Ye Olde Settlerre Factorye - HOW???

[Arturo]

In BamSpeedys article he (she?) is talking about getting a settler out ever 4 turns (or was it 6?). To get this don't you need to have certain terrain conditions, i.e. floodplains for food? Or can the wily player manage it in every game?
I find that I hardly ever (in fact, so far never!) have been able to set one city to ONLY producing settlers right from (or near) the beginning- the shields always outpace the food/population growth so I have to build other things in between. Granary helps but takes a while.

By the time I do have a city able to produce settlers ASAP I usually have quite a few (like 5 or so) cities already so the settler factory is not that important because I can get more than one city to produce settlers and alternate with defenders.
So, how soon would you generally expect to have your settler factory up and going? I know you'd WANT it as soon as possible, but realistically how soon should I be aiming for?
(either date-wise or after X number of cities built)

 

[SolarFlare]

If you begin the game intending to make a good settler factory, try adjusting the map settings accordingly. This is the stuff at the bottom - weather, age, and I can't remember what the other one is.

 

[Leha]

Originally posted by Arturo
In BamSpeedys article he (she?) is talking about getting a settler out ever 4 turns (or was it 6?). To get this don't you need to have certain terrain conditions, i.e. floodplains for food? Or can the wily player manage it in every game?
I find that I hardly ever (in fact, so far never!) have been able to set one city to ONLY producing settlers right from (or near) the beginning- the shields always outpace the food/population growth so I have to build other things in between. Granary helps but takes a while.

By the time I do have a city able to produce settlers ASAP I usually have quite a few (like 5 or so) cities already so the settler factory is not that important because I can get more than one city to produce settlers and alternate with defenders.
So, how soon would you generally expect to have your settler factory up and going? I know you'd WANT it as soon as possible, but realistically how soon should I be aiming for?
(either date-wise or after X number of cities built)

At first I haven't understood Bamspeedy also , and was sure I don't need any factory , my core cities did the job . But on higher levels Settler Factory is a must , because of focus paradigm concept ( one city makes settlers , other workers etc ) . Just do everything exactly as Bumspeedy explains and you will succed . BTW after I started to use this method my play improved dramatically .

1 . Don't let you pop to go into disorder
2. Manage production every turn .
3. Prebuild granary ( don't make settler before you finish granary )
4. By that time your Settler Factory should get size 6

 

[Qitai]

The condition is that you need to have 5 food to get 4 turn settler factory. This means either bonus food resource or flood plains. Ideally, if you can get 5 excess food and 6 shield with a forest nearby, then you have a settler factory.

If you have a start where the capital satisfy the above, you should be able to pump out settlers every 4 turn from around 2850BC onwards.

If you really want to learn, go to the GOTM and look at the QSC timelines.

 

[ThePrankMonkey]

i've learned to make my strategies dynamic. no two games are the same so i have to change my strategy according to the condition of the terrain, size of the land area, etc.

what i did in my last game (pangea, large map) i created settlers with my capitol and then once i planted those settlers i created a worker, and a warrior or spearman then a settler. then i move that settler further out from my center. after a certain point you cant keep doing this because of corruption/terrain issues so i keep a couple cities making settlers and alternating them with spearman. (first spearman THEN settler so the settler has a defender to go with them as soon as he's built)

it didnt take long and i found myself with a rather large empire. while other civs we're struggling to get their 10th city i already had about 25 cities built. (i need to go up a level again)

ive also gotten some really good starting locations and that has helped, the faster you can get that second city the faster you can expand while building as many wonders as possible (i usually build them all, literally! i know! i need to go up a level)

in fact i dont use any one city as a settler factory, i try to have as many cities producing settlers as fast as possible, you expand faster when you get 2-3 settlers every few turns rather than 1 settler every 4 turns with one city. although it probably equals out but i think the way ive been doing it is a little faster. and when you work from a bigger map the more cities you can plop down the faster you can get through techs and the first few cities you build give your scientific research quite a boost.

 

[SirPleb]

One of the things which makes the settler factory approach effective is that it multiplies the benefit of your best food tiles.

The key is that a town with a lot of food production (ideally 5 food per turn) builds a granary. Since a granary effectively doubles the food surplus in a town, this granary will add 5 food per turn to your empire, and that's a really big boost. It is in one sense equivalent to adding 2.5 towns to your empire.

After investing in the granary to get the extra 5 food/turn, you can harvest that increased food by producing either a settler every four turns or a worker every two turns, or a combination of those.

Compare the 5 food gained by building a granary in a town like this to ordinary towns which gain just 2 food per turn - you'd have to build 2.5 granaries in those to get the same benefit in your empire. That's an extra 90 shields required, and that's so high that it often isn't affordable in the early game.

 

[Arturo]

Okay, thanks. So the ability to build a settler factory for 4 turns per settler, right at the beginning of the game DOES depend on start location and (to a lesser extent) climate/world age etc.

 

[SirPleb]

Originally posted by Arturo
So the ability to build a settler factory for 4 turns per settler, right at the beginning of the game DOES depend on start location and (to a lesser extent) climate/world age etc.

Right There are a number of combinations of tiles which can be made to work. One of the nicest is a grassland cattle and a plains cattle - irrigate them both and you have the necessary food per turn and also a good start on the necessary shields per turn.

