Conquest of the New World Scenario
Conquest of the New World Strategy games are plenty. And what a great scenario the setting makes: Dreams of Wealth and Power. Over centuries The Americas have inspired Europeans to take on the perilous journey across the ocean into the unknown. Me and my imagination first encountered the New World during my childhood in books by Karl May and others. Obviously the Conquest of the New World describes a period 200-300 years prior to that: Early colonization.
Searching for a nice cover image now, I re-discovered “Conquest of the New World“, another 90s classic PC game:
But back to Civilization:
This scenario reenacts the European colonization of the Americas. Not the first abandoned settlements founded by the Vikings. It’s all about the extensive colonization following Christopher Columbus in 1492 through the seafaring nations of Europe. The scenario ends after 150 turns in the year 1702.
The Conquest of the New World scenario features 8 Steam Achievements and originally 6, later (deluxe) 10 playable civilizations. The Map is generated dynamically each time. Europe is a constant, but the Americas (both North and South) are different each time. Usually it results in two continents connected by a narrow patch of land, resembling Central America.
Conquest of the New World Strategy: Victory Conditions
There are several ways to score points in this scenario:
- Sending up to 3 Caravels to China (Western border of the map) grants 200, 100 and 50 VP respectively
- Returning Treasures to Europe. Treasures are special units, appearing whenever a city is captured (and razed).
- Gold per Turn (for Europeans)
- Faith per Turn (for Native Americans)
Given the fact that treasures provide extraordinarily many points and are available in unlimited supply, conquest itself seems to be the single best Conquest of the New World strategy for winning. Imagine: 10 razed cities, regardless of how small they are, will grant you 1.000 VP.
Conquest of the New World Steam Achievements
Macho Picchu
Unlocked 18 Dec, 2017 @ 8:42am
Win the New World Scenario as the Incas.
German and French names of this Steam Achievement:
DE: Macho Picchu
FR: Macho Picchu
Tea and Crumpets for Everyone
Unlocked 5 Jan 2017 @ 2:53am
Win the New World Scenario as England.
German and French names of this Steam Achievement:
DE: Tee und Törtchen für alle
FR: Du thé et des biscuits pour tout le monde
Siglo de Oro
Unlocked 21 Nov 2017 @ 12:41am
Win the New World Scenario as Spain.
German and French names of this Steam Achievement:
DE: Siglo de Oro
FR: Siglo de Oro
League of Extraordinary Hoyanehs
Unlocked 16 Jan 2018 @ 12:19pm
Win the New World Scenario as the Iroquois.
German and French names of this Steam Achievement:
DE: Liga der außergewöhnlichen Hoyaneh
FR: La ligue des Hoyanehs
Huitzilopochtli’s Arrow
Unlocked 25 Dec 2017 @ 2:09am
Win the New World Scenario as the Aztecs.
German and French names of this Steam Achievement:
DE: Huitzilopochtlis Pfeil
FR: La flèche d’Huitzilopochtli
Tout le Monde Francophone?
Unlocked 29 Apr 2017 @ 12:32am
Win the New World Scenario as France.
German and French names of this Steam Achievement:
DE: Tout le Monde Frankophon?
FR: Un monde francophone
Au in the EU
Unlocked 4 Jan 2017 @ 2:51am
Return a Treasure to Europe.
Since this is the scenarios primary source of Victory Points, you’ll easily get this achievement for free.
German and French names of this Steam Achievement:
DE: Gold in der EU
FR: Or-opéen
All Aboard the Orient Express
Unlocked 4 Jan 2017 @ 7:06am
Discover a route to the Orient.
This achievement is easily obtained by sending a Caravel west to discover China and score some VP, which you will anyways do on one of the playthroughs.
