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You score 1/10th of a point (I think) for every new square of the map you uncover, PROVIDED that no other player uncovered that map square first. A good strategy (the CP doesn't yet know about) is to leave one explorer on the boat and sail the boat halfway around the world before letting him off, so he'll be in virgin territory and score major points.
The native player, who starts off on the other side of the world, has a major advantage here, since it is a long time before he is competing for exploration of map squares.
***********************************************************************
5 Combat
***********************************************************************
5.1 Which of the opposing countries should I attack first?
One that's attacking you is a good start here. But if you're at peace with everybody - as you will be upon reaching independence - you're going to have to make the unfriendly overtures yourself (Damn! :-
) )
I'd avoid getting embroiled in wars before I had achieved independence. You're much better off waiting till after independence before striking back and exacting revenge for those cowardly raids.
It's a good idea to read the last news page before you read the messages box - this gives a lot of clues as to the state of general friendliness between the other countries. For instance if you read that
Portugal is attacking French colonies - and from your map you notice that the French have only got two colonies left, compared to the
Portuguese eight, then its a good bet that France would be pretty easy to take out. Also in a case like this the Portuguese often won't have their colonies that are away from the frontline as well defended - and can be taken with little fear of immediate retaliation.
It's always a better thing to attack someone who is already embroiled in a war with someone else. Nations that are trying to bid for independence are also vulnerable or nations that have yet to try for independence are also vulnerable. The reasons? Those who are bidding are being blockaded by their MC and hence can be suffering due to a lack of resources. Those who are not already independent will have huge tax bills imposed upon them and consequently won't have been able to spend as much on research. Your troops will therefore, more easily win with minimal casualties.
It is most effective to build up one leader to do all the attacking. This individual will get heaps of experience which can be split amongst more units, more attacks and a better move, I tend to not worry about morale as this is usually covered by reputation.
When you do start to attack another nation, don't do it half- heartedly. Go all out! Ramp up your troop producing colonies to maximum output of new units and leaders and use ships to bring these units to the frontline as fast as possible. Create spare ships to act as blockade units - to stop the computer landing troops behind your lines. This is especially important for the native player.
If the CP is acting true to form, you'll be able to capture a colony every other turn - this rapidly puts them out of the way. The blitzkrieg works very effectively here. Just make sure you get reinforcements into those captured colonies, as the CPs will viciously counter-attack and can cause a lot of damage if you don't have adequate reinforcements available. For a more military inclined nation I'd suggest at least two full complement leaders worth of reinforcements - say 20-30 units. It's better to have fresh troops for each counter- attack than having to rely on injured ones. Usually the CPs counter- attack with the ejected leaders and all on the same turn.
5.2 I keep getting beaten in the Combat mini game - any clues?
The manual has some very good hints on what you should be doing but I'll spell them out here.
1) Combined arms attacks
The odds of getting a hit on an opponent is outlined in 5.3 but basically - the more different types of units attacking, the better the odds to damage opposing units.
2) Cavalry Charge
Cavalry get a charging bonus - use it! While cav can work in a hoof-to-foot slugfest - they are more effective when charging. The most effective way to do this is to have at least two cav units in the one column. While one charges the other retreats, so as to charge on the next round. This is even more effective with a couple of inf units and an artillery barrage.
3) Flanking
Again another bonus is for flanking attacks. Especially if you can manage to do it from three sides.
But the flanking doesn't stop there with a simple bonus - this is the basis of your attack that you should be aiming for. Concentrate your forces on at least one flank preferably both. You will need some in the centre column but these can be fairly minimal - any opposing units that get up here will/should get flanked pretty badly.
4) Cavalry is vulnerable
Don't let your cav units advance too far too fast - they can get easily flanked and destroyed on the third row. However if you can get to the opponents back line you're on a winner.
5) Retreat mauled units
Any units that have been excessively mauled (eg 1**** or 2***) should be retreated to your baseline, rather than leaving them in the attack. This is done so that they can survive to (hopefully) gain experience and get that coveted 6. Generally only badly injured units will get the upgrade.