 

[skywalker]

Originally posted by Qitai
The condition is that you need to have 5 food to get 4 turn settler factory. This means either bonus food resource or flood plains. Ideally, if you can get 5 excess food and 6 shield with a forest nearby, then you have a settler factory.

If you have a start where the capital satisfy the above, you should be able to pump out settlers every 4 turn from around 2850BC onwards.

If you really want to learn, go to the GOTM and look at the QSC timelines.

Don't you need eight shields to get a settler every four turns? Settlers cost 30 shields.

 

[SirPleb]

The trick with the forest is that Civ will put the new citizen there when the town grows because the town is already producing lots of food. And the shields from the new citizen are added on the turn the citizen is added.

So here's an example of a cycle in a hypothetical settler factory which:
Starts its cycle at size 3, with the food bin empty.
Has in the town radius an irrigated grassland cattle, an irrigated plains cattle, a mined bonus grassland, a mined regular grassland, and a forest.

Turn 1: Three citizens are on the two cattle and the mined BG. You get 6 shields this turn.

Turn 2: Same tiles worked for six shields. But as the town grows Civ puts the new citizen onto the forest. So 8 shields this turn, for 14 so far.

Turn 3: Four citizens, on the two cattle, the mined BG, and the mined grass. You get 7 shields, 21 total now.

Turn 4: Four citizens, same as above. You get 7 shields and again two extra because the new citizen is put onto the forest. So 30 total and out pops the settler, starting you on a new cycle.

The above is just one example. The setup required in any specific situation depends on the exact tiles available. This sample is a simple clean setup. Some setups require you to start higher in the population cycle, e.g. from 3 citizens with the bin half full at the start of each cycle. Qitai also demonstrated a neat trick recently where a specific very powerful setup can actually even build a unit between settlers

 

[Bamspeedy]

Arturo- I'm a he.
The settler/4 turns condition isn't possible in every game, but it can happen more often than people think. Clearing the forest that has the game/deer is one that most people overlook at first.

For the 4-turn settler factory you need:
1. 2 bonus resources (cattle, wheat, game-clear the forest), with at least 1 of them on grass.
OR
2. Wheat on floodplains
OR
3. 3 bonus resources (cattle, wheat, game-cut the forest) all on plains.

Normal floodplains and wine on grass doesn't really help in most cases because they give 3 food, but 0 shields. They might help if you have other bonus resources around, but typically if you work too many FP/wine tiles you just won't have the shield production.

Bonus grassland is the second biggest factor after the bonus resources. After irrigating the bonuses (or mining one if you have too much food), you usually need 1-2 bonus grassland tiles (depends if you got cattle on plains or not) to have the shields for the settler.

Yes, the forest is usually the trick to help with the shield production. When the population point is added, the new citizen works the forest and nets you 2 extra shields, and since you are growing twice (growth every 2 turns), you end up getting 4 extra shields total towards the settler. You need to of course take that citizen off of the forest right away (never end the turn with the citizen working the forest, as that would screw things up by giving you only 4 excess food that turn instead of 5), and place that citizen on a 2 food tile.
I usually oscillate between size 4-6, or 3-5. Sometimes for 1 settler (usually the first one), you may end up 1 or a few shields just short of completing the settler, but after the city gets population built up, and mines completed, it settles into the perpetual settler/4 turns rythm, if you aggressively watch the city micromanagement.

Sometimes if the city is fast-growing right from the start, and if your non-industrious worker has alot of mining to do, it may be better to build 1 settler before the granary, to give your worker time to catch up on mines, and the new city can build warriors/workers sooner.

Some like to build a worker first. I've tried that, but the results haven't been that noticeable for me. The theory is that you would complete the granary faster and with roads in place, the new cities would be founded sooner. But by building the worker, you already start at least 5 turns behind, you usually don't make up those 5 turns until a very long time later. It would really depend on the situation, and perhaps something for you to try out and see how it works for you.

In my current game (huge map), I built granary-3 workers- then settlers/4 turns. Seems kind of strange, but it seems logical for that paricular layout. A huge map kind of allows you the room and time to try something like that. I wouldn't recommend it on smaller maps.

 

[Norlamand]

I had some difficulty with my first attempts at a true settler factory also, but, with some experimentation, I have been able to get the hang of it. It really did make a significant difference in my current game (huge world, America, Emperor). I have been able to expand rapidly and secure about 20% of my (very large) continent with another 25% or so unclaimed as yet. It is also occupied by Carthage, Arabs and the Iroquois. I just need to be more anal about the micromanagement of my empire.
Good luck.

 

[benstandby]

Originally posted by leha


At first I haven't understood Bamspeedy also , and was sure I don't need any factory , my core cities did the job . But on higher levels Settler Factory is a must , because of focus paradigm* concept ( one city makes settlers , other workers etc ) . Just do everything exactly as Bumspeedy explains and you will succed . BTW after I started to use this method my play improved dramatically .

1 . Don't let you pop to go into disorder
2. Manage production every turn .
3. Prebuild granary ( don't make settler before you finish granary )
4. By that time your Settler Factory should get size 6

*If you want to know more about this concept, read about it here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60287

Ain't nothin' wrong with a little shameless self-promotion.

 

[wvfoos]

Where is bamspeedy's article on this? I didn't see it in the war academy...

 

[Darkness]

Here you go:


http://www.msnusers.com/BamSpeedysC...ttlersgotm14.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=67

The game he describes is at deity level but it works at all levels...