So I just played a game as Portugal on a Terra Incognita map, which is like Terra, but sometimes the new world doesn't exist. After a rush to Astronomy and a quick scouring of the globe, I found nothing but a few island chains off opposite coast of my continent. Nothing too exciting, but because I went into the game with the intention of setting up colonies, I figured I might as well go ahead and do it.
I plopped down two cities on tiny islands with unique resources. I bought a workshop in each and a cargo ship in each and sent them back and forth with production. Right off the bat, these two cities had 12 hammers. 2 from the workshops, 7 from the cargo ships and 3 from the commerce social policy. They were able to get up and running and I became a political player on the other side of the globe in no time. I was able to take advantage of some--ahem--political strife between Poland and the Inca and grabbed a few cities with ships I was able to produce on these tiny islands.
Before long my ex-Incan capital became my major trade hub, able to reach all the more lucrative cities I couldn't with my capital. I was able to spin that into one of the biggest domination victories I've ever had.
All this is to say that in BNW, the first time in any game I've played in the series, colonization seems to be a truly viable and powerful strategy. It gives you a real reason to explore and a chance for a civ that's struggling in the early game to become a major power in the mid game.
I plopped down two cities on tiny islands with unique resources. I bought a workshop in each and a cargo ship in each and sent them back and forth with production. Right off the bat, these two cities had 12 hammers. 2 from the workshops, 7 from the cargo ships and 3 from the commerce social policy. They were able to get up and running and I became a political player on the other side of the globe in no time. I was able to take advantage of some--ahem--political strife between Poland and the Inca and grabbed a few cities with ships I was able to produce on these tiny islands.
Before long my ex-Incan capital became my major trade hub, able to reach all the more lucrative cities I couldn't with my capital. I was able to spin that into one of the biggest domination victories I've ever had.
All this is to say that in BNW, the first time in any game I've played in the series, colonization seems to be a truly viable and powerful strategy. It gives you a real reason to explore and a chance for a civ that's struggling in the early game to become a major power in the mid game.
fantastic idea.
