Conquests: Age of Discovery strategy/tip thread

[BrianJ]

I'm creating one thread per conquest in order to discuss strategies and experiences with each conquest. I'm curious to see what people think is the best civ to play for each one, as well as the easiest and toughest. I'd like to see some straegies and tips for each civ.

 

[socralynnek]

I won this scenario by the following strategy:

I took Portugal and build some cities on the carribean islands.
After that I let the Spanish take my european cities, so my capital moved to the carribean.
There I could easily produce 1 treasure every 2 turns which could be brought to my capital almost instantly.
Since I were on islands, the Native americans and the other European powers were no threat to me, and I easily won with four times the VPs than the second one.

 

[thetrooper]

@socralynnek: well that was unorthodox.

 

[dalgo]

This is my England start for Age of Discovery:

Declare war on France immediately, the other nations will be happy to join the fight (and even pay you for the privilege). Send one Pikeman with your Settler and Explorer due West from Plymouth to the New World (build Jamestown between the two fish). Send the Trebuchet to Plymouth and the rest of your troops North to attack Scotland. France will be too busy to invade. Research Printing Press first (for Colonists). Ignore the early Wonders.

On turn two France will send a ship to re-inforce Edinburgh. Damage it with your Trebuchet and finish it off with a Caravel. Another French Caravel will be heading to the New World carrying their only Settler. If you can intercept that it will severely curtail their colonization. Use your cash to rush troops, you don't need to save money as your Explorer will earn plenty more. Contact the Indian tribes and sell them the Alphabet for all their cash plus their world map, then resell those maps to Europe.

Build Settlers/Colonists and as each is built send it to America with a Pikeman and a Worker. I use a chain of ships to move them across the Atlantic in one turn. Remember you can't build colonies on Forests in this scenario. Try and build across to the Wheatfields south of the Great Lakes before the Iroquois get there. The Trapper Camps in Canada can wait a few turns. Also send one ship south to start a colony on Cuba which has tobacco, spice and sugar.

Once the treasures start to arrive in London your cash reserves will build up quickly (they are worth 1000 VP/200 gold each). After you make peace with France you can win a VP victory without having to fight another war.

 

[dalgo]

- and my Portugal start

I thought Portugal was weak until I played it and realised it starts with a Golden Age, and Dias Voyage (Colonist every 8 turns) and a Navigation School (Explorer every 10 turns). These two also increase naval speed. Research Magnetism and your Caravels will move 9!

At start embark Medieval Infantry from Cape Verde and head North and start a second MDI in Lisbon. Send both Caravels and the Explorer West. Next turn hurry the MDI, then in 1492 provoke a war with Spain and use the MDI's to take Seville from the sea. This gives you control of the Mediterranean. Also take out the Spanish Caravel carrying their Settler and Explorer.

Defend your home territory and use MDI's to take the Canary Islands. This gives you a good chain for moving treasure later (Cape Verde to Canary is exactly 9 squares as is Canary to Seville.) You will soon be able to make peace with Spain on good terms.

Start one colony in Africa to get Ivory and several in the Caribbean. Use the spare Explorers to 'reserve' colony sites there. Lisbon should start building a Wonder as soon as possible with a view to getting Magellan's Voyage (Frigate every 5 turns). Once you have made peace with Spain block off the Med with two ships which cuts off their only port from the Atlantic. The other countries tend to colonise North America first so you will have a free hand in Africa and South America for a long time.

 

[punkbass2000]

Trading for MAs during the first turn is an exploit in every conquest.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

I took Portugal and build some cities on the carribean islands.
After that I let the Spanish take my european cities, so my capital moved to the carribean.

Wow, great.
What about that: Don't bother with transporting you treasures, just let them stockpile. Once you have enough, gift all your colonial cities to someone else. Viola, all treasures get teleported to your capital. Instant victory.

Seriously, what's the point in winning the Conquest by nothing but an exploit?
FoR, MA, AoD, Napo, and to a lesser extend WW2 can all be done in a such a way...

One other point: I played about any Civ in the Conquests I like (all but RoR, MesoA and Sengoku), including most 'non-playables'. While EVERY Civ in MA, and Sweden and Portugal in Napo are great fun, don't bother with the Iroquois in AoD: They simply cannot win. They might be the most powerful Civ on Earth, but without acess to the Cultural victory (no sacrifices) the have no chance.

 

[Bloodied66]

If you play as England, I find piracy to be the answer. Research as fast as you can to the piracy tech, and then simply build tons of Sea Dogs. You can do this as any European power, but England is better, naturally. Just attack all shipping coming back from the New World, intercepting all of the shipments of treasure. This can be supplemented by your own colonies if you find that too slow. Either way, you control the seas without ever needing war. If war does come, then switch to Man o Wars.

My most recent game was as Spain. I recommend taking out the Portugal mainland as soon as possible, as well as the city in North Africa. Then their capital will move to an nearby, 1-tile island, and they will never bother you again. Plus, this gives you Dias Voyage, an excellent wonder.

