Most Powerful Settler ever

trev · May 29, 2003, 23:10

I was playing Emperor level PTW when I thought I had wiped out the Zulus in an early war

Their capital was the last city captured, and as I got a Great Leader out of the battle for it I built the Forbidden Palace in Zimbabwe

I also went into Anarchy as I prelude to the move from Depotism to Republic

Unfortunately the Zulus had a settler still active and they moved 2 square away from a city I had built and built their city there. Immediately they spawned about 6 archers and impis and captured my city, also despite Having the Forbidden Palace in the city and being about 15 squares from my new city Zimbabwe also culture flipped to the Zulus

So their settler in one turn was responsible for building a city and capturing 2 of mine.

This makes it the most powerful Settler ever in my opinion

I thought Forbidden Palaces prevented defection, must have been wrong. Amajor setback for me but I recaptured Zimbabwe quickly and then had the other city gifted to me in a peace treaty.

Was not able to finish the Zulus off for good at the time, but will once the peace treaty expires

vmxa1 · May 29, 2003, 23:24

No as you have seen a FP can flip. That is one reason to put it near the capitol and move the capitol instead.
I am not sure, but if you had a respawn then they may get the bonus units allowed at emperor level. Was it really a settler and you saw it or was it a respawn. If it was a settler you should grabbed it.
Funny story, but painful.

Catt · May 29, 2003, 23:31

Yep - the FP can flip. Hasn't happened to me, but I remember an incident that happened to alexman quite clearly. I often build my FP close to my palace and then use a leader to relocate the palace -- although I've seen a screenshot of a palace flipping as a result of repeated propaganda attmepts, I've never heard of a straight palace flip.

With respect to the archers and impis arising out of nowhere, this happens with the "respawn" option. I can't recall exactly the mechanics, but an AI civ that respawns gets either a set number of units or the number of free units it gets at the beginning of the game (depending on difficulty, of course), as well as 10x its starting gold (100 gold in standard rules). But it is not suposed to respawn in a tile if any units are present within a 5-tile radius.

In any event, you're right - that was quite a powerful settler!

Catt

EDIT: X-post with vmxa1 - he got there sooner!

MrWhereItsAt · May 30, 2003, 05:05

I knew the FP could flip, but didn't realise the units bonus was that high on Emperor, nor did I realise it kicked in with restarts!

/me has one more reason to never play as high as Emperor.

trickey · May 30, 2003, 06:59

Quite a powerful settler indeed! I never play with respawn AI on, so I have never seen that happen before. Kind of funny, musta been a pain in the neck though.

trev · May 30, 2003, 10:53

It was not a respawn, the settler was guarded by an impi and I was not able to move armies next to it to kill the impi and capture the settler. Respawn was switched off. It was a continuation of the existing Zulu empire which apparently is not wiped out until all cities AND settlers are destroyed.

But the computer gave the zulu's their starting bonus in armies immediately upon the establishment of their new city, I could view this as the city was built hard against my cultural border, and could see multiple armies move from the city the moment it was built

GodKing · May 30, 2003, 12:27

Had something similar - just not as painfull. I killed off the spanish last night, but they had one galley left. Must have had a settler in it, and they stayed til the end of the game (I kept protecting the little galley from everybody.) I could not establish an embassy as they had no cities, but could trade techs and do just about anything else. At one point just to see what happens, I abandoned a city near where teh galley was parked to open up some room adn allow it to unload and found a city, but nothing ever occurred. It just kept sitting there taking up space.

mrmitchell · May 30, 2003, 14:19

Damn...as (I think it was Machiavelli) said, if you don't rip apart your enemies completely, they'll come back to bite you in the ass.

Catt · May 30, 2003, 14:31

Quote:

Originally posted by trev
It was not a respawn, the settler was guarded by an impi and I was not able to move armies next to it to kill the impi and capture the settler. Respawn was switched off. It was a continuation of the existing Zulu empire which apparently is not wiped out until all cities AND settlers are destroyed.

But the computer gave the zulu's their starting bonus in armies immediately upon the establishment of their new city, I could view this as the city was built hard against my cultural border, and could see multiple armies move from the city the moment it was built

That's really strange - I've had to track down a fleeing settler before and even seen the last settler settle without enjoying any bonus units. Only in a respawn have I seen any free units. Is it possible that the respawn settler gets an escort (impi) before settling?

Catt

alexman · May 30, 2003, 14:58

It kind of makes sense though. The AI starts with a settler and a worker just like the human. It's when they found their first city that they get the bonus units.

Apparently, the city founded by a runaway settler is treated as a first city, and gets the bonus units. Moral of the story: Make sure to kill him before he plops!

Catt, you have a very good memory, although in this case I would prefer to forget that specific flip!

vmxa1 · May 30, 2003, 23:23

No the morale of the story is to turn off respawn. One shot only.

Quasar1011 · June 2, 2003, 21:39

Quote:

Originally posted by GodKing
Had something similar - just not as painfull. I killed off the spanish last night, but they had one galley left. Must have had a settler in it, and they stayed til the end of the game (I kept protecting the little galley from everybody.) I could not establish an embassy as they had no cities, but could trade techs and do just about anything else...

One thing you can do in wartime is "rob from the rich and give to the poor". If you are conquering cities that are too far from your cultural base, you could give them to a civ like Spain and let them deal with it. Then Spain would love you too!

Tassadar500 · June 2, 2003, 23:05

The most powerful isnt always the strongest ; ) Was Zimbabwe undefended?

Tassadar500 · June 2, 2003, 23:05

The most powerful isnt always the strongest

Was Zimbabwe undefended?