Congo river expedition and colonising Congo/Kongo as NGR questions.

[Professor Von-Wulfen ]

Hello all.
I have just passed colonial exploitation law and unlocked map the Congo river decision.
I have a few questions about the above if I may.
1. Is it best to assign a character with the 'Explorer' trait to the Congo river expedition?
2. Should I wait for that expedition to finish before I try to colonise The Congo?
3. This will be my first attempt at colonisation, could anyone please explain in detail how I should go about it?
Many thanks

[HELLA!!]

dont let peril get past medium and you win

[Professor Von-Wulfen ]

Originally posted by HELLA!!:

dont let peril get past medium and you win

I do apologise, I have no idea what that means. I am still very much new to the game.

[Free Luigi M.]

Originally posted by Professor Von-Wulfen :

Hello all.
I have just passed colonial exploitation law and unlocked map the Congo river decision.
I have a few questions about the above if I may.
1. Is it best to assign a character with the 'Explorer' trait to the Congo river expedition?
2. Should I wait for that expedition to finish before I try to colonise The Congo?
3. This will be my first attempt at colonisation, could anyone please explain in detail how I should go about it?
Many thanks

Yes, the "Explorer" trait gives better chances of positive events.

You can colonize whenever. I started colonizing years before the expedition. It doesn't matter. The expedition is only a prestige thing.

Colonizing isn't really that nuanced. Simply select the region and leave it at that. You can increase the level of "Colonial Affairs" institution in your government to increase colonization speed. If you set up multiple colonies, your colonization speed is divided between them. Don't try to colonize too much at once.

As you colonize, tensions with neighbouring tribes will increase. If they reach a certain value, a war with them will start right away. This is most of the times good for you, since winning is very easy and it immediately annexes the rest of the state to your colony. It's a very quick way to complete your colonies. So personally I pick the more aggressive options in diplomatic events every time, and just stomp them when they open hostilities.

Originally posted by Professor Von-Wulfen :

Originally posted by HELLA!!:

dont let peril get past medium and you win

I do apologise, I have no idea what that means. I am still very much new to the game.

When you actually start the expedition event, it will have two stats: progress and peril.
Progress is not visible, and you never know how close you are to completing the expedition. But peril will be roughly tracked by the game in somewhat cryptic terms. As the expedition progresses, events will pop up that will add progress and/or peril. Most of the times after a choice from you. The general idea is to not worry too much about progress, and focusing on keeping peril low. If the expedition panel reads "your expedition is in grave danger", you need to lower peril as soon as possible. During events it's often necessary to pick neutral option that will stall the expedition, but at least won't add peril.

[Professor Von-Wulfen ]

Originally posted by Player 379:

Originally posted by Professor Von-Wulfen :

Hello all.
I have just passed colonial exploitation law and unlocked map the Congo river decision.
I have a few questions about the above if I may.
1. Is it best to assign a character with the 'Explorer' trait to the Congo river expedition?
2. Should I wait for that expedition to finish before I try to colonise The Congo?
3. This will be my first attempt at colonisation, could anyone please explain in detail how I should go about it?
Many thanks

Yes, the "Explorer" trait gives better chances of positive events.

You can colonize whenever. I started colonizing years before the expedition. It doesn't matter. The expedition is only a prestige thing.

Colonizing isn't really that nuanced. Simply select the region and leave it at that. You can increase the level of "Colonial Affairs" institution in your government to increase colonization speed. If you set up multiple colonies, your colonization speed is divided between them. Don't try to colonize too much at once.

As you colonize, tensions with neighbouring tribes will increase. If they reach a certain value, a war with them will start right away. This is most of the times good for you, since winning is very easy and it immediately annexes the rest of the state to your colony. It's a very quick way to complete your colonies. So personally I pick the more aggressive options in diplomatic events every time, and just stomp them when they open hostilities.

Many thanks, sir. Most helpful.
I was expecting it to be far more complex. I thought I would have to split my fleet, assign regiments etc.
Edit; It seems I cannot colonise Congo state capital as it says 'To far'. But I can colonise 3 other Congo provinces, Gabon, Congo, and South Cameroon.
Should I do all 3 at once?

[echoes222]

congo and ni ger rivers expeditions seem to be bugged, as in if your explorer will fail/die during the expedition, they will be permanently "busy" so you will loose access to all troops or ships under them and they seem to be stuck like this forever. If this will happen, you'll have to edit your save game. never happened to me during Nile expedition. Never did western USA one so dunno. Are there more expeditions than nile/congo/ni ger/western USA?
edit: of course that river name that is not pc in english would be censored :P

[Professor Von-Wulfen ]

Originally posted by echoes222:

congo and ni ger rivers expeditions seem to be bugged, as in if your explorer will fail/die during the expedition, they will be permanently "busy" so you will loose access to all troops or ships under them and they seem to be stuck like this forever. If this will happen, you'll have to edit your save game. never happened to me during Nile expedition. Never did western USA one so dunno. Are there more expeditions than nile/congo/ni ger/western USA?
edit: of course that river name that is not pc in english would be censored :P

Many thanks, sir.
I have just started to colonised 2 of the Congo states.
Do I need to build a port in order to connect them with my home market?
Should I build a barracks and enlist locals?

[Free Luigi M.]

Originally posted by Professor Von-Wulfen :

Originally posted by echoes222:

congo and ni ger rivers expeditions seem to be bugged, as in if your explorer will fail/die during the expedition, they will be permanently "busy" so you will loose access to all troops or ships under them and they seem to be stuck like this forever. If this will happen, you'll have to edit your save game. never happened to me during Nile expedition. Never did western USA one so dunno. Are there more expeditions than nile/congo/ni ger/western USA?
edit: of course that river name that is not pc in english would be censored :P

Many thanks, sir.
I have just started to colonised 2 of the Congo states.
Do I need to build a port in order to connect them with my home market?
Should I build a barracks and enlist locals?

Building ports is extremely important. Not just to connect them to your market but also because you can never have enough convoys for trade.

Barracks are not really necessary unless you really want to have a local army for some reason, or you simply want more regiments in general.

[echoes222]

as above on both topics. And If you are serious about colonising Africa, at some point having local barracks is useful, as you will have colonial tension based wars one after another, so it's faster to have 10-15 regiments locally :) (colonial tension wars mean war with colonised tribes).

[Professor Von-Wulfen ]

Originally posted by Player 379:

Originally posted by Professor Von-Wulfen :

Many thanks, sir.
I have just started to colonised 2 of the Congo states.
Do I need to build a port in order to connect them with my home market?
Should I build a barracks and enlist locals?

Building ports is extremely important. Not just to connect them to your market but also because you can never have enough convoys for trade.

Barracks are not really necessary unless you really want to have a local army for some reason, or you simply want more regiments in general.

Originally posted by echoes222:

as above on both topics. And If you are serious about colonising Africa, at some point having local barracks is useful, as you will have colonial tension based wars one after another, so it's faster to have 10-15 regiments locally :) (colonial tension wars mean war with colonised tribes).

Very many thanks, chaps.