Colonization - A Beginner’s Guide The very first thing to realise about Colonization is that it isn’t Civilization. This might sound obvious, but if you’re a Civ fan, you will find the game’s main interface familiar, allowing you to get to grips with the game very quickly. However, don’t be over-confident - you’ll just as quickly find that there are some significant differences. Colonization is a far deeper game than its predecessor, and requires a lot more thought to master. It’s also far more flexible. Civilization had certain plans and techniques that were inherently more successful than others, allowing definitive advice to be given about the game. One of the problems with a guide to Colonization is that it is just that - a guide. There is nearly always more than one way to go about things, and which way you choose comes down to personal preference. So bear that in mind when reading this. The other problem is that virtually everything in Colonization is inter-dependant. The various parts of the game can’t really be considered in a vacuum, so although this guide has been split into sections, each will often contain references to others. National Pride And Its Consequences The first major choice you have to make in Colonization is that of your nationality. As with so many things in the game this decision has a significant effect on many other areas, and rather than being a matter of cosmetic appeal it will actually have a major effect on your overall strategy. In Colonization there are two broad ways to go about creating your new nation - conquest or settlement. In a conquest game you actively carve out your new nation’s boundaries by attacking and pillaging native settlements. There are several advantages to this approach. You don’t have to worry about the positioning of native settlements relative to your own, and won’t need to spend money buying land from the Indians - you’ll just take it. Likewise, if a native settlement is occupying a perfect location for a colony, you can just wipe it out and build on the now clear land. Perhaps most importantly of all, the loot stolen from ravaged native settlements provides you with a ready supply of cash, and thus you don’t have to spend as much time worrying about building a stable, profitable economy at the start of the game. There are, of course, down sides to a conquest strategy, though. For every native settlement that’s destroyed you lose points (the higher the difficulty level, the more you lose), thus lowering your overall score. You’ll need to strongly defend all of your colonies as soon as they’re founded, to protect against retaliatory raids from the justifiably upset natives, and the cost of building and maintaining an effective army almost as soon as the game starts can be crippling. You won’t be able to rely on aid from the natives, whether in the form of gifts, training for colonists or trade for your colonies. Lastly, by the time you’ve dealt with all the Indians you may find yourself lagging behind in the vital areas of politics, religion and trade. A settlement game, on the other hand, takes a more peaceful approach. The idea is generally to live alongside the local native nations and coexist with them. Basically, this is pretty much the opposite to a conquest strategy. It allows you to concentrate on building up a strong, self-supporting network of colonies right from the start of the game, developing them politically and religiously as well as creating the stable trade that’s vital to success. It also means that you can get help from the Indians in the form of gifts, trade, training and converts. You don’t have to spend so much time and money defending your colonies. And, of course, you won’t lose any Colonization score from destroying native settlements. The disadvantages are pretty much the same as the advantages for a conquest game - you have to spend a lot of thought and worry keeping the natives happy with you, and you’ll often find that their settlements occupy the exact spot on which you wanted to build. Of the possible nationalities the Spanish, with their 50% bonus when attacking native settlements, are the most suitable for a conquest strategy - in fact, they’re not really suited to anything else. The French, on the other hand, are the best suited to a co-operative settlement style. Of the other two, the Dutch lie somewhere in the middle, although to take the most advantage of their trade bonuses they should concentrate on a settlement strategy, and only attack native Americans when there’s a specific goal in mind. The English are the most flexible nation - they don’t have any specific advantages in either a settlement or conquest game, there are just more people to work with. Getting Started It’s important to start your first colony as soon as possible, giving you a base of operations from which to expand. However, it’s also important to get a good starting position, which often takes time. The ideal balance between these two objectives is hard to define, but it’s normally best to build your first colony as soon as you can, then if you discover that there’s a better area later, you can always just concentrate your efforts there. Once you’ve got a base of operations you should then start to explore as much of the New World as possible. Get an experienced scout and use him to explore the land, and as soon as you can afford it buy a Privateer to explore the oceans and find new areas (the Privateer is fast, allowing for rapid exploration, and a useful ship to have later in the game). Your scout should enter every Indian village he discovers. Although there is a risk, at the start of the game most native nations are very friendly and you can often gain useful cash in this manner. Likewise, explore all the “rumours” that you can find, for much the same reasons. It might also be worth noting down the skills offered by nearby Indian settlements (this is always let out in the form ...known for our blah blahs’ when your scout enters a village). That way you’ll know where to send unskilled colonists later. Colonies And Colonists While you’re exploring, you should also be developing your first and subsequent colonies. There are two aspects to this - the internal growth of each colony and the external relationship between each of them. On an individual level each colony needs to be developed to a “minimum level” as soon as possible. This consists of a carpenter, lumberjack, statesman and priest, preferably gained in that order. Of course, you also need to be providing enough food for all of these people. If possible, it’s a good idea for each colony to be producing its own stock of tools as well, requiring a miner of some kind and a blacksmith. Finally, the colony needs to be defended. A cannon and a soldier are pretty much the bare minimum here - two cannons and two experienced dragoons would be safer. The first colonist in a newly founded colony should be put to work producing as much food as possible. Large food reserves are the only way to produce “home- grown” people, and its vital that you continue to provide as much food as possible. The next immigrant should be put to work as a lumberjack, and once he’s filled the warehouse with lumber, switched to a career in carpentry and started building things, then switch back to chopping down trees when the lumber runs out, and so on. After this it’s a matter of balancing food production with the next requirement in line. In a new colony it’s often a good idea to make both the first and second colonists pioneers. When the first one reaches a likely spot for building a new colony he can then clear any forest on the square before starting the colony (increasing the amount of food produced by the colony square itself), and when the colony starts, his remaining tools will be placed in storage. The next colonist can then come along and develop the land around the colony before joining it and becoming a lumberjack (as above), picking up more tools from it if he runs out - remember, though, to leave at least one forest square for producing lumber. Providing that the colony is on the coast, the first structure to be built inside should nearly always be a dock. As already stated, food production is vital to your success and fishing has several advantages over land-based food production. The ocean squares cannot be put to any other use, so you’re not wasting land that can be used to produce trade goods. Ocean squares cannot be blockaded as easily as land squares, so even if the colony is put under siege by enemy troops, you’ll still be producing food. Lastly, a coastal ocean square with a fishery icon being used by an expert fisherman produces more food than any other single square - 12 units. After the docks, the next few buildings are harder to prioritise, and will depend largely on the position of the colony, both in terms of the immediate terrain and on a larger scale. Colonies likely to be attacked should probably go for a stockade, whereas less threatened ones should consider a warehouse. As to the colonists themselves, it’s always best if each one is a specialist in the job they’re doing. If you’re using an untrained or unsuited colonist, you’re wasting potential, so concentrate on getting the right type for the job. Some careers can be “home-grown” virtually from the start, such as fishermen, who are common and easily taught (requiring only a schoolhouse and existing fisherman). Others, such as statesmen, are rarer (only one is normally needed per colony, at least in the early and middle stages of the game) and harder to teach. With these it’s often worth the extra money to pay for a fully trained expert from the Royal College. As a last resort, you can always leave a basic colonist doing the same job, in the hope that he’ll spontaneously learn the skill, but this takes time and is uncommon. Colonies And Colonists, Continued... Although it’s important, even vital, to develop each colony to the point discussed last month (a carpenter, lumberjack, statesman and priest, together with enough farmers and/or fisherman to produce an excess), while achieving this objective you must decide whether to make self-sufficient colonies, or specialist ones that work together. Self-sufficient colonies both produce and refine their own trade goods, ready for export back to the Old World or trade with the natives or other European powers. For example, harvesting tobacco and converting it to cigars. Specialist colonies, on the other hand, concentrate on just one stage in the process. For example, one colony produces tobacco, and another converts it into cigars. Self-sufficient colonies should also produce their own tools, requiring a blacksmith and some form of miner. The advantages of this approach are obvious - each of your colonies is an individual, and the loss of one will not drastically affect the others. Unfortunately, the self-sufficient approach is also inefficient - a single colony will rarely be able to produce enough food for both the harvesters and the craftsmen. For example, imagine a colony surrounded by grasslands. If it must support a master tobacconist or two, as well as tobacco harvesters, more of the grasslands will have to be used for farming, lessening the amount of tobacco produced. On the other hand, if the same colony concentrated simply on producing tobacco, without the extra food needs of the tobacconists, it could use more land for tobacco planting, and thus produce more. This is the advantage of the specialist approach. The tobacco is then transported to another colony that uses its land to produce food for the master tobacconists, who convert the tobacco to cigars. The disadvantage of this is the direct opposite of the self-sufficient colony strategy - that your colonies will be interdependent, and the loss of one will often cause problems for the others. In addition, you