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Frequently Asked Questions for "Colonization" by Microprose
FAQ Version 2.0
Compiled and edited by Jim Cox (cox@unx.sas.com), adding greatly to
original version 1.0 FAQ, which was compiled and edited by Dar
Steckelberg (dsteckel@silver.sdsmt.edu).

Table of Contents:
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I. Introduction
II. Known Bugs
III. Game Mechanics
IV. Game Strategies
V. Tables
_______________________________________________________________________
I. Introduction
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"Colonization" (hereafter referred to as "COL") is Sid Meier's
latest (Oct. '94) strategy game that lets you organize and lead a group
of settlers from one of four European powers (England, France, Spain, or
Holland) in their struggle to establish an independent colony in the New
World. Sid Meier is well renowned for his previous strategy game
designs, including "Railroad Tycoon", "Civilization", and "Pirates!"
Gamers with experience in any or all of these three games will see some
similarities in COL regarding the interface, graphics, and mechanics.
You may use the map of North and South America or let the computer
generate a new world for you to explore. After landing in the New
World, your settlers must build colonies, work the land, and interact
with the natives to survive and, hopefully, grow.
All you start with is one ship and two colonists. In order to get
more resources you must ship the resources of the New World back to
Europe for trade. How you obtain these resources is up to you. You may
obtain them by working the land, trading with the Indians, or pillaging
Indian villages or other colonies and their ships.
Religious strife and persecution in the Old World will generate new
colonists infrequently, but that's about the only "freebie" you can
expect from your home country. The King will soon be levying taxes to
support his war efforts and marriage celebrations. The market prices
back home will drop after you flood the market with your goods, too.
You will be forced to diversify your products and trading partners in
order to earn profits and escape the tax man.
Eventually, you (and your colonists) will be strong enough and fed
up enough with the King that you declare independence. If you can
defend your colonies from the King's wrath and the Royal Expeditionary
Force that he sends to crush your rebellion, you will have created a new
nation and be a hero to your people! If not, you will spend your
remaining days in exile and your people will name an infectious disease
in your honor.
------ Contributed by Dar Steckelberg (dsteckel@silver.sdsmt.edu).
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II. Bugs, features, and limitations
1. Lockups:
These come in the following varieties:
a. Mysterious nonrepeatable lock-ups.
Many people have reported non-repeatable lockups, in other words, a
load of the autosaved game will not lockup when the same action is
performed.
b. Sound Bug.
I have lockups on the average of once an hour when I have sound turned
on. When I turn sound off, I do not have the lockups. For the
record, I have a second generation Sound Blaster Pro, with the normal
defaults.
c. Editing a trade route when 12 trade routes are defined.
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My problems however seem to be linked to editing/deleting trade
routes. I have a game where I got up to 12 routes and then discovered
that was the maximum when I tried creating the 13th. Tried deleting
all 12 to redefine them and the program locked up as I deleted the
12th.
Restarted the game and thought maybe I need to edit my existing routes
rather than deleting them. This seemed to work for a while but I
noticed after a lot of editing routes the game would eventually
freeze. In fact it once bombed out with a text message saying it could
not allocate enough memory. Mostly though it just hangs.
---- Contributed by Ross Inglis (R.A.Inglis@bra0801.wins.icl.co.uk)
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I have had the same problem after I have tried to edit the twelfth
trade route. It will hang within 5 minutes. Saving and reloading
does not seem to fix this problem.
d. Problems when city disbanded which is on a trade route.
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Another time, I disbanded a city that was on a trade route.
Established a new city near bye. Edited the route and added
that city in the position the disbanded one had been in (its
line had disappeared from the route when I went to edit it).
After that, I could not edit trade routes and the T command
did not work. I tried to look inside a colony and the program
crashed saying it had failed to allocate memory in the picture
something routine.
---- Contributed by schafer@walleye.network.com (Martin Schafer)
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2. Incompatabilities
I have seen various references that Colonization has trouble with
QEMM, and certain mouse drivers. Following is one such reference:
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Colonization doesn't seem to work with some mouse drivers. Use msd to
check what DOS mouse driver you have. Microprose recommend vers 8.20.
It does work with vers 6.94 and with the new intellipoint driver. It
didn't like vers 8.01 which came with my Logitech Mouse (Logitech users
can use LMOUSE.COM which comes with Windows).
---- contributed by Douglas Woods (Doug@drwoods.demon.co.uk)
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3. General bugs
The following six bugs were laid out quite well in a posting by
Douglas Woods (Doug@drwoods.demon.co.uk):
a. Can't create trade route with Europe.
When you create a new trade route, your European port is not listed as
a possible destination. To get around this, you need to create a trade
route, by sea, between two of your colony cities. Once you have created
the trade route, you can edit it and replace the second city with your
European port.
***
b. Wagon train on a trade route won't unload cargo.
This seems to happen if the cargo is embargoed at your European port. The
only way around it is to unload the wagon train by hand.
***
c. If using a mouse to move a unit, the unit sometimes goes off in a
strange direction all of its own.
Be careful when using drop-down menu to give orders to a unit. If you
click or release LMB just slightly outside the drop-down menu, your unit
could move off in a strange direction of its own. If you change your mind
about an order, move the mouse cursor to the top bar menu and release
LMB there.
***
d. Tax rate disappears when game is saved/loaded.
Sometimes if you load a saved game, the tax rate is reset to zero.
Doesn't always happen (unfortunately ).
***
e. Units transfer ships in mid-ocean.
If two of your ships meet on the same ocean square, any units on board
one ship can sometimes be taken over by the second ship. Not always
possible to avoid this but the likelihood can be reduced by not sending
ships empty and by avoiding sending two ships together from the European
port.
***
f. After automatic trade with Europe (via trade route or custom house),
the screen doesn't clear properly.
When you complete an automatic trade route with Europe, the screen behind
the top right window is not redrawn properly. Annoying, perhaps, but not
fatal.
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Others:
g. Problems with goto routine.
The goto routine apparently has many problems. It is good for short
distances, without hooks in the land or sea. It also seems to do a
good job using rivers and roads when they exist. But when there is
impassable terrain between the source and the destination, the goto
routine often fails. Sometimes the unit will get trapped in an
endless loop going back and forth between two points. Other times the
unit will cheerfully head in a direction where it will get shut off
with impassable terrain, and just stop there.

