Before Settle
- The first thing that I do is make sure that yields and resources icons are displayed on the map.
- Next I scan the surrounding map for anything of interest like the name of a Natural Wonder that might be hiding out there.
- And lastly, I always move my warrior first to explore and see more of the map – you never know what you might find that could influence your settling decision like additional resources or wonders.
What to look for
- The first thing is to look for the freshwater that provides housing that in turn allows your cities to grow. Turn the settler map lens on and look for the dark green tiles that provide the most housing which is + 3. Rivers, lakes and oasis are sources of freshwater (you cannot settle oasis).
- In other cases I would consider settling on light green non-freshwater coastal tiles with a +1 housing for the capital.
- Grey tiles have no access to freshwater and I would rarely consider settling on those for my capital. There are of course special cases – see Soger Cree game. Additional cities are a different story, settle as you see fit to forward settle another civ, gain era score for terrain, chops, resources – all these factors play into the settling decision.
- Red tiles are restricted either by terrain like mountains or being too close to the neighboring civs.
Other things to consider before settling
- The option to move the settler in order to get a better city center placement is always on the table. Although you should try to settle by turn 2. Advanced players settle as late as turn 4!
- Remember that the city borders will expand to 2 tiles in the second ring very early. The first tile within 10 Turns or so and the second tile within another 13 turns or so depending on how much culture is being generated. This early in the game the only extra culture you can get is from some luxury resources or city-states.
- Consider the option of settling on a luxury resource or geothermal fissure to gain immediate access to its benefits: the resource to sell to AI for gold and/or yields it produces. Avoid settling a luxury resource like spices on woods that would lose production from woods, as settling on any feature (like woods) removes its benefits.
- Remember the special tile – Plains Hills – it is the only tile that “upgrades” the city center yields when settled to 2food/2production, giving you an immediate benefit from turn 1.
- Concentration of woods, rainforests and bonus resources to chop. This one is really high on my list as it allows to chop out early wonders (with Magnus) that have such high impact on the game development.
- Dangerous tiles susceptible to flooding and volcanic eruption. Although both generate increased yields, so settling next to those tiles is not bad idea.
- Low yield tiles like deserts and tundra. There are special cases, where civ leaders gain benefits like Peter of Russia, Mali leaders, Wilfrid of Canada etc. Or if you are gunning for an adjacency pantheon.
- Mountain tiles are useful for high district adjacency bonuses that would allow you to get splendid campus or holy site and earn era score.
- Number of hills – this one is the least of my worries. Hills are great and a requirements for some top notch wonders, like Oracle. But they are not a priority consideration for settling the capital.
What Tiles the city should work?
What are the best tiles the city pop will work on after it is founded? It depends what tiles are available. There are obvious cases with high food/production tiles and then there are less obvious options.
High Food – If there are 3 or 4 food tiles then you can grow the city to pop 4 early , that would allow you to build two districts.
High Production – Is there are tiles with high production then it might make sense to focus on those tiles to build the first scout fast and then refocus on food to grow.
What are the “Best Tiles”?
There are a couple of things to look for in unimproved tiles in order to qualify for such a title.
The food yield should be at least 2 AND the total yield should be at least 4. So a minimum yield for an unimproved, non-resource “best tile” would be 2 food/ 2production, which is usually woods or rainforest. As an exception to the rule, consider a reef tile on the coast as well with 1 food but extra gold instead.
It is luxury and bonus resources that dictate the number of yields that are added to a tile. The highest resource yield I have seen is 7 , like with truffles and diamonds.
So why the 2 food yield preference? The city of size 1 starts with 2 food by default. Each additional worked tile will contribute its yields towards the city growth and production. In order to increase population the city needs to produce a food surplus. A tile of just 1 food allows for growth, but at a very slow rate. So a tile of 2 food or more is a much better choice.
I focus on growth initially so that the city can work more tiles faster. Meaning there is more food and more production created, as well as other yields like gold, science, culture and faith depending on the resources and districts available.
Another benefit of a higher population is that it generates 0.3 culture and 0.5 science per citizen per turn – it’s not much but it matters early in the game and it adds up.
City population size also directly impacts loyalty pressure – the larger your city the stronger it will resist the pressure from other Civs or exert its own loyalty pressure on them.