14 DAY TRIAL // After my first hour with Colonization (yap, the old one from the Stone Age of videogaming), I wanted to play a bit more. Nostalgia and my turn based strategy addiction spurred me on to play until I could declare independence.
16:00. The problem is that this game, even though it looks tiny, takes time. In another hour I am not expecting to be any closer to independence than I am now. My cash flow is inadequate and I still have only a few cities.
16:10. One of the big things in the game is to wisely select your Founding Father. I've just gone for De Soto, cause I would love to get some nice treasures from lost cities to build up a bit on the Treasury side.
16:20. My initial city, which is near real world Caracas, has access to a hill with iron on it. This means I can produce tools, which means I can make guns. I've already built a learning institution suitable for teaching the arts of war. I'll call it West Punt (which is the surprisingly similar to English translation of West Point in Dutch) and I am churning out soldiers. Now I only get a good supply of horses and George Washington and I can take on the Moederland (Dutch for motherland)!
16:30. Well, no independence can be achieved without the citizens’ will. And that is missing at the moment mostly because of the sudden influx of people coming from Europe seeking a certain Fountain of Youth I have discovered.
16:38. Hmmm, trying to get Washington means that I haven't got Ben Franklin, which means I am at war with the English and they want money to settle for peace. I quickly lose two colonies (one which was meant to produce even more rum) and I pay up.
16:45. The English are not surrounding my colonies with their Dragoons, which means I cannot get pioneers to improve those tiles. And they want more money to move...
16:50. Damn, another hour has gone by and, even if I beefed up my ground forces, independence is nowhere to be seen. I surely hope that Civilization IV: Colonization is just as long and enjoyable as the original game.