The Explorer is arguably the most important civilian unit in the opening stages of the game. The Explorer’s priorities include locating sources of iron ore closest to the capital; finding copper and tin; [...]]]> These are the guys you use to explore and develop your territories. The descriptions that follow are from the Official Strategy Guide.

The Explorer is arguably the most important civilian unit in the opening stages of the game. The Explorer’s priorities include locating sources of iron ore closest to the capital; finding copper and tin; prospecting for riches in the New World; and finding Tribal capitals. You also need an Explorer to conquer landlocked New World provinces.
You’re given a free Explorer to start with. Acquiring the second is a wise move but may be difficult at one of the higher difficulty levels. Ideally, you should have one Explorer uncovering the New World as the other continues to look for minerals on your home ground. Don’t neglect the hills and mountains of Minor Nations; sometimes a mousy little Minor turns out to be a valuable trading partner following a discovery.

At some point in time, there may be no more work for your Explorers. Don’t dismiss them all, though — set the to work on any New World territories newly won from other Great Powers. Chances are you’ll find plenty of hidden treasures, often including riches that the computer missed.

The Engineer is responsible for building roads, forts and ports. In the opening stages of the game, one Engineer is more than sufficient. As soon as you’ve acquired a few New World Provinces, you need two. If you have a big colonial empire, three is the minimum — set one to continue improving your homeland, one to fortify your newly acquired provinces, and one to build roads in the New World. Don’t keep your Engineers busy just for the sake of it, though; they’re using valuable materials.

Do not dismiss any Engineers — they’re particularly badly needed in wartime. Whether you lose a fort or destroy an enemy’s, you’d be wise to instantly rebuild the fortifications. Having three or more Engineers means you can attack several provinces in a single turn, and have them all fortified and connected a few turns later.

Multiple Engineers are also urgently needed whenever a Minor Nation joins your empire. They must immediately set about building a road network to bring in more food. The Engineers takes one turn to build a section road through plains, forest or river. Swamps and hills take two turns; mountains, three. Forts and ports always take two turns.

The Builder is the unit responsible for all land tile upgrades. It’s the Builder who opens up the natural wealth of your empire, enabling you to exploit it. Of course, you should have more than one.

On the Normal or Easier levels, you should get a second Builder right away. On Hard and Nigh On Impossible, priorities are a little different; you build a Spy first, but a second Builder follows immediately afterwards (if you an afford it).
Each section of the road built by your Engineer connects the tile it’s on and all surrounding tiles. That means that there is much more work for a Builder than for an Engineer. In fact, after connecting roads to selected spots, your Engineer can probably take a break while two Builders labor away on the freshly connected tiles.

In spite of all this, don’t go overboard with new Builders. Your economy won’t ever be able to support more than three Engineers and four Builders; they’ll be using enormous amounts of lumber and cast iron. In any case, three Engineers and four Builders are more than enough to quickly develop your empire.

The only time when you might consider adding even more Builders is when a Minor Nation joins your empire. You’ll be racing to develop food-producing tiles in the shortest possible time, as you’ll inherit the Minor Nations armed forces and thus be responsible for their upkeep.

The Railroad Builder is one the two civilian units that aren’t available right from the start of the game (on higher difficulty settings, the Merchant is the other). You can recruit Railroad Builders once you’ve researched Early Steam Engine.

In contrast to the Engineer and the ordinary, soft-hatted Builder, the Railroad Builder does only one thing: he builds railways with great abandon until you tell him to stop or there’s no way to build any more. Because each section of rail is expensive, it’s a good idea to check on his progress every turn.

If you’re playing at Normal level or higher, the very fact that you got to see a Railroad Builder in action means that you’ve having a good game. It doesn’t tend to happen before the early 18th century. It’s a very turbulent time, with plenty of new developments taking place, so make sure you give your proposed new railway the attention it deserves. Remember that a railway can only be built on top of an existing road.

Treat the Merchant with reverence: this unit makes you money. It also greatly, though indirectly, help you in the execution of your diplomatic policies.

The Merchant demands a sizable investment to make things worthwhile. Take this into account! It’s unproductive to spend $1,000 on an embassy and then $500 on a Merchant, then find out you have only enough cash left for a single land purchase.

If you use the Merchant wisely, you can expect to recoup your investment in land within twenty turns, possibly quicker if relations between you and the original owner of the purchased land are fairly cordial. Try to complete all purchases within one territory before moving the Merchant to another Tribe or Minor Nation. It’s a good idea to purchase several different types of resource producing land. If, turn after turn, you buy three commodities from someone, that’s three trades, and a threefold improvement in your diplomatic relationship. If you buy three units of a single commodity, it only counts as a single trade, and it will take three times as long to assimilate this particular trading partner into your empire.

Once all the Minor Nations are gone and you’ve bought all the interesting plots of land in your colonies, there is no further use for the Merchant. However, civilian units don’t require upkeep, so don’t disband a unit until you’re absolutely sure there’s nothing more for him to do.

The Spy is likely to become your favorite civilian unit, especially once you notice that he releases carrier pigeons from time to time.

The Spy is a very powerful unit; using him well will let you win wars, cut research costs, and prevent other Great Powers from stealing your scientific secrets.

While engaging in scientific espionage, remember that exposure of your Spy will affect your diplomatic relations in a negative way. On the higher difficulty levels, this may be all it takes to put you at war with someone who already doesn’t like you too much.

The three factors that affect the chances of your Spy getting caught when engaging in espionage on enemy territory are as follows:

1) The presence of an enemy garrison: the larger the garrison in the province your Spy is in, the greater the chance he’ll be caught.

2) The Presence of an enemy Spy: Obviously, strong enemy counter-intelligence increases the danger.

3) The status of your diplomatic relations: if you’re at war with someone, they’ll be looking out for your Spies.

Of course, all the above applies to your chances of catching an enemy Spy, too. When you do, there’s a chance the enemy Spy will change sides, and you’ll gain a Spy for free.

