[Religion and Revolution]: Tips and Tricks

[Pallando]

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

Wow, all of this time and I didn't know.

Ray, how do you reconcile selling goods in Europe, Domestic Market and using the Custom House?
For me, it would be as the game progresses and the tax rate rises, the Domestic Market gains importance, although it doesn't have the capacity of the European Harbours.

What is your strategy in using the Custom House, and I'm curious as to how you use the livestock, cows and sheep?
Are they an important part of your strategy or do you seldom use the cows and sheep to grow your colonies.

Thanks.

 

[raystuttgart]

Ray, how do you reconcile selling goods in Europe, Domestic Market and using the Custom House?

1. I try to keep Domestic Markets of my biggest cities supplied.
(I do not bother with the small cities considering Domestic Markets.)

-> Main benefit is that you will keep your taxes down.
-> Also, if goods have become too cheap in Europe, you will get more money.

2. Then I try to sell the complete rest in Europe.

-> More money and more Fouding Father Points than Custom House.
-> I need to go to Europe anyways to pick up immigrants or buy Units.

3. Custom House is only used if I do not manage to transport the goods to Europe.
(I try to avoid it as much as possible.)

----------

My strategy in the beginning is focussed on Europe.
(Cities are too small to generate enough domestic sales to really bother.)

The longer the game progresses, the more I try to rely on Domestic Markets.
(Prices in Europe have fallen and taxes have increased.)

For me, it would be as the game progresses and the tax rate rises, the Domestic Market gains importance, although it doesn't have the capacity of the European Harbours.

Sure, one single Domestic Market does not have the capacity of Europe.
But 5 cities with each about 40+ colonists can generate massive amount of money with Domestic Market.
Entertainment is also very lucrative in those cities.

I'm curious as to how you use the livestock, cows and sheep?

If a city has a bonus resource Cows or Sheep, Livestock Breeding (and Butchering) will get massively used there.
I try to diversify and not simply use Livestock Breeding everywhere.
Usually food is not my main problem. A few cities producing Wool Cloth and Leather is usually enough to supply the others and also not ruin prices in Europe too fast.

Are they an important part of your strategy or do you seldom use the cows and sheep to grow your colonies.

They are important. Probably a bit more than other industries.
They are not dominant though.

But that is simply my style of playing.

 

[raystuttgart]

I have started a new game and heavily changed my strategy for the beginning.

I much more focus on Trading with Natives.

I try to sell 200 Trading Goods to each Native village in reasonable range.
(It takes quite a while until they have "consumed" that amount.)

While at these villages I buy whatever they offer.

I use the "New Bargaining with Natives" of course.
(I try to improve prices 3 or 4 times.)

This new strategy turned out to be extremely profitable.

Also, the Natives are really happy due to the trading.
(Remember: Attitude in RaR is much more important than in other mods !)

Spoiler :

My colonies have not yet grown enough to sell bigger amounts of produced goods to the Natives.
But I will try that later on as well.

Buying produced goods in Europe just to sell them is not interesting to me.

 

[orlanth]

Yes, I also like trading with Natives early on as a way to raise cash. Another fiendishly useful strategy is, find Natives far from you but close to rivals, then sell them lots of Muskets and Horses In 2071 I purposely made it the case that to research certain technologies you need to obtain samples of goods by trade or warfare with the natives/aliens.

It seems that in RaR the prices are a little more affected by selling in Europe, though I don't recall whether that's changed by RaR. With so many new Yield types it makes sense to make prices more variable, so you can't focus overly much on a single Yield (eliminating the possibility for any single yield to be really considered "overpowered").

Another good feature I like which not many know about is EUROPE_MARKET_CORRELATION_PERCENT in GlobalDefinesAlt.xml . It's auto-balancing, in that if a certain Yield is abundant on the map it'll become slightly less profitable if overexploited.

I use the "New Bargaining with Natives" of course.
(I try to improve prices 3 or 4 times.)

Wow that seems quite a lot since the price is already quite profitable - I avoided doing that much since I thought it would cause anger, but maybe it doesnt or its overwhelmed by the bonus from trade? In that case perhaps the happiness from trade should be made a bit less.

 

[raystuttgart]

I avoided doing that much since I thought it would cause anger, but maybe it doesnt or its overwhelmed by the bonus from trade? In that case perhaps the happiness from trade should be made a bit less.

It can get them angry and you might not be able to trade with that village for several rounds.

But the "anger from greedy bargaining" is forgotten over time.
(Other things like "declaring war" will never be forgotten by AI.)

Spoiler :

There are different "Memory settings" for different parts of the Attitude.

So I just take the risk.
No risk, no fun.

Also I try only max 4 times.
And sometimes I reload.

EUROPE_MARKET_CORRELATION_PERCENT

I thought about it but did not really see a lot of benefit considering gameplay.

 

[domino25]

Does anyone have any tips on dealing with Pirates?

I'm playing a huge map/marathon speed on Conquistador, and around turn 130 I start getting hit with pirates. Sometimes I get the chance to birbe or hire them, but that doesn't eliminate all of them.

