~Colonization

Strategy by MICROPROSE

Cheat & Tips By Lu Richardson.
------------------------------

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!