Colonization is much like a more-developed version of Sid Meier's previous game Civilization (1991) in visual design and handling, but the two have marked differences in gameplay. Instead of forging a nation from nothing, the player manages the cross-Atlantic expansion of an established one in the service of the Crown. As the colonies become more self-sufficient, their relationship with the colonial power declines from being beneficial to harmful, and to win the player must ultimately declare independence and defeat the Royal Expeditionary Force in battle.[2]
Gameplay
The main map (DOS version)A colony producing furs, tobacco, coats, and cigars, among other things (DOS version)
The game begins in 1492. The player controls the colonial forces of either England, France, the Netherlands, or Spain; the other powers are then played by the computer. Each nation has distinct abilities that favor certain strategies. There is a choice between a historical map (America) or a randomly generated map (the New World), and players may also create their own map with the included scenario editor.
The journey begins with a ship and two units arriving at the new world; as the ship moves into the unknown, the map is revealed. Subsequently, the player makes landfall, explores the New World, meets the indigenous Indians, builds colonies and buildings, and improves and works the surrounding land. The ship can return to Europe to collect more colonists and buy and sell items.
The colonists can work the immediate land around the colony. Different map squares yield different resources; for instance, most squares can produce food, while only forests can yield lumber. Resources harvested from the land, such as cotton or tobacco, can be processed and converted into commodities, such as cloth and cigars, and sold at a greater profit. Commodity prices in Europe fluctuate depending upon supply and demand. With money, the player is able to buy goods, fund faster building construction, recruit new colonists, and buy ships and artillery. The king may at different times raise colonial taxes to pay for a war taking place in Europe or for some other reason.
The player is also required to protect their colonies from potential invasion by equipping and stationing soldiers. Moreover, the player manages their citizens, educating them in various skills to increase their productivity in areas such as farming, resource gathering and manufacturing.
Players may send missionaries into Indian villages to convert them to Christianity. The Indians may accept and convert, or they may refuse and burn the missionary at the stake. If another colonial power has already established a mission in a village, a missionary may attempt to denounce them as heretics; this has a 50% chance of succeeding.
When waging war, the player has a basic colonial army consisting of militiamen, artillery, cavalry, and ships. Weapons and soldiers can be purchased from Europe; however, to win independence, the player will need to develop a home-grown arms industry. Indians will initially only have braves and no horses or guns; over time they may obtain them via trade or by defeating colonial forces in battle. Guns and horses must be available in a colony to equip citizens and turn them into soldiers. If a colonial power captures a colony, it will remain in their possession unless it is retaken by force. Indians will destroy a colony if they capture it.
Colonies are most often built on the coast; although they can be built inland, the player must build wagons to transport goods between inland colonies. In addition, it is preferable to use wagons when trading with Indian villages. Goods may be sold to rival colonial powers, sent back to Europe for sale, or sold to Indian villages.
Colonists come in four types. The first is the basic free citizen, who has no particular skills but performs any job adequately. If a citizen does the same job for a certain length of time, the game may upgrade him to a specialist in that particular job. The second type of colonist is the indentured servant. He is suitable at unskilled tasks, but less productive at skilled trades. If he is educated for enough time, he may become a free citizen. The third is the petty criminal. Like the indentured servant, petty criminals are only useful for unskilled labor. Petty criminals can eventually become free citizens through military service. If they survive enough battles eventually they are promoted to indentured servant followed eventually by free citizen. All free citizens can become veterans by winning enough battles.
Citizens may also travel to an Indian village and learn a skill from the natives such as tobacco planting. The Indians will not permit petty criminals to live among them, but will teach free citizens and indentured servants. In addition, missionaries may convert Indians to Christianity and convince them to live in the player's towns, where they are a little better than free citizens at working the land (and unlike specialists, are better at any type of it), but poor at industrial trades.
Specialists are citizens who are trained and skilled at a specific profession. These can be free citizens, indentured servants, or petty criminals who learned the profession by doing the job, through education, or by visiting an Indian village (except criminals), or they can be pre-existing specialists (obtained via European immigration). Some professions, for example growing cotton, sugar and tobacco, can only be learned in Indian villages or in a colony as they are unknown in Europe. Eventually the player can build schoolhouses where they can teach their citizens to become specialists in specific professions. The player may at any time unassign a specialist and turn him back into an ordinary free citizen.
Horses can be imported from Europe. If any colony produces food to excess and has two or more horses, the horses will breed. An unskilled colonist (including a petty criminal) who enters a neutral or friendly Indian village on horseback may (rarely) be killed, may be given a gift, or may be promoted to be a specialist scout. Seasoned scouts have a better chance to meet with a favorable reaction when entering a village, and an improved chance of discovering a fabled Fountain of Youth when investigating ancient ruins. This causes a sudden influx of potential colonists to the player's European port. Further, mounted soldiers are more effective and have a better survival rate than dismounted infantry.
Each colonial power has certain bonuses that make them different from each other. Aside from European colonial powers, the NPC powers include eight Native American tribes, in four main categories. Each Native American settlement can convert one regular colonist into a specialist. More advanced tribes (Incas and Aztecs) live in larger cities.
Analogous to "Wonders of the World" in the Civilization series of games, social and industrial advances are achieved by the addition of "Founding Fathers" to the "Continental Congress", which are gained by generating a sufficient number of "Liberty Bells" through the colonial pride of settlers. These are all named after real historical figures, such as Francisco Coronado and Pocahontas.
One main driving impulse in Colonization is the harvesting of natural resources, such as lumber (for building), ore (for manufacturing), and food (for population growth). Squares on the map have basic values of resource output (depending on the type of terrain and if a river runs through it), but certain "prime" squares have higher or double output values, making them highly desirable. Pioneers can, at the cost of expending tools, create roads on tiles, increasing their yield and removing terrain movement penalties, or remove features such as forests to make room for agriculture. They can also "plow" flat terrain to increase agricultural yields.
The ultimate goal of the game is winning independence from the mother country. When the player has a sufficiently high percentage of "Sons of Liberty", he may choose to declare independence. He then has to defeat most of the King's army to win, which is not an easy task as the royal army and navy are individually more powerful and usually more numerous than the player's colonial forces, although the King's troops are unused to fighting in the New World and are more easily defeated in rough terrain. Other colonial powers may help with the enterprise, analogous to the French intervention in the American Revolutionary War. Of course, if the player has a large enough treasury, another foreign power may provide military aid in the form of mercenaries.
Development
Computer Gaming World's "The Rumor Bag" column reported in April 1994 that "MicroProse is working on a game like Sid Meier's Civilization that covers the Age of Colonization".[3]
Sales of Sid Meier's Colonization surpassed 350,000 copies by September 1997.[8]
In 1996, Colonization was ranked the fourth best game of all time by Amiga Power.[9] It was named the 52nd best computer game ever by PC Gamer UK in 1997.[10]
Next Generation stated that "MPS Labs borrowed heavily from classic hits of the past to create a surprisingly addictive title with a flavor all its own."[7]
^Flynn, James; Owen, Steve; Pierce, Matthew; Davis, Jonathan; Longhurst, Richard (July 1997). "The PC Gamer Top 100". PC Gamer UK. No. 45. pp. 51–83.
^Get Ur FreeCol by Alec Meer on Rock, Paper, Shotgun"it’s an remarkable accomplishment, and I’m very glad it’s out there. [...] FreeCol, though, is here right now, it’s free, it’s stable, it’s pretty much feature-complete and unlike its parent it has multiplayer" (June 12, 2008)
