Civ4 Colonization is the boss of me

[yanner39]

I just got to finishing my first game (well not quite finishing, all hope is lost) and hopefully I can get a few tips on where I went wrong.

I declared independence with 51%. As I awaited the REF, I managed to get around 11 or 12 dragoons with the guns and horses I had stockpiled. I also had a few soldiers as well. In total, my colony had roughly 99 people. And I had a lot of FF, with nice promos. Just to give a rough idea, I was ahead in the score of +1200 over the second place colony.

So I was feeling pretty good about myself. Then the REF hit, but it came like 2 man'o-war at a time at 2 separate locations. This caused me to split my stack. Plus,the King's soldiers that were making landfall were handling my army no problems.

Then, when I did kill the King's soldiers, I didn't have a chance to rest or replenish my troop because he was sending more troops. IN one instance, he sent 4 ships!

A few questions:

1. I couldn't keep up producing Horses and I had a ranch, with 2 Master Ranchers. My gun production was good.

2. How do you decide which colonists to use as soldiers. I started taking my elder statements and my soldiers and indentured servants, but I was hesitant to take my master carpenters (loss of production) of my farmers and fishermen (no food).

3. When the war started, I felt like I was scrambling to get things organized. Is there a particular strategy as to where to put your wagons holding your surplus of guns and horses? I was looking for areas with defensive bonuses (now that I think about it, I should have stayed on the other side of the river) but could find a alot of it.


Anyways, for a first game I thought I do ok, especially for my economy but it was an epic fail for the WofI.

Any thoughts?

 

[dalgo]

So long as you learn from your first game it doesn't matter if it is lost.

Build your port colonies close together so you don't have too much territory to defend (inland colonies can be more widespread). Ideally the same stack of dragoons should be able to cover all the coastline near your ports.

To get more troops take the 'All Men are Free' freedom. That gives you two extra men per colony to turn into dragoons. For this reason it is helpful to have a few extra colonies even if they are small.

1. Gun production does outstrip that for horses so be prepared to buy extra horses from Europe just before you declare Independence.

2. Elder Statesmen are your most valuable colonists so don't turn them into soldiers. The reason for this is the rebel sentiment bonus which provides up to 50% extra attack strength for your troops. Use veteran soldiers first, then colonists/indentured servants/ petty criminals before using any specialists. I would probably pick fishermen next as the seas are soon full of Man-o-Wars.

3. Use inland colonies to stockpile your guns and horses.

 

[yanner39]

So long as you learn from your first game it doesn't matter if it is lost.

Build your port colonies close together so you don't have too much territory to defend (inland colonies can be more widespread). Ideally the same stack of dragoons should be able to cover all the coastline near your ports.

To get more troops take the 'All Men are Free' freedom. That gives you two extra men per colony to turn into dragoons. For this reason it is helpful to have a few extra colonies even if they are small.

1. Gun production does outstrip that for horses so be prepared to buy extra horses from Europe just before you declare Independence.

2. Elder Statesmen are your most valuable colonists so don't turn them into soldiers. The reason for this is the rebel sentiment bonus which provides up to 50% extra attack strength for your troops. Use veteran soldiers first, then colonists/indentured servants/ petty criminals before using any specialists. I would probably pick fishermen next as the seas are soon full of Man-o-Wars.

3. Use inland colonies to stockpile your guns and horses.

Thanks Dalgo. Good stuff.

 

[candle86]

also a good idea here, stock pile in wagons in your town, get horses from europe if you need to and start stockpiling and right before WoI go get any junk colonists you can from europe, and sell everything you can, I sent all 5 of my Gallons and my Caravel back to Europe sold all my goods minus guns and horses of course then filled those ships with colonists sailed back to the new world, armed them, armed any units I didnt need to keep the colony alive. I went from 12 soliders and 2 dragoons plus my 16 cannons, to 84 soilders and 40 dragoons and before the king could respond to the sudden increase in man power I declared war agasint his 24 regulars, 12 dragoons and 12 artiliery, was actully a rather easy war lol

 

[yanner39]

also a good idea here, stock pile in wagons in your town, get horses from europe if you need to and start stockpiling and right before WoI go get any junk colonists you can from europe, and sell everything you can, I sent all 5 of my Gallons and my Caravel back to Europe sold all my goods minus guns and horses of course then filled those ships with colonists sailed back to the new world, armed them, armed any units I didnt need to keep the colony alive. I went from 12 soliders and 2 dragoons plus my 16 cannons, to 84 soilders and 40 dragoons and before the king could respond to the sudden increase in man power I declared war agasint his 24 regulars, 12 dragoons and 12 artiliery, was actully a rather easy war lol

See, I think that was one of my biggest problems. I never thought to buy horses - I figured I'd just breed them. Also, alot of my profits were used to buy veteran soldiers. I should have been more efficient and rushed ordinary colonists or cheaper colonists.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[candle86]

well once you get a food surplus breed horses and colonists Also dragoons are good but soliders do better at holding a city the combat isnt as simple as col 1 was where dragoon has an attack of 2, soilder attack of 1 lol

 

[obi]

See, now I read your thread title and thought it meant you have the same problem I do. Colonization is the boss of me 'cuz now I'm completely addicted and I've been late for work every day since I started playing. Good thing I'm married to the boss huh?
Anyway I learned a lot from all the tips in this thread and you sure did better than I did first time around. I started mouthing off at the King first time he asked for more taxes. Didn't work out too well.
scratches head and looks puzzled.