by Doc – Owner, Founder, Got Really Good at Colonization Since The Guide He Wrote Last Year
I’ve played a hell of a lot of Civ IV: Colonization in my life, but nowhere near as much as I have since I wrote that Colonization guide last year. I am assuming you’ve read that guide, as this post builds on the guide. However, as I’ve ventured into the most challenging difficulties the game has to offer, I feel the need to make some comments on how the strategies should change through the game.
The big difference between the low difficulties and the high difficulties is that everything wants to kill and tax you a lot more. Sending a non-Seasoned Scout over a tribal land results in an immediate declaration of war. Bumping territories too heavily with natives or colonists results in a declaration of war. Mouthing the words “Liberty Bells” results in a massive buildup of REF troops for war. The game stops being an economics simulator once you hit Conquistador and starts being much more of a survival sim where you eke out an economy sufficient to fund a revolution.
Seriously, screw Simon Bolivar.
The Big Difference
Lower-difficulty versions of Colonization make it optional to go to war with the native tribes, because you’ll have enough land and resources from that land that you won’t actually have to kill ’em off. You don’t have that luxury in the higher difficulties. Food is the big chokepoint in the higher-difficulties, as the best tiles you’re ever going to find are a measly +5 Food, and they’re few and far between. Oh, and the world generation almost always puts a tribe next to them. You’re not going to have real food access until you kill for it, basically.
Most of my early game is spent purchasing cannons. Fortunately, the AI is still fairly passive when you declare war on it, only taking the time to attack you if you leave a unit in an area they’ll have a significant advantage in, but 2 cannons are typically enough to take down any tribe if it’s backed by a Soldier. Hit them quick.
Speaking of opponents, one thing you’ll see a lot of is the other three European colonists settling near you. If you’re lucky, they won’t, but more often than not they’ll all end up next to each other, and usually close to you. I don’t know this for a fact but I get the feeling they know the best tiles to land on and so they take them before you can. Like I said in the other guide, I try to sell their neighboring tribes Guns to make a huge profit and also make them a pain to kill off.
Leaders and Endgame
Thus far I have only won with the two best leaders in the game: John Adams and Simon Bolivar. I’ve had success with these two leaders because they each solve two of the three endgame problems that your entire gameplay has to end up solving: Liberty Bells, Guns and Military Might. For the record, I also have not won on Revolutionary yet, as the REF buildup is so massive and fast I haven’t figured out a way to beat them. I suspect a key component of winning on Revolutionary is by killing off other established colonies to take their greatly improved production, but I’ve not tested that yet.
John Adams solves your Liberty Bells problem: all too often you’ll achieve 40% Revolution, enjoying the sweet, smooth economy and then it just… peters out. I don’t know why this is the case, though I can overcome it often by building the full Newspaper in each town with 3 Elder Statesmen and having a tertiary-level building to boost Bell production even further. John Adams solves that by granting you a 25% Liberty Bell production boost that really kicks off your Guns and Food production like a rocket (especially if you get McCormick). You can ensure that you overcome that hurdle and still keep the Bell benefits once you get into the War period.
Simon Bolivar solves this by A) keeping other Civs from being Simon Bolivar and B) effectively doubling the strength of your units that survive a battle. Simon’s double-XP boost means that any unit that gets attacked in a city and survives, or that attacks a weak enemy and survives, gets an immediate promotion right out of the gate. Promotions heal when applied, so as long as they survive another turn they get an HP boost, so you have a lot more strength-in-numbers when defending cities. This often results in having a stack of units (ideally Dragoons) with three or four promotions by the tipping point of the war, with precious little that can stop them. Other Civs just can’t match that. It doesn’t necessarily solve the Liberty Bells or the Guns problem, but he so oversolves the Military Might problem that it makes him the best in the game, though it’s up for debate whether he’s better or John Adams. After having played a lot of games, I think John Adams probably wins.
War (with Colonies)
If you’re playing near other colonies, expect them to declare war on you. They’ll usually pay off a tribe too. I prepare for this by investing immediately in Tools and Guns production so I can be producing Guns within the first 60 turns, and spending much of my initial cash stack on Cannons to kill their cities. Your own colonies will pale in comparison to the colonies you capture; for example, when I captured a French colony I found that it had the tertiary building upgrades for Cloth, Cigars, Coats and Liberty Bell production. This is because the AI becomes harder not just by being more aggressive and wanting to hang your sorry arse up on the wall more, but also by getting ridiculous boosts to production. But if you kill ’em anyway… that becomes yours.
Yes, much like regular Civ IV Deity-level you fare best when you’re militarily strongest and can take what you need from the people who are getting it for free.
Resources and Economy
Taxation is pretty heavy in the later difficulties, and you’ll have to branch out your economy into two commodities because frequently selling one will result in getting slapped with 4 and 5% tax increases from the beginning of the game. It’s best to start with overproducing the raw materials for production and selling those to Europe first while you build up militarily, because once you’re at war with other colonies you’ll likely capture colonies that have already built the advanced factories you need. And once you’ve captured those, it doesn’t matter if you have to have a Resource Party (where you can’t sell that good to Europe anymore to avoid a tax hike) because you can make the finished product anyway.
Selling to native tribes first is a useful tactic, even though you’ll be making less than what you’d make in Europe. Selling to natives is only good until the end of the early game, because they have a limited pool of money, but you can at least avoid the tax hikes as a result. They do factor in the taxes you’d pay in Europe into their pricing, and another discount for being a native, but it’s free money that your opposing colonists can’t get if you beat them to it. As always, if there’s a tribe that’s close to your enemies and desires Guns or Horses, you can make up to a 200% return when buying those from Europe and selling it to them. And you get the benefit of arming their (often unfriendly) neighbors!
Getting Population
Remember: your primary use for money in Colonization is purchasing specific units from Europe as investments to further maximize your ability to produce Food, commercial goods, Guns and Liberty Bells. Buying materials from Europe works in a pinch but is certainly not your primary option by any stretch. You can’t really “grow” your own population by large Food production as Food is too scarce and needs to be preserved for Horse production. You can, however, either immigrate it or buy it, so pick your poison and go with it. I recommend shelling out for a few Firebrand Preachers and a Cathedral to pick up an easy 10-15 units from religion.
Otherwise, buy units that are going to contribute to your economy, or missions. Buy Tobacconists and Carpenters, and Elder Statesmen (you do still need Elder Statesmen by the way, that’s going to be a significant portion of your expenditure) and whatever other units you need to keep the money coming in. If you’re lucky you’ve identified some Silver for easy early to midgame cash infusions until the price drops, and that’s very worth investing in an Expert Silver Miner.
Amiibo Doctor 