[AAR] AoD2 v1.04 - A New Age

[Dale]

I'm not a good story teller, so don't expect a full blown story. This is a simple AAR based on v1.04 of my Age of Discovery II mod.

Settings:
John Adams
Faireweather script
Huge map
Normal game speed
Conquistador difficulty
Faireweather default options (4 tiles / less islands)

 

[Dale]

Straight away on turn 1 we find land thanks to the curvature of the sea zone.

On turn 2 we find the Incas (woohoo more gold later on!).

Looking at the inital map at turn three it looks like two good spots for colonies. One will produce a lot of tobacco straight off, and the second will produce tools. I like to run with an early tools strategy.

So utilising the free land grab for the first colony, the tools colony is founded first and then the cigars colony is founded second. Both colonies workers are put straight onto converting their collected raw good into tools and cigars to get the early trade income moving. I want to get three scouts going early as this map is huge (and in AoD2 they're bigger than normal, and then Faireweather maps are larger as well).

I've set Jamestown to build a wagon train rather than a docks, because I want to get some goods movement of inland colonies going from the outset.

 

[Dale]

Further north from my intial starting area I find Sitting Bull. But there's a lot of Inca's between me and him.

In the mean time, my first two immigrants make the best start anyone could wish for! A seasoned scout AND a Jesuit!!!!! That means early exploring and early converts are possible.

So I immediately stop exploring the coastline, grab some goods and head back to England. After selling I load up and head back to the New World.

I also now have enough gold to hurry the wagon I was building in Jamestown, and finish that off. I set Jamestown off building docks.

I establish my first mission on turn 20, and get my first chief treasure on turn 22.

After a few more trips back and forth taking goods to trade, and bringing in some immigrants, I score a tax rise, the pirates sail past and I find Portugal to my south all on turns 38-40.

Finally, here's a look at the shape of the land at turn 41, and where everything is located. I'm on a nice little peninsula, but boxed in tight by the Incas. Sitting Bull to the north and Portugal to the south. I've got three colonies (two cigar, one tools), two scouts, one mission and a pioneer who's starting to build roads between the colonies for fast wagon movement.

 

[Dale]

On turn 45 we find Logan down near Portugal.

By turn 47 thanks to some big 1000+ treasures and sellings those cigars in Europe I have enough to buy a galleon. That'll help to start getting the money rolling in, as I'm finding a treasure every 2-3 turns now with three scouts roaming.

And on turn 48 I get my first convert.

50 Turn Rundown:

And finally, the early goal for the next 50 turns is to spread my colonies, starting with a sugar colony (with 2 crabs) here. There's also room for another 1 maybe 2 at a push colonies inland up the river system.

And a further 3 colonies on my peninsula starting with a cloth then two tools colonies further to the west.

 

[Thorn]

Version 1.04? I thought 1.03 was the most recent?
Keep going! I love a good AAR!

 

[Dale]

Now onto the next 50 turns. Things really started building up this 50 turns, placing me in a fairly decent position by turn 100. Here's how it progressed.

On turn 57 I founded the sugar colony that was mentioned above.

Turn 62 found Monty way up north next to Sitting Bull. Not his best pose ever.

Found the Tupi a turn later.

And the Arawak turn 64.

All three are too far away to bother with.

I had a tax rise to 7% which I took.

Turn 78 saw my first bells being produced in Plymouth. This is about 15-20 turns later than I would normally hope to get some bells going, but hey them's the breaks.

Turn 79 I found the Apache so far north my scouts were in snow.

Turns 85 and 92 saw my taxes go to 10% and then 15%. The King's starting to get in my way.

And we found the French in the far north on turn 99.

Turn 100 roundup:

I made up a lot of group that 50 turns in terms of trade goods, but on score Portugal is waaaaaaaaaay out in front. Of which, I am starting to group some dragoons (gotta do something with those criminals and servants) on the Portuguese border. There's 3, and 3 more on the way to arrive within 10 turns. Hopefully they'll allow me to knock Portugal back a few steps.

I got about 7 missions running now, so should be able to get a steady stream of converts to take over the natural resource gathering. I'm making between 2000-4000 gold per galleon trip back to Europe (I have two galleons, one for treasures the other for trade goods). But that'll steady at a higher gold rate as production starts to pick up.

 

[Dale]

Version 1.04? I thought 1.03 was the most recent?
Keep going! I love a good AAR!

Hehehe. This is my test game for v1.04.

 

[Dale]

Turns 100-150 were a big one for my fledgling nation. (Though in reality in game terms, this game has progressed slower than I would have liked).

