Ancient Ruins

[ThunderEagle94]

Does anyone know the bonuses you get from ancient ruins?

[Pope Gregory XIII]

Yes, I know something about this, as I am currently researching it as I play. So far, I have discovered that controlling the Ancient Ruins will sometimes but not always (remember, the effects are random according to the maddeningly sparse documentation which exists) give you the ability to create "Crusaders" at your churches. These are super-high level military Leaders, higher level than you can get with even maximum research at the War College. So far I have only seen these while playing as British, the effect may or may not be different when playing as other nationalities. I'm not yet certain whether your church needs to be Level 4; will post again after I determine this. If this effect "stacks" with the Leader bonus you get from controlling War Temples, you could make a Leader so powerful as to pretty much break the game. And I suspect this is possible, since I know that the bonus effect from multiple War Temples does stack. Again, will post again after further research. It also appears that when you don't get the "Crusader" bonus, you do get extra assistance from friendly natives in your battles. This even applies to Explorers, so it can save the life of an unlucky Explorer who stumbles upon a hostile native village and is unable to avoid! In ordinary combat with real armies, however, this effect tends to be pretty trivial. As I have said above, I will post further information as I develop it. And by the way, I also -- MANY years ago -- stumbled upon an exploit which allows the High Native culture to possess cannons! Would you like to hear about this?

[ThunderEagle94]

Thats amazing! I knew that information was scarce. Thank you for your input! I find it interesting that they have a way to create crusaders in this game. Christopher Colombus was hoping to fund a crusade with his expeditions according to his journals. I wonder if multiple Ancient Ruins stack bonuses as well?
Any additional info you come across will be highly appreciated! I would also love to hear about Natives aquiring cannons!

[good fighter]

Crusader proof
https://i.imgur.com/d1e2vsy.jpg

Taken from an old forum post:
"1. you get four level four natives to assist you in battles. so if your explorer is caught in a hostile tribes land and he is attacked, he gets allies. Whether they have connection to your war college I can't say, but they have won against medium size tribes in my games. And i have had it stacked in games with more than 3 ancient ruins, so 8 units.

2. you get mining bonuses, and when connected with a Lost Dutchman's mine will bring in the bling.

3. i have not heard of the crusader unit... I look forward to trying it out.

4. you receive resources trickled down to your colonies for free each turn. it shows up in your crates window when you go to trade."

Seems like each "ancient ruins" you get 1 random bonus.

[Argus]

Wild!

[Argus]

This post got me playing another couple rounds. Great fun.

[Lawrence7205]

The "Crusader" recruitment at churches works for all the nationalities in the game. The bonuses stack with your war college research and leader temple bonuses. So it is possible to get leaders with some crazy stats for destroying everything in the game. You can also make a leader or two with all movement points and give them a handful of military units just to hunt down explorers and to explore the dark areas around hostile native tribes without losing explorers to the hostile natives.

[Solid Snoob]

Originally posted by good fighter:

Crusader proof
https://i.imgur.com/d1e2vsy.jpg

Taken from an old forum post:
"1. you get four level four natives to assist you in battles. so if your explorer is caught in a hostile tribes land and he is attacked, he gets allies. Whether they have connection to your war college I can't say, but they have won against medium size tribes in my games. And i have had it stacked in games with more than 3 ancient ruins, so 8 units.

2. you get mining bonuses, and when connected with a Lost Dutchman's mine will bring in the bling.

3. i have not heard of the crusader unit... I look forward to trying it out.

4. you receive resources trickled down to your colonies for free each turn. it shows up in your crates window when you go to trade."

Seems like each "ancient ruins" you get 1 random bonus.

I am sure that is my post on GOG forums. There are a few other bonus's I expect...
but back to the point at hand. games with more than one crusader ruin can also stack the crusader bonus-those leaders are amazing for native faction-boring for the euro's. bear in mind that means 2 crusader bonus's-nothing to do with leader research or ToW boost. I also have found that when you choose conquistador as a trait, have a ToW, a ruin with native merc's it gives a further bonus and makes all of said merc's level 5 which(previously 4) is also a serious boon for the natives when federated auxiliaries are included coupled with native solo attack bonus ToW-temple of war

[Corporal.Punishment]

I have the two manuals that came with the CD version of the game back in the 90's. They say a random bonus. I sometimes think I get another two attacks per leader.

[lingsun03]

I recently played a game where I found ancient ruins. I did a Google search and found this thread. You have to have a level 4 church. Then for 500 gold you can summon a crusader. They have 48 points you can allocate. They already can have 6 units, 4 attacks, 1 mobility, and 1 charisma. You can create a guy capable of having 17 units and 9 attacks.

I can't verify the other bonuses. To my knowledge I've never had them. I've seen ancient ruins before but never bothered capturing them.

[lingsun03]

I just played another game where there were Ancient Ruins close to my first colony. Without having put anything in my War College the first Crusader I summoned allowed me to have 13 units, 9 attacks, 1 mobility, and 1 charisma.

[lingsun03]

I'm in a game where I took over the Ancient Ruins. I built a level 4 church but couldn't summon a Crusader. When I'm attacked though I get 4 level-2 Natives to use as cannon fodder. No other benefits that I've been able to determine.