If you’re ahead of others in research, don’t neglect to put a Spy in your own backyard, assigning him to counter-intelligence duty. You need just one — your Spy works on an empire-wide basis, and assigning more than one to counter-intelligence has no effect. The computer players are masters of espionage, and you’ll be capturing quite a few of their spies as the game goes on! You should have at least one Spy active at all times. If you’re at war, get more. They’re invaluable when planning attacks on enemy provinces.

First I chose a country (Holland in the default screen) with only two forest squares; this ensured that I would be [...]]]> “As usual, I played the game after only a quick scanning of the readme and none of the manual. I got my ass kicked on the easy level. Here is how I did it.

First I chose a country (Holland in the default screen) with only two forest squares; this ensured that I would be short of lumber for a long time. Then I upgraded my workers as fast as I could, despite having none of the luxuries that advanced workers need, which ensured that more than half of my labor force would be refusing to work for most of the game.

Then I concentrated on developing advances for my resource tiles, unmindful of the fact that my primitive road network was unable to carry the additional resources created.

Being short of wood, I could not afford to build more ships, which ensured that after I had found some New World resources, I would not have enough cargo space to bring back the resources that became available. As early as I could, I built an army which I kept at home doing nothing, since I could not spare ships to take them abroad early in the game, which helped to keep my food supply low. I also paid little attention to diplomacy, which contributed to various shortages when I could not buy the resources that I needed. I sold paper and textiles as fast as I could produce them, so that when I needed to buy workers, I was usually missing something.I didn’t keep any food in reserve, so that some of my workers died regularly from starvation; this is a refined technique known as balancing the food and labor supplies…

Late in the game, when I was still struggling with a labor force most of which was on strike and a measly army of weak units, most major forces ganged up on Sweden, which was the most powerful power and my neighbor; I succeeded to temporarily take a couple of their territories, but sooon found myself defending against a much stronger army.

Finally everyone noticed that I was a pushover, so they all ganged up on me and soon it was curtains.

You too can lose on the easy level, if you make all the right moves… ;>)

– Henri A.

Try this: Pick a starting nation with no Major Power Neighbors and at least 1, preferably 2 minor neighbors. Disband [...]]]> Imp. 2 is one of my favorite games. I play on Nigh Impossible level and almost always can pull off a win against the A1 (years of practice and many, many games…imp.2 is also multiplayer).

Try this: Pick a starting nation with no Major Power Neighbors and at least 1, preferably 2 minor neighbors. Disband your starting units right off the bat and make a paper too build a spy, turn your research down to $0 and keep it there (your gonna need that $$$ for our massive invasions). Plan on losing your spy quickly so make another (you will need a spy constantly until you get to your first research goal…. Lancers, knights will do but lancers much prefered). On the very first turn of the game, immediately at the beginning, declare war on your two minor neighbors (if you do it later someone will declare war on you and annex the victim minors and put you in deep do-doo). Declare war on at least two minors even if you only have one as a neighbor, I like to declare on three especially if one of them borders a major powers capitol. (you can always “undeclare war” later if they get to heavily influenced by another major but the goal is to conquer them prior to that).

Send out two of your three ships to trace the ‘new world’ outline. Keep the third ship to sale goods in a pinch, or buy stuff only if you absolutely have too (you will need $1200 – $1500 to make your first attack). Have you Explorer find you at least 1 iron (hopefully 2) first and get a road to it. (you can buy timber if you must at first..it’s cheap). Next find a bronze and a tin. You gotta have at least one of everything..sheep and horses too. Don’t pick a country that has no horses and get a road to those horses as soon as you can..horses are vital. By the time you spy your way to your first tech “lancers” (you need Land Encloser to get to Lancers) you should have enough manpower, bronze and horses to build 3 Lancers, 2 pikeman, and a Arquebusier or another Lancer/pikeman. You should also know the exact location of all 10 “New World Capitols” (send in your explorer to located the inland ones… look for the port and follow the river).

As soon as you get ‘lancers’, convert your peasants into the 6 soldiers…. at this point you only need two peasants workers and they can sit idel a turn or two, speed attack is our only goal right now. As soon as your Soldiers are ready you should already have your two exploring ships set to invade a “new World” capitol…. yes a capitol, we are only going to take Indian capitols and we’re going to take all 10 of them just as fast as we can. Those six units you built can do the job, especially on Manual combat mode… kill his archers first and double-triple team his pikeman like units one by one. The reason for taking the ‘New World’ capitols is this: You get paid $1500 -$3000 for each one (which funds the next capitol attack) and it denies the other great powers from colonising them and making money buy trading with them, it also voids all those little ‘ownership flags’. Look around before launching you first attack to see if anyone has put an ownership flag on a Capitol, if so…declare war on that Great power and take that capitol first. You can get into a war with all the great powers at this point without worry…they have no cannons to invade you and you have no New World Territories to lose….they will all make peace in 10-20 turns. Also, look for Diamond/Gems that have been similiarly ‘flagged’…. take them. Take Diamond/Gem territories owned by Majors that don’t have forts. Your goal here is to take all ten “new World” capitols before anyone gets the light horse cannon research (your second research goal). After 1 or two nations get cannons the indians in the new world start to get horse calvery…you will need musketeers and cannons to take capitols then. Grab desert territory (Diamonds) and explore it later, Mountain territory (Gems) next on desire list. 1 diamond will keep you in the game, You can even win with no Diamonds/Gems by income conquesting the “New World” and Minors but saving 1 or 2 for trading income later in the game but this is a hard row to plow.

