The Dutch Treat

[dalgo]

A Good Start

I started a new game of Colonization and got a really good start first up. The immigration queue had a seasoned scout, a veteran soldier and a tobacconist. I was playing as the Dutch with Peter Stuyvesant as my leader on an XL map (60x96 tiles) at Revolutionary. The sea-lanes indicated a nearby coast and I reached the Aztec village of Tlacopan on my first turn. Next turn I sailed into the village and met the chief who gave me 316 gold. They would train tobacco planters and wanted to buy guns. Excellent. I continued up the coast and unloaded my soldier at the end of the turn. In 1494 he founded New Amsterdam.



The colony had plenty of river tiles including a food bonus, a forest for timber and underlying grasslands for tobacco; and there was a French caravel in view. An early war could be on the cards. Texcoco gave my colonist experience and I sold my starting 50 guns to Tlacopan for 1029 gold before returning to Europe just as the tobacconist appeared from the immigration queue. I hurried the scout and bought 100 horses and there was still enough left over for a cannon.

The French settled Quebec north of Texcoco; and then the English sailed past! They settled just south of my capital and this had me questioning the map size, but when I checked the settings it was a huge map all right. I guess this must be a large island with a lot of water to the main continent. I would soon find out because I was in the fortunate position of being able to send out three scouts (one a seasoned scout and one with two promotions already) on turn 11.

My scouts racked up considerable coinage from the Aztec villages plus a couple of burial grounds visited by the seasoned scout, and one scout met the Spanish further down the south coast on turn 18. That meant I had encountered all three Europeans within the first 20 turns, most unusual on a map of this size, and with my capital hemmed in on both sides by Quebec and Jamestown I was going to find it difficult to expand.



It was time to start a war. I had bought horses for the veteran soldier from the immigration queue and had enough cash to buy one more cannon so I attacked the French from the sea at Quebec. Boy were they pissed off. My two cannons both fought soldiers at 90% and won. I collected 29 gold and razed the colony. My dragoon went ashore and captured the French hardy pioneer next turn.

Meanwhile two of my scouts found treasure in Cherokee villages. One was 784 gold but my seasoned scout came up with a massive 2356 gold. Let's hope that can get home safely. Yet another French soldier landed and threatened my newly captured hardy pioneer but fortunately my dragoon was still in range and attacked at 78%, only just winning with health down to 15/100. My merchantman picked up some furs from Texcoco on the way back to New Amsterdam where the first of my cigars were ready. I had already accepted Pedro Cabral and now it was a balancing act to get enough trade and political points for Peter Minuit before either Spain or the English beat me to him. At least France was now out of that race.

 

[dalgo]

Peter Minuit signs on

So on turn 28 I turned down both Ponce de Leon and Cortez, and accepted Minuit.



With that out of the way and five treasures heading home I could turn my thoughts to the English. France had been stronger than I expected so I wanted to build up a larger force this time, but at least my cannons now had the Bomb 1 promotion. First of all though I needed 2250 to buy a galleon. Once that was on the water I could take a couple of treasure wagons to Europe and they netted me 3047 gold. This is one of the busiest starts to a game that I can remember.

Normally I would be buying a lumberjack/carpenter combo with my first big windfall and developing my colonies, but this time I bought 3 cannons and a vet dragoon and went hunting the English. My first cannon was defeated by an English dragoon but the next two cannons won and I captured Jamestown. I kept that colony because it was close to New Amsterdam, and docked my galleon so my dragoon could capture another hardy pioneer. I also moved some more units to Jamestown because there was a second English colony nearby. Once that was gone too (I razed it this time) I could start to consolidate my colonies.

 

[dalgo]

The Indian Wars

I hurried another seasoned scout from the immigration queue giving me four scouts in the field and they were still exploring the same landmass so it certainly wasn't an island. I had no idea at this stage why the English and French had turned up on my doorstep at the start but it had worked out well for me. With two of the three Europeans out of the picture I was only competing with Spain for Founding Fathers, and I had already skipped a few so that would slow them down. I stayed with my two colonies for now and was pleased when I finally noticed that Jamestown already had a lumber mill and a tobacconist shop. Exploration had showed that the Aztecs only had 8 villages, all on prime land for my future expansion.

