THE dumb question.

[UnOrthOdOx]

So, I'll just ask it.


Having never played the first....

WHAT is Colonization?

How is it different from Civ?

Why should I be excited? (or for those that know me from CIV, should I even bother to watch this game?)

[snoopy369]

Colonization is a Civ-style game, sort of.

It is a game where, similar to Civ, you build cities, military, and try to get more money to buy things. You can fight people, if you want, or not.

However, that's about where the similarities end ...

First off, the economic/building model is TOTALLY different. You know those whiners who want you to have the amount of Iron you have affect how many swordsmen you can build, or whatnot? They should be playing Col, because that is what Col is about. Your primary task is to collect resources with your citizens, resources which are then required to build things. You need a lumberjack to cut down trees to supply lumber to a Carpenter, who builds buildings and such. You need an ore miner to supply ore to a Blacksmith, who makes Tools, which are then used to make Muskets or some of the advanced buildings. You need a Furrier to trap animals for Furs, to give to a Coat Maker, who then makes coats to sell overseas (or to the Natives).

Basically, Col is not dissimilar to a combination of Merchant Prince/Machiavelli, and Civ. The economic model is different, though, even from MP, in that you trade either with Europe or with the Natives, but not from city to city (generally).

You also have Specialists (nearly all of your citizens, in fact, are specialists). Master Weaver makes better cloth out of cotton. Master Gunsmith makes more guns out of ore. Expert Farmer produces more food.

You train your specialists in Schools, or 'recruit' (read: buy) them in Europe.

Eventually, you yearn to become Independent, and if you have enough colonists who desire Independence, and enough Armies to defend you from the Mother Country, you may declare your independence. This is how you 'win'.

[snoopy369]

You also have a bunch of different ways to play the game, even the original (which was Civ1-era). You can play as an Aggressive Conqueror, who kills the natives off and takes their gold. You can play as a Native Trader, who focuses on selling the Natives stuff (and obviously on producing the things they need). (This is also called "Horse Breeder" by me... as that's a lot of what you usually sell). You can play as a European Trader, and sell things in Europe (which requires producing a lot of different things). You can play as a European Warrior, who fights his mother country's wars (against other European powers). Naval power is actually important, as you can do quite a bit with ships, and if you don't have ships you will not get far ...

[Niptium]

Yeah, true, ships are much more important in Col than it is in Civ... You can't possibly play a whole game without ships like you can in Civ4. If your ennemy starts raiding your merchant ships that is your bloodline to Europe's market, you ARE at a disadvantage...

[snoopy369]

It's not just that, but it's also pretty hard to withstand invasion from Europe when you declare independence without frigates taking out some of the invading force

[Dale]

I think you mean SoL.

[snoopy369]

SoL?

[Dale]

Ship of the Line.

[snoopy369]

Hmm, maybe. I haven't gotten past Frigates yet, in my game... and that's the best you can buy in Europe. It's been a long, long time

[Dale]

Woops, was thinking of the new one.

Just googled it. Yep you are right. Frigate is the highest in the old Col.

[snoopy369]

I was wondering about that

[Asmodean]

Originally posted by Dale
Ship of the Line.

Okay get it now

I was literally wasting 15 minutes last night trying to figure out what the Sons of Liberty has to do with ships in Colonization

Asmodean

[UnOrthOdOx]

So, um. It's a builder fest until you get to have fun defending against the motherland?


Any opportunity to play as the natives and kick the damn Vehos off the continent?

[Niptium]

Maybe in a mod. But it's not a builder's fest for everyone, you can play very aggressively against the Amerindians like the Spaniards were (are) in the 1994 release. And then with the other foreign powers.

[snoopy369]

At least in the original col, no, it was not possible to play as the Indians, as far as I know.

It's certainly not a builder fest; don't think of it as Civ, at all. It's an economic/trader game, with some of the more interesting Civ elements. Merchant Prince 2 is the most similar comparison I can make, I think, much more similar than Civ (although it is MP2 + some civ elements; not the other way around).

You can definitely play it militarily, and many did. You got gold from destroying indian settlements, which made the early game very easy. It made the late game hard, of course, as you couldn't trade stuff without high taxes, low prices, and nothing at all post-revolution without custom houses... but when you have a crapload of veteran soldiers and elder statesmen, and can build everything you need anyhow, it hardly matters