Civilization Beyond Earth

Dutch Empire:

• Special Trait: Mercantile - Market prices are less sensitive. This is beneficial as selling goods in Europe can decrease prices due to increased supply and fulfilled demand. This trait mitigates that price drop for a time.
• Leaders:
  • Peter Stuyvesant - Industrious: Provides +25% Hammer Production in all Settlements. Hammers are crucial for constructing buildings and generating Founding Father points. This bonus increases production by a quarter, leading to 25% more Founding Father points over the game.
  • Andiaen Van Der Donck - Charismatic: Provides +100% Time between Tax Increases. This leader extends the duration before your home nation imposes taxes on your colony, which helps preserve profits as taxes can significantly reduce income.

English Empire:

• Special Trait: Tolerant - -25% Crosses needed for Immigration. This trait allows for more free units to arrive at docks in Europe, though you cannot control the type of units received.
• Leaders:
  • George Washington - Disciplined: Provides -50% Soldier Equipment required. This significantly reduces the cost of equipping soldiers, which is especially useful for a final push for independence, as arming soldiers at European docks becomes increasingly expensive.
  • John Adams - Libertarian: Provides +25% Liberty Bells Generation in all Settlements. Liberty Bells are vital for declaring independence (requiring at least 50% generation) and can also boost production. This trait accelerates their generation.

French Empire:

• Special Trait: Cooperative - Natives are more tolerant towards territory encroachment and -50% time spent Living Among Natives to Learn a new skill. This trait reduces native hostility when encroaching on their land and speeds up the process of learning new skills from them, some of which, like Fur Trapping and Cotton Farming, are not available for purchase in Europe.
• Leaders:
  • Samuel De Champlain - Enterprising: Provides +100% Conversion Rate from Missions. Missions are a way to convert natives for field skills, though this trait is less impactful if you already have many experts.

This section of the guide delves into specific leader traits and early-game colony management in Civilization Beyond Earth.

Reader Thevenon Vivien's perspective on converted natives: Converted natives can be useful, especially when a specific raw material expert is unavailable. They appear in their originating Indian village, allowing for immediate training into desired expert roles. If not needed as experts, they can be converted into free colonists, providing numerous soldiers with specific traits. They also learn new specialities faster than regular natives.

Leader Traits

Louis de Frontenac - Militaristic

• Free Promotion: Grenadier I
• Bonuses: Mounted Units, Gunpowder Units

While the damage bonus is welcome, other leader traits offer more practical colony-wide benefits. However, this trait can be useful during the fight for independence.

The Spanish - Special Trait: Conquistador

• Bonus: +25% Attack against Natives

This trait reflects the historical conquest of South America. Its usefulness against non-Spanish units during independence is not specified.

Simon Bolivar - Determined

• Bonus: +100% effect of Liberty Bells on Rebel Attack

This trait significantly boosts unit damage when attacking, especially during independence when Liberty Bell generation is high.

Jose De San Martin - Resourceful

• Bonus: -50% XP Needed for Unit Promotions

This trait is beneficial for creating a highly skilled, albeit limited, ground force. It allows units to gain promotions with minimal experience, crucial for taking on the mother country. Natives offer limited experience, making this trait vital for maximizing unit potential.

Reader Theovenon Vivien's alternative view on San Martin: This trait is also excellent for large, untrained forces. Soldiers gain their first promotion with only 1 XP. Using a Great General with 20 newly trained soldiers can result in 20 promotions. This is particularly effective after acquiring the last military Founding Father, Dom Pedro, allowing new soldiers to gain the second level of Minuteman, granting +45% settlement defense. It also makes high-level promotions, like Veteran VI with +75% power, achievable for multiple units, enabling rapid empire conquest and effective counter to Royal Artillery.

[2.03] The Right Place

When establishing your first colony, consider the following:

• Bonuses on Land: Look for resources like cotton, wheat, and fur, which are useful for manufactured goods.
• Port City: Since the first city should be port-based, ensure access to fish or crabs for fishermen to harvest, providing a good food source.
• Proximity to Natives: Maintain a good distance from native tribes. While they may seem friendly, they will eventually attack if their lands are encroached upon, leading to fines or conflict.
• Shipping Access: Find a location with easy ship access to and from England, as ships carrying reinforcements will likely land here during independence.

