Spotting Settler factories

[RFHolloway]

This is a short article on settler factories, and how to spot where you can make one.

To make a settler you need 30 shields, and it uses 2 population points. To replace the 2 population points you will need at least 20 surplus food with a granery and 40 surplus food without.

There are 4 basic components to a settler factory

A certain number of “surplus” food.
A spare high production tile. (for additional production on growth)
A certain number of shields per turn at a particular population level
A granary

Only the first 3 are determined by the city’s location, as a granary can be built anywhere.

Surplus food.
A settler factory needs to have either 5 food per turn for a 4 turn settler factory, or 4 food per turn for a 6 turn settler factory. Two of these will be produced by the city square itself, leaving 3 “surplus” for a 4 turn factory and 2 “surplus” for a 6 turn settler factory.

These extra food have to be generated by the citizens working the tiles. This means that extra food is generated by citizens working tiles that produce 3 food or more. Under despotism there are a small number of such tiles, and hence this is usually the limiting factor.

3 surplus food

Irrigated flood plain wheat

2 surplus food

Flood plain wheat
Irrigated Grassland wheat
Irrigated grassland Cow
Irrigated Grassland Game (following a forest chop where the forest reveals a grassland)
Irrigated grassland fish (following a marsh clearance where the marsh reveals a grassland)

1 surplus food

Irrigated Floodplain
City square by a river (agricultural civs only)
Irrigated cow on plain
Irrigated wheat on plain
Irrigated Game on plain
Fish in lake
Irrigated wine on grass
Grassland wheat
Grassland cow
Grassland game (following a forest chop where the forest reveals a grassland)
Grassland fish (following a marsh clearance where the marsh reveals a

A spare high production tile

When a city grows and a new citizen is added, if you have the governor set to maximise production but turned off, it will be added to the highest producing square available and the shields will be added on that same turn.

This means that having a spare forest or mined plain around will produce 4 of the 30 shields required for the settler.

Production at a particular population level

The highest population level at which a settler factory can start the cycle is 5 (4 if you have no access to fresh water) . It will then spend half the turns (i.e. 2 for a 4 turn settler factory or 3 for a six turn settler factory) at that level, and the other half at population 6. Then it will grow and produce the settler at the same time and be back down to 5 with the granary still full. This seems like magic the first time you do it, but it does work.

It does however require disciplined micromanagement.

Requirements for a 4 turn settler factory

For a 4 turn settler factory you need 6 production after waste at your starting population while working all the bonus food and 7 at one higher than your starting population. This assumes that you have a spare forest or other 2 shield producing somewhere. Your shields will then be 6 on the first turn, 6 on the second turn, plus the extra 2 from the newly produced citizen, 7 on the third turn, and 7 plus 2 on the final turn.

The other alternatives are

7 production at your starting population and at your starting population plus one, and also having one additional shield producing tile.

6 production at the starting population and 8 at the starting population plus one.

Example of a 4 turn settler factory

One example would be
using the capital so that there is no waste of shields,

Irrigated cow on grassland - 2 surplus food, 1 production
Fish in a lake - 1 surplus food
2 mined bonus grass land - 2 production each
a mined grassland (worked in turns 3 and 4)
a forrest (used in turns 2 and 4)

This together with the 2 food and 1 shield produced by the city centre is sufficient.

The city starts off at population 4, produces 6 shields in turn 1, produces 6 shields in turn 2 plus 2 more from the forrest as it grows to turn 5, produces 7 in turn 3, and 7 in turn 4 and grows, produces the last 2 shields from the forrest produces a steeler and will drop back down to size 4.

You will have to move the citizen away from the forrest onto the mined grassland at the start of turn 3 (otherwise you will only get 4 food) and again on turn 1.

Also just before you press enter to end turn 4 the city will show grows in 1 produces settler in 2. Don't panic. This does not take into account the 2 shields that you will get from the growth.

Out of phase settler factory

In the above examples the settler is produced on the same turn as the city grows. This means that city growth happens on turns 2 and 4 of production.
It is also possible to work a settler factory where growth occurs on turns 1 and 3. Here the city will be at its starting level of population(e.g. 4) for 1 turn, one above that for 2 turns, and one above this for 1 turn. Clearly in this case 4 is the maximum starting population. You will still get 2 lots of extra shields from the population grown turns, so if you have a spare forest you need to find a further 26 shields of production. In practice as long as you can get 7SPT at size 5 and have a spare forest it should work.

Requirements for a 6 turn settler factory

As stated above you need 2 surplus food for a six turn factory (e.g. an irrigated wheat on grassland on its own), and

4 production at your initial level and 5 at one pop higher, plus a spare forrest, or
5 production at both levels.

