[Eagle of Fire]

The rule which prevent you to disband a city with a stockade already present is a gameplay rule. It is intended that way to prevent abuses like you are yourself refering to: conquer a city only to move huge amount of colons to bolster your own cities.

It always been plainly explained for me since I started playing. I think there is even a reference about this in the manual. And since this is intended gameplay behavior, I have to say that it is indeed cheating. (As a general rule of thumb, if you need to use a hex editor to change something which affect gameplay in such a way it can be used to boost your score then I always consider that cheating anyways.)

You have to remember that Colonization is more a simulation of the conquest of the new world than it is a Civ remake. A lot of options and gameplay decisions were made to make sure that the game would be true to history, and this is what make it so different from Civilization but at the same time so alike.

This said, I certainly won't stop you from doing it again and again if it strikes your fancy.

Edit:

i never said good relations were not important

i just never needed minuit to keep them

but yes, for the french: minuit, pocahontas and the guy speeding up conversion, crowning it, by the time you have enough converts, by neutralizing them to colonists possibly (as you know, missions will help them like you too)

I have never found Pocahontas and the guy speeding up conversion any good or even slightly usefull. Pocahontas is not useful for me since I usually always have very good relations with the Native, and I don't like converts much. Since expert missions already give out a fair amount of converts, I usually have more than I wished I would.

Not going for those two founding fathers allow me to explore way more interesting options. Even a frigate is better than them, as it can be very useful against privateers and the Royal Army.