The European Nations and How They Differ

You choose between four nations: England, France, Spain and the Netherlands. The selection screen gives each one a single sentence. In the code each nation actually has a handful of advantages, a different start, and a computer personality that decides how it behaves when you play against it.

This guide covers what each nation gets, what the computer players do differently, how the European powers deal with you and with each other, and how a nation can leave the game. How difficulty helps the computer players is in How Difficulty Affects the Game.

---

At a glance #

¹ A Veteran Soldier for a human player on Discoverer or Explorer.

---

1. Choosing a nation #

England is selected by default. After choosing, you can type your own leader name (up to 23 characters); the computer players keep the historical names above. The difficulty title goes in front of it in the game's messages, for example "Viceroy Walter Raleigh".

The nation you pick changes nothing about the map or where you start. The four nations are dealt into the four starting rows at random (see How the New World Is Generated).

---

2. England: immigration #

"…requires only 2/3 the normal number of Crosses to attract new colonists from Europe."

The crosses needed for each new immigrant are 2 × (your colonists in colonies + all your units) + 8, up to 4000. England needs two thirds of that, rounded down.

The bonus works for a computer England too, on top of the immigration discount the computer gets on harder levels.

Nothing else about England is special. One curiosity: the shared European market slowly forgets old sales, and the game does this on England's turn, so the code looks as if England "ages" the market. It affects every nation the same way.

Tip: England's bonus grows with you. Every immigrant raises the cost of the next one, so a third off matters more the larger your empire becomes. William Brewster (choose your immigrants) and William Penn stack with it.

---

3. France: cooperation with the natives #

"…create alarm among the Indians at only half the rate of other Europeans."

France's advantage is larger than the description suggests, because it works in several places:

Rounding down matters most. Many sources of native alarm come in steps of +1, above all the steady pressure from colonies near native land. Half of 1 rounds down to 0, so French colonies never raise a tribe's alarm just by being close to it. The settlements' own grudges still grow, but the tribe as a whole stays calm.

What France does not get: the tribes' starting alarm is the same as for everyone else.

A computer France also founds its colonies closer to native settlements than the other nations, and spreads into many small colonies.

Tip: France can settle right next to native land and found more missions per tribe before they start to provoke it. With Pocahontas, almost nothing short of an attack raises alarm. See How the Native Americans Work.

---

4. Spain: conquest #

"…+50% combat bonus when attacking Indian villages."

Spain's better odds for treasure from Agrarian villages are worked out in the code but never used: everyone has the same 1 in 3 chance there.

The bonuses stack with the conquest fathers:

• Cortes: Aztec cities give +9000 over the base, and Inca cities give nearly twice the base. Camps and villages always pay.
• Sepulveda: converts from defeated mission settlements become 92%, and certain with an expert mission.
• Las Casas: takes Spain's convert chance back to 31%.

See Founding Fathers and How Combat Works.

A computer Spain is the most aggressive towards the natives. It goes to war with tribes that have done nothing to it, takes on stronger tribes than the others would, settles right next to their settlements, and always refuses when they beg for food.

Tip: Spain is built for the Aztecs and Incas. A veteran soldier, +50% against cities and a Jesuit for converts afterwards: Spain gets more out of a city than anyone.

---

5. The Netherlands: trade #

"…prices in Amsterdam do not collapse as quickly… and recover more quickly."

Each nation has its own market in Europe (see How Europe Works). All four start with the same prices, and every sale by any nation pushes all four markets. The Dutch market is different in two ways:

• Sales move Amsterdam's prices by only two thirds as much as the other markets. Purchases move all four equally.
• Amsterdam's prices drift back towards normal faster. The drift is doubled on every other turn, 50% faster on average. This works both ways: a good whose price is drifting down also falls faster in Amsterdam.

The Netherlands also starts with a Merchantman (5 moves, 4 cargo holds) instead of a Caravel (4 moves, 2 holds).

Nothing in combat, native relations or taxes is Dutch-specific.

Tip: The Merchantman is worth as much as the market bonus early on. Twice the cargo from the first turn means twice as many colonists or tools per trip.

---

6. Starting conditions #

Every nation, human or computer, starts with three units on a ship sailing to its starting position:

The waiting colonists on the docks are the same for every nation, except Spain's Jesuit Missionary. The extra help a human gets on the easy levels (starting gold, expert colonists on the docks, a veteran soldier) is in How Difficulty Affects the Game.

---

7. Identity #

When you first reach land you are asked to name it. That name is used for your colonies as a whole in the game's messages. Saved games are named after your nation and the year, such as eng1620.sav.

Each nation has an anthem that plays when you meet it. The Dutch anthem never plays: the game plays the Spanish one for the Netherlands by mistake.