There is more flexibility however, as you can do without your food bonus every third turn

Requirements for a "combo" factory

For a 6 turn factory the trick is to build a 10 shield unit in the first 2 turns of the cycle and the settler with the remaining 4. This needs 5 SP at the starting pop level and 7SPT at the higher level, together with a forrest. A 4 turn combo factory is also possible but that needs 10 spt at pop 5 so it is rarely possible!

 

[Offa]

Thanks for this. I obviously agree with everything you say.

On the subject of just spotting a factory possibility I think the key things are:

1. if you can get +5 food and at least 6 shields at pop 4 or 5 then a 4 turn settler factory may be possible (depends on other squares, eg a mined bonus grass and forest),

2. if you can get 10 shields on the first turn and still manage to grow after 2 turns, then a 4 turn settler/warrior factory or some other super factory is worth investigating. In practice this is unlikely without cows.

To calculate food surplus, just as you say, the thing is to count +2 for the city square, and then count the other worked squares according to their difference from 2 (eg grassland=0, plains=-1).

A little catch is trying a 5-7 factory with a non fresh water start. It won't work without an aqueduct, which obviously you won't have.

 

[aliss77777]

so, if I understand RFHolloway then it is possible to build a settler factory under despotism if you had a lot of good tiles to work on. but, this process gets even easier if you decide to switch to monarchy, right?

 

[MikeH]

Yes, it's easier on monarchy, but that's often too late. Given a reasonable start you can normally find the right combination of tiles under depotism for at least a six turn settler factory (archipelago maps, as usual, being the exception). If you can find a cow or wheat on a river you're halfway there.

 

[RFHolloway]

But don't forget, expansion is power, and given the possibility of an early republic in C3C, it is then possible to increase the production of settlers significantly. Whist not as important as an early settler factory it is still useful.

 

[Slax]

I have never tried to build a settler factory. Once the right population has been reached, is it necessary to somehow have zero food, zero shields simultaneously to begin the phase? Or must you coordinate food and shields from non-zero starting points for the first one?

 

[TimBentley]

There are several methods I use to get the factory running smoothly once the worker actions are complete. Sometimes I micromanage carefully, sacrificing food or shields to reach an appropriate point in the cycle (for example, for a four-turn factory, if I have 5 food in the box and no shields in the box, I'll take two turns to grow, but get 14 shields in that time. Sometimes extra gold can be made in this process). Sometimes I build other units (warriors and workers) to get to the correct population with the food and shields empty. Or I might just waste a little food or shields for the first time. Hopefully I can gain some gold.

So the answer often is yes to your second question.

 

[mikezang]

I found there is a problem if captial is not suitable as Setter Factory, because other cities will have waste so that 7 spt is difficult.

 

[eldar]

I've only once managed to get two 4-turn factories running; I was playing as Portugal, popped an early Settler, and found a silly number of appropriate tiles (Cows, FP Wheat, etc.). Often it's better to have the second one alternate between Settlers and Workers.

 

[Arklain]

Settler factories are all right in the first few turns but if you don’t move you Settler Factory out words it will take you 20+ turns to get your settler where you want him to go! I like to start off with a Factory sending out settlers in every direction! But with my new city I first build a temple for the cutler expansion! By the time the temple is done you should have at least three people in there to make a settler. Make one and then repeat!

 

[Harkonnen]

I wonder when a turn will remain the only integral civ parameter (and production/gold/science/whatever_else left-overs will be moved towards the next turn to make even time space less discrete).

 

[Heroes]

Settler factories are all right in the first few turns but if you don’t move you Settler Factory out words it will take you 20+ turns to get your settler where you want him to go! I like to start off with a Factory sending out settlers in every direction! But with my new city I first build a temple for the cutler expansion! By the time the temple is done you should have at least three people in there to make a settler. Make one and then repeat!

Emm ... in most cases, building early temple is not good. Without enough workers, your citizens will work undeveloped tiles, and your citiy is well possible to be not connected to capital, -- these are huge waste. Furthermore, a temple cost 1 gpt, which is not negligible in the beginning. It's generally better to first build worker or warrior from new cities.

 

[bonefang]

i need some advice :

if some one manages to get a wheat and 2 cows and then irrigates these 3 sites, there well be more than 10 food right ? I beleive this can be used to be a good settler factory??

 

[bonefang]

i need some advice :

if some one manages to get a wheat and 2 cows and then irrigates these 3 sites, there well be more than 10 food right ? I beleive this can be used to be a good settler factory??

 

[Aabraxan]

Only if it sufficient shields to keep up with the food. If the city is "all food and no shields" it will grow large, but the settler will still take forever. Also, keep in mind that it takes 20 surplus food to fill the food bin. At +5 surplus food per turn (sfpt), that takes 4 turns. At 6, it still makes 4 turns and the extra 4 food (4*6=24) is lost.