It is, however, recognised that sometimes you have no option but to stay in the fight with very badly injured units - good luck!
5) Defending from raids
Remember when you are attacked by raids that the object is not annihilation of the enemy (though that is a good thing if you can manage it), rather you are trying to win the combat ASAP. So while you concentrate flanking forces as per normal, do most of your attacking down the centre, and keep a spare cav unit for that final charge into the flag zone.
5.3 Combat Detail {mig@quicksilver.com}
Each numeric value on a combat unit is both his hit points and attack dice. When he attacks, he rolls a 40 sided die for each number he has left. Each die roll is applied against a target selected kinda at random of units in the target square. Standard attacks hit on a roll of 6 or less. Attack research adds 2 to the threshold, defence research of the target unit subtracts 1 from the threshold. The threshold will never go below 2 or above 38.
Bonuses are as follows:
Combined Arms 1 = +4
Combined Arms 2 = +6
Flank 1 = +4
Flank 2 = +6
Flank 3 = +8
Cavalry Charge = +6
Note that a cav charge bonus is the same as the base die roll, so forgoing an attack in order to move a cav back will not gain you anything. Of course, if you attack with other units, it's often useful to move a cav back in order to get the bonus the next round. I often pair cav against an opposing square, charging with one every turn and moving the other back.
Every time a unit takes damage, it has a chance of retreating. A unit is more likely to retreat the more damage it takes (a unit originally with 4 dice who now has 2 dice and is hit down to 1 die is more likely to run than a unit that starts with 2 dice and is hit down to 1). A unit always retreats backwards and if the square it wants to retreat into is too full to accommodate it, it takes an extra point of damage.
***********************************************************************
6 Diplomacy
***********************************************************************
6.1 Peace?
You probably won't see this on the easier levels but try and make peace with independent nations, after your own independence of course.
Non-independent nations are easier to take out than independent ones.
Build your strength up and then attack the strongest independent nation - but don't tell them that you're coming, leave it as a surprise.
This is especially important for the native player who can avoid a lot of wars by using the diplomacy.
6.2 Sabotage Missions
I tend to ignore trying these for a couple of reasons:
1) You're spy's almost always get caught
2) When you do destroy something the overall effect on the opposition is fairly negligible, unless you manage to do it right at the start of the game.
6.3 Spy Missions
These are also fairly useless. The information received is usually dated by the time you can act upon it (when priming for an attack).
However you do get points (I believe) for successful missions, not many, but this might be valuable.
Keep in mind that both spy and sabotage missions do cost gold to run (?g for a spy mission and ?g for a sabotage). So it can be best to avoid using them entirely.
6.4 Country feelings
The part of the diplomacy model that is missing is a table showing who is at war or allied with whom. This information can be useful in working out who to attack next. You can infer this missing information though, from watching the combat screens and messages at the end of each turn.
***********************************************************************
7 Trade
***********************************************************************
Trade is CRUCIAL to success in this game. Shift needed commodities between your colonies, especially to the new/starting ones. This helps build them up much faster.
As you capture European colonies it can be more effective to transfer the commodities from them directly to you war college colony and let it handle the selling of the commodities. This helps minimise the delay in selling goods to Europe.
***********************************************************************
8 Independence
***********************************************************************
8.1 When should I declare independence?
That is subject to a large degree on what level you're playing at.
For the harder levels it's best to wait till you've got level 4 forts and a level 4 leader with max troops in each colony. It's a good idea to have several extra troops as well - principally as the Mother Country
(MC) will sometimes attack the same colony over several turns - gradually wearing your troops down - till you have to fight with injured units, which is a "bad thing".
I usually concentrate on getting a good stable group of colonies going - build up their defences and then wait. I always stop paying my taxes about 10-20 turns before I expect to be ready for independence - I don't see the point in declaring independence straight away - by not paying taxes you end up at the same outcome - you can just spend the money on War College research instead.