By the time you get to horse cannons (try to get them first) you should have 8-10 indian capitols (no biggie if you don’t have all 10, the remaining one or two indian tribes can be colonized later and getting all their calvery units is a great military boost. (better to conquer though). As soon as you get cannons, invade those minor nations previouse declared on. You will get paid for each providence which funds the next attack (I like to have at least 4 cannons but 3 will do, build enough units to get a General before atacking the Minors) and taking the minor capitol last pays a big chuck of change. Work fast to keep the other great powers out and start on a fort building campaign in all your conquered territories (New World too). Scout out diamond/Gem territories held by your enemies. Take them when ever you can (Taking all a Great Powers Diamonds/Gems can efectively take them out of the game…especially if you knock-out the trade partners like we are doing here). Try to keep out of Major Power Wars at this point and join in when they gang up on someone (make sure it isn’t you by having a good military and forts. Remember, ships count as military units…build lots of ships Galleons, lots and lots of Galleons. Later, Indianmans are great transport ships. Don’t upgrade the galleons, they are a good all around ship but build Indianmans instead after you get the tech. Don’t build slopes, fluties, frigates, raiders, ect…. Ship-O-lines only if in dire naval trouble…. Galleons, Indianmans and later IronClads. IronClads rule the game… he who gets them first wins the game, always. (get them first, build 10 and blockaide an ememies homeport and he will totally collapse in 10 turns, no money for him means no attacks by him, no trading by him, starving units, ect…. don’t just patrol his sea-zone, go right into his port and smash ‘em down hard). If they send ships to your home-port, simply stop transporting everything and leave your empty ships sit unharmed in port or move every one of them out to engage in battle and overwhelm the blockaiders by vastly superior numbers…then move them back and get the supply line running again.

As this is getting long, I will leave all minor details for you to figure out. Tips: Don’t upgrade ships (build new one at the same cost). Do upgrade your units (those medals mean a lot). Keep your General fighting (medals, medals, medals). Be the aggressor and not the victim. The first Nation (Human or A1) to get 1 over half of the amount need for vicory instantly makes a whole lot of enemies (stop at half if it’s convenient, let and A1 get the 1 over first then join in the multple nation attack on him). Don’t build Bowman at all but if you get a bunch through annexation use them as expendable fort rushers or disband them. Don’t build more Knights or Lancers after the first 3, Do build Squires, Cossacks, scouts, ect and keep upgrading them (medals are nice and fast light calvery is great at rushing into a fort after your cannons blew a whole through the wall.. about 6 cannon shots on the same wall space open it up). A late War Fort-busting force should be about: 2 0r 3 skirmishers/sharpshoots to take hits, 3 or 4 calvery to rush the gap, 3 or 4 Guards/Grenaders to walk in (Guards are slow but the most powerful unit in the game.) And as many cannons as you can send (5 – 9 do a nice job). Start those coal mines early and have a stock pile. Fancy pants workers are nice but don’t forget that you can’t turn them into troops. If you have 10 “new world” territories and a diamond/Gem you’ll be just fine… over expanding makes defense difficult but at some point later in the game there comes a time to just let it all hang-out, run what you brung and go for it…. be the aggressor and not the victim. If you think you can get away with it, sail around and punch out every Minor Nations capitol just like you did to the Indians… you will get paid for it handsomely and eliminated A1 trade partners and annexation targets. Try to get at least one territory on every land mass. Allies are nice but dump them if they try to get you into a war, allies are for your defence only..turn on them if they get ganged up on. Last by not least….. Never Ever play as the French…they are your enemy and not your ally. Standard Nation Personalities: England tries to build strongest Navy, Sweden is an early aggressor and trouble maker but usually not a end game power, Portugaul likes to pop down flags and can be a powerful End-game sleeper, Holland is a nicely rounded nation, Spain is usually a aggressive power to watch out for. France is a more calculating power to watch out for. Generally France and Spain border each other and often will go at it by mid-game. I like random Personalities and generally pick Sweden or Holland. Remember, you absolutely should have horses at home and at least 1 copper and 1 tin… Broze is very important to a Fast-Attack game plan. Don’t over defended threaten territories, most A1 attacks will be small in force size. You will need a few units more per attack on Auto-Combat mode then you would on Manual-Combat mode. (All Multi-player games are Auto-combat but Manuel-combat is much more fun). It is Ok to lose a New World Territory to gain a better one but never let them get on your homeland or your asking for trouble. Having one territory on their Homeland is sweet (they have to defend 3 places while you only have 1 to worry about… get it?). If you can get the biggest attack cannons first (field Artillery), feel free to take a shot at a lesser Great Powers Capitol. (Starve out stronger enemy capitols). Heavy Artillery, Culverin, Seige/Royal artillery, ect.. in very expensive to build and really useless in a Fast-attack game plan. (You are much better off with the faster horse, light and field cannons…. like IronClads rule the sea, Feild Artillery (backed by some calvery and Heavy infanty to stop them from getting rushed) rule the battle feild…upgrade those smaller cannons.

– Inmate 642

Research priorities
Saw Mill $300 [...]]]> Here is a short tutorial on how to win with Portugal on the Normal setting with the standard old world map. (In case you are not aware, Portugal has a very bad starting position, with only 4 provinces. If you can win with Portugal, you can win with anybody.)

Research priorities
Saw Mill $300 -> Printing press $200
(rush saw mill to get printing press 5 turns sooner)
Merchant Companies -> Money Lending -> University
Mine Engineering -> Copper & Tin Mining
[Sugar Cane] ->Sugar Refining -> Apprentice -> University
[Spices] -> Improve Sea Routes -> Convey
Organized Regiments -> Weapon Craftmanship

The main point here is to try win the technology race by first developing those techs that help with future research, i.e. printing press and university. Also, keep a base level of funding in each research area each turn. I rarely accelerate until I have a good source of revenue coming in (except saw mill, which I consider a must.) Taking capitols early can help supply money to keep research funded until you get some riches developed. Also, I avoid researching techs that other countries have until I have a spy ready to help. I try to build one offensive and one defensive spy as early as I can manage. (Being the technolgy leader means that you will often have a lot of people spying on you, so the defensive spy is really more important than the offensive spy. And when you don’t need an offensive spy, put him to help with defense. [I am not really sure if the effect of defensive spies is cumulative. Multiple offensive spies do not seem to help, even when they are spying in different countries that both have the relevant tech. Does anyone know for sure?]

I want Convoying for Galleons, which you need lots of to transport fish and other goods.

I want Weapon Craftmanship to get Musketeers, which are the mainstay of my army in this phase. I really don’t care if I get any other level 2 unit except Lancers (which you get on the way to Musketeers anyway).

Then get roads and head toward Crucible process. If possible, try to get Heavy Artillery before all of the other countries get Heavy Emplaced Artillery. If you succeed, declare war on the best country without Heavy Emplaced Artillery and decimate them. (Your artillery can destroy their forts taking no damage in return.)

