The Liberty Bell exploit

[dalgo]

Liberty Bells are the most powerful mechanic in the game and it is possible to exploit them in the following way:

Early game: Each time you found a new colony make your first colonist a statesman, and keep him in the Town Hall permanently. Only move him out if you are replacing him with someone better. Build a Printing Press as either your 1st or 2nd building (depending on tools). Start exploring/trading aggressively to build up those points in tandem with your Political points. Use these points to recruit early Founding Fathers (especially Peter Minuit).

Middle game: Buy Elder Statesmen to replace your initial colonists as you can afford them and build Newspapers. Add Churches for Religion points (and immigration) and fight a war or two to get Military points. Continue to recruit Founding Fathers and look for those that can help your Liberty Bell production (eg Guerra, Adams, Franklin, Jay, Henry).

Late game, leading up to your DOI: By now you should have 3 Elder Statesmen in every Town Hall and 100% Rebel Sentiment in every colony. Your bell production is huge and your economy is rocking. As an example from a recent game, each of my colonies was producing 86 bells per turn (9 from buildings, 18 from statesmen, +100% for buildings, +25% from John Jay, + 47% from Samuel Adams and +50% from Rebel Sentiment) and my production colonies were producing 72 of each commodity each turn. Your FF list should now be 30+ with all the most valuable fathers already in Congress. I generally aim for an overall Rebel Sentiment of 75% + before I declare independence. Make sure to choose ‘Separation of Church and State’ and ‘Controlled Arms’ for even more bells.

War of Independence: All that concentration on liberty bells produces a huge REF and it does look impressive on the revolution advisor screen. But guess what, they all turn out to be wimps, and they only land a few at a time anyway. Because of the Military FF you have accepted and your +25% RS bonus you will start with Combat Odds of over 70% and that will quickly ramp up into the 90’s as your troops earn experience and your overall Rebel Sentiment approaches 100%. Attack the enemy as soon as they land (I prefer dragoons but soldiers get big bonuses too) and although you might lose the odd battle in the first few turns you’ll soon be able to routinely clean up a complete landing without loss.

Footnote. Obviously this is not an exploit, and is in fact how the game is designed to be played. However some players like to think they are taking some sneaky advantage over the game and prefer to play something labelled an ‘exploit’. Of course anyone is entitled to use whatever tactics they like, this method just works best for me.

 

[Lord Chambers]

You will start with Combat Odds of over 70% and that will quickly ramp up into the 90’s as your troops earn experience. Attack the enemy as soon as they land (I prefer dragoons but soldiers get big bonuses too) and although you might lose the odd battle in the first few turns you’ll soon be able to routinely clean up a complete landing without loss.

You're describing a regular game. And a regular game will end tens of turns earlier, with hours less time spent playing because the REF is smaller.

The Founding Fathers don't impact most of the odds you face. The best odds you can engineer are Dragoons attacking REF inside a city with 0% defense. The worst odds you should face is 70% when your cannon attacks their cannon in a colony.

Actually I think a fortified soldier on 50% terrain is slightly under 70% without Ranger 1 or Mountaineer 1, but I don't remember. This combat scenario doesn't happen often enough to matter.

So keep exploiting those liberty bells to get Founding Fathers which other than Peter Minuit are unimportant and uneccesary. Maybe if the game wasn't a complete wash at Revolutionary you'd see your strategy is suboptimal compared to keeping the REF smaller.

 

[dalgo]

True I play a regular game (on a huge map) so my comments are based on that. However as I said everyone is entitled to use whatever tactics they like, this method just works best for me.

 

[Imagawa99]

i have to say i have tryed this on revolutionary difficulty and the REF turned up over 1000 strong with 600+ regulars alone and they were not wimps.... infact they didnt even bother to land to get my first colony they just took it straight from the sea with sheer numbers of attacks and then flooded inland

i then quit

 

[Desert-Fox]

I don't see why you have to fight against huge REF when you can do it against small one

 

[Freddy K]

I've been playing the pu$$y tacticts so far, tolling bells only in the very early and very late game, numbers were 1:1 once the armed servants converged toward my coastal fortess. The King only had six M-o-Ws allowing me a rather easy naval victory.

BTW because the MoWs stick around for a turn or two to bombard one's city fortifications, the player actually gains some more time before the next landing party arrives.

My question: What happens when the king has a bigger fleet, will all Ships arrive at once, and unload 4 Units each?

 

[dalgo]

My question: What happens when the king has a bigger fleet, will all Ships arrive at once, and unload 4 Units each?

Thank goodness, no. One game he had 36 Man-o-War but he was only landing 16 troops at a time for most of the war.