SETTLERS 2 - Ch 8: SEA ROUTES

                       by Bev Truter

When Sue wrote her hints for this chapter, she mentioned it had
taken her 20 hours of playing time to complete - well, count
yourself lucky, Sue; it took me 23 hours! I recommend playing in
DOS mode, so you can use the "V" key to speed things up - pressing
V makes everything run at twice the speed - but return to normal
speed for attacking and fighting sequences, otherwise you'll be
swamped with messages in the Post Office box.

Geography: Your headquarters are on a 'blob' of mainland, with
unclaimed territory eastwards for you to expand into, and another
'blob' to your west and southwest which is occupied by the
Yellows, and south of them, the Reds. The mainland is roughly
shaped like the letter F, with two large islands to the south of
your headquarters. The only place to build a harbour is much
further east of your headquarters, but build a shipyard on the

coast southish from your headquarters, for reasons explained
later!

Headquarters: Double the suggested number of soldiers remaining to
defend your headquarters, as the Yellows will attack your HQ
several times near the start (first few hours) of the game.

Military: As Sue mentioned, the Yellows are extremely strong, and
you have to build up your soldiers before attempting anything.  I
found it didn't make any difference what military buildings I
placed across my west and southwest boundaries - the Yellows waded
in and took over the lot - fortresses, watchtowers, anything I
built. Eventually, I decided it was best to stick with watchtowers
instead of fortresses, and build loads of catapults behind them. I
also preferred to keep an eye on the Yellows' attacks, and
demolish my own military buildings rather than let them fall into
enemy hands; this at least prevents the enemy from acquiring more
of your land when they occupy a building. However, if you are
awash with catapults (strongly recommended), the catapults will

destroy any taken-over building almost immediately after the enemy
occupies it.

The infamous ship bug didn't make an appearance in Ch 8; I built 6
ships and had them all sailing to and fro between 5 harbours
without any problems. If you're quick with extending your
boundaries eastwards to find a suitable location for your harbour,
you can send off an expedition to the southwest and build another
harbour on the middle eastern edge of the Reds' blob of mainland,
close to the Reds. Extend your boundaries here by building a
guardhouse followed by a catapult, which will keep the Reds at
bay; but this is only possible if you get to this spot early on in
the game - leave it too late, and the Reds simply march in and
take over your guardhouse/barracks, destroying your harbour in the
process.

Generally, I found it preferable to play a long, slow, waiting
game rather than rush; after about 15 hours of play I was strong
enough to demolish the Yellows' headquarters, and a few hours
later I took the Reds' headquarters. This prevents them from
launching any further attacks, but you still have to wade your way
through about 6 Red fortresses and umpteen watchtowers to reach
the gateway - a slow and laborious process, best done with
catapults, as you will run out of soldiers if you keep on
attacking without catapult backup.

Naval Problems: Back to the harbour and shipyard, which caused me
endless problems. You first have to extend your boundaries VERY
far eastwards from your headquarters before you find a place to
build a harbour; and after this be careful where you place your
shipyard. In fact, in hindsight, it's probably wiser to build a
shipyard first, or at least start building a shipyard as soon as
you start building a harbour. It doesn't seem to matter how far
away from your harbour you build a shipyard, as long as it's on
the same coast as the harbour.

My first shipyard was just north of my mainland harbour, which I'd
built on the south coast on the only available spot for a harbour.
Disaster. There wasn't enough space to build ships, so I had to
demolish it and try again. Shipyard number 2 was a bit further
north, in an open patch of green, and there were no problems with
shipbuilding here; that is, until it was time to carry the ship to
the sea, where it should have been launched. Uh-oh. The little
blighters marched off to a small bay with a bottleneck exit to the
sea on my NORTH coast, and left my first ship high and dry there,
unable to launch it. Grit teeth. Demolish shipyard and build
shipyard number 3, this time on the SOUTH coast, quite far away
from my harbour, south of headquarters. This seemed to do the
trick, as ships were built, launched and sailed to the harbour
with no hiccups - until the Yellows marched in and zapped yet
another watchtower, demolishing my shipyard in the process. Swear.
Grind teeth. Build another shipyard after catapulting the Yellows
back to where they came from.

I built 6 ships, then stopped production altogether as I didn't
want ships getting jammed together like Siamese twins in my
harbours, and possibly staying glued together forever, unable to
sail. The odd thing was I hadn't stopped production of boats (used
to ferry goods across short distances) in the shipyard blown up by
the Yellows, and although I stopped all production in shipyard
number 4 (boats and ships), the "phantom" shipyard that was
demolished by the Yellows must have kept on operating, because I
had umpteen boats stored in every harbour - 197 boats in all! I
checked and rechecked my shipyard, and even blew it up after about
40 boats were produced; but still those boats just kept on pouring
in from nowhere. Very strange!

Don't build more than 6 ships in total - there are only 6 ships'
names, and then they re-use the same names, which could be one
reason for the ship bug creeping in. Switch to producing boats
when you have sufficient ships, and turn production off, or cut
off the road leading to your shipyard. Three or four ships should
be ample, and put one harbour on the first (northern) island, but
two harbours on the second (most southerly) island, as you will
need stone and coal from the west side, and iron ore, coal and
gold on the east side. The islands can be linked to each other by
ferry, and to the mainland north of the first (northern) island.

Overall: A long and difficult game, but what a feeling of
satisfaction when you finally find that gateway! This was the only
chapter that I deliberately took over and demolished far more
enemy buildings than was necessary - I felt like a spot of revenge
after my initial four fortresses disappeared into thin air after
being occupied by Yellows. What bliss to see their storehouses
vaporize, and men and donkeys scatter everywhere - revenge is
indeed sweet!













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