Caesar Augustus
Prince
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2001
- Messages
- 385
So I just took on Canada, and noticed that there wasn't a guide here, so I figured I may as well give it a try. Canada is not the most difficult game, but it is pretty distinct and there are a lot of ways to JUST miss out on success, so hopefully I can help you all avoid the pitfalls.
A Canadian start can vary pretty wildly depending on what the AI gets up to before you start. There are a lot of turns to play before you spawn, even starting from the 1700 benchmark. You'll definitely start with Montreal, which will likely grow into a great city, Toronto, which will usually just be okay, and Halifax, which is pretty awful BUT plays a pivotal role in winning the UHV (more on that later). The Brits, French, and even Swedes may settle some more cities for you, which is generally bad (since they may not be well developed, will almost definitely be poorly placed, and reduce your number of starting settlers) but is not a game-ender. Flipping some cities does have a small upside, in that they will generally come with a garrison, saving you some production later on.
I would suggest switching to Despotism immediately (and maybe Protestantism too if you have more Protestants than Catholics). You need to get out quite a few settlers and workers very quickly, and at least Toronto and Halifax will usually be well above the population you can keep happy at the moment anyway. I suggest whipping settlers out from your starting cities ASAP, then whipping workers out of your new cities as you settle them. Toronto, Halifax, and Montreal will also benefit from using a settler to build buildings. If you flip any other cities, use your discretion as to whether to whip settlers or workers. Don't be TOO aggressive with your whips, you'll want to keep your core cities decently populated. Other than workers and settlers, I think the only things I ended up whipping were one or two factories. You'll want to switch back to Democracy pretty quickly after getting your first couple of cities up and running.
So you either have your starting settlers or you're whipping them out in a frenzy: where are we sending them? There are honestly a lot of different city combinations that will work out just fine. The main thing is to settle in such a way that you'll A) get your coal connected in a reasonable time frame and B) have a path of owned tiles that you can put the rails on. As far as the coal goes, you can either settle immediately next to it in Cranbrook or 2 tiles away in Hinton or Calgary. I went with Calgary 1S of the Horse and got the coal connected in plenty of time. As far as your other cities, you'll definitely want Vancouver, something near the Wheat (I went with Winnipeg 1SW of the Copper), and another around Lake Superior to connect Toronto to your western cities. It happened that England had settled Moose Factory 1NW of the Aluminum in my game, and while it did cramp Toronto quite a bit I ended up really liking that spot. That whole area is pretty bad but that spot, if nothing else, gets a free lighthouse, so the Lake tiles end up being pretty decent. I also settled Fort St. John 1W of the western fur, and that can end up a pretty good city once you develop the land a bit. Later on you'll want to found 4-6 other cities to make sure you get to 90% of Canada for UHV 2 but I wouldn't go crazy super early.
With those cities, and with your workforce whipped out, UHV 1 should be pretty much in the bag. UHV 2 requires a more specific plan, and it mostly comes down to making Halifax into a cultural monster. Get a theater, a weaver, and an estate ASAP, and work artists constantly. You probably only need 1 great artist, so don't be afraid of running an engineer at first to help you get your buildings up more quickly. I had the opportunity to use my first GE to snag the Statue of Liberty, which is fantastic for Canada, but it's probably safer to use it on one of the cultural National Wonders. It's likely worth it to try for the SoL regardless, as your UHV is not particularly demanding in terms of production. Not a huge deal to try for it and fail, with a big upside if you do end up snagging it. In addition to pumping culture out of Halifax, you'll also want to get a city in Labrador or Quebec that can pressure St. John's from the north. Sending spies to spread culture is also effective, and as such you should prioritize Post Offices, Jails, and RCMPs in your western cities.
Eventually you'll want to stop teching and put your commerce into culture. The only tech you really NEED early is Labour Unions (Labourers will build your railroads considerably faster, and you have a lot of land to improve besides). I decided to also tech up to Refining to get my oil improved but I'm not sure that was really justified. The Chateau Frontenac is on Refining and it SEEMS like it should be helpful but it is likely to get snagged by someone else and even if it doesn't, it will come too late to significantly help UHV1. Labourers are guaranteed to help, and you can easily get that tech before the coal is even connected. The other tech worth considering is Civil Rights, as you can make a beastly National Park city, but IME you won't have the free workers to build a bunch of nature reserves until a bit later anyway. You'll also want to get into your 2nd wave of settling while you are spending on culture just to make sure you hit 90%. If you're doing things right, St. John's should be majority Canadian culture sometime in the 30's, and usually the English will hand it over shortly thereafter, possibly after a revolt.
And that leaves us with goal 3, which is a very, very strange goal. It's mostly about paying attention, checking in with warring parties regularly, and having something to offer. IMO your best bet is to just tech as hard as you can and offer techs to backwards civs for peace. In the early game, you will have a huge tech lead over places like China, Thailand, and the Latin American civs, so leverage that for some easy peace deals. Your decade or two of pushing culture will leave you well behind the tech leaders, but you'll still have plenty to offer more backwards nations once you start teching again. Alternately you could just turn of tech and horde gold, but the advantage of using tech as leverage is that you can offer the same techs to multiple different warring countries.
