Sid Meier's Colonization

aka: Sid Meier's Colonization (Classic), Sid Meier's Colonization: Create A New Nation, Sid Meier's Colonization: Erschaffen Sie eine neue Nation
Moby ID: 366
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Description official descriptions

Sid Meier's Colonization is a strategy game which puts you in the role of Viceroy of the New World. You are sent by your King and country to establish colonies in the newly-discovered Americas that lie to the west. You face many of the same challenges that faced colonial organizers of the time-competition from other Old World powers, strange native cultures, the problems of establishing profitable trade programs, and the problems of organizing an army from a rag-tag band of colonists.

The game begins with the European discovery of the Americas (1500) and continues until approximately the time of the American Revolution (1800). In the beginning of the game you are given a trading/exploration ship and a small group of colonists. You have no knowledge of what lies ahead of your ship, so you must explore until you find a suitable spot to lay down your first colony. As your colonies grow larger and larger, you inevitably encounter native populations and are confronted with competing imperial powers from the Old World.

Each of your colonies is populated by a number of colonists, who you can assign to various tasks. Some chop wood, mine for ore and collect plants outside the colony, some others stay inside to turn those raw materials into more valuable cargo - such as rum (made from sugar), coats (made of furs) or hammers (made of lumber). Hammers which aren't a cargo you can sell, but represent the speed with which you construct new buildings in your colony. Some colonists are specialists, and thus are more effective at a certain job.

The cargo you collect and produce is an important thing. You can take it to Europe to sell, and earn money to buy some other necessary things, hire colonists (though new, willing colonists appear in Europe by themselves) or buy ships and artillery. You can also trade it with the Indians or colonies of other nations.

You'll construct various buildings in your colonies. They have a lot of different functions: some of them can improve the speed with which you produce valuable cargo, others allow you to defend yourself from attacks more easily or construct ships and artillery. Some buildings require you to spend a number of valuable Tools when constructed, though you can make new Tools out of ore.

As you explore the land, you'll come across the Indian villages and some "places of interest" which can be investigated. A colonist that enters an Indian village can be welcomed with open hands, and the natives will reveal a map of nearby lands, or teach him a profession. Investigating places of interest has various consequences: sometimes you'll find nothing, sometimes you'll be killed for trespassing on ancient burial ground, but sometimes you'll find treasure! (Taking this treasure to Europe can be difficult though - if you don't have a sufficiently big ship, the King will agree to transport it for you... if you give him 50% of the gold).

To defend yourself from enemies, you'll want to have some military units. Just give a colonist a musket and he'll turn into a Soldier, give him a horse, and he's a Scout or a Dragoon. However, such a warrior is typically inexperienced, though he might gain military experience in battle. Artillery is also good at defense, but don't try to leave your colonies with it - in the open field, it is useless.

As you progress in the game, you'll feel that working for the King is getting more and more annoying, especially since he keeps raising your taxes, thus decreasing your income from sold goods. Your colonies produce "Liberty Bells", which increase rebel sentiment in the colonies. If the majority of colonists supports your yearning for freedom, you can declare independence. But when you do that, you'll have to deal with the King's expeditionary force arriving to teach you a lesson. If you manage to defeat all his incoming armies and emerge victorious from the American Revolutionary War, you've won!

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Credits (DOS version)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 86% (based on 29 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 149 ratings with 9 reviews)

Great game. Kept me up well after midnight a lot of times.

The Good
All the different things/ways you can play it. Each game is like a new game. Sound is not to bad.--Sid Meier classic. A game in my list of top 10 games ever played.

The Bad
The music, normal I like the music in games, but the music is the first thing I put of when I play this game.

The Bottom Line
I game you either love it with you whole heart or you had it.

DOS · by MajorDad (519) · 1999

Colonize the New World

The Good
Play as Spanish, English, Dutch or French. Each has a special advantage of their own. Most people play the Dutch because your ship can carry 4 commodities at the start instead of 2 for all other players. Also commodity prices are better. The French have better relations with the Indians meaning fewer attacks and have a trained pioneer which clears land quicker and gets more logs from cleared woods. The English get 50% more immigrants, but this makes it more difficult to train them all and stop big colonies losing efficiency. The Spanish have veteran Soldiers to attack the Indians or other Europeans.



The Bad
The fight mechanics don't work according to probabilities and you get too many foreign POW's - ie. you can attack a city with several Artillary all the time and lose them all, on other occasions attack all the time and win. This means either you lose every unit and keep every unit. Probably means you should only lose some, this really spoils the game as you can't guarantee a win although you have a massive arsenal. Also after you get 4 privateers they always lose. It would have been good if you could have captured ships as well as sink them.