 

[socralynnek]

Wow, great.
What about that: Don't bother with transporting you treasures, just let them stockpile. Once you have enough, gift all your colonial cities to someone else. Viola, all treasures get teleported to your capital. Instant victory.

Seriously, what's the point in winning the Conquest by nothing but an exploit?
FoR, MA, AoD, Napo, and to a lesser extend WW2 can all be done in a such a way...

Hmmm, in my case it was only half an exploit, I didn't have enough units in my cities in Portugal when Spain declared war on me, so I only have taken care of my palace not jumping to a city near Europe but to the Caribbean islands...
It's somehow an exploit, but why don't mention exploits in a "strategy/tip" thread...
I will try to win this one with a native american power soon, but now I'm busy with RaR and the next COTM will also be there soon...

So, here a tip: If you are Portugal and want to win without palace jump, keep watching your European cities, the Spanish will attack almost in every game. Have good defenders and bombardement ready for them...

 

[Benderino]

Anyone have any decent French or Dutch strategies? Anyway to incorporate their specialties and uniqueness?

 

[Eyeoftiger]

I like to play as Spain, as they are (IMO) the most powerful. If you can take out Portugal very quickly, you'll be virtually unstoppable. Be sure to also get the city in Africa. When you negotiate peace, get a few cities on their islands. You can usually leave them with only their capital left, and then they are effectively out of the game. Getting the Dias Voyage and the Wonder that gives you an explorer AS SPAIN is almost unfair: remember: explorers for Spain upgrade to Conquistadors! A few Conquistadors in the new word can pillage the barbs there and rack up huge amounts of cash.

The number 1 priority is to make a bee-line for Cuba. There are three treasure producing items there. I would then settle the Southeastern United States to establish some mainstay cities, and they are a good source of tobacco plantations. Taking out the Aztecs can be helpful as well, as their capital is in range of both Silver and Gold, which can produce a lot of treasures as well.

France will usually come to you and try to extort you out of a tech or gold, but I just always tell them to shove it. One time they declared, and I just put 10 muskets on the Pyrenees and they kept sacrificing units on them. Eventually, the came begging for peace and I took 4 of their colonies for peace!

 

[thetrooper]

Not a strategy, but I was surprised to see "The Temple Of The Moon" built in Madrid. This wonder will give you two free techs! I did "steal tech mission" from Maya or Aztecs (can't remember). And built the wonder in my capital.

 

[dgfred]

What does this temple do? Make one HOWL with glee! Cool picture .

 

[seanos08]

I have only played this once as France on Regent.

Ended up with Sth Am colonies and a fair chunk of NA and Africa and no European wars. Won on points. Attacked the Aztecs cos I hate them and dogpiled the rest into doing so.

 

[Benderino]

Can someone tell me how many points the European powers and the American Indian powers need to get to win? Is there a difference? How many points are given when a treasure is brought back to the capital? Do treasure units appear at different intervals for different resources (for instance, every 10 turns for a fur trapper, while only every 5 turns for a silver mine)?

 

[thetrooper]

1000VP for a treasure brought to your capital. 35000VP needed to win that way. Native American tribes need 4000 culture points in a city to win.

Ag and Au mines produce most treasures IIRC, fur trapper every 12 turns?

 

[Longasc]

There are many exploits that one can use to win various conquests.

BTW, you can win on Sid in WW2 as the Japanese. Before Sid boni kick in, you have already overwhelmed them in 8-9 turns.

As this is the basic strategy for Japan, win early, one can really question the design of the conquests.

They are great fun to play, but especially Age of Discovery suffers from many loopholes and strange things. Even if you do not exploit obvious mistakes.

I personally loved to play the Romans in Rise of Rome.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Winning WW2 on Sid with Japan is more an example for a good design here...it shouldn't be impossible, only hard to achieve.
AoD is pretty easy; but well balanced here as well. I think it was quite a good thing to supply conquests for different levels of playing skills; the one that shines out to be more difficult (FoR) is widely despised because of that (completely unjustified, if you ask me).
RoR, MA, Napo work for about any level.
Mesopotamia is strange - it is really a nice, easy builder game up to Monarch, but tough to beat on DG+ (and requires totally different strategies).
Mesoamerica is the worst balanced IMHO - either too easy, or near impossible.

Sengoku is broken. There is no such thing as balance here.

 

[Benderino]

1000VP for a treasure brought to your capital. 35000VP needed to win that way. Native American tribes need 4000 culture points in a city to win.

Ag and Au mines produce most treasures IIRC, fur trapper every 12 turns?

What if there are two silver resources within a city radius? Does that have any effect?

 

[thetrooper]

@Benderino: you build one improvement (e.g. gold mine), this will give you a treasure every x turns, having two gold resources within your city radius does not affect the amount of treasures produced. But you can have more than one improvement in a city: spice factory, sugar plantation, tobacco plantation, gem mine, gold mine, silver mine, fur trapper.

Cuba: spice factory + sugar plantation yielding two treasure sources.

The improvement produce the treasure.