

Guns and horses must be available in a colony to equip citizens and turn them into soldiers. Indians will initially only have braves and no horses or guns over time they may obtain them via trade or defeating colonial forces in battle. Weapons and soldiers can be purchased from Europe however, to win independence, the player will need to develop an indigenous armaments industry. When waging war, the player has a basic colonial army consisting of militiamen, artillery, cavalry, and ships. If another colonial power has already established a mission in a village, a missionary may attempt to denounce them as heretics with an equal 50/50 chance of success or failure.

The Indians may accept and convert, or they may refuse and burn the missionary at the stake. Players may send missionaries into Indian villages to convert them to Christianity. Moreover, the player manages their citizens, educating them in various skills to increase their productivity in areas such as farming, gathering of resources, or manufacturing. The player is also required to protect their colonies from potential invasion by equipping and stationing soldiers. The king may at different times raise colonial taxes to pay for a war taking place in Europe or for some other reason. With money, the player is able to buy goods, fund faster building construction, recruit new colonists, or buy ships and artillery. The prices of commodities in Europe fluctuate depending upon supply and demand. Harvested resources from the land, such as cotton or tobacco, can be manufactured and converted into commodities, such as cloth and cigars, and either used or sold. Different map squares can yield different resources for instance, most squares can produce food, while only forests can yield lumber. The colonists can work the immediate land around the colony. The ship can return to Europe to collect more colonists and sell and buy items. 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 journey begins with a ship and two units arriving at the new world as the ship moves into the unknown, the map is revealed. There is a choice between a historical map (America) or a randomly generated map (the New World), and players may also construct their own map with the included scenario editor. Each nation has unique abilities that favor certain strategies. The player controls the colonial forces of either England, France, The Netherlands, or Spain the other powers are then played by the computer. Gameplay The main map (DOS version) A colony producing furs, tobacco, coats, and cigars, among other things (DOS version)

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. Instead of forging a nation from nothing, the player manages the cross-Atlantic expansion of an established one in the service of the Crown. Ĭolonization 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. American video game publisher Tommo purchased the rights to this game in 2015 and digitally published it through their Retroism brand.
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It was originally released for DOS, and later ported to Windows 3.1 (1995), the Amiga (1995), and Macintosh (1995). It is a turn-based strategy game themed on the early European colonization of the New World, starting in 1492 and lasting until 1850. Sid Meier's Colonization is a video game by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier released by MicroProse in 1994.