---

8. The computer players' personalities #

Three hidden numbers #

Each leader comes with three hidden numbers. They have no names in the game; the labels here come from what the code does with them:

Aggression:

• makes a computer player readier to go to war with other computer players;
• makes it harder to talk out of being hostile towards you;
• sets how many muskets its colonies stockpile: 150 for England and Spain, 100 for France, 50 for the Dutch.

Expansion decides how many colonists it sends out to found new colonies, and how big its colonies must get first. France founds new colonies once its colonies average about 4 colonists. England waits until they average about 10, so it builds fewer, larger colonies. Spain and the Dutch wait for about 7.

Garrison decides how many soldiers each colony keeps. In a colony of 12, Spain keeps about 4 armed units, England and France about 3, and the Dutch about 2.

Hard-coded habits #

• Spain makes war on the natives. A computer player normally attacks a tribe near its colonies only if the tribe is already uneasy with it, no other European is in the region, and the tribe is clearly weaker. Spain ignores the first two conditions and accepts twice the odds.
• Spain never shares food with a begging native settlement. Every other computer player always does.
• France and Spain settle next to native settlements. When choosing a colony site, the penalty for being near native land is halved for France and quartered for Spain.

Everything else the computer players do is the same for all four nations.

---

9. Meeting the other Europeans #

When a meeting happens #

A meeting is triggered when one of your units on land moves next to another nation's unit or colony, or one of theirs moves next to yours. A scout can also "meet with the mayor" of a rival colony. Ships never trigger a meeting, and there are none during the War of Independence.

After the first meeting, a nation only talks to you again once 16 turns have passed since the last conversation, or 32 turns after a peace treaty. A scout visit always gets a conversation.

Whether they are hostile #

Before speaking, the rival decides whether to be hostile. These make it hostile:

• its forces and yours in the same region, or its forces near a large colony of yours;
• its units next to your colonies, especially next to an undefended one;
• you are the leading nation (see Rankings), after 1572, with more than three colonies;
• it holds a grievance against you (below), unless your field army is three times the size of its own;
• the King has made you declare war on it.

These calm it down:

• you have it outgunned in a region where it has colonies;
• Benjamin Franklin, on either side;
• the early game: with no grievance, nobody is hostile before 1592 on Discoverer, 1582 on Explorer, 1572 on Conquistador, 1562 on Governor or 1552 on Viceroy;
• it is busy with other enemies (natives or Europeans), unless it is an aggressive nation.

What they ask of you #

A conversation can bring, in this order:

1. Break a treaty. "We note that you have signed a treaty with those unrepentant heretics, the …" Agreeing ends your peace with that nation, which then holds a grievance against you. The native version asks you to join a war on a tribe; agreeing adds 100 to that tribe's alarm towards you. Either "yes" calms the rival.
2. Withdraw your privateers. Asked if one of your privateers has attacked it. Agreeing sends every privateer you own to Europe, with anything stacked with them.
3. Withdraw from their colonies. Agreeing sends all your armed units next to its colonies to Europe.
4. A "donation to the Church": tribute of up to 20,000 gold. The amount grows with difficulty, with the rival's strength near your colonies, and doubles if it holds a grievance against you. Paying ends the hostility; refusing means war.
5. Reparations in goods, if one of its units walked up to your colony: the goods of yours that are worth most at its prices.

If it is still hostile after all that, it declares war: "We can no longer tolerate your foul provocations. Prepare for WAR!"

What you can ask of them #

At war with no treaty, a rival that is not hostile offers peace. If you refuse, a rival you have the upper hand on may pay you to spare its colonies.

At peace, you can:

• Demand they withdraw their units from next to your colonies. Sometimes it is free; otherwise it costs (25 × difficulty + 50) × the attack strength of those units. You can also threaten them, and they back down with a chance that depends on your field strength against theirs.
• Threaten them for a gift: they pay what they think they owe you, if anything.
• Propose an alliance: pay them to declare war on a tribe or another European. The price is 500 to 10,000 and grows with your own treasury, so ask while you are poor. Franklin halves it.

The truce after peace #

After every meeting that ends at peace, a computer player may not attack you for 12, 10, 8, 6 or 4 turns (from Discoverer to Viceroy), halved with Franklin.

---

10. War and peace between Europeans #

• Met but without a treaty means war. The Foreign Affairs report shows it as "War", and the computer players attack anyone they are not at peace with.
• Grievances. Capturing a colony, breaking a treaty, helping a rival against a third nation, or being caught using privateers gives the victim a grievance against you. While it holds one, its demands double, it will not pay to be spared, and it is hostile unless your army is three times its own.
• Breaking a treaty yourself takes a confirmation: "Cancel Action / Break Treaty".
• Privateers sit outside diplomacy. Attacking with one doesn't break a treaty, but it does make the victim complain, and on rare occasions it works out who did it.
• Sneak attacks. A rival that is secretly plotting against you while at peace gets a 1 in 4 chance each turn, once the truce has run out, to break the treaty on its side only. Its next attack is announced as "Sneak attack by the treacherous …!"

