Tedious and boring late-game

I bought this game about 3 months ago and I have yet to finish a game. It's pretty cool at first setting up your colonies, but in late game when your just sitting around waiting to add up those liberty points the game gets awlfully tedious. (ship tools to Jamestown, try to sell rum to the natives, etc etc.)

I've seen some good things on the age of discovery mod, does that liven the game up a bit?

Moderator Action: Thread title made more descriptive.

sabo said:

I've seen some good things on the age of discovery mod, does that liven the game up a bit?

Click to expand...

Yes, a bit... but Civ4Col is fundamentally a game about micromanagement. You can automate some game functions, but it's still about micromanagement. For those who *like* micromanagement, that's a good thing - but it isn't every man's cup of marmite.

YMMV, --- Wheldrake

Civ4Col actually allows much less micromanagement than some of the earlier versions of Civ, since you're not constantly moving military and trade units around, you have far fewer cities to manage, you need far fewer workers/pioneers, and you can set up specialized units and just leave them doing the same thing turn after turn until you declare independence.

The big difference is that Civ4Col rewards a peaceful builder strategy rather than an aggressive warmonger expansionist strategy, which can be aggravating to many fans of the earlier Civ versions. On the guns versus butter scale, Civ4Col is WAY more butter-oriented than all the other Civ iterations.

If they can take the interesting new elements of this game -- the specialized professions, the more realistic economy, the lack of catastrophic levels of corruption and waste in your far-flung cities, the strong native tribes who have to be respected -- and yet make it embrace a warmonger expansionist strategy and have those native tribes be far more aggressive and likely to wage war -- Civ5 might be a huge winner.

The big downside of this game is the lack of warfare -- the docile natives, and the ridiculously easily killed European civs. It just doesn't keep you on your toes like the earlier Civ versions.

prolefeed said:

The big downside of this game is the lack of warfare -- the docile natives, and the ridiculously easily killed European civs. It just doesn't keep you on your toes like the earlier Civ versions.

Click to expand...

I'll go along with Prolefeed here. The natives are docile... as long as you keep your cities well garrisoned. And even though in Dale's AoD2 mod the competing European colonial nations are far more effective in building up their colony and defenses than in the vanilla version, they seem to have no clue how to launch a war against the player. They are harder to kill, but with a proper invasion force, you can still grab their cities one by one, since they haven't a clue how to counterattack.

So the only military challenge is the final act, the war of independence.

Cheers, --- Wheldrake

prolefeed said:

The big difference is that Civ4Col rewards a peaceful builder strategy rather than an aggressive warmonger expansionist strategy, which can be aggravating to many fans of the earlier Civ versions. On the guns versus butter scale, Civ4Col is WAY more butter-oriented than all the other Civ iterations.

Click to expand...

Maybe that's what I think I'm missing, I've always tended to be little more on the warmongering side. I"ve tried to be peaceful (really) but then there is always some civ that comes by and really messes up my plans and pi$$es me off..

Do you play as the Spanish? They are good to play a warlike game with.

The biggest problem for me with the later game is that you have gone to considerable trouble building textile factories, rum distilleries and the like but no one has any money left to pay for your goods !

If you're finding the late-game too boring make less cities. This means you'll have an easier time reaching indepence because of the less bells needed. Since the King's ref is based bell production, the ref shouldn't be any harder to beat.

I would tend to agree -- except I can't even make it to late game before it's tedious. The game's an exercise in extreme micromanagement. I can't even win in Pilgrim. The tedium of moving resources (even with automated routes), the excess time it takes to build anything. It's a big yawn.

MqsTout said:

The game's an exercise in extreme micromanagement.

Click to expand...

Exactly!
Either you like extreme micromanagement, or you don't. It's not for everyone. Personally, I don't really care for real-time simulations. It's just whatever works for you. This said, it really isn't hard to win. Just do this:

1) Explore with scouts ASAP, preferably on your ship's first return trip from Europe. If you wait, the AI colonial powers will do it before you do. Use the cash to hurry colonists and buy new specialists.
2) Get farmers and fisherman pumping out food ASAP, and have your new colonists learn from the native villages.
3) Get carpenters and lumberjacks building things in your cities.
4) In the basic vanilla version of the game, tools and guns are cheap - so cheap you can sell them to natives for a good profit. In AoD2, they are so expensive that producing them becomes an important early-game priority.
5) Make finished goods (cigars, coats, etc) for hard cash either from Europe or from the natives. Use the cash to buy new specialists, veteran soldiers, canons and whatever else you think you need.
6) As you near time for revolution, stockpile loads of guns & horses. Loads & loads of wagonsfull. If you're ready for your war of independence, you can't lose.

There are other details, sure, but this basic formula should get you there.

Cheers, --- Wheldrake

Wheldrake said:

4) In the basic vanilla version of the game, tools and guns are cheap - so cheap you can sell them to natives for a good profit.

Click to expand...

You should keep in mind that natives may eventually turn on you once they are armed to teeth, so don't sell all of your guns.