[Let's Play] Sid Meier's Colonization

[randowe]

After all the talk about good ol' games i somehow got beamed into the mood of playing and posting about one of those ancient gems which, by coincidence, is my most favorite game of all times: Sid Meier's Colonization
Call me Maximilianus Randowe of the English now, who, after a long and adventurous journey arrived in the shallow waters of a new world.
(Well i had to lie at my crew all the time. If we were making 50 seamiles a day, i told them we did 30. So, the whole journey didn't take much too long and see, we are not that far away from home )
For this little gaming theatre i choose the easiest level and the English, who offer a bonus on immigration. That means they attract immigrants faster than other nations.

After a long journey me and my crew arrived at the coast of an unknown continent. We travalled further south to warmer regions and made landfall in an area which will later be named North Carolina? Or at least, somehere close to NC. The place of my first colony looks pretty good with a fishery and bonus woods. There are also some hills that will provide iron ore to the new nation. Ehm, did i say new nation? Good save the King

(You also see beavers in the north which provides double furs and a rumor sign)

[Ale]

just

[lvjtn]

i played this a lot, somehow i liked it more than civilization, though civ2 was also a classic

a few years ago i found a java-based clone named freecol, what can be played on linux, windows, mac too, and i play with it time to time

btw. i prefer using dutch (better merchants) or spanish (better soldiers) players. i rarely play with french, because i prefer killing all native tribes in the nearby (yep, it's not a pc game)

[randowe]

a few years ago i found a java-based clone named freecol, what can be played on linux, windows, mac too, and i play with it time to time

I have that game too. I still keep the savegame were i have colonies all across northern America and most of south America. Maybe i can compare the games when i am finished with the original game.
freecol is a very good game and most importantly you are now able to exceed the unit limit of the original game. There are new player nations with new bonuses as well. But it is not able to fully catch up with the spirit of the original game.

btw. i prefer using dutch (better merchants) or spanish (better soldiers) players. i rarely play with french, because i prefer killing all native tribes in the nearby (yep, it's not a pc game)

I guess it is the most criticized part of the game. Sooner or later you have to kill the indians. It seems almost impossible to get along friendly. I once read that it should be possible to live along the natives, but i guess that would need a lot of micro-managing of wagon trains and a lot of trades and gifts.
So under normal circumstances the natives will start to attack and harrass you sooner or later and once they get their hands on horses or muskets they become very hard to beat.

But in the early part of the game the natives are friendly and it is useful to visit every native village. They often provide presents worth a lot of money and you can send untrained settlers to the villages to become experienced workers:



Anno Domini 1527 i had accumulated enough money (with the help of the aforementioned natives) to buy a privateer in old London town.
Privateers are fast ships and you can attack the other european nations without risking a war. Privateers are sailing under the black flag and nobody knows where it's comming from
The AI is cheating and gets unlimited muskets, which become expensive later in the game. The Privateer is able to steal a lot of Muskets which you can either sell in Europe or use yourself. You can also sell muskets to the natives which live close to your european competitors

[randowe]

Anno Domini 1539

I have 3 colonies now and as you can see on the picture the Dutch started to build colonies in Florida and on the Caribbean Islands. Of course i can not tolerate colonies of other european powers in my backyard and have to start a military mission soon. A Dragoon already made landfall on a large island. I will call it Cuba
Military actions also train your unskilled soldiers and cavalry and by chance they become experienced soldiers. Once i captured a colony i disband it and ship the settlers to my own cities.



Anno Domini 1550

When one of my scouts explored a lost city rumor, he discovered the fountain of youth, probably the best event what can happen to a player. Once the news of the fountain made it to europe you will get 8 immigrants. Few years later i had enough money to buy a galleon which is the biggest merchant vessel with a transport capacity of 6. My old ship and the privateer have a capacity of only 2 each.

[randowe]

Anno Domini 1600 and 1620

The year 1600 is very important because from now on you will play 2 turns/year. That means you will have around 400 turns left before the game ends in 1800 and before you have declared independence. Though you can play some more years when you declare independence in, let's say, 1798 and the mandatory war of independence will of course last much more than 2 two years.

The capital of all my colonies, Jamestown, has developed into a medium sized city. You can see a farmer in the schoolhouse, teaching untrained settlers and an elder statesman and company "producing" freedom bells in the town hall. The production of tools has already started which is very important. You need tools for all of the later buildings (and ships build in your shipyards) in every colony and pioneers need tools as well for their work on roads and cutting forrests.



The second picture shows most of my colonies on the east coast in the year 1620. You can see three pioneers doing their work and an enemy privateer off the coast. Some colonies have already build forts, which gives a defense bonus in land fights and forts (and fortresses) also shoot at enemy ships and privateers of the get close.
I have already established a colony on the mountainous west coast of Mexico. The colony has two resources of silver in its vincinity
I will post a picture when the mining of the silver has started.

