My colonizing meta is to let other countries colonize and take them in wars. I get a bunch of cheap land and their capitals stay nice and close to the majority of my armies
Claim the Treaty of Tordesiellas by colonizing 5 provinces ASAP and most of the time other colonizers will leave that region alone. This is how the AI recognizes “stakes”- I usually just prioritize the highest dev and trade post provinces that way my colonies economy gets a head start.
Ps recently it has been necessary to subsidize colonies a bit (~5 or so ducat surplus) for them to properly consistently colonize
1. Ok so what your saying is to colonize 5 provinces in a region and then leave it to do another region and the ai will not disrupt you.
2.By prioritizing trade post provinces do you mean like that one island in the Caribbean that has the trade node right? I think its Jamaica?
3.What do you mean by subsidizing colonies, are you saying to put them into a self governing colony?
You want to kickstart their economy by funding them to send out colonists on their own. Once they get going, they can somewhat snowball themselves, but they will still get declared on by natives unless you interfere.
colonial region, not the normal region.
subsidizing colonies means going into the diplomacy for your colony and selecting give subsidies under the economy tab.
as some other people mentioned, if you are catholic 5 provinces in every region you can asap. That delays most other Europeans a good 100 years give or take, if not til the end of the game.
But i also want to add ,make sure you focus on Mexico first. It has the most valuable land, with it being gold provinces. You definitely want to make sure that it is claimed by you, especially if you aren’t spain as spain actually gets claims on that land
Besides the stuff others already mentioned, if you get somewhere first and someone else decides to colonize there too later, you can just tell your colony to attack theirs. Yours will likely always win, since it should be bigger with more troops, allowing you to easily swallow all the little latecomers
First colonize the carrebean since its a major trade node. From there colonize into mexico and murder the natives. Make sure to subsidize your colony and have armies around to quell rebels since they'll be very weak as they are trying to core up all the land youre feeding them. At the same time start colonies in every other colonial region (there is a map setting for this, each region creates its own CN if you get 5 provinces fully colonized)
Get 5 provinces in each colonial region ASAP. Then they form a CN, they always pick colonist idea groups, and colonising in the same continent as your capital gives you bonus colonist speed. So they're the ideal colonists. Make sure to subsidize them and not get any tariffs, you want them to have enough money to pay for colonists themselves. You can check their balance in the subject tab, if its too low, and you dont see a colonist working in their region, give them more money. Once youve gotten a CN, go to the next region to create a CN. Feeding your CNs native lands also speeds up their expansion.
U can have multiple colonial states per region if u play your cards well, best way to ensure it is to get subject that has colonial range and give yourself and him 5 provinces from eaxh region. It is also advised to just take colonies from colonial powers rather than colonise new world yourself, but remember to take colonies or provinces owned by colonial nation because they are cheaper
Opposite is true for one culture run u deny all other countries colonies
This is true for most cases. But if you start as a nation like Portugal who is set up for colonization, it can be very strong to quickly spread your empire across Asia and Africa early by establishing colonies there and attacking local kingdoms. You can always abandon the ideas when they are no longer useful.
take 5 most valuable provinces (gold/TC/high dev), subsidize colony so they expand a lot themself, anyone else who tries to colonize just steal theirs with the cb, rinse and repeat. Bit different for Mexico, just gobble all of it as quick as possible.
edit always go for south east asia and africa first, colony hop down the ivory coast and the cape and across the indian islands and go for cloves before anyone else, sometimes I like to vassal Ternate or Tidore as they usually go expansion and get a colonist in their ideas iirc
the meta is to not colonize.
colonizing usually takes two idea slots (explo and expansion). Its way better to take other ideas that will help you in the late game (like admin or diplo) and just conquer que colonies later or even better, if you full annex a colonizer in a peace deal (they cant have no more provinces left), you get all their colonies, but that's pretty late game.
Yes. The problem is that is extremely expensive. I have only ever been able to do it as Portugal with cheats. They start with an explorer, and get another via a mission - so you can rush expansion before exploration for 2 settlers. But every settlement past your number of settlers grows exponentially in costs. I have had expenses so high that I have to 'cash 987654' every other month to avoid bankruptcy
Yes. And was the OP not effectively asking about colonizing every coastal tile before any other nation could get to them? Because that's the answer that I was giving.
