So has anyone won yet?

[JungleIII]

O.K… for those disheartened – Here is a victory.

Played first game start to about turn 70… after reading Dales notes on victory, could see I wasn’t going to be close. Too many issues just learning the game.

Second start, third level from beginner on Explorer, playing French.

Played nice with Indians, established missions and did NOTHING that made one Liberty Bell for 150 turns. I still received FF by playing with the make Trade and Political points in some cities.

Built 4 cities very fast. Grew to mid size around 4-6 and then attacked and eliminated the Dutch and then the English. They resprouted further away and later I took those cities.

Then at turn 150 I spent 40-45 years doing nothing but popping Liberty Bells with Statesman and Printing Press… very little else. At year 1680 I declared my Independence at exactly 50 percent. Apparently the King was a little off guard as the past years had only yielded him a build-up of:
43 Regulars
11 Dragoons
14 Artillary
4 Man-O-War

I had 1000’s of rifles stashed away, 11 cities with my captured cities and horses up the wazoo… And his attacks were pathetic. He could not land more than around 16 units at a time and then when I wiped them all out he hung around just bombarding my defenses on my cities. Finally, he would return and pick up another 15 –16 and land them again – with my dragoons absolutely kicking his butt…

Finally, the game was over 54 turns after declaring independence on Turn 243 at year 1734. The key is to catch the King off guard or you’ll have a wicked force to deal with.

[JungleIII]

In the end I had around 3/4 of the founding fathers, especially the good ones. When you knock the other guys for a loop and then pour on the FF points mid way, I was offered a FF practically every turn and ended up with 24 on my Congress!

[Dale]

Yep, and you get all the good ones who are really expensive!

[Jeje2]

After reading this it's obvious that someone haven't listened to Sid's polycast.

It it Sid talked about winning a game:
(Simplifying his long answer)
* In MP (with four players) you are satisfied if you win one game in four
* In SP if you win one game in four - you are p***** o**

As this many people have problems even on the easiest level - one has to conclude that something isn't right...

[Kekkonen]

Originally posted by 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.

Did that. On easiest setting. First 10 turns after I started cranking out the liberty bells, the King added a soldier or a dragoon to the REF every turn.

[JungleIII]

What's clear is it is easily winnable (even I could win), and now I'm challenged to try some different leaders and different victories... keeping in mind the REF of course...

I do think the manual is lacking in warning not to build up your Liberty bells early on... it is logical to be a happy little builder and only when the King won't quit raising taxes that you start to put out your independence feelers... but it's not maybe first nature of many players.

[bigcat55404]

Just finished a game that sounds very similar to JungleIII's experience (in that I didn't build a single bell early on), except that I gave/traded half of my stockpiled guns to the nearby natives and established defensive pacts with them. I had one elder statesman in each of my 4 cities with a printing press, and it didn't take that long to hit 50% rebel sentiment. The end result was that I faced a tiny REF (even smaller than Jungle's). I outnumbered his dragoons (about 25 to 20) and there was only about as many regulars. The war of independence was actually pretty short, as my dragoons just rolled right over the REF the turn after they would land.

I dare say it almost felt *too* easy. Now that I have a better idea of how to plan (especially defensive strats), I might actually get a little more ambitious with early liberty bell production.

[Dale]

I've always had faith that Poly produced better strategy players than that "other" forum.

Colonial dragoons RAWK!

[crantor]

I suck generally, but I won (first game!) by first killing off the other europeans, grabbing their stuff and then killing off the nearest indian tribe for the gold. Build up industry. Roads to connect colonies. No bother with fortifications at the "king side" coastal cities. After milking the indians of their money, training and general goodwill, use them for target practice.

I wasn't really aware of how fast the REF started growing so it got nasty in the end, grand total king probably had around 100 units and I had around 35. I did have a lot of privateers, which I suicided on the MoW (built for that purpose, they seemed more cost effective going by combat in Civ4) taking out a few. The REF promptly landed. I had two general stacks, one city-buster stack and one guerilla stack, packing a great general super medic!

Inland I had one city with a fortress, which seemed to actually help now that the MoW can't pummel defences and the REF couldn't do amphibious landings in one turn. Once the REF took it, after casualties and wounds, they lost it back the next turn.

The guerilla stack pummeled the REF in the jungles and forests, many of the troops already had promotions for that purpose, and healed up between waves. In the end, we pulled it off. I had around 10 troops left, but they had promotions up their a** and got huge bonuses fighting the REF in terrain.

Second easiest level.

Humble tip: use indians for target practice. If you are buddies with em, arm them and use the far away tribes for target practice!

[Dale]

Crantor, do me a favour and try the PatchMod from Snoopy and I in the thread we opened for it. Try the new REF changes we made and tell us how it went.

[jdchambe]

I lost my first two game on the easiest difficulty setting. I out played the AI on my third game, but still lost because I didn't realize the king was going to sit on his butt and run out the clock while he kept his last wave of regulars back in england. apparently you can lose, even if you play well because you don't schedule enough time for the invasion script that the game runs once the revolution is declared.

that really annoyed me. i don't mind losing, but I don't like playing for an hour or more only to discover the game couldn't be won because I started the revolution 5 turns too late.

[DarthVeda]

Originally posted by jdchambe
I lost my first two game on the easiest difficulty setting. I out played the AI on my third game, but still lost because I didn't realize the king was going to sit on his butt and run out the clock while he kept his last wave of regulars back in england. apparently you can lose, even if you play well because you don't schedule enough time for the invasion script that the game runs once the revolution is declared.

Oh that's lovely. Pretty sure once you start the revolution there shouldn't be a time limit.

I mean really, how are you going to make it go by faster? And REFs can vary GREATLY in size.

[Boracks]

Originally posted by jdchambe
... lost because I didn't realize the king was going to sit on his butt and run out the clock while he kept his last wave of regulars back ...

Yup, same thing happened to me. There's no clue to suggest when you have to start the festivities.

Either that, or the A.I. now reads the victory conditions and decides it can win by doing nothing. How human...

[Aerion]

Does anyone know where the setting is for how many turns you have to win? I'd really like to be able to mod that setting.

[probablymike]

jeepers, 'shoots and ladders' is a fun game. you get to go up and down ladders and you win if you go up and down ladders.

so, why is this supposed to be an easy game? cause it's a computer strategy game? 'chess' is a computer stategy game too. it seems to me we just have to play it real and learn how to fight and how to organize our colony for defense. the guys that have won seem to have won very much like the wars of independence were actually won, with one exception, and that is that outside powers would side with you and provide training and expertise, and weapons.

this game is pretty good, and actually i'm a little annoyed that people don't get it that someone involved with this game tested in beta and probably won a game or two. then too, Sid probably had some say in this, no? and he's pretty sharp... naturally, from his point of view, it's probably that this is a game for high-school and under, teaching very general notions and facts about ( only ) american history. it's up to anyone wanting to use this for more than that to mod it up -- it seems pretty open. you can take out any taxation and add mods to the buildings -- you could easily make your own sub-easy game... even, i think, make building an army too expensive for the king? it looks like there's a setting.

personally, i really admire the guys that have won so far. probably it's their talent for leadership and strategy.