Is it me or the game? (Help!)

[Atenji]

I just can't beat the game. Either the REF is ten times my army or I don't reach 50%. And this on level 1...

I'm closing in on putting this game in the book shelf and grabbing the old COL instead. Dispite all it's errors it was a vey playable game, especially on the lower levels. And no other CIV-game has been this impossible on the lower levels. Trust me, I've been playing CIV-games since the end of the 80's

And also the apparent bugs bother me. The person shown under Simon Bolivar's name looks 15th century, and the other guy looks ALOT like Simon B. Also in the pedia the store/transport amounts are 100/200/300 like in the old game, while in the game it's 300/600/900.

And were is the french relief? (The other european nation giving you troops after DoI)

Is something wrong with my game (appart from the obvious bugs) or has the gaming leaped away from my skills?

Thankful for help.

 

[Scottgun]

Try it on marathon speed.

 

[lovepuppy]

It's not you Atenji, the game is a lot *harder* (though more on this in a sec) than other civ titles....that said someone else said it and I've found it to be true the more you do the harder you make it to win...so big colonies with lots of good stuff in em, increases the REF to the point where you can't ever really beat it....but if you had a couple of drunks hanging out in the bar with maybe a shotgun and a board with a nail in it, then you can declare indeepdance as soon as they are liquored up enough to give ole King J a good shot on the snout....

there are a couple of player made patches which are really good, look for them in the creation section which addresses the amok REF and some other dingleberry problems.

the other thing is leave your preconceptions behind, you can build a huge set of colonies and still win, ya just gotta play the game the way the game wants to be played, mostly by hiding your guys and guns til the last minute, squeezing ever copper you can out of the natives and making a fallback position way up in the mountains on a hilltop with a fortress and be prepared to have a mind numbing few turns while you trade out wounded soldiers for fresh ones, it can be beat that way....it just takes awhile and unlike most of the other civ titles can't be done just by using the adage "bigger is better"

try the player mods, and then good luck with the vanilla game, I *liked* the old game better, though I do have to admit not having to sweat two ships hitting the same square going opposite directions and the outgoing stealing my incoming new troops is a plus.

Hopefully there will be a patch someday from the official guys, I'm not such a sid-ophile that I pay attention to if or whens but it would be nice to us long term players who have based great chunks of our lives on the civ games....

 

[glee]

Unfortunately I think it's you.
I've played Civ games for decades and to me this is the easiest version (though still great fun!).

I've been fortunate to have enough time to completed 20 games (19 wins, 1 loss) at the lowest 4 levels of difficulty and I reckon:

- the longer the game takes, the more difficult it is to cope with the King increasing his forces and your tax rate
- there is a guaranteed delay before you can get your Rebel Sentiment up high enough to declare Independence, and it takes even longer with a bigger population
- each Settlement you build gives a bonus in the form of the Central Square's production
- however building up each Settlement with buildings such as Printing Press and Fort takes a long time
- it is important to get your fair share of Founding Fathers (either by Liberty Bells or by Settlements devoted to Political Points)
- each Port you build is a natural target for the King's Navy

My conclusion is that one highly successful strategy is to build only one large Settlement (your Port) and to have 1-4 small inland Settlements.
These small inland Settlements might build a Wagon train or two (but no buildings!), but otherwise concentrate on generating Founding Fathers through Political Points. Since they are small, it’s easier to create Rebel Sentiment in them (I usually have 3 Elder Statesmen in the Port and one in every other Settlement).
I usually buy the first Elder Statesmen, then graduate the rest from School.
I don’t usually build a Church or any Factory. There simply isn’t time (at least until you understand the game better).

It’s vital to get a Scout (or two) going as soon as possible
It’s useful to trade with Indians, not only for the profit, but also for the Trade Points.

Good luck!

 

[Atenji]

So... it's me trying to play the game straight forward, rather then applying an intricated strategy. I must say that is not a well constructed game when one has to fight like hell even on the easiest level. Thanks for the input.

Is it just on my game that Simon Bolivar has been switched, and howcome noone has written about that in the bug-section?

And, yes. There were anoying features in the old game as well. Switching cargos was one. The random combat results another (one non-fortified cavalry could fend off 5-6 cannon attacks inside a fort). And strangely enough the double-drag has survived to the new game. You grab a unit and drag it to were in the colony you want it to be, only to find nothing happened after you dropped it. This happens way to often. Still... the old game was playable, this one doesn't seem to be that.

Thanks again. I'll se if a want to play the game that way or just go back to the earlier games.

 

[jenks]

Atenji give the Dale/snoopy patch a go, pending a firaxis fix this deals with many of the commonly reported probs

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=293253

fixes a few things though no Simon Bolivar i think ... having never met the fella i cant vouch for his looks ?!

as for gameplay if you're not used to the new mechanics. The best and most basic strategy I can offer is, GENERATE AND COLLECT YOUR FOOD. One small settlement next to 2 fish, with nothing but 2 fishermen working inside will generate you a new colonist every 10 turns. Get a couple of them going with wagon trains bringing the food to a central point and you have more colonists than crosses/missions could ever generate you.

 

[Atenji]

This is one of many easily found sites on internet. Compare the pictures with those ingame. It shouldn't be a problem seeing which one of the spanish guys who looks like Bolivar. http://www.aceros-de-hispania.com/gb/infer.asp?ac=12&trabajo=listar&pa=a_simon&sg=a_simon

 

[Justice1337]

The main thing you have to remember is this isn't Civ (forgive the obvious).

The principal difference is that in Civ your economy is everything while in Colonization your economy matters next to nothing. Unless you're the dutch, it will get to a point where you simply can't make very much money anymore because of the tax rate. Also, there are only so many things you can use your generated gold on, and some of them don't do anything to win you the game.

The best advice I can give in the way of military is to, at some point in the game, make an inland city with a magazine and plenty of ore. Doing so won't do anything for your economy, as you actually lose value by turning ore into tools, but it will give you inevitable military power. In my first game of Colonization, a couple of my coastal cities were taken by the British. Luckily, I was able to throw all my soldiers and a few cannon into a counterattack to reclaim the city that had my magazine. I was Washington, so I was then able to turn out a soldier every turn. The AI really can't do anything about that on the lower difficulties when he has so few transport ships.

With that game in mind, I set out to make the magazine in one of my inland cities. Since then, I've yet to lose a game. That's kind of how the game functions in general. For everything you add to the colony before revolution the King will add some power to the expeditionary force. This obviously stops when you declare independence. So, it's only for every soldier/dragoon you make after that there's not reciprocity on the other side. Stock all your cities with arms, choose "All Men Are Free" for your constitution and send all your gained Indentured Servants to the city with the Magazine and 3x Expert Gunsmiths. Don't get too committed to your coastal cities, buy time, and before you know it your rebel sentiment is into the high 70s and your troops are getting a +30ish % extra chance to win every combat.

If you're having problems with Liberty Bell generation it's because you didn't nab Ben Franklin as a founding father. With him, you can just rush buy Printing Presses in all of your low-pop cities without Lumber Mills and they'll be at 100% within a few turns. With your industrial cities, just make sure to buy an Elder Statesman early and educate more at your schoolhouses whenever possible. By mid 1600s you should have 3x Elder Statesmen in every city with population over 20 along with Printing Presses and Newspapers. Use spare gold to rush buy those buildings as necessary.

Doing this should kick the AI into next week.

 

[Atenji]

How true a statement. And therefor... thanks for all the advice, but I've decided to tuck away this game for now. Until they add a new patch that alows me to play the game like I want to, as the old game went, I will go back to CIV instead. Best of luck to all of you.