Civilization 4 Colonization Walkthrough

BackgroundI have been a Civ III player and have never tried Civ IV. I recently bought Civ IV Colonization and so I thought that I would write a few of the strategies that I have found successful in winning the single player game on the easiest level. I prefer the ‘builder’ style of play. A lot of the tips here are covered elsewhere in the forums, but hopefully this might be helpful for some.1. Start choice.

Play as the Dutch, Peter Stuyvesant. The Merchantman starting ship will give you an early advantage in trading and in settling.2. When you are starting with your ship in the middle of the ocean, go back to Europe immediately. Go to the Europe screen and rush as many immigrants as you can. Spend all of your money doing this. You may earn as many as 10 immigrants, most of whom will be specialists that are normally expensive to purchase directly from Europe (via the ‘$’ button on the Europe screen).

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You may be lucky and earn a seasoned scout and a veteran soldier. Once your ship arrives in Europe, load the soldier and scout if you have them, or other immigrants if not. Send the ship to the new world.3. I divide the game into six stages: – early conquest, exploration, economy building, mid-game conquest, liberty bells, and finally revolution. I will provide tips for each of these stage below.4.

Early conquest. When you arrive in the new world, find your European adversaries. When you meet them, they will have started their city using a soldier to settle, and the pioneer will be working the land.

Just outside of their border, declare war, move your ship to the city, and unload your soldier to conquer the undefended city. On the next turn, capture the pioneer, or if you have a second soldier on your ship, you can move the ship into the city and capture the pioneer on the same turn as your conquest. Explore and exchange maps until you find the other settlements. I usually keep these captured cities rather than razing them, unless the settlement is in a useless location.

You should be able to make peace with the other European colonists in a few turns.5. It is important to either send out your colonists to explore all locations as soon as possible. There is a lot of gold available during this phase, which will enable you to rush more immigrants. Make sure that you keep the discovered treasure rather than sending it back via the King, as his 50% tax is too high. Build a Galleon as soon as possible and send it back to Europe yourself.Be careful when exploring ancient burial grounds. Use a seasoned scout, or else the natives may declare war on you.6.

Economy building. Make sure that you build some inland cities only two tiles away from your coastal cities. When the revolution occurs, the King will attack your coastal cities, and you need good gun producing cities nearby to recruit more dragoons as the battle progresses. It’s important to remember that the King’s invasion will occur at or very near to the exact spot where you were supposed to make landfall when the game started. Your cities at that location should be very well defended.

Make sure that you have cleared the forests on the city coastal city tiles immediately beside your coastal cities, so that the King’s invading soldiers do not benefit from the forest defence bonus.Try to pair your specialists in cities (eg. Expert lumberjack and master carpenter, expert ore miner and blacksmith, blacksmith and gunsmith). Purchase the experts from Europe if necessary.Specialise your cities with:- at least one port city close to Europe (set up your automatic wagon trade to deliver finished products to your port city or cities); a gun producing city; a University city and cities specialising in particular industrial products such as cigars, cloth, coats etc. Try not to waste your cargo space to Europe with raw materials such tobacco, cotton, furs etc.Don’t forget to trade and give gifts to the natives (especially to the unhappy ones), especially when the King’s tax rate becomes unbearable.

Native leaders will pay very high prices for goods they desire if they have gold in their accounts. Make sure that you send out missionaries to all of your surrounding native settlements as soon as possible, as converted natives are excellent in producing raw materials. I usually upgrade my converted natives to specialists by studying in a native settlement (living among the natives). Make sure that you study the native leader characteristics via the Civilopedia, as some native tribes will produce more converts and some native tribes are faster in training specialists.I also specialise some cities to produce political points.

This will help you to obtain good founding fathers. Plan your choice of founding fathers beforehand, as if you reject them, you will not be able to obtain them later. Allow Hernan Cortes (founding father) to build your stockades rather than building them yourself.Keep your free colonists in churches and cathedrals and not in the town hall at this stage of the game.

You don’t want the King to build up his military for a long period of time. You should only need a few soldiers to defend your settlements that are close to native tribes that are either annoyed or furious with you. Forget about building frigates or ships of the line, as the King’s man-o-wars are far superior and it will take 3-4 of your ships to defeat one of his.7.

