Post Short Tips/Tricks Here

[Yzen Danek]

Set food as an export in all but one of your colonies, so that automated wagon trains consolodate food in a single colony - you will get new colonists much faster this way. This is especially important in the early part of the game.

 

[Freddy K]

#1 Rivers
Rivers will give +1 to ALL raw materials on adjacent tiles, building a settlement next to a river is great!

#2 Labeling
Cities with 1 resource I call 'St. Name', cities with 2 different resources I call 'Fort Name', 3 resources - 'Name City'. I label Military units and Wagons for quicker recognition. Double-click the name.

#3 Great General
2|5|10|17|26|etc - those are XP thresholds for the next promotion.

A General emerges after a certain amount of fighting, he has a total of 20 Experience Points to give, which are distributed equally among troops in the same tile (BTW a native village offers 7XP sometimes) once you attach the general to a unit, this unit gains access to GG only promotions (Leadership, Surgeon III, Explorer III etc).

Ten Units get 1 promotion each.*
Four units get 2 promotions each. **
Three units get 7XP+7XP+6XP and 2 promotions each.**
Two units can each get 3 promotions (at XP 2|5|10) ***
One unit can be promoted directly to the 4th rank, with 3 XP overshoot. ****

Free promotions don't affect the threshold, each unit will be promoted when getting its first 2 points experience, even if it is already a Grenadier I (from the French leader) or if it's a veteran soldier.

 

[MaxellSnow]

Do not underestimate the benefit of a colony plot with at least 3-4 mountain peaks combined with a few farmable plots. With a combination of expert farmers and silver miners, you have a cash cow. Silver starts at around 2x the price of the most expensive manufactured item. The difference being that you did not have to create any raw goods first. Yes you will never have the volume of a cigar factory with 3 specialists, but considering silver runs about 2x the price of cigars, you have the same cash flow with a lot less infrastructure.

 

[dalgo]

It is possible to trade with an inland village on a different island or continent to your home colonies. Load an empty wagon train and the goods you wish to trade into a transport ship. Sail this into a coastal indian village and unload the wagon train. Then select the goods and load them into the wagon which can now move inland to trade.

 

[Freddy K]

Veteran dragoons and soldiers will rise through the ranks twice as fast as cannons, due to the +100% XP Leadership bonus. Even though cannons are much more effective massacring entire settlements/tribes, with almost no healing downtime and high odds. (Drag & hold the unit to see the odds).

A wounded soldier can pass on his weapons to another patriotic citizen, while healing his wounds during recreational activities (i.e. in a silver mine).

 

[Antilogic]

A wounded soldier can pass on his weapons to another patriotic citizen, while healing his wounds during recreational activities (i.e. in a silver mine).

Now this is an awesome trick! Too bad the one remaining guy in my colonies is usually a native convert and can't take up arms.

 

[tour86rocker]

It is possible to trade with an inland village on a different island or continent to your home colonies. Load an empty wagon train and the goods you wish to trade into a transport ship. Sail this into a coastal indian village and unload the wagon train. Then select the goods and load them into the wagon which can now move inland to trade.

Dalgo,
I wasn't able to do this when I tried. What buttons are you pressing to unload the goods and then load them onto the wagon while in an Indian settlement?

 

[dalgo]

Dalgo,
I wasn't able to do this when I tried. What buttons are you pressing to unload the goods and then load them onto the wagon while in an Indian settlement?

OK, I checked that again to make sure I got the correct sequence. It took me a bit of trial and error to get it right initially.

I sail a Merchantman containing an empty wagon and some guns into an indian village and the 'unload all' icon appears. I click on that and the wagon unloads into the village, and the icon disappears. Next I select the guns and this time the 'load' icon appears. Clicking on that transfers the guns to the wagon which is then able to take them to the inland village for sale.

 

[Yarnosh]

Now this is an awesome trick! Too bad the one remaining guy in my colonies is usually a native convert and can't take up arms.

I read that you can train a convert in a native settlement and then "unlearn" the skill and he will become a free colonist. I haven't tested it though.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

I read that you can train a convert in a native settlement and then "unlearn" the skill and he will become a free colonist. I haven't tested it though.

It's true and, what is more, I regard it as a bad feature. It's idiotic to have native converts learn a profession in an Indian village and become European settlers in the process. Maybe you should have trained that Indian before declaring your independence - or sent him to school while there was still somebody else around. It's sufficient that someone has been present in a colony during part of the training for that profession to become optional.

 

[nacc]

1. You can use native villages as canal if your town isnt adjacent to water.

2. Those silver resources are hard to find but arent really necessary. River next to mountain is powerful. Muntain+river+mine=3silver (6 from specialist) . You can often find a river running alongside a huge range of mountains!

3. Small towns are more efficient. Go wild with 1pop towns. Place them as close as possible. A town gives 1 production and works all its possible yields at the town square. The other squares only give 1 type of resource. A 1pop town on grassland with a convert working a tobacco bonus gives +1food +9tobacco/turn. No buildings required. Place a town with maxed warehouse in the center and make it import all. Make all small town export all. Fully automate a bunch of wagons. Sell via warehouse.

