Newbie Plays Settler Level Civ4 Vanilla

[TheCox]

I would probably have regened that map for two wet corns tiles in the main BFC(Big fat cross, which is your first border pop for your city)

Moving the warrior north will take him 2 turns without settling for probably no gain. But I am still new to the game, so that's what I would have done. Feel free to correct me if needed =D

 

[greenbelt]

Hello ikotomi, pigswill and Seraiel.

ikotomi: yes I agree. The SIP is terrible. I would like to move the Settler to a tile between the Inland Sea and the Ocean.
pigswill: I like the Plains/Hills option. Will I be able to put ships to Sea from there?
Seraiel: aah your angry avatar makes me wonder if you are really angry or not. I moved too far ahead in the other game to be able to get useful help from you. I continue to play that other game while I wait for advice on this game. Be happy, it's only a game.
TheCox: welcome. I have been watching your game. How do I paste my Saved Games to this thread? Regenerating the map might work.

So Settler establishes the capital on Plains/Hill or Regenerate the map?. I already have Fishing, The Wheel, Agriculture, Mysticism and Mining techs.

I think I want to research Sailing so I can build a Lighthouse (+1 Food on every water tile in this city) and later a Galley to explore the coastline.

The Warrior will explore.



Just one turn to see what is north of the Plains/Hill.


OK no more turns till I get your comments.

 

[Seraiel]

@ greenbelt:

My Avatar is not angry . Click my name to see it in bigger size on my profile, you'll notice that I'm l'm looking distinct at most .

 

[ikotomi]

When you reply to the thread, you can manage attachments in the additional options on the bottom.

 

[pigswill]

When you're posting click on Go Advanced, under the text box you'll find Manage Attachments, click there to upload a save.

If you settle on plains hill its a coastal tile (diagonals still count as coastal) so you can build boats and LH. Whether you should go for sailing early will depend on what else is around.

 

[greenbelt]

Well since it has been 24 hours since the last post I went ahead and established Madrid on the Plains/Hills.


Now what should I build first?

I am leaning towards building a Worker to improve the Corn with a Farm.

What should I research?
Meditation
Polytheism
Pottery
Sailing
Hunting
Archery
Animal Husbandry
Bronze Working

 

[greenbelt]

Here is the Saved Game file.

 

[pigswill]

Worker first is a good habit to develop early on.

Bronze Working (BW) is probably the strongest early technology (tree chopping for bonus hammers, slavery and whipping population for hammers from food and locating/mining copper) so that would be a good choice. Animal Husbandry (AH) would be an alternative if you had any animal tiles to pasture, but you don't. At settler level you could certainly found a religion but being able to expand faster by building/chopping/whipping workers and settlers far outweighs the benefits of early religion.

One point to also remember is that you don't need any troops in your cities for a long time. Animals won't invade, barbarians won't invade for at least two thousand years, AIs won't invade for longer than that. Better to get your warrior out exploring, at settler levels native huts are always nice (thoug not something to rely on as you increase difficulty level), locating sites for your next cities is good, locating AIs is good. Explore!

 

[TheCox]

I agree, learning early on how to chop/whip (which means chop trees/whip to get things out faster) is really strong early game.

I'll continue to watch this thread for new ideas of my own

 

[Seraiel]

I'd go fishing first followed by Sailing, because the Lighthouse Lakes are actually the best tiles past the Corn, and they also give . Building non-riverside Cottages seems to make little sense on this start, and BW imo also doesn't make sense, because you settled with almost no trees, so research it later.
After Fishing -> Sailing, I'd go for AH, to see where Horses are. You definitely want to have some of those with Isabella, and it gets you nearer to Alpha.

Build a Worker, improve the Corn, build Warriors 'til size 3, work 2 Lakes, build a Settler. Then get up a Lighthouse and afterwards continue with Settlers. You won't need another Worker for long, because there's basically nothing to improve around your capital except for the Corn in this scenario. Maybe this will make you wanna get TW early, so the Worker can build Roads towards your 2nd city, the Traderoute will be important, as from only some lakes is not much, and you also don't want to have the Worker stand around. Probably TW after AH, you first want to see where the Horses are, before you can decide where to build the road, except your Warrior finds an awesome 2-3 Food-spot with great . is what you should look for with your 2nd city if it's possible, 3rd city at latest (Horses have priority imo) . You only need BW, if those spots have the trees your capital is missing, if they don't, go Writing -> Alpha and get it by trade (hopefully, low-level-AIs might maybe not even have that than yet) .

