When should you build settlers?

[Gort]

It's pretty much a given that in this game, more cities is better than fewer. There are lots of factors to consider when expanding, however:

• Building settlers early can stunt your civilisation's development in other areas - production spent on settlers is production not spent on military units, districts, builders and traders
• The early policy of Colonisation grants a 50% bonus to production spent on Settlers, making them considerably cheaper
• Settlers get more expensive with each one you build

So I suppose my questions are these - assume a "standard" game (standard speed, standard size map, continents map, barbarians on and so on):

• What should you build before your first settler?
• How many settlers - if any - do you build before taking the Colonisation policy?
• When do you stop building settlers?

 

[Bobfregman]

I always build my first invasion force before even thinking about a settler. So 3-4 archers and 2-3 warriors. I may also make a builder but that's more situation dependent. After that I'll start thinking about a settler but sometimes I'll also go with more troops if I have another nearby neighbor I want to invade simultaneously.

I usually stop building settlers in the neighborhood of turn 100 but again it depends on the circumstances.

 

[enar]

In most games, I've built at least two slingers before I build my first settler. That way, if I have a particularly expansionist close neighbour, I can leave a slinger as garrison in my capital and still use the second as an escort for my settler. If my original capital happens to be in Barbarian central, I may build an extra slinger for swatting barbs.

I try to pump out settlers at a rate that doesn't cripple my cities, but allows me to maintain expansion into unclaimed territory. I don't usually gate it to something like Colonization.

I don't stop building settlers until I've got at least 8 cities or I'm blocked off from further expansion by other civs/city states. At that point, I either switch to military expansion (if I've got a tech lead and it's still early in the game) or I turtle and concentrate on bee-lining to key advances.

 

[sa1vy]

I usually build about 5-6 slingers/archers first for my first war, then I consider a settler. I think waiting till 3/4 pop is a good idea.

This brings up the interesting topic of how to time when your settler finishes in relation to when your city will grow. Since finishing a settler reduces the population of the city (this took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out...), it can be really important timing your settler to finish just before your city grows, or just after your city grows. This is especially important early game when every turn counts (well, supposedly).
From my reasoning, I think it's usually better to time it to finish just before your city grows. I think that finishing the settler a little earlier is better. If you time it for just after, you'll have an extra citizen's tile yield for one turn, which usually isn't as beneficial.
What do you guys think? I haven't heard any analysis on this.

 

[gimper42]

The answer depends on how things are playing out.

1) If my scouting warrior does NOT FIND A NEARBY MAJOR CIV -AND- finds NO BARBARIAN HUTS or scouting barbarians then the build order usually slinger, builder, settler.

2) If my scouting warrior DOES FIND A NEARBY MAJOR CIV then I build at least 3 slingers consecutively before anything else since I know that an early DoW is very likely. Then the choice between whether to build a settler or builder first depends on my starting dirt.

3) If my scouting warrior does NOT FIND A MAJOR CIV -BUT- DOES FIND A NEARBY BARBARIAN HUT, then it depends on what that hut is doing. Has it discovered my city yet? If not, then the build order is going to default to #1. Inactive huts are not much of a threat and can be effectively handled by the starting warrior. If the hut has discovered my city it might be churning out warriors/slingers/horsemen at which point I might have to divert all cogs to military assets until the hut is destroyed. Or just start the game over.

 

[Victoria]

I am with @gimper42 on this, flexibilty means you play the map rather than the map letting you down.
Difficulty level comes into it, more cities are necessary on higher level to combat the AI bonuses. Lover levels require less.

I will likely try and get 1 settler before early empire regardless. If going domination, building other just slows you down apart from for example finding Torres. Nice spot like my current egypt dei game am just starting. Brazil forward settles so out with the slingers and odd barb. I did not completely take him because he just built a tonne of archers and is embedded in Jungle but I have his cap and I have 6 cities including a Torres with 2 plains hills. Any game is now possible.

@Gort While the principal of more is better has some truth there is a sweet spot and going too far over that sweet spot which depends on victory type just slows you down IMO but the game is about fun so its about getting as many as you enjoy using. I won a catherine cultural on prince/continent/standard the other day with 4 cities and did not really go overseas at all.

