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[shorbe]

I didn't know about trading with the Incas like that. I think I'd get a bit bored of that after a while. I always colonise NA because I like its larger size and variety of terrain type (most of SA will only produce sugar).

This is probably my favourite game of all time. The thing I think is most in need of improvement in an updated version is an Indian intelligence report that breaks each village down according to: 1) what skill can be learnt there (if it hasn't already been learnt), 2) what they would like you to sell them, 3) what they can sell you. This would be so much more helpful as currently, I have to do all this in a spread sheet.

Here are my basic (and general) strategies. Most of the strategies in Colonization revolve around comparing short term gains with long term gains. Don't be impatient. Also, it's about doing things in the right order, especially regarding which Founding Fathers you get. Finally, it's about trying to become self-sufficient in all ways (manufacturing, education, etc.) as soon as possible so you're not giving money to the crown.

1. Choose the Dutch, or perhaps the English. The Dutch not only start with a better ship, they have a major advantage with trade. Once you get further into the game and are producing a fair bit and trading with your home country, the bottom will fall out of the market (I think it does anyway because of your rivals). The Dutch aren't affected so much. The English get lots of colonists, but this may actually mean you have far too many to manage comfortably and your colonies end up extremely backward. I'm not so sure about the French, but I don't think their advantage is all that good anyway since if you trade with them normally and have walled colonies, you'll be fine against their attacks. The Spanish are just atrocious. You don't want to fight the natives, really.

2. When you build a colony, fully plow the colony square first. This will make the square more productive for food and a cash crop. This extra food allows it to support an additional colonist, which is very helpful early on. Later on, develop the resource squares.

Try to produce the things relevant to your colony first. The most important is by far the lumber mill as this improves your ability to produce other buildings. Next should be the following (in no particular order): docks, stables and school house -- all of these will assist your colony greatly. At some point down the line, you may need a warehouse, especially for your bigger colonies. Early on, produce a manufacturing building for the one cash crop a colony will specialise in (it's more efficient to have one colony producing cotton/cloth and one producing tobacco/cigars than having both producing both) and forget about building the other manufacturing buildings. Further down the line, improve your manufacturing industry and also develop your liberty bell production with newspapers and printing presses. You'll also want to at least build a college, if not a university down the line too as this will make training colonists much more efficient (and most manufacturing professions require college education).

I really don't go in for building a massive military force early on. Personally, I don't find the combat elements of this game to be that exciting that I like to just go off on a war or two, even if it's counter-productive. I will have one or two units to defend colonies, but everything else can wait. The resources that will go into building armies early on can be better invested. You should build wagon trains (not too many, too early though) as these are vital for trade.

3. I try to get three colonies up and running fairly early on, and then expand from there. I like to have two producing cash crops and the related finished goods (usually one is cotton/cloth), and one producing ore and tools. This means of course that you'll need to have access to the right terrain types as resource squares. From there, I gradually spread out to the point where I will have about two (or maybe three) colonies for each cash crop/finished product, and about two or three for ore/tools. This will give somewhere between ten and fifteen colonies, which will give you a massive economy. Any fewer than this and you won't be taking full advantage of things, any more than this and you may not be able to develop each to its full capacity. Make sure your colonies are all on the same land mass and connected to one another by roads, etc. This makes trade better, and also the WoI much easier. Furthermore, I like to have at least half of my colonies inland. This means they won't be accessible by ships, obviously, but it does mean they're quite likely to have Indian villages to trade with. I then move goods around between trading them with the Indians and moving any excess to the ports for trade with Europe (or manufacturing before I can build up my inland colonies). More than all this though, when it comes to the eventual WoI, your inland colonies should be safe. The royal troops will land next to coastal colonies and attack those repeatedly. This will leave your inland colonies safe for production and defence, and also mean you can then fight a guerilla war.

4. Get a few scouts and send them out to Indian villages (but don't start exploring Lost City Rumours until you get Hernando De Soto -- once you get him, go for it).

4. Use the Indians as much as possible. They will give you gifts and/or information, and they will also train your colonists. Some professions (the "planters") can only be gained this way. Trade with the Indians! You can make a lot of money and not pay tax on this. Basically, the tax you pay to the crown is used to raise the armies that will fight you in your War of Independence.

