Hmm -- gotta clarify some of what Morpheus said...
(1) Explorers and conquistadors (as well as generals and admirals) can (and usually are) programmed in by the game. These are often referred to in the forum as "historical leaders" because they have a basis in history and so were included by the designers (or if you play the IGC, by the folks who made the IGC). Those historical leaders are not random -- they have specific start and "death" dates, though of course you can lose them in battle or attrition long before their programmed end date. There are also random events which can result in gaining an explorer or conquistador. For some countries that's probably the only way to get them; I assume since you mention Columbus you are playing Spain--the Spanish get tons of both in through about the mid 1600s. Otherwise, though, you can't buy them or build them or do anything to increase your chances of getting one (other than having random events turned on in options).
(2) Attrition will eat you up very fast in the early game. If you want to be cautious and thrifty, you can explore slowly. Start at the port closest to your destination and explore terra incognita one "square" at a time. After each "square" check your current attrition by hovering the mouse over it. When it starts looking really bad, return to port for supplies. Since exploring TI is the most time-consuming part of the trip, the voyage back to port and out again will be much faster.
Note that some folks like to use small exploration fleets of 3 or 4 ships because they are big enough that a slight miscalculation will only cost you 1 or 2 boats and you can still get that valuable explorer back to port, while a bigger fleet suffers worse from attrition.
If on the other hand you want to explore fast and money is no object, start with a big fleet and let it waste away to almost nothing as you press on...
If you are a
hideous micromanager, you can make the fast method work a little cheaper by starting out with a relatively small fleet commanded by your explorer. Every couple of months, reinforce his fleet with a fresh boat or two sent from your closest port. Since attrition seems to take some sort of average of the time at sea, you may be able to buy yourself a little extra time that way. (You might even get away with splitting the boats back off his fleet and returning them to port for another cycle! :rofl: )
As for exploring land, for that you need an army led by a conquistador (much later your regular armies can also do that). Just board it up on your fleet, sail it to the new world and drop them off in terra incognita. (Note that unloading into TI also takes a very long time!). Of course, your explorers may also be able to give you good intelligence on coastal/island provinces so that they are no longer TI.
(3) If you are playing Spain, one of your fastest routes to the new world would be to start at the Canary Islands (which you already own) and head straight west -- it will take about six sea zones before you hit the Caribbean islands. Since there are lots of islands, you have a pretty good chance to reveal at least one. They are also the best place to start your colonization and get your first port, since most of them have great growth rates.
Morpheus506 said:
1) It's random. You can't create them yourself except by cheating or editing savefiles.
2) Be lucky
It helps to have better naval tech or varying fleet sizes. Experiment with ship numbers, see which survives longer.
3) You can't enter any province ports that don't exist--even if you know a province should have a port, it won't get one until it is colonized. When you're exploring with Columbus all you can do is sail around and see the sea zones. Once you establish a colony or two you can send troops around and such.
4) Kinda the same thing. You can only enter your own ports. (AFAIK)
5) Those are shipyards, not just plain old docks.