[randowe]

Anno Domini 1630 and 1635

In one of my previous posts i mentioned the Liberty Bells. But what are they for?
In fact, liberty bells are pretty important in Colonization. Every colony produces more or less liberty bells, depending on the settlers you send to the town hall. Later in the game you will have up to 3 elder statesmen who are producing a lot of liberty bells in every colony.

From time to time you can choose a famous historic person who will join your Continental Congress after a certain number of liberty bells is produced. Every person brings a bonus with him/her. Pocahontas will reduce the tension between the player's colonies and the natives. John Paul Jones will send you a warship. With Peter Minuit in your Continental Congress, you don't have to pay for the occupation of native land anymore. William Brewster will stop criminals and servants to show up in your european port. The picture shows the members of my continental congress in 1630.

Liberty bells also determine the percentage of Sons of Freedom in every colony. There will be production bonuses when the Sons of Freedom reach 50% and 100% in a colony. After the War of Independence started, a colony with less than 50% Sons of Freedom will raise royal troops who will fight the player.
(If i remeber correctly. I am too good and that never happens to me )

A certain number of liberty bells is also needed to get assistance of an other european power in the War of Independence.



The second pctures hows Charleston, my mexican silver mining colony The two experienced silver miners have produced 200 tons of silver, which my privateer will ship to London. Unfortunately the price will drop quickly and silver will become an cheap ordinary good.
A silver mine can be very useful at the start of the game, but now, in 1635, it is just a trade good like the others.
Later in the game the price of every good will drop dramatically and the taxes will rise and you will get only little money for selling goods in europe.

[de Mont Tonnerre]

i've played it, too for over all the years...

...i taken always the french, searching for islands in the far west, on the pacific and ally with the indians...support them with horses and weapons against the other europeans and my king...

[try to finish sicily the next days ]

[randowe]

...i taken always the french, searching for islands in the far west, on the pacific and ally with the indians...support them with horses and weapons against the other europeans and my king...

Sounds like you are an guerilla commander

I guess you played in a New World instead of America then. I must say, prefer the America map because it has the largest land mass. The new world is often fragmented a lot, even if you choose "continents".

Anno Domini 1665

There is often war in the new world. Mostly wars are fought to capture settlers, because you can capture every settler an other european power has. You can either capture (and disband) enemy colonies or fight down enemy cavalries and soldiers to capture settlers. Once a cavalry looses a fight, it will be reduced to soldier status. So the horses are lost. When a soldier looses a fight, it will beecome a settler. Settlers can be captured. They will remain their profession unless they are experienced soldiers. Experienced soldiers will become ordinary settlers when loosing a fight.

When i capture criminals i equip them with horses and muskets, making them cavaly units. When George Washington is a member of the Continental Congress every soldier who wins a fight will get promoted from criminal -> servant -> settler - > experienced soldier.

As you can see on the picture the Spanish are attacking my Mexican colonies, but Yorktown has a fort and will repell all attacks.

There is one major drawback when it comes to captureing colonies. A colony that already has a stockade (or fort/fortress) can't be disbanded anymore. So when you want to get rid of an colony you have to starv it to death, which is often impossible due to colony food production. I often use a captured colony which i can not disband for food production only (every 200 tons you will get a new settler). The settlers are shipped to my main colonies.
Often i just hope the enemy will recapture the city after i have plundered it

(Thankfully the creators of the freecol game made it possible to disband all colonies. In Colonization you would have to cheat to disband a colony with a stockade)

[randowe]

Anno Domini 1700

The eastern coast of new England is well developed and some years ago i started to build colonies in the far west. There will be one colony with a port in the Seattle area, but i always try to limit the overall number of colonies with access to the ocean. Once the War of Independence has started, the King's Expeditionary Force will pick one colony to attack and all of the AIs units will be shipped to this colony.
Many of the colonies feature a customs house which automatically sales goods Europe. So you don't have to ship all the goods from all the colonies to Europe yourself. Tax is 66% at the moment The more revolutionary the feelings of my citizens get, the more the King raises the tax...



I am still in war with Spain and the Netherlands. Spain's army is even more powerful than mine at the moment. But in the upcomming century i have to build a lot of cavalries to be prepared for the War of Independence. The forreign affairs report shows a population of 255 for all of my colonies, but that is a bug. I have many more settlers than that. I fear to hit the "no more units" bug soon

[Ale]

don't know why maybe partly inspired by this, started Caesar II - after 20 + years - and struggling at first province ; ) never liked real time in general nor city builders that much - fighting type myself - but definitely sentimentally touched by line "Plebs are needed!"

i sometimes look at newer things and always short of time, but definitely nothing beats the fun of those days - checked freecol project again thanks to your hint

[randowe]

don't know why maybe partly inspired by this, started Caesar II - after 20 + years - and struggling at first province ; ) never liked real time in general nor city builders that much - fighting type myself - but definitely sentimentally touched by line "Plebs are needed!"

