Quick Settler Production

[Thunderfall]

I tested this simple strategy and it works pretty well when playing as the Romans on Warlord level. It does require some micromanagement...

How is how it works:

1) Build your city on a tile that has access to 2 forest tiles.

2) On the city screen, immediately use custom worker management and place both workers to work the forest tiles. This produces 4 hammers/turn.

3) Change the city to produce settlers. A settler costs 20 hammers, so you will have a settler in 5 turns.

4) When the settler is ready, repeat steps 1-3. It's ok to build some of the cities on sites that don't have two forests.

5) A size 1 city can get back to size 2 very quickly, allowing you to produce settler from it again.

Using this method, you can have 6 or 8 cities up and running in no time. After that, you can either pursue the mega city (even two mega cities) strategy or just develop your empire normally.

This does mean you'll have less early exploration. From time to time, a warrior from another Civ or barb may move next to your city, but you should be able to rush a warrior or two in time (perhaps using money made from AI caravans or selling techs, or from barb camps).

Having more cities in CivRev is great because they have no maintenance cost and there are techs and great people that give bonus to all cities.

PS: This is not tested on higher levels or in multiplayer., or with another Civ.

 

[Widowmaker313]

Yeah, thats what I do, but keep it balanced production, slow but steady:]

 

[tonycz]

I don't like this strategy at all. Against good opponents, it can be extremely difficult to hold onto so many cities, you simply can't produce the defenses fast enough. I personally like to stick with around 2 or 3 cities in the early game. Make them profitable, usually one gold, one science, and one producing. Maybe create a fourth as a settler pump after a few turns and share the settlers amongst the three. Settler pumps are worthless though I find unless you have code of laws/republic so they only cost one pop.

 

[Hodory]

Interesting strategy. It is nice not to worry about feeding your population at 2 food per citizen in CivRev. Also since there doesn't seem to be maintenance costs associated with increased number of cities, the so-called ICS strategy seems to be one of the useful tools here.

Like previous poster mentioned though, I don't like this strategy myself. I also do not have the full version, so can't test this at higher levels, but I am mainly interested in playing my single player games as if I am playing multiplayer against other humans. Having too many cities will mean that it will be much more difficult to adequately defend your cities. Any aggressive minded opponents can easily build an army of legions and overrun one or two poorly defended cities, making the hammer investments put into settlers a complete waste.

I truly believe that scouting is extremely important in knowing where your rivals are, and it isn't necessarily due to finding villages or artifacts. This not only enables you to plan your city placement strategy early, counting the effectiveness of nearby resources which could dictate what techs to pursue.

In terms of the first core of cities, I am trying to see what I can do to start up 3 cities from the get go, one each dedicated to science, gold, and production, without having to rely on the settler pump strategy. I have a feeling that at low levels, settler pump strategy to create a mega city or two could work very well in single player games, but I hardly see that as a viable strategy in multiplayer games. It will be very nice to have a city that doesn't need to rely on settler spams to grow its population. That means possibly a city with a few plains tile which will lead me to pottery that opens up granary for more food in the early game. Possibilities are endless and that's why I love Civ games.

 

[Ormylar]

The way I build my cities fast is this:

1.) Once my first city is built, I build a worker right away. (Warrior first in multiplayer) While I'm doing that, I'm getting Bronze Working to cut forest.

2.) After building my first worker, I build another, using my first worker to cut forest to speed up production of the 2nd worker.

3.)After my 2nd worker is built, I build settler, using my two workers to cut the forest and increase production.

4.) Repeat Step 3.) 1-3 more times.

I've always been using this strategy in Monarch level and I generall get a good piece of land.

*Note, your score may be low at first, but then it will jump up ahead*

P.S. It helps to be imperialistic like Rome and Portugese.

 

[Thunderfall]

Well, my best games on the demo were played using this strategy (Romans & Warlord level). The barbs and AI usually don't attack you much early in the game on that level and I can win domination victory pretty consistently with this strategy.

