Colonization Rampage 2

OK.  This old game is still wicked fun.

I downloaded the new Colonization game on the iPhone.  It was playable, but the controls were really bad and it was not very fun.

I downloaded the game again from GOG.  I decided to try another game with a challenge.

Here are my old challenges.  Never going back to Europe was my favorite.

Save the Natives


Anyway, I wanted to play a game where I tried to prevent all native villages from being destroyed.

I started one game as the Spanish near the Tupi tribe.  My rationale was to be the Spanish to prevent their Indian village attack bonus from being used.  That did not work so well and the Tupi were not very good to trade with (being nomadic).

I started this other game as the French and went to war with the Spanish (and other Europeans) early and often.  Some things that have happened that were fun and/or helped:


  1. I got Hernando de Soto first!  That was lucky.  All my exploration is always positive.  But I never dug any burial mounds.
  2. I got Hernan Cortez second.  I was able to do a lot of exploration and have the king's galleons transport my treasure for free.
  3. I have created a TON of missionaries, but I have gotten very few converts so far.
  4. I also NEVER took any Indian land, only land that was unoccupied.  (1 square away from all villages)
  5. I have armed every single tribe I am in contact with with many horses and guns.  I always just give 2 horses at a time and it counts as an entire horse herd.


Some pictures from midway through:



And here is the final pic.  Only one native village was destroyed by the Spanish.  I finally beat down the Spanish so much that they retired from the New World.



Caddyshack 

"There shall be no money, but you shall have complete enlightenment, which is nice."

Never have any money.  Ever.

So that means there are certain things you just can't do like:

  • Visit native villages - they sometimes give you gifts
  • Explore - ruins give you money
  • Trade - this one is obvious
  • Take over European settlements - this comes with spoils!

This was a fun one.  It was really hard in the beginning.  My military was super weak at first.  I basically had one soldier to guard 2 settlements until I got my first cannon.  Even then I was super weak.  I finally got horses from the Apache - they gifted them to me.  I could have also gotten them from immigrant scouts, but I didn't get that until very late in the game.

Anyway, I decided to play as the English because of their immigration bonus.  I created lots of churches and preachers to get more immigrants.

My war of independence was pretty rocky until I got Dutch intervention.  After that it was smooth sailing.




Late Comer!

I've been reading a bit about the actual history of some colonies like Jamestown, Santo Domingo, Plymouth, New Amsterdam, etc.  It is very interesting how the English and Dutch colonization really didn't ramp up until the 1600s.

So I decided to play the game as Late Comer Jr.  I didn't take any screen shots, but it was fun.  I basically held down the space bar until it became 1595 at which point I landed my settlers and founded a colony.  Actually I should have explored a bit by ship first which did historically happen.

I used the English.  I was amazed at how the game mimicked reality.  One of the reasons the English were successful colonizers is because of their lateness.  The local native populations were already reduced by smallpox and other diseases to such a degree that certain areas that were good for settlements were abandoned by the native Americans.  This is a very tragic part of American history.  

In the game, there is no disease, but the Spanish and Dutch had already come through and fought off many of the local tribes, so I did have plenty of space for settlements.  I was able to build a church very quickly and get a swarm of immigrants.  I needed that to catch up to the other European players.

I founded 4 colonies, but decided not to finish the game.  I had already caught up to the other players in terms of population and military.



Comments

  1. Colonization has endless possibilities of fun times, and the challenges you explore are most noble!

    I have an idea for another mission you could try. I call it hermit mode.
    You set the map to large continent and make a small settlement somewhere super secluded.
    You maximize the terrain of where you are to produce everything you need and live in a quiet utopia. When you declare independence you're all good because they can't reach you easily and you're probably well fortified. You basically minimize all conflict this way.

    I guess the initial challenge of hermit mode is just to avoid contact with anyone else. Don't attack anyone and don't let anyone ever mess with you.
    For hard mode, you could shoot for winning with as low a population as you can.

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    Replies
    1. Jeem, I can see that you appreciate the finer things in life.

      I am actually playing a game right now where I am not allowed to contact the natives at all. It was pretty hard to find a small island with no natives. The English destroyed a native village on another small island, so I came in and conquered their settlement (Jamestown). Now I am just ramping up my colonies and exploring by sea. I got the custom house early to free up my ships for exploration.

      I like your hermit idea. I think the game will not allow you to declare independence with no "coastal" colonies. But I wonder if you can fake out the logic if you create a colony on an inland sea! We can only hope. I have no idea what would happen.

      Another fine gentleman proposed that you can hack the NAMES.txt file to set the Caravel movement to ZERO. Then play as the Dutch in a game where there are no other Europeans! Interesting! I wonder what other hacks you could do! There is a setting for "Aggressiveness" of each European power. I wonder what would happen if you made them all super aggressive?

      Good day sir

      Delete
    2. ok here are some tweeks for general application of hermit mode.

      The main goal is to avoid contact with both the natives and other European powers as much as possible. I haven't played the game in a long time and can't remember to what extent it is inevitable that you will encounter other nations, but if you can complete the game without meeting them, that would be 100% success for hermit mode. The foreign adviser report would have no foreign nations listed, is that correct?

      A secluded island seems like it could work, but isn't there always a good chance that some other colonizers will come and mess with you? The most effective way to avoid all contact would be to settle somewhere deep inland, behind a mountain range or something. In the new world situation, maybe northwest Canada or Alaska.

      As far as the natives go, does the Indian adviser chart only show tribes you've contacted? To limit that to only one tribe would also be a great hermit mode success.

      There should be no limit to the number of colonies you can make, but I would suppose that once you go past 3 you're not much of a hermit anymore. Although for hard mode, I just thought of another thing. Of course completing the game with as low a population as you can would be one major challenge, but on the reverse side of that would be to create as many colonies as you can without ever contacting any other nation. Are these things even feasible do you think?

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    3. I like these ideas Jeemo-chan!

      Some more ideas.

      1. Single colony game.
      2. Zero colony game. Is this even possible?
      3. Max 3 per colony
      4. Boat killer fortress. Build a fortress with 20 cannons. Nothing can stand against it.

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    4. Dear Jeem,

      I'm afraid the game will not let me hide in an inland island...

      There is a game rule:
      "Ships cannot enter inland lake squares."

      Rats! I built a sweet inland island with the mapedit.exe!

      Delete
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