Colonization Strategies

[Kevie]

First time playing Colonization but played civ4 for a year+. After playing colonization 3 times, I realized that I needed a better overall strategy.

The idea from civ4 of specialized cities came to mind. I thought about creating a settlement with whatever resources it has. (lets say, corn and tabacco) That settlement should strictly farm for food (for growth) and tabaccoo (obvious reasons). Then, it should create a trade route from this settlement to capital. The capital then should only create the 'special buildings' and use 'workers' (including master and expert) into creating the finished product, WHILE also having 8 'workers' (including the city itself, which is 9) farm for food to grow. So this then would allow the capital to produce the other important things, like churchs, school, etc. This of course would require more specialized settlements (SS?) for every type of resource => finished product.

In turn, getting 'workers' from Europe would be somewhat more cheaper, plus all the trading the capital ships to Europe, would allow the purchase of more 'worker's to continue grow the SS. which then leads to the important buildings (church, etc) to then lead to revolution.


I'm sure theres some holes in this idea. Its my first strategy, first time playing colonization. Any helpful imput would be great.

Also, post your strategies to help the rest who need some guildance. thanks!

 

[Lord Ben]

Yeah, that's how I did it in 1, and how I've done it 19 of the past 24 hours...

My order usually goes.

1. two cities right away.
2. get to 5 cities asap.
3. Make sure you have a nice flow of raw materials going to your capital.
4. start adding Elders with the money from selling raw materials.
5. build farmers/fishermen.
6. start to manufacture the raw goods.
7. All fresh colonists get conscripted into the military.

Now a few things prevent it from working awesomely in this version - namely that you can have a population above 6 without disorder (Col1), and having 100% rebel sympathy is much harder to get, and not as worthwhile. In COL1 it was +2 of everything in every square I think? So you wanted to get that ASAP. With Jefferson and Bolivar and some others in #1 you could get 128 liberty bells per city, which rocked.

 

[pvt chaos]

What helps me alot is to set up a colonist pump in the early game, a colony solely dedicated to produce food and thus so new colonists. Usually this will be a coastal city with 1 or if lucky 2 food sources. When the colony has grown abit I can pump out a new colonist every 6 or 7 turns.

The new colonists go off to the native village's to learn a job and then join a colony. This give's you a steady supply and you dont have to spent all of your bucks on new colonists from the docks.

As for city specialization :
Food city
Raw materials city
Processing raw materials city
Education city (Also the food city can later in the game be a good elder statesmen pump)
Army supply depot city

 

[Taeryn]

I have only really played about 1 hour of col2 so far, but I spent many a hour on col1, and the way I always did it was a bit different. I would have a food rich city site same as many of you guys suggested, but I did not typically transport raw materials to that location, instead I'd use it as a food supply/ bells/ crosses factory. If I founded a city near, as an example, good sugar land, I'd bring in the expert sugar planter and rum distiller and go from raw material to final product all in one place. I guess the concept was to have less intercity supply lines, and a less centralized european shipping. Its probably not the most efficient, but it just made more sense to me to produce the finished good in the same place as the raw materials...

 

[pvt chaos]

@Taeryn : In col1 that used to be my favorite strategy also. But in col2 I have the feeling that I am getting less free colonists from the docks compared with col1, thats why my idea for a colonist pump.
And with centralized cities there's much less micro, you dont have to think everytime to which colony you have to sent a new colonist.
Biggest problem in col2 with centralized economy is that the raw ouput gets so massive late game that one export city isnt enough anymore and thats the point where the trade route hell begins.

 

[Dale]

@Taeryn : In col1 that used to be my favorite strategy also. But in col2 I have the feeling that I am getting less free colonists from the docks compared with col1, thats why my idea for a colonist pump.
And with centralized cities there's much less micro, you dont have to think everytime to which colony you have to sent a new colonist.
Biggest problem in col2 with centralized economy is that the raw ouput gets so massive late game that one export city isnt enough anymore and thats the point where the trade route hell begins.

You can still run one export city, just need a galleon chain gang.

 

[persself]

5 settlements seems to be the popular number; seen it in several threads.

Is there a particular reason? I seem to have trouble settling more than about 3...I get too involved in developing/building stuff.