 

[dalgo]

You can place a sign on a map tile with Alt S. I use this to flag my future colony sites with a description of what they will produce. eg 'cigars/tools' etc. When your colony is built the sign is also visible on the colony screen so if you are paging through your colonies you can quickly see what goods they will specialise in.

 

[slawomir furman]

When you start quicly found your first colony use 2 citzenz take away they tools and guns and imedietly load them (tools guns) on your ship then move to native vilage sell them you shuld get around 300-500 for tols and 600-1200 for guns . Sail to europe get horses you shuld still sell them for around 600-1400.
This shuld gave you head start

 

[Supr49er]

Welcome to the Forums slawomir furman.

 

[espartaco]

If you click on a wagon that is serving some trade routes, it forgets its routes. Click on the assign route button and you will see all routes unchecked. This is a nightmare if you have 5 or more of them.
One way to deal with the wagons is to give them a name, usually the same name as the city each one is coming from, like Isabella1, Isabella2, etc. You may need to write down on a piece of paper which goods are being transported and to where.
Sometimes you may need to dispatch a bunch of goods to somewhere only once so you click on the closest wagon to do that errand. And once that task is completed, you want the wagon to resume its assigned routes.
When hovering the mouse on a wagon there should be a display of the routes currently assigned to it.
Until a patch is released we have to live with this unfinished game that was rushed out to suck up your $30-40 bucks.

 

[espartaco]

I don't build missions in the closest native villages because I always took by force those villages that are in my way so the mission would be destroyed if you raze that village.
Always grab those veterans when they are available at the docks either for free or low cost. And attack your close villages, if not, when you try to create a new town close to the natives, they would charge you a huge amount a no-no proposition for me.
My last game with Simon Bolivar, I have the free veteran with so many promotions including forest II with increased movement (looks like a horse) then I attached a GG and that guy was a superman unstoppable and accompanied by some cannons. you get the picture hahahaha

 

[tradewind]

Hello All.

Here are my priorities in order for opening game:

1. Find a city spot.
2. Get at least 1 scout picking up village and ruins treasures, and scouting trading partners.
3. Be an arms dealer. Trade with indians is pwnage. sell them guns, horses, tools, and trade goods. Finished goods (cigars, rum etc) aren't profitable.
4. Get Peter Minuit. He makes every recruit in Europe cost 25% less. Almost, but not quite making your gold 25% more valuable in mid-late game.

After that its building an economy. I like to get a galleon as soon as feasible. This has two huge effects: 1. Lets me transport treasures for free, 2. Lets me devote my initial ship to indian trade while the galleon does Europe runs. One galleon can handle all your european exports (especially when upgraded w/ +1 movement and 1 turn europe bonuses) unless you go for crazy big economies.

The value of indian trade can't be overstated (especially for players in the original game, in which it sucked). For goods demanded, you get between 2x and 3x what you pay in europe for them, and you can judiciously buy indian produce for a 20% to 2x profit in europe.

I've seen many people talk about using blacksmiths and gunsmiths and ranchers to produce tools, guns, and horses. Given the stability of the economy in europe (vs the old game) why would you ever build a tool. Ore pays 2 or 3 (sometimes more) in europe, and tools cost 2 or 3. Just buy them. Horses are the same. they cost 2 or 3 gold each. A rancher should (IMHO) ALWAYS be made a free colonist and made to do ANYTHING other than ranching. Turning food (price 1 in europe, or price 3 when you turn 200 of them into a 600 gold new unit) into a price 2 horse, and using labor to do it is just as insane as making tools.

An argument might be made for gunsmiths, turning price 2 or 3 tools into price 6 or 7 guns, but this seems like too much effort for the infrastructure. Many other jobs offer the opportunity to make 3-4 gold/unit produced.

Cheers,
Tradewind

 

[dalgo]

I've seen many people talk about using blacksmiths and gunsmiths and ranchers to produce tools, guns, and horses. Given the stability of the economy in europe (vs the old game) why would you ever build a tool. Ore pays 2 or 3 (sometimes more) in europe, and tools cost 2 or 3. Just buy them. Horses are the same. they cost 2 or 3 gold each. A rancher should (IMHO) ALWAYS be made a free colonist and made to do ANYTHING other than ranching. Turning food (price 1 in europe, or price 3 when you turn 200 of them into a 600 gold new unit) into a price 2 horse, and using labor to do it is just as insane as making tools.

I hate paying tax and my understanding is that the rate of tax rises is dependent on the volume of goods traded in Europe (not the cost). So if you buy heaps of cheap tools and horses your tax will go up a lot faster than if you just trade high-value finished goods. That's why I make all my own tools.

 

[Supr49er]

Hey, Welcome to the Forums tradewind.

 

[Dunkah]

My hint is to have another city that is on the other side of the continent you are fighting over.

Once the REF comes at you they typically come from either the right side of the screen or the left... not both.

If you want to continue to trade with Europe after the Revolution starts, having a port that you can easily launch your trading vessels from without fear of the REFs Man-o-wars then this is a good tip.

Just move all of the finished goods to that port and start trading in that direction.