Imperialism
 

Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review and Download (if available)

I remember this gem now. My small but deadly army of five Regulars and four Heavy Artillery are sweeping the minor nations out of the way (it's early game mind ya)!:rocks:

A fun title, along with Imperialism 2. Too bad Frog City never got the funding they needed to continue producing great games, but from what they told me back then, publishers wanted promises that they would issue cross-platform titles instead of just concentrating on PC stuff.

Hey, just letting it be known that this forum thread doesn't link from the page for imperialism.

Love this game :)

BTW, crushing minor nations early on isn't very useful, you don't have the engineers, money, or labourforce to exploit your own nation yet! Better to build trade missions and work on relations

Fixed.

That's just the thing though, it is useful. It's al about resources and working on the ability to gain those resources for later development is worthwhile. Just got declared on by 4 great powers and wiped one out with ease. Working about 1 general, 2 Infantry men (the 2nd quality of troop), and about 20 Heavy Artillery in my main army and haven't lost a unit since I started the game. Also, was working with about 15 provenances before I got declared on.

Trust me when I say it works well. It also still says I'm a weak military power yet I haven't lost a fight yet. Fun times.:thumbs:

Love the game so far, but the gamepage says it's DosBox compatible...:no: I wouldn't want to underestimate my own ignorance, but I've looked through the readme files etc. and it seems to require some form of Windoze in order to run. Any help out there? Or at least a correction on the game info page? Cheers.

*^_^ Sorry. First update ever, and for some reason my link to this thread didn't work either, so red-faced all round... :)

Great game. Not easy. I probaly wouldn't attack the minor nations, i would just buy them over and use thier land. i know i have a wya more advance industry than the other Great powers but it says it is poor. hate that.

I woudl really liek to know hwo to get other Greta Powers to accept your alliance offers. No matter what they never accept them if i sned them one. Also when ever want peace with them ( incase we are at war) they never accept peace. This is the only part of the game i find hard, for if i had alliances long enough i could easily create and army and cause some havoc

I've still got my game
 

I still have the CD from when this was released. It will install under xp and Vista if you "Tweak the Combatability setting. A little buggy but it is old.
Great Nations, if you give them money and setup trade discounts for a turn or two. Also selling goods that they want. (check the diplomacy screen).
The game is easy take over a minor nation or to. Then befriend a few, if you pick the right ones a nearby Great power will attack you can help them and take over the minor nation in defence.
One of the things I love is the number of different ways to win.
Best bet on harder levels, build Artillery, when technology moves forward buy the upgrades, upgrade your units and then invade.
Imperialism 2 was...disappointing

I liked them both, but Frog City ran up against producers who insisted on multiplayer and multi-platform games. They sent me an alpha of a title based on Greek myths that I've still got here: a kind of RPG/strategy hybrid with some nice ideas. They even had a major publisher interested in financing it--but the VP of Accounting said no, positively not: games on Greek myths do not sell. He wouldn't budge, not even after the company's best-selling in-house developer/producer agreed to take the new game on as his personal project. The guy was adamant.

So the project never went anywhere. And we wonder why so many cookie-cutter titles are produced all the time.

Where can I get an instruction manual for this game?

I think this is the best strategy/empire builder i have played yet.

I played a couple of tutorial level games to get a handle on how things work but found it, obviously, very easy. Having accustomed to how things work i went for a proper game and restarted on the 'normal' setting, the setting which, in my opinion, all games are supposed to be played on unless you want a challenge or to give your brain a rest.

Well, what a contrast.

First normal game i though i was doing ok until one empire declared war on me and his allies followed suit. After weathering a couple of attacks i had built the forces to counter attack and pushed him back to his capital. I thought i'd have some time to build up sufficient force to destroy the capital them maybe attack a minor power. One of the others who declared against me then took a territory and had a formidible army when i went to retake. Clearly thiings were not going to work out.

After another couple of abortive starts i think i'm in a decent position now. There is no tips section on the download page or any discussion here so i thought i'd put forward what i've determined. Please feel free to contribute.

1. In order to have a decent selection of resources availabel the empire should be located in the temperate zone of the map. Too close to the top or bottom gives too much tundra and close to the equator, deserts.

2. It seems vital to put your capital in the location which will feed the most workers and hopefully yeild some extra resources too.

3. The engineer has to connect the capital with a supply of each resource type as quick as posible. All three food types, wood, wool/cotton and coal/iron.

4. Surplus in something sellable needs to be made to generate income.

5. Trade delegations should be made in minor nations who can provide several raw resources (i prefer ones which sell wood, wool or cotton, iron and coal) but this may vary to taste. Trading with several countries each specialised in a different area may also work but i suspect long term political gains will be lower this way.

