So has anyone won yet?

[Byteblock]

My husband and I are both pretty good at the whole Strategy gaming thing... and neither of us has yet to win on the easiest setting!

We're at about 3 games each and they all end in defeat.

So I'm curious if anyone else has won yet? I was under the impression that there was a lot of play testing prior to release, but a lot of core gameplay just seem totally out of whack.

Neither of us played the original Colonization, so perhaps we're coming at this wrong, but we've both played Civ 4.

[DarthVeda]

Three games of absolute defeat on Explorer.

[The diplomat]

I have played several games now on the easiest level but I have not won a single one. The Royal Expeditionary Force is BIG. I build decent colonies but it is not good enough to fend such a strong force in the time allotted.

I do think it is important to declare independence as early as possible. But, I have not tested that strategy yet.

[DarthVeda]

I think the winning strategy may be small highly efficient colonies that produce nothing but liberty bells and guns.

Not sure though, sort of in despair...

[AdamWright]

Indeed. I've played 4 games until the end on the easier settings, and I get wiped out all the time. Even if I stockpile guns, horses and cannon in every settlement, and convert *all* my population into military when the king arrives, I'm still outnumbered by 2-1.

Not to mention the fact that the kings artillery seem to be rather stronger than their "4" rating. Even when I have my own cannon and dragoons fortified inside a *fortress*, I loose 4 from 5 fights.

Maybe I'm just an idiot, but I can hold my own in Civ 4. I can't see that they play-tested this at all, or if so, I'm missing something really really really obvious.

[Dale]

Don't let them attack you in a city. Attack them in the field. With all those rebel bonuses, you cann win easily in the field.

[AdamWright]

Thanks Dale, I'll try that in my next attempt.

I still think the size of the REF is way, way, way, way, way, way, ..., way, way too large on the easier settings. The king, in this version, just seems to be a bit of a bugger - insanely huge tax rates, insane army sizes, and constant insane demands for money. Seriously, on the second easiest setting, should the tax ever get to 40+%, the REF have as many dragoons as you do citizens, and he demand 2000 gold when you've only got 2100?

[DarthVeda]

I'd think on the easiest setting one shouldn't go over 20%. Though the economics of Civ4:Col are somewhat different than the original.

[Senator]

This is the tactic that I've been using, works for me on the 4th difficulty level, feel free to improve it:

-Delay producing bells until the endgame (100 turns before the end or something)
-plan your bell production well in advance, stockpile 3 elder statesmen in every city, and let them do menial tasks while waiting for the big bell production kickoff. Also, build newspapers or buy them in your smaller colonies.

-you should also have at least one city that produces +50 muskets per turn, preferably 2.
-remember the american bill of rights? 2nd amendment? Implement it, stockpile 50 muskets for every colonist. Wagon trains are cheap, use them to stockpile muskets beyond the warehouse limits in your large colonies.
-buy 50 horses per colonist in europe and stockpile them in the same way. Don't bother producing horses yourself. 200 horses cost 200 food if you produce them yourself, not even taking the food and gold the rancher costs into account. 200 food is worth one colonist, the cheapest colonist in europe in the lategame is 800 gold. 200 horses cos 600 gold in europe. This means its cheaper to buy your horses in europe and use your food to breed colonists.
-use the rest of your gold to buy as many canons as possible
-dont produce warships, they don't stand a chance against MOW and consume huge amounts of muskets

-As soon as your revolution-o-meter reaches 50%, start the war of independence.
-Mobilize your army, the only industries that might be worth keeping for the time being are canon production and musket production.
-Your colonies are great for defence, however the king's artillery gets a huge bonus (+150%) when attacking settlements. Your first concern should be killing his artillery in the field, don't give him a chance to use it against your settlements.
-very important: heal your units, make sure you have at least one unit with the healing upgrade in every stack, protect stacks of damaged units with fresh units. A unit at 90% of his health has already a LOT less chance of winning. Think before you attack: victorious units are damaged units and damaged units need to be protected to keep them from being massacred.
-If needs be you can even rotate your damaged units: give a damaged unit a job inside a colony and use his muskets to give them to a colonist that was still working in the colony.
-use the terrain bonusses

[AdamWright]

Well, I tried again just now. Second easiest setting.

First 80% of the game, fine. Waltzed over the Spanish, dealt with the natives well, had a good army. Did as suggested and mostly saved bell building for the late game. Declared independence with 35 turns to go. Fled my entirely army for the hills when the REF came.

Result: Total wipe-out. Because...

REF: 72 Soldiers, 24 Dragoons, 18 artillery and 12 warships.
Final tax rate: 48% (This *includes* me refusing two increases).

Maybe I could have mustered an army like that if I spent the entire game micro-optimising for war: Caravans full of horse and guns, only trading things for high cash value, ensuring every town could churn out cannon and warships. But, Seriously Firaxis, this is supposed to be easy mode. What the heck is "hard" like?

Methinks I'll have to wait for a patch (official or otherwise).

[Nikolai]

Agreed. The lowest level right now equals Mega Man in difficulity.

[Kruztee]

Hi all

Regular lurker, very rarely post here, but love reading the forums back from around the Civ3 days. I just had to chip in my 2 cents. That being that I feel that this game is ridiculously difficult at even the easiest level.

I'm currently 0/5 on Pilgrim level. Seems that pretty much echoes the record of all but the most skillful players on the boards...

I know comparing Civ4 and Civ:Col is apples and oranges, but just as a point of reference I can usually win around 75% of my BtS games at Noble with standard everything settings.

The big difference between the two being that somebody without the slightest idea of what he is doing is still a chance to win a game of BtS on it's easiest setiing, wheras in Col2, unless you have carefully read through the forum posts both here and elsewhere and have a reasonable understanding of the way Liberty Bells directly affect the build up of the REF, you stand next to no chance of winning the game...

My main gripe is that the REF is ridiculously large (often 4~5 times larger than my band of stragglers) and chock full of crack troops. Even employing the (somewhat gamey IMHO) tactic of mass producing bells in the endgame, I've still never come close to a win. Producing Liberty Bells from the start of the game can lead to obscenely lopsided endgames that provide neither fun, nor an opportunity to learn very much because of the overwhelming swarm after swarm of REF troops.

Pilgrim level should be a walkover for players who are remotely familiar with the game concepts and mechanics (ie, players who have read the manual). That's just the way I think it should be. Without the fun of winning the game every once in a while for an average player, the attraction of Col2 will surely drain away relatively quickly and that would be a shame.

It's a game that I dearly want to like a whole lot more than I do.

[player1]

I miss the days of original Colonization when King army on easiest setting was around 15 regulars, 5 dragons and 2 cannons (and rarely increased more).

And my fist win was by doing spanish "scorched natives" stragetgy combined with buying dozen of cannons for a single heaviliy fortified size 4 colony.

Kinda ridiculus strategy, and I admit I was just fooling around in that game, but it was after all lowest difficulty setting when doing ridiculus things should still make you capable of winning.

[samsmithnz]

How discouraging. I've quit my first game (I'm about 150 turns in) and I don't even want to try for a revolution. boo.

[DarthVeda]

Originally posted by player1
I miss the days of original Colonization when King army on easiest setting was around 15 regulars, 5 dragons and 2 cannons (and rarely increased more).

And my fist win was by doing spanish "scorched natives" stragetgy combined with buying dozen of cannons for a single heaviliy fortified size 4 colony.

Kinda ridiculus strategy, and I admit I was just fooling around in that game, but it was after all lowest difficulty setting when doing ridiculus things should still make you capable of winning.

In the original it was based on the revenue the king collected from your taxes.