Gold of the Americas

Title           Gold of the Americas
Game Type       Strategy
Company         Strategic Studies Group (SSG) 1989
Players         1-4
Compatibility   All
HD Installable  Yes
Submission      Glenn Trewin (keelhaul@tig.com.au)

Review
Test machines were a 2000/000 1.3/3.1 2chip/8fast, 1200/060/PPC 3.1
2chip/64fast.

  -The Game-
  Gold of the Americas is a strategy/conquest game set in the Americas,
unlike other better known games of this gene (Colonization, Pirates etc..)
this one is rather simplistic and very strategic, the playing area
consists of a map of North and South America divided into 31 land and 4
sea areas, there are 7 types of units to choose from, these are - Armies,
Colonists, Trading Ships, Warships, Privateers, Slaves and Explorers.  You
play one of the powers of the New World, they are, Spain, Portugal,
England and France and your mission is not to be taxed to death, well
thats what I think anyway ;), your real mission is to end the game with
the greatest amount of Victory Points (VPs), the game only lasts 30 turns
(300 years) and at the end you get 1 VP for every colony level you have.

  You can only colonize areas you have info on and the game starts with
only a few areas on the map explored, this is where your explorers come
in. The King will send you up to 3 a turn with rating of between 1-3, the
higher the more likely they won't "disappear without a trace", they are
also used for raiding and invading (only when at war) other colonies.
  There is no movement of units as such, everything is placed down every
turn (ships stay at sea unless moved), armies and warships only last 1
turn (10 years) so there is no building up mega Armies or huge Armada's.

  Putting a colony down is straight forward, once a territory is explored
(you can colonize any explored area, no matter who explores it) you simply
put down 2-3 colonist's and a couple of armies and hope the Indians don't
wipe you out, trading is equally simple you just place (or leave) your
trade ships in any sea area you wish, and hope that your Competitors don't
sink them or Privateers don't loot them, Warships guard against Privateers
and other Warships.

  Taxation is really the killer in this game, you have two coffers that
money is placed into, the main Treasury and your Secret Funds. Taxation is
assessed as a percentage of your previous turn's earnings (that going
directly into Treasury), this percentage averages slightly OVER 100%,
however the tax man is always one turn behind so it's not as bad as it
sounds.  Failure to meet your tax bill results in less interest from the
King, so less is sent to you (armies etc..).  Trading, raids and
exploration all add to your Secret Fund which you can do with as you wish,
if you let it build up too high you may get a visit from the Auditing
Department, and thats most inconvenient ;).

Good points - Multi-tasking, HD installable, quits to WB.

Bad points - A little too strategic for my liking.

Alphabetical list.