When to build workers & settlers?

[MSTK]

Something new about this game is that settlers and workers no longer cost you population, but instead stop all population growth while you're building it. All of the food you collect goes towards the unit instead of population growth.

That being said, when is the best itme to build a worker or settler? Building a worker right off the bat from a new city is probably disasterous. The city looses its chance to grow quickly and has to wait for the worker before it can start growing. That being said, a worker may help the city grow faster. It seems more efficient to get a worker produced from a wealthy city to help your new city, to spare it the population and food that would be wasted.

Settlers aren't as urgent in this game. They take longer to build and therefore waste more food. Maybe the best time to build a settler is when a city reaches its maximum growth potential?

 

[Kid_icoris]

i usually build workers around pop 3 or 4, you can get a warrior and a scout out by that time and could use a worker, for settlers i usually wait until about pop 6, seems to work alright for me lol

 

[gabbar]

I think it matters most in the very first city.. I usually start off with some generic improvements like an Obelisk or Barracks or an extra Warrior/Scout while the city is growing. By the time that is done, the city is up to size 3 or 4.. Then I build another settler and found my second city, and similarly start off with some generic improvements in that city. Meanwhile in the first city, I may decide to build a few other improvements depending on the state of the game and then build a worker. In my experience, one or two workers are fine for the first 3-4 cities that I build.. By that time, my cities are big enough to generate workers without taking too much hit.

But of course.. I don't claim to be any good at Civ!

 

[hands]

depends on the city radius
if you have potential food sources (which provides health) then go for the worker, helps to increase population growth as well.

 

[Wlauzon]

This is something I still have not figured out for sure. My opinion so far is to NOT build any settlers until the first city is 3 or bigger. Sometimes - especially if a bunch of livestock is nearby, I will build a worker right off.

But sometimes I just build a couple of military units to explore. I have also tried things like building a barracks first, and even the pyramids - both with mixed results.

So far it seems like the best way is to build one worker right off, then let city get to 3 or 4, then crank out settlers as fast as you can. In most games if you lose the early land grab you are doomed unless you luck out and get ALL the resources you need on your small area.

Still not perfected yet, and trying a lot of variations. There may not be a best way for all situations - I usually play Custom, with time, space, and diplomatic victory clicked off on Large size world with 5 to 8 other civs.

 

[KAuss]

Geography is key...

If there is a place that can block off an entire peninsula to yourself if you can claim 3 pieces of land... Then build those settelers and warriors ASAP... This will buy you plenty of time to catch up because no one will be able to get into your land mass...

I generally start to build a settler once I find a piece of land with enough resources to lure me there... The more resources you hog that don't require calendar, the more potential friends you'll have... Just gift out the things you don't need like furs n such to keep them happy / turn (this makes them avoid attacking you) to buy time to recoupe from your early settelment spurt...

If you have no good land to build a 3rd or 4th city, just keep building up the first few and let the computer do the dirty work... Then rape them clean when they have done the ground work... You should have plenty of time to build up a force early on, and it'll be easy to defend three cities vs 5 or 6...