Colonization - A Beginners Guide

The very first thing to realise about Colonization is that it isnt Civilization. This 
might sound obvious, but if youre a Civ fan, you will find the games main 
interface familiar, allowing you to get to grips with the game very quickly. 
However, dont be over-confident - youll just as quickly find that there are some 
significant differences. Colonization is a far deeper game than its predecessor, and 
requires a lot more thought to master. Its also far more flexible. Civilization had 
certain plans and techniques that were inherently more successful than others, 
allowing definitive advice to be given about the game. One of the problems with a 
guide to Colonization is that it is just that - a guide. There is nearly always more 
than one way to go about things, and which way you choose comes down to 
personal preference. So bear that in mind when reading this. The other problem is 
that virtually everything in Colonization is inter-dependant. The various parts of 
the game cant really be considered in a vacuum, so although this guide has been 
split into sections, each will often contain references to others. 

National Pride And Its Consequences
The first major choice you have to make in Colonization is that of your 
nationality. As with so many things in the game this decision has a significant 
effect on many other areas, and rather than being a matter of cosmetic appeal it 
will actually have a major effect on your overall strategy. In Colonization there 
are two broad ways to go about creating your new nation - conquest or settlement. 
In a conquest game you actively carve out your new nations boundaries by 
attacking and pillaging native settlements. There are several advantages to this 
approach. You dont have to worry about the positioning of native settlements 
relative to your own, and wont need to spend money buying land from the 
Indians - youll just take it. Likewise, if a native settlement is occupying a perfect 
location for a colony, you can just wipe it out and build on the now clear land. 
Perhaps most importantly of all, the loot stolen from ravaged native settlements 
provides you with a ready supply of cash, and thus you dont have to spend as 
much time worrying about building a stable, profitable economy at the start of the 
game. There are, of course, down sides to a conquest strategy, though. For every 
native settlement thats destroyed you lose points (the higher the difficulty level, 
the more you lose), thus lowering your overall score. Youll need to strongly 
defend all of your colonies as soon as theyre founded, to protect against 
retaliatory raids from the justifiably upset natives, and the cost of building and 
maintaining an effective army almost as soon as the game starts can be crippling. 
You wont be able to rely on aid from the natives, whether in the form of gifts, 
training for colonists or trade for your colonies. Lastly, by the time youve dealt 
with all the Indians you may find yourself lagging behind in the vital areas of 
politics, religion and trade.
A settlement game, on the other hand, takes a more peaceful approach. The idea is 
generally to live alongside the local native nations and coexist with them. 
Basically, this is pretty much the opposite to a conquest strategy. It allows you to 
concentrate on building up a strong, self-supporting network of colonies right 
from the start of the game, developing them politically and religiously as well as 
creating the stable trade thats vital to success. It also means that you can get help 
from the Indians in the form of gifts, trade, training and converts. You dont have 
to spend so much time and money defending your colonies. And, of course, you 
wont lose any Colonization score from destroying native settlements. The 
disadvantages are pretty much the same as the advantages for a conquest game - 
you have to spend a lot of thought and worry keeping the natives happy with you, 
and youll often find that their settlements occupy the exact spot on which you 
wanted to build.
Of the possible nationalities the Spanish, with their 50% bonus when attacking 
native settlements, are the most suitable for a conquest strategy - in fact, theyre 
not really suited to anything else. The French, on the other hand, are the best 
suited to a co-operative settlement style. Of the other two, the Dutch lie 
somewhere in the middle, although to take the most advantage of their trade 
bonuses they should concentrate on a settlement strategy, and only attack native 
Americans when theres a specific goal in mind. The English are the most flexible 
nation - they dont have any specific advantages in either a settlement or conquest   
game, there are just more people to work with.

Getting Started
Its important to start your first colony as soon as possible, giving you a base of 
operations from which to expand. However, its also important to get a good 
starting position, which often takes time. The ideal balance between these two 
objectives is hard to define, but its normally best to build your first colony as 
soon as you can, then if you discover that theres a better area later, you can 
always just concentrate your efforts there.
Once youve got a base of operations you should then start to explore as much of 
the New World as possible. Get an experienced scout and use him to explore the 
land, and as soon as you can afford it buy a Privateer to explore the oceans and 
find new areas (the Privateer is fast, allowing for rapid exploration, and a useful 
ship to have later in the game). Your scout should enter every Indian village he 
discovers. Although there is a risk, at the start of the game most native nations are 
very friendly and you can often gain useful cash in this manner. Likewise, explore 
all the rumours that you can find, for much the same reasons. It might also be 
worth noting down the skills offered by nearby Indian settlements (this is always 
let out in the form ...known for our blah blahs when your scout enters a village). 
That way youll know where to send unskilled colonists later.

