Colonies

[RulerOfDaPeople]

Don't forget that merc allows you to run corps without others force-spreading their corps to you...the only civic that does so.

What are the effects of you spreading your own corps to your cities, verses an outside civ spreading their corps into your cities? Does them spreading their corperations inside your borders cost you money or something?

 

[Jewman]

am i the only one who gives their colonies all my technologies?? right after i research something i just give it to my colony... of course tech brokering is off but i find that that makes them very useful. Getting them caught up in tech let's them create advanced troops which means that even if they don't attack they raise up my power ranking (i think?) and they have the capability to defend and/or attack anything.

Also... in maps like big and small with a big continent and smaller continents and islands all over the place, i will colonize an island give it independence and as i start conquering and/or colonizing other islands i just give those cities to my colony and each city gives them 2 new troops, keeps maintenance off of me, makes my colony happy, and makes them bigger therefore more productive!

 

[Yzman]

I like making colonies if only to make the game more interesting and usually the cities I take aren't productive right away and I save a lot of money by giving them to a colony.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

What are the effects of you spreading your own corps to your cities, verses an outside civ spreading their corps into your cities? Does them spreading their corperations inside your borders cost you money or something?

It costs you money like your own corp would, but without the HQ.

Also, competing corps can force your corps out.

Both of those are completely blocked by merc (and SP, but you can't use your own then)

 

[RulerOfDaPeople]

Merc isn't bad with representation. It also becomes more attractive when you have fewer trade partners/more wars and of course when you have vassals. And when you abuse it for diplo points.

Do you think the free specialist is worth staying in Mercantilism, than anything else if you're going for a culture victory? What if you've got ALOT of trading partners and ALOT of forests? (...to reap benefits and commerce from Enviornmentalism.) Never used Enviornmentalism, but it seems like a good first time considering pretty much every single tile has forests on the 2nd continent. They could become powerhouse commerce AND production cities. If the mantanance is worth it.

This is one area I am really torn between the benefits of turning a my new world expansion empire on large nearby continent into colonies, or if I can still manage with the Forbiden Palace and them paying commerce for themselves... what do you think?

I'd like to keep them but for a cultural victory, I'm thinking Pacifism and Mercantilism are the best options, which makes it extremely hard to keep a massive empire.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I don't see how a free artist could trump foreign trade routs for culture. In free market (assuming you don't pull early culture and have neither civic available), you're getting at least 3 and they're probably amounting to between 1-5 more commerce than domestic routes. That's going to beat 1 free artist when you take civic upkeep into account also.

If you're going balls out early culture don't expand heavily abroad in the first place, if you're doing it later on just build FP and have those cities support your slider by building wealth if need be - they should be able to pay for themselves or you shouldn't settle them normally.

But, I'm not expert on optimal culture. All my culture wins are times where I notice I have a few religions in the renaissance and can grab corps. Along with the modern era multipliers this typically makes culture faster than space.

 

[Corneh]

a bit OT but trade routes benefit the AI more than the player on higher difficulties, so using merc to deny the ai those lucrative trade routes is also a good reason to use merc.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

a bit OT but trade routes benefit the AI more than the player on higher difficulties

This is entirely dependent on the size of the player and the size of the AI(s) that you're worried about giving the benefits. Even in BTS but especially before, the AI grows some large cities and can really hike the trade route yield.

 

[guycitron]

Hey I have a question if anyone can answer.. what is the best way to get a city back from a colony?

I wanted to make every city on the new landmass a colony except my oldest and most developed one which also happened to be sitting on uranium

But now.. the game does not appear to allow me to choose which cities will become a colony and which will not!!! I saved it and just made it part of the colony anyway, but when I went into the diplomacy screen there werent any cities listed to demand or trade like usual :-(

Help please?

 

[IAM]

If I capture 5 cities and turn each one into a seperate colony does that give me 5 extra like a vassal gives an extra ?

Does a colony have to be a city you founded? Could I capture 2 AI cities vassalize them then turn the 2 cities into 2 seperate colonies when they are my neighbor?

I do ussually gift military techs to vassals so they can better defend themselves.

In a current game I'm trying to hinder the leading AI's research by creating a seperate economy without them. Switching to mercantilism and having my 5 vassals switch as well. Figured the negatives for the AI plus the specialist and still having vassal trading partners would go well together. Huge Pangea map with 18 civs. Missing anything?

 

[John117]

Like TMIT said, the biggest (and most abusive) use in my opinion of colonies is the free 2 unit garrison in every city. I use this often if I'm fighting a difficult war because once I've captured a sizable part of the enemy's empire I create a colony. This immediately gives the colony a decent defense and therefore frees up my entire army to keep moving without worrying about loosing cities I've already conquered.

 

[Ghpstage]

Another possible thought.
How about creating colonies to abuse the AI research bonuses on the higher levels? I mean you could easily spam cottages over them before creating the colony.
Or feed the vassal cash/weaker techs to abuse the AI-AI trading bonuses

The main drawback I can see is that the AI will probably go and screw all that up. (can you build improvements over vassals land?)
May make useful some land that would otherwise not be worth settling i.e will provide too little for the maintenance etc. Does all depend on whether a colony gets the same difficulty bonuses the AI gets though...

Might be worth experimenting with anyway.