 

[pigswill]

Respectfully disagree. You still need to build lighthouse (LH) before getting 3f from lake tiles which is of course the beakers for sailing+60h, before LH lakes only give 2f/2c which is inferior to 4h mine or 1f/3h mine.

I'd be thinking corn first then mine, start settler at pop2 working corn+mine, then one chop and 1 pop whip into settler.

Sailing for LH is good, but then pottery for cheap granary is also good. AH for horses is good as well.

Further advice will depend on further exploration so its really about first tech and then review once that's in, hopefully greenbelt will supply a further screenshout and/or save at that point.

 

[Virupaksha]

Hi Greenbelt

I am not a great player like Serariel and Born In Cantaloupe who are two of the best players of this game in the world. I normally win on Monarch level and can beat Emporer which is the level I am playing now. Like you I play on vanilla.

This is general advice, not game specific.

Regarding traits ( not including aggressive as I like to play peacefully) philosophical and spiritual are different to the others as they require skill to optimise them. Because of this my favourite leader is Saladdin as he has both of these traits but this complicates the game. For a complete beginner I would suggest creative as your cities' cultural boundaries will expand automatically, and I would couple it with financial which gives extra gold for technology research. This means playing Catherine which has the added advantage of not having her as an opponent - you can throw her further than you can trust her -but the disadvantage that no other leader is quite so forward in their sexual advances towards you.

But any creative leader on settler level will do.

For settling the first city SIP unless you can see a riverside plains hill to move to which won't deny you a food resource if you do. The extra hammer from the plains hill is a big bonus in the early game.

First build should always be worker. There are cases where workboat can be better if you start on the coast with seafood resources and fishing but for a beginner this is just complicating matters. Never neglect to build workers. The rule of thumb on the forums is one and a half workers per city. You should make sure you never have less than one per city in the early game.

The capital will always have a food resource and the first tech should be what is needed to improve this. That way your worker will have something to do once it emerges and your city will grow.

Normally BW and AH should be researched early to uncover copper and horses. Axemen are the standard early military unit. They will deal with the barbarians and make the AI think twice about attacking you. Chariots are a poor second best but will normally do. Also horses are a rarer resource than metals and cavalry are certainly well worth having later. Warriors are basically useless. Archers are ok early for defending cities but frighten no-one.

Pottery is a key tech and should be researched early if possible. Cottages take a long time to grow but then become very powerful. build some early if you can and make sure your cities work them.

But really the key tech is alphabet which allows you to trade techs with the AI. The earlier you get this the better. Even without trading skill getting it early is a bonus of 4-5 free techs. Ask yourself when chosing a tech not on the way to alphabet whether you really do need it.

On settler level you can easily get an early religion but I would avoid this as in the long run it just teaches bad habits. Religion is not necessary, growing functioning cities are.

Grat Lighthouse and Great library are good early wonders. Oracle is also good but you have to think about which free tech you will take and time it's build correctly. Pyramids is a strategy all by itself but I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner. Stonehenge is very good if you are not creative but the creative trait makes it unnecessary. Hanging Gardens can be a nice bonus.

By the way I like your India relocation story. Are you in Tamil Nafu?

 

[greenbelt]

pigswill: I will research BW next after I get Sailing. I am producing a Worker in Madrid now (12 turns / 60 Hammers). I love playing Settler Level because it is almost like SimCity --> almost no Combat. ;P In my other side-game I only use the Warriors to explore!
Seraiel: I already have Fishing (because of Spanish civilization), so I can research Sailing right now. I really want a Galley to explore the coasts. But of course a Lighthouse is more important. Being Settler Level give me some basic techs for free (The Wheel, Agriculture & Mining).
TheCox: I will chop trees outside the city BFC to add Hammers to production & keep the Happiness benefit of the forest. I will also have to keep this city's population below 7 to avoid unhappiness. Researching Bronze Working soon will let me adopt the Slavery civic.
Virupaksha: Thanks for the great tips for the game. Yep I am building a Worker first, even though it feels wrong that my city will not grow and I will have a limited harvest with only 1 citizen. This time I am not chasing Religion. Seraiel was commenting on how that is a Newbie trap. At first we moved to Bangalore because it has a cooler climate. Later on we moved to Chennai because this is where my husband grew up and went to med school (Stanley). I have managed to get used to the extreme heat here. Do you live in Chennai too?