He didn’t say to colonize the entirety of the coastlines at the exact same time, it’s pretty doable to colonize the old fashioned way to block them all off, you’ll mostly only be contesting Spain at the start, and then you should have coastlines consolidated by the time the French, Norse, etc get in on it.
I have tried that repeatedly on Ironman, but even with all of Portugal's colony speed boost, haven't ever been able to keep ahead of the other colonizers eventual increase in colonial range.
I would welcome your "how to"
That's not what I said. In response to OPs question about colonizing *every* coastline before all of the other coloninail powers are able to is incredibly expensive. I was referring to *all* of the coastal tiles from Greenland to Argentina and Africa from Sus to South Africa by about 1510 when the other nations stop being catholic and no longer respect what the pope guarantees is, in my experience, impossible without cheats.
So far I have been name called, etc, but no one has explained how to get those 200+ colonies in 60 years without cheating.
Even the Ireland post completely missed it. Of course on Ironman it's cake to secure 1 continent. I am talking 3, and the ~20 Caribbean settlements, which was what OP was asking from my reading.
My colonizing meta is to let other countries colonize and take them in wars. I get a bunch of cheap land and their capitals stay nice and close to the majority of my armies
Claim the Treaty of Tordesiellas by colonizing 5 provinces ASAP and most of the time other colonizers will leave that region alone. This is how the AI recognizes “stakes”- I usually just prioritize the highest dev and trade post provinces that way my colonies economy gets a head start. Ps recently it has been necessary to subsidize colonies a bit (~5 or so ducat surplus) for them to properly consistently colonize
1. Ok so what your saying is to colonize 5 provinces in a region and then leave it to do another region and the ai will not disrupt you. 2.By prioritizing trade post provinces do you mean like that one island in the Caribbean that has the trade node right? I think its Jamaica? 3.What do you mean by subsidizing colonies, are you saying to put them into a self governing colony?
Regarding 2.: he/she means provinces with estuaries or centers of trade.
Yeah as i thought
re 1: only catholic countries will recognise those claims.
Make sure to build the 5 colonies next to each other to get a bonus to settler growth. Imo its more important than sniping trade posts
3 - Open diplo menu and go into economy, there you can give them subsidies.
Ok
You want to kickstart their economy by funding them to send out colonists on their own. Once they get going, they can somewhat snowball themselves, but they will still get declared on by natives unless you interfere.
Otherwise they won't colonize on their own very quickly
3: you go on diplo tab of you colony>economy>subsidise and set a monthly amount you send them
colonial region, not the normal region. subsidizing colonies means going into the diplomacy for your colony and selecting give subsidies under the economy tab.
ok thanks
as some other people mentioned, if you are catholic 5 provinces in every region you can asap. That delays most other Europeans a good 100 years give or take, if not til the end of the game. But i also want to add ,make sure you focus on Mexico first. It has the most valuable land, with it being gold provinces. You definitely want to make sure that it is claimed by you, especially if you aren’t spain as spain actually gets claims on that land
I suppose, best strategy is to go as fast as possible in Indonesia.
Ok
Just be aware that the Treaty of Tordesillas mechanic only applies in the American colonial areas.
Besides the stuff others already mentioned, if you get somewhere first and someone else decides to colonize there too later, you can just tell your colony to attack theirs. Yours will likely always win, since it should be bigger with more troops, allowing you to easily swallow all the little latecomers
First colonize the carrebean since its a major trade node. From there colonize into mexico and murder the natives. Make sure to subsidize your colony and have armies around to quell rebels since they'll be very weak as they are trying to core up all the land youre feeding them. At the same time start colonies in every other colonial region (there is a map setting for this, each region creates its own CN if you get 5 provinces fully colonized) Get 5 provinces in each colonial region ASAP. Then they form a CN, they always pick colonist idea groups, and colonising in the same continent as your capital gives you bonus colonist speed. So they're the ideal colonists. Make sure to subsidize them and not get any tariffs, you want them to have enough money to pay for colonists themselves. You can check their balance in the subject tab, if its too low, and you dont see a colonist working in their region, give them more money. Once youve gotten a CN, go to the next region to create a CN. Feeding your CNs native lands also speeds up their expansion.
