The Daily Imperialist

12 gems in the New Word

admin — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:47:52 +0000

From Michael Turton: the word “Elli” produces a New World with an awesome 12 gems.

Imp 1: Running out of money – 3

admin — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 05:40:21 +0000

Self sustainability is your #1 goal. Labor shouldn’t be your main focus, after all what’s the use of unused labor?

When I start playing I ask myself this: What resources do I have access too and what are areas I need to focus on? In every game there’s going to be a couple scarce and therefor ‘key’ resources you need to acquire. If you’re short on iron then you need to either plan on acquiring it by trade or military action.

While you begin to accumulate resources exploit those resources as quickly as you can. Startup costs for bringing the resources into your capital can be pricey, but they pay off BIG time in the long run (and the quicker you bring in the resources the more money it’ll pay out). Once you’re bringing in resources start to get your industry chugging along to keep pace, after all resources that sit in your vault don’t make you money. Obviously try and keep pace with labor as well, but you shouldn’t have much problems with that. For most games you should have easy access to food creating resources which tends to be the biggest obstacle (besides money) to get your labor supply moving (As a side note: Never let your workers starve if you can avoid it. Buy food if you have no other options… and if you’re playing a scenario where you know you’ll run out eventually make sure to stock up in advance).

As I mentioned before self sustainability is the ultimate goal. On the military side I tend to only build enough units to conquer minor non-capital territories and focus solely on my industry until around 100 dark blue labor (depending on the scenario and situation). If you have 50-100 dark blue labor being utilized (and a healthy supply of EVERY resource… Scarcity of even a single resource can greatly hinder economic development so resource acquisition can’t be stressed enough) but once you have enough resource self-sufficiency then you can focus your attention on global domination. At 100 labor you can replenish military units WITHOUT slowing down economic development too much. In fact, most games I play I end up making so much money and have so many resources that I can build insane amounts of military units every single game. But that only comes with time, planning, and patience.

Some scenarios are a lot trickier than others, but all of them are beatable. I’ve won as every single country on the map (including all the so called ‘impossible’ countries) in every single scenario. My priority is:

1. Resource acquisition (either by finding resources you have or finding and obtaining the resources elsewhere)

2. Resource exploitation (every set of trees you have in your territory that’s not being utilized is wasted monetary potential). A good rule of thumb is: Always be exploiting. More is better. Why settle for 10 iron when you can bring in 20 by building bigger mining plots?

3. Adequate industry and labor buildup to match resource exploitation (don’t let resources sit and accumulate spider webs in your warehouse!)

4. Self-sustainability. If you have to start the game by acquiring resources through trade, begin to transition your economy to near 100% self sufficiency. This will pay big dividends in the long run.

5. Dominate

– Zach

Imp 1: Running out of money – more

admin — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:55:36 +0000

Imperialism 1 has such a diverse set of difficulties that what works on Introductory won’t work on Normal, and what works in Normal won’t work on Nigh on Impossible (NoI).

Here are a few guidelines that should be enough to carry you pretty well even through the harder difficulties:

- Setup trade consulates and subsidies with several minor nations. Make sure to check that you are doing this with minors that have the big 4 resources. Buy your big 4 resources (Timber, Coal, Iron, and Wool/Cotton) from them. It is better for you to buy resources (and gain the benefit of most-favored nation status) than it is to spend money improving your internal network and collecting your domestic resources.

- Sell Hardware, Furniture, and Clothing only. If your transported food can support it, raise additional workers instead of selling furniture and clothing. As soon as you earn enough through furniture and clothing, stop producing Hardware and use the Steel to make either industrial improvements or guns.\

- Look at everything upgrade not only in terms of how much it costs, but how much it will cost you in the long run. If you have 4 Steel and 4 Lumber in your warehouse that is going to be replaced before you need to use it, upgrade a factory. There is nothing wrong with having more factory capacity than your labor force can handle, because it doesn’t cost you anything. In fact, it is factored into your internal strength when the AI decides whether or not it wants to fight you.

- Remember that Military = Labor + Guns + Cash. It doesn’t cost you anything to keep Guns or cash around, and spare labor can even help once in a while. However, it costs money to maintain a standing military, and that military won’t do anything but eat money when you aren’t at war. So bulk your labor force to as much as your transported food can allow, but don’t build military units until you need them.

