Absorbing the 13 colonies as Great Britain

[JeromeBaker]

For those who have not played as GB, you get a mission at the start of the game to take 3 territories in North America and the 13 colonies will join your empire. I have played as GB twice and both times took my time getting the 3 territories while I focused on taking on either Spain or France. By the time I get around to taking the 3 territories and absorbing the 13 colonies, they always seem to turn on me and start a doomed millitary campaing against my much stronger armies. Is this hard coded into the game that they must turn on you by a certain time period? I try to keep up good relations by giving them some techs and money here and there and helping them in all of their millitary conflicts but they still seem to turn on me when I get close to winning the mission that will cause them to join my country. Has anyone else won the mission and gotten the 13 colonies to absorb into GB and if yes, did this occur early in the game?

[We shall fwee...Wodewick]

They never turned on me, they just loved me because I stopped the Cherokee from wiping them out. by the time I completed the mission I had taken half the colonies anyway.

[Lord Godfrey]

I completed the mission and absorbed the 13 colonies, but was disappointed when all of their military and naval units just disappeared and did not become mine.

[JeromeBaker]

I completed the mission and absorbed the 13 colonies, but was disappointed when all of their military and naval units just disappeared and did not become mine.

Did that mean that all of the cities you picked up were undefended?

[0rly?]

Did that mean that all of the cities you picked up were undefended?

yep yep........

[littlejames]

Did that mean that all of the cities you picked up were undefended?

I had the same thing...

Yes, all of the except 1 city where I had maybe 2 militia units.

It annoyed me a little, as all of my stacks were some way away at that point and it took a few turns to repopulate the territories.

[johnross2007]

Jerome, might you have given them the social techs that can lead to unrest?

I took the colonies around 1735-40. I had never heard of a problem of them rebelling against me. By the way, those suckers were expansionist. They actually took French Guyana from France. Which means I got it when I took the colonies :D

[Relic]

I had the same thing...

Yes, all of the except 1 city where I had maybe 2 militia units.

It annoyed me a little, as all of my stacks were some way away at that point and it took a few turns to repopulate the territories.

Well, it's maybe to stop you going bankrupt with the upkeep cost if you were fairly poor.

[Camulodunum]

I completed the mission and absorbed the 13 colonies, but was disappointed when all of their military and naval units just disappeared and did not become mine.

Same happened to me; surely this is a bug? Doesn't make any sense to loose all that manpower leaving cities un-defended.

Was also surprised that revenue didn't seem to rise much, either.

[ncbeach]

playing gb.. i sent all my armies to that far northern region in canada on the first turn.. when they arrived i went south.. france then asks to trade regions.. i accepted... then i made a deal on the next turn to trade my 2 regions for new france.. they agreed... i sailed my army around to south carolina... long story short... you can get the colonies in less than 5 years this way..

[joe4iz]

I am finishing up my GB campaign. Around 1760, I completed the task. The colonies joined me and , no you don't get their units. I never gave them anything, playing on VH/H. Maybe the difficulty level has something to do with it. No units in the cities etc,. but that is not as big a deal as it was an annoyance. I just moved the units I had around and created a few extra to garrison. I wasn't at war with Spain or France (Quebec emerged in my game and made my job easier.).

[Monsieur Alphonse]

I am finishing up my GB campaign. Around 1760, I completed the task. The colonies joined me and , no you don't get their units. I never gave them anything, playing on VH/H. Maybe the difficulty level has something to do with it. No units in the cities etc,. but that is not as big a deal as it was an annoyance. I just moved the units I had around and created a few extra to garrison. I wasn't at war with Spain or France (Quebec emerged in my game and made my job easier.).

You don't get their units regardless on what difficulty you are playing. And since you own all the regions around them (except Arcadia) when they join you, you don't need to inherit their units. It would have been nice to have some extra troops and ships once you have completed the mission.

[al Roumi]

In my GB campaign I ended up annihilating the Iroquois and Cherokee first, whilst fending the Huron off turn-by turn in Rupert's land. At the point that I was ready to declare war on France, I was also ready to take the Huron great-lakes territory.

However, whenever I killed off the main Huron stack that was threatening Rupret's land, the 13 colonies would always drop a DoW on me in their next turn -this seemed to be independant of whether i was at war with France or not at the time too. I verified this through several reloads.

Ok, so I could still have blitzed the 13 cols, but i had geared up to take the French & spanish colonies instead.

So, holding off from destroying the Huron field army near the great-lakes/Rupert's land kept the 13 colonies on my side long enough to capture Quebec and ensure that they came over to my side without any fuss or bloodshed, as the mission promised.

I can only put this repeatable DoW from the 13 colonies down to scripted AI behaviour -presumably to stop the player being able to waltz through North America without as much of a struggle. It's annoying though as it hits you just as you think you are on the cusp of that pre-eminence in the theatre. Anyhow, I hope this helps those who faced it too!

[Forward Observer]

I posted about this before, but it's worth repeating----

Playing as the British, one has two challenges in the Americas early on. One will be the pirates, and one will be securing the colonies once the mission is given. If you so decide, one can take Georgia within the first 5 or 6 turns by using the small fleets and forces already available in the Caribbean. Build a couple of line infantry units in Jamaica, combine them with the units already in the Bahamas and take Georgia. (BTW, I immediately disband all pikemen on the first turn. I would rather have missile troops and there is no point in maintaining the support cost of pikemen whom I don't want to use. )

If one plays like they are unaware of the "secure colonies" mission until it is given then dealing with the pirates is probably the first choice.

The secret to dealing with the Caribbean pirates quickly is not to fight their fleets, but instead take their two island capitals--one on the Leeward Islands and one on Trinidad. By combining your two small fleets in the Caribbean, combining the 4 units in the Bahamas and adding 3 more units that you build on Jamaica, you can take both pirate capitals by the end of 1702, or within six turns.

Bingo, the pirate fleets disappear, you have two new regions in your possession, and an army capable of landing in Georgia and taking on the Cherokee by 1705---all without sending a single ship or unit from the British Isles. Of course one may also send over troops from the homeland just to make all of this easier.

A third challenge that will occur later can also be dealt with early on and that is to build up Rupert's land to deal with the eventual DOW from the Hurons. To help with this--build the military governor's capital rather than the standard capital upgrade when you are given the choice. Given that this area is never going to be overly developed, the military type capital will give one all the higher level military troops they will need to easily defeat the Hurons and maybe send an expeditionary force to take Quebec and Montreal.

The only issue with using the the first two tactics is that one leaves the troop producing capitals undefended by regular troops for a period of time. Once the developers re-instate seaborne invasions and according to how wide spread they are---leaving any island capital undefended may be hazardous.