The keystone on which every economy rests is the building industry. Because without a farm, there can be no agriculture, without smiths there can be no tools or weapons, and without residences no Settlers. At the beginning, therefore, the most important task involves the building a system in which you'll supply your ever-expanding colony with the building materials that it needs.

You must examine individual needs of the different races, and build appropriately. The Romans use wood and stone roughly equal proportions. Whereas the Asians prefer building with wood, and the Egyptians appreciate the cooling properties of stone.

Wood Production:

At the very beginning, you may want to build two woodcutter's huts fairly near one another and not too far from a number of trees. Leave enough space between the huts, though, so that you can build a forester's hut about the same distance from both of your woodcutter's huts.

This will ensure that your woodcutters don't run short on trees to fell. Finally, build a sawmill somewhere nearby to process the logs into boards. This grouping of two woodcutter's huts, a forester's hut, and a sawmill could serve as a practical model in the further course of the game whenever an increased need for wood arises.

Later, the buildings or production sites which have served their purpose and are no longer needed can be closed or even torn down. Keep in mind that if you need for wood diminishes in a particular area, it might be advantageous to stop the activities of the forester first so that no more saplings are planted, allow the woodcutter sufficient time to fell the remaining trees in the area, and then stop or remove the woodcutters' huts and the sawmill. By doing so, you can then create enough room for an additional residence.
 

Stone Production:

At the beginning of the game, you should also build a stonecutter's hut as near as possible to high concentrations of stone. Please note that the stonecutter can only make use of light gray stone, and not the dark gray or brown varieties. Unless you are playing the Egyptians, it makes little sense to build two stonecutter's huts because there's usually not enough room. It is, however, not a bad idea to send your soldiers out on a little civilian reconnaissance to check out the area just outside the borders of your colony to discover where further deposits of stone may be present.

As soon as you've found a new supply of stone, it could be a good idea to expand your territory in this direction and construct a second stonecutter's hut. In contrast to wood, when you've exhausted your supply of stone, you can't "grow" a new supply, you can only search for new supplies. For that reason, when the time comes that your stonecutter is too far away from a source of stone, you can tear down this hut without a moment's hesitation.

Set the Working Area!

When your stonecutter or a woodcutter has exhausted the resources in his working area, this is no reason for sending him into early retirement. Change his working area and will have reason to work once more. Select the woodcutter's hut or stonecutter's hut and click in the building options menu which appears on the left. on the button for working area. A bulls-eye pattern of multi-colored dots will appear and in the menu on the left, you'll be asked to set a new working area. Click with your left mouse button in the playing area where your stonecutter or woodcutter should concentrate his efforts. Provided there are enough resources there, he'll happily go on with his work. There are, of course limits on how far away you can set his new working area, but you'll be surprised by the amount of area he's willing to travel.

Make Room!

Sometimes you'll find that you haven't enough room to locate a larger building where it would make the most sense. It could often happen that you simply have to live with this, but sometimes you may discover that a certain stone or tree is the only thing standing in the way of your building intentions. Here again, you can reset the working area of the appropriate worker, centering on the stone or tree which is causing the problems. Because the workers always take up their work in the middle point of their working area, they'll look for the resource which is nearest to this point.

General Comments on the Buildings

All the buildings in this game have a function and fulfill a certain purpose. It can happen, though, that this purpose has been fulfilled. An example of this is the woodcutter who has felled every tree within his area. In some cases the building’s purpose could even be over fulfilled. The best example here is probably the forester who with time can plant more saplings than a modern metropolis could ever make use of. Well, that may be a little exaggerated - a small, modern metropolis. In these and similar cases, you have two choices, either to close down the building or, the more radical alternative, to tear it down.

When you right-click a building or "wrap" it, a menu with building options opens. In this menu you'll see two buttons. The one in the upper left with the symbol of the two interlocking gears lets you stop production at this site temporarily. After you click on this button, you'll notice that the interlocking gears have been replaced by an open hand. This symbol signals you that this production site is not active. If you want to resume production, you simply have to click on this button whereby it'll revert to the symbol of the interlocking gears signaling production activity.