Tip: The Foreign Affairs report shows each nation's view of its own treaties. A nation that lists you as "War" while your row still says "Peace" is about to attack.

Wars between computer players #

Two computer players reconsider their relations from time to time. They avoid war:

• when you are the leading nation, because they all make peace to deal with you;
• before 1532;
• while either is still tiny;
• with an independent republic;
• when either is outgunned where it has colonies.

Otherwise the more aggressive and the stronger the nation, the readier it is for war. A war you paid one nation to start stays on until the grievance it created is gone.

---

11. Rankings #

The game ranks the four nations by a hidden score, recalculated at every meeting:

population + 2 × colonies + gold ÷ 100 + military strength

One soldier counts as much as 16 colonists, so the ranking is mostly about army size. It is never shown, but it matters:

---

12. The Foreign Affairs report #

For each nation the report always shows:

• its leader;
• whether it is at war or at peace with each nation it has met, from its own point of view;
• its rebels and Tories.

With Jan de Witt it also shows the nation's colonies, average colony size, population, military power, naval power and merchant marine. Military power is the sum of its units' attack values.

The report is not available after you declare independence.

---

13. How nations leave the game #

A rival is never eliminated by losing its colonies. A computer player without colonies keeps buying ships and colonists in Europe and tries again. Nations leave the game in three ways.

The War of the Spanish Succession #

When your rebel sentiment first reaches 50%, or when you declare independence if that comes first, a war in Europe removes one rival from the New World:

"War of the Spanish Succession ends in Europe! {nation}, ravaged by war, agrees to cede New {land} to the {other}. Treaty of Utrecht specifies that all {nation} possessions in the New World now fall under {other} rule."

• The loser is the weakest computer player, by population + 2 × colonies + 3 × ships.
• The winner is the next weakest, not the strongest.
• The winner takes the loser's colonies, units and missions in the New World, and its map. The colonies' liberty bells are reset to zero. Units in Europe or at sea are lost, and so is the loser's gold.
• The loser's place is later taken by the Crown when you declare independence.

A rival winning independence #

A computer player becomes independent when enough of its colonists support it: 80 rebel colonists on Discoverer, down to 40 on Viceroy. "The King of … grants independence to …! … elected first President of the new republic."

• It is renamed: the United States of America, the Republic of Quebec, the Republic of Mexico or the Republic of Surinam.
• It makes peace with every European nation, including you, and forgets all grievances. It has to meet you again.
• It keeps playing. It still meets you, can still demand tribute ("…does not recognize the right of european powers to establish colonies in this hemisphere…"), and is left out of the King's wars.
• Each rival that wins independence before you shrinks your score bonus for independence.

When you declare independence #

• The Crown takes over the succession loser's place, at war with you.
• The other two rivals withdraw. All their units are removed, and their colonies stay on the map, frozen. They cannot be attacked.
• The weaker of the two becomes the intervention power that may join you (see How Difficulty Affects the Game). The other supplies the wartime mercenaries.
• With de Witt you can still trade at their colonies. The intervention power takes a fixed cut of only 5–9%, and food, lumber, tools and muskets can be bartered.

The rivals and the King #

The computer players have no royal army and never face a War of Independence. They do get tax raises, on the same calendar as yours but without the difficulty adjustment, and they accept them silently. Their tax rate lowers what they pay you for goods at their colonies.

---

Curiosities and bugs found in the code #

• The Dutch anthem never plays. The Netherlands gets Spain's anthem.
• Reparations take furs. When a rival demands goods as reparations and you agree, the code moves the goods with number 4, which is furs, not the goods it named. It does not check your stock, so your furs can go negative.
• The succession winner is the second weakest rival, not the strongest.
• Spain's better odds for village treasure are calculated and then ignored.
• The "withdraw from our colonies" request seems to come up whenever the rival's colonies are small, even if you have nothing near them. Part of the check always reads zero.
• An independent rival's withdrawal request has its answers swapped. Choosing "we shall stay" appears to withdraw your troops.
• Hiring a rival against a tribe uses the wrong tribe's strength for the price, and can list a tribe that no longer exists.
• "They back down if you are three times stronger" stops working once their field army is large: the comparison is done in a single byte and wraps around.
• France's advantage is mostly a rounding effect. Halving every rise and rounding down turns all the +1 steps of colony pressure into nothing.

---

Sources #

All of this comes from the reconstructed C source in matched/game/. Nation names, ports, leaders and their hidden numbers are the game's text resources (COUNTRY, NATIONALITY, HOMEPORT, LEADERNAME2, COLONYNAME, INDEPENDENT, FRIEND, MISSION); every quoted message is from the same resources.

These findings are for the Windows release. The DOS version is believed to behave the same, but has not been checked line by line.