In the meantime, defend yourself primarily with Musketeers (Weapon Craftmanship). I don’t worry about Horse Artillery. I generally am not ready to attack a major power until later in the game. But the AI always quickly goes for this. So you can often get most techs related to this by spying.

Early Development

Turn 1. Build 2 extra citizens. Don’t worry that you can’t feed them yet. You have 30 turns before they will starve. Build 1 paper and 1 lumber. Develop the nearest sheep farm (NE), and build a road toward it. Send all 3 ships exploring. You don’t need to trade right now anyway.

Successive turns: Continue exploring with ships. Each turn primarily build cloth, lumber, or iron.

Turn 2. Build 2 extra explorers. Continue the road toward the iron ore.

Turn 3. Develop the wood next to your road. Continue the road over the next several turns to pick up the copper and the two livestock fars. Hopefully you have found the next world by now. If so, unleash all 3 explorers. Desert should be first priority, then Mountains. Explore other areas only as needed to move inland.

As soon as you discover an enemy capital, put the ship to make a beachhead on an ADJACENT province (don’t attack directly). Also, send the next closest ship back to your port. You are going to have some stuff coming in soon. Now use 2 cloth stockpiled to build 2 knights. Next turn, attack with 3 Knights. Following turn, move your other two units to the province. Next turn, use all 5 units to attack the capital. Even if the capitol does not have anything else of value, it provide $3000 (which is a very needed early in the game) and some fish. For this reason, I try to take every capitol I can find. Of course, seizing a province with diamonds or gems takes precedence over taking a capitol.

Subsequent development

Once you have 2 lumber, 2 iron, 2 cloth, I nickle, and 1 copper coming in per turn, make developing food and expanding your population as fast as possible your highest development priority. Also, you should be learning Convoying by now, so you will need to build a lot of extra lumber, cloth, and bronze to make Galleons, which will bring in the necessary fish (and other goodies) from all of the capitols you have taken.

Diplomacy

I personally avoid any overtures toward diplomacy at all until later in the game. I refuse alliances (because they usually try to drag me into wars) and I make no contact with the minor nations. Only after I am sufficiently advanced in my economy and have enough excess cargo capacity to begin trading do I begin diplomacy. Then I generally build Trade Consulates and Embassies in every minor nation, and buy one piece of land in every nation so that I could be asked to intervene in case of war. Afterwards, I give generous trade subsidies to all of the minor nations and try to trade like crazy to make up for lost time. I buy stuff I don’t need just to make lots of deals, and build lots of cargo capacity, and generally offer a lot of stuff like lumber for sale.

Avoid war absolutely as long as possible. The only reasons I see to go to war early is to defend a minor nation who will join you, or to take advantage of an artillery tech lead. I do NOT go to war for riches. I can usually get enough on my own to fund the early game, and later when my economy is rolling I can make plenty of money selling excess lumber, etc.

Eventually you hit a point where your economy cannot grow any more because of lack of wheat (all wheat supplies have been upgraded to level 2 already). [If you are short of fish, you should have taken more capitols, so suppliment by building more ports.] So you really need to attack someone to get their wheat. The best candidate is your only neighbor, Spain, since those wheat supplies can be brought in by road, while any other country would have to bring in supplies by boat. Try to pick a time when Spain is at war with someone else, and then offer an Alliance to them, which as a side affect puts you at war with Spain. Obviously before this, build up your army for the attack. If you don’t have an artillery advantage, may want to researcha and build some mobile artillery, although fixed artillery (staying out of range and breaching a wall) , lancers, and musketeeers can usually suffice against most defenses. Always include a general in every battle so that you can build his experience. A 4* general can make a HUGE difference in bringing in extra units to attack heavily fortified capitols.

I can win nearly 100% of the time with this strategy without ever reverting to an earlier save. So I wish you good luck in trying it and expanding on it for yourself.

– by Mike Montgomery

I. Intro
II. System Requirements
III. Difficulty levels
IV. The Map Generator / Europe Map
Imperialism II is one of the niche games that doesn’t really receive a lot of the attention that its relatives like Civilization or Colonization get. But it’s addictive nonetheless, and you definitely get your money’s worth.

INDEX

I. Intro
II. System Requirements
III. Difficulty levels
IV. The Map Generator / Europe Map
V. Great Powers
VI. Minor Powers
VII. New World
VIIa. NW Resources
VIIb. OW Resources
VIII. Navy
IX. Military Forces
X. Battles
XI. Industry
XII. Trade
XIII. Diplomacy
XIV. Units
XV. Tips and Tricks
XVI. FAQ’s
XVII. Conclusions

I) Introduction

The Year is 1502 A.D. and you are the King(or Queen) of a major power in the continent of Europe. You country has just left the Dark Ages (Black Death and all). Most of Europe’s natural resources have been discovered and almost used up, and your national treasury is starting to become smaller and smaller. Only one course of action remains. New Resources must be discovered and new treasure must be found.
History will remember this as “the Age of Discovery”. But it’s not that easy.
There are the six Great Powers of Europe, and six Minor Nations to trade with and conquer, and you realize its going to be a fight to the finish if your country is going to survive. You know that since this is the case, you must send one of your trading ships out to discover new land and the treasure that awaits within. You have to beat the other nations to the riches the lay beyond the horizon. You must build up your industry to process the new materials and build new ships to bring your precious cargo home. You must build an army to defend your new territory, and fleets to patrol and terrorize your neighbors. You must invest your newfound wealth into technology to developed newer and more powerful weaponry to keep your neighbors at bay.
Should all go well, your eyes will eventually turn back toward Europe to conquer your neighbors and unite Europe under your Motherland’s flag. You know you will have made it when exactly half of all the minor and major powers territory of Europe is under your feet.

II) System Requirements

Imp2 works for both MAC and IBM machines out of the same box.

