Who said this game was tough?

[dalgo]

After reading this forum I expected to get thrashed by the 471 units REF but instead I scored a surprise victory.

I got the game on release date and started it immediately, picking a Huge map and Explorer difficulty. I have played the original game of Colonisation extensively and saw no need to change my usual tactics for this first game – ie The Dutch combined with plenty of Exploration, Trade, Founding Fathers and heaps of Liberty Bells. My first colonist in a new colony was always a Statesman, with a Printing Press the first building. I was soon picking up plenty of FF too although I did miss out on Peter Minuit.

Meanwhile though I was reading this forum and I began to worry that my tactics were wrong, and indeed the REF was building up at an alarming rate. Never mind, I was having fun with my economy booming and I took time out to deal to some of the other European colonies. With the constant addition of new specialists from Europe and captured colonists my revolution % stayed under the 50% threshold for a long while, not that I was in any hurry to declare as by now I’d convinced myself this was only going to be a practice game.

When I finally started to prepare for the end game time had slipped by and it was 1752 (Turn 261) when I gave his lordship the finger. I had prepared as well as I could though. I had emptied my colonies of manpower and had 75 dragoons ready and waiting, well armed with bonuses from the 26 FF I had accumulated. I also had $75,000 in my kitty. The REF was 168 regulars, 142 dragoons, 128 artillery and 33 warships, but they only sent 4 ships with 16 units in the first wave. I cleaned them up for only 2 losses and a Good Guy. Must have been a fluke. Next turn another 16 and they were history for 4 losses. Hey maybe I can do this! The 3rd wave was 16 again. I was starting to get the picture now and did the math. 471/16 = 30 turns. That might just squeak me inside the time limit.

And it did. I won independence in 1782. I finished the game with more dragoons than I started with and still had plenty of cash left. The enemy assaults varied from 12 to 32 units but I was always able to eliminate them the turn they landed. I only lost a total of 56 units, easily replaced by population growth and dragoons from Europe. I did this using exactly the same game plan that had worked so well for me in Col 1. I enjoyed playing that game for over a decade and now I am enjoying Col2 just as much.

 

[Kamamura]

Just one question - how many times did you reload because of bad combat result?

 

[dalgo]

Not once. I played a strictly 'no reloads' game. Even when I misclicked a dragoon and left him stranded on a coastal hill for the REF to kill next turn. (This happened several times before I realised I'd forgotton to road that tile ).

In fact there is probably a balance issue here. If I attack and win I can retire that unit from the fight until he is healed. If the REF win then their wounded unit has no chance to heal and will have to front up later the same turn. My dragoons all had a good withdrawal chance and when that happened they again took a break to heal. The REF does not have that option, moreover the unit that forced my dragoon to retire will be wounded itself - and shortly dead. Finally my units are continually gaining experience and becoming stronger so that in fact I only lost 10 battles in the last 10 turns.

Maybe the REF should be made stronger?

 

[Starfury]

After reading this forum ...

There you got it. You read the forum before playing, so you were ready for what awaited you.
Most people (me included) didn't expect to have to fight an army twice the size of the entire colonial population.

 

[dalgo]

There you got it. You read the forum before playing, so you were ready for what awaited you.
Most people (me included) didn't expect to have to fight an army twice the size of the entire colonial population.

No I didn't read the forum before playing. As I said I got the game on release and started playing immediately, along with everyone else. My tactics were to amass liberty bells as fast as possible. By the time other people were starting to raise issues about the size of the REF it was too late for me to change tactics.

My comment 'after reading this forum I expected to get thrashed' referred to the actual Battle for Independence.

 

[Ignol]

Yes, the game is incredibly easy. I played as the Dutch recently and with only 10% revolution help to my assault force, and readied promotions, I routinely got 75%, 80%, and 90% odds against the REF.

Despite my abandoning of coastal cities, the fool REF wouldn't attack amphibiously, which is their main problem. Their Artillery are sitting ducks out in the open, along with their lack of defensive bonuses. Regulars are junk in the forest against even just a Militia-soldier with a few basic promotions given out by specific FFs that I had picked up.

75% odds, with my first five battles ending in an statistical anomaly of five losses, but after that, it was all down hill for the REF. Essentially with a far more powerful REF, I lost maybe ten units in the entire war. The only things that actually take cities are dragoons, and they're simple enough to mop up with Grenadier 1 promoted soldiers. I started a bit late, and won 4 turns before I would've been forced to stop. I also did not reload.

So yes, Colonization is a peice of cake if you've got some idea of how to fight the REF outside cities, correctly. The REF just needs to modified, something modders are currently working on. Money is also useless in the WoI, spend it while you can.

 

[dalgo]

Money is also useless in the WoI, spend it while you can.

In this case I had plenty of cash to buy dragoons in Europe but I was right on the 50% threshold so I had to wait. Fortunately my Merchantmen were able to slip through the blockade (their extra movement is crucial).

 

[archeide]

I got the game on release date and started it immediately, picking a Huge map and Explorer difficulty.

Maybe the REF should be made stronger?

No I don't think so, it's still an quite easy level it should not be a real challenge.

I'm mostly felt the same in my game. I played french also in explorer level, normal time progress, and was worrying to see the REF increasing at each turn.
It was only 1665, and english were already at 80% of rebellion sentiment but had a weak colony. I thought that they could get revolution any time soon, so i decided to test revolution whereas i was not at all prepared to win the battle (i had 21 dragons and 10 soldiers while REF was more than 50 dragons and 80 soldiers).

The first battles were horrible, i lost most of times. I lost two cities, but i continued the game and finally my units got more and more experiences, and i succeeded in 1689.

There were some funny times, when a city population without armed men were defensing themselves with only their fists and feet kicks (and what surprised me, they got more wins than my armed units ) but they finally were crused by King's artilleries.

I made a big mistakes by boycotting horses before independance, so i run out of horses very soon (and my ranches were too slow to be any help).

But overall, i think difficulty with REF is ok, because it's only explorer level. However the other AIs are too weaks, they make a lot of congress bells but have a weak army and economy. English colony went revolution some turns after me, and got crushed completely by their King.

 

[Mundungu]

I believe the amount of ships used to land Units depends on the difficulty level.
the lowest two level are simply very easy thanks to that. In my first game at easiest level, REF had only 4 MoW which I destroyed quickly with my SoL earning me a quick victory since the REF could not loand any troops anymore.

On higher level (I currently play conquistador) he comes in with I think 6 or 8 ships, so that he lands on 48 or 54 Units, with the next landing within approx 4 turns if I recall properly. First wave was easyu to kill, but the troops did not have the time to heal for the second wave ...

Anyhow, before considering it easy ... try the higher levels ...

 

[lermfish]

A lot of you are noting the balance issue, such as the REF not healing, or withdrawing, etc.

Personally, that actually makes sense. After all, when GB came to kick our ass, they didn't know the terrain, and suffered. They fought by using soldiers till death, while we withdrew from combat, healed in houses, fortified in our settlements (Just for that RL 20% terrain bonus) and allowed the British to cross into our remarkably square cities.
And these guerrilla tactics won us the war...