A Canadian start can vary pretty wildly depending on what the AI gets up to before you start. There are a lot of turns to play before you spawn, even starting from the 1700 benchmark. You'll definitely start with Montreal, which will likely grow into a great city, Toronto, which will usually just be okay, and Halifax, which is pretty awful BUT plays a pivotal role in winning the UHV (more on that later). The Brits, French, and even Swedes may settle some more cities for you, which is generally bad (since they may not be well developed, will almost definitely be poorly placed, and reduce your number of starting settlers) but is not a game-ender. Flipping some cities does have a small upside, in that they will generally come with a garrison, saving you some production later on.
I would suggest switching to Despotism immediately (and maybe Protestantism too if you have more Protestants than Catholics). You need to get out quite a few settlers and workers very quickly, and at least Toronto and Halifax will usually be well above the population you can keep happy at the moment anyway. I suggest whipping settlers out from your starting cities ASAP, then whipping workers out of your new cities as you settle them. Toronto, Halifax, and Montreal will also benefit from using a settler to build buildings. If you flip any other cities, use your discretion as to whether to whip settlers or workers. Don't be TOO aggressive with your whips, you'll want to keep your core cities decently populated. Other than workers and settlers, I think the only things I ended up whipping were one or two factories. You'll want to switch back to Democracy pretty quickly after getting your first couple of cities up and running.
So you either have your starting settlers or you're whipping them out in a frenzy: where are we sending them? There are honestly a lot of different city combinations that will work out just fine. The main thing is to settle in such a way that you'll A) get your coal connected in a reasonable time frame and B) have a path of owned tiles that you can put the rails on. As far as the coal goes, you can either settle immediately next to it in Cranbrook or 2 tiles away in Hinton or Calgary. I went with Calgary 1S of the Horse and got the coal connected in plenty of time. As far as your other cities, you'll definitely want Vancouver, something near the Wheat (I went with Winnipeg 1SW of the Copper), and another around Lake Superior to connect Toronto to your western cities. It happened that England had settled Moose Factory 1NW of the Aluminum in my game, and while it did cramp Toronto quite a bit I ended up really liking that spot. That whole area is pretty bad but that spot, if nothing else, gets a free lighthouse, so the Lake tiles end up being pretty decent. I also settled Fort St. John 1W of the western fur, and that can end up a pretty good city once you develop the land a bit. Later on you'll want to found 4-6 other cities to make sure you get to 90% of Canada for UHV 2 but I wouldn't go crazy super early.
With those cities, and with your workforce whipped out, UHV 1 should be pretty much in the bag. UHV 2 requires a more specific plan, and it mostly comes down to making Halifax into a cultural monster. Get a theater, a weaver, and an estate ASAP, and work artists constantly. You probably only need 1 great artist, so don't be afraid of running an engineer at first to help you get your buildings up more quickly. I had the opportunity to use my first GE to snag the Statue of Liberty, which is fantastic for Canada, but it's probably safer to use it on one of the cultural National Wonders. It's likely worth it to try for the SoL regardless, as your UHV is not particularly demanding in terms of production. Not a huge deal to try for it and fail, with a big upside if you do end up snagging it. In addition to pumping culture out of Halifax, you'll also want to get a city in Labrador or Quebec that can pressure St. John's from the north. Sending spies to spread culture is also effective, and as such you should prioritize Post Offices, Jails, and RCMPs in your western cities.
Eventually you'll want to stop teching and put your commerce into culture. The only tech you really NEED early is Labour Unions (Labourers will build your railroads considerably faster, and you have a lot of land to improve besides). I decided to also tech up to Refining to get my oil improved but I'm not sure that was really justified. The Chateau Frontenac is on Refining and it SEEMS like it should be helpful but it is likely to get snagged by someone else and even if it doesn't, it will come too late to significantly help UHV1. Labourers are guaranteed to help, and you can easily get that tech before the coal is even connected. The other tech worth considering is Civil Rights, as you can make a beastly National Park city, but IME you won't have the free workers to build a bunch of nature reserves until a bit later anyway. You'll also want to get into your 2nd wave of settling while you are spending on culture just to make sure you hit 90%. If you're doing things right, St. John's should be majority Canadian culture sometime in the 30's, and usually the English will hand it over shortly thereafter, possibly after a revolt.
And that leaves us with goal 3, which is a very, very strange goal. It's mostly about paying attention, checking in with warring parties regularly, and having something to offer. IMO your best bet is to just tech as hard as you can and offer techs to backwards civs for peace. In the early game, you will have a huge tech lead over places like China, Thailand, and the Latin American civs, so leverage that for some easy peace deals. Your decade or two of pushing culture will leave you well behind the tech leaders, but you'll still have plenty to offer more backwards nations once you start teching again. Alternately you could just turn of tech and horde gold, but the advantage of using tech as leverage is that you can offer the same techs to multiple different warring countries.
