Worker first, then Settler strategy

I am playing as the Chinese with the Financial/Industrious guy on Monarch difficulty. (Its a small/inland sea map, but thats irrelevant to the strategy).

This is on normal speed.

1) Move my initial settler to a PLAINS hill and found there. (This took a turn).

2) Research Bronze working first, to be able to chop forests.

3) Build a worker first. Dont bother letting the city grow.

The worker takes 12 turns.

4) Build a settler next (20 tuirns base), and chop forests. Each chop takes 4 turns. One to move, 3 to chop. 8 turns later I have 5*8 = 40 + 30 +30 production and get settler #1.

5) Settler founds a city that builds a SETTLER. (Maybe a worker then settler here would also be better, but this is my first try. City founded 3160BC. I found it on a plains hill also.
Capitol builds Settler #2! My worker chops twice for my capitol, then goes and chops once on the other city.

City #3 founded 2560 BC

City #4 founded 2400 BC!!



I am at -4 income, but I have 117 gold at this point from three huts my worker popped. This is lucky, but not so lucky. (It helps that he got exp, to become woodsman 2, which RULES).

I now immediately switch to warriors before I die horribly. My settler develops a pasture on a pig, etc...

I am now going to build several more workers once my cities grow slightly, and get my resources developed and hooked up, and the land covered with cottages (which will become big income sources for me, as I am financial).

Once the cottage/hamlet money starts coming on line, I will do my second expansion, since then I should be able to afford it.


This seems VERY strong to me. Much stronger than games where I waited until pop 3 to build my first settler or worker.

I attached two saves of the game. The later one is a couple turns afte I have 4 cities, the other is in the middle.

The later save:

Worker takes 23 turns... ???

n/m I didn't read you founded on a hill...

After reading the rest of it...

This is not going to be popular...

If you don't understand the new concept of Civ IV, it's not the speed at which you found new cities, but the timing...

City maintence will hinder you blind if you can't support it... Not to mention unprotected cities, and woker?

I've tried this and it seemed to work well. I chose to build Stonehenge instead of the fourth settler though, with such small cities a fourth one would not be profitable. I did it mainly because I had no triple food squares making rapid growth an impossibility. If I start near flood plains I'd go the grow to 3/worker/settler/stonehenge/settler routine. Or settler/worker depending on starting position.

i used to do this too, later in the game you will see. your science slider will be at 40% or less and you wont be able to afford a war because you will be behind in techs

Apparently you guys haven't met the rampaging barbarians lol...

Having all them cities with no defense and a worker scratching land out there by himself is an open invitation to barbs... Worker without defense is fine within borders early because animals avoid your space apparently...

However, once the barbs show up, the more border you have, the more gets magentized to your area... So even if you save your worker, your developments will get razed and you'll waste time buliding them again...

I usually never found a new city without at least a unit to defend it... Then don't find a 3rd until the first two has two units each and I take one either or to protect the 3rd settler while more archers get built...

Barbs really kick ass in this game...

KAuss said:

Apparently you guys haven't met the rampaging barbarians lol...

Having all them cities with no defense and a worker scratching land out there by himself is an open invitation to barbs... Worker without defense is fine within borders early because animals avoid your space apparently...

However, once the barbs show up, the more border you have, the more gets magentized to your area... So even if you save your worker, your developments will get razed and you'll waste time buliding them again...

I usually never found a new city without at least a unit to defend it... Then don't find a 3rd until the first two has two units each and I take one either or to protect the 3rd settler while more archers get built...

Barbs really kick ass in this game...

Click to expand...

As you said, ANIMALS avoid enteing your borders. Thats key. I get 4 citeis and all my warriors up in them before the barbs switch from animals to people.

I had no barb problems at all. My new cities werent far outside my borders (just barely outside), so that wasnt a risk.

duezeone said:

i used to do this too, later in the game you will see. your science slider will be at 40% or less and you wont be able to afford a war because you will be behind in techs

Click to expand...

I doubt it. Its not like I am going to KEEP doing this. Just to 4 cities, then stop and grow them. When I am financially strong I will expand more.

Barbarians are not a problem. Since you found your cities early and get a nice culture boost from Stonehenge, your borders will expand quickly causing you to see much of the surrounding map, preventing barbarians to spawn and give you ample time to build defense should you need it. Switch to archer production, chop down a tree and you've got defense.

Ah, hello Alexfrog, why am I not surprised to see you're a Civ player as well as a BGG regular? I think it was the Knizia quote that caught my attention.

I'll give it a shot... But it's very situational how you can run your settlers around without trouble...

I think it is a fabulous strategy and greatly appreciate Alex sharing it.

I am trying it right now and am already far, far ahead of where I was in my prior games by 2000 BC. I am doing this strategy on a rolling basis -- harvesting the trees at one city, then moving to the next and doing the same thing. Yes, you have to be very careful to ensure that your settlers have an escort (thankfully I popped 2 scouts in goody huts, and my 2nd city is pumping out warriors), but this is a fabulous way to get an accelerated start at a time when you most desparately need productivity. No, this strategy isn't for all situations, and may find limited utility for some players. But it is still an ingenious strategy to keep in one's repertoire for times when the situation is conducive.

thanks alex, looking forward to trying this. also, i've been playing as napoleon but considering switching to Qin. what do you think of his skillz so far?

Ok, just so everyone is clear, I play the game on epic and this plan does not work haha...

A worker built on plains hill takes 18 turns and brozne working takes 21...

By time your worker is born, he'll have three wasted turns not to mention have to chop a HELL of a lot more wood to get the settler out...

It still is a lot faster than normal... Let me see how far I get with this one in epic...

jjones said:

thanks alex, looking forward to trying this. also, i've been playing as napoleon but considering switching to Qin. what do you think of his skillz so far?

Click to expand...

I think he is VERY strong. Industrious seems amazing, and so does finanical. And they start with mining as well, so you cna research bronze working.

Well, a follow up... First settler got ate up by a wolf pack... The year was around 2160ish or even later...

Needless to say thats a reset LOL...

Nice strat Alex. Thanx for sharing. I'll try it tonight after work. Always open to new ideas, and new ways to expand fast. Cheers

I'll download the save tomorrow, but from what I've read it seems very similar to what I've been doing except waaaaay faster. It makes sense... The more the cities, I figure, the more the production, no matter what the maintenance blow may be. Growth can wait. But I hadn't thought of the possibility of chopping down forests to

It helps that I play Catherine, so the early culture boost delays barbarians and the financial aspect saves my tush when it comes to money...

But I don't play as industriously as you do, I go for roads to keep my finances going and now I'm wondering whether I should try the industrious route what with the chopping of the trees and all and getting that first settler in 8 turns...

Excellent strat, I shall have to look deeper into this when I have the time tomorrow.

Cheers.

It would seem that this strategy could leave you a bit short on hammers later on. With the demise of bonus grasslands and flatland mines, hills and forests are the only source of hammers (well, specialists are too, but you can't run a whole economy on them). Chopping's a must, but you can only chop so much before you're left high and dry. Not having those forests around later to chop for improvements and wonders could be a bit of a pain.

I'd also wonder about your city placement. Rushing settlers just outside your borders and plopping down cities before the lions get them (CXXC?) probably isn't compatible with optimally placing cities to grab the best resources and expand your borders. What kind of results are you getting from this placement in 1AD? Are your early cities optimally viable? Are you still able to expand your borders during hte land grab?