, the game would feel a lot better to me.

Not mentioning the fact that cash turns into settlers which makes it harder to declare independence...