- The smallest standing army that you can use to defend yourself with is done entirely with heavy artillery. Unless you are invading elsewhere, heavy artillery is all you need.

- If you are an island, a strong navy is a great thing to have. Not only does navy not have maintenance costs, but it removes the need for you to have a standing army for defense. In times of war, you simply destroy opposing navies, and then blockade the hell out of enemy ports to steal precious manufactured goods and merchant marine ships.

Lastly, this game is hard to Napoleon your way through. What I mean is that a pure militaristic stratagem will ultimately lead to you failing to keep up with other major powers. You NEED 3-4 Minor Nations to sell you resources early if you want to comfortably play through NoI. Trade and Diplomacy are far more important than military strength.

– Eric Nelson

Imp 1: Running out of money

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:54:22 +0000

The AI has *huge* advantage (as always) both in the money it can spend on diplomacy and in the starting diplomacy itself, so outbidding the AI to get good relations with the minor nations is impossible. The only solution is to find a source of gems in the New World and to conquer the province from the indians before the AI attack it.

Also don’t research the mundane techs, spy them. Go and research only light artillery – if you fall back behind the AI in it you are toast.

The truth is the initial turns are more like a chess, not a strategy. No1 will sell in the beginning anything else besides wood. But you can check what the minor nations have as raw resources and put a pud for them in the 1st turn. No AI buyers in the first turn so you can buy couple of mats which often are worth the whole game (but I admit this is kind of exploit although it is legal move).

Also dump the lonely peasant you have as an army – it is completely useless but will eat you precious food.

Once you conquer a province with gems start saving mats for port and fort. At this stage the AI often sells you some bronze.

Once you secure your province AND you do not fall back behind the AI in the light artillery you are relatively safe.

This is true and for lower difficulties of course but you have much more materials/food/money and the AI have much less advantages.

– Handel

–

Imp 1 review from Gamespot

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:41:19 +0000

Imperialism succeeds in creating an engrossing simulation of naked power-mongering.

Balance is the key. That’s what’s most impressive about Imperialism, from SSI and Frog City: the delicate high-wire act of balancing military buildup, diplomacy, expansion, trade relations, and production. There are many successful empire-building games, but Imperialism reduces the concept to its essence – building an empire in the Age of Empire – and in doing so succeeds in creating an engrossing simulation of naked power-mongering. Ah, if only Cecil Rhodes could have lived to see it.

Imperialism takes place in the years between 1815 and 1915, when major nations treated minor nations like fruits for the plucking. With “Manifest Destiny” as the rallying cry, England, America, France, Holland, Germany, and Italy established colonies by diplomacy, treachery, or brute force to acquire the precious natural resources and trading partners they needed. Imperialism doesn’t deal with anything this specific. Its world is an abstract one of imaginary major and minor nations created on random maps.

Each major nation begins with some resources and a few special units that can improve the land. Engineers build a transport network to haul raw materials and goods, prospectors look for precious minerals, miners mine them, farmers, foresters, and ranchers improve production. Land and naval military units protect your holdings and expand your borders. The game is played across a series of screens that access all corners of your burgeoning empire.

A stylized main map shows you the whole world, allowing you to move units around to perform various functions. But the real gameplay is executed on four different screens that allow you to tend to economics and diplomacy. Here, you allocate transportation resources to various goods, set production levels, attempt to buy and sell goods, and conduct diplomacy. Each affects the others in a tightly woven set of relationships. For example, you must bring in coal, iron, trees, sheep, and cotton on the transport screen. On the production screen, you use labor, sheep, and cotton to make cloth. You use labor and trees to make lumber. You use coal and iron to make steel. Then you turn the cloth, lumber, and steel into shirts, chairs, and hammers that can be sold to your trading partners for a profit using the trade screen. As new technologies become available, you can also invest in these to improve your efficiency.

Of course, the quest for raw materials is never ending, and the interrelationships are complex. Adding more labor, specialists, and military units requires a long chain of goods and production. Any breakdown in the line, and the whole thing grinds to a halt. Adding to the challenge is the fact that you need to nurture relationships with trading partners each turn. This includes building embassies, providing subsidies, paying bribes, forging alliances, and going to war.

