Guide to town "templates" I've used on Viceroy

[Tristan_C]

Main domestic issue with Viceroy towns is that the population is capped at 5 before loyalist penalties. This is very harsh. You need to adjust to this, and change your building orders and shuffle people around a bit to accommodate this restriction. Here are some archetypal towns that seem to work pretty well for me.


1-man Resource Outpost - Colonies with a population of 1 are extremely unassuming, useful little guys that give you instant payoffs. The main idea with them is to get basic production outside of cities, to avoid the cities' liberty bell and food restrictions. Your colony square automatically produces 2 food--unless it's an awful terrain--enabling a single colonist to exploit a nearby resource without any need for farmers to feed him. Just plop a colonist near a resource and start gathering raw materials! Have one of your real towns build a wagon to ferry the resources to where they're needed. Indians love 1-pop colonies too, so they're a good way to exploit land without causing alarm.
Best sites: Any non-desert/tundra tile that's adjacent to a desired resource or terrain square, and in reasonable range of your towns.
Suggestions:

• Expert Ore Town - Expert Miners are cheap recruits. Late in the game, they're even cheaper than the guys at the dock! Settle the miner adjacent to a hill (if possible with the town on a hill as well) and he will generate lots of free ore.
• Expert Lumberjack town - 1 expert lumberjack is also a cheap recruit, and worth every copper of his tuition. Get these lumberjacks and miners to work outside of your cities, so that the populous towns can focus more on Liberty Bells, Hammers, and Tools.
• Extra colonist/useless Specialist town - if you're near the North Pole, you're probably never going to use any Master Distillers that sail over from Europe (sugarcane is equatorial). Send them out into the backwoods to gather lumber, or ore, or whatever you need. Anything to get them out of cities.
• Veteran Dragoon town - If Indians are being alarmed by a powerful military presence but you're not actually at war with anything, send your dragoons out to gather materials instead of pissing off natives. Guns that simply sit in a stockpile don't generate alarm. Paul Revere recommended.

Population: 1



College Town - This is an "end-game payoff" town that cranks out food and specialists. They take a long time to mature into usefulness, but once they are running at full speed, they're your main tool for increasing your population and building an army. Up to a point, they're a contributor towards your war of Independence, but completing several of these towns will net you a huge Colonization score due to the hordes of specialists and liberty bells they produce.
Best site: plains and coast, though only for a Fish resource (Food, glorious food!)
Building order:

1. Docks if a Fish is available; otherwise, always a Lumbermill.
2. Printing Press.
3. Newspaper.
4. Schoolhouse.
5. College.
6. Church. The main function of this building is to give students something useful to do while being trained.
7. University - optional, to be honest. 1-2 Universities is pretty crucial, universities are expensive buildings.
8. Warehouse. Another option here, if this colony is going to serve as a distribution point for lumber or something.

Inject the colony with an initial investment of experts in order to get it running faster. Consider (in order of priority), a Carpenter, a Farmer/Fisher, and a statesman. As the town develops, have these experts rotate through the school so you can generate more specialists. Definitely import the necessary tools for the buildings from elsewhere, and perhaps some of your wood as well.
Population: ~16. 8 Farmers, 3 Statesmen, 2-3 Teachers, 2-3 Students.



Spawning Pools - named after that Zerg building, these 100% Food towns are another way to really boost your score through population growth and liberty bells. The more liberty bell production you have throughout all your colonies, the higher your Colonization Score will be, due to Continental Congress, Intervention, and post-Intervention excess. This is essentially a college town without colleges. It cranks out free colonists quickly. Once you're finished with the few needed buildings, move your carpenters along to the next city.
Best site: deforested area. Save prime food-growing areas for more important towns.
Building order:

1. Docks if a Fish is available; otherwise, a Lumbermill. If you're rich, buy the printing press and newspaper outright. Screw the lumbermill.
2. Printing Press.
3. Newspaper.
4. Stables.

Population: 11. 8 Farmers, 3 Statesmen.



Foundry - This town aims to have an Ironworks and an Arsenal. This town is your biggest and most difficult investment. It's not so much a score-booster as a crucial part of victory. Support it with as many 1-Man Resource Outposts as you can. It's also a good site for a College or University to appear eventually, since you will already have a big productive capacity and lots of liberty bells here. Don't bother farming cash crops here. Try to keep it focused on building up and cranking out liberty bells (blood and iron!!!), and produce your furs and cigars etc. somewhere else. It is nice to have more than one of these towns if you're playing to have a huge, strong economy at the end-game. If the guns are not going towards Continental Army, you can sell them to Europe. The gun market is a hell of a lot more resistant to prices going down than other goods-- the urge of the computer is to push the price of guns steadily on up to 20 over the years.
Best site: plains and coast. Bring your ore in from inland sources if at all possible
Building order:

1. Docks if a Fish is available; otherwise, always a Lumbermill.
2. Printing Press.
3. Blacksmith's Shop.
4. Newspaper.
5. Warehouse.
6. Ironworks
7. Armory
8. Magazine
9. Arsenal.

Further construction:

• Schoolhouse, college, university for teachers, and Church for the students.
• Drydock and Shipyard

Population: 17 Minimum. 8 Terrain Workers, 3 Statesmen, 3 Blacksmiths, 2-3 Gunsmiths. Add 2-3 Carpenters for Shipbuilding and Artillery, and some teachers and students if you want to educate here (usually a good idea if you have enough food).



Cash Crop Town - If you want to build a couple of these, they strike a good balance between the instant payoffs of 1-man Resource Outposts, and the long-term score benefits of Spawning Pools. It's just the quintessential balanced colony, the kind of thing you would have made in your first game ever. If you're serious about a resource, go ahead and build a factory-level building in the colony and work on its Sons of Liberty membership. It's an ideal colony for your customs house.
Best site: A coastal location that is rich in a single cash crop, like tobacco.
Population: Varies widely, depending on your needs.

I'm also interested in hearing other peoples' tips about colony-building.

 

[suliman]

you cover it pretty well.

The problem with old col is that you need only a couple of towns and then you are set. I eventually find this a bit boring (indians and other europeans dont bother you at all) I usually have:

1. Some small resource-outpost
2. Some tool/musket production near hills
3. Some large town (food, education, bells and crosses)

Pretty soon i have a perfect flow of increased soldiers and population. Then when i have enough i hit revolution and win.

I agree on viceroy the penalty with to many tories is a bit hard at the beginning. On the other hand thats pretty much everything that IS hard with viceroy (the competition isnt harder)

 

[Tristan_C]

The problem with old col is that you need only a couple of towns and then you are set. I eventually find this a bit boring (indians and other europeans dont bother you at all)

But the nice thing about only having a couple of towns is the vacation you get from micromanagement. Simply building up 1 or 2 towns will get you a victory if you play it right, but it will not get you as many points as a colonial empire will. And for some reason I get bothered quite a bit by indians and europeans. "bothered" is the key word though, as opposed to "threatened"