I see 3 ways that I can deal with them without the entire economy and immigrant supply being shut down:

1) Save up 24k for a Ship of the line, which is strong enough to consistently win. (Though cheaper, a frigate can lose pretty often, and a big enough investment it pushes me towards save scumming) - This is pretty hard to amass early game. Maybe if I decline all other purchases? And hope the king doesn't get greedy?

2) Try to get all my ships 6 or 7 movement through promotions prior to pirates showing up. Then use their movement to go from city - city - europe without ending a turn on the open sea. In the early game I'm literally shuffling people two and from Europe as fast as possible, so this would slow that down considerably, or I just need to buy more shipping capacity sooner? . I'm thinking of trying to save up for a gallon ASAP and then immediately send it to explore ship wrecks until it can travel to and from Europe unassailed?

3) Pray for King to offer me a man of war.

 

[raystuttgart]

Does anyone have any tips on dealing with Pirates?

I'm playing a huge map/marathon speed on Conquistador, and around turn 130 I start getting hit with pirates.

The main problem is the following:

I never really played or tested longer games with any other GameSpeed than"Normal".
Thus I had simply forgotten to adjust the first appearance of pirates to Gamespeed.
And thus the feature is simply unbalanced for GameSpeed "Marathon".

But this has already been reported to me several weeks ago and is already corrected for the upcoming Release 1.6.

 

[domino25]

Thanks! That's good to hear, in an attempt to intercept them, do Pirates Spawn on their own from Sea lanes? Or Anywhere? Are they really a neutral force or are the other Europeans building them?


Also, another question: Does Learn by doing have a diminishing returns at all? It "feels" that way right now, but it's very possibly due to my turns taking longer so the same perceived amount of playing time is less turns for them to Learn.

 

[raystuttgart]

That's good to hear, in an attempt to intercept them, do Pirates Spawn on their own from Sea lanes? Or Anywhere?

They spawn close to big cities at the coast.
If you get the event, they will spawn close to one of your big cities of course.

Are they really a neutral force or are the other Europeans building them?

Pirate Fregates -> Yes. (Part of Barbarian Civ, same as Wild Animals)
Privateers -> No. (Built by other Europeans.)

Does Learn by doing have a diminishing returns at all?

No, there are no diminishing returns.
Chances and thresholds of the formula for Learning by Doing always stay the same.

 

[domino25]

I'm curious how people manage their trade routes on the late game with large amounts of cities and goods. I have a couple domestic markets and I'm trying to figure out how to set up my distribution system to spread the goods around, but also put the excess in port.

The ideas I came up with:

1) a dedicated transport per good that loops through the cities importing and exporting with a "Keep" number of ~100

2) A snake of transport routes though all my cities where each leg has a dedicated transport(s) moving goods to the next city. All goods get funneled to the start of the snake, and excess is sold from the end of the snake.

It seems the details can be the tricky part, What kind of system do you set up?

 

[vetiarvind]

I like to make pioneers and more often soldiers out of indentured servants and petty criminals. They have a chance to earn their freedom while being a pioneer. They also tend to come at good prices, either through events or from the market and so it's better to risk them in the field of battle rather than the more expensive free colonist. Another benefit is that you don't have to deal with them fleeing away. In the late game, you're better off training mass veteran soldiers as the mainstay of your army and posting your earlier troops in the borders to catch fleeing slaves.

 

[vetiarvind]

I'm curious how people manage their trade routes on the late game with large amounts of cities and goods. I have a couple domestic markets and I'm trying to figure out how to set up my distribution system to spread the goods around, but also put the excess in port.

The ideas I came up with:

1) a dedicated transport per good that loops through the cities importing and exporting with a "Keep" number of ~100

2) A snake of transport routes though all my cities where each leg has a dedicated transport(s) moving goods to the next city. All goods get funneled to the start of the snake, and excess is sold from the end of the snake.

It seems the details can be the tricky part, What kind of system do you set up?

I'm an expansive player so it's pretty much impossible for me to satisfy the domestic market of all colonies. I usually tend to keep a small number of "core" port colonies which are heavily populated and industrialized and which also have high very good markets. These core colonies produce goods mutually exclusively so I shuttle transports back and forth ensuring that they always carry goods. I also park a few treks parked in each of these colonies ensuring I have a "bonus" of ~1000 cargos. The remaining "rural" towns mostly only produce raw materials and the occasional goods and they usually almost always demand salt, beer and sometimes "wool cloth", etc. I don't bother supplying them all the time since I don't develop these markets much.

 

[Daw]

save up for a galleon ASAP and then immediately send it to explore ship wrecks

If you do it, just don't use Auto-explorer mode. The reason is that you will eventually save an indentured servant from a shipwreck and it is a good idea to land him before you proceed. Because (don't know if it is a bug or a feature, let's call it a phenomenon) the phenomenon is that when a Ship with a Passenger picks up experience from a shipwreck, the experience goes to the Passenger, not to the Ship.

Thus if you send a Galleon to explore shipwrecks, it inevitably picks up an indentured servant at some point, and finally you end up with a pretty basic Galleon and up to 6 quite experienced indentured servants, which would probably not fit the idea you had in the first place.

