Which FF do I want?

[killerbacon]

Yeah I guess Casas and Hooker do go together well.

As for Cabral, combining him with de Bermudez means that my Merchantmen are in Europe the turn after they leave port (using a huge custom map) and back home again one turn later, which is a big advantage. Galleons can't do that so I usually only buy one (for treasure) and do all my trading with Merchantmen.

It does put Minuit at risk as you say. I just trade like mad and cross my fingers. So far I've been lucky.

This goes against some earlier replies. If Minuit is on the trading track and the others are on the exploration track, why do they affect the chances of getting him. I thought earlier it was stated that only the one track and the politics one was affected.

 

[Refar]

Because everyone uses Political Points.

 

[dalgo]

This goes against some earlier replies. If Minuit is on the trading track and the others are on the exploration track, why do they affect the chances of getting him. I thought earlier it was stated that only the one track and the politics one was affected.

As Refar says they both use political points. For instance in my present game Cabral costs 516 exploration points and 258 political points. The exp points are easy to get so when he was on offer my political points would have just reached the 258 mark. Accepting him sent that total back to zero. Then I had to save up another 344 political points as well as the 516 trade points needed for Minuit. So by taking Cabral I did risk being beaten to Minuit.

 

[killerbacon]

gotcha...
I was thinking that the politics one was a separate track alltogether. I havent had a chance to play this that much. 3-4 hours tops in the 3 weeks I have had it.

 

[benfp]

As it was mentioned previously, Peter Minuit (Units cost 25% less to purchase in Europe) is probably the best Founding Father whatever the game settings are.

Also, Founding Fathers like

• Alexander Hamilton (+3 per Town Hall)
• William Penn (+3 crosses per Town Hall)

scale well with a big empire. On Marathon speed and Huge maps, when building 50+ cities, Penn turns being a more valuable asset than Minuit. Hamilton will be of great use in all the small cities used to gather raw resources (tobacco, ore, etc.) to first build docks & warehouses then build political points to gather more founding fathers. Later, Lewis & Clark (Pioneers require 50% less Tools; +1 for Wagon Trains) give you bonuses for cities development while Benjamin Franklin (+3 Liberty Bells per Printing Press and Newspaper) and James Madison (+3 Guns per Armory, Magazine, and Arsenal) respectively help building up Liberty Bells and Guns in your settlements. On Quick speed and Small maps, Founding Fathers that provide an immediate un-scalable benefit like Thomas Hooker (Provides 3 Jesuit Missionaries) and Diego Velazquez de Cuellar (Provides 3 indentured servants) may be better.
Depending on your nation and leader choice, you should try to get FF that have good synergy with your trait, e.g. for John Adams, New England (+25% Liberty Bells in all settlements; -25% Crosses needed for immigration):

• Sor Juana (+3 Crosses per Church and Cathedral)
• Gabriel Lallemant (+50% production of Church and Cathedral)
• Gregorio de Mattos e Guerra (+2 Liberty Bells per Church; +3 Liberty Bells per Cathedral)
• William Penn (+3 Crosses per Town Hall; Strengthens relations with the natives)
• Lord Baltimore (Increases Cross production by the tax rate)
• John Winthrop (+1 Cross per Town Hall)
• Benjamin Franklin (+3 Liberty Bells per Printing Press and Newspaper)

Some of the FF seem very useless to me like Giovanni de Verrazano (Provides 1 Caravel) and Jacques Marquette (+1 for Scouts).

 

[dalgo]

Some of the FF seem very useless to me like Giovanni de Verrazano (Provides 1 Caravel) and Jacques Marquette (+1 for Scouts).

How did you get the and ?

Actually I like Marquette. It means faster trips for my trainees to and from the Indian villages.

 

[benfp]

The is :hammers : (remove the space between : and s).
The is :move :.

Too bad we still lack crosses and liberty bells symbols.

As for the tactic of fast-moving colonists by transforming them into Scouts or Dragons, it's a very neat technique (tho, one which requires some micromanagement when done extensively). It seems to me that when competing on FFs, you can use one of the following Founding Fathers to develop even further this technique:
Jacques Marquette (+1 for Scouts) costs 6705 EP / 2565 PP
Francisco de Coronado (+1 for Dragoons) costs 810 MP / 1620 PP

Jacques Marquette looks here like an opportunity to still apply this technique even if you missed Francisco de Coronado. On a side note, playing French (50% less time needed living among natives to learn a new skill) enhances even further the tactic.