Colonization

Cheat & Tips By Lu Richardson.
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My first tip to you is that you cheat - cheating can turn a tedious
game into a thrilling one, so never be afraid to do so. I got
nowhere in this game (everyone was very nasty to me and kept bashing
me and stealing from me, woo-hoo, sniff, sniff) until I gave myself
more money so that I could buy plenty of muscle. Unfortunately it
is not so easy to tamper with the variables, since the offset to
change keeps moving in the file - but see how much money you have,
convert this figure to hexadecimal, search through the saved file
(with NU or any other editor) until you spot it and then change it
to 88 13 for 5,000 bucks, 18 10 for 10,000, or 50 C3 for 50,000.
You might have to do this more than once.

Right, that's that. The next thing to do is to get yourself
organized. I will assume that this is your first attempt at playing
and that you've chosen the easiest option. Even so, the program
goes a bit over the top, in my view, as the game advances; and you
are going to have so many balls up in the air, a few are bound to
come crashing down on your head. Let's see what we can do to
minimize the damage.

As the game starts, direct your ship left to the land but don't make
a landfall until you find a spot in which there are free squares
with food (plain fields, deer, fish in the sea), timber and,
preferably, mineral deposits. Make sure there are no Indian
villages too near you. It might be a good idea to save your game
right at the outset and move your ship about in order to disclose
the best spots on which to land - you will notice the very best are
already taken up by Indian villages! Then you can reload and go
straight to the right place.

Make the landfall and type B to build a settlement. If there are
totem poles on the squares, move to them at once and buy the land
off the Indians.

Fortify the soldiers you were carrying within the settlement. Have
a look at it to see what it will be produce, in order to have an idea
as to what kind of people to recruit. By and large, Expert Farmers
and Fishermen are a must. Others will become obvious as the game
progresses.

Send your ship immediately to London by typing G. There, pick up
some Scouts. Before you leave, buy a Galleon and train six Hardy
Pioneers. Go back to your settlement with this lot.

Take the pioneers either side of your first settlement and get them
to build new ones in appropriate places, not too faraway from one
another. In all, you want to build 7 or 8 settlements - more would
be too complicated. Ideally, they should be connected by roads so
that you can move people and goods in an emergency.

Send out your Scouts immediately and get them to visit all the
Indian villages. Be friendly and share your food with them if they
are having a tough time, but don't let them start making demands.
If they do so, resist them by manning the stockades.

Keep sending the ships backwards and forwards fetching the people
you need to build up the settlements (give yourself more money to
speed things up). I found that, after Expert Farmers and Fishermen,
the next priorities were Lumberjacks, Ore Miners, Expert Carpenters
and Expert Blacksmiths. You will also need a Hardy Pioneer for each
of your settlements, so that you can take them outside and plough
the land and build roads; you can use the ones which started up the
settlements, if you have enough tools.

Ideally, each settlement should have one square producing ore, one
producing lumber and the rest (ploughed), food. Don't bother
producing anything else.

Get your Carpenter working straight away: what you need to build
is, first of all, a stockade, then a dock (so that your fishermen
can produce food) and then a warehouse. Later on you will need an
Armoury, a Custom's House, a Fort, a Printing Press and a Newspaper.

Of course, you will need to purchase some goods from London at
first, but your aim is to be self sufficient.

Pay your taxes and don't mess about.

Don't quarrel with other Europeans when you meet them and leave
their colonies alone.

As soon as you can, get missionaries and set up missions in the
Indian villages round about.

As the game progresses you will need Statesmen (three for each town)
and Dragoons (again, three for each town). Also at least one
artillery in each.

Eventually you will get to the stage when your colonies are pretty
well self-sufficient and clamouring to be independant. Now is the
time to build a fortress in each, make sure they have plenty of
horses and guns and have as many dragoons and artillery as you can
manage.

Declare Independence and you will be attacked by the mother nation.
The other Europeans, if you've treated them well, will come to the
rescue. If you manage to withstand the onslaught, you will have won
the game.

These, of course, are the bare bones of gameplay - I am sure you
will think up refinements as you go along. Or you may choose to
take on the lot and end up dominating the whole of the New World.
Good luck!