During the actual construction of a building, this button has yet another related function. With it you can toggle between suspending the construction of the building and resuming construction. This could become important when you have a number of buildings under construction at the same time and then notice that you want to give one or the other building a higher priority. Otherwise buildings are constructed in the order in which they are initiated.

The button on the right with the symbol of the house surrounded by dust is the "Crush" button. Use this when the building no longer serves any function and should be torn down. After clicking on it, you'll be asked if you're sure you want to do this. If you answer with "yes", your decision becomes irreversible. After the demolition of the building, half of the materials that were needed for its construction will become available for your use.

Table of Building Materials

Food and Drink

Where's the ham?

In your Settlers colony this question isn't as trivial as it at first may appear. The majority of your Settlers have a pronounced sense of self-sufficiency with regard to food, they are quite adept at taking care of themselves. There is, however, a major exception and that's your mineworkers, who work in areas where it would be difficult to provide for themselves. The mineworkers prefer a simple, solid diet of bread, meat, fish, or rice.

You'll notice that the different races have different buildings for producing alcohol. Apart from occasional rumors about the priests, you can rest assured that your Settlers are teetotalers. This doesn't apply to their gods, though, and the priests are charged with the task of ensuring that the gods receive generous offerings of their preferred beverages. Food and drink play a very important role in securing the foundation of your heavy industry and currying the favor of your race's god.

Food

Bread Production

Bread is the favorite food of your coal miners. In order to produce bread, you first need a grain farm. Keep in mind that you'll need ample meadowland around your farm so your farmer has enough space to plant his crops. The farmer only needs a scythe to begin his work.

TIP: You can also set the working area of the farmer!

After your farmer has begun his work, you'll naturally need a grain mill in which the grain from the wheat can be ground. The ideal location for your grain mill will be a suitable area near your farm. This will reduce the transport time for getting the wheat from the farm to the grain mill. The miller doesn't require a special tool.

But, of course, the flour that the miller produces doesn't represent the end of the chain of production. Bread is made from the flour and for this you need a bakery. Once again, it's advisable to build your bakery as close to a grain mill as possible. By constructing this group of food production buildings close to the mines, you'll again save on transport time. There are a number of factors to be considered in planning your various production sites. This aspect of planning will be dealt with further in the chapter on Infrastructure.

Like the miller, the baker doesn't require a special tool, but because he can't put dry dough into the oven, he needs water. To remedy this situation, you have to build a waterworks somewhere near a source of flowing water. The waterworker doesn't need any special tool, but keep in mind that he needs fresh water, not the salty stuff that comes from the seas.

Meat Production

Meat is the favorite food of your iron miners. Meat production, like bread production, is based on grain from the farms. Here again, you need a grain farm to start things off. Build your pig farm as close to the grain farm as possible, this way the transport distances are kept at a minimum. Besides grain, your pigs also need water to be suitably fattened, which means locating this building near your waterworks as well. The pig farmer doesn't require any special tools. The meat production cycle is first complete when you have built one more building, a slaughterhouse, which as you can well imagine, should be located near the pig farm. The butcher at the slaughterhouse needs an axe to do his work.

Fish Production

Surprisingly, it's the gold miners and gem miners who have a rather simple taste. They like fish best. And for this, no long chains of production are necessary because fish are there to be caught. You need nothing more than a fisherman's hut, which you should build near a large body of water but as near the gold mine as possible. Before the fisherman can begin telling tall tales, catching fish that is, he needs a fishing rod.

Liquor

Wine

Wine is only produced by the Romans. You can find out more about this in the section "Are you playing the Romans?".

Beer

Beer is brewed only by the Egyptians.The purpose beer serves and how it's produced you can learn in the section "Are you playing the Egyptians?"

Rice Wine

Rice Wine is produced only by the Asians.The purpose rice wine serves and how it's made, you can read in the section "Are you playing the Asians?"

Buildings of Heavy Industry

Neither weapons nor tools can be produced without sufficient quantities of iron and coal. Since your soldiers fight with a lot more enthusiasm with gold or gems in their pockets, making this production a high priority can have an amazing effect on combat morale, especially when the combat required isn't in defense of the homeland but rather in faraway lands in the face of spirited opposition. You can find more on this subject in the chapter on the military.

