Other tips[]
I wrote this in response to a thread started by a newbie "nobody" and responded to fairly well by another "nobody":
Aaargh, thought I, when I saw you visiting LCRs at the start. Two of the replies largely dealt with that. LCRs are a huge bonus when you have De Soto but bad before that. You don't need expert scouts, but you do need scouts, so buy horses early, first for visiting natives then for LCRs after you get De Soto.
It's not always good to build on the first land you see. It could be one of the worst places (which could mean it produces nothing outside the colony centre). Move the ship and a colonist for another turn or two to assess the neighbourhood. Placement corner-to-corner with a small native settlement can be best for your first colony: trade using ships or wagon trains without having to leave the colony, while still having several tiles from which you can take resources before you get Minuit.
I don't believe selling tools to the natives at the start is good. Nearly every colony site will have a productive tile or two that can be made distinctly more productive with a road (lumber, ore, fur, silver) or plowing (almost any open ground, including the colony centre), so keep your tools till you have assessed things fully. And if you're going to build two colonies close together you should have a road between them. But in case you get few more colonists you could be better to bring your soldier back to take over the liberty bell or other work (alert to resume soldier duty if enemies appear) while the pioneer uses the tools.
Little point in harvesting lumber right at the start - wait till you have a road on its tile, which earns you two more tons per turn.
— Robin Patterson (Talk) 04:17, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
Advice from SourceForge user mcmoe316 in July 2010[]
(Heading of thread was "Newbie starting point")
"Take the building advantage. Always try to have at least one armed unit in every city. I typically will not build unless I have an artillery to deploy in the new city. Focus on Hammers, Bells and Defense above all else. The price of goods always goes down in the long term whereas hammers will always cost 20 gold.
"The most important Founding Fathers are Jefferson, De Soto and Cortes. Try to get these first. Brewster and Minuit are also good early FF's. Do not get Bolivar until you have a lot of colonies. Once 1600 arrives, GET GEORGE WASHINGTON. Don't beat up on anyone until after 1600 and you have GW. Paine is not needed until the tax rate is through the roof.
"Try not to piss off the natives, at least not until you have sufficient military, strength (and GW above) and if you are playing the computer, only buy privateers unless you need a Galleon to move booty. At some point, you will convert over to Frigates but you really only need Frigates for the REF.
"This should gt you started."