new to colonization

[reddishrecue]

hello im also kind of new to colonization because i barely got the game off the shelf about a month ago. I got to play a couple of times but found it complicated because it gets hard to get victory off the independence from the motherland especially because of the quantity of troops that the king has. Only way to win for me is on pilgrim.

 

[ChanceDanger]

I just started playing it as well. A few things that might help out against the King's forces:

-Stick to 2 or 3 coastal cities, as the king will focus on these and he can bombard their defenses away. These cities should have decent garrisons of veteran soldiers and hopefully be placed close enough together so that you can place all our dragoons in the middle city and they can attack any troops that land next to your cities. (The FF with the +1 movement to dragoons is pretty useful for this).

-Make sure all you cities are filled with gun and horses, and have some extra trade wagons filled with both to quickly raise an army.

-If the REF is already bigger than your army, it doesn't hurt to hold off on independence to your Rebel Sentiment builds up past 50%. For every percent after that your units get a bonus fighting the king's troops. So if you're really building RS fast at the end, wait a few extra turns and let the king add some more units. You'll just have really insanely promoted units by the time the last 20 units he added are dropped off.

-A decent navy can be a good way to go, especially if you can build up a strong gun/tool economy. It's a 2:1 trade-off but usually by the endgame your coastal cities have nothing better to build and if you really focus on tools and guns you can put the king's invasion to a premature end.

-Use your schools/colleges/universities mostly for soldiers. Other professions can be bought/trained in native villages, while soldiers keep getting more expensive from Europe. A university or two (with a few Veteran Soldiers working somewhere in the town), can easily flood you with a few good men.

Don't get all bummed by huge #s of the King's forces, it's not like he can land them all at once.

 

[jtb1127]

Use the unit automation as it will save you a tone of time and resolve your micromanagement issues.

 

[reddishrecue]

ok, these look like good tips. I'll try them out.

 

[Johan de Witt]

The King's troops are really only good at taking and defending cities, so try to fight them in the fields and forests of the new world.

Don't start your first colony where you find the new world. Chances are the King will land there too. Try to scout the coast a bit and build near large swathes of forest. Build only one or two coastal cities and place your fortresses here.

All inland cities can automaticaly bring your goods to your coastal cities with wagon trains (trade can be found under the governor function in the cities). Try to keep a little bit of space between your cities and try to keep some forest/hills standing.

Build some wagon trains or ships and fill them with muskets and horses. Once you declare your independance, there is no need to keep your economy going. Just keep only farmers and elder statesmen in your cities, the rest can be equipped with weapons. Only keep one city to produce muskets.

Move all your artillery to cities. Send out some scouts to find where the King drops his soldiers. If all goes well, he drops them as soon as he can and has to walk through a large forest before he gets to you. Place a very big stack of soldiers and dragoons on forests or hills near flat lands. Once the King places his troops on those flatlands, you keep hitting them with dragoons. Your soldiers will keep your dragoons safe (try to take the founding father with the forest and hills defense promotions) from counterattack.

It doesn't matter if you need to retreat a bit and it doesn't even matter if the King takes a city or two, as long as you can defeat his army in the field.

 

[reddishrecue]

Use the unit automation as it will save you a tone of time and resolve your micromanagement issues.

i used the unit automation and they left a fur trading post still being built 259/90, a overflow of iron ore that is not being processed by the blacksmith with automation and a worker that doesn't build roads so far, is this ok?

 

[ChanceDanger]

Automation is a really bad idea just because they never do anything right. The best thing to keep good from piling up is to set up trade routes and have cities do one sort of thing. Example: City A has a bunch of a bunch of food while City B has a lot of wood and city C has a lot of Iron. Set up trade routes (and assign wagon trains to each trade route you want) and have City A focus on producing things like tools or the bigger buildings like Universities and Shipyards, while City B and C only have a small population working just to produce iron/wood (and enough food to keep them in town).

tl;dr version: Don't Automate, ever.

 

[xploring]

I am a newbie too. After restarting lot of times to find the right spot for my capital, I have just realized you can set up an inland capital next to a native settlement. So you can still trade with your ships(by going through the native settlement), but when REF come along, all you have to do is destroy that settlement, and all the king's forces will be forced to land, and his warships' bombardment ability will be rendered useless. But I guess this trick only works for 1 or 2 colonies revolution... Anyway that's my discovery for the day.

 

[reddishrecue]

Automation is a really bad idea just because they never do anything right. The best thing to keep good from piling up is to set up trade routes and have cities do one sort of thing. Example: City A has a bunch of a bunch of food while City B has a lot of wood and city C has a lot of Iron. Set up trade routes (and assign wagon trains to each trade route you want) and have City A focus on producing things like tools or the bigger buildings like Universities and Shipyards, while City B and C only have a small population working just to produce iron/wood (and enough food to keep them in town).

tl;dr version: Don't Automate, ever.

ok, im gonna try out this trade route thing because you mean moving the resources out to be sold to different places like Europe or to the local natives who will buy the resources that are piling up and then purchase the needed statesmen for independence.

 

[ChanceDanger]

Yeah, that's pretty much the gist, but I also mean trading resources between colonies. I personally think it's better to focus the big production buildings (like Cigar factories) in one or two cities (Usually the coastal) while having smaller (usually inland) cities produce raw materials (like tobacco).

You make your wagons send the raw materials from the small inland cities to the large coastal ones where they get turned into the finished good and then you can load them up on the caravel and sell them to Europe or Native Villages that say they want them.

Other thoughts on trade:
-Try to not trade raw materials (cotton, tobacco, furs) except in the first few shipments. Selling these can trigger tax increases, so it's best to always sell the products in their finished form.

-Islands close to the Europe border can be useful for storing all your finished goods before you sell them (you can automate caravels/merchantmen/galleons to trade between colonies as well). This can be handy when you really get your production going and your free colonists from the Europe docks become more scarce.

-Name your wagon trains (click the wagon train name on the lower right screen) to keep track of what they are carrying, it can save time if you start to get confused about what's going where.

 

[reddishrecue]

Yeah, that's pretty much the gist, but I also mean trading resources between colonies. I personally think it's better to focus the big production buildings (like Cigar factories) in one or two cities (Usually the coastal) while having smaller (usually inland) cities produce raw materials (like tobacco).

You make your wagons send the raw materials from the small inland cities to the large coastal ones where they get turned into the finished good and then you can load them up on the caravel and sell them to Europe or Native Villages that say they want them.

Other thoughts on trade:
-Try to not trade raw materials (cotton, tobacco, furs) except in the first few shipments. Selling these can trigger tax increases, so it's best to always sell the products in their finished form.

-Islands close to the Europe border can be useful for storing all your finished goods before you sell them (you can automate caravels/merchantmen/galleons to trade between colonies as well). This can be handy when you really get your production going and your free colonists from the Europe docks become more scarce.

-Name your wagon trains (click the wagon train name on the lower right screen) to keep track of what they are carrying, it can save time if you start to get confused about what's going where.

More good ideas, naming the wagons thanks for the tips ill try them out. Natives don't accept raw resources but Europe does.

 

[jtb1127]

i used the unit automation and they left a fur trading post still being built 259/90, a overflow of iron ore that is not being processed by the blacksmith with automation and a worker that doesn't build roads so far, is this ok?

That interesting. I'm not sure how to prevent them from making mistakes.

 

[reddishrecue]

Thats actually true because they did miss those minor bugs. I was thinking the same thing where some manual influence on the buggy automatization would be needed.

 

[Seron]

As I also decided to try out colinization and give a little bit of BTS a little bit of rest, all these tips have also been very helpful for me and I will have to try thwm out. Thanks guys.

 

[flytopp]

Just some suggestions:

When fighting the REF keep in mind the old proverb:

"He who defends everything, defends nothing."

Keep your forces together, and do not hesitate to contest, then concede, coastal areas. The initial landing should be contested with dragoons, just remember there will be at most one, or two, turns after the initial landing before you need to fall back. Stay too long on the coast and you will be overwhelmed. Fall back using terrain.

The REF tends to split it's forces, and drops off garrisons at the conquered settlements. That means they have less troops to attack inland with.

Your defense should be prepared to bend, but not break. Keep in mind a good inland location with clear fields of fire, that is, no hills, mountains, or woodlands around it, as the computer will move onto difficult terrain to attack your settlements.

Look for opportunities (local weakness) to counterattack in. Concentrate on the REF dragoons when they are on clear terrain, and don't get yourself caught on clear terrain. Always keep fresh (undepleted) units with your attacking units to absorb the REF counterattack.

 

[ozangumus]

Thats actually true because they did miss those minor bugs. I was thinking the same thing where some manual influence on the buggy automatization would be needed.

Some minor bugs always remain in games. Especially in complicated strategy games like Colonization. I made a similar game to Colonization and I know how hard to check out all details control all functionality and AI behaviours. However big companies producing AA games should be more careful at least they have tons of playtesters. I was playtesting my game by myself

 

[Blind Side]

Just some suggestions:

Keep your forces together, and do not hesitate to contest, then concede, coastal areas. The initial landing should be contested with dragoons, just remember there will be at most one, or two, turns after the initial landing before you need to fall back. Stay too long on the coast and you will be overwhelmed. Fall back using terrain.

Seems to me that if you prepare to fail in your coastal defense then you have failed in your preparation...