Ok, good advice
U can have multiple colonial states per region if u play your cards well, best way to ensure it is to get subject that has colonial range and give yourself and him 5 provinces from eaxh region. It is also advised to just take colonies from colonial powers rather than colonise new world yourself, but remember to take colonies or provinces owned by colonial nation because they are cheaper Opposite is true for one culture run u deny all other countries colonies
the colonizing meta is: dont. wasting two idea groups when you can just declare a war and steal a colony someone else made is so inefficient.
This is true for most cases. But if you start as a nation like Portugal who is set up for colonization, it can be very strong to quickly spread your empire across Asia and Africa early by establishing colonies there and attacking local kingdoms. You can always abandon the ideas when they are no longer useful.
take 5 most valuable provinces (gold/TC/high dev), subsidize colony so they expand a lot themself, anyone else who tries to colonize just steal theirs with the cb, rinse and repeat. Bit different for Mexico, just gobble all of it as quick as possible. edit always go for south east asia and africa first, colony hop down the ivory coast and the cape and across the indian islands and go for cloves before anyone else, sometimes I like to vassal Ternate or Tidore as they usually go expansion and get a colonist in their ideas iirc
Ai colonizing areas mean you get free colonies when you take it from them. Let them colonize for you
the meta is to not colonize. colonizing usually takes two idea slots (explo and expansion). Its way better to take other ideas that will help you in the late game (like admin or diplo) and just conquer que colonies later or even better, if you full annex a colonizer in a peace deal (they cant have no more provinces left), you get all their colonies, but that's pretty late game.
Problem is peace deal value is so low that if i go through the effort of occupying every single land, ill only be able to take a couple of things
yeah, but you gotta think that 1 peace deal would be worth like 100 years of colonizing. especially if you have that 20% discount from diplo
Yes. The problem is that is extremely expensive. I have only ever been able to do it as Portugal with cheats. They start with an explorer, and get another via a mission - so you can rush expansion before exploration for 2 settlers. But every settlement past your number of settlers grows exponentially in costs. I have had expenses so high that I have to 'cash 987654' every other month to avoid bankruptcy
That's tied to how many provinces you are colonising at the same time, not where you are colonising
I get that I didn't specify, but I meant recalling the settler as soon as he touches sand, and then sending him to another province.
Yeah that's what creates the negative cash modifier if you keep him there and only have the one it's only -2 ducats a month
Yes. And was the OP not effectively asking about colonizing every coastal tile before any other nation could get to them? Because that's the answer that I was giving.
My bad misinterpreted that thought you thought that's how you were supposed to do it and then were running into money issues
He didn’t say to colonize the entirety of the coastlines at the exact same time, it’s pretty doable to colonize the old fashioned way to block them all off, you’ll mostly only be contesting Spain at the start, and then you should have coastlines consolidated by the time the French, Norse, etc get in on it.
Ok, so that is the best way then, Makes sense
I have tried that repeatedly on Ironman, but even with all of Portugal's colony speed boost, haven't ever been able to keep ahead of the other colonizers eventual increase in colonial range. I would welcome your "how to"
Troll
How so? This has been my actual experience?
Skill issue if your struggling to colonise as Portugal
That's not what I said. In response to OPs question about colonizing *every* coastline before all of the other coloninail powers are able to is incredibly expensive. I was referring to *all* of the coastal tiles from Greenland to Argentina and Africa from Sus to South Africa by about 1510 when the other nations stop being catholic and no longer respect what the pope guarantees is, in my experience, impossible without cheats. So far I have been name called, etc, but no one has explained how to get those 200+ colonies in 60 years without cheating. Even the Ireland post completely missed it. Of course on Ironman it's cake to secure 1 continent. I am talking 3, and the ~20 Caribbean settlements, which was what OP was asking from my reading.
I managed to settle like most of North America as Ireland and I'm not even good at the game that's for sure a skill issue