Cultural Settlements Progress

[Super Catanian]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I finally maxed out my Shinto Temple sometime last week. Now I am just doing an extra one for the sake of maxing out The Last Samurai achievement. I've also only built one (maxed out, of course) Timeless Dojo. Finishing that last Settlement will give me a bit more time to focus on the Archaeology Event, and eventually the other Cultural Settlements. Plus, 50 FP ain't half bad either.

 

[Super Catanian]

WARNING: Rant. Self explanatory. Might not even bother to revise it before posting like I almost always do with all my posts.

I really like the Cultural Settlements. Something about the fact that I can build a small prospering village is pretty awesome, and it's kinda hard to put my finger on it. Obviously, with Impediments and other stuff, it's very different from building in the main city. But it makes sense to me now.

I think it has to do with the fact that they are static in time. In the main city, you're pressured to keep researching and to advance throughout the ages available. Not in the Settlements. From start to finish, all the Buildings have the same feel, which makes them fit. Sure, I like overpowered Event Buildings; who doesn't? I wouldn't get rid of them anytime soon. And, yes, I do like their looks as well. It most definitely varies the look of my city. And that's the thing about it; there can be a bit too much variety. A while ago, I reorganized my city more optimally, and by selling a few unnecessary Buildings, I fit in my Winter Train with three cars, the Hanami Bridge, and the Cherry Garden Set. Variety, I like, but sometimes I feel like there is too much. In one section, I have all sakura (don't look up this genre of visual novels) Buildings from the Spring Events (I like Japan), but right next to them, I have the Celtic zone (Irish) along with my Royal Garden Ruins set. A bit too much variety.

And this is where Cultural Settlements come in. They're like my version of taking a break from my main city. I can focus my mind away from all that variety and instead build a fully self-sustainable village, without having to tear up the village, spam Clan Totems, and just leaving it like that (you know you did that when they first came out). Each Settlement has many unique Buildings, but they all look beautiful together. The way they all have the same architectural design and just fit really well with each other... It's kinda hard to describe.

Plus I like exploring the world's cultures. What else can I say?

[/RANT]

 

[qaccy]

As much as I generally dislike the feeling of pressure they bring, I think part of why I like settlements is actually the timer. The unique challenges of each and having concrete goals set up via the quests, so that there's an actual end to it (unlike the main city) are the rest of it. The aesthetics are all nice, but that's something each age in the main city has as well...it's just that events make it harder to notice since eventually higher-age cities are filled with those and they all look the same no matter what age they are. Would be amazing if they designed different event buildings based on age to add more visual variety to the main city.

Also, just finished Egypt #3. Only took about 12 days, leaving me with 12 days and change before I dropped to silver. Had nothing but two Nubian Archer barracks for most of it. Built a couple elephant stables when I unlocked them, but by the time I had enough of them trained to use in battle, I'd already gathered the remainder of the loot I needed to finish so they were ultimately a waste of time to get. Kind of a bummer, but I think it may actually be a design issue that elephants are unlocked so late in the settlement and they (along with chariots) take so long to train. There's no time to use them! Hoping I can get through the rest of these as quickly as I did this one though. If this becomes the norm, Egypt may be my go-to settlement. I'll take more of those obelisks!

 

[DreadfulCadillac]

I hate cultural settlements, but as i already have a lvl 2 ygg i will finish the whole viking thing for that sweet lvl 9 yggdrasil...am i doing ok so far? here is a screenshot of the settlement, started yesterday.I still have to research mead.
Here is the Screenshot on lightshot as the forum cant handle a 1MB file.

https://prnt.sc/sg6r1a

https://prnt.sc/sg6qwg

2 different screenshots.
@Super Catanian what do ya think?

 

[Super Catanian]

I hate cultural settlements, but as i already have a lvl 2 ygg i will finish the whole viking thing for that sweet lvl 9 yggdrasil...am i doing ok so far? here is a screenshot of the settlement, started yesterday.I still have to research mead.
Here is the Screenshot on lightshot as the forum cant handle a 1MB file.

https://prnt.sc/sg6r1a

https://prnt.sc/sg6qwg

2 different screenshots.
@Super Catanian what do ya think?

You're doing pretty good. However, you should get a second Axe Smith to speed up your progress.

Just out of curiosity: what are those weird icons at the bottom right of your screen?

 

[DreadfulCadillac]

You're doing pretty good. However, you should get a second Axe Smith to speed up your progress.

Just out of curiosity: what are those weird icons at the bottom right of your screen?

On the bottom right?That's a foe tools, a extension. It is totally within the rules, if you have heard of Foehints he has multiple videos explaining it.
Its not available on the app however.

 

[DevaCat]

@DreadfulCadillac I just wanted to encourage you to stick with it, I've got the big Ygg in one city and it is a monster!

