[Religion and Revolution]: Tips and Tricks

[raystuttgart]

Hey guys,

this thread is supposed to give Tips and Tricks to people who are new to this mod and eventually have problems figuring out what to do considering the huge amount of features and changes this mod offers.

A few general words before we get into the details:

This mod will play slightly different to what you are used to.
Don't expect things to still be the same as they were in Vanilla or other mods.
We have purposely changed a lot of mechanisms and other small aspects.

This mod is designed to give you many choices and possibilities.
There is no single "golden strategy".
One game a specific strategy might be very successful and another game it might totally fail.
Be flexible and consider wisely and experiment a bit with the given possiblities.

We include almost everything from TAC.
But please don't expect us to explain all TAC features again.

It is also simply not possible to explain again every small detail we made.
Please also take the time to try and figure out some things for yourself.
(Colopedia, threads, playing, ...)

 

[raystuttgart]

Choose your leader wisely

Nations and Leaders have very specific Traits.
Consider which strategy you would like to try for the game you start.

Cortez
Fighting Natives is easier and you will also get more treasures from the villages.
Thus he might be the perfect Leader for getting many Conquistadores, conquering Native villages and enslaving the inhabitants.

De Champlain
All interactions with Natives become easier and more effective due to better relations and bonusses.
Thus he might be the perfect Leader for peacefully living together with Native and using features like Missioning, Training, Bargaining, ...
and getting better conditions at events with them.

...

------------

Summary:

The stragegies themselves are equally valid but they will simply play very different depending on the leader you choose.

The Trait System has been improved, partially rebuilt and heavily rebalanced.
(It is woven deeper into the logic and has more effects.)

It will make a much bigger difference than before, which Traits you have.

Simply take a look at the description of the Leaders (at game start or colopedia) and you should get a good idea.

 

[raystuttgart]

Consider your relations wisely

Relations have become much more important than before.
This is true for all other players, may it be Natives, Europeans or Kings.

There are many events and features that are influenced by relations.
(Chances and conditions.)

Just to name a few of them:

Spoiler :

• Native Mercenaries
• Revolutionary Support
• Bargaining with Natives like in Original CivCol
• Native Raids like in Original CivCol
• Stirring Up of Natives by Missionaries
• European Prisons Crowded
• Native Slaves
• African Slaves
• ...

I will give a few examples:

Relations to Natives

Prices and chances of Native Mercenaries depend on your relations to them.
Good relations will usually ensure that no Raids will occur.
Effectiveness of Bargaining will depend on your relations.
With good relations they might sell you their war prisoners.

Relations to Europeans

Good relations may lead to their support when you declare independence.
Good relations will of course make it less likely that they declare war on you.

Relations to your King

Taxes, size of REF, chances and prices for Criminals (Prisons Crowded event), ...

Summary:

It may not always be the best idea to live in harmony with everybody.
Sometimes it might be better to declare war on a neighbour or refuse taxe-increases from your king.

But if you do succeed keeping up good relations, you will be rewarded by special events.
(Some might allow you to get special units you otherwise could not get.)

And some events may only be triggered if you are playing a more aggressive strategy.
(Conquistadores, Rangers, ...)

It is your choice, which way to go.
But again, consider wisely.

By the way:

Your reactions in these events will usually also influence the relations again.

 

[raystuttgart]

Domestic Markets

You now have the possibility to sell goods to your own colonists.
Use that feature !

Take a close look at the demands of your colonists.
(Mouse-Over at the yields in city screen will give you information.)

Try to accomplish sufficient supply of the goods demanded in the cities.

Each city will have different prices for goods.

Each Unit (Specialist) will demand different goods according to its social status.
(see Colopedia)

Some goods may give great prices on domestic markets other goods won't.
(It usually depends if these goods can be easily produced in your colonies or not.)

Prices of the goods on domestic market will vary according to supply.
(Oversupply in a city will cause prices to drop and goods missing will cause prices to rise.)

Selling prices on the Domestic Market will not have influence on taxes.

You will need special buildings like Market or Tavern to unlock Domestic Market in a city.

You also need a lot of colonists in a city until a domestic demand is generated.

Summary:

If you create many cities with huge population, you may have the chance to sell lots of goods to your colonists.

If you do this wisely by taking a close look at the prices and demands, you will be able to make good money without negatively influencing your taxes.

 

[raystuttgart]

Abandoning your cities

You are now able to abandon your cities by dragging the last colonist out of a city and assigning a profession.
(During peace.)

