The New World in which you establish your colonies is the newlydiscovered Americas. You are the Viceroy of the New World for one of Europe's power nations. Colonization gives you the opportunity to change how history plays itself out. You set the policies, you make the plans, you choose what is important and what is not in running what will hopefully first be a successful network of colonies and eventually a new country.

Once you have settled on your preferred pre-game options including difficulty level -- Discoverer, Explorer, Conquisdator, Governor or Viceroy -- you are ready to take the imperial plunge.

COLONIES

These serve as the hubs of activity of your operations in the Americas. Their inhabitants work the surrounding land to grow food, harvest cash crops of cotton, sugar cane and tobacco, to mine ore and silver, and to trap beaver. They can also work nearby waters for fish in underground banks and reefs. Each colony is also home to a small cottage industry supplying processed goods including cloth, cigars and rum in small quantities. As it grows in population, it can support (and indeed need) more and more buildings.

Trade: Once your colonists have established a cottage industry that produces enough food to sustain colonial life, and have learned to grow cash crops, you can begin to build an economy. To do this, you must trade with your home country. The market sets the prices of goods and commodities, and if you flood the market you’ll see prices fall. You must be careful, then, to create a balanced economy. As your colonial treasury grows and your people learn more and more skills, you can convert what has been a cottage industry into a much larger production machine.

Taxation: Your King sees your colonies as a mere extension of his personal domain and as a source of revenues to support his international activities. From time to time, he increases your tax rate, enabling him to take more profit from your trade. He may also increase taxes whenever his government intervenes upon your behalf.

Ships: In Colonization you will most likely start out the game as one of a number of colonists on a Caravel. You may even have a tradel vessel as part of your entourage. In order to maintain your trade, and protect your commerce from unfriendly sea forces, you’ll need to establish a naval presence in coastal waters. You can purchase cargo ships and warships from the Crown (your King’s government) or you can build them yourself if you have a coastal colony with a shipyard and plenty of lumber. There are three types of cargo ships (Caravels, Galleons and Merchantmen) and two warships (Frigates and Privateers). Sooner or later your European rivals will dot the coastal waters with their own offensive naval units, and blockade your main harbors — you must be ready for this. The Man-O-War is another type of warship, but does not appear in American waters until the War of Independence begins.

Independence: Ultimately, if your colonies grow and become self-sufficient, your people will desire independence. When you feel ready to take on the Royal Expeditionary Force that has growing gradually throughout the game, you can declare independence. You must prevent them from capturing your territories in order to win the game.

COLONISTS

The major problem you will have upon arrival in the New World was survival. The amount of food supplies and tools you can ship across the Atlantic on your initial voyage is limited, so colonists will need to quickly establish a steady source of nutrition to enable them to live. Many of their early settlements vanished as quickly as they had appeared, and starvation was presumed the cause in most cases. If you find yourself in a pinch and are able to secure the aid of nearby native tribes, you may avoid perishing in this foreign land.

Skills: Many of your colonists arrive in the New World as unskilled, indentured servants or petty criminals. Comments one uncredited Colonization player:

Until you get William Brewster into your Congress, you are going to be plagued with indentured servants and petty criminals, especially at the higher levels of difficulty.The only thing I can suggest is to keep an eye on what's happening with the recruitment pool. [..] Petty criminals make great Dragoons early in the game... and great missionaries if you can get [Jean de] Brebeuf in, but are about useless for anything other than outdoor jobs. Indentured servants should be dropped off at the nearest [native] village and trained. Even if you have absolutely no use for the skill, you've at least brought them up equal to a free colonist.

Towards the end of the game you should be concentrating on educating any colonist who is not a specialist of some sort. You get more points for specialists. You should also be saving [Bartolome] de Las Casas until the end of the game so you can get as many converts converted as possible.

Some immigrants arrive as free colonists ready to work, and others still bring skills learned and practiced for many generations in Europe. These skilled workers can be very valuable because their output is far superior to that of ordinary, unskilled workers.

Education: Your colonies can construct schools so that the skilled can teach the unskilled what they know. Education is a vital aspect of creating a viable society. Petty criminals can learn to be servants, and servants can earn their freedom through education. Free colonists can become masters of their new trade — capable of teaching others.

Native Lore: Expertise in some areas such fur trapping, tobacco planting and wood lore can be learned from natives, so maintaining friendly relations with the Indians is important. As your presence in the New World increases, they become uneasy, restless, angry and somewhat unpredictable unless you trade with them and readily meet to their demands. You must maintain friendly relations in order to learn what they have to teach.

Founding Fathers: From the moment your people build their first colony, great issues are debated in the Town Halls. There are five categories of discussion: trade, politics, military, religion, and exploration. As the discussions continue, great ideas are formed — ideas that fundamentally affect the course of history. As your colonies grow, these ideas. These ideas are embodied in the men who articulate them, and increase the potential inherent in your colonies as an independent nation.

