Chapter 1: Short and sweet – the concept behind “The Authentic Colonization”
“What a pity! It could have been such a great game…”
Many fans of the original Colonization couldn’t expect the release of "Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization", which was then released in summer ’08. But they were gutted about the follower. In fact, Col II included all the complex and exiting features of Col I, but couldn’t dare to go any further. You can be successful in Col II by building only few cities, which you let take away by the King in a early, short independence war and, after that, retake the cities with only a few cannons. That is cheap an boring. Those who want to try out all of the features of Col II are massively handicapped. It’s a weird situation: those who want to play the game get systematically demoralized. And after 300 rounds, it’s all over anyways.
But because there is a lot of potential, we could only think about one thing: to make Col II “The Authentic Colonization”!
TAC gives the game back the true Colonization feeling. Your pioneer spirit is asked! In new founded cities, you start from the beginning: no buildings built by ghost hands. Tools, weapons and horses can’t be bought in Europe for nothing any more. It will be cheaper to produce them yourself. And before the promised land yields food, wood and other resources you have to build farms, plantations, mines and lumberjacks.
“For what?”, you might ask. Well, because it’s profitable now! The tax rate can’t exceed a limit and you can drop the rate if you are generous with your king. It is easier now, to get experts from schools and the inflation of education points has been killed.
Fast wins are not possible any more: the army of the king has been greatened. And the King acts more intelligent now: he observes not only your production of bells, but also the weapons and horses you have stored in your depots, your population and the chance of rebellion. The victory over your king is more difficult now. In compensation, the round limit has been set to a maximum of 900. This makes a game not a run against time, but your opponents.
Whilst the other European colonial powers in the original Col II were no real opponents, you have to keep an eye on them now! They will fight for land and resources just as you! The artificial intelligence now has cheap special units for defending cities and for transporting goods, expands faster and with more courage and starts the independence war not until she is able to win it.
And we have modded so many other things as well: picturesque event windows, the extravagant Europe port, new texts in diplomacy, events and quests, new buildings, goods, nations, leaders, founding fathers, bonus resources, maps and thousands of other improvements. But before an new feature was implemented, we always watched if an idea fits into the game design and the history of the time. It was our aim, not to achieve class by quantity but by quality. And yes, we are proud of what we have created. Col II became what it should have been: an Authentic Colonization. Enjoy!