Mid-game conquest. Around 1650, I usually give my dragoons experience by sending them out to conquer a nearby European colonies or native settlements. The experience providing by founding fathers such as Ethan Allen (Free promotion of Ranger I and Mountaineer I for Gunpowder Units), Francisco de Coronado (+1 movement for Dragoons), Paul Chomeday de Maisonneuve (Free promotion of Formation for Gunpowder Units, +1 movement for converted natives), and Dom Pedro 1 (+50% Great General emergence, Free promotion of Veteran I and Minuteman I for Gunpowder and Mounted Units) are very helpful in battles. Use dragoons to attack and keep your ships nearby to evacuate the wounded.8. Liberty bells. Don’t leave it too late (1700 is about the deadline) to assign colonists to your city hall to produce liberty bells.

Train and purchase elder statesmen where possible, and make sure that your cities have printing press and newspaper. Particular liberty bell producing founding fathers are vital at this stage of the game. Use this stage of the game to stockpile guns and horses in all cities, and use stationary wagons as extra storage if needed. Concentrate your dragoon force near to where the King will land his forces (as previously explained). Make sure that you have fortresses on this coastal location.9. You should proclaim the revolution between 1740-1750 or earlier.

Leave it too late, and you will have an awesome army but not enough time to defeat the King. Use dragoons to attack and make sure that you check the combat odds before deciding to attack (click on attacking unit and drag your mouse over the defending unit). You will usually lose the first encounter with a King’s dragoon, as he has more experienced veterans than you do (unless you have Veteran IIIs from mid-game conquest. After your first casualty, you should succeed with the following attacks when you use your dragoons. Soldiers and cannons are really only for defence. If you have enough dragoons, and they are well-positioned, it should be easy to win the battle in about 15-20 turns. The King will usually send his attacking forces in a few waves, so you just have to wait until they all arrive before you destroy them all.Anyway, I enjoy the game and after losing lots of times, I finally found these strategies helped me to win!

Leaving your first muskets has a twofold benefit. It leaves you some defense for your city and there is an event later on where you can choose to give up 50 muskets for a chance to get a privateer.

Privateers are expensive so a chance to get one for only 50 muskets is really cheap. Also, this privateer isn't tied with the ships you can buy at the European dock so it doesn't start the diminishing returns.Church RushThe church rush is used to get tons of colonists as soon as possible. Leaders with the trait 'Tolerant' excel at this as do the English with their Firebrand Preacher (William Penn is the ultimate with the trait 'Tolerant' and starts with a Firebrand Preacher). The number of crosses needed to get each subsequent colonist increase to a cap of 2,000 crosses (on normal game speed). Once you've built a church and put people in it you wont be able to bring them back to your colony fast enough. Due to diminishing returns this glut of colonists wont continue but it does give you a huge increase in population. Your main problem is how to employ all those people effectively.

Getting tons of people and then have them sit around is not effective.Advantages:- Large influx of people at the early stages of the game. Usually, you have to slowly build your colony.with the church rush strategy manpower won't be your problem.- Many expert colonists. Experts are twice as effective in their trade. Getting alot of experts early can give your civilization a huge jump start.Disadvantages:- If you try to expand too fast you will get the natives angry and most likely they will attack before you have enough defenses.- If you don't know how to use all your new colonists your economy may stall for a whilePutting the church rush into action:Start a colony with both starting units. Send your ship immediately to Europe to await the colonists at the dock. Be sure the starting location will give you 4 food and one square around the city will provide a good supply of lumber. Task one colonist to harvest lumber and put one in the carpenter shop to build a village hall first, then build a church.

Once the church is built put both colonists into the church (another option is to put one in the church and one in the village hall). When you get some units back from the docks you'll need to send out some scouts and make pioneer(s) to develop the land. You may want to start a second colony early to have somewhere to put all your incoming colonists. Starting your first colony will trigger an event that gives you a choice of getting extra bells, crosses or food in that first starting city. If you pick a location that doesn't produce 4 food you'll need to choose the food to make this starting strategy workEconomic RushThe economic rush is all about producing goods as fast as possible to sell in Europe (and to the natives).

