Kinda confused and having trouble !

[EricTred]

Well for starters I'm a Civ 4 vet kinda and I know this is totally different from CoL and I just started my 1st game today.
I'm really trying to get into this game but can't. The game mechanic's are confusing . Like for instance I buy a expert fisherman only to NOT be able to place him in a fishing spot???

Or like I can't travel 2 tiles without running into a native village and they have all the land, is it always like this ? I know there is a switch to turn off all tribes but that doesen't make sense to me either.

The manual doesn't help with some of the finer details of game, so I came to the forums. Heh now I'm overwhelmed with all the different starting strats and methods.

I have no idea on how to develope my strategy which is to grap as many FF's as I can . And by that I mean the nitty gritty of details, like what do you EXACTLY do in like for instance 1 - 30 turns if someone could tell me in brief way what exactly is a good starting strat for getting tons of FFers or show me some thing I should try would be awesome. Cause I don't want to shelf it yet due to the slow (IMO) learning curve , even with reading the boards I still get confused as I find some of the starting strats very vague. (sorry I'm kinda a slow learner)
I know I need certain points from politics,trade,explore..etc.
But if I refuse to grap a certain FF to wait for another can I still get the FF I passed up on ?

And when you explore all of the territory and meet all the tribes what do you do with your scouts convert them to another unit ?

What I did (only after reading the forum here) is to sail back to england on turn 1 and convert my soldier to a colonist take the extra money and buy a seasoned scout, is that a good beginning move? or should I settle 1st? With only so many turns in the game I don't know.

I guess what I'm asking is if someone could help me with a few good starting moves and go into detail as to WHY you do it that way, so I start to understand the flow of the game I think I'm a 1/4 way there, heh.

Thank you have a good 1

 

[dalgo]

Welcome to the game, it does seem confusing at first but if it was too simple no one would play it. You made a good start by grabbing that seasoned scout off the dock. There is plenty of gold available from indian villages and ancient ruins early for those who get in first. Yes you can use your scouts to help out in your colonies after all the map has been explored, and if they have gained experience they will be useful as soldiers later too.

To get ahead in the race for FF you need to produce liberty bells. There is a down side though, the King will increase the REF to combat the perceived threat from your growing rebel sentiment. That's OK though, just more to kill later. The liberty bells also help to expand your borders. If you turn down one FF you cannot get him again later, so check out who is available and decide which will be the most valuable. (I'd suggest Cabral and Minuet first).

I don't know why your fisherman can't fish if he is in a coastal colony, but you can build a dock to increase his productivity.

 

[EricTred]

Thank you dalgo, I'll trial and error it some more for a bit, I do enjoy these types of games . Have you ever played ..1602 A.D.... kinda reminds me of that , I loved that game.

Well later

 

[Shurdus]

A fisherman cannot fish unless there is a dock.

 

[EricTred]

A fisherman cannot fish unless there is a dock.

Thank you ...ow and I think I also found out if a unit dosen't have the food to support him you can't assign him to do some work. Well at least if I remmember correctly I couldn't put a few people to work.
Also when some units have movement points left AFTER you move them once, you can't assign them to a building slot until next turn. Is that a bug? Cause its happened a few times with me.
Thats why I was so confused. It was a food source therefore he should be able to work it , but the no dock makes complete sense.

I had a good game going , huge , marathon, 8 players , random map...till I got a "failed to compress data" error and kept happening even after reload so I gave up. But I learned a ton on my 1st CoL game.

Have a good 1 !