6. Buy canned food when you can to improve relations with other major nations.

7. Suggestions?



One thing i'm not sure of though. Do the computer players cheat?

I've been struggling to collect enough resources, recruit workers, etc but the computer never seems to struggle (except Patagon).

For example, transport is required to get all those resources to the capital for production and i have the highest transport value but the otehr nations have more industry, military, merchant marine, etc.

How can the computer build all those things if they are transporting fewer resources to their capital?

Sounds like you're not doing too badly for a first try; a lot better than I managed way back, at least. Good job going straight for normal difficulty, you can get a monster military-industrial complex going a bit too effortlessly on the easier ones.

Temperate zones tend to do really well on food production for getting your manpower up and running, but keep in mind that some desert resources may turn out to be rather useful for a modernizing Great Power around the turn of the century...

Try to focus on the big bucks here. Although raw material sales can temporarily get you out of an economic death spiral, the extra profit you make by having your industries do their added-value thing is what will keep you afloat. Try to get your provincial towns to chip in whenever it's viable; if you can get a wood-heavy province to make furniture or something you'll be getting nearly free export profits from it. When the world markets get more polarized later on in the game you may have to break out the subsidies to make a sale, though.

Trading is great and you should keep doing it. Keep in mind that you won't be able to afford to regularly trade with more than one or two minors once you move up in difficulty, so don't spread yourself too thin. Once you identify the nation you want to jump in bed with, don't be afraid to give them a good deal (25% extra should be viable) to keep the other Great Powers from becoming Most Favoured, and make sure you buy at least 1 of every resource they offer you. 1 sale is 1 diplomatic bonus, no matter how much stuff is actually sold.

Your workers don't actually like to eat canned food, so try to get as much fresh stuff from your homeland as possible. If you're desperate to play nice with another Great Power, try to see if they're exporting anything you can turn into cannons in the ledger. ;)

Merchant marine transports resources to the capital as well. Keep tabs on the ledger to see where those guys are getting their stuff from. As for industry, they may just have a lot of upgraded factories, or they are getting a lot of production done in their other cities (I forgot where those goods get counted). Generally, you will be able to see a decent correlation between Industry and Military, though. Those cannons don't make themselves.

Nice, a reply. Shame i can't post with my account and get emailed notifications though... (or maybe i can, lets see...)

Anyway, i did actually find a guide on Gamespot i think and from what i've gathered from that it seems like the other major powers are buying a lot of raw resources and manufacturing things from them. That explains why they all seem to have loads of merchant marine and little internal transport but still heaps of industry.

If it works for the computer it sounds like it would be a good tactic to use as a player. Afterall, building ships is a lot quicker than building railways and depots. It also gives the advantage of improoving relations with everyone they are buying from.

(I haven't played in a couple of weeks though as there are so many games to try here...)

Zoom Bug
 

The game crashes when I click the "zoom" button. Is anybody else experiencing this?

Zoom Bug
 

I found the solution on another forum -- you have to have moved all civilian units before you click "zoom". Running the game in Windows 95 compatibility mode also fixed this for one person.

I had the zoom issue as well, thanks :)
Found another problem though: When conquering a major nation, if you leave the Capitol City province for last, the game gets stuck at the end of turn if you ordered troops to invade it. I've gotten rid of another major nation taking the Capitol City early on, so I only figured out this issue now... Which sucks since my 2 enemies are reduced to that one province.

Anyone found a solution for this? One that does not involve conceding provinces?

I have to ask... is the patched version? Because it won't play past a certain point otherwise.

Best game ever !
 

Imperialism is definetely the best game ever !

Even now it is the only game I play regularly. One or two times in the year I am in the fever and have to play it, even I know all the moves inside out.

It's so frustrating that no later game was able to reach the high strategic level of imperialism, especially Imperialism II was near to calumny...I was so disappointed because I expected a game at the eye level.

The only drop of bitterness is the really bad KI. To make it more challenging I have to declare war on all great powers right after first round. ;)

To give you guys a good advice: The first rounds wood is important but then the only thing what counts is producing steel. Dont conquer minor nations in the beginning but select the ones with the most iron/coal and make as many as you can satisfy to your favorite trade partners ! With this tactics you can make lots of money in the beginning and in the later game the steel-industry will bring you the victory !

But in all the years, there is one question I still have: Is it somehow possible to use the multiplayer-mode via LAN or even online? I tried it several times but it didnt work... playing against other humans would be so magnificent !

noob
 

A "first ten moves" tips list would be cool.

