Yeah, but Civilization prides itself on the ease of scenario creation. The World builder screen is exactly the same, the only difference with Colonization is the lack of a custom map size in the beginning, you either get Western Hemisphere or Caribbean.
There has to be a way, I just can’t figure out how.
By time, is that the 1792 forced game end? I’ve had three games so far that have run into the 1792 limit - it’d be nice to not have that there. I’ll have to start the next game without time checked.
I believe it does; my war for Independence dragged on into the 1830s and I had the “Time” box unchecked. I’m playing another game with only “Independence” as a victory condition to see what happens…
What are some of your guy’s steps? Like, what do you prioritize? I’m actually getting my butt kicked by the natives…
I’ve only played on Pilgrim so far :o, but this strategy has worked with each of the 4 Civilisations (I usually win about 1650):
build only one coastal town. This gets Docks, Printing Press, Newspaper, Warehouse, School, Armoury, Stables, Lumber Mill Stockade, Fort and Fortress. (The School is for Elder Statesmen.)
build a few small inland towns, each near a special resource. They only build Wagon Trains (i.e. no buildings), otherwise they churn out political, religious or military points. Use these to get helpful Founding Fathers.
your Pioneer connects your towns by road and builds on each special resource.
get a Scout as soon as possible (preferably two) and visit every village, burial ground and ruin.
set up a mission (or three!), preferably using Criminals or Servants.
use villages to train natives, servants and criminals.
trade with villages. Always pay for land (moving the site one square can reduce the cost). Always agree Defensive Pacts with natives.
Use Elder Statesmen only in your coastal town at first to avoid alarming the King. When close to Independence, give each other town its own Statesman.
always agree to the King’s tax increases, but never pay him gold.
use a cannon to guard each town.
when the war starts, attack! Once you have a Great General, promote one unit (preferably a dragoon) to Surgeon 1, Surgeon 2 and Surgeon 3. (He stays in your coastal town and heals everybody).
Good luck. 
The first step to avoid getting ass kicked by natives is to rush-buy a seasoned scout, and speak with the chief of every native town to find out what goods they want. As a bonus you’ll get a bit of extra free cash by doing this, and you can explore ruins and burial grounds with 100% positive outcomes with a seasoned scout.
The next step is to trade with the natives, and send missionaries to their villages. You can tell what goods a village wants by looking at the main map, if you’ve already explored that village with a scout. The good they will buy is pictured next to the name of the village. They typically pay less for most goods than Europe does, but this trade is tax-free and builds relationship with the natives. To trade with them, just take a cargo ship or wagon train filled with that good to the native town that wants it. A dialogue screen should pop up if your unit has movement points left, asking if you want to enter trade negotiations. From here you can just drag the goods to the bargaining table, see what they’ll give you, accept their offer, and profit!
The final step is to recruit founding fathers that improve relations with the natives, like Pocahantas. You can usually do fine with just 1 of these founding fathers, even though there are at least 3 with the effect.
Game 5 (Dutch on Explorer level) took just 7 hours 45 minutes. (I must be getting better!)
Again I had just one coastal settlement (and three inland ones).
Same strategy as posted earlier.
The war really dragged on, taking nearly 20 years.
Most of that was me waiting for the King to send reinforcements. 
(Every time troops landed, I wiped them out.)
I kept communication with Europe throughout, which was handy for reinforcements.
P.S. All the natives were friendly or pleased - most joined me v the King.
I just wanted to say that you other Dopers keep me spending money on games and killing valuable time by making good suggestions. I didn’t even know this was out (and I have to admit that I never played the original Col, but have played every CIV).
I only had a chance to play for a bit last night, but it does seem pretty good. Of course, Sid could probably label something “Sid Meier’s Bag of Monkey Poop” and it would still be better than almost anything else out there (IMHO).
Wait a cotton pickin minute! Declared independence and started my war against the king who had something like 40 regulars, 20 dragoons and 4 warships. I sank all the warships… and won the war.
So if I sink all the warships that’s game won? Seems like an incredibly easy way to win.
Yes, if you defeat either all the King’s land forces or all his navies, you win!
(I don’t think it’s that easy - those Warships are pretty powerful.)
If you can build up a strong fleet of ships of the line, it’s probably easier to take out the navy than to go toe to toe with all those land forces. You need a Rebel sentiment of close to 100% to have a decent chance at combat though.
When should you try to push your rebel sentiment up a lot? I’m about halfway through and I’m only around 10% (26% in the main city and 0% in the 3 outlying cities).
Also, about how close to the finish time should you start your revolution?
Which I did and I had, so I guess that’s why I won. Oh well, at least I know how to keep the war short.
At first I played for maximum sentiment from the very start, in order to maximize the production bonus from sentiment. I lost every game, because the king just got too many soldiers.
The first game that I won, I kept a small population. I didn’t create any liberty bells at all until I was ready for the revolution. I stuck 3 elder statesmen in the main city, put 3 workers on the 2 outlying colonies town halls, and rushed for 50% sentiment as fast as possible in order to avoid the king getting too many soldiers. The same turn I hit 50%, I started the revolution. I had about 8 dragoons, 4 soldiers, and 2 or 3 cannons, and I never had to use the soldiers or cannons. I won handily.
So the answer is basically “don’t produce liberty bells until it’s time for the revolution, and then go all out”. I would say the latest you can have your revolution and still win would be about 25 turns with a reasonable margin for error. I try to have at least 40 turns in case they capture an important town and I have to spend a few turns getting it back.
Ok, I’ll give that a go. Thanks!
