A good location for those cities will be with a lot of production and food, food because every time that u create a settler, the pop will be -1 (with rep), so at least the city will be able to grow soon. And production because this allow you to create you settler faster.

All you need for one of these settler pump cities is one food tile and one production tile. You will never use more than 2 tiles in these cities, because once you reach size 3 you should be pumping out a settler. These cities can therefore be placed close together, which makes protecting them somewhat easier.

If you have republic and lots of money, you only need one tile, a food tile. Whenever the city grows to pop two, gold rush a settler out to take the pop back to one.

Yep, but my point is that basically u need to focus in those 2 resources. Of course if u have a lot of gold 1 tile of each will be more than enough

One of the reasons settler pumps are so effective is because the cost of building a settler in a small pop city (little bit of food + 20 hammers) is much cheaper than in a larger city (lots of food + 20 hammers), so really you want to keep the pumps as small as possible.

Unless I'm missing something of course. ;)

I think something key to consider when placing settler pumps is positioning it so that the settlers can reach the big city as quickly as possible, and placing them somewhere defensible (sp?).

That would be roads to make them travel to the big city quickly.

You want two good production tiles and one good growth tile. Thats all your care about.

One of the reasons settler pumps are so effective is because the cost of building a settler in a small pop city (little bit of food + 20 hammers) is much cheaper than in a larger city (lots of food + 20 hammers), so really you want to keep the pumps as small as possible.

Unless I'm missing something of course. ;)

Depends how fast the pump is running at the smallest size? If, in the time it takes to build the settler, an extra citizen could produce enough food to pay for himself (i.e. 10) then it is no problem for him to be there. If he produces less than 2 food, then he is wasting your time, and if he is producing more, he should be speeding the process up to some degree.
But I don't think settler pumps take much planning, compared to Civ3 at least. Because of food and shield over-runs being put towards the next build, you can't go far wrong with just building a stream of settlers as fast as possible. Making sure to always pop the settler with <10 food until the next growth (so that the town instantly grows back after the settler is built) might earn you an extra couple of food / hammers in the cycle, but it isn't major.

Depends how fast the pump is running at the smallest size? If, in the time it takes to build the settler, an extra citizen could produce enough food to pay for himself (i.e. 10) then it is no problem for him to be there. If he produces less than 2 food, then he is wasting your time, and if he is producing more, he should be speeding the process up to some degree.
But I don't think settler pumps take much planning, compared to Civ3 at least. Because of food and shield over-runs being put towards the next build, you can't go far wrong with just building a stream of settlers as fast as possible. Making sure to always pop the settler with <10 food until the next growth (so that the town instantly grows back after the settler is built) might earn you an extra couple of food / hammers in the cycle, but it isn't major.


Exactly, that is why I said that 1 tile of food is not enough for a settler pumping city.

1 tile of food is Definitely enough, if you have 2 tiles of food, then you are growing too fast.

(ideally work 1 food tile pop 1->2, then 2 hammer tiles 2->1) cost 10 food, 20 hammers.. total 10 turns
OR
1 food 1 Hammer-> 20 food, 20 hammers total 10 turns

Unless you have a bonus tile that throws off the balance

Actually to keep the cycle going it is better to grow to pop 2 and then work food+hammer tiles until you have at least enough food where you will instantly regrow after a settler build. Only then switch to hammers only.

The first settler will be slightly delayed but the later settlers will come much faster as you will always be working 2 tiles instead of spending any meaningful amount of time only working 1 tile.

A town with an Oxen tile and a forest makes a nice pump; 10 food and 20 shields in 5 turns, from just two citizens. And Oxen only requires 20 beakers worth of Horseback Riding to activate.