Colonization - severe disappointment

I don't know what happened to Sid Meier, but he seems to have lost his
touch for everything not named "Civilization". I really, really
wanted to like Colonization. And indeed, after an hour of play I
thought it was a winner. But it's as shallow as a wading pool and the
flaws really show up once you learn how the game mechanics work.

It's horribly unbalanced. Most of the game turns out to be completely
optional. It actually hinders your ability to win to play the way I
assumed you were supposed to play; by establishing a vibrant working
economy of goods production. Instead, the best way to win is to build
one or two small colonies, buy a bunch of cannon, and then slap elder
statesmen into your one or two colonies and declare independence when
your rebel sentiment shoots from 0% to 50% in 8 turns or whatever.
If you build enough cities to get big economy going in order to get
lots of money and build guns and such, you've screwed yourself because
it will take so long to get rebel sentiment to 50% that the Royal
Expeditionary Force will be huge. Why face 150 soldiers and 40 cannon
when you can face 8 soldiers and 7 cannon?

Of course it must be said that a huge REF doesn't necessarily matter
because combat is just awful. You can defeat virtually any force by
allowing them to capture your city and then immediately
counterattacking with a couple cannon. Since they don't get defensive
bonuses and your cannon get +100% city attack it is an absolute
massacre. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Oh, but actually you CAN get rebel sentiment to 50% fast even with a
big economy; by deliberately killing all your colonists when it's
time to go for it. Yes, if you butcher your own people you can get
sentiment to 50% in, again, a couple turns. So if you feel like
building an economy - as I said, you don't have to and it is actually
counterproductive - make sure to genocide your own people before
generating liberty bells! Yay, killing!

There is an engine here but not much game. It's possible someone will
fix it in a mod. I hope so, because this game was clearly tested by a
drunken monkey. And a stupid monkey at that.

-David

On Oct 10, 5:07 pm, David T. Bilek <davidbi... RemoveThis @att.net> wrote:
> I don't know what happened to Sid Meier, but he seems to have lost his
> touch for everything not named "Civilization".  I really, really
> wanted to like Colonization.  And indeed, after an hour of play I
> thought it was a winner.  But it's as shallow as a wading pool and the
> flaws really show up once you learn how the game mechanics work.
>
> It's horribly unbalanced.  Most of the game turns out to be completely
> optional.  It actually hinders your ability to win to play the way I
> assumed you were supposed to play;  by establishing a vibrant working
> economy of goods production.  Instead, the best way to win is to build
> one or two small colonies, buy a bunch of cannon, and then slap elder
> statesmen into your one or two colonies and declare independence when
> your rebel sentiment shoots from 0% to 50% in 8 turns or whatever.
> If you build enough cities to get big economy going in order to get
> lots of money and build guns and such, you've screwed yourself because
> it will take so long to get rebel sentiment to 50% that the Royal
> Expeditionary Force will be huge.  Why face 150 soldiers and 40 cannon
> when you can face 8 soldiers and 7 cannon?
>
> Of course it must be said that a huge REF doesn't necessarily matter
> because combat is just awful.  You can defeat virtually any force by
> allowing them to capture your city and then immediately
> counterattacking with a couple cannon.  Since they don't get defensive
> bonuses and your cannon get +100% city attack it is an absolute
> massacre.  Lather, rinse, repeat.
>
> Oh, but actually you CAN get rebel sentiment to 50% fast even with a
> big economy;  by deliberately killing all your colonists when it's
> time to go for it.  Yes, if you butcher your own people you can get
> sentiment to 50% in, again, a couple turns.  So if you feel like
> building an economy - as I said, you don't have to and it is actually
> counterproductive - make sure to genocide your own people before
> generating liberty bells!  Yay, killing!
>
> There is an engine here but not much game.  It's possible someone will
> fix it in a mod.  I hope so, because this game was clearly tested by a
> drunken monkey.  And a stupid monkey at that.
>
> -David

(Pssst. Colonization was Brian Reynolds' baby, despite Meier's name on
the box.)