So I decided, well, maybe I’ll try winning by taking out all the other colonies this time. So I bought some veterans and wiped out all the French colonies.
For the past 20 turns - every turn - a new French caravel shows up. My ship sinks it. Rinse and repeat.
How in the world do I ever defeat them if they have unlimited caravels (and presumably at least one colonist on it)?
On the bright side, I’ve got some really kick-ass ships of the line now. Perhaps I’ll just follow Illuminatiprimus’ path now.
I LOVE Colonization, and have for years. I even started re-playing the original with a DOS emulator just so I could experience its glory again. Keep in mind that since I don’t have the new game yet, all this is reference to the original.
In the original game, I found it advantageous to set up a coastal colony right away, let my soldier do some exploring, and have the pioneer start clearing terrain. You can build your first colony on a wooded square, and when the pioneer clears it, that colony will gain free lumber; the amount you get depends on what kind of forest it was and whether you converted it to prime land or not. Hardy pioneers have a better chance to convert land to prime land. Once that’s done, he can also plow the square the city is in, which increases food production by 1.
I typically play as the English, so shortly after the game begins, I’d have my first colonist lining up on the docks in Europe. I’d start my second colony around the time my first colony reached a population size of 3 so I could increase liberty bell production and try to get Peter Minuit as my first Founding Father. Normally, I’d build almost all my colonies inland, away from the shore. Naturally, this means you need wagon trains to move things, but since you got free lumber from building a colony on a wooded square and then clearing it, you’re already half-way there. I’ll explain a little more why I do it this way later.
I wouldn’t bother to build a church until I had at least a small trickle of money coming out of my colonies. Yes, preachers increase cross production (especially if William Penn is in your Congress - +50% bonus!), but they don’t produce anything you can sell and they eat your food – two things that are more a hindrance than a help as the game begins.
You can also placate the natives by trading with them. In fact, if you bring them what they need (a Scout can talk to the Chief upon visiting the village and find out what they truly desire), you can turn a tidy profit – one that the King is powerless to tax!
True, but you’ll notice that they are less effective in converting the natives than ordinary colonists and far less effective than Jesuits, unless Jean de Brebeuf is in your Congress, in which case everyone counts as a Jesuit. Indentured Servants can be trained to expert level in an Indian village, and Petty Criminals make good soldiers, scouts, and manual laborers until you can get someone trained for the job.
Yes, it’s the cross production. The price goes down when you’ve accumulated enough crosses. When the price reaches zero, that immigrant appears on the dock for free. The counter is reset, the price goes back up, and the cycle starts all over again, each time requiring more crosses than the last.
Yes, this is right. Some basic buildings (Warehouse, Docks) only need wood to construct, while more complex buildings (any shops, Printing Press) require the consumption of tools. Generally, the more “Civilized” (come on Sid fans, laugh with me!) a building is, the more tools and materials it’s going to take.
Try this: don’t ever let valuable things sit on the docks in your coastal towns. Keep that stuff buttoned up inland, on ships, or in wagon trains. In the original, your colonists would only have a party with whatever they had on hand, and, well, let’s face it, I’d rather have a Lumber party than a Silver party!
The one caveat to this strategy is this: if there are no commodities available in your coastal colonies, or if you are already boycotting all of them, the King will automatically raise the tax rate the next time he comes ‘round. Make sure you at least have some food or lumber on hand to throw into the harbor at all times!
You couldn’t do this in the original game, either – nor could you make them into Scouts or Missionaries. They did, however, get a +1 production bonus for agricultural tasks. After all, it was their land.
No, you didn’t. You could trade with their coastal villages using ships.
The exceptions were if they are too upset with you (in which case they will turn your ship away in anger), or if your people hadn’t met theirs on dry land first. Apparently, the natives were big on formal introductions.
Speaking of wagon trains, if having the trains stop in every colony bugs you, have your pioneer build the roads between them in such a way that you can drive around your own colonies. Sometimes it even made sense to have two alternate routes, in case a native (or fellow European, if you let them get that close) was standing on one of your road squares and refused to move.
I had a choice between buying this game on sale at Fry’s Electronics for $23.99 (a reference to Peter Minuit’s purchase of Manhattan for $24, perhaps?) when it first came out, or paying $20 to get a subscription to the EVE Online MMORPG, and I chose the latter. 'Twas a shame for such a Sid fan, but I know that I will have the new Colonization eventually. It might show up under the Christmas tree if I wait long enough!
In Col1, trading with native villages via a ship had a severe limitation. First off, you had to sell to a village before you could buy from it. With wagon trains, you could, for example, use a wagon train to sell 100 tools to an Aztec city and then buy 100 silver for a very low price. If you only had 87 tools, they would buy them and then sell you up to 87 silver (or whatever good they had to sell). If you used a ship, you could sell to them just fine, but you could only buy goods equal to 1/4 of the units you sold to them on that transaction. Sell 87 tools via ship, buy only 21 silver. Considering that the real money was in buying goods from the natives and reselling them in Europe, trading only via ships was not very effective (hence my use of a qualifier).
In the new Col, there doesn’t appear to be any limitation at all to trading with a coastal village entirely by ship, so it’s very lucrative.
I noticed that an expert fisherman tasked with fishing won’t teach a student. The fisherman will have to actually be inside the city working on a non-related task in order to impart his knowledge. Bug or feature? Or am I doing it wrong?
This is not a problem anymore. If you happen to assign a soldier or scout to move to a location where a native or fellow colonist happens to be standing at the time, the game will ask you if you want to declare war. Simply answer no. (Or yes, as the case may be. 
) If they’re simply on the route, you’ll pass right through them.