Win95/98 Requirements:
IBM/PC compatible with win95 or 98
133MHz Pentium or faster 200MHz (recommended)
16MB RAM (32 Recommended)
100MB Hard disk space
4X CDROM DRIVE
16bit color
DirectX 6.0 or higher (soundcard)

MAC Requirements
POWER PC (604 processor +) also works with iMac
System 7.6
32MB Ram
17.5MB free of Single play
100MB Harddisk space
4x cdrom

III) Difficulty levels

This is a comparison of each of the levels of the game. To make things easier to understand and read I will refer to a few items with abbreviations. Here is my list:

$ (Starting funds),
Sh (Sheep),
Tr (Trees),
Tin (Tin ore),
Cp (Copper ore),
IO (Iron ore),
Cl (Cloth),
Wd (Wood),
Pp (Paper),
Br (Bronze),
Irn (Iron),
Fd (Food stuffs),
Moo (Cows),
Fs (Fish),
Hr (Horses).

Intro level
$50,000.
Sh 10. Tr 25. Tin 12. Cp 12. IO 40. Cl 4. Wd 20. Pp 10. Br 8. Irn 15. Fd 99. Moo 30. Fs 69. Hr 6.
Other notes:
Trade consulates in every minor nation.
3 Knights.
Food gathering is at level 3
Noticeable leads in Mil, Diplomacy, and Tech.
At the end of the game the Multiplier is 10 (the higher the Multiplier is, the higher your score will be.)

Easy level
$25,000.
Sh 8. Tr 20. Tin 9. Cp 9. IO 30. Cl 4. Wd 10. Pp 7. Br 6. Irn 12. Fd 50. Moo 10. Fs 40. Hr 6.
Other notes:
2 Knights, 1 spearman.
food gathering is at level 2
No trade in minor nations on this and the rest of the difficulty levels.
Minor leads in Diplomacy, Tech and Mil.
Multiplier is 20

Normal level
$12,000.
Sh 6. Tr 20. Tin 6. Cp 6. IO 20. Cl 4. Wd 5. Pp 5. Br 4. Irn 8. Fd 30. Moo 10. Fs 20. Hr 6.
Other notes:
1 Knight, 1 spearman, 1 early rifle.
Food gathering is at level 2.
Every area of the games is equal to the other players.
Multiplier is 100

Hard level
$8,000.
Sh 6. Tr 12. Tin 3. Cp 3. IO 15. Cl 4. Wd 5. Pp 2. Br 2. Irn 5. Fd 20. Moo 5. Fs 15. Hr 6.
Other notes:
1 peasant, 1 bowman, 1 knight.
Food gathering is at level 1
Slightly behind in Diplomacy, Mil, and in Tech everyone but you has a slight head start.
Multiplier is 200

Impossible
$5,000.
Sh 2. Tr 8. Tin 3. Cp 3. IO 12. Cl 2. Wd 5. Pp 2. Br 1. Irn 4. Fd 15. Moo 5. Fs 10. Hr 6.
Other notes:
1 peasant.
Other nations are royally pissed at you
Noticeably behind in Diplomacy, Tech, and Mil
You are eating more then you are producing.
Multiplier is at 400
(This level is rarely won. This was probably put in the game as an “Iron Man” see how long you can last kind of thing)

IV) Map Generator / Europe Map

When you start a new game, you go to the big globe which is where the map generator is. The key on the table will let you “Create your own maps”. I honestly don’t like the little key because it often produces junk which is unplayable, at least to me. You can decide to play in real world Europe or a Random Europe with different levels of stuff everywhere.

Real Europe
Start out in the proper historical locations for the time period of 1502 – 1800. Historical locations of resources are in the right location. Providences of each country are also historically accurate. I noticed that Spain, England, France and Holland have overall good locations for food, expansion, and other resources. While Portugal and Sweden are kinda screwed. Each time you play as real Europe the new world is in a random place with random resources (sometimes the computer’s idea of “random” is the same thing twice. If you notice that you played that map before, keep playing since no two experience are ever the same anyway.)

Random Europe
This is the map I usually play. There is true randomness with resource and locations. When playing on this map go into your config menu (found in the main hallway) and turn on the option that lets you decide where to put your capital manually.
When looking for a place to put you capital. It’s best to keep in mind what level you’re playing at. If its Intro, look for a location that has a couple of food and cattle/ocean squares. If you’re playing Easy or Normal, look for a location that has 3 food squares and some cattle/ocean/river squares. Also, when deciding on a capital location, look to see if you have a good number of mountain/hills and forest squares. The more the better. Having a lot of sheep squares will help but this can often be overlooked.

V) Great Powers

Great Powers are the only nations that can have New World provinces, and are the only nations that attack other nations. As a player you will start as a Major Nation Leader.

The Major Nations of Imp2:

England – (Capital: London)
Spain – (Capital: Madrid)
France – (Capital: Paris)
Holland – (Capital: Amsterdam)
Portugal – (Capital: Lisbon)
Sweden – (Capital: Stockholm)

Should your capital be conquered by another nation, you lose the game. Should you conquer a capital, that nation is eliminated as a Great Power, and no longer trades, attacks, or speaks to any Nation. They are thrown into a state of anarchy (lack of government)

VI) Minor Powers

Minor Powers are only able to trade with Great Powers. They have no navy, and their army is limited to defending its territories.

The Minor Nations of Imp2:

Scotland – (Capital: Edinburgh)
Ireland – (Capital: Dublin)
Italy – (Capital: Naples) (Why isn’t the capital of Italy Rome? Well, during this time Italy and Germany were part of the “Holy Roman Empire and German States” so their present days capitals are not reflected in this game)
Germany – (Capital: Hamburg)
Denmark – (Capital: Copenhagen)
Switzerland – (Capital: Bern)

When a Minor Nation capital falls, their country is thrown into anarchy and no one can trade with them anymore.

VII) New World

The New World is very much like the Old World, except that they are a little bit behind on the technology tree. The natives take the names of native American tribes (Aztec, Inca, Iroquois, Mayan, etc), and their providences are named after famous colonies founded by the real countries during this time period (Cuba, Toronto, Brisbane, Taz, etc) (unless you turn that option off in the menu).
The New World contains rich resources, ranging from sugar cane to diamonds. Each Tribe has a capital, like the Old world, and if it is conquered, the Tribe can no longer trade with Major Powers.
Tribes have 3 types of Military units:
The Bowmen (Bows and Arrows)
The Spearmen (Spears)
The Clubmen (Clubs like cavemen types)
These units generally get slaughtered by even the weakest of European knights, but as with most things if there are LOTS of these weak units, then your knights can be overwhelmed and killed.