I know Caeser II, but never played it back in the days. Just downloaded it today I am already thinking about the game i could play (and post here) next. Maybe Monkey Island II? That would be fun but kind of long-ish.

Meanwhile in New England anno domini 1714

I needed to build more colonies for all the new settlers, but hit the general colony cap. So i had to send my units to the caribbean islands and South America to capture and destroy enemy colonies.
Seattle is developing well now and i decided to build one more colony with ocean access - San Francisco. Yesterday i read about Emperor Norten (1811 - 1880), a citizen of San Francisco and self declared emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. Quite a fun story. I can only recomend to read about him
Well, with this story in mind i had to build Frisco...
Seattle and San Francisco were builded with trained settlers which i aquired directly in old Europe. Thats why they grew pretty fast.

Last year the King oce more increased the tax and it is now a freakin' 75%! At the same time the price for cloth dropped to zero and i stopped all exports. I hope the price will turn upward again in future.
Still, i am getting rich because all the custom houses sell masses of quality products made in New England

West Coast of New England (i had to alter the name of San Frisco so it fits into the line ):

[Ale]

I know Caeser II, but never played it back in the days. Just downloaded it today

if you are gonna play it be sure to have "more plebs" by the way, you sound like pirate to me ))

Maybe Monkey Island II?[/qoute]


never tried, but always ready for more games from German history just joking, you are my best friend... and take it as big joke.

have fun, no idea why quote didn't work well...

[randowe]

O Captain! My Captain! Aarrrrr, to bad we missed the international Talk Like a Pirate Day on 19th September last year.
Island was quite popular in Germany. So much time passed, i didn't even remember how to solve the riddles...
Aye aye matey, will look for more plebs! One can never have enough plebs. In any game

[Ale]

just avoid the red coats and you'll be fine in these waters seriously, hope you continue with sharing other game experiences, which ever you chose. With some historical references and persons of interest to you even better, also historical reader ... personally in last 2-3 months i play very few, including OG so not starting anything for now, just finished some playtests recently...... as for my Caesar 2, considering their neverending apetites and needs I'm dancing on a thin dialectical line between "need more plebs!" and "kill more plebs!" and requesting from senate transfer to some quiet barbarian woods

[Radoye]

...hope you continue with sharing other game experiences, which ever you chose...

I'll second that!

I too enjoy playing Sid Meier's Colonization to this day

[randowe]

Thanks for your nice words guys That really motivates me

Anno Domini 1723

In the recent years i attacked the Spanish and Dutch and captured 4 colonies, plundered them and burned them down to the ground in order to build 4 new colonies in New England. The rest of the enemy colonies already feature a stockade or fort and i would not be able to disband them anyway. There is still some figthing going on, on the coast of Chile for training purposes... My 38th and last colony i builded in Middle America and named it Belize. New England consists of 38 colonies now and spans from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and down to the Gulf of Mexico.
The colony cap seems to be 46 colonies

I am now entering the final phase of the game where it is important to build a fortress in all colonies, increase the sons of freedom to 100% and train more and more cavalries for the upcomming War of Independence.
The price for coats went down to zero too and like cloths, i stopped all exports. My army and navy are now the biggest and best in the whole New World.

Take a look at sweet Belize. (I had to build a new colony in the south for some more sugarcane. My distilleries need more raw material... )

[randowe]

Anno Domini 1735

I am getting messages that the King of Spain will grant independence to his colonies once the sons of freedom reach 80%. At the moment the percentage is 61% and it is rising. I guess that means that i should start the war of independence before the Spanish become independent.
I don't remember if the player is able to win the game once an other nations colonies became independent

I think it is better (and would have been better if i had did so) to constantly attack all european powers and prevent them from building any colonies at all. That also helps the player to increase the number of his/her own colonies. I did not reach the "no more units" bug yet and most of my colonies are crowded already. There is not much space left for additional settlers. Well, it is possible to park 3 settlers as preachers in the churches and cathedrals of every colony, where they "produce" crosses, which attract new settlers in London. I really wish the colonies had a greater radius of useable land like in Civilization.

My main focus is to train more soldiers. You can see that my army consists of 67 experienced soldiers at the moment. I have few artilleries too, but they are not very useful in combat. At the same time, the King's Expeditionary Force consists of 86 soldiers, 29 cavalries, 21 artilleries and 14 ships.
The better the player gets, the more units will be added to the Expeditionary Force.

[Radoye]

I don't remember if the player is able to win the game once an other nations colonies became independent

Yes, but you get a bonus to your total score if you're the first one (also, if you've achieved independence "early" - i.e. before the historical USA independence).

[randowe]

Thanks for enlighten me. Of course i want to go for the Bonus I really like the score you get at the end when something is named after you. Like a peninsula or a continent, or of you are not so successful, a disease or fever
I knew about the "early" independence, but never tried it because i always wanted to play the game as long as possible and amass as many settlers and colonies as possible. It is like in OG when i play additional turns to get the maximum kills and experience... and playtime!