 

[eldar]

1 Wheat + 2 Cows, irrigated, can give you anything from +3fpt (Wheat+Cows on plains, non-Agricultural/Agricultural not on fresh water, Despotism/Anarchy) to +11fpt (floodplain wheat, grassland cows, Agricultural on fresh water, non-Despotism/Anarchy).

 

[Spoonwood]

There also exists the 3 turn settler factory and the 2 turn settler factory.

 

[Spoonwood]

The highest population level at which a settler factory can start the cycle is 5 (4 if you have no access to fresh water) .

This isn't clear. I'm not sure if the idea lay in having the settler factory at 5 or size 5 with 15 food already in the box. I'll call the later size 5.5. If you have a city with 8 shields per turn at size 5.5 and some tile with 2 shields that you can pick up moving from size 5.5 to size 6, then you can get 10 shields changing from size 5.5 to size 6, 9 shields moving size 6 6 to 6.5, and 11 shields growing from size 6.5 to size 7. That makes for 30 shields. Thus, you can produce a settler in 3 turns from size 5.5 to size 7. The upshot here lies in that if you have 8 shields at size 5, and 9 shields at size 6, and have say a forest around, then you have a 4 turn wealth-settler factory.

The 3 turn settler factory I briefly mentioned above relies on having 10 food per turn and a granary and enough shields (a very powerful and unusal start in terms of food and production). You grow from size 5 to 6 on turn 1. From size 6 to 7 on turn 2. And then swap tiles and produce a settler on turn 3 at size 7.

The 2 turn settler factory, I think, only exists in a golden age before rails. But, it does exist in a golden age with a powerful enough start. Checking one of my saves with an agricultural tribe, two irrigated cows and a watered bonus grassland gives you enough food and it can run as low as from size 4 to 6.

 

[Lanzelot]

Also very interesting are the warrior-settler combo factories. I think, it is even possible to get a 4-turn warrior-settler-combo in Despotism. The trick here is to alternate the tile allocation, so that one the first & third turn you have 3 food/10 shields, while on the second & fourth turn you have 7 food/8 shields or 7 food/ 7 shields and a three-shields tile (mined iron hill/mountain)to pick up on growth. (The food tiles in the odd turns and the shield tiles in the even turns can then be used by a neighboring town.) However, this needs so many good tiles in the BFC of the capital, that it is quite unlikely to find in the average game.

For example:
In the odd turns: use 3 mined BGs, a mined Cow and an irrigated plains tile. This gives 3 food and (together with the city center) 10 shields.
In the even turns: use an irrigated Cow, an irrigated floodplain Wheat and three mined BGs for 7 food and 8 shields.

So the capital would need access to two Cows and a floodplain Wheat for this to work...
Once you are out of Despotism, however, things like these are much easier to achieve. A floodplain Wheat and a handful of BGs is already enough. (But once you are out of Despotism, you usually don't want so many Warriors... )

 

[Spoonwood]

I think, it is even possible to get a 4-turn warrior-settler-combo in Despotism. The trick here is to alternate the tile allocation, so that one the first & third turn you have 3 food/10 shields, while on the second & fourth turn you have 7 food/8 shields or 7 food/ 7 shields and a three-shields tile (mined iron hill/mountain)to pick up on growth. (The food tiles in the odd turns and the shield tiles in the even turns can then be used by a neighboring town.) However, this needs so many good tiles in the BFC of the capital, that it is quite unlikely to find in the average game.

For a non-agricultural tribe if you have two grassland cows and three bonus grasslands, then you can irrigate one cow, mine another cow, and then mine three bonus grasslands. But, that will take some time to set up, especially if you don't have the industrious trait. The 4 turn wealth-settler factory takes a little less time to set up.

I think you might also use two irrigated cows in despotism for a non-agricultural tribe and set up a 4 turn warrior-settler combo factory as follows. You use one of the irrigated cows and four mined bonus grasslands on the first turn when you produce a warrior. This way some other city can use one of the irrigated cows. Then you use both irrigated cows for 11 shields upon growth. Then you use the 4 food at size 6, and 6 food at size 6.5. That actually sounds more powerful overall than using a mined cow, since a nearby city can grow faster.

Additionally, with a powerful enough start you might put out a 20 shield military unit... maybe catapults since you don't need barracks for them... in the first two turns. Then put out a worker. Then put out a settler in the last three. This would give you something of a balance between military, workers, and settlers.

But once you are out of Despotism, you usually don't want so many Warriors

Or maybe you want more warriors for more military police? Monarchy has looked more attractive to me on Sid level after a later revolution to The Republic where I couldn't attempt steals during the anarchy, nor did I have much of my own gpt to try for a 2-fer. A monarchy will also grow earlier, which implies more citizens that might get used for the tax collector trick combined with n-fers/maybe steals to keep up in tech. But, I guess I've digressed.