So how do you start a typical game?

[Morthis]

So I've had Civ 4 Colonization for like 2 years or something, but I've never played it much besides messing around from time to time. I guess the problem is, I understand how the game work, but unlike Civ 4, I just have no clue how to go about things. I don't know what would make good city locations, I don't know what resources to focus on early, I just know the overall goal with some vague concept of how to get there.

So I suppose the question is, what do you consider a good city? What kind of resources do you look for? Do I want a ton of forests for my first city for lumber/hammers? Should I look for strong seafood to keep my cities going? I don't really know how to tell the difference between a great settle location and a poor one. Should I get a strong food city early that can keep other cities supplied since food is rather expensive to buy, or should each city ideally be self sufficient?

I've been reading over some of the guides, and they're definitely helpful in realizing what the overall strategy is, but I'm still not sure about some of those details, especially when it comes to early game choices. Would appreciate some insight into this, thanks.

 

[Mutineer]

you should stop to think about it as a civ game, instead think about it as an opportunist game.
Make a quick dollar.
So basicly you do need one or more food rich cities to put your industry and/or education in.

Everything else is just to collect raw resources.
At the end of day only military industry will matter, to fight mother country. Everything else is just a way to build one

 

[dalgo]

I look for at least one sea bonus tile for my capital (crab or fish) with no mountains, tundra or desert in the colony radius. There also needs to be at least one forest for timber. The position is important too, as close as possible to a sea lane to Europe, preferably no more than 5 tiles away.

When my colonists found that initial colony I start building a Dock and take the guns off the soldier to sell to the nearest native village (and that is the one and only time I'll sell guns to the local tribe). By the time my ship gets back to Europe there should be another colonist to pick up and I can afford 100 horses. This is enough to send two scouts off to explore immediately and pick up all the gold that is available early in the game.

Once you have a better idea of the territory surrounding your capital you can decide where to settle further colonies depending on the terrain and the resources available. I prefer CxxC spacing with a diversified economy, each colony self-sufficient and producing one type of finished goods. As an example, if your second colony is settled on grassland then it will start producing tobacco and you should buy a tobacconist from Europe when you can afford him.

Often your early expansion will depend on the specialists in the immigration queue. Make the most of their skills. If you get a firebrand preacher early build a church for him. Set a hardy pioneer to improving your land, a seasoned scout would be a bonus, add him to your explorers, a blacksmith should be producing tools etc etc.

 

[Morthis]

What do you build early on? I'm always lost as to what to build.

I played another game, I made a lot of mistakes, but I think I had a better grasp of what I was doing. I founded my first city close to Europe. I had 2 corn on plains, forest plains, 2 water tiles without special resources, and 3 forest plains tiles. Since I had no clue what specifically I should be doing, I put my worker on wood and after getting a little wood on the lumbermill while building a church. I figured the church would be nice since I was playing as English for the immigration. I got an expert farmer pretty early from immigration so I put him on corn, and bought a second one later. I built a lumbermill, but completely forgot about tools, and then brought goods instead of tools from Europe by accident.

It took a good while to found a second city, probably way too long. I settled it on a fur/wood heavy location thinking I could use the fur to turn into coats to sell, and I could use the wood to speed up production when needed. I set up a wagon to move food from my first colony to my second one (the second one had no good food sources), and the fur to my first colony. In the first colony I upgraded the vest building, I forgot the name, and had 2 expert furtraders working in it. Problem was, I never built a third city until I was running completely out of food, and since I was on a relatively small island, I probably should have moved a scout onto the mainland. Things started going downhill a bit when I had nowhere near enough food to supply all the people I now had. I had like 6 just waiting in my cities, unable to work because of food. I'm guessing my big mistake was not founding more cities (or even settling on such a small island to begin with, it was maybe big enough for 4-5 colonies without overlap, and had 2 native villages).

A few questions. I never see goods mentioned, yet their entire purpose seems to be to take from Europe and sell to natives. Should I pretty much fill up empty spots on my ship with goods, or will this increase taxes too much (I'm not sure if taxes go up based on the amount of gold used in trades or the amount of units traded)? What kind of buildings are typically the best choices early on? I'm sure it depends on your resources, leader choice, strategy, etc, but just a general guideline would be nice. Should I buy a second ship from Europe? I did in my game because for a while people were flocking in so fast I couldn't keep up, but then later on I just explored with my second ship since it didn't have much to do, so maybe I shouldn't have bought it.

Sorry for all the questions.

 

[dalgo]

What do you build early on? I'm always lost as to what to build.

You can't go too far wrong by building the cheapest each time ie Dock/Stockade/Warehouse/Wagon then one of Weavers Shop, Fur Trading Post, Rum Distillery or Tobacconist Shop depending on resources.

A few questions. I never see goods mentioned, yet their entire purpose seems to be to take from Europe and sell to natives. Should I pretty much fill up empty spots on my ship with goods, or will this increase taxes too much (I'm not sure if taxes go up based on the amount of gold used in trades or the amount of units traded)? What kind of buildings are typically the best choices early on? I'm sure it depends on your resources, leader choice, strategy, etc, but just a general guideline would be nice. Should I buy a second ship from Europe? I did in my game because for a while people were flocking in so fast I couldn't keep up, but then later on I just explored with my second ship since it didn't have much to do, so maybe I shouldn't have bought it.

Trade goods are of little use unfortunately. They don't make much profit and buying them pushes up your tax rate. Taxes go up depending on the quantity of goods you buy, not the price.

Certainly buy a second ship (and more when you can afford them). Use them to ferry colonists to native villages for training, for moving your scouts across the ocean and for trading with the native tribes. Send one ship right round the pole to reach the Pacific Ocean and trade with the villages on the West Coast. Later use them to carry troops when you invade another European power.

Keep expanding your colonies to make use of the extra colonists you will get, especially playing as England. Try and avoid building on an island as you quickly run out of room, as you found out.

Sorry for all the questions.

No problem

 

[Morthis]

I'm in another game, things are going well. I'm about 100 turns in, I've got an ironworks pumping out tools and a magazine turning most of that into guns. I've got some privateers raiding the other nation's supply lines as well, and great income from silver, coats, cigars and cloth.

The only thing is, I'm not entirely sure where to go from here lol. Should I be looking at building up rebellion to declare independence at this stage? It seems early, I only have 5 cities, but at the same time, I have 9000 gold and I'm not even sure what to spend it on. Also, how come I can't buy some specialists in Europe? There's no sugar planters, and I never found natives that can teach me that either. Is my only other option then to wait for a sugar planter immigrant and use schools to train more?

 

[Malkaviel]

I agree with very little of what dalgo said in this thread.

Sugar planters only come from indian training. Same with tobacco and cotton planters and the fur guys. Seasoned scouts are trained in villages, or may pop up on the dock, but are not purchasable like other experts.

As for your game now? I dunno, it's kinda overdeveloped imo. I like to run really lean, with 1 or 2 cities and declare independence asap, especially in mp games against people I teach or have read my strat posts.

How to spend 9000 gold? You need 3 elder statesmen in a city hall with newspaper for every 20 "colonists" (including city population, military units except cannons, does not include ships) you have, to get to 50%, unless you have like, sam adams or some similar FF. So school some statesmen (500g each after teaching duration) and make lots of dragoons. Lots of dragoons. I turn my entire population inside out to dragoons when I declare. People are like, why is Isabella population 1? I'm like, they're all dragoons now. Then kill every REF as they land on your shores.