The Settlers is a stunning game. Indeed, I awarded it my highest ever score of 94% when I reviewed it in issue 13 of Amiga Addict. But while it is an absolutely brilliant title, there is an awful lot to learn and it can be a little overwhelming. To get the best from it and make progress, it is useful to understand some basic strategies. The following guide should help to make that level you are stuck on just a tad easier...

 

Location, Location, Location

Upon starting a new game the first task is to place the Castle. Even this has a huge effect on the subsequent difficulty level; get it wrong and things become a whole lot harder. When seeking that perfect spot, ideally it should be:

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• In an open space with sufficient room to place buildings to start the settlement, with further space for expansion when needed. Flatter terrain is preferable, as goods transportation will be faster, and larger buildings will be easier to accommodate.

• Near trees and stone, to ensure a supply of building materials early on.

• Not too far from mountains, as there will come a time when iron and gold ore, coal and stone will need to be mined. Attacks across mountains are rare since territories don’t often meet there, so they also form a natural defensive barrier. 

• Close to water, enabling the placement of Fishing Huts to provide an instant food source until Farms are operational.

 

It is unlikely that any location will tick every box, so there needs to be compromise, but careful placement is everything - life is much easier if a suitable site is found.

 

Building for Success

The next stage is to construct some buildings. There are a large number available and an inexperienced player will not know which is which. The reference card that comes with the manual is essential to help recognise and select the right one (a copy of the card can be found online).

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I would recommend starting by building one or two Lumberjack’s Huts and a Sawmill. Wood is an essential construction resource and if you run out it can take a long time to get things moving again. I would also build a Forester’s Hut and Stonecutter’s Hut. All resource collectors are best positioned near the resource in question, on the Castle side of it. Every building must be connected to the Castle (and subsequently to other buildings) by roads.  

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Sometimes, relocation is necessary. For instance, if a Stonecutter has collected all the available stone in their vicinity; demolish the building and build another near a different supply.

 

Common Sense Pays

It is important to understand that everything connects to something else. Every type of raw and produced material has its own particular journey to make. Each time something is mined, collected or produced it has to be physically transported to where it is next required by your settlers; indeed this is the essence of the game. It is therefore really important to understand these connections and to keep linked buildings as close as possible to each other. Place the Pig Farms and Butcher together, the Corn Farms, Windmill and Baker in the same area, and so on.

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It makes no sense to have the Sawmill or Forester on the opposite side of the map to the Lumberjack, or the Goldsmith or Steelworker a long way from the mines. If resources have to be carried long distances unnecessarily this clogs up the roads and slows everything down, since everything happens in real time.

 

What’s Yours is Mine

As soon as it is possible, Geologists should be sent into the mountains to look for raw materials. They will plant coloured notices showing the location of the ore (the colour of the dot denotes the resource and the dot size shows the quantity). By dispatching them early, the player knows where to site the first mines when the time comes.

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Once mines run out of raw materials (confirmed by a notification) they should be demolished so food isn’t being transported to the workers unnecessarily.

 

Unclog Those Roads

The roads can become very busy. Keeping linked buildings close to each other helps with this, but matters can be further improved with careful design of the road network. It is good to try and avoid pinch-points where too many routes converge on the same junction.

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Also, when laying the roads it is best to keep them as flat as possible. Busy junctions or steep sections slow the distribution of goods and can create backlogs. A well thought out transportation network will help keep everything moving.

 

Don’t Overstretch

Once a settlement is taking shape it can be very tempting to get carried away and start the construction of too many buildings at the same time. This can cause problems, with resource levels and transportation issues slowing completion times significantly. Building resources shouldn’t be spread too thinly - even if stocks are good they still have to be transported. It is better to limit the number of new buildings at any given time (so they will be completed quickly) rather than sit for an hour and watch two dozen or more half-finished constructions hardly change! Be disciplined and prioritise.

