~Colonization

COLONIZATION NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
-----------------------------------

                     Garry J. Vass
                     100020,777 or 72307,3311
                     October 30th, 1994



This file contains my notes on playing COLONIZATION.  It does 
not present a sure-fire method of winning the game, but rather 
the tactics that I have developed.  My overall comment is that 
this game, like CIV and MOO, favors the player who pays rigorous 
attention to the game "accounting" system and who follows a 
disciplined strategy. 

When I say game "accounting" system, I mean all of those numbers 
that show up on the advisor screens - the commodity bid-offer 
spread in Europe, for example.  I also mean keeping a close eye 
on raw materials to assure that they are exploited in a way that 
maximizes the objective - which is to have a self-sustaining 
economy capable of supporting a large army.  If you play it this 
way, you can win almost every time.  On the down-side, the 
economic development phase that occurs in mid-game is a real 
drudge. 

1.  Cities.  For reasons known only to myself, I like to have 13 
cities.  None of them overlapping.  Of these 13, one is my 
"power" city, my "export" city, and one is my "patsy" city. More 
about the "patsy" later.  In general, I usually end up with 
around 16 cities, but I think the key point here is that a huge, 
sprawling empire won't work. 

2.  Where to build the first city.  I sail around for a bit and 
look for wheat.  If I can't find it after a few moves, I'll take 
anything that can produce revenue. 

3.  Where to build additional cities.  There are two ideal 
places that I know of to build additional cities:  1.  On an 
Indian village -Miami, Chicago, Manhattan, etc. and 2.  On the 
site of another European power.  Generally, it is easier to 
capture a European city, but that leaves you with supply 
problems.  So most of the time I take villages.  I know it hurts 
the score, but not that much.  The tribes themselves forget 
about it after a while anyway. 

My rule of thumb for expansion is not to locate a city further 
away than a mounted unit can reach in two moves - assuming that 
the path is paved. 

4.  Taking an Indian village.  If you like to gamble, I suggest 
capturing one right off the boat in the first round of play.  
Sometimes it works, most of the time not.  But given that it is 
the first round, you don't have much to lose.  Otherwise, a much 
sounder strategy is to wait around until experienced soldiers 
can take it.  If it is a good village, it becomes my "power" 
city. 

5.  What to do with the booty.  Since purchasing a galleon is 
out of the question, I simpy fortify it until the right fellow 
joins the congress.  When that happens, I move the wagon one 
square outside the city and then back in.  Yup.  Off to Europe. 

6.  Taking a European city.  These are good because they are 
almost always plowed and paved.  I like to pull up to the front 
door with two cavalry units, and refuse peace.  At that, the CP 
offers somewhere from 400 to 1,000 golds.  I take the money, 
wait a few rounds, and try it again.  When he finally doesn't 
offer gold, I take my two precious mounted units to the next 
colonial power and start over again.  After this whole 
intimidation process is complete, the CP has generally financed 
the loss of one of his cities.  They forget about it after about 
ten years and I trade with them. 

7.  City development.  I am a fanatic developer.  I will try to 
outfit a unit with tools whenever possible.  I first connect the 
cities with roads.  To do that, I send a unit from one city to 
another and watch the path it takes.  Then I pave it.  Then I 
plow all the land squares.  I've had cities to size 17 to 19 
with just common settlers doing the farming.  With that, you can 
forget about the experienced farmers.  Rule of thumb:  if you 
see a unit moving from one city to another on a square that is 
not paved, pave it - you will need it later. 

7-a.  Uprooting a city.  If the city looks like a loser, or it 
is a European city just too far away from my own core.  I will 
uproot the whole city and move it to a better place.  To uproot, 
I outfit pioneers and militia to drain out tools, muskets, and 
horses.  If it has ore, I will send a wagon train. 

8.  Once a few cities are in place and garrisoned, begins the 
drudgery process of moving a wagon train around.  Pick up wood 
from the city that's being plowed and move it to the power city, 
pick up cotton at one city drop it off at another, and on and 
on.  I monitor the Economic Advisor each turn to stay on top of 
the bid-offer spread.  Unfortunately, I never learned to set up 
trade routes because the German documentation is just too 
impossibly difficult, so I just slug it out until my "export" 
city builds a customs house. 

This drudgery phase can be relieved a bit by uncovering the 
mounds, treasures, and what-not.  I use a mounted unit to locate 
the mounds, and common settlers to actually uncover it.  That's 
because of the chance of losing the unit. 

I also build roads up to Indian villages just to make the 
trading trip easier.  Later, I gleefully learned that roads into 
Indian villages have a much more productive value - more about 
that below. 