TERRAIN

Maps include reasonably accurate representations of North and South America but, as in Civilization, there are any number of possible alternatives that are somewhat randomly generated according to criteria set by the player. The presence of Native American tribes and other European powers remain hidden until you encounter them directly. Once revealed, an area remains visible for the remainder of the game.

Of the 3,920 total terrain squares in Colonization, they can be any one of nearly 20 categories including eight types of forest, each of which can be cleared to produce a one-time timber infusion and result in a specific type of open ground remaining. These can then plowed for more productivity. When forested, the agricultural potential of the terrain is severely limited. However, wooded terrain can produce lumber, and trappers can find beaver and deer pelts in the forests. Note that forests in the colder terrain types produce the most fur and lumber.

Grasslands: Fertile soil in temperate areas, perfect for tobacco growing. You can also harvest food here.
Plains: This area is good for growing a wide variety of food stuffs. You can grow a little cotton here as well.
Prairie: Relatively flat, open land, ideal for producing cotton. You can also grow food crops here.
Savannah: Rich, moist soil specially suited for growing sugar. This land is good for food production as well.

Arctic: Cold and icy, almost incapable of supporting life.
Desert: Dry and sparse difficult though possible to grow food in. You can sometimes mine ore here.
Marsh: Cool, wet, and briny where the sea meets the land. You can grow some foodstuffs, and find ore in abundance.
Swamp: Low, tropical wetlands that often harbor bog deposits of ore. You can grow a little food and some sugar cane here.
Tundra: Rather cold, open land produces a minimal amount of food, but little other agriculture. However, you often find ore here.

Hills: Gently rolling that offers easy access to ore. You can also develop some agriculture here.
Mountains: Large areas of highly elevated terrain, difficult for travel but likely sources of ore and silver. Colonies cannot be established here.

Lakes: Bodies of fresh water — good for fishing.
Rivers: Its presence with nourishing water and sedimentary soil generally enhances the production of whatever can normally be produced in a terrain type. Fur trapping is more lucrative along these because of the many beaver dams found in such places. Additionally, they function much like roadways in the wilderness. Colonists and wagons moving along them are assumed to be using canoes or other types of boats to hasten travel. Any of the terrain types referenced in set above can have these running through them as well.
Sea Lane: Open ocean that leads to standard sea routes from the New World to Europe, and vice-versa. To return to Europe, a ship only has to enter one of these and then move toward the east (if exiting east) or west (if exiting west) map edge.
Ocean: Wide open water of the sea. It is somewhat useful for fishing, especially along the coasts.

* All values area for forested/non-forested terrain, except where the terrain type cannot sustain forests.

• Most Cost is the number of moves it costs a unit to enter that terrain type.
• Defense Bonus is a percentage of a unit's base strength that is added to its defence in that terrain type.
• Production Values are the number of goods or commodities produced per turn in that terrain type by a free colonist.

RESOURCES

The one commodity that the New World has in abundance for European explorers at this time are natural resources. Depending on whether you settle in North or South America, your colonists will be most busy cultivating new foods and staples of beans, corn, squash and wheat to establish a viable economy or extracting gold, iron and silver from mountainsides. The vastly undeveloped Americas hold largely untapped natural resources during this period, and served as the basis for many Europeans coming back to this New World in quests for riches -- as will no doubt be the case for the typical game player of Colonization.

In the long term, one of the most important resources found in the New World is an abundance of metal ores. Your blacksmiths can process this ore to create tools and other metal products. Gunsmiths can then use the tools to fashion muskets. As European competition heats up, you'll find it more and more necessary to stockpile muskets. Aside from the intrinsic terrain of a square, some squares also contain special resources, represented by icons superimposed over the normal terrain. These icons indicate a particularly abundant source of produce.

Game Areas: Presence of game indicates abundant food. Trapping is also worthwhile in these areas.
Mineral Deposits: Generally rich metal deposits that yield both ore and silver. They are not as productive as other deposits, but have the benefit of diversity. These too may deplete after extensive mining.
Oasis: Fertile with water reserves and nutrients, found in dry, arid terrain like deserts. They are capable of producing a surprising quantity of food, and a few other resources.
Ore Deposits: Found in hilly spots, these are abundant sources of iron and other metals used in making tools and weapons. If mined, these also become depleted after a while.
Silver Deposits: Mountains are particularly abundant sources of this. If mined, they become depleted eventually depending upon the extent of the deposit.
Trapping Areas: Particularly large numbers of fur-bearing mammals are found here. These animals can be in any combination including the beaver, otter, and raccoon. This can be especially productive terrain if a river runs through it.

Prime Cotton Land: Extremely well suited for the cultivation of cotton.
Prime Food Land: This is an area ideal for agriculture involving food — bean, corn, squash, and wheat.
Prime Sugar Land: Especially well suited for the cultivation of sugar cane.
Prime Timber Land: Area of tall pine and straight oak that produces lumber perfectly suited for construction.
Prime Tobacco Land: Particularly well suited for the cultivation of tobacco.