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[Dutchling]

I have no idea how the AI manages to magic a couple stacks of 20,000 from thin air. I infiltrate the administration, they have no troops. As soon as the fog of war hits surprise surprise, I just got walked on by another 20,000.

They tend to not return troops after a war, this happens a lot in the HRE.

[dogstile]

Well, turned things around. Castille is completely defeated, with me and Portugal gobbling up the provinces around 50/50 each, except Sweden and Granada ended up grabbing the two bottom right provinces, but I ended up with a COT so that's awesome. I've pushed Aragorn out of Africa by making them release Fez and Tunisia. Morocco and Algiers no longer exist because i've gobbled them up for myself. I own the Canaries, Iceland, everything in the UK including Orkney, parts of greenland, the azures and now i'm just pushing further into Africa. Its only 1489.

What has annoyed me is that I got attacked by some African nations who proceeded to take over my colonies and it put me over the infamy limit by about 0.50 taking them back. I had no idea they could take them outside of a peace agreement like that, so now i've planted troops on it and i'm just gonna crank out colonists and get a fort on them as soon as possible.

I love this game, it was rocky starting out, but I love it. Even France is too intimidated by me and Portugal that they seem to be leaving us alone and I own all the possible (or that i've found possible) ports that let you put colonies on America. Uncontested America to gobble? Yes please.

Although my inflation's gonna be massive after this, I keep having to go to war with random tribal nations just so I can raise war taxes to pay for my colonies sometimes. But to hell with it, i'm having fun.

[Rex_Nex]

Scandinavia is so silly. Its the only nation I know that can control enough land to get Empire, have cores on everything, own its own CoT, etc. and have a maximum forcelimit of 16.

[Karlito]

I've been playing a pretty fun game as France. It's taken probably way longer than it should, but I finally managed to get every province in the France region under my indirect control. I still have Alençon as a vassal and Burgandy is now in a PU. There's a bit of instability of as I don't yet have cores on all my integrated vassals. I've also vassalized most of the Low Countries, and two of the HRE's electors, as well as reclaiming Jerusalem from the Mamelukes (while excommunicated, I might add). I suppose the next step is to grab a few more electors and get myself named Emperor.

I was already pretty heavily invested in the innovative scales when the reformation hit, so I picked up Ecumenism as a national idea so I'd get positive tolerance of heretics. Then, because I was sick of the Pope and his "I do whatever England tells me to" attitude, I converted to Protestantism, and now the blue on my religion map is spreading like the plague. Of course, this made everyone mad at me, but I (and my many vassals), can beat anyone nearby in a land war, so I'm going to be having lots of fun cleansing heresy in Europe for the next couple years. I already got Portugal to convert.

[Rex_Nex]

Sooo every month Iceland renews itself as a CoT. I've wasted 60 prestige trying to destroy it, it just reappears.

[Rakonas]

What's the nearest CoT? If there was one in the british isles or norway I think it would stop reforming.. Why won't you just let the poor icelanders trade with themselves?

[Rex_Nex]

Nearest CoT is in London, and then there's also one in Stockholm, Sweden. I guess I'll let them trade icicles...

[dogstile]

Rebels really suck. I have no idea why i'm being attacked by so many now, especially since i'm not at war and haven't been for a long time.

[Rez]

You're about to be at war?

[dogstile]

I will if they managed to take anything. Ah well, time to ship off another 10,000 to the new world.

[Azthor]

Well, turned things around. Castille is completely defeated, with me and Portugal gobbling up the provinces around 50/50 each, except Sweden and Granada ended up grabbing the two bottom right provinces, but I ended up with a COT so that's awesome. I've pushed Aragorn out of Africa by making them release Fez and Tunisia. Morocco and Algiers no longer exist because i've gobbled them up for myself. I own the Canaries, Iceland, everything in the UK including Orkney, parts of greenland, the azures and now i'm just pushing further into Africa. Its only 1489.