War itself can be handled either abstractly by the computer, or in a phased tactical combat mode. In tactical combat, you move units across a small map to attack the enemy. Military units develop throughout the ages, moving from minutemen and skirmishers to machine gunners and rangers. As a tactical combat game, it’s slight, but interesting enough to add some spice to the relentless economics of the rest of the game. A few more tactical maps would make battles more interesting.

The more bloodthirsty empire builder will find that Imperialism’s extended economic model might not be enough for him. Of course, this doesn’t mean the game can be played as an isolationist or pacifist. This is Imperialism, where the weak are crushed, and good riddance to them.

Some little bugs have crept into the final code, and I had to play with my drivers so that the game would stop crashing. A list of all your units is desperately needed, so that you can check on their status and jump to them easily. There’s a bit of a mid-game slump, where it seems like all you do is twiddle with trade and try to expand industry. I also found that at one point, everyone in the game waged war on me in the same turn because I hadn’t built up a strong enough military. That didn’t strike me as particularly real, since most were already fighting with each other.

But, in the end, the damn thing is so addicting that I just played and played, when I should have been writing this review. The AI is good and aggressive, and Internet play appears stable. The most striking thing is the way all the disparate elements integrate and interplay, coming together in one fluid gaming experience that empire wonks will find a refreshing change of pace.

By T. Liam McDonald

Imp 2′s civilian units

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:40:33 +0000

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.

IGN’s review of Imp 2

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:29:37 +0000

US, April 9, 1999 – It’s been a banner season for turn-based strategy games. After a long dearth, we’ve been presented with Heroes of Might and Magic III, Civilization: Call to Power, Civilization 2: Test of Time and Alpha Centauri. With all of these big names battling it out for what the gaming industry keeps trying to assure us is a niche market of gamers, it might seem like a weird time for SSI to try and release their slightly less well known turn-based strategy sequel, Imperialism II. After a couple of weeks with the game though, I realized that while the subject material might not be as flashy or grandiose as some of the aforementioned titles, Imperialism II not only stands up against its competition, in many ways it often exceeds it. Let’s take a look at why…

For those of you not familiar with the first title in the series, here’s the basic idea. You control one of six great powers (Holland, France, England, Portugal, Spain and Sweden) as they compete for control of resources, trade and real estate. In addition to these major powers, there are also a number of minor powers (Switzerland, Ireland, Denmark and Scotland are a few examples) that you can team up with in economic or physical alliances or go to war with. Each turn you move your troops on a Risk-like map, give your workers production orders, build new forts, roads and ports with your Engineers, build up production sites with your Builders, examine unexplored land for resources with your Explorers, buy and sell goods and engage in diplomacy with other foreign powers. As the game wears on, you’ll get access to Spies that can keep you filled in on what your enemies are up to, Rail Builders that can increase your transport capabilities and Merchants that can purchase land from minor powers. While all of this is going on, you must also keep your researchers funded and working towards new inventions that will enable you to harness more of the land’s resources, transport them more efficiently and build better troops with the results. If you think this sounds like a lot to keep up with, score one point – you’re damn right it is. More intimidating still, everything in the game: resources, science, military strength, land holdings, diplomatic and economic standings and transportation ability, is absolutely vital to your survival. Screw up and you’re finished.

As the game starts, most of your attention will be focused on producing the things you need to build up your empire to the point that it no longer needs to fear its enemies. Every unit you can build in the game is constructed from various goods that are acquired by getting your workers to process minerals and other resources that come into your cities through road or rail. It takes two workers and two units of resources or minerals to produce one goods unit which means that it’s very important to have a large supply of basic materials and a way to get them to your cities in addition to a huge working force. This can make building an army pretty complex stuff. For example, building a knight requires 2 units of bronze, 1 unit of cloth, 2 horses and an unskilled person – this translates out to 2 units of tin, 2 units of copper (1 of each is required to produce the bronze), 2 units of cotton or wool (to make the cloth), 2 horses (which are a raw resource and don’t require any production to manufacture), one man and 6 man hours. Now imagine trying to build a whole army of these guys (don’t even get me started on the navy). Head spinning yet? Get ready for more. Everyone in your nation, from soldiers to the workers that are producing your goods, has to be fed. This means that in addition to building mines and ranches to gather raw resources, you’re also going to need to build a lot of farms to keep ‘em fed. Run out of food and your workers will start dying. Run out of workers and you won’t be able to produces goods. Run out of goods and you won’t be able to build and army or navy. Run out of armed forces and your country will suddenly belong to someone else.

