civ 4 settlers where?

[rafisher]

Hello. I'm a Civ 2 player trying out Civ 4. I'm exploring the game at Settler level and basically, taking the built-in advice on what to build next in each city.

I often get the recommendation to build a settler to make my civ grow.
Often, my core group of 3-5 cities are hemmed in by other civs, and other continents are already occupied. So, where are the new settlers supposed to build a new city? Is it desirable to place new cities in-between other older cities? That is, to put the new cities within the minimum distance (number of tiles) of other cities?

Thanks.

 

[Willem]

I often get the recommendation to build a settler to make my civ grow.

You should take those recommendations with a grain of salt, they aren't always the best actions to take. In fact quite often the advice is downright stupid. I never pay any attention to them myself.

 

[tombeef]

yeah, in one of my first games on settler I got a recommendation to train a settler.

Nevermind the fact that it was 1991 and the whole continent was filled.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Yeah just ignore those recommendations about building settlers. I get them all the time and ignore them. Any decent player is far better at judging when to build a settler and expand than the AI advisor is.

 

[opensilo]

The AI follows its own advice about what to build. That's why when you conquer their cities on your overcrowded island, there's a settler there that gets converted to a worker for you when you conquer his city!

On the other hand, that's also why the AI has a settler ready to fill the gap created when you raze a city during your conquering rampage.

Eventually, you will probably ignore all of the AI's advice, or be following it simply by coincidence.

 

[Dusty Monkey]

I don't see how building an extra settler is a "bad" play considering that by the time its possible to produce an "extra" settler, the production and growth sacrificed is usualy trivial.

I don't do it myself.

Does the A.I. build more than one "extra" ? I havent noticed capturing lots of them in the late game so I presume they only build 1 or 2 "extras"

 

[mucco]

The only use I know for late game settlers is to found new cities in place of razed ones when you are conquiering someone else. On another continent they can serve as air bases for incoming troops and bombers. Read the "RB1 cuban isolationist" thread to understand the real value of settlers in the industrial age!
I can't imagine another use for a late settler, so unless I am at war, I don't build them.

 

[kulgan]

The second part of your question has merit. Do I perhaps follow the advice, build a settler and find a location for it. Personally I don't like to build more cities than I have to, that an finding the right spot can be difficult, because when placing the first 6 cities, I careful measure the distance and took into account the surrounding resources. This in consideration with the growth of a city and the space needed for each one, it can be difficult to find an appropriate spot. A poorly place city will take from one city or another, and you will need to adjust all the advances and triggers, that you spent time setting up in the first place.

Like those before me, take the suggestions as they come, but remember it your game. The AI isn't going to get offended because you didn't build what it said to.

 

[Dusty Monkey]

I suppose a lot does depends on your expansion style as well

If you carefully place cities with little overlap and few gaps, then you certainly cant place too many (if any) cities in between.

Personally I think its a bad habit to found cities in this way as its oblivious to the content of the tiles but thats another issue.

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

The AI advisors are like regular AI for expantionism. next time it says "do you want to build a settler" look at those useless, barren, expensive, difficult to defend, 30000000000000000000000000000 km cities from your main nation, with no particular resource that the AI builds and ask yourself "do I really want a city like that??"

 

[BadHorsie]

Yeah ignore the advisor. I turned them off. You can do it in the options if you want.

It depends on the size of the map, number of opponents, etc, but you should maybe try to expand a bit faster and get more cities in your empire, so you can grab as much land as possible before any major wars break out. Land/Cities mean power. Try to build settlers while you still have the choice of where they can build. Also, when you get early ships, send a settler + worker + defensive unit off to look for a nearby island. If it's early game in terms of seafaring, you should be able to find many places without AI occupation.

 

[BadHorsie]

You will notice that by the late game, when you discover the whole map, the AI will keep building cities anywhere... ANYWHERE the possibly can. If you don't grab all the land around you, there will be small obscure cities from different civs cropping up next to you on a baron patch of snow.

 

[Gumbolt]

Yep watch that lil galley float round the island and pop the city on the most barren land behind you.

 

[dalessi12]

The most annoying advice in the game, by far, is the old "You should build a laboratory in this city." If you are not building a spaceship (have spacerace disabled, or attempting different victory condition), there is usually no reason to build a laboratory, considering how late in the game they come, and how few techs are left to research. In addition, the advisor "spams" this advice message multiple times per turn for the rest of the game. So annoying.