Checked out the manual, the tutorials, the strat guide and here. being a civ player, I have one quick question regarding bonus terrain (farms, trees, orchards, etc).
Should you avoid building (your city) on them? (as, some games you lose added potential production from mines, farms and such, because you can't improve city tiles).

On the contrary, it is beneficial, because you get free upgrades of the terrain in your capital city.The other depots dont influence that, you can still improve their tile, have to actually.

Corrupt File
 

Am I the only one having a problem extracting the files?
When I try to extract it said that the pictpaid.gob file was corrupt. Any ideas on how to fix it?

Have you tried downloading again? As there have been no other complaints, that may be the place to start.

Or another program to extract the archive?

It's just me or the link to download is broken?

Server is down.....
http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=27277

Forget everything learned playing civ.

You can only choose a place for your capital to be built (not in beginner mode!), and tiles which can be improved (mountains, hills, swamps woods,...) can't be taken. So don't worry about that. The only thing to keep in mind: Any capital (the initial and also conquered ones) counts as a railway station AND as an harbor. So the resources from adjected tiles are transported to it for free.

Some other hints for the beginning of the game:

1. Feed your Workers! Improve any agricultural tile which is accessible (i.e. adjected to the capital).

2. Buy/ train another engineer! This unit is worth the price. Start to prospect at once, to find places, where the engineers can place tracks.

3. Get your production going! Focus at least on one key industry. The first key industry will be lumber >> timber >> furniture next is iron/ coal >> steel >> hardware. You will need those intermediate products to build up your transportation, production and later for warships.

4. Train your workers first instead of attracting new ones. New workers have to be fed.

5. Start your transportation network. Resources from distant places can be easily acquired by sea transportation via harbors. Sea transport costs transport capacity but does not need tracks. during a war sea transport can be endangered, but you can connect the distant harbors to your railway net later. Place your railway stations wisely! They cannot be removed later.

6. Try to establish a constant income by producing and selling consumer goods. In the beginning, don't waste important intermediates (steel, timber), produce textiles instead.

7. Buy steel! This will establish diplomatic relations and slow down other major powers, cause they lack steel for developing their industry.

8. Don't waste money for diplomatic missions in the beginning. Open up trade missions, for they are cheap. Focus your diplomatic efforts on only two or three minor nations with interesting resources. Start with trade subventions and an embassy, give grants later when you can afford it. Don't try to get a nation adjected to yours as a colony, it's easier to conquer it. Accept any pact or alliance, which is offered.

9. Building up your army the mixture is important. If you prefer to fight tactical battles, you need a balanced army. Armys of only one or two kinds of troops are not very efficient. Infantry is not that important for attacks. If you don't a horseranch on your territory, you might be in trouble.

10. In a fight it's important to smash the enemy units totally. Any unit, which escapes gains experience and can be turned against you in the next battle.

11. For Warships there's one Rule: The bigger, the better. Frigates (and raiders in the later game) work fine, if the enemy does not guard his frighters with heavier units. Unfortunately seafights are always strategic.

I always play as the Ottoman Empire. Things go veeeerry slowly at the start (in fact for most of the game) but I have got them up to a fairly decent level before and been in a position to beat Austria and Russia in a war. You really have to use every single unit of resource perfectly though!

Two things get on my nerves:
- how unless you interfere Britain will always annihilate France and probably win the game very early in the 1820 start time.
- the way all the great powers will gang up on you in wars, and won't accept peace until they've destroyed you. It's the same in Imperialism 2, I'm always doing fairly well when suddenly everyone declares war at once! :(

Well, I can't talk about Imperialism but in Imperialism 2 it make sense that all the big powers suddenly jump on you since the whole goal of the game is to be the winner among those big powers. All game long, all you do is build strength on the new world to be able to do just that.

But if you don't want other powers to jump on your it is easy: just either bribe or trade them out from attacking you.

This could have been written by me. After two years of playing this nearly nonstop and still not getting tired of it, I have to agree, best game ever.
Recently I moved to Nigh on Impossible and its not that much harder than hard.

The best hint for new players is to build a ship of the line as soon as possible, then the computer players will leave you alone or even ally with you. You need to have this ship at least once you see the other nations form alliances in the newspaper. If you dont, they will gang up on you.
If you do, you will get alliance offers and once the war starts, you should not break your alliance, or you will be next.

