Posted September 26, 2020
Fellow imperialists!
Since I have spent way too much time to find the perfect random map in Imperialism, I thought I could put my insights up for discussion.
First of all, let's set out the rules and consider what a perfect random map would be.
1. We will play at highest difficulty.
(Because, after all, we want the challenge.)
2. Our country must border another great power.
This is because the starting army on Nigh-on-Impossible (2 regulars, 1 artillery) is strong enough to capture enemy provinces that are undefended. If you manage to evade the enemy army, it will be possible to conquer the whole country except the capital with the starting army. Once you have a province that borders the enemy capital, the enemy army will retreat and leave the rest of the country open for conquest.
However, in order to avoid the enemy army, you need at least two provinces in range from your border (otherwise the enemy will concentrate his army in the only province through which you can attack).
If your capital borders the enemy country, the enemy might attack it if it only has Minutemen defending. This is good since four Minutemen can usually repulse an enemy attack and may allow you to capture his army off guard, destroying it in the field, which means that you will have to build much less units to capture his capital (see attached save game).
Practise to conquer provinces defended by 4 Minutemen with your starting army. It should be possible to win with your Regulars only receiving 1–3 hits from the Minutemen and your Artillery unscathed. This is important because you don't want to have to wait for your army to recover.
Since one neighbouring country can easily be conquered, their resources are likewise relevant for judging your country!
3. The country needs to be suitable for rapid town development. This is the most important aspect.
As others will tell you, town development is the crucial factor for success in this game. In essence, we need as many of our provinces to produce goods on their own as soon as possible.
Therefore: Do not trust people who count iron, coal and gold when they describe a map. Resource placement within provinces is crucial. In short: How many provinces will produce goods? How long does it take to connect the towns to the capital? This is much more important than availability of resources.
Since we need level 4 factories for raw materials and level 8 factories for goods and the starting resources are limited, we will focus on one type of factory to push to level 8 as soon as possible. The obvious choice for this is lumber, because:
• Cloth and Wool are not as likely to be concentrated within a single province as forests and scrubs are, they tend to be spread all over your country.
• Lumber is essential for expanding factories, while cloth is not.
• Steel and Hardware are useful, but developing these resources requires miners and is slower.
Furthermore, we want to connect the towns as fast as possible, therefore we will use ports instead of railways.
Therefore, we want a map that has as many provinces with 4 or more forests/scrubs that have their capitals close to the coast or a river.
Furthermore, we want provinces that will be able to produce clothing once we upgrade to level 8 factories. Because we want this to happen before the Ranchers are available, we need provinces with either 4 fertile hills, 2 fertile hills and one plantation, or 2 plantations. Farmers will be able to upgrade plantations once cotton gin is available, usually within the first few turns.
Also, we want provinces that will produce steel and eventually hardware. These are provinces that have both coal and iron. Ideally, we want provinces that have 2 coal and 2 iron such that they can produce hardware before square set timbering becomes available. Also, ideally, these resources can be connected without having to wait for the technology that allows you to build through hills.
Generally, we also want provinces that have raw materials close to the towns, such that we need only one port to connect the town plus some resources.
So, for example, one of my favourite maps (Ambacks, green country) has the following provinces:
Dunmore: 4 forests: produce lumber+chair, town connectible by port
Dunlap: 3 forests, 4 scrubs: will produce lumber+chair, town connectible by port
Dunbar: 4 forests, 6 scrubs: will produce lumber+chair, town connectible by port
Dunham: 3 forests, 1 scrub, 1 coal, 1 iron (both in accessible mountains): will produce lumber+chair, steel (hardware w. square set timbering), town not connectible by port
Dundee: 2 fertile hills, 1 plantation, 1 coal, 2 iron (1 of which not in accessable mountain): will produce cloth (+clothing with cotton gin), steel (+ hardware with square set timbering), town connectible by port
Oban: 2 coal, 2 iron (1 of each accessible), 1 plantation, 1 fertile hill. Will produce cloth (+clothing with feed grassses), steel+hardware (before square set timbering).
Brigadune: 1 horse ranch, otherwise useless province.
Furthemore, neighbour Kem also has some lovey bordering provinces, two of which are noteworthy:
Narvik: 2 forests, 1 coal, 2 iron, 1 fertile hills
Koryak: 4 iron, 1 coal, 1 gold. However town is surrounded by hills.
4. Capital placement
Since the province with the capital will not produce goods, select a province for the capital that does not take anything valuable away. Bonus if it borders the neighbouring country (see above), also bonus if it is connected to a lot of food (such that you won't have to import canned food), further bonus if it is somewhat close to those interesting province towns that can't be connected via ports.
5. Trade
As others have pointed out, it is much more efficient to buy Lumber, Steel and Fabric instead of coal, iron, timber, cotton and/or wool. There are two main reasons:
Clothing/Furniture/Hardware cost about 950, Steel/Lumber/Fabric about 330 and coal/iron/timber/wool/cotton about 110. Thus, turning 2 Steel/Lumber/Fabric to 1 Clothing/Furniture/Hardware yields about 290 added value, while turning 2 coal/iron/timber/wool/cotton to 1 Steel/Lumber/Fabric yields only about 110 added value.