My problem is that by the time I got it leveled I was ready to gouge my eyeballs out with a blunt snowshoe, and I've got 3 more cities to go.

 

[Graviton]

@DreadfulCadillac I just wanted to encourage you to stick with it, I've got the big Ygg in one city and it is a monster!

My problem is that by the time I got it leveled I was ready to gouge my eyeballs out with a blunt snowshoe, and I've got 3 more cities to go.

^This, all day. I tried the Japanese settlement once; not going back. I don't think I'm going to try Egyptian at all, if for no other reason than it will essentially commit me to doing it a dozen times or more to get the special building fully upgraded. I'm in on the Vikings for that reason and that reason alone, I don't feel like doing that again.

 

[DevaCat]

^This, all day. I tried the Japanese settlement once; not going back. I don't think I'm going to try Egyptian at all, if for no other reason than it will essentially commit me to doing it a dozen times or more to get the special building fully upgraded. I'm in on the Vikings for that reason and that reason alone, I don't feel like doing that again.

I'll grit my teeth and slowly grind the back-hair braiders because I want that lovely grand tree in all cities. Don't much care about the runestone timed reward.

I did one Japanese settlement and I actually really liked it. Got crazy lucky with the trader guy and got a bunch of expansions very early, and I was clearly going to cruise to a finish collecting the max timed reward. Until the game started crashing each time I tried to open the quest giver. And crashing when I tried to open my embassy/hall. And crashing when I tried to reset productions. Etc, and I watched helplessly as over the course of days the timers ran out on all 3 chests. Support was not/has not been much help, so until some fixes arrives, that's on hold. I'll go back when I can. The graphics are a pleasing change too.

I will at least give Egypt a shot to see what it's like. Not sure if the royal bathtub is worth the effort (haven't really studied it closely tbh) but it will be there.

So, snowshoes, mittens and frostbite, oh my!

 

[Joeyjojojo]

So my main world I'm about to finish Egypt for the 4th time, and it is by far the easiest to complete in the time limit, and, IMO has the best secondary building, so I may keep running that one there. I started a new city at the end of March (in O) to keep in IA. I'm doing each settlement 2x there to get the first FP emissary and slot, then grind out Ygg. After that, not sure...for a new city without massive GBs and tons of event/GE buildings I'm inclined to do both, but probably favor Egypt over Japan because it's lower stress, and the main building FPs are the same; that is the one world where the units are useful to me (for now) and the secondary building is smaller and gives a good bonus.

But doing the vikings again is a reminder that it is the worst grind of the settlements. I will probably manage to get one runestone to lv5 but not more (I did get 3 to lv5 in J, but that was a time consuming nightmare that I won't repeat). There are a couple things I think would help a lot. First is to increase the time a bit--across the board but particularly the bronze timer--as the timing is insanely tight on that settlement, even from the start. I had 11 days left on the timer in Egypt, I think 3-4 left in Japan 1st few runs, but Vikings complete in the final day or two of that timer, even if you are really on top of it. If the Viking secondary building was better, ok, the extra effort is worthwhile, but it just isn't. And that's the second thing that would help, a bit of a boost on the Viking secondary building...mostly to the attack bonus, but maybe make the second FP pop in at level 3 or 4. This is maybe the hardest building in the game to get, and when it came out it was much better than almost all other [special] buildings but now, while it's still quite good, it's just not worth that effort level.

[edit]: and yes, I'm now spoiled by the improved event buildings...which are even better with BG doubling them.

 

[-Sebastian-]

Finished my 4th Egyptian settlement. It took just 11 days and 3 hours, and I think I had about average luck with x4s. The only military buildings I used were 2 archer barracks, and with those I could defeat all 3 armies, every day (although sometimes I had to wait between fights for archers to recruit or heal). Everything else was devoted to housing and goods production. I occasionally had a Divine Statue to use for timing building construction, but other than that I never had to think about Deben.

 

[qaccy]

Going through Egypt #4 without using impediment removals at all just to see what it feels like. Honestly I'm not really even noticing a difference compared to using them. Even just using the multistory houses, I'm still running 7 goods buildings currently with 4 of them being flower farms. Nubian archers are definitely all that's needed to clear the siege camp every day, which is kind of unfortunate since I thought the battles were balanced pretty well when I first started these. Guess that's not really the case.

All in all, gonna be another smooth finish from the look of it. Egypt is definitely the settlement I'm having the easiest time with of the three.

 

[Super Catanian]

Picture coming soon...

In my secondary city, I decided to do Feudal Japan for the first time. Started out slowly, as expected. Got the Merchant. All the offers were Instruments (11, 14, and 11). Noice no. 1. I did not fail any of the attempts. Noice no. 2. The last one (the one with 11 Instruments) got the bonus, giving me 44 Instruments from it. Noice no. 3. The middle one (with 14 Instruments) was solved in just two turns. Noice no. 4. Now do the math. 11+44+14. That's right. Noice no. 5. I got 69 Instruments by the end of that day.