I do agreed this strategy would work poorly in multiplayer or with other Civs.

Ormylar: I think you are in the wrong forum. There is no worker unit and no forest chopping in Civilization Revolution.

 

[BOSS NASTi]

Well, my best games on the demo were played using this strategy (Romans & Warlord level). The barbs and AI usually don't attack you much early in the game on that level and I can win domination victory pretty consistently with this strategy.

I do agreed this strategy would work poorly in multiplayer or with other Civs.

Ormylar: I think you are in the wrong forum. There is no worker unit and no forest chopping in Civilization Revolution.

Running this strategy in SP is different from running it in MP. Try that. Also if your going to run a Feeding Strat in MP, you might want to consider running a handi so the pace of the game increases.

 

[Ormylar]

Well, my best games on the demo were played using this strategy (Romans & Warlord level). The barbs and AI usually don't attack you much early in the game on that level and I can win domination victory pretty consistently with this strategy.

I do agreed this strategy would work poorly in multiplayer or with other Civs.

Ormylar: I think you are in the wrong forum. There is no worker unit and no forest chopping in Civilization Revolution.

Lol, I realized that after in another forum. My mistake. =S Sorry about that. I'm new to this site, so please forgive me.

 

[MKElderGod]

I tested this simple strategy and it works pretty well when playing as the Romans on Warlord level. It does require some micromanagement...

How is how it works:

1) Build your first city on a tile that has access to 2 forest tiles.

2) On the city screen, immediately use custom worker management and place both workers to work the forest tiles. This produces 4 hammers/turn.

3) Change the city to produce settlers. A settler costs 20 hammers, so you will have a settler in 5 turns.

4) When the settler is ready, repeat steps 1-3.

5) A size 1 city can get back to size 2 very quickly, allowing you to produce settler from it again.

Using this method, you can have 6 or 8 cities up and running in no time. After that, you can either pursue the mega city (even two mega cities) strategy or just develop your empire normally.

This does mean you need to forgo early exploration, but I think its worth it. From time to time, a warrior from another Civ or barb may move next to your city, but you should be able to rush a warrior or two in time (perhaps using money made from AI caravans or selling techs).

Having more cities in CivRev is great because they have no maintenance cost and there are techs and great people that give bonus to all cities.

PS: This is not tested on higher levels or in multiplayer.

1. Understand this wasnt tested on MP but FYI this Strategy blows on MP.
2. You lied to the whole Civ Rev Public. This isnt warlords tested I know for a fact because if you send a settler by its self and say a zulu warrior is near it he would threaten you for gold because youve left a settler unprotected and you wouldnt have any gold. That means you would automatically be at war. This would actually happen on the first settler and you would lose the game early. Ive tried this its completly useless.

 

[Thunderfall]

1. Understand this wasnt tested on MP but FYI this Strategy blows on MP.
2. You lied to the whole Civ Rev Public. This isnt warlords tested I know for a fact because if you send a settler by its self and say a zulu warrior is near it he would threaten you for gold because youve left a settler unprotected and you wouldnt have any gold. That means you would automatically be at war. This would actually happen on the first settler and you would lose the game early. Ive tried this its completly useless.

For #1: Yes, don't even bother with testing in MP. Human players will seize any opportunity.
For #2: During the few games I tested using this strategy, I actually made some gold early because the Aztec sent a few caravans to my city. I spent most those money on roads. for some reason, I found that if I have 50 Gold, Zulu would demand money for the settler. However, if I have only few golds (say < 15), they didn't bother threatening me or attack the settler. Anyway, this strategy does take lots of risk. I did, however, had very successful games using this strategy on the demo playing as the Romans on Warlord level.

You can still use this strategy when you have explored most of the land surrounding your cities and found the area relatively safe, so you can build more cities quicker.

 

[BOSS NASTi]

I tested this simple strategy and it works pretty well when playing as the Romans on Warlord level. It does require some micromanagement...

