Weak Colonisers?

[Latheloi]

I've noticed in my current (first post AOW game) that Portugal, France and England are not making particularly significant colonial inroads.

In the time it has taken me to nab the whole of the Caribbean, Florida, the Cape and the Spanish Main they have, between them, taken a bit of Canada, two Caribbean Islands (FRA&GBR) and a little bit of Brazil (not even enough to make a colonial nation).

Is this just a particularly bad game for all of them, or is this normal? Was WAY too easy to get as much as I managed to get. Didn't have to interfere with Portugal at all.

 

[artemis667]

I've seen similar things. I've also seen some countries waste time early in tropical provinces which aren't viable until later. I think it's not a coincidence. They do get going eventually, but any somewhat focused player can get a dominant headstart (although that's always been true).

 

[Seelensturm]

Did they get stuck colonising a tropical province before they have the appropriate technology?

 

[MeatPirate]

They often start colonizing a tropical province when it's the only one they see/have range to. This obviously goes nowhere early game and they aren't smart enough to abandon the colony when a better opportunity arises.

 

[Latheloi]

Think they probably did. But then again, I ended up having to do a few to get range on better provinces early on. Hopefully it just went particularly badly for them this time because otherwise it has ended up even more unbalanced towards the player for colonisation.
(well, I suppose I won't be bothering with the majority of North America as Spain, so other nations will have some chance)

 

[unmerged(394861)]

Wasn't there a patch changelog a long time ago where the devs slowed down the AI colonising, in order to prevent the AI from nicking all the americas before the player even had a chance?

 

[Hexmage]

I've been spectating a game, just to see what would happen when I'm not doing anything, and in that game colonization started somewhere between 50 and 100 years in with Spain and Portugal. I'm currently 200 years in and now Great Brittain, France, Norway and Denmark have joined in as well. Spain is the biggest colonizer in the Americas while Portugal was focusing more on South Africa and just the Caribbean. Great Brittain, France, Norway and Denmark all have one colony in North America.