Colonies And Colonists
While youre exploring, you should also be developing your first and subsequent 
colonies. There are two aspects to this - the internal growth of each colony and the 
external relationship between each of them.
On an individual level each colony needs to be developed to a minimum level 
as soon as possible. This consists of a carpenter, lumberjack, statesman and priest, 
preferably gained in that order. Of course, you also need to be providing enough 
food for all of these people. If possible, its a good idea for each colony to be 
producing its own stock of tools as well, requiring a miner of some kind and a 
blacksmith. Finally, the colony needs to be defended. A cannon and a soldier are 
pretty much the bare minimum here - two cannons and two experienced dragoons 
would be safer.
The first colonist in a newly founded colony should be put to work producing as 
much food as possible. Large food reserves are the only way to produce home-
grown people, and its vital that you continue to provide as much food as 
possible. The next immigrant should be put to work as a lumberjack, and once 
hes filled the warehouse with lumber, switched to a career in carpentry and 
started building things, then switch back to chopping down trees when the lumber 
runs out, and so on. After this its a matter of balancing food production with the 
next requirement in line.
In a new colony its often a good idea to make both the first and second colonists 
pioneers. When the first one reaches a likely spot for building a new colony he 
can then clear any forest on the square before starting the colony (increasing the 
amount of food produced by the colony square itself), and when the colony starts, 
his remaining tools will be placed in storage. The next colonist can then come 
along and develop the land around the colony before joining it and becoming a 
lumberjack (as above), picking up more tools from it if he runs out - remember, 
though, to leave at least one forest square for producing lumber. 
Providing that the colony is on the coast, the first structure to be built inside 
should nearly always be a dock. As already stated, food production is vital to your 
success and fishing has several advantages over land-based food production. The 
ocean squares cannot be put to any other use, so youre not wasting land that can 
be used to produce trade goods. Ocean squares cannot be blockaded as easily as 
land squares, so even if the colony is put under siege by enemy troops, youll still 
be producing food. Lastly, a coastal ocean square with a fishery icon being used 
by an expert fisherman produces more food than any other single square - 12 
units.
After the docks, the next few buildings are harder to prioritise, and will depend 
largely on the position of the colony, both in terms of the immediate terrain and 
on a larger scale. Colonies likely to be attacked should probably go for a 
stockade, whereas less threatened ones should consider a warehouse. 
As to the colonists themselves, its always best if each one is a specialist in the job 
theyre doing. If youre using an untrained or unsuited colonist, youre wasting 
potential, so concentrate on getting the right type for the job. Some careers can be 
home-grown virtually from the start, such as fishermen, who are common and 
easily taught (requiring only a schoolhouse and existing fisherman). Others, such 
as statesmen, are rarer (only one is normally needed per colony, at least in the 
early and middle stages of the game) and harder to teach. With these its often 
worth the extra money to pay for a fully trained expert from the Royal College. As 
a last resort, you can always leave a basic colonist doing the same job, in the hope 
that hell spontaneously learn the skill, but this takes time and is uncommon.

Colonies And Colonists, Continued...
Although its important, even vital, to develop each colony to the point discussed 
last month (a carpenter, lumberjack, statesman and priest, together with enough 
farmers and/or fisherman to produce an excess), while achieving this objective 
you must decide whether to make self-sufficient colonies, or specialist ones that 
work together. Self-sufficient colonies both produce and refine their own trade 
goods, ready for export back to the Old World or trade with the natives or other 
European powers. For example, harvesting tobacco and converting it to cigars. 
Specialist colonies, on the other hand, concentrate on just one stage in the 
process. For example, one colony produces tobacco, and another converts it into 
cigars. Self-sufficient colonies should also produce their own tools, requiring a 
blacksmith and some form of miner.
The advantages of this approach are obvious - each of your colonies is an 
individual, and the loss of one will not drastically affect the others. Unfortunately, 
the self-sufficient approach is also inefficient - a single colony will rarely be able 
to produce enough food for both the harvesters and the craftsmen. For example, 
imagine a colony surrounded by grasslands. If it must support a master 
tobacconist or two, as well as tobacco harvesters, more of the grasslands will have 
to be used for farming, lessening the amount of tobacco produced.
On the other hand, if the same colony concentrated simply on producing tobacco, 
without the extra food needs of the tobacconists, it could use more land for 
tobacco planting, and thus produce more. This is the advantage of the specialist 
approach. The tobacco is then transported to another colony that uses its land to 
produce food for the master tobacconists, who convert the tobacco to cigars. The 
disadvantage of this is the direct opposite of the self-sufficient colony strategy - 
that your colonies will be interdependent, and the loss of one will often cause 
problems for the others. In addition, you will have to supply some form of 
transport to move the raw materials from the producing colony to the refinery.

