Grant money isn't going to be as effective as setting trade subsidies and then making sure you buy resources from them.

The only good situation for grants is near the end of a game. When a major power is defeated, the colonies they had will revert to minor nations,and suddenly every major power on the map will be bending over backwards for them. Usually using locked 10k grants along with a 100% subsidy is enough to beat everyone else out... but only if you can afford it.

Just won my first ever diplomatic victory! Granted it was after I had wiped out all but one other major power, but still...

Managed to get 2 minor powers to join my empire about one-third into the game. Tried to get 3 but lost one when it joined another power, which hurt considering it was a favored trade partner and I had a dozen developed forest tiles there (really wish there was an easy way to tell when another major power is making a big play to absorb a minor power).

Spent a huge chunk of the game frustrated trying to take a major power's capital so his colonies would revert back to independent. Eventually I said screw it and just took every piece of land he owned: home territories, colonies, everything. Reduced his merchant fleet to zero. I'm convinced the AI cheats because he STILL had a huge exports and overseas profits rating. How in the world was he getting that?

So he was able to maintain 30 heavy artillery in his capital. Once an AI turtles like that it becomes 100% impossible to ever take it no matter how huge your army is (I couldn't even get one unit into firing range).

From there I learned my lesson: if you want to take a major power's capital, you HAVE to do it the first turn after you get adjacent to it (by land or sea invasion). Otherwise he's just going to flood it with reinforcements and you'll never touch it.

Eventually wiped out every other major power and the council voted me over the 1 territory remaining power. Normal difficulty, final score 5000.

Here's what drove me crazy though: you can't build forts on colonies. Couldn't fortify them, couldn't defend them from invasion. I could take them back and THEN fortify them, but then they weren't colonies anymore. They counted as my empire and I then had to go waste time and resources to build a transport network.

The game is "lazy" in how it was coded, as are many games from this era. The bottom line is that systems like cashflow and trade aren't complete systems. If they were, the game developers would have had to figure out a way that a minor nation selling 15 timber per turn could afford that 45 clothing they buy every two turns. Two options:

- Move a general into the first tile the enemy can attack, at either the top or bottom of the screen. This opens him up to be attacked by one diagonal row of artillery at a time. Then, move as many heavy artillery into this same row as you can. On the next turn, they will get the first shots on your artillery, but you will be able to pop some of theirs into the yellow/red. Once this happens, if they can't retreat (which they can't because the fort is packed), they will surrender. You can then retreat, heal up, and do it all over again.
- Attack the capital with 8-10 mobile artillery. Move them all the way to the back of the battlefield. If the AI decides that they are powerful enough to take you, they will move units out of the fort in a nice little, strategically-inept single file. Heavy artillery coming for you cannot move and fire in the same turn, so you are able to pop off the ones they send out front first. Eventually, you will either be forced to retreat to protect your units, or they will stop coming at you. If they stop coming, just retreat units one at a time until they continue to advance. Rinse and repeat these attacks as many times as you have to.

Ha. I'll try that. Shame the only option is to resort to exploits like that =(

You don't have to think of it as an exploit... Consider it more like fooling your opponent. Drawing enemy fire safely with some unit, and then using their distraction to hit their weaker defenses and possibly punch a hole. Or, using guerrilla tactics with small groups of mobile soldiers to force a defender out of their comfort zone.

Which would be necessary in a real world scenario where their capital would be imploding from blockades.

I have a question regarding the development of villages in different provinces from the capital. I understand I need to use depots / ports for this. But do they need to neighbor the village, or is it enough if they are in the same province? The manual says they have to be IN the city or right next to them, iirc, but I'd like to make sure since it's really inconvenient for me in my current game :-)

They must be on or next to the province capital for industrialization to kick in like the manual says. The products come directly from the province capital. But you do not need to connect the resources in the province, just develop them. Can be useful to know if you do not need more raw materials but still want the free products from province industrialization.

Thanks!

basic Strategy 101..

1: Attrition..
Never leave any cash producing mines in the hands of the opposition..if they keep those they can get ahead..