The good news is that this phenomenon can be used to train your military

 

[gay_Aleks]

William Penn is a very strong leader, with his Libertarian trait, plus his Productive trait and nation trait which gives 33% reduction of crosses needed for immigration.

that way, you'll get care of the Three Big - crosses, production and bells.

 

[Ominous Destiny]

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.

At the very beginning, in whatever settlement you found with your horseman and before setting that horseman to scout (if that's your preference), have a colonist work a horse tile for one turn. You'll generate a few and when you switch professions later and it consumes the x number of horses, you'll have some left over. You can use these later as a starter for breeding without having to buy a new stock in Europe.

On War

Never raze a settlement... When fighting another colony, bring a few transports. If you capture a colony, you can loot their supplies before abandoning the settlement. This has the same effect as razing... expect you get all the colonist and cargo. Which is sorta like cheating since you won't take the negative diplomacy modifier either.

This is especially useful if you can't defend the colony or its particularly vulnerable to raiding.

Trading with Natives

In my experience, you'll get more value when purchasing raw resources from Natives, but if you negotiate for higher prices, you'll risk upsetting the entire tribe. Also, the Natives have a finite amount of wealth available for purchasing wares anyway. A good practice would be to have a forward trader go through and buy whatever they're selling for whatever they offer; and have a follow-on trader go through and sell their wares for a price that is at least better than what you can get overseas. If they become upset in the process, at least you were able to up the amount of gold they have available so that they can buy more next time.

Dealing with the King

During the first portion of the game, I spend every piece of gold I have available every turn no matter what. The Kings demands are based on how much gold you have at the time… so you'll lose less overall if you have 38 gold as opposed to 3800 (in this case, the King might request 19 gold instead of 1900). 19 gold is easier to accept than 1900 IMO. Once European direct purchase prices start to get rather high, you'll have no choice but to hold onto a large amount of gold which you're King will eventually demand. To avoid high gold demands further, the use of multiple large capacity transports and a central collection point in the new world will allow you to store your wealth as commodity instead as gold. Load up everything at once, sell everything at once, and spend all the gold at once by buying more units/goods direct. This will keep your gold on hand low and your Kings demand low as well.

The second point has the add advantage of reducing the number of warships required to protect your entire merchant fleet (since they'll all be together).

This little method has the added advantage of keeping relations with your King on a positive note, which has the effect of reducing taxes (tax raises come less frequently) and increasing the number of positive events.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Actually, do the money that you give to the King, somehow go to building a bigger army?

Or they just... disappear? Because in former case, you could just as well give him the money - when the King demands you 3804 gold or something, your economy obviously is bustling and hustling.

Also, all food-based resources (think Cattle, Food (especially from fishing) and Sheep) can be sold at a very good price in Africa.

By the way, if you wait enough when at a war with an European (one that your King demanded), he'll want you to end it and give you 2 Statesmen and a Famous Noble.

 

[raystuttgart]

I spend every piece of gold I have available every turn no matter what.

Sure, you can do that.

But be aware, that you will miss many nice chances in DLL Diplo Events.
(Without having enough money, some DLL Diplo Events will not even show up at all.
In other cases you will simply not have enough money to pay the price.)

Actually, do the money that you give to the King, somehow go to building a bigger army?

No, the money you give to your king does not influence the size of his army or fleet at all.

 

[Gladi]

Sure, you can do that.

But be aware, that you will miss many nice chances in DLL Diplo Events.
(Without having enough money, some DLL Diplo Events will not even show up at all.
In other cases you will simply not have enough money to pay the price.)

But the frequency of these good events is way lower then king coming and taking your money. Even if I settle my first city by a silver node and have access to several natives selling silver I will get 150-200 tonnes of silver every eight turns or so. So I would need several loads to save up for the good stuff and single visit from king will set you a whole load back or even more.

 

[vetiarvind]

Yes, I also like trading with Natives early on as a way to raise cash.

In this game I'm playing, I got an offer for a "permanent alliance" from the nearby native arawak tribe just after a few trades and a couple of missions. Weak as they were, I accepted simply because they were the first tribe to ever offer me such an offer and I was pleasantly surprised I could simply take whatever resources I could from them while trading. It was a bit OP, but having your early colonies use a native civ's food-producing capability is massively fun. The silver doesn't hurt either

 

[Teppicommom]

Some people call it a feature, others say it´s inbalanced.
On hand you need to have money to deal with other factions especially with the offers your king comes around. Especially the offer for elder statesmen and nobles are imo overpowered:
Once I had that "Make peace with XXX King" - Event and got a nobleman and an elder stateman! - for a peace treaty. I asked myself how big would be the difference when this event would not occur or when it would be 20 or 30 rounds later. Luckily I had a savegame and could make a comparision. The difference was very remarkable.

From this moment I always stash about 2500 in gold for these offers.

I think that some of these events which give you such a high advantage
should be rewritten. Is there a possibility to implement pending offers
for maybe 5-10 rounds?
I like the idea of having the church boost your relations.
Maybe it would be quite interesting to have options more options with kings
to meddle and backstab other viceroys... or to hide nobleman of other countries,
something like that.