Meh... disappointed!!

[Edhelras]

I was a huuuge fan of Colonization, in fact, it was the first PC game I really got addicted to. Since that, I've become a fan of Civ, and vastly prefer Civ4 with Beyond the Sword.
Still - I've always longed back to those days with Colonization. How happy I was, when I discovered the new release.
And now... how disappointed.

The game is almost prohibitive, because it's impossible to win. The reason being the incomprehensibly large REF, and no way to avoid it.
Truly - I just now discovered the patch, so I haven't tried it out yet. But after playing for HOURS on the easiest level, and facing about 100 REFs, I discover that all those hours of gameplay have been wasted - there is no way I can win this game. What a huge disappointment! And what a turn-off, when there are other fun games to be played. Didn't these guys play-test this at all before release?

I'm very uncertain whether I'm going to give it another shot - although obviously I do love this game so I'm tempted. But I cannot spoil another run of hours if I'm going to be this let-down again. Based on what I've seen, I'm not sure the patch does adequately fix these issues after all.

These are my complaints:
1. The REF size and increase. Although logical that the King responds to increasing talk of liberty, it's simply too much, too big.
2. The REFs strength. With those Man-O-Wars there is no way I can beat that navy. What's the point with that - an unbeatable navy? They could've made the King's forces strong, without making them so overwhelming. Why can't I even get a chance to beat them? The problem is vastly greater because there are so many of them - so I can't even sacrifice my fleet to sink at least one of those monsters - there still many, many more to come.
3. Where is the Foreing Intervention party? It was one of the coolest parts of the original COL.
4. What about my fortresses? THE coolest part of COL was that my fortress fired on Privateers and enemy ships that happened to approach my city. It was extremely believeable - and a major fault with the CIV series. If you have this fortified city - why shouldn't it fire at approaching enemies?
5. The education system is simply ridiculous. Why the increasing time to provide teaching, when normally teaching should speed up with improved technology - and liberty bell production as well?
6. I must admit I do miss the large city area of CIV. Or, alternatively, I'd like to have the opportunity to build out-buildings to make use of the resources that are outside the reach of my city, but inside my cultural borders.
7. There ought to be some way of selling off goods after the Tea Party has blocked trade in Europe - selling contraband at a discount. Else, my colonies keep amassing goods for no use, it just feels silly and unbelieveable. At least after I declare my independence.

Well, these are my complaints, and my disappointment that when such a splendid game was relaunched, it was done so poorly. I most of all miss the Foreign Intervention and the Fortresses that Fire, but the overwhelming difficulty at the end was what killed me.
Maybe, maybe, I'll give it a try with the patch.

 

[Tigranes]

There is a general rule with any new game -- before committing tons of hours spend 1 hour reading reviews (this site included). In real life Continental Navy also had no chance to beat Royal Navy, so don't get too frustrated with Naval issues. Defending and capturing back you colonies wins you the game, not sinking all the ships.

Obviously people have been able to beat AI of vanila Colonization on any level. But to make game enjoyable try some good mods -- TAC and RaR being the most recent examples. Some of the things you miss so dearly are actually implemented in different mods.

 

[dalgo]

I was a huuuge fan of Colonization, in fact, it was the first PC game I really got addicted to. Since that, I've become a fan of Civ, and vastly prefer Civ4 with Beyond the Sword.
Still - I've always longed back to those days with Colonization. How happy I was, when I discovered the new release.
And now... how disappointed.

The game is almost prohibitive, because it's impossible to win. The reason being the incomprehensibly large REF, and no way to avoid it.
Truly - I just now discovered the patch, so I haven't tried it out yet. But after playing for HOURS on the easiest level, and facing about 100 REFs, I discover that all those hours of gameplay have been wasted - there is no way I can win this game. What a huge disappointment! And what a turn-off, when there are other fun games to be played. Didn't these guys play-test this at all before release?

I'm very uncertain whether I'm going to give it another shot - although obviously I do love this game so I'm tempted. But I cannot spoil another run of hours if I'm going to be this let-down again. Based on what I've seen, I'm not sure the patch does adequately fix these issues after all.

These are my complaints:
1. The REF size and increase. Although logical that the King responds to increasing talk of liberty, it's simply too much, too big.
2. The REFs strength. With those Man-O-Wars there is no way I can beat that navy. What's the point with that - an unbeatable navy? They could've made the King's forces strong, without making them so overwhelming. Why can't I even get a chance to beat them? The problem is vastly greater because there are so many of them - so I can't even sacrifice my fleet to sink at least one of those monsters - there still many, many more to come.
3. Where is the Foreing Intervention party? It was one of the coolest parts of the original COL.
4. What about my fortresses? THE coolest part of COL was that my fortress fired on Privateers and enemy ships that happened to approach my city. It was extremely believeable - and a major fault with the CIV series. If you have this fortified city - why shouldn't it fire at approaching enemies?
5. The education system is simply ridiculous. Why the increasing time to provide teaching, when normally teaching should speed up with improved technology - and liberty bell production as well?
6. I must admit I do miss the large city area of CIV. Or, alternatively, I'd like to have the opportunity to build out-buildings to make use of the resources that are outside the reach of my city, but inside my cultural borders.
7. There ought to be some way of selling off goods after the Tea Party has blocked trade in Europe - selling contraband at a discount. Else, my colonies keep amassing goods for no use, it just feels silly and unbelieveable. At least after I declare my independence.

