Game too hard and does not scale with ingame difficulty settings

[-Archangel-]

I played 2 games so far.

First I played on difficulty 3 and was just learning and did many things wrong. I quit once I saw that the other colonization nations were better then me (I didn't need to find out how the King would completely kick my ass)

Second one I think I played pretty well on difficulty 1. I read up a lot on tactics and good usage of units, resources and such. Only mistakes I done for the 3/4 of the game is not use Converted Natives, Petty Criminals and Servants only in production of raw goods. But I still lost the game on easiest difficulty.

I do not think this game is done right if this happens. I played Civ4 and could beat it on difficulty 5. I also played a lot of other TBS games as far back as Master of Orion 2 and Civ 1.

[Dale]

Don't play this game like you would Civ4. It's completely different. :)

Also, if you are looking at the size of the REF and quiting, don't. Next time try the full WoI as a lot of people have been complaining on the size of the REF and then when they actually do battle the King they beat him even if they're outnumbered 4 times by the King's forces.

The King comes in manageable waves, and as long as you keep hitting the King with mobile (dragoon) troops in the field you'll be right. :)

[-Archangel-]

I have been doing just that but then you run out of time. Half my troops were soldiers and half dragoons.

[Dale]

Sorry forgot to mention, try to allow 100 turns for the WoI (so declare around turn 200).

1-75 = spread out
75-150 = build trade network
150-200 = prepare for WoI
200 = DoI

[-Archangel-]

There is no way I could do this in the game I played on EASIEST difficulty. At turn 200 I got my cities to finally start producing stuff at fast pace and started to get extra colonist from surplus food at regular and fast intervals so I could finally have extra for troops.

[Dale]

Here's how I play. :)

The beginning of the game I settle two colonies with the two starting units. I place those colonist to process the raw good of the centre tile into a processed good (eg: tobacco from centre tile, so colonist makes cigars). Ships explores till first notification of immigrant on docks. Visit both colonies to pickup finished goods and sail to Europe. Sell goods, pickup first immigrant and buy a scout. Sail back, start scout exploring and settle third colony. Once again, colonist process raw good of centre tile.

Continue in this fashion till you have three scouts and 6 colonies, 2 on hills producing tools (important for later). Then convert immigrants to missionaries and put missions in the closest 5 or 6 indian settlements. As converts come to you, put in to get food (fish or wheat). They will help boost your free colonist pop. Send free colonists to Indians to get any occupations you need. My colonies build in this order: dock, warehouse, wagon train, stockade, church, lumber mill. As the first churches and lumber mills are going, you should be around turn 100. Your colonies should have 2-3 colonists each by now (the original plus converts plus one or two other free colonists).

From turn 100 on you are trading, building up those 6 colonies and working towards your initial city to produce guns from imported tools from those two tools colonies. Don't try to build guns in one of the tools colonies, as you want more ore miners and blacksmiths, and you want 3 gunsmiths in an armory, which don't all fit in one colony. :) Continue working up your trading cities till they're making lots of cash for you (two galleons constantly full going back and forth will net ~5000 gold each trip). Start working on those LB's from ~turn 150.

Between turn 150-200 any colonist that sets foot on the dock, arm them as a dragoon. Only buy vet soldiers, not vet dragoons. The vet soldiers stack in your colonies, and your dragoons will meet the King in the field. If you'll have trouble getting 50% total sentiment (cuz your army is as big as your population in colonies) put some of the army to collecting food in colonies (makes more free colonists to arm). Don't be hesitant to buy more horses and guns from Europe. :)

Turn 200 you should have over 50% total sentiment, a decent army and a REF approaching a few hundred. Declare Independance and use your dragoon army to harass the King's units. Dragoons are great as they will engage, and a good chance to withdraw allowing you to heal them. If King's troops get damaged next to a colony, wipe out the unit using your fortified soldiers in the colony.

By turn 250 you should be looking at victory. :)

[inquisiteur]

This is a good strategy indeed, thank you for sharing this with us.

On a somewhat related note, I remember not be urged to declare independance so quikly in the first colonisation. Instead the first player declaring independance would win, and even then you could continue to play.

You had also much more competition between players and AI.

With CIV 4 Colonization its like playing mini games....there is no more the feeling of open-endeness, nor constant threat by natives or other players....I think that's really too bad.

[SuperJew]

I use an entirely different strategy when I play.

Although I do like starting off with 2 colonies, I focus most of my time and attention into one coastal colony.

Oftentimes I have to replay games over and over before I can find an acceptable coastal colony that will give me enough food and resources for the size Im going for (about 24/25 colonists). This last game Im playing I had to restart atleast 30x just to find an acceptable colony and find one that could create enough food i need, ore, trees and produce some cotton or tobacco. So usually my colonies can support themselves if need be, but having 2 sets of trees and a hill is pretty normal for me.

