Game advice on various expeditions and number of islands.

[Wasteland Project]

Having only one initial island creates gaps due to missing resources: hops, wheat, potatoes and peppers can be purchased, but there remains a problem with some mineral resources in the more advanced stages of the game.
This can be avoided by acquiring a greater number of islands but then it is necessary to compensate with supplies between the various islands. It would all be very doable if it weren't for a very large series of out-map expeditions. There are too many, it all becomes a mess and gets abandoned, I can't complete this damn game. Too varied with the dlcs.
I think it's better to start with just one island.

[Chaosium]

Trade routes are a core part of the game, can't work without them. One capital is enough, no need to supply everything for every island, else it becomes a headache

[Tankfriend]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Chaosium:

Trade routes are a core part of the game, can't work without them. One capital is enough, no need to supply everything for every island, else it becomes a headache

This. If you have access to Cape Trelawney, then Crown Falls is a no-brain decision for your capital island. Otherwise, it's usually the first island you settle in the Old World. This capital island should be the one to receive all the goodies to advance your population.
Every other island in the Old World can be stuck at just Peasants and Workers, since that's the people you need for resource and low-level production. Anything more advanced than that can happen on your capital island.
Once you unlock the Commuter Pier (at Engineers level), you don't even need to settle anyone on an island provided you have the piers and enough workforce on other islands.

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Wasteland Project:

I think it's better to start with just one island.

Having multiple islands with potato fertility and large numbers of peasants and workers on them (upper limit of 1000 each per island so you don't start paying royal tax on them) early on can significantly speed up your early game, thanks to the extra money income and materials production.

[Wasteland Project]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Tankfriend:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Chaosium:

Trade routes are a core part of the game, can't work without them. One capital is enough, no need to supply everything for every island, else it becomes a headache

...
Having multiple islands with potato fertility and large numbers of peasants and workers on them (upper limit of 1000 each per island so you don't start paying royal tax on them) early on can significantly speed up your early game, thanks to the extra money income and materials production.

Unfortunately, having two-three or more islands complicates control a lot, warehouses that fill up, supply routes that find the warehouses full and have blocked holds, continue to commute between one port and another for many hours, while we are busy in the New World or Cape Trelawney and as the icing on the cake defend all the ports with cannons and with three islands they begin to be really many, it almost always eliminates the influence points, then others are needed to found in other places. An island after almost a year of play seems like the most logical solution to me. With many islands too much time is lost in management, without the DLCs you could have them but with the complete DLCs, just 1 island is enough.
Building your very large capital in Cape Trelawney requires a lot of influence points.

[Tankfriend]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Wasteland Project:

Unfortunately, having two-three or more islands complicates control a lot, warehouses that fill up, supply routes that find the warehouses full and have blocked holds, continue to commute between one port and another for many hours,

Read again. Old World islands with potato fertility can keep peasants and workers happy by themselves. Imports and trade routes are not needed.

Since you intentionally limit the population size and don't advance beyond workers, it's also very easy to balance out the supply and demand - peasants and workers want a lot of the same things, and you don't need to provide absolutely everything to keep them happy.
Once balance is achieved, these islands basically need no management, and turn into passive background income which also happens to secure islands and resources for future use.
You can also set up lumber and brick production on these islands where possible. This means you won't even need to get building material from elsewhere, and once the island is finished, you can use the extra material production to speed up development of other islands, if you want. Especially brick production is *very* useful to have, since you'll need lots of bricks, but production is very limited with just one island.

defend all the ports with cannons and with three islands they begin to be really many, it almost always eliminates the influence points, then others are needed to found in other places.

You don't need to defend every island with lots of defenses.
First, you'll always want to keep an eye on the diplomacy screen and compare your and the AI's military strength values. When you're at least roughly equal, the AI will usually think twice about declaring war on you. Military strength comes from island defences and ships.

Second, you will want to build a navy, anyway. Apart from directly fighting the AI ships, you can also use fleets as mobile scarecrows to keep the AI away from your islands, since the AI does take fleets and relative fleet strengths into account when making their move. It doesn't even take a lot of ships to generally keep the AI in line until they have geared up for a major attack (at which point you obviously should have a fleet to match).

Third, try to secure a corner of the map for yourself, and then place your defenses on the "outer" islands in such a way that they don't just protect the main harbour building, but also cover the area in between the islands. This can potentially block of entire areas of the map against anything other than a major attack.
Doing this, you then don't really need much defenses further inside your corner of the map.

[Wasteland Project]

Yes, I didn't know the tax over 1000 inhabitants. I'm starting to set up this method.
How many islands will have to be developed with engineers and concrete? only the first? will the others remain with workers?
First shipment New World (cotton --> fur coats)? then Land of Lions? Usually few influence points remain for Cape Trelawney..