Advice, tips, guides...?

[Alignn]

I'm trying to get into this mod again, and while the changes since I last played are interesting (the large rivers are really cool, I try to start next to one every time) I feel like I'm not very good at the game when I see the AI get all the FFs and have larger cities even when I picked Sweden and focused on food.
So, I'm just curious if anyone has any good tips for this mod specifically (rather than Colonization in general):

1. Is growing by food worthwhile in the early game?
2. How important are the "be the first to get 3000 whatever" quests? Should I focus on those to the exclusion of other resources?
3. Does more happiness matter, or is it just important to keep it generally positive?
4. When exactly do colonies require guards to avoid unrest? Size 3?
5. I noticed on Epic speed that a rancher only produced 1 horse per turn when I settled my starter dragoon (75 horses) - is the required amount of horses for normal production speed higher, or does it max out at 100 horses (I would guess at 2 per turn without experts or improvements)?
6. Since Settlers are needed to found new cities things, expanding is a fair bit more expensive; can't just grab the first four migrants and found as many colonies. How often/early should expansion be done? The sooner the better?
7. What's a good way to get points for FFs? Exploration jumps up very fast (perhaps relatively too fast actually?), but everything else seems slow.
8. When's a good time to start producing bells? The happiness makes them more desirable now, but I don't have a good feel for when to sacrifice a potential field worker.
   
9. Are the Monastery improvements worthwhile? It feels really strange to have a colonist just fortify in the hopes of something happening, and the description recommends building it near places with much pedestrian traffic, but I've never seen the natives move except to attack... do they trade internally or something?
10. Any other tips, especially for early game? Besides exploring

 

[Kendon]

I'm just curious if anyone has any good tips for this mod specifically:

I'm going give a short answer to your long question.

The Russian colonies are about to beat me. They've adopted Theocracy, Native Rights, the Right to Bear Arms, All Men Are Free and Monarchy. In other words they've declared independence in April 1702 and I'm not even close. They have six settlements. I have forty, producing every raw material and finished product available. As far as I can see they have fish, lumber and ore.

The Russian towns are all on tundra or taiga, the most forbidding terrain in the game. It appears their emphasis is entirely on food and Founding Fathers. Liberty bells accumulate faster with few cities.

I'm miffed. I've developed a vast interconnected empire while the Russians sit around fishing, digging up a little gold and creating happiness by going to the tavern.

What I'm trying to say is that this is a complicated game with many paths to success, including a few that are extremely unlikely and yet in the end they still succeed. If I was just starting out I'd keep it simple. Get one city established before moving on to the next one. Look for lumber and ore.

Also, it never hurts to have a strong navy.

 

[nci]

@Alignn start producing bells ASAP; the first founding father that becomes available - Jacques Marquette - is incredibly powerful.

 

[Zingo99]

Is it possible to get him unless playing as England? I always get overrun at conquistador level as whatever and prio village hall+ random citizen.

 

[nci]

@Zingo99 it is possible to get Jacques Marquette playing as any nation, with right strategy and a bit of luck, even on Revolutionary (highest) difficulty level - let alone lower ones.

 

[Zingo99]

Ok

 

[raystuttgart]

@Zingo99
Most beginner players make the mistake that they try "turtle strategy", meaning to stay put in their first colony and "play safe".
You need to start rushing from the start like e.g. sending out Scouts or trading with Natives early on.

Do not try to go for manufactured goods in the early game - that is a midgame strategy.
(In the very early beginning you should most likely almost ignore all goods.)

----------

In the first game phase :

A) Scout Rush (to get Gold from Treasures on Land)
B) Bell Rush (to get Founding Fathers)
C) Cross Rush (to maybe start a 2nd City early)
D) Native Trade Rush (Wagon Traings selling e.g. Trade Goods)
E) Sloop Rush (to get Gold from Treasures in Water)

In the second game phase:

F) Missionary Rush
G) Native Trade Post Rush
H) Hammers Rush
I) Raw Goods Rush
J) Military Rush (in case you want to conquer another European early on)
K) Get some juice early game events triggered (an experienced player learns to trigger them)

Only after that you start normal gameplay:

L) Step by step found more Cities
M) Get Happiness and Health up
N) Get Manufactured Goods going
O) Get more Improvements
P) Get more Experts from training in Native villages
Q) Get more Quests done (rewards can be huge)
R) Get more Events triggered (now mainly midgame ones)
S) Start to use Education System
T) Maybe prepare to conquer more European Players
U) Get your first Monastery and Forts built
V) Get your first Pirates
...

----

Summary:
Play fast and aggressive if you really want to win on higher difficulties.
(Otherwise better play on lower difficulties that allow slower game play.)

 

[pauldst]

I'm trying to get into this mod again, and while the changes since I last played are interesting (the large rivers are really cool, I try to start next to one every time) I feel like I'm not very good at the game when I see the AI get all the FFs and have larger cities even when I picked Sweden and focused on food.
So, I'm just curious if anyone has any good tips for this mod specifically (rather than Colonization in general):

1. Is growing by food worthwhile in the early game?
2. How important are the "be the first to get 3000 whatever" quests? Should I focus on those to the exclusion of other resources?
3. Does more happiness matter, or is it just important to keep it generally positive?
4. When exactly do colonies require guards to avoid unrest? Size 3?
5. I noticed on Epic speed that a rancher only produced 1 horse per turn when I settled my starter dragoon (75 horses) - is the required amount of horses for normal production speed higher, or does it max out at 100 horses (I would guess at 2 per turn without experts or improvements)?
6. Since Settlers are needed to found new cities things, expanding is a fair bit more expensive; can't just grab the first four migrants and found as many colonies. How often/early should expansion be done? The sooner the better?
7. What's a good way to get points for FFs? Exploration jumps up very fast (perhaps relatively too fast actually?), but everything else seems slow.
8. When's a good time to start producing bells? The happiness makes them more desirable now, but I don't have a good feel for when to sacrifice a potential field worker.
9. Are the Monastery improvements worthwhile? It feels really strange to have a colonist just fortify in the hopes of something happening, and the description recommends building it near places with much pedestrian traffic, but I've never seen the natives move except to attack... do they trade internally or something?
10. Any other tips, especially for early game? Besides exploring

I've been playing off and on for a long time, but given the changes from RaR to WTP I would love to see answers to these questions.

