Expansion Tactics

Just to begin with, i would love it if any other members would be kind enough to post their own expansion tactics here so that we can have a wide array of ideas here for people to pick from.

Flip made a lovely point on another section about rapid expansion vs solid building.


"By rapid expansion, I'm referring to quickly branching out to 4 or 5 colonies while your town levels for those colonies is 12-16.

My thoughts behind this have been a sort of mix between rapidly expanding, yet creating a solid defense for my towns. There's no doubt that this is leaving a bit to rest on luck, luck that you won't be attacked soon, or that you pose enough of a annoyance that would be attackers will look for softer targets.

The idea behind my leaning toward rapid expansion is to locate solid resources and then use those to build *all* of my towns to the highest levels, rather then build up a few solid towns and then move on to the next. Looking at this from a power gaming perspective I'd think that with a moderate investment in 4 or 5 towns depending on what you want... (I went 5) in resources you should be able to then use the newly gained assets to build your empire at a much more alarming rate.

I see a downside to this as well, mainly that all your towns are at a lower level for the short term and that your defence budget can cut into your resource collecting if not properly planned out."

Answers to this were varied (and i don't want to totally plagarise everyone elses hard work) and i'm going to start the ball rolling by stating that i rode my luck all the way and it paid off...

I rapidly expanded out into 5 colonies as soon as i had the goods to do it and basically neglected the defence side of things, leaving only minimal defences in each town. Which looking back was REALLY silly as it would only have taken one person to cotton on and i would've been (to coin a phrase) up **** creek wothout a paddle. Once i'd established colony number five i turned my gaze inwards and began consolidating and building up my defences.

On the plus side you do get resources very quickly by doing this but you are taking a massive risk! Also please do keep in mind the military regulations that are now in force for the alliance when considering expansion strategies

As a final thought and reminder... in order to avoid corruption spreading throughout your colonies level up your palace and your governer's mansions to the required level before setting up a new colony otherwise you're just making more work for yourself.