In summary, prioritize resources, strategic placement, and a safe distance from potential threats.

[2.04] Building a Nation

As you place more colonies:

• Food Security: Ensure secure food access, supplemented by Wagon Trains if needed.
• Money Management: Trading valuable goods generates gold, essential for hiring specialists and purchasing ships/cannons from Europe. Be aware that increased trade leads to higher taxes from the king. Refusing to pay taxes (a 'tea party') permanently disables trading of that commodity.
• Resource Acquisition: Seek out new resources like cotton (for cloth), fur (for coats), and tobacco (for cigars). Iron mines are particularly valuable as they enable tool production.

Alright, let's dive into Part 4 of our guide for Civilization: Beyond Earth. This section is all about laying the groundwork for a strong empire, focusing on how you build things up and manage your resources. It's a bit different from the original Civ 4, so pay close attention!

First off, when you're setting up a new colony, remember you're limited to harvesting resources from only 9 tiles around your city, no matter how much culture you have. Culture mainly just expands your borders. The real game-changer here is how you gather resources. Unlike Civ 4, you don't assign people to tiles directly. Instead, you use specific 'resource collectors' – think of them as specialized workers. Servants and criminals aren't the most efficient, but your regular colonists are decent all-rounders. Converted natives are better at harvesting resources out in the field but less effective in manufacturing buildings. Then you have your Experts; they're amazing at their specific job, pulling in double the output of a colonist, but if you put them in a job they're not an expert in, they'll just act like a regular colonist.

You'll also be building structures where colonists can refine raw materials. Every turn, your tiles will produce resources based on what your colonists can harvest. So, if a colonist can produce 5 tobacco, you get 5 tobacco added to your stockpile. There are tons of buildings that take these raw materials and turn them into more valuable goods that fetch a better price back in Europe. For example, raw Iron Ore can be turned into Tools, which your colonies need, and those Tools can then be used to make Muskets. It really pays off to settle your colonies near areas that give a bonus to a specific resource. Seeing a resource on the map gives a significant boost to harvesting it, meaning more money in your pocket. You'll want to build new structures, and the very first one you should aim for is the Warehouse to increase how many resources you can store.

After that, depending on what resources you have available, you'll want to build more efficient processing buildings. This means upgrading to a bigger Lumber Mill or a more advanced Coats Factory. These buildings don't just use up more raw resources (meaning less waste), but they also transform more raw materials into those final, high-value manufactured goods.

Import/Export: Making That Early Cash

Starting out, you'll probably be short on cash, but you need money to buy Experts and, more importantly, military gear from your mother country. It's a bit funny how they don't seem to notice you buying up tons of Dragoons, horses, and muskets! To get this money, you'll need to buy and sell goods with your home country. First, you need a colony, and with the limited starting funds, you'll definitely need to export something to get by. This is why settling near resource sources is so crucial – it lets you harvest those resources and sell them raw back to Europe for some much-needed income.

When you load items onto your ship, remember it has to be in port to load up. Sending it back to Europe might take a while depending on the map, but it's a good chunk of time to build up your resource stockpile. Keep an eye on the prices of the goods you can sell. Basic stuff like Food, Lumber, Horses, Tools, and Muskets usually go for less than 5 gold each. Unprocessed goods like Tobacco, Cotton, Fur, Sugar, and Ore will get you a bit over 5 gold. Processed goods such as Rum, Coats, and Cigars are worth about 10 gold, and the rarest item, Silver, can fetch nearly 20 gold early on.

The game uses a supply and demand system. Over time, the price of goods will climb as demand increases. However, if you flood the mother country with too many of your goods, the price will drop. Still, you'll always be able to sell them for some amount. As you send more goods back, you'll need more ships as your colonies grow. You've got two main options: Ships of the Line are pretty good, offering 4 cargo slots and 4 movement points. Galleons have slightly more carrying capacity but less movement. Finding a balance between the two types is usually a smart move.

Building Your Inland Empire

As you expand, you'll need to establish more and more colonies. You can't just stick to the coast; eventually, you'll have to venture inland. If you do decide to build inland, there are a couple of key things you'll need. First, you'll need Pioneers to build roads, which speeds up travel significantly. Why? Because you'll want to use wagon trains to transport goods to your port cities. This is super important for getting your resources to market efficiently.