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The
following is from Kevin Allegood
ribo@mindspring.com
To start off,
build 2 more explorers, 2 spies (you might have to make paper for
this). Sent all but one of your ships around to explore the new
world. Disband any military unit but knights (whatever they're
called, the first level of lancers) and one unit of archers. Send
your explorers to explore your home territory first. Set your
merchants to buying horses if you don't have them or can't develop
them quickly (you're going to need a total of 12). Start researching
the techs to get lancers, and don't spend money on any other research
until later on.
You want to
build roads and resources to get iron and wood first, as it's easy to
get stuck, unable to build roads and mines. This is less important at
easy levels, but at the harder levels your stockpile runs out very
quickly. You want to plan out where your engineer will put the early roads.
I avoid
trading early on unless I really need something, I don't try to
diplomatically influence minors and you can run short on cash pretty
easily. Build up your population to what your food supplies can
support but concentrate on resources (not food) to start off.
Once you've
found your basic home resources, send your explorers off to look for
cash provinces. Diamonds are the best, then gems. Gold and silver are
OK, and I don't bother with spices unless I have no luck with the
other money makers. Once you develop lancers, invade the new world.
Money is the most important thing, you want to secure any diamonds
and gems as quickly as you can. You'll want a capital by your 3rd or
4th province at the latest (you need the money, and a free port is
nice). Once you've got a money base, look for resources; a capital
with 4 wood hexes is great (you can get lumber for free once you've
developed 4) and look for spaces that will work well once you can
develop your cities. Take big swaths of native land (I usually get
most of 2-3 native nations), it's pretty easy to do and the reosurces
come in handy.
To invade
natives, first land with 3 lancers on a non-capital province, then
move your 4th lancers and bowmen in, then start sweeping as fast as
your money will let you. You want to kill all of the natives, not
just make them retreat as retreaters will end up fighting you again
later. When fighting, pull all of your units back to your edge of the
screen and wait for the natives to approach; this gives you much more
time to kill off retreating units.
After you've
got a real income, start researching in earnest. You shouldn't be too
far behind the CPs since your spies and free research help you catch
up. You want to push for horse artillery, but other techs are good
too. Spies come in handy for rapid research. Don't bother with
improved workers until you get to the tobacco level, sugar guys
aren't really any more efficient than ordinary workers since they
have to transport cane and make it into sugar.
All along you
should be developing your infrastructure, once you've got money
coming in and something like 4 wood 2 iron 2 bronze 2 wool 1 paper
every turn you've passed the first real milestone and will be able to
expand rapidly, with an engineer and 2 builders constantly building
infrastucture, an engineer building forts, and the capabilty to add
more men and ships. Wait for galleons before building up your navy if
you can, they're the best buy early on (good carrying capacity and
good military strength).
Don't bother
building up your land army until horse artillery, once you get it
then build 4 horse artillery and some supporting cast (enough to get
a general). You can now start seizing European minors and you want to
start seizing any which have borders with you. Run all of your units
up to just out of range, then rush your artillery in (one of them
will take a hit) and shoot up the cannon, and move your other units
forward. You can race through everything but the capital this way, at
the capital wait for your units to heal up before attacking as they
will make a last stand. Don't fight majors until later unless they're
getting beaten up on and have high-value provinces. The best time to
fight majors is when you're a military tech level ahead, you can
waltz through their forces. On the defence, sticking one or two units
in a fort dramatically improves its fighting ability - the AI will
blow a hole in the wall, then send a horse unit to kill the gun if
there's no other unit, but even a wimpy little footman will make this
attack fail.
Diplomatically,
I don't bother with much. If someone not at war offers me an
alliance then I'll take it for protection, but won't help them if
they get attacked. At higher levels, I don't see any reason to bother
with minor diplomacy (the AIs get such a huge advantage, it's much
cheaper and quicker to invade), and native diplomacy is just a big
money sink. As long as you leave natives around for the CPs to pick
on and build some filler units if you get the 'this guy has more than
twice as many soldiers' message, you should be able to avoid wars
until you've got horse artillery.