 

[kurzum]

I only recently started playing WTP.

1. Is growing by food worthwhile in the early game?

getting experts via "hard work" feels super slow. I saw a nation/leader that had a bonus to this. With this leader it seems cool to get many free colonists ASAP. Otherwise, it would depend on the Indian trainers available. If you just have a crappy schoolhouse it takes >35 turns for graduation. Turning the free colonists into missionaries/traders seemed effective.

1. How important are the "be the first to get 3000 whatever" quests? Should I focus on those to the exclusion of other resources?

Sorry, I forgot what the reward for this was already. It was not spectacular.

1. Does more happiness matter, or is it just important to keep it generally positive?

don't know, good question

1. When exactly do colonies require guards to avoid unrest? Size 3?

some youtube video said size 4

1. I noticed on Epic speed that a rancher only produced 1 horse per turn when I settled my starter dragoon (75 horses) - is the required amount of horses for normal production speed higher, or does it max out at 100 horses (I would guess at 2 per turn without experts or improvements)?

I read somewhere (Colonpedia??) that 200 is a good starting size.

1. Since Settlers are needed to found new cities things, expanding is a fair bit more expensive; can't just grab the first four migrants and found as many colonies. How often/early should expansion be done? The sooner the better?

Gold, Gems, Silver seems helpful, especially Gold. Grabbing these early makes the game easier. Otherwise, the choice is between settling early or building an army to take away AI settlements by the time they settled all the free space.

1. What's a good way to get points for FFs? Exploration jumps up very fast (perhaps relatively too fast actually?), but everything else seems slow.

Read the colonpedia. crosses, selling goods, fighting, bells. supplement with hammers/production

1. When's a good time to start producing bells? The happiness makes them more desirable now, but I don't have a good feel for when to sacrifice a potential field worker.

you are competing against AI for founding fathers starting turn 1. This is also the time you should consider producing bells. It is like research in civ / 4x games

1. Are the Monastery improvements worthwhile? It feels really strange to have a colonist just fortify in the hopes of something happening, and the description recommends building it near places with much pedestrian traffic, but I've never seen the natives move except to attack... do they trade internally or something?

never built one, but good question.

1. Any other tips, especially for early game? Besides exploring

a) Leaders/nations bonus is strong, try to exploit these. There are two youtube videos, one with english / crosses / high food growth and hard work expert upgrades. The other one is Portuguese with focus on Exploration/Escavador/Gold/Silver/Gems then buying an army and capturing AI colonies. Both good strategies.
b) getting 5 or 6 harbor towns was a worthwile quest. If you settle inland try to prepare three settlers. first to trigger the quest, then settle the 2 other cities
c) epic gamespeed is cool, because you can take your time with stuff and do not need to rush so hardcore

 

[Raubwuerger]

Hello kurzum,

I don't think there is a perfect strategy, but I'll write down a few points that are important in my experience.

My first city should have at least one good food field (land or sea) and, if possible, timber. Production is pretty important from the mid-game onwards. If I lack tools, stone and/or clay, I simply produce politics points, religion points, or whatever I lack for the next founding father.
And very importantly, your founding city should be accessible via a normal coast, not a shallow coast or a large river. The larger ship types galleon, ship of the line, frigate, ... cannot navigate these types of waters.

I will answer your questions above shortly ...

 

[Raubwuerger]

Does more happiness matter, or is it just important to keep it generally positive?

I don't know exactly (I would have to analyze the source code and the configuration files) but it shouldn't be too much and too long.
Otherwise your citizens will rebel. Especially in cities with slaves of all kinds it can quickly become negative and wars also have an influence ...

 

[Raubwuerger]

When exactly do colonies require guards to avoid unrest? Size 3?

I think it depends on the difficulty level. On the highest difficulty level, I think it is at more than 4 citizens. And every unit that is able to attack (Scouts, Rangers, Buccaniers, Slavehunters, .....) are able to avoid unrest.

 

[Raubwuerger]

Since Settlers are needed to found new cities things, expanding is a fair bit more expensive; can't just grab the first four migrants and found as many colonies. How often/early should expansion be done? The sooner the better?

I always found 5 cities relatively quickly. As you have already noticed, there is sometimes a reward for 5 or more buildings of one type. You'll have to find out for yourself which ones they are ... but I can assure you the rewards are worth it.

 

[Raubwuerger]

Are the Monastery improvements worthwhile

It depends a lot on the aggressiveness level of the Indians. Some tribes (Nunkui, Aomagua, ...) have a high basic aversion to newcomers. And if you annoy them (building towns, stationing artillery, ...) you will be attacked by them without being in a state of war.
This can be extremely annoying, especially at the beginning ... In this case, I build a few monasteries (1-3) and place a missionary in them. This is a good way to prevent raids.
But the whole thing is relatively costly and time consuming, and if it can be avoided I prefer to settle in other regions ...