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[Microprose Veteran]

Shorbe: yeah, I don't like micro management that much. Anything I build in the New World is for free, so I figure I don't need that much money each turn. Just enough to buy skilled colonists and the odd frigate.

If you intend to live peacefully with the natives, missions are a must. Missions in enemy territory are also important because they make relations between natives and your enemies troublesome, leading to native raids etc., making life difficult for your enemies.

Another good use of the missionary is the fact that he doesn't even need to found a mission. You can send him to a native settlement and 'incite the natives to war' against one or more of your enemies. The natives want gold in return, but depending on their current relationship with the enemy colonists, they may lower their demands.

Incidentally, I remember you said you don't have a big military, 'just two units per colony.' Well, I don't have a big military either. I use the 'horseman strategy from Civilization,' meaning that whenever war breaks out, I can quickly assemble an army, leaving most of my colonies undefended. It can be hazardous yeah, but so was colonial life in reality.

Currently I'm fighting my War Of Independence against the Dutch king. He's only got 55 infantry, 7 cavalry and 11 artillery left. Sigh, gets boring quickly this war. 8,000 Libery Bells are already here.

Microprose Veteran: Thanks for the info. If you send a missionary to an Indian village does he get used up there or can he go to another? Do missions in Indian villages lead to Indian converts?

I tend to use that cavalry strategy also. With a lot of roads, it's fairly easy to concentrate firepower quickly. I usually have a half dozen cavalry and a couple of galleons in enemy territory to "acquire" some more colonists. It gives my military and navy something to do.

I agree that the War of Independence gets pretty boring, pretty quickly.

[Microprose Veteran]

A missionary only gets used up if he founds a mission. If you just use him to incite the natives, he can just 'hang around a bit.'

Missions may lead to Indian converts, depending on your relationship with the natives. Expert missions of course tend to yield better results. Personally I think the friendly relations with well-armed natives is a bigger bonus in case you get attacked by another colonial power.

Also, the higher your Sons Of Liberty percentage, the more boring your War of Independence. If you declare independence at just 50 %, more interesting things can happen, like royalist uprisings.

[shorbe]

Microprose Veteran: Ah, I was afraid of Indian converts. They're useless.

Yeah, I tend to have very high Sons of Liberty membership, so the War of Independence is just a slow grind.

Do you know if there's a cap on the total number of units in the game? I seem to remember once reaching a point where I couldn't produce any new wagon trains, ships, artillery, soldiers or colonists.

[Eagle of Fire]

Indians Convert are not useless. They can be trained at a school to a servent and then to a normal colonist in late game and in early game they serve as replacement for colonists usually used as food gatherer. They are not as good as specialist but they are better than normal colonists.

Pretty usefull if you ask me.

[Microprose Veteran]

Indian converts are great for a number of reasons: they're good at:

-getting food (both hunting and farming)
-furs
-tobacco
-cotton

The best reason: they're free. And later on you can turn them into full colonists with the right Founding Father.

Just don't let them do other work than in the fields.

Shorbe: so your way of playing Colonization is not about achieving independence as the primary objective. So you'll never be the first to declare independence (when your SoL goes over 30%, usually another nation announces it will grant independence once 40 colonists are in favor).

[Christian IV]

:bye:
My, this is one of the livliest and most interesting topics and
games I have seen yet in the forum, I am going to try this
game asap. There is a lot of history behind this game idea, I
have not worked with the Civilization series much though I have
studied the history for many many years so this will be interesting.
thanks for all the great suggestions and discussions.
much appreciated.

[BeefontheBone]

Hope you enjoy it - it's by the same guys as Civ (obviously) but it's actually quite a different game in many ways. A remake would be pretty damn fine (although they're probably sticking to Civ4 I'd imagine). AoE 4 looks to be covering similar ground to Colonization, though, and is looking pretty damn fine while it's at it.

[Christian IV]

:bye:
I remember when I first heard of Colonization years ago,
and also the Civ I and II games, i wondered about it all,
as I do work for indigenous peoples sometimes, but the
games might be very interesting to try from the persepective
of learning the actual dynamics of the whole thing, i mean
what it is really like to come to an entire new world or area,
and have to buld a civlization.....so i am looking forward to
the learning curve.... k: k: k:

[BeefontheBone]

It's worth it, but you'll get sucked into it - it has a tendency to eat your life up.