Inland Colonies
Building a colony on an inland site (one without direct access to the ocean) is 
something of a risk. For a start, you cant transport supplies or colonists straight 
to them from your ships, making their development slower. Likewise, to transport 
their production back to the Old World requires a wagon train to first move the 
goods to a port. Not only do wagon trains require building, but they are also ripe 
targets for disgruntled natives or other European powers. As theres no way to 
link a military unit with a wagon, moving them any distance can become a risky 
proposition.
On the other hand, one of the general rules of Colonization is the more colonies 
the better. If theres a great colony site inland, or youve run out of coastal sites 
and still wish to expand, then its often worth going for it. Just be aware of the 
risks and difficulties.
As a rule, then, dont build any inland colonies at the start of the game, but wait 
until youve got a good base of successful coastal sites. After that, think very 
carefully about whether the advantages outweigh the problems.

Trade
Successful trading is one of the basic roots of success in Colonization, and is so 
tied into almost every aspect of the game that several aspects of it have already 
been touched upon in other sections. Luckily, trade is quite simple in 
Colonization. As you dont have to pay for the production of raw materials, their 
conversion into finished goods or transporting them, its actually very easy to 
make money. However, Colonization also places great strains on your cash 
reserves, so you need to make a lot of money if you can. The best way to do this is 
by variety. Dont concentrate on producing only one type of trade item, as 
flooding the market will drive the price down. Try instead to create a steady 
supply of all of them. Likewise, try to convert as much raw material as possible 
into its refined version (furs into coats, cotton into cloth and so on) as the higher 
price for these goods means more profit for you. Also, dont forget to trade with 
the natives and other European powers (provided you have Jan de Witt in your 
Congress). The native villages often offer far better prices than the Old World 
later in the game, and this is worth the extra effort that trading with them involves.

Founding Fathers
One of the great advantages of having a statesman in every one of your colonies is
that the increased Liberty Bell production will result in your nation gaining more
Founding Fathers. These great minds have several incredibly useful powers, 
performing in much the same way as the Wonders Of The World in Civilization. 
However, depending on your current situation, some of them will be far more 
useful than others, so care should be taken when choosing which one to get next.
At the start of the game, the most useful of all is William Brewster. Also very 
handy are Hernando de Soto and Sieur de La Salle. In the mid-game a lot will 
depend on your specific situation. Just remember that it takes quite a while to get 
a Founding Father, so try to plan ahead for the problems youll be facing in the 
future, rather than choosing a Founding Father whose power will have become 
redundant by the time he or she arrives.
Towards the end of the game, the Founding Fathers become very useful indeed. 
Nearly all of the Political Advisors, especially Simon Bolivar, are very useful 
when trying to up the rebel feeling in your budding nation, and Peter Stuyvesant is 
vital if you wish to continue trading during the War Of Independence. Lastly, 
George Washington is the single most useful Military Advisor, and his presence 
in your congress can swing the balance when the war is at its peak.

Independence
Although the details of beating the Royal Expeditionary forces and winning the 
game are beyond this Beginners Guide, its worth pointing out some of the 
basics. Preparing for the War of Independence should be your main priority in the 
last third or so of the game, and there are several separate areas in which you have 
to do this:
1) Make sure that Sons Of Liberty membership in all your settlements is as high 
as possible - the ideal level is 100%. The main way to do this is to have had at 
least one Elder Statesman in each colony for as long as possible, but you should 
also be sure to build printing presses and newspapers in all your towns, and get 
hold of as many political Founding Fathers as possible.
2) Make sure that as many of your colonies as possible are producing tools and
have a gunsmith available to convert these to muskets, as well as having a full 
capacity in storage.
3) Make sure that all your colonies are producing horses, and are at full 
warehouse capacity for them.
4) The first (and often most important) stage of defence is the level of fortification 
of your colonies. Ideally they should all have fortresses - the Royal Expeditionary 
Force is very tough to beat.
5) Make sure that each colony has at least four or five cannons defending it.
6) Make sure you have as many experienced soldiers and Dragoons stationed in 
your settlements as possible. When Independence is declared these troops will 
convert to Colonial Army status, making them much more effective.
7) Once the war has started, move some Dragoons into the forests and mountains 
around your colonies, to take advantage of your terrain bonus, and be prepared to 
move forces to where they are needed.
8) There is one thing to bear in mind - when you declare independence, the Royal 
force will attack. They do so en masse, concentrating on a single target until they 
take it, then moving on to another. Man OWars will continue to ferry troops to 
the site of the battle until they either win or you wipe them out. As you have no 
way of knowing which city will be attacked, its important that you defend all of 
them as well as possible.
