After beating my first game of Civ 4 Colonization (pilgrim), I thought I should post a guide for those people who might have some trouble.
Let me explain how I did it:
First and foremost, I strongly recommend playing as the Dutch. The Merchantman's hull space is very useful and you get +25% production in all settlements. Use your soldier to build your first settlement and use him to harvest food, use the pioneer to improve all the plots around the settlement. You should be building a warehouse.
Next, sail back to Europe with your merchantman and pick up and all immigrants and make them work in your settlement. You want to get a seasoned scout as SOON AS POSSIBLE. Once you have one, explore the land around you (I use auto-explore) and you will find many native villages who offer you lots of gold and you might even find treasure. NEVER let the king transport the treasure, just be patient and save up for a galleon as soon as possible.
I started in South America, so the most prominent resources I could use were tobacco and sugar. When you are ready to build your next settlement, build it next to the sea and build adjacent to a source of ore. Use this city to produce tools (your first city should be processing its most prominent resource, tobacco in my case), you will also need to make this second city produce horses, but not until much later.
NEVER sell goods raw, at least not yet, just use your first settlement to produce cigars from tobacco and sell it to Europe frequently, use your gold to buy a galleon and always pick up immigrants and assign them to their specialized duty whenever possible. After a while, you should build a church in your first city and put firebrand preachers into this church so you can get much more immigrants. Use excess free colonists as missionaries and establish missions in close by native villages.
Your third settlement should be built inland and near your first settlement, build where resources are abundant; look for the resource that your first settlement is processing! When this city is built, use it only to harvest tobacco and sugar and to construct buildings with wood! Use a wagon train to transport raw tobacco and sugar to your first settlement to be processed and then shipped to Europe for the big bucks.
Your second settlement should be generating a decent supply of tools by now to construct harbors and shipyards, after shipyards are built, you should begin building a stable to prepare to generate horses later in the game. If your second settlement is generating tobacco or sugar, use a wagon train to send them to your first settlement and then ship to Europe. Your scout should have discovered much of the world by now and you should have gained a large amount of gold and even found treasure. Use this gold to purchase a few veteran soldiers early and keep generating those crosses and replace normal colonists for specialists often.
You should get most of your food from the sea in coastal settlements, you can send free colonists to native villages that train them into expert fishermen, which are very useful in coastal settlements. Keep building up to a rum factory and cigar factory in your first settlement, then build a place to produce guns. When that is finished, create a trade route to send tools from the second settlement to the first so it can produce guns for later.
Use the rest of the game to build two or three more inland settlements and use them the same way as the third settlement, just harvest raw resources to send to the first settlement to be processed. You should have one of these new settlements harvesting ore to send off to the second city with a wagon train. Use all your gold to from exploring and selling to buy LOTS of veteran soldiers and also buy specialists when needed and keep those CROSSES coming!
Preparing for the REF...
DO NOT CREATE LIBERTY BELLS YET! Right now you should just be selling all that rum and cigars, producing guns and horses, and buying veteran soldiers and specialists. If you built enough inland harvesting settlements and if you built factories in your first settlement worked by at least two specialists, you should be getting 200 cigars AND rum every 4 turns or so, this will give you some MASSIVE gold. Also keep transporting that treasure with your galleon!
Now you really need to start purchasing frigates from Europe. With all that gold your getting, only buy frigates until you have at least 12, but the more the better! This might take awhile, but it is worth it! DON'T build frigates in your coastal cities, use their precious production to build defensive structures all the way to forts. You might need to buy extra tools from Europe, but that's okay. Try to get 200 guns max in as many settlements as you can (I was only able to fill 3 settlements and I still won) and your two coastal cities should each have at least 200 horses. Use wagon trains to transport these resources. Your first two settlements should at least be at size 16 by now and have plenty of colonists.
