Answered Is Colonizing worth it now?

DeletedUser7068

Guest
I've just come back to the game after a few years hiatus. I'm loving all the changes and I noticed that the Colony Ship seems to be available a lot earlier than before in the academy (maybe I'm mis-remembering?)

It's early enough in the tech tree that it's now very tempting to start colonising instead of waiting for Revolt/Conquest. Is it now worth it, with the CS being available so early?
 

DeletedUser54192

Guest
It's still a trade-off, but it is now a lot more viable as a tactic than it was before.

There have been changes:
- The colony ship research has been moved down so that it is accessible at level 13 in the Academy, rather than at level 22.
- You can now build a colony ship at harbour level 10, rather than level 20.

These changes were relatively recent, although I can't remember the exact date.

Earlier access means that you now stand a good chance of being capable of colonising well before the end of Beginners' Protection (especially on worlds with longer protection, such as the 6 days for en103 Carystus). This means you can probably guarantee 2+ cities coming out of BP, and the 2nd city should be built up a bit as well. It is still the same trade-off of building up your own cities versus fighting the enemy for the chance to take a city that they have built up for you.

The ability to have a couple of decent colonisations being built up before the end of BP can be very beneficial for premade alliances, or for alliances that are able to organise themselves quickly. It allows a team to make a core, or to get isolated players into their core without the risk of losing the city before you are ready to colonise. The 12 hour window also helps, because it means that if you land a CS on an anchor before someone revolts the sending city, the colonisation is guaranteed to complete before you can lose the sending city (unless they used Helen).

The developers do seem keen to encourage more colonisation: en103 Carystus has a special setting that means that colonisations only take 12 hours, rather than 24 hours.
 

DeletedUser54161

Guest
@d00st3r

If you can do it early game, with enough time to build in both cities, then "Yes"
However
Generally speaking, letting other's build for you, and taking their cities later is the better option
 

DeletedUser52860

Guest
I have always followed the same MO in the early stages of the game and that is to colonize city number 2 as early as possible (before BP has ended). It gives you an early advantage and a better chance of not getting rimmed by the crazy early gold spenders (you know, the ones with 4 cities when BP ends) down in the core.

The changes with CS have helped this as you can have 2 cities bireme ready much quicker so you can snipe effectively and you can also focus one offensive and one defensive city meaning you can pack a bigger punch when required.

Apart from that the only reason i would ever colonize a city would be for strategic purposes later in the game for wonders. At any other point all it does is stunt your growth.
smiley_emoticons_idea2.gif
 

DeletedUser46395

Guest
There are good personal reasons to colonise a second city as Drubzie says, but there are often good strategic reasons for an alliance to want people to colonise at any point in the game, and personally, I wouldn't trust anyone who would refuse to do so if asked; this is a team game, after all, and it's better to share the pain on things like this. Anyone who is more focused on personal growth than team objectives ain't worth having.
 
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