What has annoyed me is that I got attacked by some African nations who proceeded to take over my colonies and it put me over the infamy limit by about 0.50 taking them back. I had no idea they could take them outside of a peace agreement like that, so now i've planted troops on it and i'm just gonna crank out colonists and get a fort on them as soon as possible.

I love this game, it was rocky starting out, but I love it. Even France is too intimidated by me and Portugal that they seem to be leaving us alone and I own all the possible (or that i've found possible) ports that let you put colonies on America. Uncontested America to gobble? Yes please.

Although my inflation's gonna be massive after this, I keep having to go to war with random tribal nations just so I can raise war taxes to pay for my colonies sometimes. But to hell with it, i'm having fun.

The real question is: why are you pushing into Africa?

[Rez]

I second that.  Never really saw the point of invading Africa when America sits there, an ocean away from european powers, with all sorts of sugar and gold to be taken.  Plus, so many more territories are right there abutting the ocean, making it easier to fight and engage the enemy before you get forts up.

Compare that to Northern Africa, where you'll spend months traveling between territories and you'll spend most of that time losing troops to supply issues.

EDIT: There are lots of gold mines in south-eastern Africa, though.  Being over there starts setting you up for the East India Trading Company too.  I guess what I mean is that I never really saw the point of messing around in northern africa where there are tribal kingdoms and muslims that will actually contest you regularly.

[dogstile]

Well, i'm not exactly experience so i'm making the classic mistake of trying to do everything at once. I do own a large chunk of Northern Africa, Fez is under my control, I made the Mamluks give up Tripoli and I have managed to get down quite far. Aside from that i've got the monopoly on colonies in America so its more about just exercising Britain massive amount of power everywhere I can.

My only problem is Portugal, they've taken over almost everything Castille and Aragon owned and they always wait until i'm in a war to declare war on me. Usually i'm preparing to repel them, some random small nation will be all "WARRRRRRR" and as I move my stacks away, they declare war instantly.

Luckily I can keep them contained with blockades and vassals but it eventually won't be enough.

Now for the question of the post, how valuable are colonies really? I mean the ones in America have cost me loads to set up but is it a case of they don't really shine until the cores are gained on them?

[Rez]

Once you get a good grip on the Americas, provided you don't expand too fast and crush your economy with colonial maintenance, you'll have more money than you know what to do with.  They don't shine because they start with 1000 people + whatever natives you didn't kill in them, so they don't have the people to produce lots of trade goods or taxes.  There are a ton of provinces to control in the new world, and I think that's the main thing.  There are maybe 20 provinces just in the bahamas that you don't need to make war over.

It's been a while since my Castille faceroll where I took over all of America, but I distinctly recall setting up lots of centers of trade and concentrating on being mercantilist, since I controlled something like 3/4 of the worlds sugar and tobacco production.  I basically withdrew from all the european wars and crap after I formed Spain and concentrated on securing the Americas, before pushing into the Pacific from the Americas, and the Orient from South Africa and Zimbabwe.  I know, I know, Castille is easy mode, but the lesson is the same.  You can choose to go 'isolationist' at least in respect to Europe and accrue a lot of money and territory without a whole lot of wars.  I think you can go the other way too, but it seems like more trouble.

Keep in mind that you find new resources at your colonies which means you can find new gold mines.  I think there are only something like 5 gold mines in all of Europe, most of which are tied up in HRE crap that makes them problematic to conquer.  The exotic goods like sugar, coffee, etc. also are worth quite a bit, due to the rarity of provinces that produce them in Europe.  Early on, you're going to have such a small population in the places producing these goods that the money won't be particularly noticeable, but over time the investment pays off.

[dogstile]

Well i'm tempted to just get the hell out of Spanish territory all together and let Portugal slug it out with France. Portugal can't exactly colonize the new world because I constantly incite the natives and take over whatever they go for so they don't have a place to land. My inflation is huge though (first time colonizing, can you tell? ) and my troops are taking forever to get replenished.

I do own around 80 provinces now, so maybe i'll just let things settle down. But if I do i'm destroying the COT in Andalusia first. Portugal can suck it.