This may offer some interesting strategies.

Example:

Before War of Independence you might abandon your smaller cities and focus defense on your major cities.

When conquering cities of other Europeans you may choose to keep them first.
Then move out everything of worth and when you are at peace again, simply abandon them.

...

Don't forget this feature.

 

[raystuttgart]

City Storage

City Storage works now totally different than before.
It is not calculated separatly for every yield but over the sum of all tradable yields (except food).

Adjust your strategies (Trade Routes, Storage Buildings, ...) accordingly.

Custom House

Custom Houses have been enhanced.
There is a complete new popup screen (in CityScreen) to adjust selling thresholds for every good.

Also they will allow selling of boycotted goods.
(But at a very low price.)

Use them wisely since selling goods with custom house will generat much less Founding Father Points than selling directly in Europe.
Also prices are a little lower than selling directly in Europe.

 

[raystuttgart]

Bargaining with Natives

Basically we have tried to rebuild the bargaining system of Original Colonization.
(Allowing to bargain for higher prices when selling and lower prices when buying.)

Use that feature !
(It is a lot of fun and can grant great profits.)

If you overexaggerate however, the tribe will not trade with you anymore and relations will get worse.

Stirring up Natives

You are now able to stir up Natives with Missionaries to go onto raids against the evil White.
(Each Native City can be stirred up only once and stirring up may fail.)

Use that feature carefully !
(Don't stir up a village if your own cities are very close to that Native village.)

You might be successfull and get your enemies into small conflicts that will draw their attention and bind their ressources.

You might however also have bad luck and the Natives get angry or even raid your own cities ...

Native Raids

Native Raids are acts of aggression that do not need declaration of war.
(Attacks on treasures and cities.)

They are a clear sign that relations are somewhat problematic.

When a city is raided, many different things can happen if the raid is not successfully fought back.
(Goods stolen, buildings destroyed, colonists killed, ...)

Some Natives have high tendency for raids others have low.

There are only 2 ways to stop raids:

1. Bring relationships to a high enough level.
2. Destroying the tribe

Missioning Natives

Missioning Natives has been rebuilt and has become much more efficient.

• Chances also depend on relationship to that tribe.
• Missioning Natives of one Tribe will not influence chances of Missioning Natives of another tribe.
• Positive effects on relations when succesful, negative effects when failing.
• Impacts on relations when destroying another players mission.
• Amount of Converted Natives of a village will stay more or less constant.
• ...

Use that feature !
(When playing a peaceful strategy, Missioning Natives is a must to my opinion.)

A good Missioning strategy will assure you a constant flow of Converted Natives, less Raids, lower chances for wars and more positive events with Natives.

If possible, do Missioning with Experts (Jesuit Missionary, Evangelist).
It is worth to wait a few rounds for these experts before missioning.

 

[raystuttgart]

Livestock Breeding

To breed Horses, Sheep or Cattle you must first have them stored in your cities.
(Amounts bred also depend on amounts stored.)

You should also build the Stable and its higher Levels.

Otherwise these Yields work like usual.
(Rivers, Improvements, Specialists, ..)

It might be a little difficult to get production of these Yields running but that is on purpose.
These Yield are very valuable.

Horses -> very good prices at Natives and needed for your military
Cattle -> Butchers can make Food and Cattle Hides from them.
Sheep -> Butchers can make Food and Sheep Wool from them.

In the beginning of the game, you will usually rely on Farmers, Hunters and Fishers to produce Food.
But in the late game, you will probably supply huge amount of your Food from butchering Cattle and Sheep.

 

[raystuttgart]

General Remarks about Economy

The amounts of tradable goods, production lines and specialists in RaR is really big (50 currently).

The idea behind this is to create highly specialized cities focussing on the specific goods of their area
and connecting those cities with a tight net of trade routes.

Try to specialize your cites.
(Do not try to build everything in one city.)

Certain yields are only available in certain areas.
Thus try to settle in different areas to get access to many different goods.

Selling only a few goods will surely result in prices of that good falling quite fast in Europe.
If you spread your economy over many different goods and production lines, this effect will be much smaller.

New Strategic Goods

There are a few new strategic goods.
(In later releases there might be even more.)

Stone --> Needed to build higher level buildings.
Cannons (made from Ore) --> Needed to build Cannons and Ships
Sailcloth and Ropes (both made from Hemp) --> Needed to build Ships

Try to build up your own production lines for those in midgame or lategame.
Everything else will soon result in pretty high costs for building.