 

Expansion is Key

As soon as it is possible, the territory should be expanded by building Guard-Rooms, Watch-Towers or Garrisons on the edge of the settlement. Upon completion and occupation by a Knight, the settlement boundary will increase. This provides additional space for those buildings that require a larger footprint, such as the Farms, Windmill, Bakery and Butcher – all essential to keep the food chain flowing. When Corn Farms are placed, additional space should be left around them to enable crops to grow.

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Keep expanding continually, as fast as possible. Once you have room, try and build at least one of every building, perhaps with the exception of the Boat Yard which is only needed on maps with large areas of water. The sooner a settlement becomes self-sufficient and stops relying on the Castle’s starting stocks the better. The computer controlled opponents will normally only grow at a modest pace; if you act swiftly in the early stages of a level it is possible to gain a significant and decisive lead.

 

Know Your Priorities

A series of information and options screens can be accessed via the menu, showing supply and demand. There are options to adjust the goods flow throughout the settlement by increasing or decreasing the priority of transportation, and setting how much of each goes to each of the recipients. This should be monitored regularly to ensure that everyone is receiving what they need. If gaps are identified then either the delivery priority can be adjusted, or production of the item in question can be boosted.

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There is no 'one size fits all' setting here; as time passes the priorities will change. As an example, in the beginning wood and stone should be a high transportation priority to meet the construction demands. However, once the majority of buildings are completed, it might be that these become less important and moving Gold Ore and Coal (to your Goldsmith), Steel and Coal (to your Blacksmith working at the Armourer), and Gold, Shields and Swords (to the Knight’s buildings to train and strengthen the Knights) becomes a priority. The key is to remain watchful and adjust the settings accordingly.

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Stock levels in the Castle and Stock buildings should also be monitored and, if something starts running low, production should be boosted and the relevant transportation settings tweaked.

 

Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

Once Knights have taken residence in the Guard Huts, Watch-Towers or Garrisons they can be sent to fight the Knights of the other players, providing you share a boundary. If they win the battle, they take over that opponent’s building and your settlement expands around this newly acquired property. Any other enemy buildings in the vicinity are instantly burnt to the ground. Once an opponent’s last Knight is beaten, they are defeated and disappear from the map.

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Since this is the way to win a level, it can be very tempting to send Knights to fight as soon as there are enough to do so, but inexperienced and untrained Knights will lose, frequently and consistently. It pays to wait until they have gold in their buildings and have trained to be a higher level, as they will have a much better chance of winning their battle. (The reverse of the reference card includes the icons of all the different settlers, including the five different levels of Knight.) If weak Knights are consistently sent to fight, it can be easy to get locked in a cycle of not giving any the time needed to become stronger. Patience is required here – playing the long game will save time in the end.

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There are options to select how many Knights take residence in Guard-Huts etc. and how many remain for defence when you send them out to battle. It is worth setting occupation levels for all to maximum and, for those well inside your settlement, defence levels to the minimum - freeing up more for attacking.

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You should pick your targets carefully; if several key enemy buildings can be destroyed by defeating a single Guard-Hut, then that is the one to be attacking!

 

Back to Square One

Sometimes games just don’t work out as you plan, with resource or transportation problems causing everything to grind to a halt. Even adjusting the relevant options might not get things moving again, and delays will see opponents gain too much of a lead, making victory virtually impossible.

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In this situation it is best to admit defeat and restart a level, rather than to plough on defiantly. It can be hard to make this decision though, as reaching this point may have taken many hours’ play, but there are times when it is the only sensible way forward.

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What is important is that lessons are learned from failures so the player can improve next time! 

 

The Beautiful Game

I hope these pages will help you make progress. The Settlers is a compelling, bewitching and utterly engrossing strategy masterpiece and is one of those games that the Amiga can handle way better than its pesky console rivals. If you are a regular player, these hints should make your next campaign just a little more successful.

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And for those new to the game, I would encourage you to give it a go and stick with it. Things might seem a little daunting at first but as you become more proficient you will discover an experience that is truly magical. So get building!

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AG January 2024​

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Featured in Amiga Addict magazine, issue 30.

 

​© Words and pictures copyright grapeswriting.com​