Anno Domini 1739

There is not much going on in New England these days. I am mostly just training soldiers, statesmen and preachers and distribute new settlers amongst the colonies.
The number of sons of freedom in the Spanish colonies dropped to 54 in 1736 (one turn after my previous post) but then slowly increased every turn again and now it is at 66. The Dutch are at 60. I will declare independence (an start the war) when one of them reaches 70.

[Ale]

btw, considering Monkey Island 2 you mentioned - while I guess you know, there is remastered - cartoonish - version of it from some 10 years ago. found out today while checking around net.

played few adventures in the '90s so i wasn't familiar, only two I can positively remember that i played and finished then are Little Big Adventure (fun, lots of mechanics though) and Full Throttle (nothing special). that much about memory of the genre... )

[randowe]

War commenced!

In the year of the Lord 1747, we, the north american colonies, formerly known as New England, signed a consitiution of independence! We shall no longer live under the heel of an far away King. Take up your arms brothers and fight for your freedom. The Continental army will led by the General, randowe of Brunswick



After half a year of a journey across the Atlantic Ocean, the first of the King's ships laded troops on the shores of the USA! In a heroic fight, the fortress of Plymouth was able to severely damge the English Man-O-War and it had to sail back to England.

Our regular troops are promoted to continental soldiers and cavalries and are in excellent condition. May the fighting begin
The King will land 6 units each turn and will try to destroy them immediately. All i have to do is to draw together most of the continental troops around Plymouth. (Please note that the little flags of the colonies have changed to American ones)

[Ale]

be quiet.... plebs of Rome might hear your ideas and rise against their righteous ruler (dictator only by senate decision) Aleus Servius the Younger. that's last thing we want, finally making some denarii...

give us notice when (and if, of course) you start any other/older game, might join to see how i do, but surely without your style of aar's and pics ...can't play OG now, can't concentrate on strategy these days

[randowe]

give us notice when (and if, of course) you start any other/older game, might join to see how i do, but surely without your style of aar's and pics ...can't play OG now, can't concentrate on strategy these days

Do you have any games in mind? You can also take a look here: https://www.myabandonware.com/
I guess your AARs would be even more fun to read than mine

[de Mont Tonnerre]

clemens, take a look here:

http://www.panzerliga.de/dt/docs/forum/ ... 419#p39419

[lvjtn]

i blame you, Clemens! i spent the last two weks by playing colonization, it's so f**ing addictive like opiats

anyway, the most important factor in this game (imo) is the custom house, which is a market place, from where the buyers should tranport the goods, so all boycotts can be ignored. which means,it's possible to play with 0% taxes (very big as no govt likes to see this tax rate), if you focus on developing custom house (given by electing peter stuyvesant as a founding father), it's possible to ignore the demands of your king and keep the 0% tax rate till the very end. and it's important: killing at least the aztecs and incas is a "must done", because every destroyed indian settlement gives you 7000-15000 cash, which is enough to buy 4-7 privateers (fast and dangerous warships) or recruiting the same amount of "elder statesmen" (a unit responsible for increasing the rebel sentiment) or 7-10 fishermen (basic unit responsible to grow the size of your colony)

[Ale]

i could look around for ages... too bad growing or big number of games are not available for download, including MI 2 but one can find it elsewhere )

whatever you want Clemens my friend, later when you finish and decide i'll follow for fun... didn't even plan to do AARs (just to post periodically in your thread some of own experiences)) but we will see if you decide later. i still look at screens, maybe start from A

[randowe]

i blame you, Clemens! i spent the last two weks by playing colonization, it's so f**ing addictive like opiats

anyway, the most important factor in this game (imo) is the custom house, which is a market place, from where the buyers should tranport the goods, so all boycotts can be ignored. which means,it's possible to play with 0% taxes (very big as no govt likes to see this tax rate), if you focus on developing custom house (given by electing peter stuyvesant as a founding father), it's possible to ignore the demands of your king and keep the 0% tax rate till the very end. and it's important: killing at least the aztecs and incas is a "must done", because every destroyed indian settlement gives you 7000-15000 cash, which is enough to buy 4-7 privateers (fast and dangerous warships) or recruiting the same amount of "elder statesmen" (a unit responsible for increasing the rebel sentiment) or 7-10 fishermen (basic unit responsible to grow the size of your colony)

There is something in the grafics that is very addictive (to me). I never found an other game where i liked the grafics as much as in Colonization. I mean the game has ancient grafics, It is 25 years old, but still i love it
Yes, it is possible to reject all tax "offers" from the king and use the custom houses. But i never plan so much into the future
I only got around 5000 to 7000 when i destroyed an Aztec or Inca settlement. Do you play with the Spanish? I got some messages that the Spanish AI King is pleased with the treasures worth 15000 sent to Europe
The America map featurs only very few Aztec (3?) or Inca (5?)settlements, but if you play in a random new world there can be a lot of them.