The Bottom Line
Great. A real insite into how the New World was Colonized. Learn about historic figures of the time who join your Congress. New Congress members act like tech advances in Civilization eg. Adam Smith makes Factories, and Magellan increases ship movement. The game is a bit like Civilization only on a reduced time scale. Includes Dragoons, Soldiers, Scouts, Caravels, Mecantmans, Galleons, Man-O-War (during fight for Independence). Kings Soldiers and Continental army recruits act like Riflemen and Cavalry.

DOS · by David Ledgard (3) · 2004

Great variation on the Civ theme, more trade oriented, like Merchant Prince

The Good
A nicely woven trade context, you can harvest many different goods, process them to varying levels of refinement, ship intermediates between towns (like RRT) then trade them either back in Europe, with other Civs, or with the indians, to reap huge profits. It allows rapid expansion if that's your style. It allows temporary cities (build, then later dismantle) if that's your style again. You can fight others, or grow peacefully, relatively unhindered.

The Bad
It can get a little too peaceful, if you're not attacking anybody. You can go for 200 turns without a war, which is fine, if you like merchant/trade simulations. The military units never advance in technology, which is historically realistic, but a paradigm shift for seasoned CIV style gamers. The graphics are of course 1994 state-of-the-art, but that was amply sufficient for me, since the spreadsheet engine underlying the graphics is no worse than that of Civ 3. At least the AI doesnt cheat so much in Colonization.

The Bottom Line
DOS and Windows versions virtually identical, I play both (I find the interface more smooth in DOS. You settle and build cities like other Civ games. You can engage in trade and make money, or attack and rob the Indians and make money. You can get $100 for a good or $1000, depending who you go to trade with and what they need at that time. You can conduct shallow trade, with inexperienced workers right from the start and make a little money. Or you can go deep, develop the land, train workers to be specialists, and built industrial infrastructures, to make 5 to 10 times more money from trade. If you want to be peaceful, the AI pretty much can leave you alone to develop and grow peacefully, and build an economic powerhouse.

But there is ultimately a war you need to prepare for. The war of Independence, which you have to spend 200-300 turns preparing for, and to win it, you will need every cannon, every cavalry, and every fortification (and every dollar) you could possibly have built during those peace years.

DOS · by Adrian Pascaso (4) · 2004

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Colonization Gold Multimedia Lantizia (40) Dec 31, 2019

Trivia

Amiga version

Although Sid Meier's previous Amiga strategy games, Civilization and Railroad Tycoon, were system-friendly and could run on a multitasking system, they kept their custom user interfaces from the PC versions. Colonization, on the other hand, made use of the normal AmigaOS GUI, making for movable and resizable windows. This also meant that you could run Colonization on the Workbench screen, by starting the game with WORKBENCH as an argument.

Development

Colonization was the fourth game that Sid Meier protege Brian Reynolds worked on with MicroProse. The game began as a "spare time" project for Reynolds until it was noticed by the rest of the company. Because the game underwent many significant changes during playtesting, Sid Meier cites the game as proof that designers can (and perhaps should) continue to make changes and improvements up until the last possible minute.

Indians

Colonization was considered somewhat controversial by the press at the time of the release because it portrayed the European conflict with the American Indians but completely excluded the issue of slavery from the game's model.

An interesting change in dialog occurs in relation to Indian wars after your colony gains its independence. When you interact with other European countries before independence, you merely ask them if you want them to war against the Indians. After the independence, you ask them if they will you (or vice versa) place the Indians in reservation camps, a bit of sarcasm from the developers.

Historically, the relations between the native Indians and the invaders are gruesome, if not down right degrading. The first arrivals from Spain and Portugal introduced various diseases to the local populace.

The United States of America traded small pox infested blankets with the Indians, introducing biological warfare before the concept was established and sold whiskey to a nation of people who, surprisingly did not have the genes to break down the alcohol naturally.

Awards

  • Amiga Joker
    • Issue 02/1996 – #2 Best Game in 1995 (Readers' Vote)
    • Issue 02/1996 – #2 Best Simulation in 1995 (Readers' Vote)
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)

Information also contributed by Игги Друге and Indra was here

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by MajorDad.

Amiga added by Rebound Boy. Linux added by Sciere. Windows 3.x added by Terok Nor. Macintosh added by Игги Друге. Windows added by Longwalker.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, Sergio Brinkhuis, David Ledgard, Havoc Crow, formercontrib, hlejr0, Patrick Bregger.

Game added November 2, 1999. Last modified February 13, 2024.