CIV IV: Colonization

[Adari]

Has anyone bought this?

I'm quite interested but I felt that playing online in CIV IV with random people, well, sucked.

Trying to find a portal of some sort where I can find other players (or perhaps players from here if there are any).

Any suggestions?

[Lethul]

Thanks for the heads up. Been testing this a bit in the days. But i think something is missing, can't put my finger on what tho. Maybe it's just a matter of learning the game.

PS. Is there any reason to build churches ?

[old.Osy]

I think it has something to do with obtaining immigrants faster from Europe... let's just say that Thadius won't build 'em.

[Lethul]

Either im totally shit at this game, or it's really hard to survive when the kingdom attacks you. I had 5 soldiers, 2 canons, 2 dragons in every town i had. And he just zerged me down in like 10 turns 100000000000 dragoons and 100000000 soldiers and 1000000000000/2 canons demolished me. I thought i had though defence

[Mabs]

get many churches for the religious crosses.
trade with natives - once your paying over about 20% tax on stuff your pissing away money
all the settlers can be made into minutemen type stuff, but theyre a bit cack

[Lethul]

Originally Posted by Mabs

get many churches for the religious crosses.
trade with natives - once your paying over about 20% tax on stuff your pissing away money
all the settlers can be made into minutemen type stuff, but theyre a bit cack

How do i get good soldiers then? I buy a few from the motherland but after a while they are so expensive :<

So far i found religion a bit poo, am i correct in this assumption?

[Mabs]

you can ask the king for troops, or buy them off the dock (i didnt realise for ages you can click the green $ sign to buy people )
the price tends to fluctuate, buy one everyone few turns, seems to keep it down, if you buy a lot in one go, it goes up shit loads

/edit

get firebrand preachers in max size, er, cathedrals ? and it will go quite well

[Lethul]

Originally Posted by Mabs

you can ask the king for troops, or buy them off the dock (i didnt realise for ages you can click the green $ sign to buy people )
the price tends to fluctuate, buy one everyone few turns, seems to keep it down, if you buy a lot in one go, it goes up shit loads

/edit

get firebrand preachers in max size, er, cathedrals ? and it will go quite well

I've bought all my veterans from the green$. But their price goes up and never comes down again (only applies to military stuff).

Also boats (esp. Ship of the line) seems rather crap. They coast loads and when you really need them they get insta owned by the zerg of Man-o-wars

[old.Osy]

This is a game that even when played on very easy, it's still incredibly difficult.

I played it 5 times now, 4x French and 1x Spanish (don't play Spain), and I lost each time.

Last night I had a go at it, on super easy mode and marathon game length. I had 3 colonies, all growing nicely, religion up there, carpenters to speed up buildings, had 1 caravan supplying tools to the other 2 colonies, everything was going smooth... no colony was Stagnant, they were all growing, etc...

I did have to remove the Aztecs though (Montezuma), they hit me unprovoked (I generally try to be friendly all around, so that a possible conflict would not impede my development)

If there is a balance to be reached, I'm afraid I haven't found it.

It seems as if you can't get enough liberty bells until the time runs out, and if you focus on those, you lose muscle in other areas (military, development).

The only strategy I found to be working against the King is to kill the troops vessel on the sea, have at least 3 Ship of the Line waiting, and kill it off before he can unload the zerg. Another one made it through though, so I still lost, even though I had minutemen & veterans + Fortress.

Very, very difficult. This brings me back to the 90's, when most games were a challenge. I'll keep at it, and if I find a winning strat, i'll let you know

[Lethul]

Originally Posted by old.Osy

This is a game that even when played on very easy, it's still incredibly difficult.

I played it 5 times now, 4x French and 1x Spanish (don't play Spain), and I lost each time.

Last night I had a go at it, on super easy mode and marathon game length. I had 3 colonies, all growing nicely, religion up there, carpenters to speed up buildings, had 1 caravan supplying tools to the other 2 colonies, everything was going smooth... no colony was Stagnant, they were all growing, etc...

I did have to remove the Aztecs though (Montezuma), they hit me unprovoked (I generally try to be friendly all around, so that a possible conflict would not impede my development)

If there is a balance to be reached, I'm afraid I haven't found it.

It seems as if you can't get enough liberty bells until the time runs out, and if you focus on those, you lose muscle in other areas (military, development).

The only strategy I found to be working against the King is to kill the troops vessel on the sea, have at least 3 Ship of the Line waiting, and kill it off before he can unload the zerg. Another one made it through though, so I still lost, even though I had minutemen & veterans + Fortress.

Very, very difficult. This brings me back to the 90's, when most games were a challenge. I'll keep at it, and if I find a winning strat, i'll let you know

Did you only get attacked by 2 man-o-wars ? I think i had like 20-30 Manowars that attacked me. My 5 ship of the line got destroyed in 1 turn Maybe i did something wrong in my tactic that allowed the king to make his force BIG. I waited until every city had 100% support liberty. Maybe thats it

But yeah, i was suprised i got pummeled that bad on second easiest setting. I'll try easiest this week

I played mostly as dutch, ik don't think country makes that big a difference does it?

[Adari]

the game seems broken in its current state, see this (17 pages long) thread: Sadly, Grade "F" for Civ IV: Colonization - Civilization Fanatics' Forums

[old.Osy]

In a way, I regret having read Adari's link. Goes to show that over fine-tuning a strategy game to meet a strategists dream ain't that good for the rest of us.

There were a lot of people there who hit the nail. The game is supposed to encourage expansion and development, not actively punish you for it.

Sad.

[Adari]

CIV IV > broken col

[SilverHood]

Just got this the other day and it's stupidly hard compared to the original.

Lost the first 3 games in a row before I stumbled on a winner... build inland colonies. Since Kings Regulars do not get defensive bonuses, you hit them / make them hit you on squares when you get obscene bonuses - the last game, I had a forest hilltop fortified, and the 6-7 infantry I had mopped up over 25 of the kings men. There seems to be no purpose to having a strong navy - something like 2-3 ships of the line per man o war. When there's 12 man o wars, you need 30+ ships of the line to have a chance of winning. Frigates appear to have no use except hunting down privateers. If you pick moncarchy setting when declaring independence, you can use 4 ships of the line to escort galleons without being hassled.

Also, the other european powers totally suck, so they're never a threat to you, and the spanish dont seem to go on a conquest like in the original. So far, only 1 time have any of the others amounted to anything and no navy whatsoever from any of them, just trading ships.

[Cadelin]

Originally Posted by SilverHood

Lost the first 3 games in a row before I stumbled on a winner... build inland colonies. Since Kings Regulars do not get defensive bonuses, you hit them / make them hit you on squares when you get obscene bonuses - the last game, I had a forest hilltop fortified, and the 6-7 infantry I had mopped up over 25 of the kings men. There seems to be no purpose to having a strong navy - something like 2-3 ships of the line per man o war. When there's 12 man o wars, you need 30+ ships of the line to have a chance of winning. Frigates appear to have no use except hunting down privateers. If you pick moncarchy setting when declaring independence, you can use 4 ships of the line to escort galleons without being hassled.

In the original inland colinies was a very viable tactic. If the kings forces wern't adjacent to an ocean square you got an ambush bonus equal to the normal defensive bonus the terrain had. Inland colonies could also not be bombarded.