I waited for my treasure wagons to make it home through Aztec territory while I prepared for war, but Montezuma got in first and attacked me in 1560. He took out both my hardy pioneers a colonist and one treasure wagon on his first strike and I retaliated by razing Tlacopan but lost a cannon and a dragoon in the process. He moved a stack of 6 braves towards Jamestown which was well defended and I didn't expect them to attack, but they did. The Aztec raid stole horses, tools and lumber but my defending cannons and dragoons held and my first great general (Benedict Arnold) was born.

The Aztec war progressed slowly, but cannons against bows wasn't a fair contest. The treasures won from the villages were significant with the biggest worth a hefty 3010 gold, and I used the captured native converts to found new colonies. Thanks to my second GG (Guillaume de Bellecombe) I was able to promote two veteran dragoons to level three surgeons. Then in 1599 AD I took the final Aztec village.

 

[dalgo]

Hi Ho Silver

Even with four seasoned scouts there was still more land to explore, and I had a steady stream of treasure wagons heading home. I had been the first to visit 72 villages before I finally hit one that had already been visited by someone else, presumable Spain. My exploring merchantman (the 'Endeavour') discovered an island in the far NW corner of the map and a scout identified a range of mountains bordered by a river that would be an ideal site for a silver colony. I immediately dispatched a galleon loaded with the required men and materials to found Silver Peaks.

 

[dalgo]

The Spanish Campaign

I had been keeping an eye on the Spanish colonies and they weren't as strong as I would have expected. They had at least one frigate though which ruled out an attack by sea as I had no warships yet. However Isabella's defences were weak and her borders had not expanded so I was able to put a strong attack force into position for a land attack: 2 soldiers, 4 dragoons and 5 cannons.



It was a bit of an overkill I guess, at least the Spanish thought so and they deserted their capital. I took the empty colony and razed it, then wiped out a couple of Spanish dragoons while they were in the open. One of my scouts also captured two Spanish treasure wagons. Santo Domingo was only defended by a single soldier and I razed that too, but not before losing one of my valuable cannons. I sent my dragoons after some fleeing soldiers and I also had to track down an annoying scout in the far south.

Two enemy frigates turned up in my home waters; fortunately I had a ship-of-the-line under construction in New Amsterdam. I duly dispatched three Spanish soldiers without loss and also the scout when I finally caught up with him. The frigates proved a bit more difficult though; when I moved my SoL out to attack them I found not two but five frigates waiting for me. I sunk one frigate then hastily made peace with Spain; and England & France while I was about it.

With all other European powers effectively out of the picture it became strictly a building game until independence. I had 10 colonies in my core producing cigars, coats, cloth, ships, tools, guns and horses.



I accepted all FF who offered (even Chief Powhatan) and established a rum colony in the north to complete the full set of export goods, although the tax rate was running away and was already over 60%. Because of this I was trading extensively with the natives and by now my scouts had visited all 90 villages on the map. I had only been beaten to 4 of them and the breakdown of the 86 that I received a bonus from was: 42 gold (total 9890), 21 treasure (total 25,537), 13 maps and 10 experience. That adds up to 35,427 gold and I probably received as much again from the burial grounds and ancient ruins visited by my seasoned scouts.

The French resettled to my south so I declared war on them again and used their landed soldiers as target practice for my new vet dragoons now coming out of my universities. Their hardy pioneers were also useful for roading my territory.

It was a long slow build-up at first, but then gathered momentum quickly towards the end. My farmers were producing enough food to give me 2 or 3 new colonists every turn and my 3 Universities were turning them into vet soldiers. I was also producing 100 guns and 80 horses each turn. I had two elder statesmen in every colony so my overall rebel sentiment was well past the 50% mark, but of course the REF was also increasing. It had reached 362 units with 46 warships as I sent all my trading ships to Europe to fill up with guns and horses. Fortunately I got them home again without another increase. The last of the Founding Fathers had volunteered for service although I had to build military points in several colonies to get Dom Pedro, and he arrived just in time.

