Free Settler Without Cheating!

krille

CivDOS Fanatic
Joined
Sep 5, 2005
Messages
337
Ok, the title is a bit misleading and maybe some of you have noticed this already, but I came to think of it only now so I thought why not post it?

Settlers are ruddy annoying because of their upkeep: Two food and one shield (Despotism/Anarchy makes it slightly better, but are flushed down the toilet for other reasons). Still you will need quite a few to manage your empire and even late-game you need to clear pollution.

Here's how to get rid of the upkeep without cheating. Simply build a city with the Settler in the middle of nowhere. Set it to Barracks and let it work for one turn and then buy it and switch production to a Settler. The city now gets turned into a Settler owned by NONE. Build another Settler and repeat! It costs you less than 80 gold per Settler. Much cheaper than bribing one off the AI. (Does not work at Chieftain level though, I think, sorry Whelkman.)

Edit: As Valen points out "the temporary city only needs to be built in a place where the nearest city is an enemy city" for this to work. As such "in the middle of nowhere" is not necessary, just an expression.
 
krille is correct: this trick works only in Warlord and higher. Fear not since I've already resolved the settler resource issue for my games. Still, this is a powerful method to reduce the stain of maintenance. Good find.
 
It's a useful trick, but you make it sound way cheaper than it is. Each settler fed into the process took a city's time and resources that could have been used for caravans, and took away a population point that isn't always easy to recover. Then there's the food and shields upkeep cost while you shuffle your settler into place.

There's a variation you can try if you've got a good income. Build a settler and make a city a few squares away from an enemy city. When given the city display, immediately rush a militia, switch and rush a barracks, then switch to settler. When you rush a settler on the first showing of the display, the city doesn't disband. It will still be owned by the city that made it, but it won't cost any population.

Now pivot your new settler to the other side of the enemy city and build. Repeat the immediate rush buy. Now you can rush a NONE settler out of your first city and repeat the process, thereby getting a NONE settler every few turns for just under $190. (The cost goes up when you invent Gunpowder, obsoleting militia.)
 
It's a useful trick, but you make it sound way cheaper than it is. Each settler fed into the process took a city's time and resources that could have been used for caravans, and took away a population point that isn't always easy to recover. Then there's the food and shields upkeep cost while you shuffle your settler into place.

I agree and will also add that most of the times you need your settlers in the core of your empire (building roads, irrigating and mining, cleaning pollution, etc) and not "in the middle of nowhere". So, after the "None" settler is built you still need to lose valuable turns to move it to where it is needed.

During this voyage many things can happen to the settler unit - it can be caught by enemy units or barbarians or it can be halted by the movement rule (something like «one unit may not move from one square adjacent to an enemy unit to another square also adjacent to an enemy unit unless that square is already occupied by a friendly unit; exceptions to this rule are Caravans, Diplomats and air units. See page ... of the manual for more information.»). In order to protect your settler it will probably need the company of one or two military units. Of course military units cost resources...

In conclusion, I believe that Krille's tactic for getting "None" settlers makes sense but only in theoretical terms. When it comes to playing, in the long run, it does not seem such a great idea.
 
... most of the times you need your settlers in the core of your empire (building roads, irrigating and mining, cleaning pollution, etc) and not "in the middle of nowhere". So, after the "None" settler is built you still need to lose valuable turns to move it to where it is needed.

The temporary city only needs to be built in a place where the nearest city is an enemy city. If you have one enemy close and a suitable spot well defended, you can have roads and later rails to your unsupported settler farm.

Unsupported settlers have double the initial cost because you build them twice - once normally and then again in a temp city, but they do pay off in the long run.
 
Thanks for the clarification Valen. I have edited the first post.
 
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