 

[pvt chaos]

@Dale

Ah, no, thats not the problem. The problem is late game that Im producing massive amounts of raw material, way more than one "refinery" city can handle. This is mostly due to the bonuses, you get a % bonus for the raw resource output but not for a factory input. So a 6 fur field will be a 7 or 8 fur field late game but the factory will still only accept 6 furs as input. Result is a massive raw material overflow that needs to be split up over 2 instead of 1 "refining" cities.

 

[pvt chaos]

5 settlements seems to be the popular number; seen it in several threads.

Is there a particular reason? I seem to have trouble settling more than about 3...I get too involved in developing/building stuff.

But how do you manage to produce tools&guns with just 3 ? I usually need at least 3 for raw materials, refining and education. So I need 2 more to produce tools/guns and also the occasional horse.

 

[persself]

I didn't say I was good at this game!

Actually, I just bought tools and guns early on; then when I picked up an expert blacksmith, I put him to work.

Just trying to learn the ropes, and get an understanding of the game mechanics.
I can say for sure that I am too wrapped up in building infrastructure instead of trading and turning those free colonists into soldiers.

I haven't completed a game yet, as I can see I will get waxed by the King's army.

 

[Dale]

@Dale

Ah, no, thats not the problem. The problem is late game that Im producing massive amounts of raw material, way more than one "refinery" city can handle. This is mostly due to the bonuses, you get a % bonus for the raw resource output but not for a factory input. So a 6 fur field will be a 7 or 8 fur field late game but the factory will still only accept 6 furs as input. Result is a massive raw material overflow that needs to be split up over 2 instead of 1 "refining" cities.

Ah, point taken. I thought you meant you accumulated processed goods ready for selling too quickly.

 

[Kevie]

I see. I guess when it becomes to a point of having too much rawr resource, get another city.
I keep getting screwed with the civ4 BFC and the col SC (small cross, lol)
so you could fit a few number of cities quite close.
I guess overlapping should be avoided. I had that once and it ruined my production (well, food for growth)

 

[1EyedKing]

I keep getting screwed with the civ4 BFC and the col SC (small cross, lol)

You're not alone!

 

[bert78]

So far ive found that only 1 processing or manufacturing city is not enough to process all the raw materials that come in. In my current 5+1 city game ive had to send a couple of master tobacconists/weavers/distillers/fur traders to the raw material cities. So i basically have 4 raw material/small time processing cities that send 2/3 raw material and 1/3 processed products to the main city where the processed 1/3 goes right on the ship while the remaining 2/3 raws gets processed there before going on the ship. Still i have a raw surplus.

PS: the "5+1" colnies is because i came upon a spot with 2x2 silver ore next to each other. Wasnt planning on a 6th city but but just had to send a couple of silver miners there. So the +1 colony is basically one big silver mine.

 

[Taeryn]

maybe i'm just slow, but what is the benefit of the centralization? Many people seem to be thinking the same way, but I haven't seen what the big advantage is. Granted, I also haven't won a game of Col2 yet either, so maybe that's why.

the benefit of being decentralized is you don't have to transport raw materials between cities. Each city is mostly self-sufficient, and if you want a central european shipping, you could move the finished goods to a central location that is most convenient for european shipping. The other advantage is because each settlement is self-sufficient from a trading standpoint, loosing a city, or an interuption in the supply lines won't cause the entire system to come to a halt. The drawbacks would be that you need higher end buildings in a lot of different places, and you'd probably need multiple ships running back and forth to europe from the various locations, which might not be as conveniently close to the euro waters.

Perhaps the best teacher is experience. I'll try a game playing centralized production and see if I'm more efficient.

 

[Civsassin]

First time playing Colonization but played civ4 for a year+. After playing colonization 3 times, I realized that I needed a better overall strategy.

The idea from civ4 of specialized cities came to mind. I thought about creating a settlement with whatever resources it has. (lets say, corn and tabacco) That settlement should strictly farm for food (for growth) and tabaccoo (obvious reasons). Then, it should create a trade route from this settlement to capital. The capital then should only create the 'special buildings' and use 'workers' (including master and expert) into creating the finished product, WHILE also having 8 'workers' (including the city itself, which is 9) farm for food to grow. So this then would allow the capital to produce the other important things, like churchs, school, etc. This of course would require more specialized settlements (SS?) for every type of resource => finished product.

In turn, getting 'workers' from Europe would be somewhat more cheaper, plus all the trading the capital ships to Europe, would allow the purchase of more 'worker's to continue grow the SS. which then leads to the important buildings (church, etc) to then lead to revolution.