 

[dalgo]

The Declaration

I declared independence in 1702 with Rebel Sentiment at 76%.



I had 44 dragoons on hand but that increased to 68 once I had given my free indentured servants the guns and horses just arriving from Europe. By coincidence tax was also at 76% although that was now fixed.

When the REF landed they only used 4 of their ships so there were just 16 units to deal with and my combat bonus by then was 40%. I disposed of them without loss; likewise the 12 units that landed next turn. However on the third turn the King unexpectedly landed 44 troops and I was stretched to deal with them as I barely had enough fit men. I did manage to see them all off though but with the loss of 8 dragoons. The problem was that my most experienced vets were injured so I was fighting with raw recruits. Fortunately it was back to 16 units landed on the next turn. At least this wasn't looking to be a protracted war.

I continued to produce new colonists and turn them into dragoons so didn't have much trouble wiping out the new landings each turn. The biggest single landing was 60 troops on the eleventh turn and that amounted to almost half the troops the King had left at that stage, however my troops were very experienced by then and killed them all for only a single loss. The full stats were:

Turn Units My
No. Landed Losses

214 - 16 - 0
215 - 12 - 0
216 - 44 - 8
217 - 16 - 0
218 - 20 - 1
219 - 20 - 0
220 - 08 - 0
221 - 28 - 1
222 - 08 - 0
223 - 12 - 0
224 - 60 - 1
225 - 28 - 0
226 - 12 - 0
227 - 20 - 0
228 - 12 - 0

Total 316 11

So I won with an Independence Victory in 1720 AD. The elapsed time was 42 hours 45 minutes. I ended the game with 41 Founding Fathers and my normalised score was 9054.

After I had won the game I went back to the start and used WorldBuilder to see where the other Europeans had come from. The Spanish in slot 4 had sailed 7 tiles North to found Isabella. I was in slot 3 and had sailed NW and settled 8 tiles North of my start. The French had moved just 3 tiles South of their entry point in slot 2, but the biggest surprise was the English who had started in the far North in slot 1 and had sailed all the way down the coast to settle right on my Southern border. They had moved 26 tiles to find a suitable spot for Jamestown.

 

[Freddy K]

Interesting to see you use Generals to get two +++ surgeons. Does that mean they heal 50% each turn? Personally I thought of using my first General to promote two Merchantmen to +3 Navigation, it seems like this will cut down travel times considerably(quick trips to Europe). Though attaching a general to a freight ship is a bit wasteful. I guess I'll go with 1 ship and a surgeon next time.

It's a pity that the only way to stop worrying about the FF is to wage war on other nations and do so constantly, there is really no benefit to peace. War also quite quickly pays high dividends on all the investments made for guns and cannons. Unless of course it is possible to move borders with liberty bells and then just absorb other European cities. I never tried that, but this simply must be a viable strategy.

Thanks for the detailed log on your war effort, very enlightening.

 

[dalgo]

No, two surgeons don't heal faster than one. Admittedly having two level three surgeons at that stage of the game was unnecessary but I was mainly looking ahead to fighting the REF. That would allow me to have two healing colonies for my wounded troops.

I used a later GG to speed up my merchantmen.

 

[dalgo]

All my screenshots disappeared from previous posts. Attempting to restore ...

 

[dalgo]

Adding new screenshots: When I want to add a new screenshot to an existing post I find there is no link to 'manage attachments' so I cannot upload the screenshot while editing the post. I have worked around this by uploading the screenshot in this reply (see below) then using the 'insert image' option in the edit and adding the URL for the image held in my list of posted attachments. This does seem to be a rather clumsy way to go about it, can anyone suggest a better method for me to use next time?

 

[Torgny]

Interesting story.