Early Dragoons

[Karstedt]

So, I keep getting into an early colony crunch with 2-3 of the other Europeans (perhaps it's the northwest passage map I've been trying to play). I've read repeatedly how people take advantage of capturing the AI pioneer and plundering their town in the first 30 turns, but I can't pull it off. I can grab the pioneer, but the town still has the weapons from the founding soldier giving it an automatic defender, and The AI ships in Dragoons and tramples me before I can finagle a cannon or Dragoon to take the town.

How do you get the gold to buy Dragoons in the first 20 turns? And how does the AI ship in Dragoons so fast and fully assembled? I can't buy Dragoons from the docks so I have to buy horses and guns with gold I don't have... So I think I must be missing some key element.

I will not that I haven't been selling my starting guns or the ones I ship in as I'm trying to equip my troops with them. I see a lot of people talking about selling guns right off the bat though and am wondering if that is the significant source of income I'm missing.

 

[Inky]

Before the patch, you had a shot at capturing your competitor's colony with your initial solider. Now, you need a little bit more.

First, you need a source of income. If you can get a seasoned scout right off, you can use that to generate a lot of gold by exploring. Alternatively, you can sell guns for cash to buy more guns to sell for more cash, until you have enough to build enough force. You can double your money by selling guns (first sale to a tribe is often very profitable) easily. Horses and tools don't always make as good a profit, but they still tend to be decent.

Still, it is exploring with seasoned scouts which gives the big payoffs. Sure, some are treasures, but if you need to money fast, you don't have to wait for a galleon to get them, as long as you can get them to a city. You can even found a settlement just to deliver them.

It doesn't take that much early on to do it -- a couple dragoons and soldiers, maybe a cannon. You don't have to use veterans either, because they cost a lot more than just taking any random colonist and buying guns and horses for them. Click (double-click) on the units on the dock, and you can change professions, including making them soldiers or dragoons. The cost is equal to the price of the guns and horses. A cannon isn't essential, but it is pretty good at hammering a city, and that is what you want to do.


I sometimes try to be virtuous and leave the other Europeans alone, but the benefits of smashing them are very good. First, no competition for close space. Second, no competition for Founding Fathers. Third, no worries over losing the race for independence. Finally, you get good experience, and your privateers get to pick off all the replacement caravels (which they get when they lose all colonies) for bonus experience.

 

[Karstedt]

Now I have seen the cash cow that is arming the natives... but nobody mentioned in the strategy tips I've read about crushing the opposition on turn 21 (in 1.01 anyway) that it destroys your relations with any tribe they met.

So I blundered off with the dragoon I paid for by arming the locals and proceeded to decimate the fledgling colonies. I felt so powerful and mighty when I hunted the opposition to virtual extinction and was able to disband my forces and focus on trading by turn 60. Shortly thereafter, the natives turned on me and plundered all 4 of my colonies in 3 turns. My single dragoon and soldier proved no match for the marauding hordes.

I'll have to give it another shot with that in mind.

 

[Molybdeus]

You shouldn't be immediately attacked by the native just for invading one other colonial power. It should give only a -1 or -2 in relations. The problem is that if you take a colony that overlaps the hidden native borders, the natives consider you to have stolen their land. That can put them on the warpath. I simply raze cities overlapping native borders.

Trading guns with the natives and bribing them to attack is generally preferable, however, since you get lots of cash and it leads you to get Peter Minuit.

In both cases, however, the game can become much easier and more boring. If you wipe out the other colonies, you will have no one to race for independence. It stopped being fun for me after the first couple of times I did it. Now I play small maps with one other colony I leave alone to create a more fair game for the AI.

 

[Karstedt]

Sine I've only been playing on the level that you are dead even with the AI, it's definitely an unbalancing (and quickly un-fun) act. But I wanted to figure it out because when the AI plops down 3 squares away, they gotta go. I'm guessing that at higher levels it may even be necessary to eliminate at least one right off the bat.

As for the natives, they were at least -2 for declaring war on their friend (and +2 from long peace and trade. Maybe Logan is a warmonger, but I though that was mostly the Aztecs). I didn't get the stolen land negative on my first fiasco, but on my second more informed attempt I noticed that one too. They haven't attacked me yet, and I'm playing it out alone (except a Spanish colony that popped back up around turn 90) just to see how it develops, but Logan is eying me funny again, along with Sitting Bull. I've tried to sate them with gifts, and my soldiers aren't disbanded, but I don't trust them.

 

[Molybdeus]

Sitting Bull doesn't make friends easily. Logan is a bit belligerent, but not if you have a decent relations rating with him. He is a bit like Ragnar in Civ4.

Unfortunately this game doesn't have the strategic depth to make the different difficulties more interesting like they are in Civ4. Although there are some different strategies and you can tighten up your play, I haven't experienced anything like the development of skill and knowledge you need to win at the high levels in Civ4. (Which is one of the reasons people complain about this game.) It's a fun casual game, though.

 

[Neven Mrgan]

In the early 1980s Dragon Computer Systems introduced the Dragon 32 in Europe to some reasonable success. The Dragon 32 was modeled after the Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer with some notable improvements including a full-sized keyboard. The Dragon was somewhat TRS-80 compatible and most CoCo cartridges would work in the Dragon.


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