German and French names of this Steam Achievement:
DE: Alle einsteigen, in den Orient-Express
FR: À bord de l’Orient Express
It took me various playthroughs to get all Steam Achievements and several more for reaching my goal of winning with each Civilization on Deity difficulty:
1. England on Deity | 6941 VP |
2. France on Deity | 6774 VP |
3. ~ 8 Failed attempts playing the Natives and ~30 started games until I found the right prerequisites for finally winning as the Shoshone | 6185 VP |
4. Spain on Deity | 7973 VP (thinking this can’t be topped) |
5. another ~30 started games in which I didn’t find good prerequisites with the Inca on Deity and 1 Inca playthrough on Settler 🙁 | – |
6. Netherlands on Deity | 7574 VP |
7. another 23 started games and some failed attempts with the Aztecs | 7208 VP |
8. another ~30 games as the Iroquois | 7328 VP |
9. Portugal on Deity | 9001 VP (making it the absolute maximum) |
10. dozens of attempts, then one game of Maya on Deity where I reached 2nd place only to overtake the leader in turn 151 | 6703 VP |
Conquest of the New World Strategy for all Steam Achievements
Playing as the Europeans you will see that all strategy guides advocate the same strategy: Conquer Europe, then annihilate the European competitors in the New World, then score VP by capturing Native American cities.
Playing the Native American civilizations — I haven’t found the #1 strategy yet and I doubt there is one. But there are factors that will strongly contribute to winning or lower your chance if they’re not checked. You’ll find those factors here.
Conquest of the New World – Factions
The original version of this scenario features the three dominant Europeans colonizing the New World: Spain, England and France. On the native side there’s the respective three dominant civilizations, namely the Iroquois, representing Northern American Indians, as well as traditional Aztecs and Incas.
For each of those civilizations there is a Steam Achievements, linked and described above. For the Civs added in the Deluxe Version, no Steam Achievements were added. Still the faction overview lists all Civs, Leaders and Unique Traits as well as links to the respective Conquest of the New World strategy guides:
Spain
- Leader: Isabella
- Unique Ability: Seven Cities of Gold — Gold bonus for discovering a Natural Wonder (Bonus enhanced if first to discover it). Culture, Happiness, and Tile Yields from Natural Wonders doubled.
- City List: Seville, Santo Domingo, Nombre de Dios, San Juan, Havana, Panama, Veracruz, Acapulco, Cartagena, Buenos Aires, Callao, Ascuncion, Valparaiso, Antigua
Download the initial save of my game:
Conquest of the New World Spain DEITY initial save
The Iroquois
- Leader: Hiawatha
- Unique Ability: The Great Warpath — Units move through Forest and Jungle in friendly territory as if they were Roads. These tiles can be used to establish City Connections upon researching The Wheel. Caravans move along Forest and Jungle as if they were Roads.
- Unique Unit: Mohawk Warrior (Replaces Swordsman), granting a combat bonus (+33%) in Forests and Jungles.
- Unique Building: Longhouse (Replaces Workshop), which instead of +10% Production provides +1 Production per worked forest.
All three unique treats of the Iroquois are very very powerful, but strongly depend on the map generated. So you can not quite rely on them. If you get a map with lots of forests, your unique treats will make the Iroquois a powerful civ to play.
Download the initial save of my game:
Conquest of the New World Iroquois DEITY initial save
France
- Leader: Francis I (a re-used Napoleon)
- Unique Ability: Native Allies — City-State Influence degrades at half and recovers at twice the normal rate.
- City List: La Rochelle, Charlesbourg Royale, Montreal, France Antarctique, Fort Caroline, Tadoussac, Port Royal, Quebec, Saint Cristophe, Trois Rivieres, Dominica, Fort Saint Pierce, Cayenne, La Grenade
Not a very powerful treat France gets in this scenario. Especially on higher levels of difficulty.
Download the initial save of my game:
Conquest of the New World France DEITY initial save
England
- Leader: Elizabeth
- Unique Ability: Sun Never Sets — +2 Movement for all Naval Units.
- City List: Plymouth, Roanoke Island, Jamestown, St. Orange, St. Johns, Plymouth Colony, Portsmouth, Salem, Boston, Windsor, Wethersfield, St. Mary’s City, Saybrook, Providence
The 2 extra movement make Englands navy a powerful enemy. Fast to move and maneuver, fast to settle the new world.