If you buy Steel/Lumber/Fabric and sell Clothing/Furniture/Hardware, you will need less trade ship capacity, fewer workers and need to construct fewer factories in your capital to achieve the same thing.
5. Strategy
In the first turn:
• Declare war on your neighbouring country
• Move your army into a bordering province that borders two enemy provinces
• Move your engineer to a build a port next to a lumber province town.
• Buy a second Engineer
• Buy a second Indiaman
• Build a furniture factory, a clothing factory, and a metal work (do not bother about processing raw materials)
In the subsequent turns:
• Expand the furniture factory until level 4 (you can skip this once in the first three moves. But the furniture factory should be at level 4 when the first port is finished).
• Use 5-6 of your merchant capacity to buy Steel, Fabric and/or Lumber. Sell 2–3 of Clothing/Furniture/Hardware.
• Produce 1–3 of Clothing/Furniture/Hardware.
• Make enough profits to finance further ports. If you run out of money for ports, use the engineer to build railway links to the interesting towns that cannot be connected via ports. Do not bother about connecting resources, only towns. Ideally, this also connects some resources.
• Whenever your workforce is idle, upgrade workers.
# next steps:
• In the turn the railway station is upgraded the first time, expand the furniture factory to level 8.
• Build a miner and develop those provinces that will produce steel+hardware.
• Expand the metalworks to level 4 in the same turn the town and 2 mines (iron+coal) will be completed, and to level 8 in order to get hardware once 2iron+2coal are developed.
• Build a lumber mill and a steel mill once you receive timber and/or iron+coal. Use the lumber mill to produce paper.
• Build a farmer and develop those provinces that will produce fabric+clothing.
• The textile mill is lowest priority and usually not worth the effort. I often don't even build it until 1830. If you have good provinces, the fabric that is produced in the towns will suffice. However, make sure to upgrade the Clothing Factory in time.
• Do not bother about trade missions.
• Once you get furniture from your provinces, shift production to arms instead of hardware.
• Build a ship-of-line and blockade your enemy capital; capturing ships is more efficient than building them yourself.
# general economic strategy
• everything is scarce and every resource should always be used.
• You should be almost in shortage of everything. If you have an abundance of anything, this means that you have mad a mistake in the past moves.
Since I have spent way too much time to find the perfect random map in Imperialism, I thought I could put my insights up for discussion.
First of all, let's set out the rules and consider what a perfect random map would be.
1. We will play at highest difficulty.
(Because, after all, we want the challenge.)
2. Our country must border another great power.
This is because the starting army on Nigh-on-Impossible (2 regulars, 1 artillery) is strong enough to capture enemy provinces that are undefended. If you manage to evade the enemy army, it will be possible to conquer the whole country except the capital with the starting army. Once you have a province that borders the enemy capital, the enemy army will retreat and leave the rest of the country open for conquest.
However, in order to avoid the enemy army, you need at least two provinces in range from your border (otherwise the enemy will concentrate his army in the only province through which you can attack).
If your capital borders the enemy country, the enemy might attack it if it only has Minutemen defending. This is good since four Minutemen can usually repulse an enemy attack and may allow you to capture his army off guard, destroying it in the field, which means that you will have to build much less units to capture his capital (see attached save game).
Practise to conquer provinces defended by 4 Minutemen with your starting army. It should be possible to win with your Regulars only receiving 1–3 hits from the Minutemen and your Artillery unscathed. This is important because you don't want to have to wait for your army to recover.
Since one neighbouring country can easily be conquered, their resources are likewise relevant for judging your country!
3. The country needs to be suitable for rapid town development. This is the most important aspect.
As others will tell you, town development is the crucial factor for success in this game. In essence, we need as many of our provinces to produce goods on their own as soon as possible.
Therefore: Do not trust people who count iron, coal and gold when they describe a map. Resource placement within provinces is crucial. In short: How many provinces will produce goods? How long does it take to connect the towns to the capital? This is much more important than availability of resources.
Since we need level 4 factories for raw materials and level 8 factories for goods and the starting resources are limited, we will focus on one type of factory to push to level 8 as soon as possible. The obvious choice for this is lumber, because:
• Cloth and Wool are not as likely to be concentrated within a single province as forests and scrubs are, they tend to be spread all over your country.
• Lumber is essential for expanding factories, while cloth is not.
• Steel and Hardware are useful, but developing these resources requires miners and is slower.
Furthermore, we want to connect the towns as fast as possible, therefore we will use ports instead of railways.
Therefore, we want a map that has as many provinces with 4 or more forests/scrubs that have their capitals close to the coast or a river.