Another factor that should not be neglected is the ingenuity of the Asians who at some point discovered that the sulfur that can sometimes be found in the mountains can have rather explosive properties when used properly.

In short: The stone age is over. The Settlers have mastered the art of metalworking and the Asians even the art of mixing gunpowder so that they can operate cannons. Naturally, this entails a complex system of buildings and special occupations.

Apart from the fact that every miner must be fed, it simply isn't enough to build a mine just anywhere. It stands to reason that under the rocky ground where the mine has to be built that the proper mineral for the appropriate mine should be present. Now is the time to send your geologist out exploring.

WARNING: Take note that your geologist can be attacked by enemy soldiers if he's outside your territory. Keep an eye on this zealous fellow because in his excitement he'll wander anywhere he gets the scent of mineral resources, leaving him vulnerable to attack.

Your geologist pitches signs with different symbols on them, a description of these signs is below.

After you've built the mine, remember that every mineworker needs a pick in order to do his work.

Coal

Without coal there can be no metal work. Therefore all of your smelters and smiths need coal in order that they can work at all. Keep in mind that for every nugget of iron you need two lumps of coal. From each nugget of iron, one iron bar can be smelted and from this either one tool or one weapon fashioned. Therefore you might find it reasonable to build two coalmines for every other mineral producing mine.

Iron

Iron is the mineral from which the Settlers tools and weapons are made. Gold may be more attractive, but soldiers without weapons aren't particularly effective, even for all the gold in your Settler world. See to it, therefore, that you find iron ore and produce iron as soon as possible. As soon as you've built your coal mine, you'll need three further buildings.

Iron Ore Smelting Works

No toolsmith in the world can forge a reasonable tool from raw iron ore. First the iron must be separated from the stone. And it is here that you need an iron ore smelting works. The iron smelter requires no special tool, merely an abundance of coal.

Tool Smith's Works

Your handworkers need a number of tools. Although some tools are available to you at the beginning of a mission, these won't be sufficient for more than the short term. You'll have to deal with the production of additional tools yourself. For this you need a tool smith. Assuming that he has enough coal and iron, you can determine what he produces. To do this you have to open the "Settler" menu and press the "Tools and Weapons" button.

Here you can adjust how many of each tool is produced in the long term. The length of the white bar sets the proportions in which the various tools are produced. The longer the bar, the more often the tool will be produced. Of course, you can also select a specific tool to be produced immediately when this is necessary. Click on the arrow next to the symbol of the tool you need. You can have several tools built immediately if you wish. Your tool smith will go through the resulting list from top to bottom. Besides coal and iron, your tool smith also needs a hammer.

Weapon Smith's Works

The weaponsmith functions similarly to the tool smith. The weapon smith functions similarly to the tool smith. The only difference is what he produces: swords, spears and bows. In the "Goods" menu under "Tools and Weapons", you can also determine which weapons he produces, how often he produces them and which he produces first. And just as with the tool smith, the weapon smith needs in addition to coal and iron, a hammer.

Gold

The gold mines fill your treasury chest. And the bigger that is, the more motivated your soldiers are when battles are fought. An efficiently operating gold mine requires an abundance of fish for its miners, a compelling argument for building one or more fishermen's huts near your gold mine(s). Of course, it is not enough to simply extract the gold ore from the earth. The gold ore has to be refined and this is where the gold smelter enters the scene.

Gold Smelting Works

In a large furnace the gold smelter extracts the pure (or almost pure) gold from the gold-bearing stone, which the carriers have brought from the gold mine. To do this, the smelter requires fuel. Just as the case with the iron smelter, coal is used. Here again, it would be wise to build another coal mine to supply your gold smelter's needs. Otherwise your energy supply could get tight. Finally, the morale and combat strength of your soldiers rises only after the gold has been smelted into bars. Make sure that you always have enough storage area for your gold bars because when the carriers don't take it away, the gold smelter stops working.

Sulfur

Only the Asians mine sulfur. You can learn more about the role of sulfur in the section "Are you playing the Asians?".

Gems

Only the Egyptians mine gems. You can find out more about the role of gems in the section "Are you playing the Egyptians?".

