How to declare independence?

[vinnybarb]

As the title says...

As I only started playing this game very recently, I am having trouble declaring my Independence. I am playing V1.00 and so far have some 6 small colonies (size 3 or so for a "supposedly" faster declaration) with all colonies showing to wanting already 100% Independence. Yet, my "Declare Independence" button is greyed out and I can not raise the % of people wanting independence to more than 25% after some 170 turns. Why is this so? Logically, if ALL my colonies want 100% independence, where do the "only" 25% of people wanting this to come from when 100% of my people in the colonies do want Independence by 100%? All my people are inside the colonies, none are outside them. Except some colonists are hidden in some ships.

Plus the Kings forces are already having assembled a HUGE force I could never match, let alone possibly win.

Reading through the strategies forum there is also a related question by a poster where the answer was given to why he could not declare Independence as:

I'm guessing that since you unticked "Independance Victory", you cannot declare independance

But in my game's option there is NO such option or box to tick or untick, neither in the current game nor if I start a brand new single game. I am NOT running any mods. What do I do wrong if at all? This is SO frustrating as If I remove some people from the colonies I can see the resentment percentage going up but then I can not produce what I need to produce to be ready should the king attack/invade.

Yet his Forces get build up more and more, which is illogical as reading through the strategy tips, his force is ALWAYS bigger than the colonies's forces. Why?

So, that brings me to another related question. What is the BEST strategy to get the % of resentment up to declare Independence. I read the "How to play on Revolutionary in 40 moves" and tried that as a test just to see what happens with the King's forces, how to deal with them etc., so I am prepared to deal with him in my main game when the time comes (if I ever get to declare Independence, that is). Yet again, I can not seem to declare Independence as that button is greyed out. Also, in that "How to play on Revolutionary in 40 moves" instructions there is mentioned to "delete" some people at some stage of the scenario? How does one delete people?

Also, what is better to get there faster to declaring Independence? To accept his demands for higher taxes further and further or to tell him to stuff his demands where the sun don't shine? Or is there a different strategy to do this? Not on revolutionary but at normal speed.

My aim in the game is to get the fight with the king over and done with as quickly as possible on a HUGE map, so I can continue to trade or wage war with the other nations and tribes on the map. Is such a game at all possible in CivIV/Col or is this game not geared up to do this? As of what I am reading is that the game is more leaning to the fight with the king (as this seems to be the only aim of the game) than to the trading side of the game. I like to play the game somewhat similar to what happened in real life with the US of A's Independence fight where after the colonists won their struggle against England, they continued to expand and colonize their land and also continued trading with England.

Is this at all possible in this game or am I playing the wrong game? Or is there a mod out there that does this?

I looked through quite a few posts here and in strategies too but I get the impression that this game is NOT what I want to do with it as so many people have all sort of complains of it.

So, am I pi$$ing against the wind or does someone have some good tips or strategies. I am asking this here as my bought game came only with a little booklet describing only what is what and the ingame Wiki does not tell of strategies to do certain things. If I progress further in the game only to find out of playing and trading and managing in game in, say, 300 turns or more only to find out to having wasted ALL what I did is wrong is NOT my idea of playing a game. I like to get at least some right and proper basics to start with.

Thank you to any help and replies

Cheers

VinnyBarb

 

[vinnybarb]

Someone?

Anyone?

Surely, after 158 people so far have looked at this thread, at least one would (I think) know a little bit about any of my questions. Anyone please?

Cheers

VinnyBarb

 

[Raliuven]

I didn't get to read the whole post yet - I'll take al look when I am at home - but if you are 'hiding' colonists in ships - that doesn't work. The game counts all your citizens. So if you only have 18 colonists in the city, it is easy to read at 100% rebellion. But if you have another 54 colonitist as solidiers or hidden away in ships, then you are only at 25% rebellion - everyone outside a colony is automatically counted as 'neutral'.

I'll post more later, but hopefully that helps.