How is how it works:

1) Build your first city on a tile that has access to 2 forest tiles.

2) On the city screen, immediately use custom worker management and place both workers to work the forest tiles. This produces 4 hammers/turn.

3) Change the city to produce settlers. A settler costs 20 hammers, so you will have a settler in 5 turns.

4) When the settler is ready, repeat steps 1-3.

5) A size 1 city can get back to size 2 very quickly, allowing you to produce settler from it again.

Using this method, you can have 6 or 8 cities up and running in no time. After that, you can either pursue the mega city (even two mega cities) strategy or just develop your empire normally.

This does mean you need to forgo early exploration, but I think its worth it. From time to time, a warrior from another Civ or barb may move next to your city, but you should be able to rush a warrior or two in time (perhaps using money made from AI caravans or selling techs).

Having more cities in CivRev is great because they have no maintenance cost and there are techs and great people that give bonus to all cities.

PS: This is not tested on higher levels or in multiplayer.

This is if you want to do it the slow way and take extra turns to produce them. You always want to have ur 2 workers on a 2H(Hammer=forest) & 2F(F=food). This way they will produce one turn slower, but the problem with doing it the way that your saying is that especially when you play in SP which shows nothing to how the strat really works in MP is partial. The reason you wouldn't want to put both your workers on H tiles ODB(off-da-bat) is because when your first settler unit is made, you will have to wait 5 turns to get your city back up to 2 pop. So hence you wasting pretty much a whole another time to pump out your next settler.

Bro if you going to post strats, then please make sure you test them in MP before you post them. Because it doesn't mean anything to run SP and test strats out when that won't be the type of enviroment you will be playing in when it comes to MP.

 

[BOSS NASTi]

The way I build my cities fast is this:

1.) Once my first city is built, I build a worker right away. (Warrior first in multiplayer) While I'm doing that, I'm getting Bronze Working to cut forest.

2.) After building my first worker, I build another, using my first worker to cut forest to speed up production of the 2nd worker.

3.)After my 2nd worker is built, I build settler, using my two workers to cut the forest and increase production.

4.) Repeat Step 3.) 1-3 more times.

I've always been using this strategy in Monarch level and I generall get a good piece of land.

*Note, your score may be low at first, but then it will jump up ahead*

P.S. It helps to be imperialistic like Rome and Portugese.

The way you are doing it is the slow way though bro. You never want to only focus on settler production ODB. Because you will take almost the same amount of turns to get another settler unit out as it will to take you to get back to 2 pop. You never should put your two workers on Hammer Squares. Poor microing.

 

[BOSS NASTi]

My responses are in bold.

1. Understand this wasnt tested on MP but FYI this Strategy blows on MP.

Actually if you can have an early defense while running a feeding strat then it works out pretty well. Even though some people try and do horseman rushes and think their bomb at the game. But their dooke.
2. You lied to the whole Civ Rev Public.

How? Why do make broad statements? Can you be specific and actually support evidence to back up your claim please?(and i'm not protecting him at all, i'm just saying this due to the fact that you like most others on forums just don't know how to properly post/debate)

This isnt warlords tested I know for a fact because if you send a settler by its self and say a zulu warrior is near it he would threaten you for gold because youve left a settler unprotected and you wouldnt have any gold. That means you would automatically be at war. This would actually happen on the first settler and you would lose the game early. Ive tried this its completly useless.

First off when your running a Feeding strat, you only send settlers by themselves in the beginning to establish your MC's(Mega Cities) and FC's(Feeding Cities). Irregardless of another AI warning him when a settler is made, does not affect the overall strategy at all because he can just make peace with him or decline and then make peace right after and nothing will happen.

My responses are in bold.

For #1: Yes, don't even bother with testing in MP. Human players will seize any opportunity.

