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SID MEIER'S COLONIZATION for PC
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FAQ/STRATEGY GUIDE (v1.0)
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By DENOUEMENT (cgparham757@aol.com)
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DISCLAIMER:
This file is copyright by Denouement (Chris Parham). You may NOT reproduce or
distribute this guide in any manner, electronically or otherwise, without the
express written permission of the author. You may not display this guide on any
page in which there are advertisment banners. Below can be found the list of
sites that are permitted to host this guide. This list can be changed at any
time.

List of acceptable sites:
GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com).

List of sites which do NOT have permission:
www.cheats.de

Remember, plagiarism is a crime and is punishable under the law.

Note: You can always find the latest version at GameFAQs, at www.gamefaqs.com
Thanks CJayC!

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E-MAIL POLICY:
I welcome e-mails at cgparham757@aol.com but here are the Do's and the Dont's:

DO send questions not in the FAQ.
DO send questions in text or HTML format.
DO send e-mails with "GameFAQs" in the subject line.
DO send suggestions and corrections, this is not a final guide.
DO tell me if you find this guide on a site where it is not permitted (see
above).

DON'T send executables.
DON'T send vulgar or inappropriate mail.
DON'T send mail over and over again, I only check it once every day, at most.

I will try to get back to you as soon as possible...unless you did one of the
"DONTS", in which case your mail will be summarily ignored and ruthlessly
deleted.

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CONTENTS

1. Intro Material
-- Disclaimer
-- E-Mail Policy
-- Contents
-- Introduction

2. Strategy Guide
-- Opening Strategy
-- Choosing a Mother Country
-- Founding Your First Colony
-- Early Trips to Europe
-- Early Founding Fathers
-- Development
-- Expansion Plans
-- Middle Game Founding Fathers
-- Declaration of Independence
-- When to Declare?
-- Defeating the Royal Expeditionary Force
-- Late Game Founding Fathers
-- Score Boostage

3. Statistics
-- Units
-- Terrain
-- Buildings
-- Professions
-- Founding Fathers
-- Colony Name Lists

4. Closing Material
-- Closing Statement
-- Acknowledgements
-- Endnotes

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INTRODUCTION
Colonization is a strategy game created by one of the elite names in this
genre, Sid Meier, who is best known for his creation of the Civilization
series. It is pretty much alike to his other games and has most of the same
basic qualities, except that economics takes a little more precedence over
military issues in this game, and there is no emphasis on science and
technological development. The only drawback is that there are a few annoying
bugs, but most can be cured by simply returning to the previous save.
Otherwise, enjoy this game, and I hope my guide for it helps you out in some
way!!!

Requirements: IBM/Compatible PC
386/486/Pentium
1 MB RAM
CD-ROM Drive
MSDOS 5.0 or higher
VGA graphics
Mouse (recommended)
Supported Sound Cards: AdLib
SoundBlaster
Roland
Pro Audio Spectrum
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O P E N I N G S T R A T E G Y
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In the early game, your goal will be to expand your empire and acquire a
solid foothold in the New World. Other nations will generally be friendly to
you, or at least indifferent, so take advantage of this to expand fast and
push yourself to a position of strength, priming your empire for the middle
game's focus on growth and wealth development.

CHOOSING A MOTHER COUNTRY
When the game begins, you must choose a mother European nation to represent,
and until you try to declare independence you will be that nation's colony in
the New World. Each nation has different characteristics which make it better
or worse than the other nations. Let me summarize the characteristics of each
European power.
ENGLAND's colonies receive bonus immigrants from Europe, to represent
that fact that England's New World colonies were more settlement-intensive
than the trading outposts of other powers. Immigrants are generated in two-
thirds the time.
FRANCE's colonies have very good relations with native tribes (just as
the real French did). A French player will get better cooperation from the
Indians, and generates hostility with them less quickly.
SPANISH colonies were acquired by military force and conquest, and this
is reflected by the fact that Spanish forces gain a 50% attack bonus when
attacking Indian settlements.
A player representing THE NETHERLANDS beings with a Merchantman unit
instead of a Caravel. Also, to represent this nation's stable trading base,
the market prices in Amsterdam fluctuate less than those in other European
capital cities.
Personally my favorite nation to play is the Netherlands, because I like
playing an economic game. The French aren't bad either, and are especially
good for beginning players since friendly Indians let you get off to a good
start in the game. England is decent but nothing special, and finally Spain
is only good if you really like fighting battles.