**edit** as a warning, I am somewhat of a newbie to Colonization, but I've won plenty of games and understand the 'basics'. I am by no means an authority on this topic.

 

[Raliuven]

As the title says...

As I only started playing this game very recently, I am having trouble declaring my Independence. I am playing V1.00 and so far have some 6 small colonies (size 3 or so for a "supposedly" faster declaration) with all colonies showing to wanting already 100% Independence. Yet, my "Declare Independence" button is greyed out and I can not raise the % of people wanting independence to more than 25% after some 170 turns. Why is this so? Logically, if ALL my colonies want 100% independence, where do the "only" 25% of people wanting this to come from when 100% of my people in the colonies do want Independence by 100%? All my people are inside the colonies, none are outside them. Except some colonists are hidden in some ships.

Okay, first, how many 'hidden' colonists are we talking about?

Plus the Kings forces are already having assembled a HUGE force I could never match, let alone possibly win.

Reading through the strategies forum there is also a related question by a poster where the answer was given to why he could not declare Independence as:



But in my game's option there is NO such option or box to tick or untick, neither in the current game nor if I start a brand new single game. I am NOT running any mods. What do I do wrong if at all? This is SO frustrating as If I remove some people from the colonies I can see the resentment percentage going up but then I can not produce what I need to produce to be ready should the king attack/invade.

Okay, you have two ways to measure 'rebellion'. The only one you need to worry about to trigger independence is the meter on the F3 key (IIRC). You also have each city's meter. This is irrelevant as a way of measuring your overall readiness to rebel, however it is very relevant for the production occuring in that particular city. A large city with 100% rebellion is producing 50% more goods. If you are accustomed to Civ3, then think of this is a force multiplier. I usually target my big producing cities for statesmen.

Yet his Forces get build up more and more, which is illogical as reading through the strategy tips, his force is ALWAYS bigger than the colonies's forces. Why?

Frankly, if the King's army was not several times the size of your army - and they all have battle promotions to boot - they wouldn't stand a chance against the human player. First, they come in waves. You have 100% of your force immediatley on site. Furthermore, the REF stops growing when you declare independence. Meanwhile, you can continue to produce guns, horses, colonists, cannons and warships. The REF doesn't benefit from terrain - you do. You've got a lot going for you when it comes to war.

So, that brings me to another related question. What is the BEST strategy to get the % of resentment up to declare Independence. I read the "How to play on Revolutionary in 40 moves" and tried that as a test just to see what happens with the King's forces, how to deal with them etc., so I am prepared to deal with him in my main game when the time comes (if I ever get to declare Independence, that is). Yet again, I can not seem to declare Independence as that button is greyed out. Also, in that "How to play on Revolutionary in 40 moves" instructions there is mentioned to "delete" some people at some stage of the scenario? How does one delete people?

One popular - and easy way - to win is to generate little or no bells until you are ready to revolt. Store statesmen in towns with printing presses & newspapers but don't added them to the city hall until you are ready to declare. Throw them in when you are ready to declare, pick monarchy when you are ready to revolt so you can continue to trade with europe and free the slaves for 2 indentured servents per city.

Instead of killing your own people - how about sprawling a few new cities just to make bells? Works good and if you free the slaves you get 2 indentured servants per city to immediately add to your army.

Also, what is better to get there faster to declaring Independence? To accept his demands for higher taxes further and further or to tell him to stuff his demands where the sun don't shine? Or is there a different strategy to do this? Not on revolutionary but at normal speed.

I give into all his demands. Its part of the game - think of it as 'corruption' and continue playing. The only thing that is inevitable is death and taxes. I never refuse a tax increase and I only refuse to give money if I really, really can't afford it.

My aim in the game is to get the fight with the king over and done with as quickly as possible on a HUGE map, so I can continue to trade or wage war with the other nations and tribes on the map. Is such a game at all possible in CivIV/Col or is this game not geared up to do this? As of what I am reading is that the game is more leaning to the fight with the king (as this seems to be the only aim of the game) than to the trading side of the game. I like to play the game somewhat similar to what happened in real life with the US of A's Independence fight where after the colonists won their struggle against England, they continued to expand and colonize their land and also continued trading with England.