Well, these are my complaints, and my disappointment that when such a splendid game was relaunched, it was done so poorly. I most of all miss the Foreign Intervention and the Fortresses that Fire, but the overwhelming difficulty at the end was what killed me.
Maybe, maybe, I'll give it a try with the patch.

Welcome to the forum Edhelras

As you have found out Civ4 Colonization is not as great a game as the original, but it is still a good game and well worth playing.

1. The Ref increases in size as your liberty bell production increases, but those same liberty bells serve to win you Founding Fathers who strengthen your colonies and army to the point that when the Ref lands they are just cannon-fodder (figuratively, not literally because dragoons are your best attack weapons).

2. As Tigranes says, a naval strategy is very difficult against the King's strong ships, although it can be done.

3 and 4. Sorry, these are some of the many features of Colonization that are missing from the remake, unfortunately.

5. The Education system is just plain broken in the vanilla version, however it was fixed in the patch.

6. There are advantages in building small 1 or 2 man colonies just to make use of a particular resource.

7. I agree, but the only way to keep selling goods in Europe is to grit your teeth and accede to every tax rise. Fortunately trading with the natives is tax-free.

 

[raystuttgart]

3 and 4. Sorry, these are some of the many features of Colonization that are missing from the remake, unfortunately.

Almost all features from the Original have been recreated in Religion and Revolution.
(And much more.)

Simply forget Vanilla and play a Mod.

 

[ShuShu62]

Welcome to the forum Edhelras

...
2. As Tigranes says, a naval strategy is very difficult against the King's strong ships, although it can be done.
...

Actually, I find defeating the kings ships so easy it almost feels like cheating.

I enjoy this version much more than the original. But I play it more like Railroad Tycoon than a war game.

Build my economy through an expansive trade network in my cities. Focus the trade network on one 'Boston' (err.... Jamestown) until it maxes out population and I grow a second. I rarely need a third city producing more than raw materials and food.

Folks talk about having a specialized city for each factory, i disagree. I have a city that specializes in FOOD. It has all the factories and does all the training. All other cities funnel raw materials in and get tools/hammers out from it. Rail tycoon automates the inputs... micro management drives the outputs as needed

The massive economies keep multiple Galleons trading with Europe... (no tea parties thank you, plenty of time for that later). The gold funnels directly into Frigates. Jamestown Produces SOLs. I only need 5 or 6 SOL's to polish off each wave of Man-of Wars, but additional SOLs are always welcome.

The brits send a wave
One frigate dies for each Man of war
One man of war dies for each SOL
All landed forces die on the beach

I spend 9 hours working the economy, 30 minutes eradicating all the ships.

It is certainly not the only way to play the game. There are many viable alternative strategies, in this game.

 

[Antilogic]

You must have some pretty massive factory sites to be able to pump out tons of sacrificial frigates.

I do a similar strategy, though--I have a few massive cities with expert farmers bringing in food, at least one, maybe two forest tiles for lumber, and tons of specialists working in the city. My resource-gathering colonies are usually smaller and ship stuff via wagon train to a couple factory cities. Of course, you don't want to lose those during the opening phase of the Revolution or you are screwed, so putting your factory inland is a good idea, if a little non-traditional.

 

[ShuShu62]

You must have some pretty massive factory sites to be able to pump out tons of sacrificial frigates...

Peter Minuit helps.. alot.

Typically, I have one factory site...

I found my first city based on food, and it gets all the factories.
Last game I built it on a one tile fish Island. That was easy to wall off with 30 frigates. and no real reason to keep the starting guns (which I tend to trade for Peter Minuit... errr... early cash and trading points)

The downside is that the massive culture coming from that city did not 'steal' any native land.

I find that my second food city needs to grow the horses. After the first elder statesman, carpenter, galleon, 5 cannons, privateer (which I must now protect from those pesky Dutch Frigates). It is all frigates from there on out. I figure I spend 100 years buying frigates from Europe.

As you say, all other cities are resource cities (resource mostly being food).

After 200 years I am usually ready to have a second city ramp up to SOLs.
Also after 200 years, even the manufactured goods are only buying a frigate every 4 or 5 years, so I have found myself buying lots of carpenters to quickly ramp up ship yards as 30-40 frigates tends to be as far as I can get. With 50 MOWs, I tend to have 12 turns to pump out 10 more SOLs/frigates if I convert my bible thumpers to production.

My SOLs are able to take out MOWs straight up after 6 turns of killing damaged MOWs so my wall of 5 deep frigates gets replaced with 2 deep SOLs and the last few waves do not even make it to shore.

Patriot down... revolutionary next