Now it's time to produce liberty bells (you should have at least 90-100 turns left before you start this). Build newspapers in your two coastal settlements and try to get them in your inland settlements, but this might be difficult. Buy lots of elder statesmen, you should have been buying these guys every now and then before. You should have at least 6-8 elder statesmen at this point. While you are getting liberty bells, the King will start adding soldiers to the REF by fours, don't be intimidated! Buy more frigates and lots of veteran soldiers from Europe while you still can and sell that rum and cigars!
After the REF lands, use all those frigates to take out the man-o-wars before the King can bombard those coastal settlements, and when possible, before he can land his troops. It usually takes 3 frigates to take out 1 man-o-war, that's why I said to buy as many as you can! Make your colonists stop gathering resources and processing and assign them to soldier duty using all those guns and horses you've been stocking up since the middle-game. You should have a very large defense force! Use your dragoons for offense, and soldiers for defense, though you can use them for offense when you feel it is needed.
Do not waste gold or production on cannons, they are useless! Try to get your colonist-soldiers experience first, and use your veterans only to weaken strong REF units and to defend. Make your inland settlements produce military points and get the best founding fathers that help in combat. Make your two coastal settlements produce horses and guns as usual. Cigars and tobacco are no longer necessary, so turn those colonists into soldiers, too. From here, all you have to do is wait for the King to land all his units and try your best to destroy his man-o-wars. If you run out of frigates, it's okay to build them in your settlements if you think you have enough soldiers.
Tips:
-ALWAYS give in to the King's demands. Always pay the gold he wants (he never demands much anyways). You want to keep the tax low for as long as possible.
-Do not boycott goods, you NEED to sell rum and cigars to Europe to win!
-Do not defend your inland cities! The King will only attack your two coastal settlements, put all of your defense there.
-Try to kill the King's forces as soon as they land, don't let his artillery attack your settlements, as they get a huge bonus.
-Create lots of wagon train trade routes and send all the raw resources except ore to your first city and process it all there.
-Try to send ore and lumber to your second settlement
-Try to stay on the natives' good side, don't colonize near their villages and make lots of missions for extra colonists
-Play on NORMAL speed, it is the easist, IMO.
Let me explain how I did it:
First and foremost, I strongly recommend playing as the Dutch. The Merchantman's hull space is very useful and you get +25% production in all settlements. Use your soldier to build your first settlement and use him to harvest food, use the pioneer to improve all the plots around the settlement. You should be building a warehouse.
Next, sail back to Europe with your merchantman and pick up and all immigrants and make them work in your settlement. You want to get a seasoned scout as SOON AS POSSIBLE. Once you have one, explore the land around you (I use auto-explore) and you will find many native villages who offer you lots of gold and you might even find treasure. NEVER let the king transport the treasure, just be patient and save up for a galleon as soon as possible.
I started in South America, so the most prominent resources I could use were tobacco and sugar. When you are ready to build your next settlement, build it next to the sea and build adjacent to a source of ore. Use this city to produce tools (your first city should be processing its most prominent resource, tobacco in my case), you will also need to make this second city produce horses, but not until much later.
NEVER sell goods raw, at least not yet, just use your first settlement to produce cigars from tobacco and sell it to Europe frequently, use your gold to buy a galleon and always pick up immigrants and assign them to their specialized duty whenever possible. After a while, you should build a church in your first city and put firebrand preachers into this church so you can get much more immigrants. Use excess free colonists as missionaries and establish missions in close by native villages.
Your third settlement should be built inland and near your first settlement, build where resources are abundant; look for the resource that your first settlement is processing! When this city is built, use it only to harvest tobacco and sugar and to construct buildings with wood! Use a wagon train to transport raw tobacco and sugar to your first settlement to be processed and then shipped to Europe for the big bucks.
Your second settlement should be generating a decent supply of tools by now to construct harbors and shipyards, after shipyards are built, you should begin building a stable to prepare to generate horses later in the game. If your second settlement is generating tobacco or sugar, use a wagon train to send them to your first settlement and then ship to Europe. Your scout should have discovered much of the world by now and you should have gained a large amount of gold and even found treasure. Use this gold to purchase a few veteran soldiers early and keep generating those crosses and replace normal colonists for specialists often.