Leaders who are 'charismatic' or 'mercantile' excel at this strategy.Advantages:- Great long term strategy- Very flexible. With a strong influx of gold you can flex to meet any shortfall. For example, did the English declare war on you? An influx of cannon, muskets and horses can turn the tide of a war (assuming you have the time to get the supplies back from Europe).Disadvantages:- Results aren't as strong early as with scout or church rush strategies- Since you are dependent upon trade you can't afford to boycotts- You economy is dependent upon ships. Privateers and enemy frigates can shut you down extremely quicklyPutting the Economic rush into action:You have a little more flexibility with this strategy.

Ideally you want to place your beginning city next to a resource. You still need to send out a few scouts early. You want to identify a native village close by where you can train your colonist to be an expert harvester of the resource next to your city. Build a finished good building fairly soon. For this strategy you'll probably need to partially use the scout or church rush until your economy ramps up.Bell RushThe goal of this strategy is to stay ahead of all other players in bell production thereby having overwhelming advantages granted by the Founding Fathers (FF). 'Libertarian' leaders have a large advantage with this strategy. Each subsequent FF takes more bell to produce.

So, if you produce alot of bells, you can effectively shut out the other players. At the least you have the option of which FFs to get and which ones to bypass and thereby giving them to the other players.Advantages:- Depending on which FFs you get you can have game changing advantages. Review the upcoming FFs and plan accordingly- high rebel sentiment increases production in your citiesDisadvantages:- Focusing your resources on bell production may slow your expansion. The computer players build cities in your direction which can effectively cut off your potential to grow.Putting the Bell rush into action:In your starting city put one colonist to work harvesting lumber and one in the carpenter shop producing hammers. Build a village hall.

Once a village hall is built put the expert colonist in the village hall and turn the free colonist into a scout to start exploring. As your city builds and grows focus on the getting the town hall and putting elder statesmen in it. Also work toward the printing press/newspaper. If you see an elder statesman at the dock, purchase buy it. Elder statesmen produce twice the bells of a normal colonist.so using them is like having another city. Focus on improving you current cities rather than expanding (though you will need to expand).Combining starting strategiesIt's difficult using only one starting strategy by itself. Best online chess.

I usually start with a combination of the scout rush and bell rush. Then, when all the scouts are out exploring, I start working on my economy in addition to producing bells. The key is to be working on something. Don't randomly assign colonists. Have a plan and work toward that goal.

Also, be flexible enough to modify your strategy to the current circumstances. ' Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning' - Benjamin FranklinNow that you have a colony or two and have some gold and colonists you need to expand and grow.

What you do in the middle part of the game greatly depends on your unique situation. So, rather than provide some specific strategies, in this section I'll discuss general strategic concepts that you will have to apply to your unique situation.Goals for the middle part of the game1. Defend your citiesPart of the native/european player's decision on whether to attack you is based upon how weak you are.don't be too weak.

Even a seemingly strong ally will attack you if they think you are a pushover. This defense should include a mobile army that you can move to the troubled area and do a counter offensive against any attacking cannon. If I have a large mobile army I can get away with only one garrison cannon in each city.

If I have a weak mobile force or I plan on my army going to another part of the map I try for 2 garrison cannon in each city. City defenses make a big difference (more of a difference against the natives who don't have cannon).

If you only have a few extra defenses put the units in the cities closest to the natives or other players.2. Increase your economyNever forget your end goal is to beat the King's forces. To defeat the King you'll need alot of military units which require vast amounts of resources (horses, muskets, etc.). You can build the resources yourself, buy the resources or take them from others. Don't wait until the end of the game to focus on acquiring military resources.3.

Build cities smartlyAlways keep the revolutionary war in mind. The King will attack from the east and will hit your coastal cities first. If you have too many coastal cities your defense will be spread out and your defending forces won't be able to defend it all.