Unlike a lot of turn-based strategy games, all of the resources and science in Imperialism translate immediately to very real and vital game advantages. About half of the scientific discoveries in the game are based around the exploitation of resources. For example – if you start the game with level two grain production, you are able to build farms capable of gathering two units of grain from an appropriate map space. If you successfully fund and research level three grain production, you’ll be able to build farm that can gather three. Other advances give you access to new and improved unit types (there are over 40 different ground and sea units in the game), teach you to build railroads and town improvements, help you with your diplomacy or economy or instruct you in how to manufacture advanced goods from New World materials – cigars, refined sugar and hats. These new resources will in turn be used to appease your more educated units (apprentices, journeymen, and artisans). Each of these skilled workers can produce the output of several unskilled workers (an apprentice will do 4 times the work of an unskilled man, for example) but will stop working if your run out of the resources they demand. As you can see, the whole thing is one big interconnected puzzle that requires constant attention. Just like a real governement!

The biggest difference between Imperialism II and its predecessor is the addition of the ‘New World’ to the mix. Unlike the first game, in which you only had to deal with your competition on a known playing field, this time around you’ll have to explore, stake a claim in and exploit a dark and untapped wilderness. To make things even more interesting, you’ll also have to decide how you’re going to deal with the cultures indigenous to the new country. To ignore the New World is slow suicide – it contains resources (cotton, tobacco, sugar, furs, gems, and precious metals) that are simply not available on your starting maps that you need to produce the resources mentioned above. If you don’t feel good about using military force to take land away from the natives, you can send in merchants to buy land, which you will then be able to exploit for yourself. Even if you’re the nicest guy in the world though, you’ll eventually figure out that if you want to keep up with your opposition, you’re eventually going to have to play the bad guy and grab as much land with your troops as possible.

Keeping up with your own activities isn’t enough if you want to stay in control of your country. Each of the great powers in the game will be exploring, waging war, making and breaking alliances and gathering resources at the same time you are. If one of them every gets too much of an edge over you, you’ve had it. To keep this sort of thing under wraps, you’ll need to build spies to keep a close eye on their activities and stay allied with the strongest of them though the use of the diplomacy screen. To be honest with you, although there’s nothing technically wrong with the system, Imperialism’s diplomacy was my least favorite part of the game. The system presents diplomatic situations to you in an accept or decline format that often isn’t very clear about what the outcome of your decision will be. Many times in the game I thought I was honoring an agreement with a friend only to find that I had accidentally declared war on them. Ten turns later my game was over.

Okay, so now that I’ve droned on about all of the nuances of the game, the question remains – how much fun is it to play? Quite a lot actually. I spent almost every free hour for a couple of weeks glued to my screen and at a time when I have access to several big name titles. The fact that every move you make can make or break your empire may sound a little annoying, but it actually adds a level of intensity that is often lacking in turn based games. On the down side, I feel like most players who weren’t already very familiar with turn based gaming would find this game to be a nightmare to learn. Even the tutorial took me three tries to complete. Fans of Imperialism may also be a little disappointed to learn that aside from some sharp new graphics and the addition of the New World (which I admit is a pretty big change), the game itself hasn’t really changed all that much.

In the end, if you’re a die-hard strategy fan, you’ve got to add this game to your library. It looks good, it plays good, and the time frame that it’s set in is very different from all of the other game on the shelf. If you’re new to strategy games, you may want to give this game a wide berth until you’ve gained a little more experience with other games of the oeuvre.

– Trent C. Ward

How to lose – in one easy lesson

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:26:12 +0000

“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.

Inmate 642 on Imp 2

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:42:42 +0000

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

Winning with Portugal

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:40:20 +0000

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