Also, here are
some map seeds that I pulled from the newsgroup years back. These can
give you a better start if you're having bad luck on random maps, or
if you want to pick out a certain kind of game:
(The
following map keys came from Hakan Dogan, Daniel Ban, Markus Tamminen
and CraiginNJ)
Warning
-- some of these may be Imp1 map seeds; while you'll get a
result by using them in Imp2, it might not be what you expect.
:-) or :-( as the case may be...
Abarfellally
- Sweden - Good resources, dangerous position at high levels.
(Holland and Spain are also interesting.)
Swergingeth
- Holland - 11 provinces, good resources.
Rhurowys
- Holland - Great food supply close to good capital place. Good other
resources. On continent with 3 MN and no other GP.
dagreat
- Spain - 2 MN adjacent, New World diamonds to the East.
Tenardarthyr
- Sweden - Sweden has good resources and shares an island with 2
minors. Aztec capital has 2 diamond mines. Inca capital has two gold
mines. Near the Maya capital are gold and gems.
manstabee
- England - 8 provinces, 5MN on the island, no other GP on the
island. All the resourses you will need except for tin. Note the
lower case "m" in "manstabee"
Tilgate
Forest - Holland - 8 provinces, good food/raw materials, 3 horse ranches.
Tilgate Forest
- France - Great food/raw material suply, 3 horse ranches.
Sk -
None - Whole map is one big island.
Strategic
Simulations Inc - France - Good resources, 3MN connected
directly, 2MP connected directly.
Rhymnanunally
- Portugal - Excellent island location -- lots of resources.
gravity
- Spain - Excellent resources on a Continent with five minor powers
and two weaker major powers. Note the lower case "g" in "gravity"
Caergansan
- Portugal - 9 provinces, decent food/resources. 4 MN on same
continent (along with 3 GP, unfortunately). Malinalco has gems and 2 diamonds.
Nabagh
- Sweden - 3 adjacent MN, balanced resources.
Naerda
- Sweden - 5 adjacent MN. Other nations on islands or with 1 MN adjacent.
Inga -
France - Capital can be placed to cover 8 or 9 food resource squares
(3 grain, 5 water, 1 meat or 3 grain, 3 water, 2 meat)
Panddos Mumrys
- Holland - Good resources, lots of coal and iron near, and 4 minors
Swonag
- Sweden - The capital of Sweden can be placed so that it covers five
grain farms, one open range, and sits on a river. Sweden shares a
continent with three minors. The continent has more than the usual
number of provinces that will benefit from town growth. There were
not any special targets in the new world, but here are some likely
targets that were reasonably good: Aztecs, Pueblo, Huron, and Iroquios.
Iyauginanny
- Sweden - 17, yes 17, provinces
Llallaey Ath
- Sweden - Balanced Resources, 2 Neighbor MN, Running Bear and
Detroit have Diamonds and Gems
Ceaff -
Sweden - Good resource supply
Rharthestes
- Spain - Good resource supply
Igea -
Portugal - Only 3 horse ranches in whole map. 2 of them in Portugal,
one in Germany. Whole map is one big island.
Sontin
- England with 8 iron 3 coal and many hardwood and scrub forests, as
well as some cotton and wool, all easily accesible. Play the red country.
I know of two
with decent balanced resources and a good amount of timber --- Kidasticks
and Hothor -- in one you should pick the light blue color and
in the other you should pick red (I cannot recall which is which) --
I have one on Hard with Kidasticks and on Nigh on Impossible with
Hothor- - Good Luck :)
Triltettum
(notice the t after the l) - This map has a truckload of
minerals.Pink - Loads of coal DBlue- Good mix of coal/iron LBlue-
Truckloads of iron
frogcity
- play the green country it has around 10 iron sites and 5 coal.
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