VIIa) New World Resources

The New World has many resources that the Old World does not have:

Tobacco
Sugarcane
Diamonds ($400)
Gold ($200)
Silver ($100)
Gems ($300)
Furs
Spices ($50)
Cotton
The New and Old World share these Resources:
Iron ore
Copper ore
Tin ore
Coal
Forests and scrub forests

VIIb) Old World Resources

The Old World mostly contains food resources that do not grow in the New World: Farms, Cattle and Sheep, plus Horses.
But they share metal resources with the New World. Minor Nations only contain Old World resources so, if you’re low on food, you should probably build an army with a few cannons to go “acquire” some more food resources since Minor Nations do not trade food resources.

VIII) Navy

The navy starts out with 3 Carracks (Spain has the Nina, Piñata, and Santa Maria) and one ship will be an explorer ship when you first start out (leaving you 6 trade capacity). Building more ships will add to your trade and transport capacity. Early ships are slow and don’t hold very much. Later ships require Steel and lots of wood to build but have a large capacity to battle other ships and are faster. I will rate the ships according to overall cost, production, and effectiveness in carrying out it’s mission. (1 is best)

The naval units
1 Galleon
2 Ship-of-the-Line
3 Ironclad
4 Frigates
5 Raiders
6 Sloops (are useful for like 25 years)

Trade ships
1 Merchant Steamships
2 Indianman
3 Galleons
4 Clipper
5 Trader
6 Fluytes
7 Carracks

IX) Military

When you start in 1502 A.D. all your country has are a few knights or other unit from the dark ages. For now this will have to do (it just so happens New World natives don’t stand a chance against them).
There are several classes of units:

Infantry
Light: fast and weak
Regular: moderately fast and weak
Heavy: Slow and moderately powerful
Bowmen: cannot be upgraded and practically useless

Cavalry
Light: fast and weak
Spear: knights with no guns
Heavy: fast and moderately powerful

Cannons (my personal favorite)
Light: can move and shoot in one turn
Heavy: powerful but can’t move and shoot in one turn
General: Rally weak troops/allow more troops to participate in a battle

X) Battles

Your first battles will usually be between knights and New World natives. Three knights can usually do pretty well against six natives. However, don’t let any one knight get surrounded by natives.
Damage is displayed with red, loss of moral is displayed in yellow, and remaining health is displayed with green. Should your troops run of green and only have yellow remaining in their bar, they run away from battle. If the troops run out of yellow they are labeled “KIA”; Killed in Action. Should your troops get surrounded by enemies in a way they can’t retreat by the time they reach all yellow in their bar, they surrender on the battlefield and are “KIA”.
Any units with guns as a main weapon have a tool called “opportunity fire”, which is basically two shots in a row in one turn. You gain opportunity fire by not firing your guns for one turn and thus save it for the next turn (if you so desire). This is important to remember when attacking provinces with a fortress guarded by cannons.
Once you’ve progressed in the game to the point where you’re attacking old world providences, keep in mind what you learned from attacking the new world natives; many of the same rules apply here also.
Fortresses have three levels of defense.
Level 1: Wood with 1 Heavy Cannon
Level 2: Brick with 2 Heavy Cannons
Level 3: Steel with 3 Heavy Cannons
(cannons upgrade with time)
See tips and tricks for attacking fortresses.

XI) Industry

The bigger your population, the more you can produce, and this is shown in the Industry menu (that little factory icon in the menu at the bottom of the screen).

Some things to note on industry.

Your work force requires 1 wheat and 1 fish or 1 meat (on simplified configuration), and 2 cloth for each worker. KEEP THIS IN MIND at all times.

Ok, so you start the game with a few supplies in your warehouse and a few workmen and 1 Explorer. The first thing you should do is move your worker over to some timber and set up a timber farm.

Have your Explorer check all your mountains and hills for iron ore. Timber and Iron Ore are your number one priority (Even above food on lower settings). If you fail to gather enough, you will be forced to buy them on the open market and chances are that no one may want to sell them to you and you will grow dangerously behind in the game.

Your civilian units consume wood and iron each time they make something. This is why you need to get at least two iron ore mines and two timber yards going before you look to improve your food stores.

Don’t forget that it usually takes two of some raw material to make an advanced product, here’s the list:

1 timber + 1 timber = 1 wood
1 timber + 1 timber = 1 paper
1 tin ore + 1 copper ore = 1 bronze
1 iron ore + 1 iron ore = 1 iron
1 sheep + 1 sheep = 1 cloth
1 cotton + 1 cotton = 1 cloth
1 coal + 1 iron ore = 1 steel
1 sugar cane + 1 sugar cane = 1 sugar
1 tobacco + 1 tobacco = 1 cigar
1 fur + 1fur = 1 fur hat
1 horse farm = 1 horse per turn (no production needed, lucky you)

New World Treasure
1 spice = $50
1 silver = $100
1 gold = $200
1 gems = $300
1 diamond = $400

XII) Trade

Sooner or later, you will find that you don’t have a specific item needed to complete a unit from your industry menu (usually tin or horses).
You can spend countless hours in the New World looking for it, or you can trade for it. That is, you pay the market rate for the item in question. The market rate is affected by how much demand there is for the product. Raw materials are usually cheaper than assembled materials. So, you should try to buy raw materials unless your industry is weak.
If you have a trade consulate and trade with a minor nation, you gain favor with that nation. So that means that that nation will trade with you first (if you gain Most Favorite trading status with that nation) if you are asking for that product. If you get a Minor Nation to trade with you enough (over a period of many years), you can ask that nation to join your empire, and they will join if you are on good terms with them.
You can expand your trading capacity by building merchant ships designed to hold a lot of cargo. It’s worth waiting for the Galleons to begin your trading and for bringing home your new world goodies.

