Colonial Era

Overview

Staying in power

Do the crown tasks and choose 12 month mandate extension



If you run low on time, focus on fuitfilling taks



You get a free 12 month extension once

Making Money

Put your Construction Offices, Teamsters and Docks



Build 2-3 Sugar Farms, 2-3 Cattle Ranches and other Farms around them



Upgrade your Farms, Ranches



Build some extra Construction Offices, Teamsters and Docks



Initiate some Trade routes for larger export profits



Issue Paid Food and build entertainment buildings

Revolutionary Support & Research

Build Library when you have some farms and the task



Start research early, adjust for tasks if required



Choose +3 Revolutonaries for every revolutionary task



Statisfy your people's needs and build Groceries, Catholic Missions and entertainment buildings



Issue edict "Tax Cut" and eventually bribe people if you are stuggling with support



Houses are usually not required for statisfaction

Military & Pirates

Avoid Forts as they become obsolete easily (and require research)



Build guard towers in bulk (3+) at choke points (i.e. your initial dock)



Spend your money if you still have anything to do, to avoid pirates stealing money

Advancement

Double-check that you've done anything you can in the era



Amass some money; use remaining mandate time to increase your amount of money (suggest 50k+)



Advance to the next era (pay 10k)

In general the Colonial Era is about two things, creating a basic raw resource economy and getting enough support for the independance. It's usually adviseable to focus on the economy first, and then working on getting independance.You'll also be doing contracts for the crown along the way, ensuring you stay in power long enough, and slowly plan to build/layout your town.Staying in power should be quite simple.Just do whatever the crown asks you to do; if you play a bunch of games you may notive there are certain quest lines that the crown will offer, and I recommend picking 12 month mandate extension as reward as for any task the crown offers. I suggest doing tasks along the way.If you are running low on time and your task proves difficult, you may want to ensure it gets fuitfilled - for example, if you are tasked to export 3000 Logs, you may want to max the budget on the logging camp so it produces extra and is full staffed - or even build a second one (but usually this is not needed).Once you'll also get a free 12 month mandate extension when you run low on mandate (6 months), sometimes also the option to pay for mandate extension for 10k if you're running low.Summary:Since money is vital for success, it's important to build a strong economy early on - all those building will carry over to the next era, and serve as your backbone on the island.I recommend focusing on farms and ranches; I prefer to build different types as you can take advantage of different deals (and diffrent industry) later on, as well as fuitfilling food diversity quite easily (and getting to 100 statisfaction easily).As for the placement look for a patch of land that can serve as many types of farms decently (at least yellow, preferablely dark green), try to place 2-3 Sugar farms and 2-3 Cattle Ranches centrally and other farms around them; other type of ranches can be placed whereever you have suitable terrain.Otherwise 1 of each type should suffice.The reason for placing sugar and cattle ranches rather central is that with the upgrades they'll provide extra effiency for other farm buildings, essentially boosting them by up to 50.To maximize your economy and exports I suggest buildings one or two extra docks, and extra teamsters. Also put docks, construction offices and teamsters at maximum budget to ensure they are always fully staffed and working properly.You should also initiate the most profitable traderoutes, but I suggest not to anger the king too much (so often a +5 route may actually be favorable over a -10 route)To get a more steady income you can also issue Paid Food once you've enough groceries for your current population or build some entertainment buildings.I suggest to avoid mines, as they tend to deplete rather quickly and you need them in the later eras (so you can avoid imports). If you need them for a task, build them and do the exports, then just fire the workers (and stop it from hiring new ones).Summary:I suggest you start rather early with Research - i.e. after the fist farms have been build and you've received the "Build a Library" task from the Revolutionaries; focus on getting the Farm, Ranch upgrades first, Mines; then the other tiers. Adjust your research if necessary (sometimes you'll receive a task to research something particular like the Trigger or Planks).As for revolutionary support, I suggest focusing on this once you've setup your economy (unless of course you can do the task along the way without issues). Do all the revolutionary tasks and simply import the revolutionaries all the time, that should get you a nice basis.It is not necessary to choose the revolutionary option from the king tasks, just the revolutionary taks should suffice.The next step would be to take care of your people's need which would also help with your approval, that means build Groceries (1 per 150 pop), Missions (1 per 100 pop) and Entertainment buildings; if you've followed the previous section you should get the food support to 100 easily - also may want to issue "Extra Rations".If you don't have 50% yet, you may want to wait for more tasks - if you're running low on tasks, you may want to consider issuing "tax cut" edict which can easily be a 5-15 percent point improvement or bribing individuals.You don't have to build houses (I never do, unless tasked to) - tenements in the later areas are a more viaable option and they should not be needed.Note that if you've reached 51% approval the task will stay, so it's just required to hit that mark once.Summary:I personally avoid military confontation so early on; Forts take a lot of place and the units are inefficent in later eras.If you need defense I simply suggest building a bunch of guard towers in bulks at choke points, they are usually strong enough to hold off pirates with the support of your palace troops. Often troops also appear in the same places, like the initial dock.Pirates come in packs between 1-3, but as long you're low on treasury they can't steal anything. Also pirate attacks tend to be more common with high treasury it seems.Summary:Before advacement make sure to check that you've done everything yon can in this era. Make sure everything is build & upgraded.Secondly I suggest saving a lot of money for the next area, so you can start building the new buildings (like High Schools) right away.As for the time of advancement unless you a reason to advance early, I suggest you just use your remaining mandate time to make money. Once you run low (6m or so), you just advance to the next era.This time you have two options, paying the crown or having them attack. I suggest simply paying them off (10k usually, 20k if you have "bad" standing), if you choose the attack, make sure you have a bunch of guard towers (and possibly even forts).Summary: