Ideal settler factory city size

[planetfall]

I may have been playing wrong. When you create a settler, the city gets a pop hit. I've tried pushing out as fast as can in early game as soon as pop 2. But is it better to let city grow a bit more before pumping out settlers?

What's your best plan?

 

[InsidiousMage]

What's your best plan?

What DLC do you have? The governor Magnus has tier two promotion that prevents the city from losing pop when creating a settler.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

I may have been playing wrong. When you create a settler, the city gets a pop hit. I've tried pushing out as fast as can in early game as soon as pop 2. But is it better to let city grow a bit more before pumping out settlers?

What's your best plan?

I go for a settler immediately at pop 2, and then usually another right after to get 3 cities out. At that point the cost becomes quite heavy, so I tend to wait for the settler card and/ord ancestral hall or monumentality golden age (if I can get it) before Ib resume anything settler related. Then again, I tend to attack my neighbour at 2-3 cities, which is why I put such a premium on getting them out fast and then switch to other stuff (religion, units or both).


There is no hard rule on how/when you should crank out settlers though.

The governor Magnus has tier two promotion that prevents the city from losing pop when creating a settler.

I personally dont bother with that, as the rest of Magnus is pretty bad and wasting a promotion in order to keep a little bit of population doesnt suit me at all. The first initial ability is the real kicker, so I usually stop there.

 

[Mahasona]

Usually three settlers, then wait for Magnus. The chop bonus is good for ancestral hall as well as any wonders I might have my eye on.

 

[Nigel_Tufnel2]

Sometimes when I get a food heavy start I work 2 of the 4-food tiles and then start using production heavy tiles more at 3-4 pop. This way I get a little more Science and Culture early, and don't lose as much S&C when the pop drops from a Settler build. I commonly only build 1 Settler before the 50% bonus card, assuming I hit all of the Inspirations, which is usually doable.

 

[rocksinmypath]

It depends on the game, but usually, I open with two scouts followed by a settler. I usually wait until I have Colonization for my third settler. I'm not a big fan of Magnus' Provisions promotion because I find it better to move him around for chopping, and it's better to buy settlers with gold or faith in a city that's closest to the new settlement location. I guess I don't usually do settler factories.

 

[rocksinmypath]

Also, in case you're wondering how you can come to these conclusions yourself. I would try to weigh the value I can extract from all the things I can produce now (e.g. settler, builder, monument) as well as the cost of producing said things. A builder has maximum utility when you can expect to expend all its charges as soon as the builder is produced AND you can immediately start benefiting from the tiles improved by the builder. A builder has low value if all you can use it is to build farms on naked flat tiles. If you can improve wheat, horses and diamond, you're getting a lot of value because you're getting three eurekas and an inspiration for a civic you typically want to boost very early, and you're also getting a strategic resource and a luxury, both of which you could sell to the AI for a lot of early-game gold. The value of a monument is the 2 culture per turn it provides, but early-game, you may not actually get the full value of 2 culture per turn because you might end up wasting some culture by being forced to unlock civics that you can easily boost before you can boost them. Getting a settler out before a monument typically increases the value of the monument because it's easier to boost Early Empire with two cities than one since it's much more difficult to grow your capital to 6 pop than to grow it to just 4 pop and the 2nd city to 2 pop. Early Empire unlocks Colonization, which lowers the cost of producing your next settler. You can kind of see why it's usually a good idea to produce your 2nd settler as early as you can.

 

[AntSou]

I never get my first settler at pop 2. Occasionally at 3, though 4 and 5 is more common. It makes a huge difference to your starting city to immediately take advantage of any high yield tiles nearby. It's one thing to lose a pop to a settler when that pop would be working a 2F1P tile, another if it means you'll temporary stop working on a 2F3P tile (or something similar). Tiles which grant +1 Culture or +1 Science at this stage can considerably reduce the time needed to acquire the next tech/civic. So in the beginning I always consider which tiles I won't be able to work if I get a settler.