Simple guide to independence.

[milvang]

Here is a simple guide to winning the war of independence WOI. It wont tell you how to play the rest iof the game, since there are lots of ways to do that, and finding your own is the fun part.

The path to winning has 4 steps.

1. Stop producing liberty bells after you have the founding fathers you consider critical. I know rebel sitement is nice, but it really makes the WOI that much harder. It is fine to produce some early to get some needed political points, and if you really want to it may be OK to have one city at high independence, but it can by risky business. You will need to produce political points with carpenters to offset the missing liberty bells.

2. Play the game as you like, while arming for war. Do NOT get any solders or cannons from the king at this stage (they trigger growth of the kings forces). Produce your own, and if you need to fight natives or other Europeans, do it with non-veterans or veterans from the docks. Buying guns and horses is fine. Build up an army (or rather stockpile to make an army), so you have sufficient forces to win the war. As a rule of thumb you want at least as many dragoons as the king has, you probably want twice that to be on the safe side. Since you are not producing bells or buying forces, the kings army will not grow, so getting a bigger army of your own, is usually just a question of time. to save up some stockpiled gold for step 3.

3. When you think you are ready for war, spread out and produce liberty bells like mad. Only 3 colonists per city can produce bells, so you probably want to spread out and build extra cities. Stockpile some food in advance, so you don't need to worry. Founding fathers that add bell percents are nice, and so are printing presses, but not essential. You will want to have at least 50% of you total (including outside settlements) population producing liberty bells, the more the better. Stop worrying about anything that makes money, cash products are worthless from this point basically. Send ships to Europe and buy extra ships if you need to. and use all the saved up money to buy troops and cannons. Do not rely on making more then one trip with each ship. The result of the extreme liberty bell production and the troop purchase is that the kings army probably grows each turn. If you haven't produced too mane bells along the way, he should not be adding more than 1 or 2 troops per growth.

4. As soon as the rebel sentiment hits 50% you declare independence. Keep producing as many liberty bells as you can, getting rebel sentiment bonus makes the war easier. With these preparations winning the war should be withing reach.

Recap

1. Stop producing bells.
2. Arm for war, without purchasing troops from the king
3. When ready, go all out bell production, and buy troops from the king.
4. Declare independence and win.

Hope that helps someone

 

[HermannLombard]

As you say, there are many ways to get to the WoI. You can win a bit easier by refining your method, but your method will work fine.

1. Don't start producing Liberty Bells until you're ready to surge to independence. (As you say, you can produce a few for early FF--or to bump a border--but in vanilla the useful early ones are Cabral and Minuit, and those you can get with hammers.)

2 & 3. Don't ever buy troops from the king, but by all means buy a cadre of veterans in Europe. If you wish, you can train them further on Indians and nearby Europeans.

Personally, I buy one Elder Statesman in Europe and then use a University to train 3 per town. With ES, no need to limit yourself much on population, but the fewer towns the faster, both in training ES and in raising rebel spirit. Two or three towns is plenty for the minimalist approach.

As many dragoons as the King has are plenty, but it's so easy to get the guns and horses (in Vanilla) that I usually have more.

If you want more of a challenge, build more towns and produce LB all along the way. With a large REF you'll be fighting against odds of 1:2 or more, but this gives you scope to apply some tactics rather than just blasting them all on the turn they land.

Also if you want more of a challenge, try Age of Discovery II. Among other things, the REF starts at triple the size of Vanilla, but grows more slowly.

 

[milvang]

I disagree on using hammers only to get founding fathers. I usually produce belles til I have Pochanontas, as I like playing peace with natives. You most certainly can do withput producing any at all, but I do not like that tactic.

By buying troops from king i mean both requesting them, or buying veterans or cannons directly. Byuing cannons an veterans during the bell surge, is still very effectrive. I do not believe in buying them early and training them, as they also count liberty bells buying.

Lets not get into education, or how to get a bigger challenge. This is meant as a simple guide to actually beating the game the first few times, not the end all be all strategy guide

I do play AOD2, and the larger size of the starting REF, but slower growth makes it much more viable to produce bells along the way. But I posted the guide here, as it really only deals with vanilla.

 

[HermannLombard]

I'm sorry if I seemed at all critical, I understand you didn't intend a comprehensive strategy guide. My intent was to make it even a little easier, mixed with a bit of MMMV (My Mileage...).

Unless you ask the King for help, buying veterans and cannon have no impact on the REF. The only thing that influences the REF is Liberty Bell production, and only buying directly from the King counts as Liberty Bell equivalents. If you just hit "Purchase" those vets and cannon do not have any impact on the REF. When it comes to "end all be all" there's nothing like "Axxon's Guide to All You Want To Know About REF, Rebel Sentiment and Revolution" in the strat section.

 

[milvang]

Actually I have been supplementing my REF and liberty understanding from Axxons guid with this: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=7354972

From that I got the impression that buying cannons or veterans at all contributed liberty bells. I guess I will have to do actual testing to see which is correct

 

[HermannLombard]

Just to clarify on point 3b.

Can someone answer this?

Do military units and cannons bought in the Europe screen count towards the REF?

Or is it only units I am buying directly from the King in Diplomacy screen?

So far, I think it is the second, but if someone could answer this, it'd be great.

***********************

Yes, the second. And they are HUGE effect. 1000gp used for such unit gives same effect as generating 1000 liberty bells.

I think both that Chinese analysis and Axxon's are based on direct examination of the XML, so they should be accurate. However, empirical testing is always useful, so let us know what you find.

In my anecdotal testing I have never seen an addition to the REF prior to my LB surge, unless I'm sneaking in a few early LB to bump a border or to bring in an FF. I suppose that could be because I gather there will be no additions on turns when you don't generate at least one bell from one town.

 

[Droknar]

I have not noticed any correlation with buying guns and horses and REF troop build-up. Then only thing that buying those goods does is trigger tax increases...but then, buying or selling ANYTHING at the docks will do that. The only thing that affects REF build-up is rebel sentiment, not buying guns, horses, or even cannons. I always stock up on plenty of guns, horses, and cannons from the European dock before declaring Independence, and the REF is no bigger whether I buy or make guns.

 

[prolefeed]

"Stop producing liberty bells after you have the founding fathers you consider critical."

I will translate that as "keep on churning out liberty bells as fast as you can all game long, and damn the REF buildup"

Those FF are USEFUL, and allow you to do stuff that more than compensates for the increased REF buildup.

Seriously, please point out the part of each of the quasi-tech trees where no further really useful FF exist.

 

[HermannLombard]

It's not a matter of "no further really useful FF" but lots of midgame FF that aren't that useful, especially on the exploration, religion, and trade lines. [This is especially true for most of those who produce a few crosses or goods for each of a certain type of building, if you only have 3 or 4 towns that's a tiny bonus.] The Late LB Surge then picks up the strong Political and Military leaders that power rebel spirit and the WoI.

Bear in mind there's absolutely nothing wrong with your approach, it produces the sort of game that you enjoy. The Late LB Surge is an easy way to win without facing a large REF, for those in the mood for that sort of game.