4. Fortunate bugs, features, and cheats
a. REF may teleport its Man o' Wars into inland lakes
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I had the REF show up at a city on a one square inland lake,
thus marooning one of the Man o' wars. This was convenient
but incorrect.
---- Contributed by schafer@walleye.network.com (Martin Schafer)
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b. Getting more choices for founding father.
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Another bug/feature is when you're selecting the next founding father. If
you don't like your choices, you can hit ESC and get (some) different choices.
It only seems to work once though (per choice that is).
---- Contributed by zaarain@eskimo.com (Mike Warning)
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c. The 'U' (unload) bug.
When a good is boycotted in your home country, you can still sell it.
Just use the 'u' key to unload it rather than the mouse, and you will
sell it 'under the table'. This bug really should be fixed, because
it really means there is very little consequence for you to refuse tax
increases by your mother country.
d. Temporary increases in population.
Although you have to have a certain population to get certain city
improvements, these can be obtained by simply putting a lot of
colonists to work in a colony, choosing to build what you want that
you don't have enough colonists for, and then you taking out all the
colonists that you just put in. You will continue building what
you chose to build even without the minimum needed. (Note: if you
have La Salle in your congress, you won't be able to go back below 3
however, as a stockade will be build immediately)
e. Changing game parameters.
You don't like the amount of production a type of resource gives? Or
you want to change the names of the indian tribes or countries
involved? Simple... just edit the names.txt file in your colonize
directory. You can make changes that affect the whole game in there,
including some of the computer AI.
f. Things you can do to units after they move.
I always have the end of turn option on. There are several things you
can do with a unit after its move, that save you a whole turn with
that unit:
1. You can put him to work in a colony that turn.
2. You can equip a pioneer with tools or a soldier with guns
and/or horses so that it is ready to go next turn. If you wait until
next turn to do it, the equipping process takes up its whole move.
3. By waiting to move a ship until after a unit moves to a town,
you can have that unit on the ship this turn, by moving the unit into
the colony, clicking the middle icon on the multifunction display,
clicking on that unit, and choosing Sentry. Alternatively, you can
fortify that unit that turn, rather than waiting for the next turn,
using the same procedure but choosing Fortify.
4. If a colony is maxxed out on a commodity, you can go ahead
and load it on the ship that enters the colony that turn, so that you
do not lose any production.

5. Incorrect documentation.
a. Terrain effects. The terrain card that comes with the game is a
joke, it is not even close to the correct effects. The Colonopedia is
better, but it is wrong in the expert bonus given to farmers and
fisherman. It is +2, not +3. See the terrain chart in the charts
section for the "correct" effects.
b. Cathedrals.
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You need a city population of 16 (not 8 as it says in the manual) before
you can build a cathedral.
---- contributed by Douglas Woods (Doug@drwoods.demon.co.uk)
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c. City radius doesn't expand.
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No. This has been removed from the game. See the technical supplement.
---- contributed by Douglas Woods (Doug@drwoods.demon.co.uk)
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d. Founding father corrections.
De Soto is more valuable than the manual indicates. In addition to
allowing all units to see as well as scouts, he also insures that all
lost city results are positive.

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III. Game Mechanics
The first six questions were initially proposed (and answered) by Dar
Steckelberg in the version 1.0 FAQ:
1. Which countries can you represent? What are their advantages?
You may choose from England, France, Spain, and Holland (the
Netherlands). Their advantages are:
England: Generates new immigrants from Europe faster (2/3 the
cost of crosses).
France: Has better co-operation with the Indians and generates
less hostility among them. [cox: France is also the only nation to
start with a hardy pioneer]
Spain: Has a 50% attack strength bonus when attacking Indian
settlements. Spain is also the only nation to get a veteran soldier
at the beginning if playing at conquistador level or higher.
Holland: Starts out with a merchantman (as opposed to a caravel).
Amsterdam's market prices fluctuate less.
2. How do you train unskilled colonists?
After building a schoolhouse, you must place a skilled-colonist in
it. Any free colonist working the colony may receive the same skill
after a few turns. Also, any petty criminal may upgrade to an
indentured servant, and any indentured servant may upgrade to a free