XIII) Diplomacy

Usually a few turns into the game, a Great Power will ask you to join them in an alliance. This can be a double-edged sword. Usually weak countries will ask you to join with them (that’s why alliances exist) so as to discourage warlike nations from attacking them. Of course, if a nation you sign an alliance with declares war on another nation, you will lose diplomatic points if you refuse to go along with the attack (and you will lose the alliance too).
DON’T be an idiot and sign an alliance with every world power there is (there are six, counting you). Eventually someone will declare war on someone else and inadvertently declare war on you and you could have world war 3 on your hands. Not to mention huge diplomatic points gone.

Things to remember

Trade Consulates cost $500 and can be set up in both the New and Old World (you should already have them set up in lower difficulty levels of the game with Great Powers). These allow you to trade with other nations and gain favor with each trade.

Embassies – once you build these in Minor Powers and Tribes of the New World, you can offer peace and alliance deals that should gain you favor with them.

Non-Aggression Pacts – You can offer these only to Minor Powers and Tribes. If another power declares war on them, the Minor Power/Tribe will let you know and give you the option of letting that Tribe or Minor Power into your empire. Of course, you’ll be at war with the power that declared war on them.

Empire “ing” – asks any nation (Major, Minor, or Tribe) to join your empire voluntarily. You should make sure you have a lot of extra food before you do this, because you will need to feed their troops.

Alliances – asks a Great Power to join forces if attacked, or attacking an enemy.

XIV) Civilian Units

There are six civilian units available in the game. Each costs $$$ and paper to hire, but they require no industrial workers like the military and navy do.

Explorer – Looks for minerals and treasure, and uncovers black unexplored parts of the map.

Engineer – builds roads, ports and upgrades forts to the next level (if available).

Builder – processes natural resources so they can be collected and processed by industry, also expands towns so they produce free things (see tips and tricks)

Merchant – once you have an embassy in a Minor Nation or Tribe, the merchant can buy some land (overseas profits) and once the land is processed by the builder and a road is established by the engineer, you can collect a cut whenever the item is ever sold. When the sale to your Merchant is successful, you see your country’s color flag on the resource, and this means that the Tribe is safe from attack unless a country declares war on you first (tips and tricks)

Spy – if deployed in your territory acts as a counter spy. Otherwise if deployed in another foreign territory, the spy makes researching technology easier. Can also spy on military forces in a providences and give a semi-accurate report.

Rail Builder - builds rails on roads and thus improves the road from level 2 transport to level 4.

XV) Tips and Tricks

There are some useful things to know when playing this game. I will try to go over them here.

1) When attacking an overseas province, you will notice some tents near the city. Two tents indicate forces of 1 – 6 units. 3 tents indicate 7+ units, in which case it is not a good idea to attack until your experience is higher (see the medals on the military page).

2) If you want to slow down the Great Powers in the New World, quickly establish Embassies with the native people and buy forests or another resource with your Merchant. This means that the only way for the Great Powers to take New World provinces is to attack you first.
Of course the other side of the coin is if the other Powers start buying up provinces in the New World. The only way to stop them is to take out the capital of the tribes they are buying up. This cancels all the deals that the major powers made.

3) MAJOR CHEAT: Tired of having the stupid computer head right for treasure-rich provinces? On your first turn, save your game like “Holland1″. Play your game without saving for like 20 turns. You should know by then at least some of the diamond/gem/gold New World provinces, and you can head right for them when you load your “Holland1″ save.

4) On your first 3 or so turns, have all your resources go toward paper and buy lots of Explorers (up to 4 if you’re really in a hurry in the Medium level of the game). This majorly helps explore your home territory and some deserts in the New World faster.

5) Once the game gets going, look to establish alliances with the other Great Powers that surround your New World holdings.

6) Try not to conquer more then 12 New World Provinces. Any more, and the cost to protect them outweighs the benefit of having them. Any less, and you won’t have enough raw materials to help build up your empire (and you gain a medal for having 10 New World provinces)

7) Tin and horses are almost more valuable then diamonds. In almost all my games, there are usually more diamonds than there are tin resources. Make finding tin a top priority after your first 20 turns.

Forts have usually 1 cannon in the early game. To take it out, you need to take away its opportunity fire. So have a minimum of 3 Light Cannons to every Heavy Cannon. And two expendable ground force. Send your ground forces into the red dots and have the cannon fire twice at them (may need more then one ground force). Once the Heavy fort cannons have fired send in the light cannons and 3 shots should be enough to blow up the Heavy cannon. The fort is yours.

9) If you are attacking forts with extra troops, the same trick above works, except you should concentrate on putting a hole in the wall and send your horse units in first.

10) Getting free industry-assembled resources – remember how I said you could get Builders to upgrade towns? Well, if the province the town is in has 4 of anything (you can upgrade several raw materials to produce 2 of something after the technology has been discovered), and you connect the upgraded town to the 4 resources, you get a free assembled good. So, 4 timber yards will give you a free wood with no industrial work. This goes for all kinds of stuff.

11) Spain, France and England tend to be more aggressive than Sweden, Holland and Portugal. Of course should you become weak, Sweden, Holland and Portugal won’t hesitate to attack you. (You could turn random personalities on and make the game harder to predict)

12) Sometimes Major powers will “artificially” make themselves look bigger to discourage attack by building cheap units or cheap ships. Should you find yourself under attack in the early game, concentrate on building some good ships and go blockade the enemy homeport. If you fight off the enemy advances and just build ships, the computer will think your stronger and will probably stop attacking you. The only other way to stop an early attack is to gain enemy territory, but that is probably out of the question since you won’t have a very big army in the early game.

13) Its a good rule of thumb to build evenly, e.g. have your Builder work on food, then resources, then treasure, then back to food, etc.

14) Don’t ignore fleets. If an enemy blockades your port, you had better be close to winning the war, because you can kiss your game good-bye if you lose all your transport ships.

15) Mid to late game — keep an eye on the status bars found in the game option panel. Make sure you are equal to the other powers when it comes to Technology, Fleets, and Military.