EPIC NOICE

 

[qaccy]

Egypt #4. 15.5 days left and the 300 loot I collect for that quest near the end will give me the rest of what I need to finish the settlement without x4 bonuses, Just have to produce 203 more pottery and 220 offerings (plus the 30x4 for the last quest). I'll probably get some x4 bonuses along the way though!

Still only using multistory houses, still haven't cleared any impediments. I've realized that I'll need to in order to fit any pyramids in, but that seems to be pretty much the only important use for them. Maybe I just got a good layout where I'm able to still fit in so many goods buildings despite leaving all the impediments in place. 7 seems like a lot, right?

 

[qaccy]

Egypt #4 done with 11 days and 5 hours left on the gold timer. A bit over 12 days to finish, which is always fast enough for the gold timer even after getting all the main rewards. Stuff I've learned by now:

1) Nubian Archers are the only units I need. I didn't use anything else for the entire settlement except for the first battle (with the freebie units) to get my production started. I stuck with 2 barracks as well, which ultimately freed up a ton of population and space for more goods production.
2) I won't be building any houses other than huts and multi-story. Even if using residential blocks would save on space overall, they're huge and they take up the exact spaces I'd be using for flowers and offerings (sometimes even barley). And as mentioned, I have tons of free population anyway with only 2 military buildings so I don't need the better houses.
3) Deben is not a concern at all. The starting amount is enough to get all initial buildings place and full slots unlocked and trained in 2 barracks. From there, I didn't need deben from anything other than residential collections to keep my troops trained.
3) Impediment removals aren't really necessary, so I don't have to worry too much about where I expand to. Even leaving the impediments in place, each new expansion means at least another house but usually it still meant another goods building anyway.

Overall, Egypt seems extremely lenient. I've said this before, but it just gets more apparent with each playthrough. I guess it's ultimately pretty poorly balanced for experienced players; deben and most of the military can be ignored, which means it's basically like any other settlement but with a lot more available space for goods production. But I guess the majority of players aren't going to be that 'good' at it, so I guess as long as they still find it fun, even playing through it more as the developers probably intended, that's ok?

 

[qaccy]

Egypt #5, managed to win the 4chariot+4camel hard battle with 8 Nubians. Pretty much requires that the AI spreads them out on the first couple turns to give some time to kill the chariots before the camels all catch up. Still got pretty unlucky with leaving camels alive with 1 health, but still managed to pull out a victory with 1.5 Nubians left in the end. I think this is the hardest encounter for a Nubian-only settlement, but the game's given it to me both days so far and I don't know if I can support that much deben usage every day...

 

[-Sebastian-]

Egypt #5, managed to win the 4chariot+4camel hard battle with 8 Nubians. Pretty much requires that the AI spreads them out on the first couple turns to give some time to kill the chariots before the camels all catch up. Still got pretty unlucky with leaving camels alive with 1 health, but still managed to pull out a victory with 1.5 Nubians left in the end. I think this is the hardest encounter for a Nubian-only settlement, but the game's given it to me both days so far and I don't know if I can support that much deben usage every day...

I just ran into that combo too, for the first time since I went archer-only, and it kicked my *** the first time around. I'm debating whether to give it another shot, now that I've recruited some new chariot-fodder. It's good to hear that sometimes the AI uses tactics that I can take advantage of; that gives me some hope. I'm in the late stage of #5, working on getting the goods for the Pyramid, and losing that battle meant I ran out of loot (just 19 left)...

 

[qaccy]

@mangelwurzel I dismissed it the first day, but when it popped up again I just gritted my teeth and said I'd do it. Today's hard battle ended up being easier than the medium one so that made up for it! Haven't gotten any x4s with loot yet though, hopefully I get at least one to build a bit of a buffer.

 

[-Sebastian-]

@mangelwurzel I dismissed it the first day, but when it popped up again I just gritted my teeth and said I'd do it. Today's hard battle ended up being easier than the medium one so that made up for it! Haven't gotten any x4s with loot yet though, hopefully I get at least one to build a bit of a buffer.

I got one today, too. And I'll take a stab at it once my archers heal up from the medium battle. (I kept getting unlucky with the damage; it took 5 hits to kill a chariot!) I got one loot x4 early on, but running 9 goods building has drained me dry...

 

[DeletedUser36145]

I decided to use the archers only strategy, but find it impossible to beat the camel-chariot army and as I haven't got the chance of x4 on loot I can hardly maintain 4 goods buildings with lots of free space and unemployed population.
Time is still not an issue, but that is an awful waste of space.