FOUNDING YOUR FIRST COLONY
Civilization players may be somewhat unused to this since in Civ founding
that first city, well it doesn't really matter where you do it since you can
always expand. In Colonization expansion is more difficult for a number of
reasons, so your first city needs to be correctly placed. I will address a
few important factors to consider before you set up your first colony. You
might want to sail up the coast for awhile and scout out the terrain before
choosing a place. First, you want to make sure you're on a decent size land
mass; anything that seems big enough to support eight or so colonies is fine.
Second, look for two traits in the specific spot you choose. One, having some
special resource squares nearby will be a big boost to your colony. A silver
mine is an especially good one, if it is available. Second, try not to found
a city right next to a native city. While you will probably encounter some
natives soon after landing, staying away from their cities will help you
avoid undesirable conflicts. Stay on the coast of course (you are doomed
otherwise), and watch out for helpful fish squares, which can really boost
your food production. Finally, as a general rule you will want to use your
two different units to establish two different colonies on this land mass.
Make sure both are sea-accessible, and get them started on producing some
valuable exports. As far as developing initial colonies, two important
structures to acquire early on are the dock and the warehouse. Fishing is by
far the easiest way to get large amounts of food and securing a dock will
really allow a colony to flourish. Also, without a warehouse, a productive
colony serves no purpose, since your fabulous produce will all spoil and be
worthless. Other structures to consider building are those that will develop
that colony's unique resource squares.

EARLY TRIPS TO EUROPE
When you send your first ships back to Europe, there are a number of things
you need to concentrate on. First, of course, you should be taking back the
products of your colonies to Europe at each opportunity, especially since you
don't have a warehouse yet and can't store large amounts of goods. Head over
to Europe and get your cash from the production of your colonies, but even
more important is bringing over new colonists from the mainland. The quality
of colonists you pick up here will have a big impact on your success. Ideal
choices to recruit in the early game are Seasoned Scouts, Hardy Pioneers,
Farmers, Fishermen, and Lumberjacks and Carpenters. Use these new colonists
to found new villages around your initial ones and begin the first level of
your empire's expansion.

EARLY FOUNDING FATHERS
Good founding fathers to pick up during the early phase of the game include
Thomas Jefferson, who increases your rebel sentiment and gets you production
bonuses, and Peter Minuit, who will eliminate the problems of overlap with
native villages and increase your potential expansion area. Other decent
choices are Franklin, Penn, and de la Salle. Of course, the ultimate deciding
factor will be which of these are available.




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D E V E L O P M E N T
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Your focus here will be to grow and expand your colonies (more so than your
empire as a whole). The reason for this is that you are seeking to bring
about the necessary conditions of wealth and population that you need for a
successful bid at independence.

EXPANSION PLANS
Now your goal is to expand your colonies to the area around you. Try to
occupy as much of your landmass as possible, and occupy as many resource
squares as possible. Especially if there are no Indians in the vicinity,
inland colonies are very rarely a liability no matter how weak, so feel free
to build a size one or two colony just to exploit an inland silver deposit.
However, you will also need eight to twelve (minimum) major coastal colonies
to form the backbone of your empire. In addition to building new colonies,
you also need to develop your existing ones. That means building the
appropriate structures to benefit local production, building fortresses, and
so on. It's a good goal to get around six cities of population above ten or
twelve; often at this point you will be ready to start preparing for your War
of Independence.

MANAGING TRADE
Having a variety of goods available for trade is essentail for success at this
point in the game. The way trade works is, when you sell some of your goods
in Europe, the price they will pay for more of these goods goes down, since
there is less demand. When you buy something, the price they will pay, and the
price at which you are able to purchase more, goes up since the demand is
greater than the supply. This means that if you want to make the most profit
off trade: (1) diversify your exports among all available possibilities, to
keep the demand for each product at a good level, and (2) always sell and buy
in as large a bulk as possible, so that change in prices don't take effect
until after the transaction. Also, you may be able to obtain positive results
by buying a small amount to raise the price, then selling a large volume at
the higher new price, this will have to be further looked into.

MIDDLE GAME FOUNDING FATHERS
Francis Drake and Adam Smith are the best at this time. Factories provide a
serious boost to your production that is just what you need at this time,
your financial situation will be much more secure with these at your
disposal. Privateers are very powerful, both for protecting your shipping
lanes, and for disrupting the shipping of other Europeans, thus driving
prices in Europe even higher. Pocahontas is pretty decent if the Indians are
threatening war; of course if you like the military action, go ahead and kick
some native ass. Cortes might be an appropriate choice if that's the game
plan you've selected.




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D E C L A R A T I O N O F I N D E P E N D E N C E