For myself, I find that by the time my taxes are reaching 400-700 gold mark is about when I'm ready to stop paying taxes (actually I'm always ready to stop - just shouldn't :-) ). Usually this is before the
CPs bid for independence, which gives you a huge advantage if your bid is successful.
It's also a good idea to keep a very close eye on the diplomatic table - If possible, try and wait till your MC is in at least 1 preferably 2 wars. The MC won't have as many troops to spare in such a case - and will tend to send pretty ineffective small attacks which are easily beaten off.
I do not recommend declaring independence when you have fairly wimpy colonies - the MC will prefer not to attack - and instead just blockade you. This can make it very tough to survive - (a) you have pretty wimpy colonies to start off with and (b) you can't get any resources from the MC to help beef those colonies up. If your mother country is in any wars, you might get troops from one of those countries come and attack you as well as your MC.
Don't bother setting up a counter blockade to intercept the MC's attacks on your colonies - they "magically" appear on your front doorstep and go straight into combat - so you are always defensive against mother country attacks.
8.2 Bidding for peace
A good trick to be aware of with independence is the "sue for peace" option. If you're finding yourself under attack by both the MC _and_ being raided by Europeans is to check this option. If accepted the
MC will immediately stabilise relations with you at Neutral, but will require you to pay all your back taxes. Obviously you ignore paying taxes and can rebuild a bit before the MC gets annoyed with you again and attacks.
8.3 Independence Details {mig@quicksilver.com}
Anyhoo, here's the straight-poop on Independence (without giving away the actual numbers, since I don't have my crib notes with me to be able to rattle off the numbers anyhow):
The SIZE of a force that the mother-country attacks with is based upon a large number of different elements:
1) How many wars is the mother country embroiled in?
Something most people aren't aware of is the fact that the number of "pooled troops" the mother country has to attack you with is governed by how many wars (ie: diplomacy rating of "hostile" or below) it is currently in with the other European mother countries. Suffice to say that three concurrent wars will have significantly less troops than no wars whatsoever.
2) How many colonies do you have?
If you have a number of colonies, the mother country attacks with
The native player, who starts off on the other side of the world, has a major advantage here, since it is a long time before he is competing for exploration of map squares.
***********************************************************************
5 Combat
***********************************************************************
5.1 Which of the opposing countries should I attack first?
One that's attacking you is a good start here. But if you're at peace with everybody - as you will be upon reaching independence - you're going to have to make the unfriendly overtures yourself (Damn! :-
) )
I'd avoid getting embroiled in wars before I had achieved independence. You're much better off waiting till after independence before striking back and exacting revenge for those cowardly raids.
It's a good idea to read the last news page before you read the messages box - this gives a lot of clues as to the state of general friendliness between the other countries. For instance if you read that
Portugal is attacking French colonies - and from your map you notice that the French have only got two colonies left, compared to the
Portuguese eight, then its a good bet that France would be pretty easy to take out. Also in a case like this the Portuguese often won't have their colonies that are away from the frontline as well defended - and can be taken with little fear of immediate retaliation.
It's always a better thing to attack someone who is already embroiled in a war with someone else. Nations that are trying to bid for independence are also vulnerable or nations that have yet to try for independence are also vulnerable. The reasons? Those who are bidding are being blockaded by their MC and hence can be suffering due to a lack of resources. Those who are not already independent will have huge tax bills imposed upon them and consequently won't have been able to spend as much on research. Your troops will therefore, more easily win with minimal casualties.
It is most effective to build up one leader to do all the attacking. This individual will get heaps of experience which can be split amongst more units, more attacks and a better move, I tend to not worry about morale as this is usually covered by reputation.
When you do start to attack another nation, don't do it half- heartedly. Go all out! Ramp up your troop producing colonies to maximum output of new units and leaders and use ships to bring these units to the frontline as fast as possible. Create spare ships to act as blockade units - to stop the computer landing troops behind your lines. This is especially important for the native player.
