Leon Marrick
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2002
- Messages
- 6
This scenario is fantastic. I've having loads of fun playing Great Britain. That said, it might be a little too easy in some ways and a bit too hard in others; let me share a story.
Started play. Noticed that my budget was in massive deficit but, having been warned by the solid docs, I knuckled down to dealing with it. Sold off just about everything that cost significant upkeep except the Royal Dockyards, plus some Cathedrals (but no Crown Lands then or ever) and started chasing after beaver. I concentrated on trade routes between my best trade cities and Amsterdam, and balanced the budget at max science in about 15 turns.
Spent more than half my disposable income building Clansman in Carlisle; Clansmen kick a lot of butt! For the whole of the 17th century, Arquebusiers would march to Carlisle, become clansmen, get blooded in a planned battle, and - now veteran - go foreign.
I also had a blast with Privateers; English always were big on legalised piracy.
It took me a little while to get organized. I didn't get a lock on the slave market until 1650, didn't conquer the Spanish Carribean until the 1660s, and got essentially nothing accomplished in North America during the whole of the century.
July 1667. Every city in the British Isles is British red, and I celebrate by changing from the English flag to the Union Jack. Shortly thereafter, I found the West India Company, and my economy and science start to sing and dance.
[dance]
It is now 1710. I'm getting a tech every three turns, have a total shield production of about 630, own 40 merchantmen and can't be bothered with a Royal Navy, and have built every researchable wonder. My army is so big, and so technically advanced, that any nation in Europe is my meat.
But...
I'm one of the those guys who just can't bear to declare war through sneak-attacking.
It's not that I need to retain my Immaculate reputation - my Diplomatic Corps can handle that - it's simply that I just can't bear to do it, in most any civ game. I'm running a Parliament, and so I can't even taunt, and they refuse to snap up the colonists I try to feed them. And Parliament doesn't take kindly to revolutions. So I'm trying to...
Colonise the wilds of America. You gotta understand that North America is the most inhospitable piece of real estate on the map, with the possible exception of the deep Sahara. Worse, far worse, than Spain or Africa. The Carribean is a colonist's Paradise in comparison, and Florida - I just like to rest my weary eyes on her, she looks so good. The wilds north of the Carolinas are all over hills and swamps and trees. Trees that require 10 years to chop down to worthless scrubland, trees that only slaves can turn into terrain that's worth a durn, trees that pullulate with natives and their scalping knives.
Now here is a challenge worthy of British arms! :soldier:
And, ah, not-British labour...
So I've got merchantmen wizzing back and forth like mad things, hordes of redcoats invading the forest, seige artillery taking out the native chiefs, and no plan whatsoever about dealing with the Dutch.
Started play. Noticed that my budget was in massive deficit but, having been warned by the solid docs, I knuckled down to dealing with it. Sold off just about everything that cost significant upkeep except the Royal Dockyards, plus some Cathedrals (but no Crown Lands then or ever) and started chasing after beaver. I concentrated on trade routes between my best trade cities and Amsterdam, and balanced the budget at max science in about 15 turns.
Spent more than half my disposable income building Clansman in Carlisle; Clansmen kick a lot of butt! For the whole of the 17th century, Arquebusiers would march to Carlisle, become clansmen, get blooded in a planned battle, and - now veteran - go foreign.
I also had a blast with Privateers; English always were big on legalised piracy.
It took me a little while to get organized. I didn't get a lock on the slave market until 1650, didn't conquer the Spanish Carribean until the 1660s, and got essentially nothing accomplished in North America during the whole of the century.
July 1667. Every city in the British Isles is British red, and I celebrate by changing from the English flag to the Union Jack. Shortly thereafter, I found the West India Company, and my economy and science start to sing and dance.
[dance]
It is now 1710. I'm getting a tech every three turns, have a total shield production of about 630, own 40 merchantmen and can't be bothered with a Royal Navy, and have built every researchable wonder. My army is so big, and so technically advanced, that any nation in Europe is my meat.
But...
I'm one of the those guys who just can't bear to declare war through sneak-attacking.
It's not that I need to retain my Immaculate reputation - my Diplomatic Corps can handle that - it's simply that I just can't bear to do it, in most any civ game. I'm running a Parliament, and so I can't even taunt, and they refuse to snap up the colonists I try to feed them. And Parliament doesn't take kindly to revolutions. So I'm trying to...Colonise the wilds of America. You gotta understand that North America is the most inhospitable piece of real estate on the map, with the possible exception of the deep Sahara. Worse, far worse, than Spain or Africa. The Carribean is a colonist's Paradise in comparison, and Florida - I just like to rest my weary eyes on her, she looks so good. The wilds north of the Carolinas are all over hills and swamps and trees. Trees that require 10 years to chop down to worthless scrubland, trees that only slaves can turn into terrain that's worth a durn, trees that pullulate with natives and their scalping knives.
Now here is a challenge worthy of British arms! :soldier:
And, ah, not-British labour...
So I've got merchantmen wizzing back and forth like mad things, hordes of redcoats invading the forest, seige artillery taking out the native chiefs, and no plan whatsoever about dealing with the Dutch.