9.  The King wants to raise taxes.  I refuse every time and have 
the "tea party" instead.  I will lift the boycott for muskets 
and tools - it's equivalent to one Indian coffer or so.  
Similarly, when another European initiates a dialog, I refuse 
peace every time - there's a chance to pick up some extra cash 
if they feel threatened.  If the Indians want peace, I accept 
every time - there is no benefit for refusing. 

10.  Revolution planning.  Once my power city has a university, 
I get a Statesman.  The preferred way is to capture a European 
city that has one already.  I figure it's cheaper that way 
because I can probably pick up a few other masters of this or 
that in the process.  Otherwise, I try to recruit one; and when 
all else fails, I buy one.  He goes straight to the university 
and starts cloning.  First, all my cities get one Statesman, 
then two, then three.  I don't suggest that it works out every 
time in that mechanical fashion, but it's at least my objective.  
Anyway, that takes care of the bells. 

10-a.  Revolution planning.  My objective here is to check the 
Congress Advisor to determine the size of the army I will need. 
I try to match the CP evenly on artillery, double his cavalry, 
and match his infantry with roughly one and a half times with my 
cavalry.  For example, if the CP is capable of sending 50 
infantry, 25 cavalry, and 10 batteries; I then try to raise 125 
cavalry (75 plus 50) and 10 batteries.  This is over and above 
the standing garrison of two cavalry units for each city.  I 
don't use infantry if I can avoid it.  The odds here are 
somewhat daunting, but on the good side, the units do not desert 
- as they did in real history. 

10-b.  Manpower.  The first step is to get several cities with 
colleges and start cloning off soldiers.  Since all my cities 
are plowed, they can feed themselves adequately with ordinary 
settlers, so that's the manpower source.  I set the settlers as 
farmer-fishers and when one of them gets converted, it leaves to 
go pick up it's muskets and horses.  On the next turn, the city 
grows another settler who takes up as a farmer-fisher, and the 
cycle repeats itself. 

10-c.  Firepower.  Somewhere else, there's an arsenal manned by 
a master who is turning out muskets.  Materials are brought in 
from the other cities on a mechanical basis.  If I overproduce 
muskets, I create militia with settler units and then 
decommission them as soldiers come on line.  I never export 
muskets. 

10-c.  Horsepower.  A stable with 100 horses will produce 10 
horses on each turn.  When a stable reaches 150 horses, I skim 
off 50.  If I overproduce horses, I "inventory" them by creating 
spies with settler units, and then decommisioning them as horses 
are needed.  I never export horses. 

10-d.  Seapower.  This is where the CP cheats are the most 
blatant. In the first place, the CP can run a blockade - I don't 
know how, but he can.  And in the second place, he can move in, 
unload his landing party, move back out, and sink a blockading 
ship all in one turn.  In recognizing this, I plan to concede 
sea power, and to use whatever ships are around. 

11.  The "Patsy" city.  This is critical.  When you declare 
independence, the CP assembles his landing party and selects a 
target city.  As far as I can tell, he scans through them and 
selects one based upon two factors:  1.  The closest to Europe, 
and 2.  The least defended. 

In recognizing this, it makes sense to help the CP select the 
optimal city for you.  The ideal "patsy" city looks like this:  
it is a coastal city with a mountain next to it (the mountain 
gives your skirmishers a terrain advantage).  It has a standing 
garrison of one artillery and one cavalary.  It has 300 horses 
and 300 muskets in inventory, and a galleon about 4 squares away 
with 2 muskets, 2 horses, and 2 batteries. Inside the city are, 
of course, a "5th column" of 8 soldiers working as farmers and 
what not.  Note that the hill cannot be a landing square and 
that you cannot have units on a landing square. 

Within a one move reach of the city are the remainder of your 
batteries and NO MORE than 9 units - I'll come back to this 
number "9" later.  On the hill are three units standing by as 
skirmishers.  Oh, two wagon trains as well, one with horses and 
one with muskets - to replenish the stables and resupply your 
garrison. 

It is worth mentioning here the logistics of becomming a war 
machine.  Consider the "patsy" city as the center of gravity for 
experienced cavalry.  The base unit gets created in the 
outlands. It moves to the next city to acquire horses, and the 
next city to acquire muskets, and the last city to stand fully 
deployed. So it makes sense then, to arrange these cities so 
that this flow is optimized for expedience.  Not that I arrange 
this every time, but it's an objective to think about. 

12.  Independence Day.  First, clear off the docks of any 
waiting passengers.  Anything that cannot be retrained as a 
military unit gets trained as a missionary - that comes free.  
Passengers on the docks count against your unit total, even if 
you cannot pick them up anymore.  Be sure that all the ships are 
back stateside also. 

Look for towns with 100% Independence and start retraining the 
Statesmen as soldiers - you will need them.  Also, start 
deleting out any Indian farmer-fishers so that they can be 
replaced with settlers in the normal population growth cycle. 

