How long do you let your first settler wander?

[Son_Of_Dido]

The lower the difficulty level, the more free I feel to fool around with moving my first settler. I still don't think I've ever moved more than two tiles (i.e. founding my first city in 3900 bc) in any case.

If I were messing around on Chieftan or Warlord I'd move two, maybe even three, unless I had a scout to check things out for me. Regent and Monarch, I'll move once to get to a river, or the coast, or cattle. When I start trying my hand in earnest at Emperor or perhaps even higher, I'm sure I'll play it as it lies no matter what (well, okay, four cows on river bonus grassland tiles, I guess i'd move for that, but you get the idea).

 

[Game_Addy]

When I started a random map, I landed with fur by me, on the coast. The problem was I was surrounded by Tundra(with and without forests). I'm only willing to move it one tile, and if the resource I want is further away, it's going to get taken with my second settler(playing Mass Regicide helps a lot on scouting)

 

[EquinoxOmega]

I usually build my city instantly after the beginning of the game. Very very seldom I make one move with my settler first, but there must be a good reason for doing this.
Once I tried to play without a city(of course on a map with only one landmass). It was very challanging to live with an army recruted from villages.

 

[Moxxa]

If I start one tile from the coast I will move so I can settle on the coast. Same thing with any kind of water really.

It might be an interesting variant to play, say, 10 turns behind the AIs by not founding your first city until 3500 BC.

 

[Elear]

I never go beyond waiting a turn usually, but going several turns would not hurt much on most levels (Emperor and below, I'm talking about). I'm sure you could win @ 1000 bc founding on chieftain level, or even later.

In fact, it's perfectly ok to go a turn or two on Deity and Sid, 2 turns isn't that much. I wouldn't push it beyond two, however.

 

[TimBentley]

Apparently you can wait until 450 BC to settle on regent: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=92599

 

[Ansar]

I usually either settle in place or move once.

More than once = a new start for me.

EDIT: 5000th post!!!

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

I usually settle in place, unless I can get a better start by moving a tile. Though I will never move more than one tile from my start location.

 

[duckmanbro]

One turn and one turn only. If I can find a spot in 0, great, but if not within 1 turn, consider restarting

 

[Synobun]

I never move my settler, I normally just let him drop there, build a city, and then I work up for a second settler and a few more workers. I rarely build warriors and such beginning of the game.

 

[Hiram]

I usually drop straight away, mainly to avoid the AI players becoming more powerful than me. If I was in a really bad spot though...

 

[Ansar]

Question to the people who voted to always settle in the spot they are in:

Do you restart if you start on a mountain/swamp?

 

[Greebley]

The reason I move a settler to a fresh water has nothing to do with the 100 shields you have to spend. One needs construction to build the aquaduct. That often doesn't come until later. If at size 6 you don't have 10 shields, then it will take an extra turn or more to build any military unit (over a city that does have 10 shields)

I primarily play Always War games where this is especially important. In that case construction take a while to get to and building military early in your capitol is important. Having less than 10 shields will cause a significant slow down in needed military. Also once you have Monarchy growing above size 6 is important for additional unit support.

So it depends on the game you play. If all you will be doing before you get construction is spamming out settlers then the fresh water isn't as important. Other variants or play styles though and moving onto fresh water is well worth the single turn to move to get the fresh water.

Besides unless it is a contest where you are trying to rush to the finish, my empire doesn't look much different if it was one turn older so moving makes little difference.

 

[TheLoneMan]

Do you restart if you start on a mountain/swamp?

If it's a horribly awful start, I'll regenerate a map, but I voted one tile move, so this doesn't really apply to me .

 

[Noobnerd]

Either 0-3 I don't want to make a build a city in the middle of a desert.

 

[seanos08]

I move the worker in the most promising direction first. Then I will either settle or move the settler if a significantly better starting spot is found.

 

[Macha]

In civ3 only 1 turn but in civ4 resources are more importsnt so i'd move it up to 3 spaces

 

[Panzar75]

No more than 1 turn.

 

[Synobun]

Do you restart if you start on a mountain/swamp?

One time I started on a large mountain mass area. I had to move my settler 5 turns before he could drop down and settle, and I got a luxury out of it as well.

 

[iguana1]

A lot of times I play an expansionist civ so I first move the scout with an attempt to climb a nearby hill or mountain. Depending on what he reveals, I either build on the spot, move one square to a better spot. If needed I will first move the worker in a different direction for extra scouting before deciding what to do with the settler.