If the CP is acting true to form, you'll be able to capture a colony every other turn - this rapidly puts them out of the way. The blitzkrieg works very effectively here. Just make sure you get reinforcements into those captured colonies, as the CPs will viciously counter-attack and can cause a lot of damage if you don't have adequate reinforcements available. For a more military inclined nation I'd suggest at least two full complement leaders worth of reinforcements - say 20-30 units. It's better to have fresh troops for each counter- attack than having to rely on injured ones. Usually the CPs counter- attack with the ejected leaders and all on the same turn.
5.2 I keep getting beaten in the Combat mini game - any clues?
The manual has some very good hints on what you should be doing but I'll spell them out here.
1) Combined arms attacks
The odds of getting a hit on an opponent is outlined in 5.3 but basically - the more different types of units attacking, the better the odds to damage opposing units.
2) Cavalry Charge
Cavalry get a charging bonus - use it! While cav can work in a hoof-to-foot slugfest - they are more effective when charging. The most effective way to do this is to have at least two cav units in the one column. While one charges the other retreats, so as to charge on the next round. This is even more effective with a couple of inf units and an artillery barrage.
3) Flanking
Again another bonus is for flanking attacks. Especially if you can manage to do it from three sides.
But the flanking doesn't stop there with a simple bonus - this is the basis of your attack that you should be aiming for. Concentrate your forces on at least one flank preferably both. You will need some in the centre column but these can be fairly minimal - any opposing units that get up here will/should get flanked pretty badly.
4) Cavalry is vulnerable
Don't let your cav units advance too far too fast - they can get easily flanked and destroyed on the third row. However if you can get to the opponents back line you're on a winner.
5) Retreat mauled units
Any units that have been excessively mauled (eg 1**** or 2***) should be retreated to your baseline, rather than leaving them in the attack. This is done so that they can survive to (hopefully) gain experience and get that coveted 6. Generally only badly injured units will get the upgrade.
It is, however, recognised that sometimes you have no option but to stay in the fight with very badly injured units - good luck!
5) Defending from raids
Remember when you are attacked by raids that the object is not annihilation of the enemy (though that is a good thing if you can manage it), rather you are trying to win the combat ASAP. So while you concentrate flanking forces as per normal, do most of your attacking down the centre, and keep a spare cav unit for that final charge into the flag zone.
5.3 Combat Detail {mig@quicksilver.com}
Each numeric value on a combat unit is both his hit points and attack dice. When he attacks, he rolls a 40 sided die for each number he has left. Each die roll is applied against a target selected kinda at random of units in the target square. Standard attacks hit on a roll of 6 or less. Attack research adds 2 to the threshold, defence research of the target unit subtracts 1 from the threshold. The threshold will never go below 2 or above 38.
Bonuses are as follows:
Combined Arms 1 = +4
Combined Arms 2 = +6
Flank 1 = +4
Flank 2 = +6
Flank 3 = +8
Cavalry Charge = +6
Note that a cav charge bonus is the same as the base die roll, so forgoing an attack in order to move a cav back will not gain you anything. Of course, if you attack with other units, it's often useful to move a cav back in order to get the bonus the next round. I often pair cav against an opposing square, charging with one every turn and moving the other back.
Every time a unit takes damage, it has a chance of retreating. A unit is more likely to retreat the more damage it takes (a unit originally with 4 dice who now has 2 dice and is hit down to 1 die is more likely to run than a unit that starts with 2 dice and is hit down to 1). A unit always retreats backwards and if the square it wants to retreat into is too full to accommodate it, it takes an extra point of damage.
***********************************************************************
6 Diplomacy
***********************************************************************
6.1 Peace?
You probably won't see this on the easier levels but try and make peace with independent nations, after your own independence of course.
Non-independent nations are easier to take out than independent ones.
Build your strength up and then attack the strongest independent nation - but don't tell them that you're coming, leave it as a surprise.
This is especially important for the native player who can avoid a lot of wars by using the diplomacy.