Anno Domini 1750

The King is using dirty tricks. After the initial landing of troops around Plymouth in the North, every other Man-O-War sailed to Middle America and spit out troops around Portsmouth. Thankfully they are suffering from scurvy and syphilis and won't be able to storm the walls of my fortresses
I also sent some of my cavalries as well as wagon trains (carrying 200 tons of horses each) down to the south.
After i had produceed enough freedom bells the my Dutch ally sent 4 Man-O-Wars full of troops.
But the player should never sink all of the King's ships, because the game will never end when the King is unable to ship all his troops to the New World because all of his ships got sunk.

[lvjtn]

I only got around 5000 to 7000 when i destroyed an Aztec or Inca settlement. Do you play with the Spanish? I got some messages that the Spanish AI King is pleased with the treasures worth 15000 sent to Europe
The America map featurs only very few Aztec (3?) or Inca (5?)settlements, but if you play in a random new world there can be a lot of them.

i play with portugals (i like their naval advantage), so it may be a freecol feature, though as i remember, i got 10,000+ cash with the original colonization, maybe you haven't elected Cortés to the continental congress and you paid the 50% tax for carrying the treasure to europe?

and yes, there are 6-8 aztec + inca settlements on the map, but you need only 1 arty and 1-3 cav (+1 ship to transport them) to destroy a settlement. for me, this tactic finances the strong fleet and "training" experts for each colonies

[randowe]

i play with portugals (i like their naval advantage), so it may be a freecol feature, though as i remember, i got 10,000+ cash with the original colonization, maybe you haven't elected Cortés to the continental congress and you paid the 50% tax for carrying the treasure to europe?

Yes, Portugal is only available in freecol. In the original game you have the choice between the Netherlands, Spain, England and France.
I think i had already elected Cortez because i did pay the current tax only. Which was low at that time. With the Spanish you get a bonus too. Anyway, money is never a problem in Colonization
The (Americas) map is much bigger in freecol, which is great. When i finish my Colonization run, i will post some screenshots to compare both games. In a freecol run i had around 320 colonies and something around 3500 settlers. That is about 280 colonies more than i have at the moment.

Anno Domini 1754

While the royal troops besiege Portsmouth, i am carrying a lot of horses into the town.
When a cavalry looses a fight it is reduced to an infantry. So all you have to do is, is providing enough horses in order to upgrade infantries into cavalries.
Doing so, you will never loose a single unit. With this in mind it is a good idea to start the "production" of horses early. You just have to bring two horses to town and miraculously the number will increase

I already transported some horses from other colonies to Portsmouth, but you can se that horses are the only good (next to food of course) which is available in all colonies:

[lvjtn]

In a freecol run i had around 320 colonies and something around 3500 settlers. That is about 280 colonies more than i have at the moment.

holy motherforking bullshirt! how do you manage so much settlements?

i usually have 15-20 settlements only, and i must create an excel sheet for planning where a newly emigrated expert should go, what professionals should be taught, where custom house should be built asap, etc. or do i have an ocd about micromanagement?

[Ale]

no idea, but figured some time ago that Randowe is a phenomenon obviously not from same dimension and space-time continuum as me would like to sometimes enter it and slow down own time.... regarding graphics and your words, as you are more artistic soul - as you expressed from my medieval topic back at JP to your painting interests for games - i will believe what you said about beauty of colonization graphics even though it is not visible to my insensitive & uneducated eyes

anyway, I think i'm interested in some sort of "retro gamer corner" here and (if i don't change my mind) will contribute to it with some reviews and gameplay posts and that's your idea, while i understand your interest and engagement with OG, much bigger than mine

[randowe]

anyway, I think i'm interested in some sort of "retro gamer corner" here and (if i don't change my mind) will contribute to it with some reviews and gameplay posts

I fully support that idea It would be great to have a "Retro Games" or "Other Games" subforum. I would like to play and post reports about other ancient games in the future too and it would be cool to have a place for that. Maybe the whole forum will also get a little more attractive

holy motherforking bullshirt! how do you manage so much settlements?

i usually have 15-20 settlements only, and i must create an excel sheet for planning where a newly emigrated expert should go, what professionals should be taught, where custom house should be built asap, etc. or do i have an ocd about micromanagement?

I don't know exactly how i manage that I just play and make plans in my head. Since i am a kid i like to play long games on large maps with lots of units. It is the same, be it Colonization, Civilization, Open General or Transport Tycoon or any other game.

[Ale]

not necessarily something separate, although your idea is alright (lack of staff, members, interest for now etc. etc.) ... by "here" we both meant in pub for start

not to sound like parrot - lets do if you are up to (you chose first, maybe something shorter) few of them & then we can separate interests in them and threads (will ask you about hosting sites later....))