Download the initial save of my game:
Conquest of the New World England DEITY initial save
The Inca
- Leader: Pachacuti
- Unique Ability: Great Andean Road — Units ignore terrain costs when moving into any tile with Hills. No maintenance costs for improvements in Hills; half cost elsewhere.
- Unique Unit: Slinger (Replaces Archer)
- Unique Improvement: Terrace Farm
The Incan unique features are… Well… Poor. The Terrace Farm provides plenty of food, but unfortunately especially on higher difficulty levels you need to cap population due to unhappiness, so you can’t use this to it’s full potential. The slinger is an improved archer, but even when withdrawing from melee attacks this makes a poor defense against European warships and heavy cavalry.
The Aztecs
- Leader: Montezuma
- Unique Ability: Sacrificial Captives — Gains Culture from each enemy unit killed (Original) or Gains Faith from each enemy unit killed (Deluxe).
- Unique Unit: Jaguar (Replaces Warrior) gets a +33% combat bonus in Forests and Jungle, plus the Woodsman promotion granting double movement in both. It also heals after killing an enemy unit.
- Unique Building: Floating Gardens (Replaces Water Mill) are a nice replacement for Water Mills. They can be built next to lakes, are cheaper and provide an additional +15% food and extra 2 food on lakes.
In the bottom line the Aztec unique abilities are amongst the biggest advantages. The extra faith directly adds to your VP and the unique unit and building are not too dependent on the terrain in your home base.
Download the initial save of my game:
Conquest of the New World Aztecs DEITY initial save
Conquest of the New World Deluxe – Factions
Of course, playing the latest version, I chose “Conquest of the New World Deluxe”. This scenario comes with additional civilizations: The Netherlands and Portugal round up the group of colonizing nations and both actually played a big role in the history of the Americas.
On the side of the American Natives the Shoshone create a bit of diversity in North America whilst the Mayas complete the “usual suspects” of American civilizations. The Conquest of the New World strategy doesn’t change much, due to these additions.
The Netherlands
- Leader: William
- Unique Ability: Dutch West India Company — 50% more Trade Routes available (Round Down).
- City List: Amsterdam, Beverwijck, New Amsterdam, Pavonia, Curacao, Bonaire, Aruba, Sint Eustatius, Fort Doede Hoop, Sint Maarten, Saba, Wiltwijck, Paramaribo, Fort Kyk-Over-Al
Download the initial save of my game:
Conquest of the New World Netherlands DEITY initial save
Portugal
- Leader: Catherine (a re-used Maria I)
- Unique Ability: Mare Clausum — Resource diversity grants twice as much Gold for Portugal in Trade Routes.
- City List: Lisbon, Porto Seguro, Sao Vicente, Recife, Salvador da Bahia, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Joao Pessoa, Sao Cristovao, Vitoria, Belem, Igarassu, Olina, Sao Bernardo do Campo
Download the initial save of my game:
Conquest of the New World Portugal DEITY initial save
The Maya
- Leader: Pacal
- Unique Ability: Hero Twins — Receive a second Pantheon Belief when forming their minor religion at the start of the game.
- Unique Unit: Atlatlist (Replaces Archer) is merely 10% cheaper than the Archer which it replaces.
- Unique Building: Pyramid (Replaces Shrine) provides an extra Faith and +2 Science.
The Maya unique features are quite poor in comparison to other civilization’s. The science bonus helps catching up with the Europeans, but a more helpful unique unit would be nice for the military side of things.
Download the initial save of my game:
Conquest of the New World Maya DEITY initial save
The Shoshone
- Leader: Pocatello
- Unique Ability: Great Expanse — Founded Cities start with additional territory. Units receive a combat bonus when fighting within their own territory.
- Unique Unit: Pathfinder (Replaces Scout), stronger than the Scout (8 vs 5) and able to pick the goody-hut benefit (!!!) the Pathfinder also upgrades to Composite Bowmen instead of Archers and also saves you some Gold here.
- Unique Improvement: Tipi, constructed on plains it provides +2 Food and +2 Faith.
