Best way to pump out settlers

[bonafide11]

I see posts about people who build a ton of cities early, and I’m baffled by how they do it. I never build wonders and hold off on districts but still struggle getting more than maybe 3-4 cities in the first 100 turns. What’s the best way to get out a lot of settlers early on?

Edit: Oops meant to post this in the Strategy forum. Can a mod move it for me please?

Moderator Action: Moved as requested. leif

 

[Eyswein]

I generally start scout/settler/builder, then military with Agoge (my favorite way to get cities), then pump a couple settler with Colonization.

One cool way under R&F:

Get Magnus governor for 100% chop bonus, combined with colonization chop some settlers. Probably want to do some other stuff like Pyramids with Magnus also.

Try to get 'goddess of the harvest' pantheon so you get lots of faith from those chops. Focus on getting the first golden era and take Monumentality bonus if available. Now you can just buy more settlers with all that faith you got from the chops. If you give Magnus the one promotion to Provision, you can now buy all those settlers without losing any population. You'll probably have more settlers than you have space to settle.

 

[kb27787]

You probably should get magnus and the promotion on the right side (no pop loss from settler) with early empire policy... Building temple of artemis is actually ok... Get the settlers out and walk them to the spot but wait until ancestral hall is finished before actually settling (free builder just too good)
.... Usually this means you will settle around 7 cities or so in the same turn... improve two tiles each and save one charge (awesome if you can snag pyramids at this point but it is far from a must)... Get limes policy and build walls until 1 turn left and use that remaining charge to chop out the district from overflow. If you take divine spark, you should see a sudden surge in either scientists or writer points. Usually if you managed to make friends with your neighbors at this point the game is good as won.

 

[vaejovis]

I'm curious as to your build order prior to the settler wave:
do you put off completing settlers until you have Magnus's non-pop loss promotion?

Are you using a chop/settler overflow to complete the gov plaza and ancestral hall in the capital once you've finished the settlers?

 

[ezysquire]

The best headstart on settlers you can get is by stealing one from the ais, though that comes down to the chance of finding a stealable one, so you can't get it every time.

 

[myclan]

If you have enough space to expand, Magnus will be insanely good to produce settlesr. No food needed, chopping+100%, with ancestral hall again +100% that is 400%

 

[kb27787]

If you have enough space to expand, Magnus will be insanely good to produce settlesr. No food needed, chopping+100%, with ancestral hall again +100% that is 400%

Basically you get the limes overflow trick. Spend those overflow cogs on coliseum and I find you your empire just explodes (in a good way) once ancestral hall is done.

 

[EEE_BOY]

1. 1st wave: Settle on irrigation type of luxury resource if possible, sell them to AI for lump sum gold, try to accumulate 320 gold to buy one settler before finishing build your settler. This gives you early 3 cities.
2. 2nd wave: After early empire, use Magnus to chop with 50% settler production card, each chop should give one settler. This gives you another 2 cities. On high difficulty level, you should be limited by AI cities around you, so some war may be needed before loyalty kicks in badly.
3. 3rd wave: Now you finished government plaza, but still have ample land to settle, use magnus’s second ability to save population while chopping settlers.
4. 4th wave: looks good on paper but rarely used. unless you have a map that is particularly spacious and you strategically blocked AI from settling a piece of land, or you have a big piece of land that has no freshwater but lots of forest plus some resources, take the Ancient Hall government building. Chop infrastructures in new cities with Magnus and the free worker.