Buildings of the Shipping Industry

The Shipyard

Off to new shores! The Settlers are very enthusiastic about discovering new lands. When space gets too cramped on an island or when the situation requires, you can have two types of ships built.

The Transport Ship

To transport soldiers or pioneers by sea you need a ferry. You commission the building of a Transport Ship in the shipyard. Select the shipyard. A menu will appear to your left in which you can commission the building of the ship. First, you have to choose a location on the shore where the shipbuilder can begin his work. Click on the button with the hammer symbol and then in the water near the shore. If you want to build a transport, you can now click on the "Build Transport" button. To get soldiers, pioneers, geologists or spies on board, you first have to select them and then right-click on the deck of the ship. Transport and merchant ships are controlled in the same way as soldiers or geologists. Select the ship and send it off to it destination with a right mouse click. At it destination, select the passengers of the ship and right click on land. The passengers will then disembark. To get builders on this new piece of territory, you have to have your pioneers take possession of a large area. You can then change your pioneers back into workers.

The Merchant Ship

To transport goods by sea or to do trade with a fellow player, you need a merchant ship. Here again you must commission the building of the ship in the shipyard.

The ships of the individual races transport different amounts of goods:

The Romans: 3 piles of 8 goods
The Egyptians: 4 piles of 8 goods
The Asians: 2 piles of 8 goods

The ships are also have different prices. The Asians can even build their ships without iron.

To transport goods to another island, set the number of goods to be shipped in the "Shipyard" menu. For more information on this, read the section on landing docks.

The Landing Dock

All goods are listed in the selection menu of the landing dock. To load a good on board ship, select the good you want and the amount. The Settlers will take care of the rest for you. A merchant ship can carry a maximum of 24 goods, with a maximum of three different kinds of goods. You should carefully consider which goods you need for a new colony.

Next you can set a route for your ship to sail. Simply mark the individual waypoints or select your final destination. The trade route will now be displayed whenever you select the landing dock. You can, of course, change or give up the trade route at any time. If more goods are available for shipping at the landing dock. the merchant ship will automatically return to its original port and continue supplying the new territories. You can conveniently deliver a good you have in abundance to an ally or opponent on a permanent basis by setting the desired amount of goods at "unlimited". You'll find more details regarding the functioning of trade in the section on "Trade and Goods Transport".

Buildings specific to one race

Are you playing the Romans?

While playing the Romans you should remember to keep you production of wood and stone roughly in balance.For every woodcutter's hut you should also have a stonecutter's hut.

Winery

When you play the Romans, you have to be aware that Jupiter is a wine enthusiast. For this reason, your priests require large quantities of wine to offer to their (and your) god. If you happen to see one of your priests lurching less than gracefully from building to building, you can probably assume that Jupiter had to decline the latest offering because Q'nqüra was nearby...

In order to produce wine, you actually need nothing more than a winery. This building should be constructed near a slope since grapes grow on sloping terrain. Select the area you want to cultivate with the button for setting a new work area. Your wine-grower, who needs no tool, and Mother Nature will take care of everything else.

Charcoal Maker's hut

The Romans are the only race who can do without coal if need be. From five boards the charcoal maker can make one piece of charcoal which can be used everywhere that coal is needed.

Catapult Hall

This is where your catapults are built: gigantic slingshots with relatively little accuracy but quite destructive. Catapults can quickly reduce enemy buildings to rubble.

Small Temple

In the small temple wine offerings from your Settlers are transformed into manna. This enables your Roman priests to work wonders.

Large Temple

Unlike the other Settlers, priests don't become available after you build residences. The priests only become available after you've built a big temple. Once the big temple has been built, you can expect a new priest every five minutes.

Are you playing the Egyptians?

The first thing to be taken into account in playing the Egyptians is that you need proportionately more stone than wood for your buildings. While the Egyptians don’t need near as much wood as stone, you’ll still want to maintain a good supply of wood. But while you're expanding your territory, you should always keep an eye out for sources of stone nearby.

Brewery

The Egyptians have a marked preference for beer. This is enough for them to believe that their god, Horus, is also an enthusiastic beer drinker. It's said that after a couple of offerings of beer Horus can almost forget his beloved pyramids.