Furthermore, we want provinces that will be able to produce clothing once we upgrade to level 8 factories. Because we want this to happen before the Ranchers are available, we need provinces with either 4 fertile hills, 2 fertile hills and one plantation, or 2 plantations. Farmers will be able to upgrade plantations once cotton gin is available, usually within the first few turns.
Also, we want provinces that will produce steel and eventually hardware. These are provinces that have both coal and iron. Ideally, we want provinces that have 2 coal and 2 iron such that they can produce hardware before square set timbering becomes available. Also, ideally, these resources can be connected without having to wait for the technology that allows you to build through hills.
Generally, we also want provinces that have raw materials close to the towns, such that we need only one port to connect the town plus some resources.
So, for example, one of my favourite maps (Ambacks, green country) has the following provinces:
Dunmore: 4 forests: produce lumber+chair, town connectible by port
Dunlap: 3 forests, 4 scrubs: will produce lumber+chair, town connectible by port
Dunbar: 4 forests, 6 scrubs: will produce lumber+chair, town connectible by port
Dunham: 3 forests, 1 scrub, 1 coal, 1 iron (both in accessible mountains): will produce lumber+chair, steel (hardware w. square set timbering), town not connectible by port
Dundee: 2 fertile hills, 1 plantation, 1 coal, 2 iron (1 of which not in accessable mountain): will produce cloth (+clothing with cotton gin), steel (+ hardware with square set timbering), town connectible by port
Oban: 2 coal, 2 iron (1 of each accessible), 1 plantation, 1 fertile hill. Will produce cloth (+clothing with feed grassses), steel+hardware (before square set timbering).
Brigadune: 1 horse ranch, otherwise useless province.
Furthemore, neighbour Kem also has some lovey bordering provinces, two of which are noteworthy:
Narvik: 2 forests, 1 coal, 2 iron, 1 fertile hills
Koryak: 4 iron, 1 coal, 1 gold. However town is surrounded by hills.
4. Capital placement
Since the province with the capital will not produce goods, select a province for the capital that does not take anything valuable away. Bonus if it borders the neighbouring country (see above), also bonus if it is connected to a lot of food (such that you won't have to import canned food), further bonus if it is somewhat close to those interesting province towns that can't be connected via ports.
5. Trade
As others have pointed out, it is much more efficient to buy Lumber, Steel and Fabric instead of coal, iron, timber, cotton and/or wool. There are two main reasons:
Clothing/Furniture/Hardware cost about 950, Steel/Lumber/Fabric about 330 and coal/iron/timber/wool/cotton about 110. Thus, turning 2 Steel/Lumber/Fabric to 1 Clothing/Furniture/Hardware yields about 290 added value, while turning 2 coal/iron/timber/wool/cotton to 1 Steel/Lumber/Fabric yields only about 110 added value.
If you buy Steel/Lumber/Fabric and sell Clothing/Furniture/Hardware, you will need less trade ship capacity, fewer workers and need to construct fewer factories in your capital to achieve the same thing.
5. Strategy
In the first turn:
• Declare war on your neighbouring country
• Move your army into a bordering province that borders two enemy provinces
• Move your engineer to a build a port next to a lumber province town.
• Buy a second Engineer
• Buy a second Indiaman
• Build a furniture factory, a clothing factory, and a metal work (do not bother about processing raw materials)
In the subsequent turns:
• Expand the furniture factory until level 4 (you can skip this once in the first three moves. But the furniture factory should be at level 4 when the first port is finished).
• Use 5-6 of your merchant capacity to buy Steel, Fabric and/or Lumber. Sell 2–3 of Clothing/Furniture/Hardware.
• Produce 1–3 of Clothing/Furniture/Hardware.
• Make enough profits to finance further ports. If you run out of money for ports, use the engineer to build railway links to the interesting towns that cannot be connected via ports. Do not bother about connecting resources, only towns. Ideally, this also connects some resources.
• Whenever your workforce is idle, upgrade workers.
# next steps:
• In the turn the railway station is upgraded the first time, expand the furniture factory to level 8.
• Build a miner and develop those provinces that will produce steel+hardware.
• Expand the metalworks to level 4 in the same turn the town and 2 mines (iron+coal) will be completed, and to level 8 in order to get hardware once 2iron+2coal are developed.
• Build a lumber mill and a steel mill once you receive timber and/or iron+coal. Use the lumber mill to produce paper.
• Build a farmer and develop those provinces that will produce fabric+clothing.
• The textile mill is lowest priority and usually not worth the effort. I often don't even build it until 1830. If you have good provinces, the fabric that is produced in the towns will suffice. However, make sure to upgrade the Clothing Factory in time.
• Do not bother about trade missions.
• Once you get furniture from your provinces, shift production to arms instead of hardware.
• Build a ship-of-line and blockade your enemy capital; capturing ships is more efficient than building them yourself.
# general economic strategy
• everything is scarce and every resource should always be used.
• You should be almost in shortage of everything. If you have an abundance of anything, this means that you have mad a mistake in the past moves.
