2nd Settler..... do you build or wait for liberty?

[Ryika]

If I just play a standard-game I usually hardbuild a settler as soon as I reach 2 pop. A second one at 3-4 pop, followed by 2 Caravans to pump food into these cities. I open with Tradition, so my Capital gets a food bonus, too, and I end up with 3 really fast growing Cities and the NC built at around turn 90.

 

[askia53]

I take liberty first in most games I play, and usually wait for the settler from liberty. Unless I am in a rush to expand, waiting seems to work alright, especially if I get a culture ruin. I sometimes feel I am being too cautious or not expanding enough, however.

 

[tetley]

I pick Honor and build a couple archers instead, and thank the neighbouring AI for that city he settled on my behalf.

 

[BrokTheFanatic]

From testing back and forth on the same random map hard building early will usually get you more land&cities but at a number of costs, seems only advisable when you have a really great spot nearby.

I do use it more often than not because I play with the rule 'I don't start wars'. So no worker stealing or taking a nearby city. So I have to grab resources up so that later on I can overtake the AI.

 

[sendos]

I always hand-build them. Sometimes in random quick MP games, I would purchase one, thanks to tradition and monarchy. Liberty for me is never a smart option unless there is plenty of space to expand around my capitol and by that I mean something like 5-6 viable good spots, involving at least 1 LR, preferably a different kind each time just in case. Why grab liberty opener and republic, +1 culture and +1 production to get a free settler when you can get tradition? It covers border expansion, culture, defence, growth, gold and wonder production all into one, and with the additional citizens, you effectively eclipse the liberty settler production bonus. The liberty tree needs a stronger happiness buff and a gold buff to be more attractive in BNW.

I have also tried 2 games on immortal level doing a liberty start and I fail to see the benefits. The civs chosen were Carthage and the Netherlands.

 

[kb27787]

With the advent of food routes I feel early expansion is completely unnecessary, esp. on starts where you have plenty of spots so you can afford to let the AI take some... (why plant a new city early if you can't feed it/have workers to improve it? It's just a waste of golden age pts/culture cost in general and makes NC more costly);

Liberty is fast enough in the case that I absolutely have to expand early (say I have a faith NW that is about to be taken by a CS); building a settler once your cap is size two is suicidal in general (and that means your warrior/scout is not exploring, and hence missing out on ruins/CS gifts because they need to escort the settler, otherwise you might lose it to barbs)

 

[Antiphon]

Sometimes I do hardbuild my second settler before policy, especially when I dipped honor first and still need to get rolling.

 

[Ryika]

With the advent of food routes I feel early expansion is completely unnecessary, esp. on starts where you have plenty of spots so you can afford to let the AI take some... (why plant a new city early if you can't feed it/have workers to improve it? It's just a waste of golden age pts/culture cost in general and makes NC more costly);

The sooner you found a city, the earlier it can start working tiles + the earlier it can begin to build stuff - it pays for itself rather quickly. While a trade caravan can give the city a nice push, it doesn't make up for the delay - and if you found it early, you can still send a food caravan later on, to make your city grow even faster. Overall, I'd say it depends on the city spots that are available. If there are a few nice food-tiles so it can grow by itself, then I'd say there's really no reason not to settle early, except for an early wonder, a warmonger nearby or maybe a NC-first. It won't hurt your capital too much (even if you hardbuild 2 settlers early on you'll still be able to build everything you "need" to build on time) and you'll just have a few more pop in your other cities.

Liberty is fast enough in the case that I absolutely have to expand early (say I have a faith NW that is about to be taken by a CS); building a settler once your cap is size two is suicidal in general (and that means your warrior/scout is not exploring, and hence missing out on ruins/CS gifts because they need to escort the settler, otherwise you might lose it to barbs)

You don't have to defend your settler. Just make sure that you check all the tiles (by holding down the right mousebutton while you have the settler active and hover over these tiles - if there's a unit blocking, you'll see that) and play it save.

However, at that point it's a good idea to bring the warrior home anyway, because your first worker will soon need protection anyway.