Raise the maximum number of mounted troops so that the maximum 
number will be promoted on Independence Day.  What about units 
that do not get promoted?  Well, remember those roads leading 
into Indian villages?  Every few turns, I ride a cavalry unit up 
to the village and pop it.  If it gets promoted, so much the 
better; if not, it gets sent back for horses and tries again.  
It is important not to destroy the village - so be careful.  
European settlers and pioneers also work as promotion vehicles, 
but not as well as Indian villages. 

NOTE:  When a Continental unit gets shattered, it loses 
Continental status and has to be promoted all over again. 

13.  The War.  If things were set up correctly, a landing party 
will appear at your "patsy" city.  If the landing party appears 
somewhere else, I either restore a previous version and look for 
what went wrong, or simply write the city off.  I suspect that 
the CP gets an extra combat bonus until it has captured a city 
anyway. But for the moment, assume that things work as planned. 

In the worst case, the landing party consists of 2 frigate class 
ships unloading onto 2 squares.  If units are on those squares, 
they are overrun.  That means a total of 8 units in the first 
assault.  It is critically important to count and keep track of 
how many there are, who has fired, and so on.  If there are 8 
enemy units outside of a city, that means I fortify 9 units 
inside - always 1 more than the assault force.  That means that 
the city will survive another round of play. Units in excess of 
the basic fortification are used to counterattack. 

At the beginning of each round, I click up the unit window and 
arrange things as follows:  damaged artillery to the front, 
followed by good artillery, followed by cavalry, followed by 
infantry, followed by Continental cavalry, followed by 
Continental infantry, and finally the fortified units. 

When it becomes my turn, I throw all of the damaged artillery on 
to one enemy-occupied square.  This, hopefully, reduces the 
force on the square at the expense of artillery (but I never 
found any other value for damaged artillery).  Next, the cavalry 
units attack with the prospect of being promoted.  Then the 
infantry follows suit. And when all else fails, the Continentals 
attack.  The entire round focuses on a single square until it is 
eliminated, or until the only units remaining on the square are 
damaged loyalist artillery. 

Finally, I activate my skirmishers (remember the skirmishers on 
the hill?) to to pop off damaged loyalist artillery.  This is 
the easiest opportunity they will have to become promoted.  If 
they get promoted, they move into the city and give another unit 
a chance. 

If the CP captures the city, I withdraw all my units beyond 
artillery range and simply pop the settlers it sends out.  I 
don't start to retake lost cities until I have successfully 
repelled a landing party.  From my experience with the game, I 
can say that retaking a city requires a minimum engagement of 12 
mounted units.  I park them outside of the city and don't attack 
unless they have all 4 moves.  When they get reduced to 
infantry, I fortify them - attacking a fort with infantry is 
useless. 


ASSORTED WHAT NOT
-----------------

1.  The Ship Anomally.  If an empty ship is moving to Europe, 
and it crosses paths with a full ship moving to a city, 
sometimes the cargo jumps off onto the empty ship and returns to 
Europe!!??!! If the shipping lanes get busy, I take the ships 
off of auto-pilot for that reason. 

2.  The Ship Anomally II.  This deals with laden ships from 
Europe showing up in the wrong ocean.  Somewhat irksome.  I 
stopped this from happening by deciding that all ships would 
come and go from the Atlantic and controlling it manually to 
assure that it works.  After a ship unloads, rather than sending 
directly back to Europe, send it to a "debarkation" city on the 
East coast.  When it arrives at that city, move it into deep 
water manually.  It is a trade-off between convenience and 
logistical predictability. 

3.  Unit Stacking.  I have stacked up to 130 units in a city 
without problems.  I don't know what the limit is.  There is a 
limit, however, to the number of units in the window. 

4.  The "Cannot Create Unit" Message.  This is horrible because 
it happens just when new units are needed.  I stopped this from 
happening by developing a better growth strategy. 

5.  Indian farmers.  I see them as simply place-holders until 
they can be replaced by settlers. 

6.  Social dregs.  The petty criminals and indentured servants 
waiting on the dock get made into missionaries. 

7.  Cheats.  I made my own cheat program, it should be included 
in this archive in both source and executable form.  MPS also 
added a cheat menu that you can raise by changing MENU.TXT with 
an ASCII editor.  With some bit fiddling you can also change 
your gold, but that makes everything else more expensive.  In my 
experience, these mechanisms tend to snow-ball - you need them 
more and more to continue the game, and the game itself becomes 
less realistic. 

The best cheats are those built right into the game:  promoting 
your units by popping Indian villages; and setting up a "patsy" 
city -which amounts to nothing more than an elaborate trap. 

Enjoy the game!