[randowe]

Well, i had a real subforum in mind. We can see in this thread that there is some interest
But i will be fine with whatever we eventually come up with

Anno Domini 1754, Autumn

Meanwhile in the New World, the Iroquois held war council and entered war on the King's side. Well, there is just one Iroquoise village left on a remote island, so they won't be a threat to me anyway.
I also have to correct myself. I wrote that the King will pick one colony and land all of his troops around that certain colony. But as of now the King laded troops near 4 different colonies. I think i will finish the game today

[randowe]

I changed the thread's title to [Let's Play] Sid Meier's Colonization. Ancient game, ancient let's play. No Videos, just pictures

Anno Domini 1761

Victory! There was not much to do and the last turns were pretty boring but eventually the King's troops were beaten and left the New World.
I had more than 100 cavalries, but 20 would have been enough. If you have enough horses, you can win against every army
The King had no other option and had to grant independence to the new United States of America.

I reached a pretty high score, despite playing on the easiest level. A continent was named after me







Here are 2 screenshots from a old savegame for camparison between Colonization and freecol. As i said, the America map in freecol is much bigger and it is possible to build hundreds of colonies with thousands of settlers. I was not able to change the language to english, but you can see that i have 326 colonies with 3891 settlers.
The labor overview shows that i have more than 600 farmers, which alone is maybe even more than the overall number of settlers i have in Colonization

THE END

[lvjtn]

I changed the thread's title to [Let's Play] Sid Meier's Colonization. Ancient game, ancient let's play. No Videos, just pictures

great idea. if there will be 5-10 (or 4-7 or whateveryou think is reasonable) "let's play" threads, we can open a new forum for them

regarding (free)col: i'm trying a new tactic now: i built 21 colonies at first (with size=1, the single unit working as elder statement), and i created only 3-4 colonies with custom house (one on each island / continent what i conquered). i also used these "big cities" too teach experts, whom i send to the other colonies slowly. with this tactic, my country evolved slowly, but after 1650, the speed of the growing increased drasticaly, so i guess from 1700 i can focus on building my army (4-4 arty and cav in eacch colonies)

[randowe]

Do you play on a random map? I must admit, that i play on the America map only. I never build colonies on islands and the America map has a large connected landmass without many islands. When all colonies are connected by roads, i find it easier to distribute settlers, soldiers and supplies.

[Ale]

just looking around there it turns out that I played only some 5-10% of (only!) strategy games from those years, leaving me with literally thousands of choices to try... and then there are other categories.

while my idea about "playing together" wasn't the best one - i'll probably open own thread later and review some games* (already started a number) - what i initially meant is your advice about other genres, like adventures, as it seems you tried a lot more. hope you continue with whatever you chose



*because it is better forum involvement than silly history of Sarmatia

[randowe]

I decided that the next game i show here will be Imperialism II. I want to do point and klick adventures in the future but i have to think about how i will present them. There are many places which you can visit and that would require too many screenshots.
And some places are bigger than one screen... I also don't want to write a long book But surely, i want to play Monkey Island II and Beneath a Steel Sky, a game i have never played and which looks very interesting.
I also would like to show Open Transport Tycoon and Civ III. Then there are some other games which i would like to review but that are not worth a own thread or that are hard to present like racing games. Maybe i will open a shared thread for those games with a table of contents in the first post. We'll see what the future brings It is definitely a nice oppurtunity to play all those rusty gems

[Ale]

i don't intend to do "let's play" for every of them and i'll have only one thread... there will be just a paragraph of a review in some cases, experience - finished or maybe unfinished too - and liked or not, maybe (if i manage to) a pic or two and such. Maybe not needed but could be fun to some readers and maybe some will try them themselves. in other cases i'll use your style and present progress in posts... like you i also don't know how to arrange posts but not important and we are doing it as non-profitable and not clickbait thing

however i will name thread in your way "lets play...." but without title in the name. thanks for awakening my desire for older titles again i promise some diversity if it lives as planned... have fun with Imp 2, great title (well known, i'll read with interest) and for now i'll start with "first timer"

[Bombast the Blue]

Launched a freecol match too.
Playing Portugal on Africa map. Slightly smaller than America map.
Alas with the original american tribes (maybe there is a mod addressing that issue, maybe not).
Almost missed the deadline for first colony foundation but than development went well.
Quite early there were attempts from English (mainly Palestine area) and Spanish (mainly Horn of Africa area) to push me out.
The former eventually gave up, the latter I ended up beating until there was very little left, which was then finished by the Dutch.
There were some "indian wars" too, but I only really extinguished one tribe.
At some point I got annoyed about the English founding colonies almost on top of each other (although they're not alone in that).
So, I proceeded to conquer and reorganize New England as a Portuguese province.
Realizing I "was at it" I just took the time to refit and redeploy to launch the assault on the French (southern portion of continent).
With approximately a hundred dragoons with support from a few cannons it spread like a forest fire.
From slightly "below" the equator to the very "bottom" in around two years (playing with 4 season years).
The amount of captured population is overwhelming to the point that turns now take me forever and a day (or maybe just about an hour).
Its drawing near the end of 1650 and my priority is to refit and redeploy the military to engage the Dutch (mainly Madagascar with a continental "projection").
No point in thinking about "independencies" when all I need is showing those Dutch what codfish pastries are...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpsGJAxa98c

[randowe]

Wow, sounds like you've truly mastered the game How many colonies and settlers do you have?