I'm sure theres some holes in this idea. Its my first strategy, first time playing colonization. Any helpful imput would be great.

Also, post your strategies to help the rest who need some guildance. thanks!

I am in the same boat as you. I've been playing CIVs III and IV for years, but this is my first time with colonization. I also think specialization will play a big role and agree with you one hundred percent. It will also allow you to place specialists where they can have the greatest impact. This strategy implies that you will need quite a few settlements each with specific resources in mind, so this strategy should also allow you to pick you settlement sites with purpose instead of randomly. I tried with five settlements and buying colonists from the homeland to work within. Let specialists work to produce goods from your raw materials, which can be sold back to the homeland for significant bounty. I seemed to keep pace with the AI, but I was also playing at the lowest level.

 

[Kevie]

Civsassin, yeah I started on the lowest level. Its a good place to start but shouldnt get comfortable with it. I think the captial should build chruches to raise crosses, therefore the immagrants arrive earlier. And then build the next building that increases crosses. Therefore, you can have a steady supply of workers coming in. I aslo think there should be a SS for a free colonist (or the free worker you get once you grow into the next level population), where you need to find a place that is packed with food resources farmed by expert farmers. Getting those 2 cities up and running in the early beggining would lead to easier development of other SS.

 

[schlaufuchs]

I see. I guess when it becomes to a point of having too much rawr resource, get another city.
I keep getting screwed with the civ4 BFC and the col SC (small cross, lol)
so you could fit a few number of cities quite close.
I guess overlapping should be avoided. I had that once and it ruined my production (well, food for growth)

Haha, I did that the first time too, I put down my capital thinking, cool, corn and iron in the BFC, only to find a completely food-deficient city 50 years down the line.

Also, might be a little off-topic, but are the "blue circles" any more intelligent in this game?

 

[Civsassin]

Civsassin, yeah I started on the lowest level. Its a good place to start but shouldnt get comfortable with it. I think the captial should build chruches to raise crosses, therefore the immagrants arrive earlier. And then build the next building that increases crosses. Therefore, you can have a steady supply of workers coming in. I aslo think there should be a SS for a free colonist (or the free worker you get once you grow into the next level population), where you need to find a place that is packed with food resources farmed by expert farmers. Getting those 2 cities up and running in the early beggining would lead to easier development of other SS.

Kevie: I only started on the lowest level to begin to learn game mechanics. I want to be able to play through and win one game at this level before I move on. By the time I am able to win one game, I should fundamentally understand the game mechanics, which is my initial objective.

 

[KJIOYH]

I am playing at Explorer difficulty.

I am play the game till i get the idea where i screwed up and start over and ive never declared yet. So its basicly early-mid game.

I tried developing cities, trying to empasize future profits like a food paradise from the first city to get my own citizen, quickly gaining crosses to save money early, and using money on most important specialists who teach others. Slow and boring way imho, but good for learning.

I also tried spawning as many cities agressivly to block all ai, using all cities to gather food for more food and more people and more cities etc. also it is important to use missionaries on every village to spawn natives who build cities etc. When i block all i can i let my cities grow, while ship(s) from the mainland bring people steadily who settle at the starting position to develope trade/production and then slowly move further. The Dutch i think (with longer tax turns) are good for this. I suppose ai will get more agressive on higher difficulty but on settler they ended with 5 cities each max while i had > 15-20 for sure. Tax was roughly the same as i usually have with sane developement but turns take up to 1 hr each with thinking and staring at the monitor included =)

The best variant for me was to build 5 (i dont know why but everyone says 5 so i did it too) cities asap fairly close, starting to build future production/trade structure right away with 3-5 trains who cruise around cities and native villages for easy profit. I use missionaries on villages that are close by only because it feels like the cities influence has a strong effect on villages nearby producing native peoples. (I couldnt find any explanation on how it works anywhee :S.) I dont do much scouting > i dont think its good enough, but i usually use most treasures to scout for me and talk to village leaders nearby. Most important though - I use first population in my 5 small cities all working raw resources after making just enough trains who pile all of em in one city. The ship is sailing back and forth with whatever it can get, trying to fool villages on the way and bringing new colonists. I didnt go to mid/late game with this strat yet, but it allowed me to have 2x-3x points advantage early on.

I would love to read more about your early starts.

Also if someone would explain why the village asks for e.g. trade goods and then gives some very low price :S.