will have to supply some form of transport to move the raw materials from the producing colony to the refinery. Inland Colonies Building a colony on an inland site (one without direct access to the ocean) is something of a risk. For a start, you can’t transport supplies or colonists straight to them from your ships, making their development slower. Likewise, to transport their production back to the Old World requires a wagon train to first move the goods to a port. Not only do wagon trains require building, but they are also ripe targets for disgruntled natives or other European powers. As there’s no way to “link” a military unit with a wagon, moving them any distance can become a risky proposition. On the other hand, one of the general rules of Colonization is “the more colonies the better”. If there’s a great colony site inland, or you’ve run out of coastal sites and still wish to expand, then it’s often worth going for it. Just be aware of the risks and difficulties. As a rule, then, don’t build any inland colonies at the start of the game, but wait until you’ve got a good base of successful coastal sites. After that, think very carefully about whether the advantages outweigh the problems. Trade Successful trading is one of the basic roots of success in Colonization, and is so tied into almost every aspect of the game that several aspects of it have already been touched upon in other sections. Luckily, trade is quite simple in Colonization. As you don’t have to pay for the production of raw materials, their conversion into finished goods or transporting them, it’s actually very easy to make money. However, Colonization also places great strains on your cash reserves, so you need to make a lot of money if you can. The best way to do this is by variety. Don’t concentrate on producing only one type of trade item, as flooding the market will drive the price down. Try instead to create a steady supply of all of them. Likewise, try to convert as much raw material as possible into its refined version (furs into coats, cotton into cloth and so on) as the higher price for these goods means more profit for you. Also, don’t forget to trade with the natives and other European powers (provided you have Jan de Witt in your Congress). The native villages often offer far better prices than the Old World later in the game, and this is worth the extra effort that trading with them involves. Founding Fathers One of the great advantages of having a statesman in every one of your colonies is that the increased Liberty Bell production will result in your nation gaining more Founding Fathers. These “great minds” have several incredibly useful powers, performing in much the same way as the Wonders Of The World in Civilization. However, depending on your current situation, some of them will be far more useful than others, so care should be taken when choosing which one to get next. At the start of the game, the most useful of all is William Brewster. Also very handy are Hernando de Soto and Sieur de La Salle. In the mid-game a lot will depend on your specific situation. Just remember that it takes quite a while to get a Founding Father, so try to plan ahead for the problems you’ll be facing in the future, rather than choosing a Founding Father whose power will have become redundant by the time he or she arrives. Towards the end of the game, the Founding Fathers become very useful indeed. Nearly all of the Political Advisors, especially Simon Bolivar, are very useful when trying to up the rebel feeling in your budding nation, and Peter Stuyvesant is vital if you wish to continue trading during the War Of Independence. Lastly, George Washington is the single most useful Military Advisor, and his presence in your congress can swing the balance when the war is at its peak. Independence Although the details of beating the Royal Expeditionary forces and winning the game are beyond this Beginner’s Guide, it’s worth pointing out some of the basics. Preparing for the War of Independence should be your main priority in the last third or so of the game, and there are several separate areas in which you have to do this: 1) Make sure that Sons Of Liberty membership in all your settlements is as high as possible - the ideal level is 100%. The main way to do this is to have had at least one Elder Statesman in each colony for as long as possible, but you should also be sure to build printing presses and newspapers in all your towns, and get hold of as many political Founding Fathers as possible. 2) Make sure that as many of your colonies as possible are producing tools and have a gunsmith available to convert these to muskets, as well as having a full capacity in storage. 3) Make sure that all your colonies are producing horses, and are at full warehouse capacity for them. 4) The first (and often most important) stage of defence is the level of fortification of your colonies. Ideally they should all have fortresses - the Royal Expeditionary Force is very tough to beat. 5) Make sure that each colony has at least four or five cannons defending it. 6) Make sure you have as many experienced soldiers and Dragoons stationed in your settlements as possible. When Independence is declared these troops will convert to Colonial Army status, making them much more effective. 7) Once the war has started, move some Dragoons into the forests and mountains around your colonies, to take advantage of your terrain bonus, and be prepared to move forces to where they are needed. 8) There is one thing to bear in mind - when you declare independence, the Royal force will attack. They do so en masse, concentrating on a single target until they take it, then moving on to another. Man O’Wars will continue to ferry troops to the site of the battle until they either win or you wipe them out. As you have no way of knowing which city will be attacked, its important that you defend all of them as well as possible.