5. Regarding wars, it's fine to kidnap enemy colonists, but don't capture towns as any of the following usually apply: 1) they're a long way from your other colonies, which will make them hard to defend in the WoI, 2) they're in bad locations (islands especially are both hard for bringing reinforcements to in the WoI and also don't have enough land resources a lot of the time), 3) the computer often completely defoliates its colonies, meaning you'll have to bring wood in for construction (a major hassle), 4) the computer often has Indian converts (who will not be nearly as efficient as professionals), 5) the computer often has masses of poor colonists. All in all, captured colonies will be a major drawback for you.

Do not start killing the Indians off unless they're seriously hampering the expansion of your colonies! At the lowest level of the game, you get -1 score for each village destroyed, more at each higher level. As you get +1 per 1000 gold, unless you're getting 1000 each time you plunder, you're losing points. More than this though, the long term profit you will make from trading with the Indians will far outweigh any money you'll make from killing them. I personally don't arm them with horses or muskets though as in the past they have used these against me.

6. Once each colony is past its early stages, you need to start thinking about its liberty bell production. The drawnback of rebel sentiment is increased taxes (and I think increased royal military spending), but rebel sentiment makes your colonies more efficient at production, and liberty bell production helps you to get new Founding Fathers quicker. Once you get one colony with a university, you can start producing your own Statesmen, so this helps.

As far as Founding Fathers go, some are excellent no matter when you get them, others are very useful depending upon when you get them, and some are just terrible whenever you get them. I won't go into the middle or latter groups as there's too much detail. I will say though that generally, I don't worry about getting most of the religious FFs until I have everyone else.

Here's my pick of the crop: Thomas Jefferson -- get him first if you can as he increases your liberty bell production, therefore meaning you can get other FFs even quicker. Along with Jefferson, other FFs who increase your liberty bell production (such as Simon Bolivar and Thomas Paine I think, although I think you can't get Bolivar until near the end of the game) are very useful. Early on, two other "must gets" are William Brewster and Hernando De Soto. William Brewster stops you from getting any colonists from Europe who are criminals or servants. This might not sound like much, but basically, these colonists suck, big time. To be good at anything, they'll have to be educated (a tiresome process that slows down colony growth) or improved via combat (a general drain on resources). Brewster also lets you choose the next colonist to appear in Europe, which is a lot more useful than letting the computer do it for you. De Soto improves your scouts' abilities to get positive results from exploring Lost Cities (the differences are dramatic) and he gives your schouts an increased sight radius. Bear in mind that getting De Soto without Brewster will make the Fountain of Youth a real hassle, but getting De Soto after Brewster will make it a major windfall.

From there on in, it's largely a matter of your style of play, but I tend towards those who improve my liberty bell production, colonies and trade, not the warrior or religious types. Many FFs aren't useful until later in the game. Those I get early are: Hudson (sure, he eventually causes your furs to flood the market and become worthless, but he's great in the early stages), Pocahontas (pacifies the Indians until you can build up your defences), De La Salle (give colonies stockades for free).

Ultimately, you should end up with a whole lot of highly developed, heavily fortified (fortress, artillery, spare muskets and horses) colonies producing a lot of trade profits, with a sizeable force of mounted units stationed in a couple of central, inland colonies. When you start the WoI, the royal forces will land beside coastal colonies. Your colonies should be able to defend themselves until help arrives. You should then move a mob of about five or six units in to hit the royal forces in a guerilla war. In this way, it should take you one or two turns to destroy each landing force and you shouldn't have too many problems. It's only if the royal forces become entrenched, start taking out your own forces, and besiege too many colonies that you'll get yourself in trouble.

Your score is based on several things to be found on the Colonization Score report, but one thing not mentioned is to do with when you get independence, and the order in which each country gets independence. I think from every year prior to a certain date (1766?), you get one extra point. Obviously though, if you're producing more than 1000 gold per year via trade profits, it's better for your score to declare independence later. Balancing this though is the fact that your enemy powers are also working towards independence and will in fact do so (but they don't have to fight a WoI, they just get independence). I can't remember the bonuses you get, but basically, if you're the last nation to become independent, you get your basic score. As you go up the placings, you get a multiplier bonus, which is obviously very good if you're first.

They're the basics. I hope they help. If you want a far more detailed version where I break things down even more, e-mail me at shorbe@rocketmail.com