6.2 Sabotage Missions
I tend to ignore trying these for a couple of reasons:
1) You're spy's almost always get caught
2) When you do destroy something the overall effect on the opposition is fairly negligible, unless you manage to do it right at the start of the game.
6.3 Spy Missions
These are also fairly useless. The information received is usually dated by the time you can act upon it (when priming for an attack).
However you do get points (I believe) for successful missions, not many, but this might be valuable.
Keep in mind that both spy and sabotage missions do cost gold to run (?g for a spy mission and ?g for a sabotage). So it can be best to avoid using them entirely.
6.4 Country feelings
The part of the diplomacy model that is missing is a table showing who is at war or allied with whom. This information can be useful in working out who to attack next. You can infer this missing information though, from watching the combat screens and messages at the end of each turn.
***********************************************************************
7 Trade
***********************************************************************
Trade is CRUCIAL to success in this game. Shift needed commodities between your colonies, especially to the new/starting ones. This helps build them up much faster.
As you capture European colonies it can be more effective to transfer the commodities from them directly to you war college colony and let it handle the selling of the commodities. This helps minimise the delay in selling goods to Europe.
***********************************************************************
8 Independence
***********************************************************************
8.1 When should I declare independence?
That is subject to a large degree on what level you're playing at.
For the harder levels it's best to wait till you've got level 4 forts and a level 4 leader with max troops in each colony. It's a good idea to have several extra troops as well - principally as the Mother Country
(MC) will sometimes attack the same colony over several turns - gradually wearing your troops down - till you have to fight with injured units, which is a "bad thing".
I usually concentrate on getting a good stable group of colonies going - build up their defences and then wait. I always stop paying my taxes about 10-20 turns before I expect to be ready for independence - I don't see the point in declaring independence straight away - by not paying taxes you end up at the same outcome - you can just spend the money on War College research instead.
For myself, I find that by the time my taxes are reaching 400-700 gold mark is about when I'm ready to stop paying taxes (actually I'm always ready to stop - just shouldn't :-) ). Usually this is before the
CPs bid for independence, which gives you a huge advantage if your bid is successful.
It's also a good idea to keep a very close eye on the diplomatic table - If possible, try and wait till your MC is in at least 1 preferably 2 wars. The MC won't have as many troops to spare in such a case - and will tend to send pretty ineffective small attacks which are easily beaten off.
I do not recommend declaring independence when you have fairly wimpy colonies - the MC will prefer not to attack - and instead just blockade you. This can make it very tough to survive - (a) you have pretty wimpy colonies to start off with and (b) you can't get any resources from the MC to help beef those colonies up. If your mother country is in any wars, you might get troops from one of those countries come and attack you as well as your MC.
Don't bother setting up a counter blockade to intercept the MC's attacks on your colonies - they "magically" appear on your front doorstep and go straight into combat - so you are always defensive against mother country attacks.
8.2 Bidding for peace
A good trick to be aware of with independence is the "sue for peace" option. If you're finding yourself under attack by both the MC _and_ being raided by Europeans is to check this option. If accepted the
MC will immediately stabilise relations with you at Neutral, but will require you to pay all your back taxes. Obviously you ignore paying taxes and can rebuild a bit before the MC gets annoyed with you again and attacks.
8.3 Independence Details {mig@quicksilver.com}
Anyhoo, here's the straight-poop on Independence (without giving away the actual numbers, since I don't have my crib notes with me to be able to rattle off the numbers anyhow):
The SIZE of a force that the mother-country attacks with is based upon a large number of different elements:
1) How many wars is the mother country embroiled in?
Something most people aren't aware of is the fact that the number of "pooled troops" the mother country has to attack you with is governed by how many wars (ie: diplomacy rating of "hostile" or below) it is currently in with the other European mother countries. Suffice to say that three concurrent wars will have significantly less troops than no wars whatsoever.
2) How many colonies do you have?
If you have a number of colonies, the mother country attacks with
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- Conquest of the New World cheats by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50
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