 

[raystuttgart]

Some word about Treasures

You cannot sell treasures to the King anymore in any harbour city.
Your first need to have a Dock in that city.

Also, treasures are not able to enter peaks without a road.

They also may not reveal map or enter plots with Goody Huts.

Most important however:
They may be attacked by Natives (Raids) even if you are at peace with them.

Summary:

Take good care of your treasures.

 

[raystuttgart]

New City Defense Mechanisms

When building defenses you will get not only defensive bonusses but also acquire "Defense Attacks" for certain units which enemies cannot fight back.
However, the strength and number is limited.
They will happen automatically at the end of turn.
(And only attack units of players you are at war with, of course.)

Having one or more Infantery Units (e.g. Musketmen) in a city with wall-type defenses will grant one single Defense Attacks for those.
They will be able to attack land units around the city.

Having one or more Cannons in a city with Citald will grant one single additional Defense Attacks for those.
They will be able to attack land or sea units around your city.

So in a city with Infantery, Cannons, Fortress and Citadel, you will get:
1 Defense Attack for Infantery and 1 Defense Attack for Cannons

Many different factors influence the actual damage done.
(There is also a random part of the calculation.)

Consider these new City Defense Mechanism when attacking or defending a city.

 

[raystuttgart]

Changes at Entering Peaks

Only a few professions and units may enter peaks without roads.

These are units like Experienced Scouts, Ranger, Native Mercenaries or Natives.
Units with profession Pioneer may enter a peak without road, too.

With roads all units can enter again.

Consider this in your attack and defense strategies.
(Maybe you even might want to destroy some roads on peaks before fighting War of Independence ...)

Plastered Roads

Roads already give twice as fast movement but Platered Roads give 3times as fast movement.
(Otherwise they are just the same.)

Platered Roads are a more expensive than Roads, but they are worth it.
(Especially for your main trade routes on land.)

 

[thadian]

Too many citizens? Thats not so bad is it? Oh, theyre getting in the way? Check this out, you can make them missionaries and stir natives! With this neat command you can take your insolent paupers and turn them into angry natives breathing down the neck of your foes.

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

Hi all!

I wanted to contribute with some tips and tricks too! I have now tried the 1.2 and can give some useful advice, I hope:

1/ Trade with the Natives - they sell silver, gems and gold (rarely) on very interesting prices
2/ Trade with the Natives - I usually buy food from them, it costs quite cheaper than buying colonists in Europe and price doesn’t go up that much. Combined with bargaining, it can be a great deal. And you can get your gold back with horses/weapons/goods later. Finally, I sometimes exchange a gun for 6 food, not bad IMO.
3/ Up from V1.2 – improvements grow while worked by any profession, I often improve my pastures with farmers until the specialists arrive – works just fine
4/ Tile improvement choice:
- Along the rivers - good for plantation, pasture and mine yields, worked by specialists that double the output
- Riverless tiles – except marsh – farmers add flat amount of food, those tiles are good for them because on the rivers the farmers only produce one more food, compared to the others that go up to 4 and more (pastures before growth)
- Keep in mind that the pastures on the corners of rivers are not considered on river for yield bonus matters, whereas the plantation and mine still provide the regular bonus
5/ Feeding your cities – despite the lessened return of agriculture and the rude downgrade of seafood (except for high sea fish), the livestock compensates nicely. I usually have a single city with ranchers for several cities with 3 butchers each. Do the count, with a large ranch and a grown improvement, a rancher provides almost enough livestock (27) to supply 3 butchers (36).
6/ The butcher basic building is a cheapish one that provides food without any FF required – usually worth building in all settlements
7/ Cattle hides and leather – leather factories are an expensive building rarely worth building, unlike the Butcher house, that I build very often
8/ Criminals and servants – I often use them as pioneers because they don’t seem to improve to regular colonists if I give them guns and I hate their runaway feature
9/ Slaves of any kind – in case I have enough tools (never, actually), they can be pioneers. Other ways, their only use I find is as scouts at strength 2, as I often develop my ranch city nicely and horses are widely available. They work OK against native raids and dissuasion too.
10/ Buying units in Europe – the FF that lowers their price is almost a must have for me. I minimise the purchases in Europe before his arrival.
11/ Declare on other nation upon King’s demand – usually a good event unless it concerns a too close neighbour. Always ask for backup, the units you will get are impossible to obtain by other means
12/ Native mercs – when offered, it works just as good if you pay half the price than the full price.
13/ Education – schools are a good thing to build, you can always send the student just before he finishes to a city with university to make a high-end specialist next turn
14/ Learn by doing – keep it for the most expensive specialists – Statesmen and Preachers – unless you miss coffee or cocoa training village.