In order to produce beer, you need a farm as well as a brewery. The grain farmer needs, as you may expect, a scythe while the brewer gets along quite well without a special tool.

Gem Mine
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That the Egyptians have a more intensive relationship with stone than the other races can be seen in the construction of their buildings. But also in the art of cutting gems, the Egyptians can't be outdone. You can, therefore, not only shower your soldiers with gold but also with precious gems. You'll need a gem mine to do this. The miners in the gem mines, like their colleagues in the gold mines, have a distinct preference for fish.

Remember that it's an especially good idea to store gems in your storage areas because, as we all know, the miners lay down their picks when they see the gems piling up in front on the mine.

In contrast to the Romans and Asians, gold is only half as effective in motivating the Egyptian soldiers. Gems, however, are twice as effective in motivating the Egyptian soldiers as gold in motivating Roman or Asian soldiers.

Ballista Hall

This is where ballistas are built: enormous crossbows with more accuracy than the Roman catapults and nearly equally destructive. Like the catapults, the ballistas are capable of quickly reducing enemy buildings to rubble.

Sphinx

In the sphinx, offerings of beer are converted into manna enabling the Egyptian priests to perform acts of divine intervention on behalf of Horus.

Pyramid

Egyptian priests, like their Roman counterparts, don't become available after building residences. Egyptian priests only become available after a pyramid has been built, at a rate of one priest every five minutes.

Are you playing the Asians?

While playing the Asians, you must keep in mind that you'll need twice as many wood-producing centers as you might otherwise expect, quite simply because of the Asian preference for this building material. Four woodcutters' huts, two foresters' huts and two sawmills are really an absolute minimum for a swift development of your colony.

Distillery

The Asians firmly believe that Ch'ih-Yu, the dragon god, is rarely averse to a bucket of rice wine. And whoever has ever seen him weaving through the clouds, has little reason not to believe this. For this reason the Asian priests offer their god generous portions of rice wine.

To produce rice wine, you need, first of all, a rice farmer who as you remember can only cultivate his rice in a swampy terrain. Therefore, it's a good idea to keep an eye out for a favorable piece of land. Then you must get the rice to the distillery so that it can be used to make the rice liquor. Neither the distiller nor the rice farmer need any special tools. Besides rice, the distiller needs coal to fire his still.

Sulfur Mine

Only the Asians have any use for sulfur, for only they have the knowledge of how to produce gunpowder. The sulfur miners like to eat rice the most, but hear a word of caution – if they can't have rice, they'll accept bread, but don't expect them to eat meat or fish. The sulfur miners are strictly vegetarian. It's a good idea to build a couple rice farms, and it goes without saying that the sulfur isn't much use if you don't build quarters for the gun powder maker.

Rice Farm

You need rice for both the workers in the sulfur mines and for the distillery. The chief disadvantage of rice is that it doesn't grow everywhere. You need swampy terrain for cultivating rice. While playing the Asians, you should be on the lookout for swampy land and keep a couple locations free where you can build your rice farms, as they become necessary. Remember to set the working area for your rice farmers!

Gunpowdermaker's Hut

The Asian gunpowder maker makes his special explosive mixture out of coal and sulfur. Okay, there are a few other ingredients, but where he gets them from and how he gets them or even exactly which ones they are, isn't fully clear. But then again, if it were, the Romans and Egyptians would also have cannons. So, whatever it is, it can't be all that easy.

Cannon Hall

In any case, the powder is for the cannons, but before it can be put to use, the cannons must be constructed, and that’s what the cannon hall is for. You'll need a lot of iron and coal to produce these cannons. To fire the cannons you'll need gunpowder. Keep in mind that if you build a sulfur mine that you'll have to be prepared to make some heavy material investments, a lot of coal, iron, and, of course, food for the miners, but on the other hand, no one else has access to cannons.

Small Temple

The is the building where Asian priests transform rice wine offerings into manna, allowing them to perform wonders on behalf of Ch'ih-Yu.

Large Temple

The Large Temple of the Asians is the birthplace of their priests. With cosmic precision a new priest becomes available every five minutes.