Have you ever done this?

[Spoonwood]

Has anyone ever planted the settler, then added the initial worker into the city? How did things go? Did you put out a settler out first that way?

 

[CKS]

I've only done this in attempts at ultra-early conquests, so I could pop-rush immediately. Otherwise it sounds like a bad idea - no worker means no roads, irrigation, or mines (in either of the first two cities, if a settler is the first build).

 

[Allacalander]

It works better if the land is already pretty decent, like if you have two cows in the vicinity. Also works if you're planting cities in conquered (but developed) land, such as when one civ has gone through and cleared out another one.

I occassionally will export workers from cities that have stopped growing or are gorwing very quickly to those which are growing slowly. Sort of a forced immigration.

 

[ChaosArbiter]

He's talking about right at the beginning of the game.

 

[CKS]

Yes, I've done those things, too. Spoonwood is talking about the first worker, in 4000 BC, though. (At least, that's my understanding.)

 

[Spoonwood]

Yes, I've done those things, too. Spoonwood is talking about the first worker, in 4000 BC, though. (At least, that's my understanding.)

Yes, I did mean that. I probably would have said "a worker" and "a city" instead of "the worker", though perhaps it would read better if I wrote THE settler.

 

[Allacalander]

Oh, I get it. Thatis something that had never occurred to me. I guess my original response still holds though. I might try that if I have two cows in range.

 

[DWetzel]

Has anyone ever planted the settler, then added the initial worker into the city? How did things go? Did you put out a settler out first that way?

Intentionally? No.

 

[Aabraxan]

Someone around here, maybe 2-3 years ago (?) insisted that it was a great strategy. I'll see if I can remember who it was & dig up the threads.

 

[Skullsplitter]

I tried it several times over the weekend, with at best mixed results. If course, the first thing is that with only one content citizen, you have to up the entertainment slider, and unless you are on a river, the worker isn't even contributing to that expense. You won't even get the road to help out. So science is much slower than would otherwise be the case.

This, of course, means the first couple warriors will be MPs rather than explorers. Hope you are expansionist, otherwise you have several more turns before another warrior pops out so he can do some exploring.

OK, assume you lucked out and picked the right direction with your explorer. When your settler pops, he's going to walk 3 turns or more, rather than the 1-2 he would otherwise have.

So when didn't the start bite? Hard to say -- I couldn't rerun the scenario and pretend I didn't know where I wanted my second town. I'm pretty sure I got my settler out earlier when I was on grassland with a few bonuses. I'm pretty sure I was slower when there was bonus food I could have irrigated. I was ahead with starts that were mostly hills, mountains, forests, deserts and plains that I could not irrigate. I think I was about even on jungle starts.

Basically, what I found was that on a map I would ordinarily Ctrl-Shift-Q, its possible to make it play a little better than it otherwise would. I'm not sure I would even consider it then unless I was expansionist, but since I don't really like expansionist, I'm likely to Ctrl-Shift-Q.

 

[Bowsling]

One strategy is to as the Inca, to disband your initial scout to replace him with a quick chasqui. Of course, it only works against humans, or a below-monarch AI.