On turn 104 we found the last Europeans, the Spanish. Way way up north past the pirates and the French.

Turn 105 sees our taxes raised to 20%.

On turn 107 Morgan has the audacity to try to extort money from me. We tell him to PO quickly!

Turn 108 has me looking at the Portuguese border. Oh look, I have 6 dragoons down there. Let's do something with them. WAR!

Turn 109 another FF.

Here is the timeline of the war. A very easy win for our troops running straight down the coastline wiping out the Portuguese colonies. I left their inland ones alone, because really they're out of harms way down there, and he'll stick near those colonies. Whereas if I make him re-spawn ho could go elsewhere, more annoying! The last pic shows the area they used to cover. Now they only occupy the inland north.

Turn 125 we start producing muskets.

Another FF.

Another tax hike turn 140.

Time to start working towards independance full scale.

Bought enough statesmen for one in each colony and brought them back over a number of turns.

Another tax hike turn 144.

Another FF.

Starting to get bells moving along now.

And to finish up these 50 turns another FF.

 

[Dale]

Turn 150 Roundup:

 

[Dale]

Turns 150-200 were to be all about recovering from a slower than hoped start. It's time to pull the big ones out!

Seven FF's, two tax increases and an increase in tool production thanks to increasing rebel sentiment and replacing some colonists with blacksmiths.

Here's my main town, Plymouth.

Then to wrap up the 50 turns, six more FF's, and three tax increases finishing at 50% at turn 200.

 

[Dale]

Turn 200 Roundup:

I'm still a bit behind where I'd like to be. I should be over 50% sentiment by now aiming for a turn 200-210 DoI. But let's see how this plays out eh?

As can be seen from the victory screen, there's no other nation probable to win from here. I'm leading on sentiment, trade and production. And due to rapidly increasing sentiment, those last two will increase fast too.

I'm producing so many guns now that I'm even selling them to Europe. The only thing I'm buying are horses as I don't produce any.

 

[Dale]

Started off the pre-DoI turns with 6 FF's and the Inca gave me heaps of their land.

Here's my last shipment heading out to Europe.

Buying a few more veteren soldiers ready for the WoI.

Here's Plymouth pre-enlistment and post-enlistment.

And to round out the pre-DoI turns two FF's and I hit over 50 guns per turn in Plymouth.

DoI (turn 219) Roundup:

 

[Dale]

So here's my civic choices:

Got another FF before the start of battle too.

The first wave of REF was spread over 5 turns, and was dispatched rapidly thanks to my overwhelming numbers of dragoons in the open. A couple of amphib assaults on Jamestown and Plymouth, but nothing too threatening. There were a couple of FF spread through that time too. The wave saw me finish with over 50 successful combat resolutions.

Then came the round of quiet as the MoW's went back to England to get the rest of the REF. Time to heal and redeploy ready for the next wave.

Then the King through a curve ball in! Instead of coming from the north towards Jamestown and Plymouth, he came from the south towards the old Inca lands where there was open space and Boston and Baltimore. Boston fell to the REF!

However our fast moving dragoons were able to move to meet the new threat from the south and were able to repel the REF at Baltimore then push them back into the sea. Final victory saw the reclaiming of Boston from under the iron fist of George!

 

[Dale]

Independance Roundup!

The game progressed a bit slower than I would have liked, but the forgone conclusion at the end was expected. I mean, I was only playing Conquistador level. But that's a good level to test-play.

 

[Cornhog]

Why are there three different flags during the War of Independence? There's a dark red, the English cross and then an American flag.

 

[Dale]

Because in AoD2 when you declare independance you raise a new flag. Though there's still a little bug where it doesn't update all the flags for some reason.

 

[Twinkle85]

Just loaded this mod now.... after losing patience with the original game.
Watching the king add over 50 regulars in 1 turn to his already huge army... 250regs 150 drags. 80 artillery 70 warships no hope.

 

[Dale]

Just loaded this mod now.... after losing patience with the original game.
Watching the king add over 50 regulars in 1 turn to his already huge army... 250regs 150 drags. 80 artillery 70 warships no hope.

That REF couldn't be with AoD2 as I've put a cap in on the amount of units added each time. On Rev it's 30.

 

[Twinkle85]

No, I meant without any patches. I thought I was doing well, starting on conquistador, but played it like i would the classic. I was even churning out a 3 or more cannons each turn. But still wasnt ever gonna be enough.

Will certainy give this mod a try.

Thanks

 

[Ekmek]

very cool dale. if they ever get that ancient med mod for col off they ground they have to use this as a template.