THE SETTLERS by Blue Byte

               Hints & tactics by Bev Truter

The Castle
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If possible, select an area near flat land (for wheat farms) and
mountains (for gold, iron ore and coal). A lake is handy for
fishing and speedier travel via a waterway, but isn't essential.
If you intend building a stone mine, don't worry if there's no
surface granite nearby; and conversely if you don't want the extra
hassle of mining for stone, then make sure there's a large cluster
of granite somewhere in the vicinity. An existing forest will give
you a head start in the woodcutting department, but if you build a
forester's hut first, closely followed by a woodcutter's hut, they
will probably give you an adequate wood supply. Build a forester's
hut, sawmill and woodcutter's hut right at the beginning of most
games - running short of wood (essential for building and
toolmaking) is a nasty experience, and can be a difficult
situation to recover from.

Building
--------
After building guard huts, a forester's hut, woodcutter's hut and
sawmill, next on your list should be a fisherman's hut (if there's
a lake in the area), a stonecutter/quarryman's hut (if there's a
cluster of granite boulders within reach - like the fisherman he
will wander across boundaries to pinch granite on the other side).
As soon as one cluster of granite looks like running out, i.e.
very few boulders left on the ground, then start building another
stonecutter's hut close to a fresh supply of granite, or build a
stone mine. Next to consider on your list of buildings would be a
farm, gold refinery, steel forge, armourer and toolmaker.

You will have to continually build guard huts close to your
frontiers to expand your territory, and to prevent your enemies
from nibbling away at your land. Don't bother with guard towers
unless you want a larger group of knights (6 instead of 3) to
guard something important, eg mines, and make sure the guard tower
is reasonably safe from an opponent's military buildings as it
takes longer to construct a guard tower than guard huts - your
enemy can construct a guard hut more quickly than your tower, and
you might end up with a nearly-finished guard tower going up in
flames.

Depending on what minerals your geologist has found, and where,
you'll have to start constructing mines as well; but wait a bit if
you can, and suss out what your enemy is doing, and where he/they
are placing guard huts and mines. With some luck, you'll be able
to use an enemy geologist's markers for mines, as geologists have
an annoying habit of placing markers beyond their boundaries. If
this is the case, keep a constant eye on your opponent's movements
- he probably won't take kindly to your mines being situated on
his doorstep.

Fishing
-------
Fishing is a handy way to supplement the miner's food supply, but
remember not to overfish any lake. A very small lake won't contain
many fish, and a large lake (i.e. one that fills about half the
screen) can support 2 or even 3 fishermen. If there is just a
small portion of a lake within your boundaries then go ahead and
build a fisherman's hut, as he will wander beyond the boundary to
fish.  Don't build roads too close to the edge of a lake that is
being fished, as fishermen tend to avoid the built-up sections on
their lake, and will take longer to place their fish at flags.

Farming
-------
Ideally a wheat farmer needs a large area of flat land quite far
from the hustle and bustle of a busy road network to produce the
maximum number of wheat "circles". If you have chosen a suitable
chunk of land your farmer can produce up to 21 circles of wheat
per farm, and if that's the case don't bother with pig-farming,
but build two windmills and a bakery, and concentrate on bread. If
you are forced to build a farm on hilly ground your farmer might
only produce a few wheat circles, perhaps as few as 6 or 7. In
this case, forget about a mill and bakery, and build one or more
farms, with 2 or 3 piggeries close to each farm. If you only have
one farm with a windmill and bakery, make sure there is sufficient
wheat produced before building a piggery - you might find all your
wheat going to the mill for flour, with not enough left over to
supply a piggery.

Mining
-----
If you find only small deposits of gold, ore, coal or stone, then
you will have to find and build more mines quite frequently. If
this is the case, remember your miners will go on strike if they
don't get a regular food supply; so before building any mines make
sure that you have a dependable source of food for the miners by
the time the mines have been completed and are ready for
occupation. It's also a good idea to give miners' picks priority
on the toolmaker's list - if you have more than 4 or 5 mines
operating simultaneously, it's amazing how quickly your stock of
picks get depleted. As an example, you might build some coal
mines, and discover that no miners arrive to occupy them. If this
is because you have no more picks stored in your castle then you
will have to manufacture some picks quickly, and to do this your
toolmaker needs wood and steel. Uh-oh. If you are also running low
on coal for the steelworker/iron foundry (he needs iron ore and
coal to produce steel) then you could be waiting a long, long time
for your miners' picks to arrive at the castle, and for coalminers
to occupy your waiting coal mines.

Fighting
--------
This is the trickiest part of the game - deciding when and where
to send your knights into battle. If you decide on a very
defensive game, your knights will be strong, as they receive
training while remaining in the castle and will rise through the
various ranks quite rapidly. But in the meantime your opponent/s
will probably be sneaking bits and pieces of land from you by
building plenty of guard huts, and you might find you have a
fantastically strong army of knights, but only an itsy-bitsy
piece of land left outside your castle. Hmmm, problems, problems.
So far (in the first 5 missions) I've discovered the best tactic
is to go forth and build guard huts, especially on the enemy
frontier.

If you decide that a waiting game is not for you, and that attack
is your best bet, remember you will need plenty of gold bars (i.e.
gold mines, coal mines and a gold refinery) to keep your knights
at their fighting best. Goldless knights tend to lose fights if
they're attacking, although their defending skills aren't
impaired.

You can start rubbing your hands with glee if an enemy tries to
encircle you with a long string of guard huts, then all you have
to do is wait until he's more than halfway around your boundaries,
and pick off every third or fourth enemy guard hut, which leaves
pathetic little clusters of enemy guard huts floundering around
with no connections to a castle. If, after a successful attack,
you see a cut-off group of two or three enemy guard huts with a
sawmill, woodcutter, farm or piggery attached, just leave them in
peace for an hour or two. With a bit of luck the flags outside
their guard huts will be knee-deep in pigs, wheat, logs or planks;
and when your knights attack these enemy guard huts and occupy
them, all the goodies left outside will be yours as soon as you
connect the new huts to your road network. If your loot consists
of live pigs and you don't own a piggery, remember to build a
butchery so all those cute pigs can be <gulp> slaughtered and
turned into legs of pork for your miners.

If you attack an enemy guard hut close to his farm, the farm will
burn down when your knights are victorious, but the circles of
wheat will remain intact. Immediately build a wheat farm in the
same place, and your farmer will take over the existing
wheatfields without having the bother of sowing new fields from
scratch.

After you've made a successful attack (in the early stages
you'll need about 4 knights for every one of the enemy's
knights) give your knights a chance to return to their huts,
fill up the newly-occupied hut, and to receive some gold.
You'll also need time for reinforcements to arrive at your
depleted guard huts; to replace your dead knights. Launching one
attack after another without a breathing-space is rarely
successful.

And finally, I simply must mention a friend's favourite tactic,
which I call the "shopping method". She builds her city, makes
sure her settlers are happy, miners well-fed, and that everything
will run smoothly for a while. Then she pops out and goes shopping
for a couple of hours. When she returns she finds that although a
lot of her land and some of her buildings have vanished, her
knights are so strong that they pulverize the opposition's knights
in no time.  I prefer to personally keep an eye on the
proceedings, control events, and gnaw away at my fingernails
during the battles; but at least the "shopping method" will save
you heaps of worry, anxious moments and chewed fingernails.

@~I use a similar tactic with games like SC3000 which I call the
@~"dog-walking method" - I also found once when playing A-Train
@~that the "talking-to-Marion-on-the-phone-for-an-hour method"
@~worked really well! ... Sue



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