Sid Meier's Colonization

Sid Meier's Colonization is a turn-based strategy video game by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier. It was developed at MicroProse's Chapel Hill studio for MS-DOS and published in 1994. The game is themed around European colonization of the New World from 1492–1850. Ports were released in 1995 for Windows 3.1, Amiga, and Mac.^{[citation needed]} American video game publisher Tommo purchased the rights to Colonization in 2015 and digitally published it through their Retroism brand.

Colonization has more developed visual design and handling than Sid Meier's previous game Civilization (1991), but the two are markedly different in terms of gameplay. Instead of building up a nation from scratch, the player manages the cross-Atlantic expansion of an established country. As the colonies become more self-sufficient, their relationship with the colonial power declines from being beneficial to harmful, and to win the player must ultimately declare independence and defeat the Royal Expeditionary Force in battle.

The player controls the colonial forces of either England, France, the Netherlands or Spain; the other powers are played by the computer. Each nation has distinct abilities that favor certain strategies. There is a choice between a historical map (America) or a randomly generated map (the New World), and players may also create their own map with the included scenario editor.

The journey begins with a ship and two units arriving in the New World in 1492. As the ship moves into the unknown, the map is revealed. The player then makes landfall, explores the land, meets the indigenous Indians, builds colonies and buildings, and works and improves the surrounding land. The ship can return to Europe to pick up more colonists and buy and sell items.

Colonists can work the land in squares adjoining the colony or within it. Different map squares yield different resources: for instance, most squares can produce food, while only forests yield lumber. Raw materials harvested from the land, such as cotton and tobacco, can be processed and converted into commodities (in this case cloth and cigars respectively), and sold at a much greater profit. Commodity prices in Europe rise and fall according to fluctuating supply and demand. The player can spend the money they gain to buy goods, speed construction, recruit new colonists, and buy ships and artillery. At times, the king may have reason to raise the colonial tax rate, for example to pay for a war taking place in Europe.

Players can manage their citizens by educating them to make them more productive in various skills such as farming, resource gathering and manufacturing. The player typically needs to protect their colonies from potential invasion by equipping and stationing soldiers.

Players may send missionaries into Indian villages to convert them to Christianity. The Indians may accept and convert, or they may refuse and burn the missionary at the stake. If another colonial power has already established a mission in a village, a missionary may attempt to denounce them as heretics; this has a 50% chance of succeeding.

When waging war, the player has a basic colonial army consisting of militiamen, artillery, cavalry, and ships. Weapons and soldiers can be purchased from Europe; however, to win independence, the player will need to develop a home-grown arms industry. Indians will initially only have braves and no horses or guns; over time they may obtain them via trade or by defeating colonial forces in battle. Guns and horses must be available in a colony to equip citizens and turn them into soldiers. If a colonial power captures a colony, it will remain in their possession unless it is retaken by force. Indians will burn a colony if they capture it.