Single tile settlements = orphanages?

[rjg85]

Bear with me.

So to fulfil a legacy path I needed to build another settlement quickly - any old settlement. Between my homeland cities there were only a few unclaimed tiles so I just plopped down a settler for the legacy points. No tiles to grow into (and no way to claim unworked tiles from my neighbouring cities of course) = absolute garbage settlement. But what happens when that new town growth bar fills? Well, with nowhere to grow, it spawns a 'migrant'. A migrant I can march to my Capital and assign there, adding +1 pop to my megacity. And it does this every few turns. So...it's an orphanage.

It goes without saying that this seems like an exploit that should be fixed at some point.

 

[Vincent_lacruz]

Bear with me.

So to fulfil a legacy path I needed to build another settlement quickly - any old settlement. Between my homeland cities there were only a few unclaimed tiles so I just plopped down a settler for the legacy points. No tiles to grow into (and no way to claim unworked tiles from my neighbouring cities of course) = absolute garbage settlement. But what happens when that new town growth bar fills? Well, with nowhere to grow, it spawns a 'migrant'. A migrant I can march to my Capital and assign there, adding +1 pop to my megacity. And it does this every few turns. So...it's an orphanage.

It goes without saying that this seems like an exploit that should be fixed at some point.

Well, that settlement won't grow fast, considering you only get the city hall food. Also that migrant won't be able to be used for specialist, which means it loses some of its value by the Exploration age.

Also, you should bear in mind that that one-tile settlement still counts for the settlement limit, so it might mean a hefty amount of happiness by the end of the game. Happiness that would have given you celebrations, more efficient than one sole pop considering it reaches all your empire...

 

[Krikkit1]

The migrants work well for transferring between big cities. Perhaps Migrants are unlocked at a certain pop ?7-15?, and before that excess growth gives a “food shipment” unit that adds ?50-100? food game speed ?and age? adjusted…only usable in a city

They also could let settlements claim unimproved tiles from a friendly city

 

[rjg85]

All valid points, but I've never found the settlement limit to be an issue. And even though I can't use them as specialists (they don't get much of an education in the orphanage) I can spam the rural tiles with powerful unique improvements - it definitely felt advantageous.

Edit: not that I intend to deliberately create one again

 

[stealth_nsk]

I think this could be a valid strategy, but I don't see it as overpowered. Settlement limit is usually a big issue in antiquity and exploration when you actively settle. It becomes less an issue if you play modern without active conquest, but value of migrants drop in this case, because big cities quickly lose space to settle them.

 

[Fluffball]

Well, that settlement won't grow fast, considering you only get the city hall food. Also that migrant won't be able to be used for specialist, which means it loses some of its value by the Exploration age.

Also, you should bear in mind that that one-tile settlement still counts for the settlement limit, so it might mean a hefty amount of happiness by the end of the game. Happiness that would have given you celebrations, more efficient than one sole pop considering it reaches all your empire...

While I am not disagreeing with the overall idea that the concept is not that great, you can fudge the migrant into being a specialist by placing it down, then go into the town and start to build a wonder on that town to get to pop back (which can then be used as a specialist) then cancel the wonder to free up the tile again.

I am not advocating it as a legitimisation of the 1 tile city strategy but I use that fudge quite a bit with migrants, particularly in the exploration age to gain the science legacy.

 

[rjg85]

They also could let settlements claim unimproved tiles from a friendly city

This definitely feels like something that will inevitably happen. (I won't get into the UI issues with me not being able to see what tiles are claimed by what settlement.)