game-play questions

[vanye73]

I have played two games and would like assistance with the following stuff. I never played the original Col so some of these might be dumb.

1. Why if I refuse the king's ginormous tax jumps am I prevented from trading a valuable commodity with Europe? Is there away to trade with other nations IN Europe and say no to my king?

2. Is it normal to have the king jump the taxes 4-6% at a time even when I have never refused his tax request before? With 50 turns remaining in my last game my tax rate was 78%! If I had said no to his requests, I would have been unable to trade my only valuable commodities.

3. Is it possible to trade with Europe after declaring revolution?

4. When I declared revolution (with 40 turns remaining in game) The king had over 100 soldiers, 30 cannon, 40 dragoons, 15 warships (his ships are better than anything I get to build!). This seems just too massive.

5. The New World is a big place, so why are all four of the colonial powers settling in the same small SE corner of the map? Makes no sense.

[snoopy369]

1. That's simply the tradeoff with refusing the tax jump - otherwise you'd not do it You can trade to other colonies or the Indians, though. A common strategy is to refuse any taxes that are straight dollar amounts (as there is no major penalty to that) but to accept any % increases, unless the good you can boycott is one you don't care to sell (like Cotton or something you will process anyway).

2. Yes, it is. He jumps it based on your rebel bell percentage, I believe.

3. I don't believe so, but I haven't tried really - trading with Europe is inefficient anyway due to taxes at that point.

4. A lot of people feel it's too high, including me... the way to deal with it is either have a big army yourself, or to build your bells all in one big jump at the end of the game right before you declare.

5. I think that's a bug also. I nearly always settle right next to another civ...