I didn't even know that it is possible to play 4 turns a year. That's interesting! I have to take a deeper look at the settings...
Would be great to play a truckload of additional turns

[Bombast the Blue]

Number of colonies 186.
Number of colonists 2334.
(Two or three of the French colonies yielded over 100 "people" each. Most just taking shelter "outside" colony of course.)

This when there are only 3 Dutch colonies left, including the capital with the only fortress I'll have to attack.
There are still some native settlements scattered throughout the map.
Mind its in the easiest level and the 4 turn years also tend to help.
To get the "longer years" go to "Game Options" than to "Year Options" and "Seasons" is the last counter downwards.
I think 2 Seasons a year is default but it allows 4 (or 2 to 4?).

One of these days I should search for mods.
I did find reference to a few but didn't go beyond that.

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Meanwhile, the three Dutch colonies cost me a few more hundreds of horses but didn't really take long to fall, complete with a few more tens of colonists, three ships under repair, and assorted booty. And that was it...

Currently beginning another match on a random map playing... the Ottoman.
That's not a typo, it's a mod.
Adds Italy, Belgium, Germany and Ottoman, although save I'm mistaken only the last of the four existed as such in the XVth century.
Actually the game comes with a few mods to start with, (including "month", "week" and "day" season's for 12, 52 and 365 turns per year!!!).
So, this time I enabled some of them and added a few more from here:
https://github.com/FreeCol/freecol-mods
Its almost sure not all of them will work, some may be incompatible with each other and crashes wouldn't surprise.
The one with 4 more nations seems to be working as another one that starts colonies with just carpenter house, depot and pasture.
Everything else will have to be built post foundation, so developing the colonies will take longer, or so it is to expect.

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Discontinued use of the "basic buildings" mod.
The idea of starting with just three of the most basic buildings, making colony development a bit more challenging, is nice.
The reverse, however, is too strong...
While it works well for the human player the AI controlled colonists just seem not "knowing" what to build.
They keep founding and abandoning colonies in the same turn and never get going.
The mod concept is interesting but it would require AI adaptation.

Started another Ottoman match without the "basic buildings" thing and they all (its a tutti with all 12 nations) have their first colony going by 1505.

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After a few "freezes" I decided to cut down on mods.
First went the additional 4 nations but the "freezes" continued.
Than I noticed one of those that comes with the game (named Extended) seems to be more complex, with different rules and new units.
Removing that one from the active mods list seems to have stopped the "freezing".
Now playing an English match with the following active mods:
"shippable wagon trains"
"Convert upgrade"
"Experience expansion"
"Plant forest"
"Enhanced scouts"

Probably good idea to have a go on "Extended" and "4 additional nations" later on, separately.
"Enhanced scouts" seems to be working, they "see" one tile farther.
"Plant forest" introduces a new order-button but I still haven't tried it.
"Experience expansion" should allow colonists to gain experience while working on buildings and eventually acquire specialization,
"Convert upgrade" should allow more options for indian converts use, most notably, militarily.
"shippable wagon trains" should allow galleons loading wagon trains.

[randowe]

100 "people" each. Most just taking shelter "outside" colony of course.

Sounds like it is kind of a bug. I mean the AI would have parked 200-300 unused settlers
But the Africa map is kind of strange too. It seems to be not very detailed and surely it would have been possible to place some more hills and mountains and some more forests i think. maybe the AI can handle a "easier" map, like America, better

Thanks for exploring (and explaining) the other mods. Funnily i read about the mod adding Germans and Ottomans yesterday for the first time. From time to time i visit the freecol forum at sourceforge. There is still some activity going on. There is even a freecol 2 forum. But for me everything is a bit confusing and i don't know if there is any development going on at the moment. The latest version was announced in 2015 at the freecol website.
I guess i just have to dive deeper into the topic to get an better overview...
If i had some wishes, i would wish for the game to become more complex. Especially in the coloy building part.

I once read that it was planned to add colony growth to the original Colonization but it was cancelled somehow. The colony screen is showing some space around the colony and it would have been possible to add more of the surrounding terrain to a colony (at least grafics-wise). Once you visit a colony, you can see the space in the upper right corner around the 9 tiles. Maybe this would be nice to start with in freecol 2
See the empty space:

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[Radoye]

The Incan cities in the south do "control" a larger area than European and other native settlements. Before you get Peter Minuit as a Founding Father the natives will claim the land immediately neighboring their settlements, well i found that Incas will claim land that's two squares away.

