Ahh you Salty Dog!!!! Playing again ehhh?

Nah, a couple friends began to play and wanted to see how my final stats looked in my highest score game. I just fired up my savegame and noticed my liberty bells were in the 32K, not the 65K.

However, I did play some months ago. The first time I had a really good continent but a friend scolded me for save scumming and told me a real high score would only count if I didn't save scum. So I tried again. Got pretty far without save scumming but at some point I stopped when I realized that it would be impossible for me to defend thirty or so colonies spread on two islands and a continent during the independence war, with the unit limit and all. This number of colonies can only be defended if they're all located on the same continent and close together, with more soldiers located on the coastal cities, and probably some forethought given to the road planning early on in the game so you can create choke points to prevent the REF from going too far in your inland colonies.

On Viceroy, my success at converting natives through missionaries and guns was not as successful as it had been on Pioneer difficulty. More often than not, the mission got burnt before one native could be converted. I find that it's still a good strategic move to do, I mean, converting some petty criminal or servant into a missionary for the chance to get a handful of native is certainly a good idea, plus all of these expert missionaries now have a use in my game, but on Viceroy it's not as reliable as it is on Pioneer difficulty.

You, Sir, are no doctor. Doctorissimus Magnus de Colonizatione is more like it. I thought I was obsessive about this game...

Just that one tip is going to transform my early game. No more years hoping like hell and being disappointed every time the Founding Fathers screen comes up - where's Minuit????? and De Soto????? (the two I consider essential at the start)

I can't wait to try this - and your other tips - out. Why do I have a job?

Nope on both. Only units represented as humans are counted. Arty, ships, and treasures do not count at all. And military results only affect the score as long as you capture or lose a citizen in the battle.

When playing for max score, disbanding all unneeded arty to make room for more citizens is a good idea.

Right on. They dont count for score but count against your pop cap. Basically anything that moves or crawls other than a colonist should be destroyed to allow for max pop cap.

So, yes, I have started playing again! Another thread inspired me to search out whats on the web these days about Colonization. The misinformation is raaaampant!

Take this guy for example...
https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Colonization_tips

Criminal underestimation of De Soto. Lots of talk about starting fast but rates Soto as a mere "nice to have".

Anyway, fun to read. Whos still playing? Anybody? echo, echo......echo...…...ec...

I like getting De Soto early. Exploration and treasure hunting are one of my main goals and so much fun for roleplaying.

Yes, De Soto is a must early on. Get a 2-3 colonists a bunch of horses and visit every single villages for the free Scout promotion, the free gifts and explore those lost cities rumors, finding x13 times the Seven Cities of Cibola and three fountain of youths is the best way to get your industry going. And no need to haul the gold back home and wait for galleons, just build a small camp next to the shoreline with your scout and have the crown take its due, the sooner you get colonists at in your colonies, the sooner you get that ball rolling. High score in Colonization is all about the economy:
More people = More colonies
More colonies = More resources
More resources = More gold
More gold = More people

Also, Custom Houses, get them early, like 5-6 colonies early, I know the blurb says "allows selling resources during the revolutionary war", it also allows you to sell resources before it too! No more having to haul finished goods back to your shorelines, no more waiting for fat stacks of finished goods before sailing to Europe, no more dilemma what goods to bring to Europe, no more turns wasted at sea waiting for ships to arrives... Have all your colonies instantly sell all of their goods all at the same time, and enjoy that constant flow of gold in your coffers. Your ships have better things to do, like ferry new colonists to their new jobs, trade with natives or taxi soldiers. And I'm not sure about this, it may have been psychological, but it also seemed to affect the price of goods in Europe too, I could swear the selling price of finished goods didn't drop as fast (you know that feeling when you dump a shipload of goods in Europe only to see the selling price drop after each stack of goods.)

That last game I played, I had eight galleons by the end of the game (plus my starting Merchant Ship and that pirates flotilla), five of them did nothing but ferry Expert Miners armed with guns and horses back home, and the last three brought cheap raw goods from Europe back to my colonies because I couldn't produce raw goods fast enough in the New World. I just couldn't spend that money fast enough.

Which version are you talking about?
Is there a newer version than the one included with CIV4?
Oh you are playing the older version. I can't deal with those dated graphics.