Conquest of the New World – Dutch Strategy (Deity)

In the Conquest of the New World, the Netherlands played an important role. With trading posts all across the globe and strong presences in Southeast Asia, the Dutch have founded various cities, which have become present-day metropolises.

Having been independent lordships in Lower Lotharingia for centuries only by 1433 the Burgundian Netherlands emerged. The rise of Protestantism and the strict rule of the Catholic kings of Spain over the Netherlands lead to the Dutch Revolt in 1568. The “United Provinces” (~present day Netherlands) split from Spanish rule, other than the remaining Spanish Netherlands (~present day Belgium and Luxembourg). Their struggle took 80 years, but eventually lead to the founding of the Dutch Empire with William of Orange as the first ruler.

The following Steam Achievement Guide is basically the same as Conquest of The New World – Tea and Crumpets for Everyone Steam Achievement Guide, which describes how to succeed with England. The same strategy was already validated with Conquest of The New World – Tout le Monde Francophone? Steam Achievement Guide and now, winning on Deity, with an even higher score will be my final validation. If you need more details on something, please check out the English strategy first. I will use this guide to point out small variations and improvements to the aforementioned strategy.

Part 1: Dominate Europe

Chapter 1: Initial Build Order and Research

The AI in this scenario is dominant as always. So as usually we need to defeat the main AI players as early as possible.

Now in Conquest of the New World, European Nations can not declare war on each other until the discovery of Piracy. This means in order to win with the Netherlands, you need two things:

1. Direct your Research straight to Piracy
2. Meanwhile build a military strong enough to capture those European capitals

The initial build order shows exactly that focus on Production improvements and right after only units:

Amsterdam
1. Ironworks
2. Forge
3. Cargo Ship 1
4. Navigation School (17, later than other games)
5. Cargo Ship 2 (buy)
6. Cargo Ship 3 (20)
7. Cargo Ship 4
8. Garden (25)
9. Seaport
10. Armory (buy)
11. Galleas 1
12. Circus — Total War Social Policy by this point —
13. Galleas 2, 3, 4 (turns 35, 36, 37)
14. University of Oxford (turn 40, Researching “Piracy”)
15. Privateers 6x — Conquistadores 3x (with Faith) — — Upgrade 4 Galleases (turn 53) —

Research

1. Navigation (10)
2. Calendar (15)
3. Trapping (18)
4. Economics (for Polder!) (23)
5. Printing Press
6. Education (34, starting University of Oxford ASAP)
7. Imperialism (39, 5 turns later compared to other games)
8. Piracy (40 via University of Oxford)
9. Warships (53)
10. Treasure Fleet (68)
11. Banking (71)
12. Professional Army
13. Line of Battle

European Social Policies

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Timing is essential: First getting the production bonuses is great for building the army. Only then adding City Sack and Ransom supports the European conquest.

Tier 1 Social Policies	Tier 2 Social Policies	Tier 3 Social Policies
1st SP – Maritime Infrastructure +3 Production in coastal Cities	3rd SP – Total War (~ Turn 37) +25% Production when building units New units start with +15 XP	6th SP – Overseas Empire (~ Turn 83) 1 Great Admiral +2 Movement +1 Sight for Great Admirals +2 Movement for Naval Units New Cities start with +3 population
2nd SP – City Sack +33% Combat Strength when attacking cities	5th SP – Barter System (~ Turn 71) +1 Gold per Trading post +2 🙂 from each Luxury resource	9th SP – Conquest of the New World (~ Turn 128) Double Gold from Treasures (thus double VP)
4th SP – Ransom (~ Turn 62) Gain Gold for each enemy unit killed	8th SP – Merchant Navy (~ Turn 110) +2 GPT for Trade routes with City States
7th SP – Naval Tradition (~ Turn 95) +1 🙂 for each Harbor, Seaport, Lighthouse
(Monarchy ~ Turn 147)

Chapter 2: Conquest of Europe

This being the 4th of 5 Conquest of the New World posts about a European Civilization, I’ll just list rough timings here:

1. Turn 54 War with England
2. Turn 59 War with France (La Rochelle: Turn 62, peace turn 66)
3. Turn 63 War with Portugal (Lisbon: Turn 65)
4. Turn 69 War with Spain (Seville: Turn 72)

Part 2: Conquest of the New World

Chapter 3: Defeating the European’s Colonies

Chapter 4: The Native Americans

Main points of the game:

• save treasures until you get the Conquest of the New World Social Policy as this gives you double VP and Gold
• bribe Native Americans against each other as every unit they kill themselves is one you won’t have to kill

Other than playing England and France in the first two European games, I won’t provide a detailed log of the conquest. It’s very individual per map anyways, so I’ll just show some highlights in the following gallery.

Also: Once you researched everything, sell all universities to save Gold:

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Eventually playing the Netherlands I got a quite competitive score of 7600 in 11 hours, 44 minutes.

Conquest of the New World – Netherlands (Deity) – Conclusion

This second-last European Steam Achievement playthrough for Conquest of the New World was as expected almost a bit boring. Not because it’s the Dutch, but because it’s been the 4th of 5 games as European and the strategy is exactly the same time and time again. The only question is: How much of the Americas can one conquer before time runs out…

Feedback, comments? Please express yourselves below!