16) Assume you will be in a war. If you have lots of territory with rich resources, you must assume that you will be attacked by a power hungry country. When you have overseas provinces with diamonds, for instance, the aggressive countries will try to take them from you if they don’t have any themselves. So when you find diamonds or gems or gold, be prepared to defend them throughout the entire game more then any other territory. It’s often best to build as though you will be in a war within the next 5 turns.

17) Don’t waste valuable cargo space. Early in the game, you may find some New World spices and silver and maybe even be tempted to supply your capital with cattle from the other side of your country. This may seem like a good idea, but you’re going to need your cargo space to conduct trade and ship some much-needed valuable rocks (diamonds, gems, gold) and possibly tin/iron/wood/copper back to your motherland. Ships are hard to build with the starting resources you have, and it’s often better to build a long winding road to the far away resources. Besides, building ports near many ocean squares will make up for cattle in the long run. So if you’re running low on cattle, build a lot of ports. If you’re low on funds, transport spices and silver until you find better valuable rocks.

18) Rail builder & Merchant useless? I often end the game around 1800 and I find that buying up land for the purpose of overseas profit simply isn’t worth it. Since you are buying stuff from what is essentially “another country” instead of just bringing it home for practically nothing, it simply seems a waste of time and effort. Besides, another country could declare war on you and since you can’t put troops in the country your buying from, you just lost all those resources you were buying, unless you have a non-aggression pact.
The Rail Builder is a waste of time to me, since it takes a lot of wood and iron to upgrade food and cattle to level 3 and 4. Building to level 2 is easier and doesn’t waste as many funds.

19) Diplomacy or “Big Stick”. The sad truth is that invading provinces and other countries is simply easier than playing nice with them. Not only are your diplomatic investments not secure, but it’s often not worth buying what would essentially be free if you just took some knights and cannons and just walked in and took it. Yes, it’s not politically correct but that is how the game is played. Conquer or be conquered.

XVI) FAQs

Q. I hate the Intro game, any tips for it?
A. I know the Intro game is pretty hard, it took me almost 3 hours to play it and there were a lot of mistakes but that’s why it’s there. Once you get the whole idea down this game becomes a time-eater.

Q. What’s a good rule of thumb for fleets?
A. Well, it depends what you want to do with your fleet. In the early game, it isn’t really worth building fleets. I only use fleets in the early game to attack weak New World provinces, and then head back to port to support my merchant marines. I only blockade ports with the Ship-Of-The-Line and I usually have a minimum of 6 in my fleet (or 10 – 12 Galleons). So get your timber industry going before the SOTL comes out.

Q. What does a beachhead do?
A. When you go to attack an overseas province, you need to establish a beachhead to land your troops. So really an attack on an overseas province takes two turns; 1 for the beachhead and 1 for the attack itself. The beachhead looks like a cannon on the beach.

Q. What’s a good way to take out a tough enemy with lots of troops?
A. The computer (on lower levels) overlooks the usefulness of fleets. It has plenty of merchant marines though. Use this to your advantage. If you blockade a port of a Great Power with 6 Ships of the Line or 10 – 12 Galleons, it will start to lose its merchant ships to your fleet and will become weak, especially if it relies soly on overseas food and fish. Just like industrial workers, the troops require food or their life bar starts to become red. If it becomes all red they are disbanded. Never underestimate the power of a blockade.

Q. How can I lose even if I own most of the New World?
A. You win the game if you own half of the OLD WORLD!!! If you own the New World, you’re really just making it harder for the computer to win but its not impossible for it to pull it off.

Q. Why should I establish a New World Colony?
A. To be politically correct. I honesty don’t bother too, but if you are one of those people who thinks the poor New World was taken advantage of by “evil” Europeans, and that they should have asked nicely to borrow some resources, then by all means play nice with the New World, and establish a New World Colony. And try not to get conquered by your neighbors to quickly .

Q. How does the game score the end of the game?
A. Here is how the game tallies your score:

Labor
Industry
Treasure
# of Providences and Colonies
Ending Year
# of Military
# of Navy
Diplomatic Standing (did you break a lot of treaties?)
Merchant Marine
Difficulty level

Q. What’s up with the level difficulty?
A. Well officially its intro, easy, medium, hard, and impossible, but here ismy understanding of how it works:

Intro (easy)
Easy (medium)
Medium (hard)
Hard ( 1 in 10 chance of winning)
Impossible (1 in 100 chance of winning)

If you play for points then you want the higher levels of the game. If your playing for fun then Intro and Easy are the most fun.

Q. How do I transport units with my fleet?
A. You don’t actually load military units on your ships (or civilian units). Instead, if you need to move a civilian to the new world just move a ship over to the unexplored new world and when you find land just click on the civilian you are moving from the old world and putting him where you want in the new world. Needless to say, if you don’t have the supplies to build something, the computer won’t let you put your unit on the tile you want to work on. Just put him on an empty space till you’re ready to use him. As for military units, you need to send ships that have a large amount of cargo space and then create a beachead.

Q. How do I make money in the early game?
A. Sell some products such as paper, wood, anything you have a surplus of. The main way to make money is to find New World riches like gems and diamonds. The higher the game level, the fewer starting funds you have. To save money, don’t attack NW areas with little reasources, since attacking actually costs money too. Try to cut back on the amount of reasearch you are doing until you have money coming in. You will actually get fired as King (or Queen) if you go in the red too long. Maybe you already know that from experience

XVII) Conclusions

I guess there a two ways to play this game; for fun or for points. I like playing for fun, so I generally don’t play any higher than medium difficulty. This is a pretty good representation of what was going on during the 1500-1800s and accurately shows what the political climate was like in Europe. I only hope more games like Imp2 are made sometime. This game is a gem for anyone who ever loved Colonization or Civ1 or Civ2.

I would like to thank Frog City and SSI for producing this game. This guide is copyrighted to me, myself, and I. I don’t care if you use this on your site, but give me credit, follow the gamefaqs.com rules, and dont charge $$$$ for this FAQ.

For the record the following sites can update this guide without asking me (when I ever get around to updating), they are: Gamefaq.com and Cheatcodes.com.

– by Tim Maurer