1. City Production = Worker
2. Research = Sailing
3. Warrior unit is exploring for better 2nd city site.

UPDATE @ 3640BC:
1. Sailing researched. Next researching BW --> to Chop Forests and get Slavery civic.
2. Madrid borders expanded.
3. about 6 more turns to produce Worker in Madrid.
4. Warrior exploring - sees a wolf.


UPDATE 3440BC:
1. Madrid building Warrior next. I was so tempted to build a Lighthouse or a Galley.
2. Worker first improves Grasslands/Corn with a Farm.
3. Next Worker improves Plains/Hills with Mines
4. Could change production from Warrior to Settler when population gets to 2.

 

[Virupaksha]

Hi greenbelt

Once you have your worker and improve the corn your city will grow pretty fast. Build warriors until you get to size 3, then settler, worker, settler. Build worker first in the second city.

Don't worry about not growing during this time, you will be set up very well once these three cities are settled.

After this on this map I would build lighthouse and then great lighthouse in the capital. On settler difficulty the AI will not beat you to it. You need masonry and sailing for this wonder.

My tech path after sailing would be BW, AH, masonry, pottery, writing, alphabet. Second city if possible should hook up copper or horses as eventually you will need some defence and warriors are next to useless. If you can't find either of these resources (unlikely) you will need hunting and archery ASAP.

I don't live in Chennai, I've been back in the uk last six years since my son was born, but I spent some years in Tiruvannamalai. Do you know it?

 

[ikotomi]

I would go AH before BW. You won't be able to chop much, and you don't really have enough food to whip settlers. I'm not too sure of the timing on Settler ,but AH first also gives you the luxury to work animals in your expansions.

Usually I would skip pottery in a start like this, and go straight for writing and alpha, but you might not get as much out of it if AI is too slow to tech.

I also have a hunch that you might have horses under the corn.

 

[pigswill]

Why research sailing first if you aren't going to use it? No real harm done but no benefit either. I'd go for settler at pop2, finish PH mine then chop (20h) and whip 1 pop(30h) so you only need 50h of production (5h from mine and capital +3h from 3 spare food from corn = 8hpt (hammers per turn)) so 7 turns.

I'd reckon send warrior exploring south east to find a decent site for your second city.

 

[greenbelt]

A good place to stop and wait for comments.

1. 3200BC. Madrid just grew to 2 citizens. Next citizen in 5 turns. 5 surplus Food per turn.
2. Warrior will be complete next turn. Harvesting 4 Hammers per turn.
-- Settler? 12 turns
-- Lighthouse? 15 turns
3. Worker has completed Farm & Road improvements on Grasslands/Corn tile.
-- Mine on Plains/Hills tile?
-- Mine on Desert/Copper tile?
4. There is a River north of Madrid. Good place for second city?

5. Researching Animal Husbandry (3 more turns)
-- Horseback Riding next?
-- Pottery next? then Writing
pigswill: Yep Sailing research is not being used fast enough. Will try to build a Lighthouse soon. My Warrior is heading eastwards now towards that River.

 

[ikotomi]

Make one more warrior next. It will help against barbarians coming soon. Barbarians spawn in the fog, so you want to have a few warriors standing outside your city just so you have vision. You don't need them standing right away. Use them to scout the area close by to find new city locations and start bringing them back when you see Barb warriors spawning.

You want to scout the area by the river south of your capitol to see if there's food there. Since you already got sailing if you settle by the river you will get an instant trade route. That only really matters if there is food not under a jungle. If not, you need to keep looking. At this point until your Settler finishes, you do not need to have your decision made so keep scouting.

I would mine the grasslands hill first. Then the desert copper. That way you will waste one less turn moving between tiles for your worker. The grassland hill is also a little bit better than the plains while your city is still growing.

 

[Gumbolt]

I think by moving your capital you may have sacrificed a food resource. You have still not scouted the tiles 4 south of your capital. Looks to be grassland down there. Have you a second warrior yet? It's always best to scout directly around capital first as the land up north is not great.

The river is south of Madrid!! Is it any good?? I have no idea. All I can see is fog and the river tile. How can you plan to settle a site you can't even see???

The wheat/cow spot looks okay. That or the northern corn site. You really could use 1-2 scouting units here.

Probably mine the plains hill next. Mine on copper adds only 1 hammer. mine on plains hill adds 3. Then consider chopping forest for LH? You could use teh 3F2c tiles.

 

[ikotomi]

Don't you still get +2 hammers for a flat land mine? I thought you get +1 for the improvement on top of the +2 mine improvement for a total +4 to a tiles base yield with copper.