From my experience, you've got it backwards. I attack all the indians (after they are done teaching me stuff) and all other European powers as soon as they start to crowd me - meaning as soon as my army can practically reach them. That will put you in a good place to fight the REF. If you want a good long war at the end, let the REF build for a while before declaring. If you want a nice long game, then select a different speed - like epic or Marathon.

Is this at all possible in this game or am I playing the wrong game? Or is there a mod out there that does this?

Can't help here.

I looked through quite a few posts here and in strategies too but I get the impression that this game is NOT what I want to do with it as so many people have all sort of complains of it.

So, am I pi$$ing against the wind or does someone have some good tips or strategies. I am asking this here as my bought game came only with a little booklet describing only what is what and the ingame Wiki does not tell of strategies to do certain things. If I progress further in the game only to find out of playing and trading and managing in game in, say, 300 turns or more only to find out to having wasted ALL what I did is wrong is NOT my idea of playing a game. I like to get at least some right and proper basics to start with.

Well I treat all first games as beta games, so look at the first game as a learning lesson and start a new game. The info on this game is sparse, probably because it is sooo easy to beat. There are far too many easy/powerful exploits, not the least of which is that the other colonies are pushovers at all stages of the game.

My final tip would be to post a save of your game. Let other experienced players look at your game and tell you where you might be going wrong or what they would do.

 

[vinnybarb]

Thank you very much for all these tips

My mistake was to build and produce full blast, get as many weapons, dragoons, soldiers and ships I was able to produce and pay for. Plus I "hid" more settlers in my ships as future needed soldiers/dragoons. Doing it that way, I noticed the Independence rating with F3 going down and down. That baffled me as my colonies all showed 100% rebellion. Which should mean 100% Independence readiness in my book but not in CivIV/Col's book.

Anyway, I did work this out myself after wading through countless forum pages to see what is going on. I used a money cheat to do a test run just to see what can happen and I was able to declare Independence on 51% if I wanted to after 19 turns by using only 3 Elder Statesmen in each colony. Nothing else except only creating some extra few soldiers and Dragoons. I still carried on trading, I think to turn 34, till I reached some 90% on F3 and then I declared Independence.

Also, what I noticed, only by playing a custom game, say, with a huge map (that is what I wanted to play) did I see the box to tick/untick "Declare Independence" but not in a single normal game. Perhaps I overlooked something.

Anyway, just to see what the King does after declaring Independence, that is what I wanted to see. Now I can start a brand new game, use World builder to modify it and proceed with what I learned and apply your tips in it too.

Also, by hiding cannons in ships and hiding some food, tools and guns in my warehouses I was able to get extra supplies stored which helped me later to create some troops. Which I created by buying extra settlers with the high "Declaring Independence" rating. Which I noticed was dropping back alarmingly when buying these extra settlers.

Overall, I guess, if this game had been explained a bit better strategy wise in the little booklet you get with the game, this would have helped somewhat.

Thanks again for your help, sir, you are a scholar and a gentleman

Cheers

VinnyBarb

 

[Raliuven]

The instructions and even the Civilopeida pretty much suck. It leaves out a great deal of what I would consider 'basic' information. I like the game but it really feels like an afterthought - which may be giving too much credit. But I'm a builder so it appeals to my sense of 'empire building' and I don't find the MM'ing too tedous until almost the end of the game.

I've considered playing a game on Marathon just to see how it would work out, but I figure I won't get too far past turn 300 before I'm ready to kill my computer for the slow little beast it is. If it were a horse, I'd shoot it. I would like to see how high the tax rate can go, though . . .

Also, because it is so easy to beat, there hasn't been much 'indepth' analysis of the game by others on the forum like you will find for the other Civ products (IMO). If you have gleaned any wisdom from my post then it is only wisdom I carried for a while from the true source - and any errors are solely my responsibililty though.

Happy civing!