Then I work as fast as possible to get that colony running efficiently and building factories. I then make it my main colony that I send all my resources too for manufacturing, and use my 2nd, 3rd and 4th colonies as small feeder colonies. I then use one colony for manufacturing ships, and the rest for manufacturing cannons, atleast the inland ones.

Produce all my tools at my one Iron works, all my guns at my one arsenal stacked with 2/3 master gunsmiths or blacksmiths each, and meanwhile get an early start on ships of the line and cannons. No point in trying to build one of everything in each colony, it takes too damn long and starves valuble time/resources when you could be making your army larger and navy stronger for the big battle.
Im producing ships of the line in a mere 20 turns! (Of course Im Peter Stuyvesant with %25 production bonus)

Oh yea, and eventually I retire my firebrand preachers and turn them into soldiers. Since cross requirements increase %30 with each colonist, they eventually become useless. I only use my school for training statesmen, all other types of colonists I buy, because schools also go up %30 with each graduating class, which i think sucks btw.

Also I like to play Epic games, I prefer them nice and long, Im on turn 427 and its only 1637 AD, but Im smoking all the AI's on the score graph like its not even funny.

[Wytze]

In my opinion the game is too hard. But it may be my n00biness.

Some of my complaints:
- For every soldier I build the king seems to "build" 4.
- Sometimes finding a suitable starting spot already takes 10 turns.
- Too bad the teaching system sucks major **** as you need more training points after each round. Are the colonists getting more retarded by the year somehow? :confused:
- No cinematic when King wins by european victory? Seems there was no more budget?

I used the import/export function more last time to transport food to one city so that all the free colonists will pop there. Train some as expert farmers to boost this effect and get as many men as possible in the wanted location. The automation you get on this process is also very nice. Just look for a spot where you can harvest much grain/fish and start shipping.

In the beginning I buy as much people from europe as possible. Otherwise the king wants money and that would be a waste. Crosses is not something I invest in. Firebrand preachers will have their profession cleared and armed with guns.

Thank you guys for your tips.
I'm going to try again to kick the king's royal butt.

[SuperJew]

I never give money to the king when he asks. Unless its a resource like Silver/Cigars/Cloth or some other produced good, I never agree to tax rate hikes or just giving him some of my money. He generally gets pretty furious with me really early into the game.

Yea, compared to the old one this one is a lot harder and makes you dependent on Europe for a lot of stuff, especially since you cant train your own colonists after so many turns.

Ive also found that there are increases in training colonists at the same Indian villages over and over. Eventually its best that you take your colonists to some place far away to train.

I think the game creators made a poor rendition of the original considering that its hard as hell now to earn money in the New World with Indians having limits on gold. The rate increases for education and cross production is ridiculous, and The other new colonies also seem to have almost no gold so you cant trade with them.

Thats what I liked about the old game, It was actually winnable and you could become independent of Europe. This game forces you to be dependent on Europe for all your colonists, Mid-Late game as each graduating class takes longer and longer to make. It forces me to only trade with Europe since the Indians lose trade all there money and only earn like 10 gold per turn. Really creators sure made this game overly difficult to the point that I have to retry 20x just to find a suitable colony and then have to save before each turn in wars and stuff just to be able to survive an Indian War.

Oh and I hate Multiplayer. It usually starts me off with someones ****ty colony that I cant make my own lumber/Ore in and therefore its impossible to build up.

[Dale]

It's very easy to make gold in Col2. Early game, use 3 scouts and collect masses of gold from the chiefs and ruins.

Mid game you trade heaps and you can earn 5000 gold each time a ship hits Europe.

It might have something to do with what you said about how you treat taxes. Until I'm ready for the war, I agree to every tax hike.

[SuperJew]

Im just saying that if this was regular colonization, by mid-late game I would only be trading with Indians and other Europeans in the new world, since tax rates would have no effect on me, and they could actually afford to give me reasonable sums for a lot of my goods, alot of times more than what Europe would before taxxes.

Now, I cant trade with anyone in the new world cuz Im the only one that actually earns any gold in the new world. The scout money isnt any different from original colonization, I made it a point to get out an early scout to go to each Indian Village since the first colonization.

[-Archangel-]

About the scouts, I found that your 1st scout gets a lot of experience finding stuff around the map. Then later when you turn that scout into a dragoon he is one mean SOB. :)

[spiers]

I to have no idea how to win the game.
Infact the game kept saying victory in so many turns.. and was shocked when it said the King won lol.

I to have trouble with the taxes as then you cant trade with Europe. Never even looked at the centre tile.. have to look at that next time.