Religious Founding Fathers
Trade Exploration Military Political Religious Sent in Tips

Father Jean de Brebeuf (1593-1649)

"A French Jesuit Missionary, he died at the hands of the Iroquois in Huron country (now Canada) in a battle between the Hurons and Iroquois. He translated the Catechism into the Huron language and was canonised in 1930. With de Brebeuf in your Congress, all missionaries function as experts."

Jean de Brebeuf causes all missionaries to function as experts. This means the Indians will be less prown to War, give you more gifts, be more willing to attack your enemies, more likely to expel other missionaries and more likely to convert and join one of your Colonies. It also means you can found good missions with criminals and indentured servants. The more missions you have in an Indian Tribe the less it will cost to incite them to war. It is best to only found missions in villages that express alarm, otherwise you will be buried in converts, and your Colonies can only absorb a certain number due to their reduced maximum efficiency. They are +1 more efficient than untrained colonists in food and cash crops but cannot be trained up, and don't work well indoors. If you are at War with the Indians he will help cool them down.

If you establish missions in villages near enemy Colonies the Indians will be more likely to attack them. Make sure they are armed with muskets and horses first or they might get wiped out. Also land a couple of Veteran Dragoons to collect POW's (or they will found new Colonies or be scalped by the Indians), and destroy Artillery, as the Indians are less good at fighting it.

So to conclude, Jean de Brebeuf can be useful but you may get more Indian Converts than you can handle, he is a low priority.

William Brewster (1567-1644)

"One of the Pilgrim Fathers and framers of the Mayflower Compact, William Brewster served as the first Pilgrim minister, and was instrumental in organising the party that sailed on the Mayflower. With Brewster in the Congress, you can select which of the three available immigrants to move from the recruitment pool is driven to the docks whenever religious unrest causes a immigrant to move from the recruitment pool to the docks (see Immigration and Population Growth). In addition criminals and servants no longer appear on the docks to immigrate."

When Brewster joins the congress you will be able to select the next recruit from the docks and indentured servants or criminals will be upgraded to free colonists. I seldom buy recruits from the dock, preferring to wait for them to become available - this saves money and gives your statesmen more time to increase sons of liberty membership in the colonies so the new recruit does not reduce efficiency. However, if I am missing a critical skill, it can be worth it, but wait until a ship is in Europe. Preachers speed up recruitment. I think it would be more interesting and more realistic if the number of criminals and indentured servants was cut by 50% instead. Brewster is very useful, but I regard it as cheating if you use him early in the game - it's best to wait a bit and get some indentured servants, as this encourages you to learn valuable skills from the Indians, as they're not much good for anything else.

Bartolomé de Las Casas (1474-1566)

"The 'Apostle of the Indians,' Las Casas was a Spanish missionary who sailed with Columbus's third expedition. His efforts to protect the native population from slavery and abuse led him to speak on their behalf in the Spanish courts on several occasions. With Las Casas, all currently existing Indian converts are assimilated into the colony as free colonists."

Bartolomé de Las Casas causes all currently existing Indian converts to become Free Colonists. This of course means you will lose their special skills, so I never bother with him as I usually have plenty of Free Colonists anyway.

William Penn (1644-1718)

"An English Quaker leader, William Penn obtained a large land grant in North America for religious freedom. He founded the state that later became Pennsylvania. With Penn in the Continental Congress, cross production in all colonies increases by 50%."

Penn causes cross production in all Colonies to increase by 50%, this speeds up recruitment. As I always seem to have more Colonists than I know what to do with, I don't bother with him.

Juan de Sepulveda (ca. 1490-ca. 1573)

"Spanish philosopher and 'humanist,' Sepulveda argued for harsh treatment of the natives. He based his reasoning on the proposition that natives were incapable of ruling themselves because of their savagery; the fact that they were unable to resist invasion by the Spanish proved it... His presence in the Congress increases the chance that subjugated Indians 'convert' and join a colony."

Juan de Sepulveda increases the chances that subjugated Indians “convert” and join a Colony. This means you will be buried in Indians who have a lower maximum efficiency meaning your Colonies will be of poorer quality, a few are useful but a lot are a pain. It's surprising how bad efficiency in one area can affect other areas. Indians produce less food so the Colonies maximum population will be reduced, they produce fewer cash crops so your treasury will suffer. Of course if you don't have skills in these areas then they are a good stop gap being +1 to unskilled labour in food and cash crops, but they don't work well indoors. Anyway you will get too many Colonists from other sources. In short AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!