Actually most of them won't because their all trying to get far along the tech tree as well, or go for another sort of victory. But you won't see a lot of players going for early Dom Vics at all. Unless your Miz Is Here using his lil Horseman rush strat to beat the other human within 20 turns. MP is the only way to test whatever it is your trying to do. Or test it on King difficutly when full game comes out. But don't think because you can play on Diety and win makes you pro at this game, cuz it honestly doesn't.(the last sentence was just an in general statement if you didn't pick up on that)

For #2: During the few games I tested using this strategy, I actually made some gold early because the Aztec sent a few caravans to my city. I spent most those money on roads. for some reason, I found that if I have 50 Gold, Zulu would demand money for the settler. However, if I have only few golds (say < 15), they didn't bother threatening me or attack the settler. Anyway, this strategy does take lots of risk. I did, however, had very successful games using this strategy on the demo playing as the Romans on Warlord level.

Well your playing on Warlord. Cheiftan & Warlord=No Risk & Pure sucess in whatever your really trying to do. This is exactly why it's utterly pointless due to the fact that this will not prepare you for what the MP enviroment is at all. Pretty much playing SP should only be for Tutorial purposes only if you eventually want to play MP. Then don't take SP seriously enough to test out strats in it.

You can still use this strategy when you have explored most of the land surrounding your cities and found the area relatively safe, so you can build more cities quicker.

You don't have to explore most of the land, you honestly want to try and keep your cities as close as possible, so then it won't cost as much gold to connect them all, hence saving you more money overall in the early game.

Next time i'll read more and then just multi quote.lol...

 

[vale]

Boss Nasti, you are very wrong.

Avoiding growth to population three is very strong in this game because of the rapidly increasing food cost for each successive population level. If you plan things right, you will always be able to work exactly two tiles in your settler farms and be able to pump out settlers much quicker than any other method. If you allow growth to population three, the food cost is prohibitive and forces many extra turns on a food tile just to recoup your investment.

Best for settler production is to work a food and hammer tile until you are in danger of growing to population three, then to work two hammer tiles. When the settler is built, you will already be back to population two with half of your food bar filled and will take minimal time to repeat the cycle.

 

[tonycz]

Why are we all talking as if settlers only cost one pop? They cost 2 unless you have republic.

 

[BOSS NASTi]

My responses are in bold.

Boss Nasti, you are very wrong.

Avoiding growth to population three is very strong in this game because of the rapidly increasing food cost for each successive population level.

So what about going to pop 3?

If you plan things right, you will always be able to work exactly two tiles in your settler farms and be able to pump out settlers much quicker than any other method. If you allow growth to population three, the food cost is prohibitive and forces many extra turns on a food tile just to recoup your investment.

I did not get anything about what you just said here. It's like jumbled up code bro, can you explain it again for me. When you say two tiles(you should say squares it makes more sense)are referring to having 1 worker on 1 square and another unit on another square? Can you be more specific please.

Best for settler production is to work a food and hammer tile until you are in danger of growing to population three, then to work two hammer tiles. When the settler is built, you will already be back to population two with half of your food bar filled and will take minimal time to repeat the cycle.

Dude have you read anything i've written fully or do you just skim through things? I've been saying that you should always have a 2H and 2F production giong on in your Feeding cities. What are you talking about when you say "in danger of growing to pop 3?" This makes no sense. Can you clarify?

 

[BOSS NASTi]

Why are we all talking as if settlers only cost one pop? They cost 2 unless you have republic.

Were referring to if you have a republic. At least this is what i'm referring to but vale did not specify, so I could be wrong.

 

[vale]

@Boss Nasti

I haven't crunched the numbers exactly, but a rough approximation is that it costs twice as much food to grow from population 1 to population 2 as it does to grow from population 2 to population 3.

A settler costs 20 production and 1 population (under Republic obviously).

The food cost of 1 population is approximately half as much if you work at population 1 and 2 as opposed to working at population 2 and 3. This is a significant savings. So by growing to population 3 you are (approximately) doubling the food cost of the settler. The tradeoff is that you get some turns where you can work three tiles. This sounds like a great deal, but in a standard early situation where you have only tiles yielding two food and two production available, the few extra turns on extra tiles is mitigated by the increased food cost of each settler.

