My woeful first real effort at rebellion...

[TommyTankRush]

Now I've beaten Civ 2, 3 and 4 on deity so don't think I'm some novice when it comes to exploiting poor AI military strategy .... but...

I have just abandoned a game playing as England. I got into an early war with the Dutch that went astonishingly well. I took all their (really very frighteningly advanced) cities and became an economic powerhouse in very short order.

Playing on 'epic', I reckoned I had plenty of time to get my affairs in order before 'The Man' came knocking.

By the way - speaking as an Englishman, are any of the rest of you aware of how hopelessly unhistorical the central premis of the game really is? In reality the American colonists were taxed far less onerously than native britons ever were (presumably because it was recognized that if push came to shove the taxes were unenforceable!) [/digression]

Anyway. Time goes by. I have 15(?) cities all pushing out cigars and liquor, coats, cloth and silver like there's no tomorrow. (Or - more accurately - as if there is a tomorrow in which only drunk well insulated silver-possessing individuals will ever be allowed to party).

Now in the course of all this, I've been careful to ensure that my cities have all got fortresses, and I built up my military to quite a serious pitch.

The problem came when I declared independence.

I had been sensible about not getting my (uh) stuff together too soon. So the invasion party was only about 110 regulars, 45 dragoons etc.

What I found ridiculous is how easily they took my VERY HEAVILY DEFENDED cities. Fortress. 100% rebel sentiment. 5 city-def upgraded soldiers. 10 dragoons. - It was captured in the first wave of invasion What is that all about?

I did what you'd expect, wiping out what troops I could with my dragoons. What more could I do? I even had a great general from my early Dutch wars.

Very annoying.

 

[Portuguese]

Yeah. You just need to have a huge number of troops!!!

 

[jsweeney]

Mr.Englishman, sure the English got taxed more in Britian, but the American colonists weren't just upset with taxes, they were upset with no representation to enforce the taxes. Taxation without Representation. I think the game takes that concept into play and with the fact you don't have a choice in the taxes.

 

[Onionsoilder]

The best strategy is to abandon one of your coastal cities. Unlike Civilization, were it is easier to defend then attack, Colonization is the opposite. If you park all your troops on a hill/forest outside of your city, wait for the REF to capture it, then re-capture it(then abandon it again) You can win with an army half the size.

 

[Cartmancakes]

Mr.Englishman, sure the English got taxed more in Britian, but the American colonists weren't just upset with taxes, they were upset with no representation to enforce the taxes. Taxation without Representation. I think the game takes that concept into play and with the fact you don't have a choice in the taxes.

Also, Britain raised the taxes VERY quickly. It wasn't like it went from 5% to 6%. It was more than doubling the tax rate on commonly used luxury goods over a period of less than 15 years. If they had raised it more slowly, it would have worked better. But because of the European wars going on at the time, they couldn't afford to be slow about it. Britain was quickly going bankrupt...