There are probably other things that will come on my mind, but that’s all for now.

Thanks again to the dev’ team for this awesome game, so much improved compared to the initial Colonization!

 

[raystuttgart]

I might just add some advice to features that a lot of people forget / oversee:

1. Use the Custom House Screen and Trade Route System and put good settings in there.
2. Domestic Markets (if handled right) can really make you rich.

 

[Teskal]

After taking over enemy towns I don't like, because they are far away or for other reasons, I get my ships to this towns and bring the citizens into my towns. In peace time I remove all citizens, during war I let a prisoner or slave in it and wait until there is a new fighting unit in the town.

 

[Pallando]

Best Practices
I have always thought that moving goods around the cities was a big problem with Col4, now in RaR and domestic markets the problem for me is bigger.

Lets suppose the following scenario: I have 5 Cities A,B,C,D and E.

A is my port to Europe and produces Cigars and Silver.
B produces Cloth and Colour Cloth.
C produces Wine and Beer.
D produces Sailcloth and Rope
E Furniture and Cofee.

Now I have a Domestic Market in each City and for simplicity sake, I have a demand of 3 goods per city each turn.

What is the best practice if I want to keep each city supplied with the goods demanded by their internal markets each turn and still be able to move the rest of the to the Port City to sell them in Europe?

This is my biggest problem when playing RaR.
Release 1.4 is great btw.

 

[raystuttgart]

It is not a problem, it is a challenge and thus part of the fun.

Personally I do not try to supply Domestic Market of all cities.
I try to focus on my 5 biggest cities and only supply the others occasionally.

When supplying one of these cities with goods to be sold on the Domestic Market, I usually bring about 100 units of each good there and only resupply when that is almost depleted.

About half of my transportation system is moving goods between cities and the other half is travelling between Europe and the colonies.
Only occasionally I trade goods with Natives (which might be a fault though).

For Domestic Market supplies I usually use smaller ships and Wagon Trains.
The big ships travel to Europe and back.

 

[Pallando]

It is not a problem, it is a challenge and thus part of the fun.

Personally I do not try to supply Domestic Market of all cities.
I try to focus on my 5 biggest cities and only supply the others occasionally.

When supplying one of these cities with goods to be sold on the Domestic Market, I usually bring about 100 units of each good there and only resupply when that is almost depleted.

About half of my transportation system is moving goods between cities and the other half is travelling between Europe and the colonies.
Only occasionally I trade goods with Natives (which might be a fault though).

For Domestic Market supplies I usually use smaller ships and Wagon Trains.
The big ships travel to Europe and back.

Thanks Ray.

How do you recognize the different wagon trains, trains, oxcarts from each other? If you have many it can be a problem. For example:
Lets say that i have 20 wagon trains, carrying different types of goods from city to city, then a war breaks loose and the automated function stops working.

Do you rename your wagon trains according to city goods so that you know how to restart the routes again.

When you say that you buy 100 for each required good for your top 5 cities for domestic comsuption, do you buy for ex. 100 lux goods for each city, that sounds expensive. One could buy 100 and distribute 20 per city.
In another mod, there was the functionality that you could move x amount of goods to your transports instead of 100 or all of them.

RaR is by far the best col mod that i have played.

 

[raystuttgart]

How do you recognize the different wagon trains, trains, oxcarts from each other? If you have many it can be a problem.
...
Do you rename your wagon trains according to city goods so that you know how to restart the routes again.

Yes, I rename most of my small transports travelling between cities.

When you say that you buy 100 for each required good for your top 5 cities for domestic comsuption, do you buy for ex. 100 lux goods for each city, that sounds expensive.

No, no. I don't generally buy goods in Europe to be sold on Domestic Markets.
I bring them from my other cities.

Luxury Goods is an exception (since special rules apply for its price) although I only occasionally buy small amounts of that from Europe as cargo filler
if I do not have them money for other acquisitions (e.g. Specialists or Ships) that would be more useful.

In another mod, there was the functionality that you could move x amount of goods to your transports instead of 100 or all of them.

That still exists.
You simply need to press "SHIFT" when you drag and drop the goods.