So what are your secrets on growth?

[Deau]

I also consider settlers building to be far from an exact science.

Map type & difficulty level justify the urge to build them.

Start location and available tiles justify whether you should build them at pop 3,4,5 or 6 (or possibly more on maps like archipelago where you can expand after NC safely).

I typically consider a sweet spot around when I can get 13 HPT but I will often settle for 11 HPT.

So if you start in a deer/forest start, you will likely want to delay later to get a few forest hills chopped off to get higher settler production (as an example).

Similarly, if you start on all plains with some wheat, the granary can convert to as much as 3 hammers so you'd want to delay until granary is out to build settlers.

On the other hand, if you have an all grassland start with 3 hills, waiting to pop 4 will get you no net gain so you might want to start building around pop 3 letting your workers improve tiles in the mean time for faster paced growth afterwards.


Anyway just picturing some examples of adjusting settler building to the start location.

 

[joshua43214]

I play tall tradition, and so I skip the Monument. Also the maps I play on never have enough land on justify a second scout.
Library always built before first settler and normally an archer is built right before the settler.

Early techs for me are:
Pottery always first
Then a tech that would open up a luxury if a single tech would do so; otherwise a tech on its path.
Next always Literature
At that point its getting all remaining techs needed for the capital and first planed cities luxuries, then Archery and Philosophy.

I just recently went back to building the monument on tradition openers with the fall patch. I usually miss my 1st choice spot if I build the library before the settler, and I almost always play Pangaea so I usually even build a 3rd scout if one of them turns into a worker farmer.

I find I get enough happy from the Tradition opener that I don't worry a lot about getting an early lux out. It is a rare game that either my cap or my first expo does not have either a mining or a calendar resource - and if it is a sailing or trapping lux, ten the game will just start slow.

I have also gone back to the old school bee line to acoustics and hitting rationalism right out of tradition. Been having good luck with it now that I do not feel a need to waste two policies in patronage. Still playing with it, but so far it feels reliable and strong

 

[echolalia]

I haven't seen anyone mention we love the king day yet. I try to keep my capital always in this even if I have to trade away 3 mixes for
the required lux. Of course I will check the city states first, you might get lucky an get a chain going. Maratime city states are also worth cultivating.

 

[timeasymmetry]

I haven't seen anyone mention we love the king day yet. I try to keep my capital always in this even if I have to trade away 3 mixes for the required lux.

What is the exact boost from "we love the king day"? 10%? 20%?

 

[Browd]

WLKD = +25% growth rate in that city for 20 turns.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Try to maintain We Love the King Day in your capital whenever feasible. Wltkd does not benefit the food from trade routes, so don't delay acquiring the resource for want of a caravan.

 

[FinsT]

...
-Micromanaging of the city screens: prioritizing production when building settlers, wonders and other important stuff - focusing on food when I don't. ...

I agree with above said idea that you'd need to keep max growth even while building any except very few indeed _most_ important wonders.

On top of this, i'd try to buy settlers whenever it's possible (thus avoiding quite lengthy halting of growth).

I micromanage the city building settlers to _negative_ food production to increase its production, setting food as low as at all possible and production to absolute maximum possible, - during settler-building time (the game sets _any_ food production to zero whenever you gbuild a settler - means, even negative food production). This allows to build settlers faster, - thus shortening period of time which your city has 0 growth.

As for "other important stuff" - there is none. None which is worth slowing your growth for, i mean. Because, if it is _indeed_ that important, - then you get enough gold to buy it right away (diplomatic trade rocks), which is a better solution. If you run out of gold and exhausted your means to get more - then it means you already bought quite alot of things; these WERE the most important, - everything on top of it is already second-importance. Which means it's not worth slowing your growth for.

Oh, and one more thing. Dunno if mentioned above. Get Temple of Artemis if you still want MUCH more growth. It is totally awesome for this - +10% to _all_ food produced in _every_ city. Hanging gardens is TIMES less powerful even by a mid-game; many times less powerful end-game. Let's say middle-game, going tall, you have 4 cities each being 25 population. That's 200 food to feed your people, plus something like at very least 60 more food generated for growth. 260+ food total being produced. Temple of Artemis will give you 26+ more on top of it, all of which goes to growth; so 60+ total food which was providing growth to your cities - ToA "buffs" to 86+, which is almost +50% growth speed. If, by any chance, you was not paying attention to this particular wonder, - well, now you know why you need to. Oh, and that +15% for building ranged units - is not too shabby either; for this reason try to remember to get ToA and Heroic Epic in the same city - this way you get stronger AND cheaper ranged units in the same time.

 

[TwistedEdge]

I'm curious, all this talk of ways to improve growth, but not what would be considered a good growth rate. Where should folks be at t100/t200/t300/t400? I think OP is using Venice, so let's go based off that.

 

[Plumfairy]

I'm curious, all this talk of ways to improve growth, but not what would be considered a good growth rate. Where should folks be at t100/t200/t300/t400? I think OP is using Venice, so let's go based off that.

I don't think it's possible to give an absolute "good" growth rate; it all depends on the map & the CSs available. Recently I got an inland start with 3 wheats & a maritime CS nearby, and I was able to get +18 food by T90... without Tradition. (I went all Honor this particular game.) I consider that pretty phenomenal, but the map I was playing on made it pretty easy to achieve.

There have been other games, however, where the world contains very little food (e.g. tons of plains & hills). In those games I was pretty happy to achieve +9 food by T90 *with* Tradition.