What stops everybody playing colonization?

[5tephen]

I'm on a Civ 4 break having hit a bit of a wall in terms of improvement.

Picked up Colonization 4 for around the price of a coffee and wondered why Civ 4 players don’t seem to be very interested in it?

The Civ 4 strategy and tips forum is very active but for Colonization the equivalent forum third thread from the top is from 2009 and I can’t see any of the Civ 4 regulars posting there.

 

[lymond]

I played it some many years ago when I got a Complete version of the game. It seemed fairly popular at the time among colonization type folks, but I can't recall ever discussing with regular Civ IV folks. I found it interesting but it did not keep my interest. I think from a strategy standpoint it's a bit more limited.

What I think might be cool - and not sure if it has been attempted - is a cross-mod that combines some colonization features with BTS like the trading stuff.

 

[Pangaea]

Have never tried it. What features does Colonisation have which regular Civ4 (BTS) does not?

 

[lymond]

Have never tried it. What features does Colonisation have which regular Civ4 (BTS) does not?

It's really a different game with quite different mechanics. Been a long time, but you basically start as one of the American colonizing nations (Dutch, British, French or Spanish). You settle a city and gradually expand, but besides food and production, your goal is to nab certain resources like tobacco and cotton and trade it back home to the Motherland. How you manage that trade is important. The king grants you stuff at certain points. Your ultimate goal is to achieve a certain amount of points so that you can declare independence and fight the King, who will send a rather sizable force. At this point, you should be able to build Rifles and Cannons to fight them off. The selection of units is limited.

I can't remember if there research in the game. There may be some other factor that advances you a bit, but don't recall research being important at all. The period is very focused - colonization - so you at least start the Muskets or maybe Rifles from the start. I think Natives appear with some cities that you can conquer, assimilate or maybe trade with. And I may be wrong but at least one other civ (of the 3 you don't select) may appear to start colonizing too and you can either get along with them or not.

The mechanics around trade, and resource gathering. are probably the most unique aspect of the game, and maybe the most important. I think that and expansion are the biggest factors in eventually declaring independence and winning that war which wins the game.

 

[5tephen]

As Lymond says. There’s no tech tree. Quite a limited supply of units - how to spend these and which buildings to focus on appear to be the main tactical decisions along with a balance between tall/wide empire. Progression seems to come through getting more specialised units - an expert farmer will generate vastly more food on a farm than an indentured servant.

Seems fun after a few attempts - still trying to work out the game mechanics - there are things like schools, churches, liberty bells that I can’t work out when is best to build if at all. Coming from Civ 4 I have a healthy scepticism of buildings and a love of food!

 

[lymond]

Seems fun after a few attempts food!

I've been tooling around with Colonization a bit. Played a coupla vanilla games...partly...but you really need to play this game with a mod. TAC ("The Authentic Colonization") is the old standby and I've been trying it again (played it many years ago some). However, TAC has actually evolved twice now into two separate mods, of which "We The People" is the most current and still updated version. I've only watched videos of LPs of WTP, but it really looks like it adds a ton of nice features and makes the game have more of a Civ feel to it. I'll probably try that after playing TAC some. TAC's goal was just to improve on the base game and bring in some, or all, of the aspects of the original Colonization game that were missing. In other words, it does not add too much but makes Col2 feel like the game it shoulda been at release. (Someone did a game of the month series with this mod years ago which I played (and sucked at) back then a few times)

 

[5tephen]

Thanks @lymond

I'm going to play a bit more of the base game and then give the mods a try

 

[traius]

From what I remember, liberty bells are what bring the King's army down upon you. So you actually want to avoid producing those until you are ready for the final conflict. And that is the entirety of my remaining knowledge of Colonisation

 

[lymond]

From what I remember, liberty bells are what bring the King's army down upon you. So you actually want to avoid producing those until you are ready for the final conflict. And that is the entirety of my remaining knowledge of Colonisation

Well, that is only partially true. Liberty bells are also culture, so you do want to produce some of that. TAC mod (and later) does a couple of things that both improves the use of bells and lessens the impact on revolution over time. First, bells provide culture but also improve the efficiency of your laborers. Second, the revolution is slower and the bells progression toward it is slowed. So, you want to be producing at least some bells constantly.

I'd say the game really needs to be played with at least the TAC mod, which really improves the game a lot while not adding to much. TAC evolved into R&R (religion and revolution), which I've not tried. R&R evolved into the current We The People, which I have played a bit. WtP add a ton of stuff and gives the game a more Civ-like feel. I'm probably going to play more TAC for now though.

 

[Gumbolt]

Used to play the original game before Firaxis made it a Civ 4 game. Think it was a mix of taking out the foreign AI each time they try to settle cities. Conquer the rich indian tribes and get enough Elder statemen to get independence.

Once you do declare wait for the English to land and attack with dragoons in the field so they get the advantage. I think after a while at war with English the foreign ships arive to aid you in war. Good fun in the day.

I wouldn't expect Colonization to match a newer game. It was originaly released 1994/1995? I think I still have the old game not sure it would install by disk.

 

[lymond]

I wouldn't expect Colonization to match a newer game.

(I thought it was earlier than that but don't really know) Anyway, the modders have done a good job creating a version of IVcol into facsimile thereabouts of the original with TAC (The Authentic Colonization Mod) - at least everyone says so as I don't know, but playing it is a huge improvement over base. WeThePeople takes TAC and makes it into something even more...quite a bit more....maybe too much ..ha.

At its core its mostly an Economic with a bit of war for desert.

 

[Timoteo]

I can't speak for everyone, but for me it was a change in the Founding Fathers mechanic. In the original, you wanted to generate as many "liberty bells" as possible to gain FFs, but doing so in the IV version just made the crown build up its Royal Expeditionary Forces. This make sense from a realism perspective, but it wiped out a big part of the game.

Anyway, the modders have done a good job creating a version of IVcol into facsimile thereabouts of the original with TAC (The Authentic Colonization Mod) - at least everyone says so as I don't know, but playing it is a huge improvement over base

Thanks for the tip on this, I didn't know there were Mods for COL IV.

 

[Xyth]

I used the play the original Colonization a lot on my Amiga. Loved the game mechanics but really disliked the setting/premise.

 

[Pepo]

I quite like it but it as less replayability than Civ Iv does. Still I think some mechanics were better done, and that you could actually build supply chains is something that I would have love to see in IV.

 

[Heathcliff]

Because it is a bad remake. The original colonization is better

 

[SittinDown]

Agreed. Plus, personally, I think from that era, Civ 1, Civ 2, Master of Magic, and Master of Orion are all better games than colonization.

I liked the concept, and thought it was neat from a history / learning perspective, but the rules never quite felt right to me with that game.