Beat the to the beach

[Heretic]

Allowing for full naval slider, and the odd random explorer/conquistador, does anybody have any experience of getting to America first with molsem nations?
AM finding it difficult due to the very high attrition rates at low tech levels.
It woul be nice to steal a march and take over the Axtecs to get the income for further colonisations - but just getting a toehold in the carribean is proving costly - i can't even beat the natives sometimes?

Heretic

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Heretic
Allowing for full naval slider, and the odd random explorer/conquistador, does anybody have any experience of getting to America first with molsem nations?

Going to be damn hard since the random explorer events cannot fire before 1492, by which time Portugal has had several explorers. But you might get there before the Christians have settled.

AM finding it difficult due to the very high attrition rates at low tech levels.

Use the old long-range galley trick and explore one or two sea-zones further each trip. Sure, the galleys sink, but if there are just a few left by the time the attrition reaches rates that would kill the explorer, the galleys sink first. This requires the building of a lot of galleys since you also lose a lot just for sailing on the open ocean, but can work. You can easily end up exploring 10+ sea zones distant - usually enough to get to the continent you desire given a decent starting position

It woul be nice to steal a march and take over the Axtecs to get the income for further colonisations - but just getting a toehold in the carribean is proving costly - i can't even beat the natives sometimes?

Heretic

Use more cavalry.

 

[Heretic]

no random explorers until after 1492?
that;s annoying - i got the slider to full naval by 1440ish, and then have to wait 50 years before there is a chance?
hmm,
serves me right fo rtrying a 'colonisation without expansion at home' strategy

Heretic

 

[Nikolai II]

Another important point is to turn south first when you leave the med, and build a colony on the african coast. Saves a lot of wear and tear on your explorers. Or take out some state over there, for their port.

Moslems should do their 1419-1500 colonial expansion on the african east coast and southern india, maybe indonesia as well.

Lots of maps to trade/steal and get colonies without exploration. You'll have to compete with china for them though.

 

[Heretic]

mm, yes,
I did try having a little look south along the african coast, but the evil portugese seem to have dropped a lot of TPs etc off.
it true that these would be possible to remove, but my aim os to remian peaceful where necessary -
this is a GC with a different flavour from normal..
i am trying to avoid player exploits/sneaky use of game,
e.g. armenian goldfiled not too far away, but

Heretic

 

[Nikolai II]

Well, if mapswap is an exploit then you'll have to fight for your right to party (on the beach)

 

[Owl]

Originally posted by Nikolai II
Well, if mapswap is an exploit then you'll have to fight for your right to party (on the beach)

Yes. Go sack Castille.

Actually in my Genoa game Algiers has settled four of five provinces in central America, so it certainly can be done. I didn't see them being built so it was before my team got there. Maybe they were offered them in a peace settlement ?
Of course they might have conquered some state that had revolted from Spain, but I think I'd have noticed that (and grabbed it myself) ...

 

[unmerged(5721)]

Yes, but the AI has that pesky no naval attrition thing going for them. Something us humans can only shake our fist and rave at. Makes colonization a whole heck of a lot easier!

 

[Mad King James]

I did! I took out Portugal and Spain as Granada, and discovered a virgin New World for me to conquer

Later on of course I went on a rampage in Africa, France and later Germany, force-vassalizing about 50 nations. After my conquest of southern China I stopped expanding and just forced everyone to bow before me in vassal-ship

Force-vassalizing is the cheapest way to get free victory points there is

 

[Castellon]

Ha i was going to mention Granada as having the best chance to beat the christians to America.
To avoid attrition get a Military access treaty with Portugal! This will give you access to many ports including the Azores. So you can sail from the med To Portugal's capital, to the Azores, from there you can make it to Bermuda which you will colonize. From there you can reach everything. Colonize Bahamas, Nova Scotia, ...

 

[unmerged(8576)]

Originally posted by Castellon
Ha i was going to mention Granada as having the best chance to beat the christians to America.
To avoid attrition get a Military access treaty with Portugal! This will give you access to many ports including the Azores. So you can sail from the med To Portugal's capital, to the Azores, from there you can make it to Bermuda which you will colonize. From there you can reach everything. Colonize Bahamas, Nova Scotia, ...

Portugal has a bad habit of using their first explorer to find America instead of sail down Africa, like they should. Which means beating them to America is very hard inded.

 

[Castellon]

Originally posted by Oleg

Portugal has a bad habit of using their first explorer to find America instead of sail down Africa, like they should. Which means beating them to America is very hard inded.

I see them In SA often but not in NA very often.

 

[unmerged(8576)]

Originally posted by Castellon


I see them In SA often but not in NA very often.

Yes, that´s true. But still, they would be the first to reach America.

 

[Castellon]

They are supposed to head for Brazil though it is in their AI file.

 

[Carolus Rex]

Originally posted by Castellon
They are supposed to head for Brazil though it is in their AI file.

They do that too.

At least in my games.

 

[unmerged(9945)]

Yeah military access with Spain and portugal is a good plan. As Austria I asked Portugal first and they gave it to me. I moved to the Azores with an explorer and then went straight for The new world before I reached N.A. though I stumbled on an uncolonized Bermuda. I planted a colonist there and by 1660 it is an island fortress with a factory. Of course I couldn't get much else in the new world and finally when I managed to build up Rio Grande nicely Spain Tots the colony and takes it for themselves! They are fellow Hapsburgs so I'll let it slide for now.......

 

[Rankorian]

As Austria, I also used Portugal as a base to the New World. Concentrated on North America to avoid the TOT. Getting to Manhattan before the English was my first priority.

 

[unmerged(8576)]

Originally posted by Castellon
They are supposed to head for Brazil though it is in their AI file.

I know. But they shouldn´t do it in 1440.

 

[Castellon]

Originally posted by Oleg

I know. But they shouldn´t do it in 1440.

I guess there is no way to trigger it only after a certain date.

 

[Castellon]

Originally posted by Carolus Rex


They do that too.

At least in my games.

That is what we were refering to by South Am.