Trading with natives

[sav]

Hey guys - jsut started playing Colonization, seems really interesting, but I do have one, maybe two questions.

When you first enter a tribe's settlement, they tell you what resource they need most, and I assume this is what they will pay most for. But as there are so many tribes around, after this initial meeting, how do I see which tribe wants which resource the most?

And secondly, is it always better financially to trade with Europe, but mroe convenient to trade with natives?

Cheers in advance

 

[Refar]

In the city bar of each native village (that you alredy visited) is a small icon, showing what good they want.
Regardless of what they really want, selling them musketes usually yields good results.

Also it's financially more rewarding to trade with natives - i.e. early in the game, when your industry is not big yet, you can make big profit buying musketes in europe, and selling them to villagers. They do however tend to run out of money rather quickly. I think they "regenerate" a few gold pieces per turn - but not nearly enought to make it interesting, once they initial gold is spent.

A common - and terrible politically incorrect - approach is, to sell them a few shiploads of musketes first, let them train a few needed colonists, and then - once you got all you want - attack them and burn they villages, to get experienced units and some more gold. You can get treasures and a converted natives by burning a native settlement.

 

[angry_rebel]

The downside to arming the natives with muskets (and horses) is that they will start churning out stronger warriors ("Armed natives," and if I'm not mistaken, they can do so at half the needed number of weapons/horses, 25 instead of 50 on normal length games).

So if you're going to arm them, make sure to keep them on your good side. One strategy I use is to find a rival colony that has founded a settlement right next to a native village, and then I'll sell guns to that village. More than likely, the natives of that village are going to get annoyed with their European land-grabbing neighbors, and now you've helped even the odds and made a profit at the same time. Then watch them duke it out while your ships go to buy more guns from Europe.

(I've even given guns away sometimes to the natives, in revenge for an opposing AI declaring war on me very early in the game, or if their privateers are harassing me. If you give the natives a good deal or a few gifts, it seems to build relations much faster)

 

[Refar]

Well, there is something to it, but i for my part am for fair play. If i am going to kill them all to take they land and they gold, selling a few musketes to them first is the least i can. Not that it makes any difference in the end...

 

[joelwest]

So if you're going to arm them, make sure to keep them on your good side.

One strategy I use is to find a rival colony that has founded a settlement right next to a native village, and then I'll sell guns to that village. More than likely, the natives of that village are going to get annoyed with their European land-grabbing neighbors, and now you've helped even the odds and made a profit at the same time. Then watch them duke it out while your ships go to buy more guns from Europe.

by default the AI plays the native warriors on defensive, and lets your first settlement be only one tile away from a native settlement

hence you can sell all the guns and horses you want to them without fear until their "diplomatic relations" with you deteriorate

this can happen if you do not pay for their land or if you attack one of the neighboring tribes

I have also found that if you get a mission in that native settlement one tile away from your first settlement, soon your culture will overwhelm theirs and their city is assimilated into your colony without a fight

 

[angry_rebel]

by default the AI plays the native warriors on defensive, and lets your first settlement be only one tile away from a native settlement

hence you can sell all the guns and horses you want to them without fear until their "diplomatic relations" with you deteriorate

this can happen if you do not pay for their land or if you attack one of the neighboring tribes

I have also found that if you get a mission in that native settlement one tile away from your first settlement, soon your culture will overwhelm theirs and their city is assimilated into your colony without a fight

That's true. I usually play as the French, so I maintain good relations with most natives anyway.

Also if you attack any AI Colonies that are allies with a native tribe, they'll declare war on you. "You attacked our friend" boo hoo.

In my last game, I had an arsenal with gunsmiths which was spitting out guns almost faster than I could use them, so I loaded up a wagon full of guns and gave them to a tribe near me, and then got a relatively cheap deal for that tribe to make war with the English nearby, who had a privateer ship that would come out and destroy my ships returning from Europe.

The natives destroyed one of the English's largest settlements before peace was made.