Generally, I like to have 2 coastal cities and 3 inland cities in the early middle part of the game. ' There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.' - Niccolo MachiavelliThe end game is all about preparing for the revolution. In this phase you need to ramp up your bell production to get 50% rebel sentiment and have a large enough army to defeat the Royal Expeditionary Force (REF).50% rebel sentimentYou need 50% rebel sentiment to declare war on the king.

If you have a civilization large enough to have a chance at defeating the king you'll need alot of bell production. In your larger cities you should strive for city halls/newspapers and smaller towns should have town halls/printing presses.all filled with elder statesmen. Remember rebel sentiment greater than 50% adds to the combat strength of all your units.so you can't go overboard with bell production.

In addition, you keep gaining FFs during the revolution so you'll be able to get some combat advantages as well. Some FFs give you more bells for building other type of buildings (ex. Washington Irving gives you bells for school houses). If you get one of these FFs, build the appropriate buildings to boost your bell production.Building a large armyHow big of an army do I need? Answer: it depends.

What strategy are you using? How are your cities laid out? How big is the REF? What leader traits do you have?

What FFs do you have? Can you continue producing combat units after the start of the war? How experienced is your army?First of all, you don't need to match the size of the REF (thank goodness!).

Remember, you don't have to beat the entire REF all at once. The REF comes in 4 waves each separated by 5 turns. The wave sizes are 10% then 20% then 30% then 40%. And each wave doesn't hit in the same turn.it takes a few turns to unload all those units. I use a strategy to attack them as they land so I'll need to defeat all units as they land. I only build Cuirassiers and Dragoons.

My starting number is 70% of the REF's Cuirassiers and dragoons. I then modify this number depending on my leader traits, FFs and ability to produce more military units. This is the minimum number of units I have. In this case more is betterYou will lose some units along the way. However, your units will gain experience and promotions which make them better and give you a better chance of winning future battles.

Promotions will also heal your unit. Great Generals (GG) add experience to units so you can use them at the appropriate time to 'heal' your units.Building a large army takes alot of resources! Leaders who are 'disciplined' have an easier time building their army. You'll need to produce alot of muskets/horses or goods to sell to buy muskets/horses. Save up extra muskets/horses.

Once you declare independence, any worker who isn't directly providing war support should be turned into a soldier/dragoon. Keep your statesmen and preachers (if you are going to choose 'separation of church and state' for your constitution) along with your ranchers, blacksmiths and gunsmiths.

If you are producing cannon/ garrison cannon keep your lumberjacks and carpenters otherwise conscript them into your military. You also need to keep the appropriate number of farmers and fishermen to support the work in your cities. You can get 2 extra colonists in each city if you choose 'all men are free'. At this stage of the game population shouldn't be an issue. If you still have a shortage you can always buy expert colonists from Europe to turn into soldiers/dragoons.Teaching colonists to become veterans in your universities can also make a difference.

' Give me liberty or give me death' - Patrick HenryViva la Revolution!Finally the time has come to revolt and fight your war of independence!You first order of business is to write your constitution. You can read Wejer's analysis here: It's for the unmoded game but the analysis still applies.What is your stance on slavery?- 'All men are free': +2 population per city. If you have alot of muskets/horses, free the slaves and use the extra population to make more military units.- 'Slavery': +50% production of raw goods. A huge increase in production.but is it worth keeping slaves?What is your stance on elections?- 'Monarchy': Can trade with Europe.- 'Elections': +50% bell production. More bells mean more FFs which can help you in you revolution.What is your stance on natives?- 'manifest destiny': +50% vs natives.- 'native rights': auto peace and strengthen relations. Do you really want to fight the natives and your king at the same time?

I thought not.What is your stance on religion?- 'separation of church and state': converts crosses into bells. This is usually the best choice.

More bells=more FFs and better rebel sentiment.- 'theocracy': converts crosses into hammers. Situationally this can be better.

If you need to build more ships or garrison cannon/cannon then this might be better.What is your stance on land security?- 'right to bear arms': +2 str for colonists. If you had to start the revolution early and you aren't fully prepared this would help immensely. Colonists can't attack, but they can be stacked with your combat units to help defend.- 'controlled arms': +50% great general emergence. This is usually the best choice.