Even in situations where operating at population 2-3 would show slight long term improvements over operating at population 1-2, the short term of getting the first couple of settlers out quicker becomes a major consideration.

What I have found to be by far the most effective method for farming settlers out of a city is the following:

1. Work a food and hammer tile until I am 2 or 3 turns away from growth. The game has a nasty tendency to jump from 2 turns to growth to growing for no apparent reason so I stop early to avoid that situation.
2. Switch to two hammer tiles to complete the settler.
3. When the settler is built, because I had enough food banked to grow from population 1 to population 2, my city is already population 2 again despite the population cost of the settler. Repeat from step 1 until no more settlers are necessary.

This minimizes the time that you have to waste working food tiles in your settler farm(s).

 

[vale]

I have read what you said.

And what you are saying is that you should "always work a food and hammer tile". And for best efficiency, I am telling you that is not true.

Here are some rough numbers. Again, because of the interface, I don't have precise food costs for growth so these are estimates:

Growing from pop 1 to pop 2 costs approximately 10 food
Growing from pop 2 to pop 3 costs approximately 20 food
Growing from pop 3 to pop 4 costs approximately 30 food

So a settler produced at population 3 costs 20 production and 20 food while a settler produced at population 2 costs 20 production and 10 food. That is, the settler produced at population 2 costs 10 food less than its counterpart produced at population 3.

10 food is 5 turns on a basic food tile. So unless you are spending at least 5 turns at population 3 during the production of each settler, the extra tile turns are not recouping your investment.

How about some examples:

Simplest settler farm:

Needs two forests and a grassland. Follows the plan I mentioned above. Completes a settler about once every 7 1/2 turns after the first one is out.

Max efficiency pop 3 settler farm:

Needs two forests and two grasslands. Basic plan is to work a combination of tiles to produce 20 food and 20 hammers while building a settler and to always maintain the ability to work 3 tiles. Completes a settler about once every 6 2/3 turns after the first one is out.

Looks pretty bad for the 2 pop settler farm as it loses 5/6 of a turn during the production of each settler? Yes, but you are ignoring the very important words in each of those "after the first one is out".

The very simple fact is that the first settler will be out significantly earlier in the 2 pop farm than the 3 pop farm for the simple reason that to set up for the best efficiency of 6 2/3 turns between settlers, the 3 pop farm will need to come up with a significant amount of food before the "first" settler to achieve that efficiency.

To be precise:

The 2 pop farm can produce its first settler at 10/20 food (population 2) and achieve maximum efficiency for its type.

The 3 pop farm can produce its first settler at 20/30 food (population 3) and achieve maximum efficiency for its type.

That is 30 extra food required to set up the "efficiency" the 3 pop farm allows.

How much time does that cost? Well the 2 pop farm produces its first settler in five turns from 10/20 food with no invested hammers.

The planned 3 pop farm spends 3 turns working 2 grasslands to bring itself 2/30 food (population 3) still with no hammers invested. It can then work any combination of tiles (micromanaged) that will bring it 18 food and 20 hammers over time with the caveat that the food has to be finished no later than the hammers. That will take 6 1/3 turns. So it doesn't get its first settler out for 9 1/3 turns, which is 4 1/3 turns after the 2 pop farm could have done it. And it requires a more constraining location (needs an extra grassland).

Those 4 1/3 turns will be made up over time by the increased efficiency, but it will be behind the 2 pop farm until it produces its 6th settler which is a very long time.

 

[MKElderGod]

Wait hold on... The point is you cant send settlers with out protection because anything over cheiftan means your neighbors are going to ask for money and if you dont pay that means war. Also btw you wouldnt be prepared for war because you wouldnt have money or warriors.

I have a strat but i cant give it up yet. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$