Maybe it has something to do with the size of the settlement (similar to CivIII?), long time ago i was looking into the various data files of Colonization and found that there is information about colony buildings i haven't seen in the game (you know how some buildings/upgrades only become available after your colony has grown in population over certain number).

Oh yeah, there is also a "Teacher" unit that i was able to activate - not sure what exactly it does, if anything, but it exists in the game and can be imported from Europe.

[randowe]

In the freecol forum i once read that there was also a milkmaid coded, but today nobody knows what it was for Like the teacher and the greater colony radius it seems there were some things coded but not implemented in the final game.

But still, when you click on a empty tile in Colonization the game tells you who the owner is. The owner's next settlement or colony can be far away.
I guess CIV invented borders to show controlled area. In CIV III a border can be up to 5 tiles away from the next city. Depends on "culture" points of an certain city. You know what i mean

[Radoye]

Yeah, but i'm not talking about culture in CivIII - if you look at the city management screen you can see which tiles your city actually can use (the area has a thin white border). It's small for small cities, and when your city grows it gets bigger. See below:

[randowe]

I know what you meant. Sorry if i was not clear. I then went on to talk about owned tiles out of a city.
See the picture below. There is a tile which is still owned by Apaches, even if they vanished. The surrounding tiles are part of New England. But there are no borders shown like in Civ III.

I meant the difference between useable coloy land and owned land. Like it is shown on your Civ III screenshot. There is land within your borders which is not usable by the city. When the city jumps to the next level, both, usable land and owned land outside will get bigger.
In Colonization the owned land has no meaning, but in Civ it is more important. Sorry i can't express myself better

(Don't mind the curser. I selected the tile but the selector is invisible (blinking)):

[Bombast the Blue]

Sounds like it is kind of a bug. I mean the AI would have parked 200-300 unused settlers
But the Africa map is kind of strange too. It seems to be not very detailed and surely it would have been possible to place some more hills and mountains and some more forests i think. maybe the AI can handle a "easier" map, like America, better

The impression I got is that the AI retreated its military to a few selected locations in order to create "strongpoints"...
and moved almost every civilian possible along with the military.
Most colonies I overrun without resistance and had population 1.
In some places I caught "refugee columns" outside (two or three with maybe around 20 to 40 colonists each) and they were backing away from my assault.

Some parts of the African map are quite treeless alright...
Founded some colonies far away to get lumber, built very long roads for lumber wagons, and shipped many lumber cargoes, and it was never enough to reach all the treeless colonies.

In the current match I'm in the American map.
Plenty of trees but I'm almost a century past the year I ended in Africa and far from a victory over the other colonies.

Thanks for exploring (and explaining) the other mods. Funnily i read about the mod adding Germans and Ottomans yesterday for the first time. From time to time i visit the freecol forum at sourceforge. There is still some activity going on. There is even a freecol 2 forum. But for me everything is a bit confusing and i don't know if there is any development going on at the moment. The latest version was announced in 2015 at the freecol website.
I guess i just have to dive deeper into the topic to get an better overview...
If i had some wishes, i would wish for the game to become more complex. Especially in the coloy building part.

I've downloaded a non stable version labeled as being from December 2019.
Didn't get too well though. First time I got ship back to Europe couldn't convince the game to send it back to New World...
Wishes?...
Every building series should have its specialist would be number one.
Probably in some cases it would be difficult to maintain the principle of specialists producing something.
What would a "harbour master" produce?...
Unless some "cargo loss during harbour operations" principle was introduced and the "harbour master" would reduce it.
In other cases it could be more like the usual stuff... get a "cowboy" working the pasture and you'll get horses faster.
About "Reporter", I don't know very well what to think of... we can easily think of such a figure producing bells or crosses but that would be a duplication.

I once read that it was planned to add colony growth to the original Colonization but it was cancelled somehow. The colony screen is showing some space around the colony and it would have been possible to add more of the surrounding terrain to a colony (at least grafics-wise). Once you visit a colony, you can see the space in the upper right corner around the 9 tiles. Maybe this would be nice to start with in freecol 2
See the empty space:

Maybe that could be the work of the "reporter", generating "culture/propaganda" in order to allow enlarging the individual colony area...

Of course, to be politically very incorrect, number two (in wishlist) would be the introduction of "slaves"...
The great doubt is: as units or/and goods?
A sort of convertable/revertable... each 100 slaves (goods) = 1 slave (unit)?
But the thing gets even less politically correct when we think biology dictates living beings tend to reproduce.
In the context of the game we would be driven to say that "slaves" should reproduce... like "horses"...
One can easily understand why the original game was made without "slaves", despite their huge historical relevance.
The only thing I can think about that could eventually get near of "saving such a day" would be introducing the abolitionist theme somehow.