2: Defend sparingly..
Wasting resources on a large army is NOT good..unless you can keep them up with ease..
Most ur resources should always be spent expanding, not keeping an army up..

3: Don't go overboard on the tech..
It's nice to have something in reserve..if ur the first (the only one having that tech) you don't need anything better just yet..
Keep the tech invention off when you're nearly done researching, but don't yet need it..
Then when they have the same as urs..finish in one turn..and upgrade accordingly..

4: Make the most out of ur politics..
When ur already in a state of war, keep seizing theirs..
Once they run out of new world...well..they'll say..."Peace plz.."

5: Don't let ur units die..they heal for free, but cost stuff to replace..

6: When sticking to this..have fun winning..

I've been fussing around with what units to build.

In Imp1, you almost never wanted to build anything but mobile artillery (some heavy artillery for defense).

In Imp2, things seem more...complicated.


Is it ever worth it to build light warships?

Mobile artillery worth it? The more I play, the more I'm convinced that it's not worth it. Maybe the horse artillery if you want to quick rush some forts, but once your infantry gets guns then there's no need for mobile artillery. Infantry can take more punishment and is cheaper.

Light vs regular vs heavy units? I'm tending to only bother with heavy units. Light units are cheaper and can take more damage, but have less firepower. In Imp1, light units were useful for soaking up defensive fire. The way defensive fire works in Imp2 though, the defending artillery gets to fire twice at the target of their choice, hence a screen of light units during the approach isn't useful. With that in mind, I can't see bothering with light or even medium units. Heavy units are little more resource expensive, but the limiting factor is always population, not resources.

Update: tried the strategy of completely ignoring the new world. For this, it really really helps to have neighboring minor nations on your continent.

First, concentrate everything on developing your country's resource infrastructure. Get all the materials, food, and workers you can. Buy everything you can't get and try to sell as many finished goods as possible. For technology, you want to make a fast beeline to horse artillery. Once you have that, get juuuuuuuuuust enough military that you can capture a minor nation capital. Then conquer as many minor nations as you can. Develop those resources, get as much food and workers as you can.

All the time, you want to keep buying spies so you have one in every nation that has a technology you're researching. Always set your research to $0.

What you'll end up with is a total abundance of basic resources, food, workers, and army capacity. I had something like 50 workers and 20 army units. That's over 3 times the population I was able to feed with any new world strategy.

What you'll be lacking: an abundance of cash and skilled workers. Honestly skilled workers aren't that great, certainly not as important as Imperialism 1. They give you 3-5 extra labor points, but you have to spend 2 of them just to manufacture their needed luxury good, not to mention the cost of finding those resources, researching them, developing them, then tying up shipping delivering them. Apprentice workers only give you 1 extra labor after all that, and journeymen/masters are super expensive. You run the risk of a war where the enemy cuts off those luxury resources and you lose all those expensive skilled workers. To me it's so much easier to not even bother with the new world unless it's gems or diamonds.

Once you have a huge population and industry built up, try to find a good diamond/gem new world province to conquer from a weak power. You're really going to need that money for research (you'll probably start falling behind) as well as deny it to the enemy. Try to wait until a great power is at war with someone else before declaring war and sniping their diamond mines.

Once you get a decent income, research and try to rush and snatch up enough minor power old world territories to win. Keep in mind that at some point, minor powers will become colonies of an old power the instant you declare war on them. Be prepared.

Misc tip: I used to swear by forts and max them out everywhere, but now I've found that to be a waste. The computer WILL show up with an army that will crush your fort. It's just too expensive to max them out everywhere. I only bother maxing forts on valuable diamond mine territories. With my old world territories, I only build level 1 forts around the likely combat area. This is to prevent the AI from racing through capturing your territories with a single unit, which it loves to do.

Interesting approach, I gotta try that!

Although about skilled workers, they are worth it if you manage to get their products from province industrialization. There are many provinces with 2 or 3 sugar, tobacco or fur.

Is there a difference between most favoured status and "best trading partner"? How do i figure out if im the "most favoured"? Im trying to do the tutorial but it's not helping.