The Shoshone benefits are great! Not only will it be easier to defend against other Native American civs, the bonus is also helpful against the Europeans. Additional Food and Faith is great! Plains are everywhere, so the Shoshone have good chances to endure the struggle vs. the Europeans. Below Conquest of the New World Strategy guide describes how I first bet this scenario on Deity playing the great Shoshone:
The Great Spirit
Unlocked 8 Nov @ 9:47am
Beat the game on any difficulty as Pocatello.
This is the achievement I got, because I had never played Pocatello before. Here I won the “Conquest of the New World” Scenario on Deity on the 3rd playthrough (and the ~30th started game with good starting conditions).
Download the initial save of my game:
Conquest of the New World Shoshone DEITY initial save
Conquest of the New World – City States
There are seventeen City-States in the Conquest of the New World scenario for Civilization 5. My main focus in siding with them is of course Cultural City States, since they give your culture a tremendous boost, essential for unlocking higher tier policies quicker. Next in line is at your will, but I find that militaristic CS provide the lowest value, since the units you’ll receive are inferior to anything you (and other civs) can build.
Here’s the list including links to the historical cities:
- Inuit (Cultured)
Inuits live in Greenland and the Canadian arctic. There’s two more tribes living in the arctic Alaska and the three together are called Eskimo! - Yanomami (Cultured)
The Yanomami live in the Amazon basin and have only had contact with other civilizations in 1759! - Muisca (Cultured)
The Muisca are a group of indigenous inhabitants of the central highlands of Colombia. Since the conquest when their numbers had been between 0.5 and 3 million people, Muisca population as dwindled down to ~14.000. - Hopi (Cultured)
The Hopi are an Indian tribe around 19.000 strong, living in Arizona. - Anasazi (Cultured)
The Anasazi are an ancient native American culture known for having build the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. - Seminole (Militaristic)
The Seminoles are one Florida’s indigenous people. - Lakota (Militaristic)
The Lakotas together with several other Sioux tribes for a confederation in North and South Dakota. - Cherokee (Militaristic)
The Cherokee are a group of native Americans of the southeastern Unites States. With ~300.000 tribal members it is the largest officially recognized tribe in the United States. - Muscogee (Militaristic)
The Muscogee are some of the indigenous people descended from the Mississippian culture. - Mapuche (Militaristic)
The Mapuche are still 1.7 million strong, with the biggest part of them living in present day Chile and some 200.000 in Argentina. - Carib (Maritime)
The Caribs are some of the indigenous people of the West Indies. - Algonquin (Maritime)
The Algonquin are a group of indigenous inhabitants of most of present day Canada and archrivals of the Iroquois. - Huron (Maritime)
The Huron are one of the indigenous people of Canada, concentrated on the shore of Lake Ontario. - Wabanaki (Maritime)
The Wabanaki, “people of the dawn”, are native American people of the coastal provinces of eastern Canada. - Arawak (Maritime)
The Arawaks are some of the indigenous people of the West Indies and the first natives encountered by Christopher Columbus.
Deluxe only:
- Tzintzuntzan (Mercantile)
Neighbors to the Aztecs, the Tarascan state surrendered to the Spanish after the complete destruction of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. - Mixtec (Mercantile)
Neighbors and for a while vassals of the Aztecs. - Maya (Cultured) — Removed with Deluxe version as they obviously deserve their own playable civ!
Conquest of the New World – Conclusion
So far the Conquest of the New World scenario is a lot of fun – more diverse than Wonders of the Ancient World but not as complex and time consuming as Into the Renaissance. The new technologies are nice, but easy. The social policy trees are great and well balanced.
Now that I’ve played with all civilizations, I can say the scenario could and should be a bit more versatile: The very same Conquest of the New World strategy works for all Europeans and a second strategy (including starting conditions) work for all Native civilizations. This should definitely be improved in scenario setup (but as we all know it never will).
Further reading:
Sources:
I started as Spain in one of my games, I captured three cities of the Incas, I could only buy treasure from the capital.After that, I finished the game even though I had the highest score, he said I lost
Atlatlists get +33% strength vs wounded units in this scenario. They gun down things really well; makes one wish they had that ability in the regular game.