In the beginning: How many settlers?

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Mm. Tough call there, ramses. My instinct is to say 'no' - rather than spend 2 turns roading a square (plus time to get to that square, if applicable), you could wander further and possibly find specials, OR build a city and collect 2 arrows in the same time frame it takes to create a road that will create one arrow. Bottom line is, 2 arrows in Despotism is still just 1 beaker/turn - same as 1 arrow is. The extra gold is nice, but I don't think I'd spend 2 turns roading before founding, to get it. Those are 2 turns longer to get to Monarchy, 2 turns longer to build your first unit, etc.

The more I think about it, I think I'd wander rather than building roads/founding in a spot with no specials or rivers.

[Scouse Gits]

Originally posted by Six Thousand Year Old Man The more I think about it, I think I'd wander rather than building roads/founding in a spot with no specials or rivers.

Yes! Wander away and find some specials or huts. Before you have founded the outcomes from huts are all positive ... except useless science if you want to attempt an early landing. If huts have yielded some gold you can always catch up by using the capital/settler trick. With only one city you may rush build a settler before the capital has reached size 2. This allows a quick third city or the chance to "b" the extra settler back into the capital as soon as it reaches size 2.

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SG(2)

[Bloody Monk]

Capital/Settler Trick

SG(2)

Thanks for that reminder. Haven't done that in years. One of the, more and more, noticeable artifacts of getting older is leaky memory!!

That 'trick' is especially useful if you didn't get an explorer from a hut before founding the capital and wanderered your second settler as an explorer. By the time you realize you should have plopped the second city already, the settler has gone so far as to have corruption problems if you found where standing. Using the 'trick' gets you a second city close by while the wanderer comes back to found nearer the capital.

I usually do not wander the second so long, wanting to get the first two cities down quickly...more arrows means faster to Monarchy. But it happened in a game where three or four huts where tipped in succession, none of them producing a NON unit.

Monk

[War4ever]

if you manage the 100$ its wise to choose bronze or horse as a tech ASAP, this often will allow you to build to sets out of the cap so in effect you have four ciites down. i have been lucky finding a couple of 50G huts plus a 25g while snagging HR as my first tech and i managed to pump two sets before size 2.....though your caps growth stagnates a touch, it is a wise move if you interested in pumping ciites.....after that , its a unit , temple and either start a wonder or build more units

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Scouse Gits


With only one city you may rush build a settler before the capital has reached size 2. This allows a quick third city or the chance to "b" the extra settler back into the capital as soon as it reaches size 2.

SG(2)

What is the capital/settler trick?

Does the capital not disband? Or is there some other aspect to the trick?

RJM at Sleepers

[SlowThinker]

RJM at Sleepers,
If you have only one your city then it don't disband when producing a settler (even if 1-sized).

[Scouse Gits]

That simply put is the whole trick - your capital whilst your only city is immune to disbanding - so high food, high shield foundings can pump out a 'free' settler when you have a bit of cash for rushing and the right techs to provide the steps - the second free settler is a great rarity - would normally only be seen at 2X production.

SG[1]

[SlowThinker]

Originally posted by Scouse Gits
...so high food, high shield foundings can pump out a 'free' settler

maybe low food, high shield ?

[Bloody Monk]

It's been a while since I used this trick, but IIRC, the Settlers are supported by the Capital. So, yes, high food.

The free part is the Capital is not disbanded. Not that the Settlers are NON. Again, this is if my memory hasn't bonked again.

Monk

[DrSpike]

Yeah, the settlers are not NON.

[SCG]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk
It's been a while since I used this trick, but IIRC, the Settlers are supported by the Capital. So, yes, high food.

The free part is the Capital is not disbanded. Not that the Settlers are NON. Again, this is if my memory hasn't bonked again.

Monk

Yes, the settler is supported by the city. So its really hard to have more than 2 settlers, since you only get one free shield support, and its rare to have more than 2 spare food to work with that early in the game, not to mention, if you're rush buying to get there, you need a lot of gold too (huts? nearby civs?)

The other main advantage of building settlers before you grow to 2 or found another city is that you don't lose the food stored so far.

[SCG]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Yeah, the settlers are not NON.

I started a game, gave myself 10k gold and rushbought settlers each turn and took a picture

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

@SCG - Given the food shortage, won't the second Settler disappear next turn?

If not, that could be handy.

[DrSpike]

The settler wont disband whilst there is food in the food box.

But in reality you'd only use the trick once in 1x1x anyway.

[Scouse Gits]

Nice demo Doc.

SG[1]