Once you have the ship, the most important thing is industrialization of your provinces. By that I do not mean connecting ressources. If you have lots wood or cotton in a province and you build a depot on or next to the city tile of a province, you will get free lumber, or even free furniture! This stuff if completely free , does not require labour and is not deducted from the ressources.
So, if you have lots of forest in a province, build a depot on the city or near it and then expand your furniture industry up to 20. Especially in the beginning the free lumber and furniture will give you a huge boost.
This works with steel, too, but you need coal and iron in a province to get free stuff. This is of course the jackpot, since steel is the most important ressource.
You do not need to connect the ressources and you should not, since it is too costly and requires much labor, buy coal,iron or steel instead. You should however upgrade the ressources, even the not connected ones, since that gives more free stuff.
I think industrialiazation is the most important and most motivating aspect of the game.

Edit: Your capital province will not industrialize, so build it in a poor province. The best location is in a poor province, but on a tile next to lumber or cotton from another province, this gives you immediate resources to work on and does not take stuff from industrialization. Unlike in Imp 2, food is not very important for the starting location.

I've got a little question. I had a bunch of artillery in a border town and when I upgraded the artillery tech, it said it would also upgrade the units, but it doesn't. Do I have to do anything extra? does it just take time? It's a bit of an issue since the province is a hotzone for getting attacked

I think you have to upgrade them individually, at an additional cost in resources. But i haven't played in a while.

The "These units will also be upgraded" refers to production of new units, not ones already in service. (I think).

yeah, just found out, in the army info screen.

This is the first time I seem to be winning! or at least not losing yet. Normal difficulty and I'm allied with 2 other countries, picking off the others one by one. I only managed to pick up 5 extra provinces, but I seem to constantly get capitols and provinces with lots of resources, while the ai seems to pick the easiest targets... Ofcourse it's hardly defended, it doesn't have anything worth defending! However, taking them all out means the capitol loses income which means that the army is slowly dismissed. The trick is to attack while it is weakened but not so weak that my allies will attack first.


I'm getting to end game, 4 great nations left, me and 2 smaller ones vs the big guy, though he's not that big anymore, in three turns I took 7 provinces. I'm not even develloping anymore, letting the AI infrastructure be enough. The only exception is mines and oil. I have excess lumber, excess timer, paper, cloth, clothes, wool, linnen, furniture and eerything, but I can never get enough steel and well, that power plant is a great help, though I do keep a workforce at hand in case a lot of my oil gets cut off. The workforce is mostly at work making foor, of which i have 3000 now, despite selling a lot and recruiting a lot. Average income per turn, 50.000

so a note. As soon as you seem to be exceeding your spendings per turn, buy ores, coal and metal. You'll need enormous quantities later on. Don't worry too much about horses. If you have them, nice, they don't sell well, but the light artillery is very useful. The heavy cavalry only really gets useful after the first upgrade in my opinion, 3 range is not enough for anyting. Since light infantry to sharpshooters is the first upgrade, and the others will take some time, especially the ones for the other infantry, they suddenly become top of he class.

all in all (not counting AI stupidity) it makes the battles interesting through all the ages. You've got infanry and cavalry to screen for your artillery moving into position. Light artillery moves faster but is extremely vulnerable. However, if some of your units have drawn the fire of enemy artilery, your light artillery can quickly move in to take it out. This usually causes the enemy cavalry and infantry to attack your light artillery, but your stationary, long range artillery is using defensive fire, and your own (surviving) foot and horse units also fire back. The damage can be astounding.

Just be happy the ai doesn't use only heavy artillery on defence, like I do. Nothing gets within range without being hit 2 or 3 times, which is usually enough to rout or kill them

capitals seem to keep on buying items even when captured, but I might be wrong. Having no market for your goods is the nightmare for any empire

GOG version of the game DO NOT CRASH when using the ZOOM button. They always deliver TOP stuff!!!

There is a wiki for this game (and others by Frog City Software): http://imperialism.wikia.com

Over 400 articles, with provision for comments and "talk" pages and screenshots. Of course it has a link to Abandonia! Come and help write more articles or improve what's there - or just learn strategy and tactics from some long-time enthusiasts.

Details of upgrading
 

As other responders have noted, it's not automatic. The game does not say it would upgrade them. It says "Allows ... upgrading..."

When you click the left-hand button to see details of an army or fleet, that button will be lit up if any units can be upgraded, and any that can be upgraded will have a little icon at the right. Hover your pointer over one to see the cost, or just click it to do the upgrade or to be told that you lack some resource.

Incidentally, the game does not always tell you everything that the new technology does. Sapper upgrade is available quite early but is not mentioned for the tech that allows it. See
http://imperialism.wikia.com/wiki/Technology_(Imp1)

The very first move is very important. Do it right, and you can get away with a bit of slack later. See
http://imperialism.wikia.com/wiki/St...of_Imperialism

That page should be expanded to cover subsequent moves, but even what's there has tips that can apply throughout your first two or three years. It links to articles about specific topics.