You should get most of your food from the sea in coastal settlements, you can send free colonists to native villages that train them into expert fishermen, which are very useful in coastal settlements. Keep building up to a rum factory and cigar factory in your first settlement, then build a place to produce guns. When that is finished, create a trade route to send tools from the second settlement to the first so it can produce guns for later.
Use the rest of the game to build two or three more inland settlements and use them the same way as the third settlement, just harvest raw resources to send to the first settlement to be processed. You should have one of these new settlements harvesting ore to send off to the second city with a wagon train. Use all your gold to from exploring and selling to buy LOTS of veteran soldiers and also buy specialists when needed and keep those CROSSES coming!
Preparing for the REF...
DO NOT CREATE LIBERTY BELLS YET! Right now you should just be selling all that rum and cigars, producing guns and horses, and buying veteran soldiers and specialists. If you built enough inland harvesting settlements and if you built factories in your first settlement worked by at least two specialists, you should be getting 200 cigars AND rum every 4 turns or so, this will give you some MASSIVE gold. Also keep transporting that treasure with your galleon!
Now you really need to start purchasing frigates from Europe. With all that gold your getting, only buy frigates until you have at least 12, but the more the better! This might take awhile, but it is worth it! DON'T build frigates in your coastal cities, use their precious production to build defensive structures all the way to forts. You might need to buy extra tools from Europe, but that's okay. Try to get 200 guns max in as many settlements as you can (I was only able to fill 3 settlements and I still won) and your two coastal cities should each have at least 200 horses. Use wagon trains to transport these resources. Your first two settlements should at least be at size 16 by now and have plenty of colonists.
Now it's time to produce liberty bells (you should have at least 90-100 turns left before you start this). Build newspapers in your two coastal settlements and try to get them in your inland settlements, but this might be difficult. Buy lots of elder statesmen, you should have been buying these guys every now and then before. You should have at least 6-8 elder statesmen at this point. While you are getting liberty bells, the King will start adding soldiers to the REF by fours, don't be intimidated! Buy more frigates and lots of veteran soldiers from Europe while you still can and sell that rum and cigars!
After the REF lands, use all those frigates to take out the man-o-wars before the King can bombard those coastal settlements, and when possible, before he can land his troops. It usually takes 3 frigates to take out 1 man-o-war, that's why I said to buy as many as you can! Make your colonists stop gathering resources and processing and assign them to soldier duty using all those guns and horses you've been stocking up since the middle-game. You should have a very large defense force! Use your dragoons for offense, and soldiers for defense, though you can use them for offense when you feel it is needed.
Do not waste gold or production on cannons, they are useless! Try to get your colonist-soldiers experience first, and use your veterans only to weaken strong REF units and to defend. Make your inland settlements produce military points and get the best founding fathers that help in combat. Make your two coastal settlements produce horses and guns as usual. Cigars and tobacco are no longer necessary, so turn those colonists into soldiers, too. From here, all you have to do is wait for the King to land all his units and try your best to destroy his man-o-wars. If you run out of frigates, it's okay to build them in your settlements if you think you have enough soldiers.
Tips:
-ALWAYS give in to the King's demands. Always pay the gold he wants (he never demands much anyways). You want to keep the tax low for as long as possible.
-Do not boycott goods, you NEED to sell rum and cigars to Europe to win!
-Do not defend your inland cities! The King will only attack your two coastal settlements, put all of your defense there.
-Try to kill the King's forces as soon as they land, don't let his artillery attack your settlements, as they get a huge bonus.
-Create lots of wagon train trade routes and send all the raw resources except ore to your first city and process it all there.
-Try to send ore and lumber to your second settlement
-Try to stay on the natives' good side, don't colonize near their villages and make lots of missions for extra colonists
-Play on NORMAL speed, it is the easist, IMO.