 

[rrhal]

I find I can safely build one settler after a scout and a slinger. If you are going to war with your neighbor go ahead and forward settle. Your second city can crank out a unit or two to make up for the time it took to build the settler.

 

[sugerdady87]

My new BO: scout --> settler

 

[gettingfat]

Considering the aggressiveness of barbs especially after patched and the envoy bonus for first meeting the CSs. I'll always open with at least 4 military units (3 if a hut pops a scout) before anything else.

 

[EpicWestern]

IMO double slinger (into archer) is the absolute minimum you need to fend off deity level barb rushes (at least without getting a lot of tiles pillaged). I also usually get 2 builders and a monument and sometimes a scout before a settler, though I can go settler after 2 slingers if I badly need to grab space before opponent.

 

[Jarms48]

- no barbarians: slinger/builder/slinger
- barbarians: slinger/slinger/slinger
- other civ: slinger/slinger/slinger
- religious city-states (when not playing religious): slinger/slinger/slinger
- other city-states: see barbarian/no barbarian

Then I'll build settlers, I'll try and get 1-2 before the discount card, after that I'll usually have at least one city pumping out new placements.

 

[Manco]

Build order

1 - Slinger
2 - Settler
3 - Slinger (Capital)
4 - Warrior (2nd City)
5 - Slinger / Archer (Capital)
6 - Worker (2nd City)
7 - Settler (Capital)
8 - Warrior (2nd City)

At the end, you'll have 3 City / 3 Warrior / 3 Archers.

9 - Encampment (2nd City)

 

[WackenOpenAir]

You first build units to conquer enemy cities. How many units depends on how many cities there are to capture and how far they are away.

You may want to build a few settlers before conquest if you can find enough reasons to do so. Possible reasons i can think of:
-You scout some very good expansion spots.
-Conquest value is reduced (more than 15 turns travel away, bad terrain around those cities)
-Neighbours are too strong to conquer early (sumeria)
-There are very few AI within reach and you want to give this AI some time to settler more cities for you before you capture.

Before or in between both settlers and armies you may want to build
-a scout (i dont usually build any at all, instead i scout with slingers)
-a worker (pure profit if it can do forest cuts to produce stuff with 50% production bonus from civics. Also may be worthy to make tile improvements that provide extra production and fullfil tech/civic boosts)
-a boat (if you need to scout the world map before your armies can go to more distant enemies.

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

I think with early settler builds you are really rolling the dice on immortal+. I've had quite a few barb swarms come my way when trying those openings and now I just open with military units as it's far safer. I find it really difficult to eliminate barbarian scouts early on and they usually spot my city pretty early. On emperor I can usually get away with an early settler. I'll usually chance it if I notice some city states nearby as they usually help clear out some of the camps.

 

[isau]

IMO the ticket here is how fast you can get to the "cheap build time" policies.

I usually play my mod and the rules are a bit different there. But in the unmodded game I usually go Warrior --> Builder unless there is nothing for a Builder to improve, which can happen with civs like Brazil that starts surrounded by jungle. The Warrior will go explore, playing the role of Scout (since Scouts aren't worth keeping around). The Builder builds three improvements. Ideally 3 that trigger inspirations, but if that can't happen, just any 3.

Barbarians will likely come pillage the tiles. But the thing is, you actually still get 3 charges out of it. You only lose the extra yields during the turns the improvement is pillaged. Since there is no Builder cost to repair a tile (other than a turn) with your second Builder, the benefit of that first Builder isn't wiped out by barbs, you just go some turns where there is no apparent effect. The Barbarians won't take the city, and can't do much but stand around looking mad after they take the improvement.

Meanwhile, you've made that important jump into the first "+50% military production" and "+30% builder production" civic. And that way you can quickly build a force to wipe out the Barbs, and a cheaper second Builder who repairs any tiles lost in the interim, and then has 3 remaining charges to improve any other tiles or do chops (chops are always much more efficient when running the Builder discount card.)

 

[sugerdady87]

I think with early settler builds you are really rolling the dice on immortal+. I've had quite a few barb swarms come my way when trying those openings and now I just open with military units as it's far safer. I find it really difficult to eliminate barbarian scouts early on and they usually spot my city pretty early. On emperor I can usually get away with an early settler. I'll usually chance it if I notice some city states nearby as they usually help clear out some of the camps.

So you simply switch BO once a scout spots your city.