A good colonial strategy

[saileaf]

I am playing US, trying to push to the Pacific ocean. However I am lost at the colonial part of the game. The manual is good and clear, but there are too many options. Could anybody recommend the best steps to claim the colonial? New to the game, Thanks

[kaisermark]

Playing the US is actually simpler than others like Prussia and Sardinia who have to unify first, or Austria who can never establish colonies. In explored regions, simply set up merchants to get to CP of 35. That can be speeded up by bribes and treaties, but they also only go to 30 and 35 respectively. Once every region is at 35, you can establish a protectorate unless another country is also at 35 or more in the capital region. To lower the other's CP build a mission (it reduces the other country's CP by 5) A cheat is to do this repeatedly by building, demolishing, building, etc. Another country's army in the region can also prevent colonization. After establishing the protectorate, wait until the military control increases a bit and then build a colonial fort, then a school and if there are regions that don't have roads, build those. Once at 50, you can establish a colony.

Although I'm now playing Italy, I've played the US and had colonies throughout Africa. The best way to do that is to pick an open (Black flag) region, set up a merchant; when at CP 5, build a tradepost. then send an explorer by himself. He can survive at a tradepost. Explore surrounding regions, repeat. It's also a good idea to become friendly with the natives in that region so they don't get upset with the explorer running around. You have to have opened the SOI box to explore everywhere like that. Good luck.

[saileaf]

Thanks!

[DrPostman]

Nice trick on the rebuilding missions. As the US I pretty much have most of central Africa as a colony or a protectorate.
I'm surprised that Prussia hasn't caused any trouble for me yet because a lot of the territory I took was historically
theirs. I needed troops though. Just explorers won't cut it. Be sure to build those depots along the way, about
every other region. And then the rail line is important, especially if the natives revolt. Military posts are great but
you need a fast reaction force that can reach it the very next turn it's besieged. Of course I have none of the
regular settings on the game. I wanted something ahistorical. Can't wait till they fix the bugs.

[SvenB1982]

Nice trick on the rebuilding missions. As the US I pretty much have most of central Africa as a colony or a protectorate.
I'm surprised that Prussia hasn't caused any trouble for me yet because a lot of the territory I took was historically
theirs. I needed troops though. Just explorers won't cut it. Be sure to build those depots along the way, about
every other region. And then the rail line is important, especially if the natives revolt. Military posts are great but
you need a fast reaction force that can reach it the very next turn it's besieged. Of course I have none of the
regular settings on the game. I wanted something ahistorical. Can't wait till they fix the bugs.

What year? many colonies from germany founded around 1890/1900(and in game some via event).
As germany i do the same(colonize africa), but the railroads are a problem, the use coal without effect in 95% of the time. So i build many fortress-units, i don't know why but some unitpools get refreshed every turn to a minimum count(16 small fortress units with prussia until 1880 or 1890) now i had enough Manpower to hold regions and clear it with bigger Armies stationary everey few regions with a big depot. In late game(around 1890) colonies are usless, only a few regions are needed with resources i don't get lokal(gold/gems/opium are important). Now i had the fealing that it could better to give many regions back( but no one revolt against me) and hold the others with strong armies, could cheaper(i cant sell enough on the local market and need extra coal for railroads and the production for colonial region).
If i play from 1850 again i only save me in Africa the gold/gem/opium regions with protectorat, lose the "waste" region with no resources, so i need no long railroad.
Other could be to insert small "colonial" resource buildings for Africa, as example dig coal with a lot of worker and only money as input, or lumbermils for the jungle and make wood charcoal(hope the translation is right).

[kaisermark]

One can obtain colonies without large armies, depots and railroads, and without going to war aginst the native armies. Once a protectorate is established the military control increases by 5 every turn in every region of the country. I only built railroads to increase productivity in regions with desirable resources. And yes, some areas are much better than others - Yemen, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, for valuable resources.

[saileaf]

A dumb question: how do you check military control?

[Kensai7]

Mouseover the region while in military mode.

[DrPostman]

What year? many colonies from germany founded around 1890/1900(and in game some via event).
As germany i do the same(colonize africa), but the railroads are a problem, the use coal without effect in 95% of the time. So i build many fortress-units, i don't know why but some unitpools get refreshed every turn to a minimum count(16 small fortress units with prussia until 1880 or 1890) now i had enough Manpower to hold regions and clear it with bigger Armies stationary everey few regions with a big depot. In late game(around 1890) colonies are usless, only a few regions are needed with resources i don't get lokal(gold/gems/opium are important). Now i had the fealing that it could better to give many regions back( but no one revolt against me) and hold the others with strong armies, could cheaper(i cant sell enough on the local market and need extra coal for railroads and the production for colonial region).
If i play from 1850 again i only save me in Africa the gold/gem/opium regions with protectorat, lose the "waste" region with no resources, so i need no long railroad.
Other could be to insert small "colonial" resource buildings for Africa, as example dig coal with a lot of worker and only money as input, or lumbermils for the jungle and make wood charcoal(hope the translation is right).

As the US I'm up to Late Jan 1907. Playing the US in the 1850GC. I have been playing this same game since December when I bought
it! What a hell of a time waster it can be. Fun though, and it will be even more fun when they fix the bugs. The only games I've ever
played this much and this long have been the Civilization games and AGEoD's Civil War. I disagree about colonies. I love getting the
extra manpower they can bring. I can never have enough troops in Africa. Hell, just for the fun of it I assembled an "international"
corps - http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...probable-corps