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One of the cornerstones of anyCivilization 7campaign is having plenty of settlements to keep your empire healthy. Even from turn one, it’s imperative that you select the best tile for your capital city, and work diligently to expand your empire throughout each age. But, sometimes, it’s hard to tell where exactly you should build settlements.
And now, in Civ 7, with the distinction between towns and cities playing a huge role in your overall strategy, placing settlements on the right tile is even more important for achieving victory by the Modern Age. Here’s everything you need to know about where to place settlements in Civilization 7.
How Do Settlements Work?
Settlements function quite similarly to how they did in previous installments of the franchise, with one key distinction.Your first settlement, by default, is a cityand serves as your capital.From there, every single settlement you found after that will start as a townand need to be upgraded to a city.
This matters for a couple of reasons, detailed below.
What’s The Difference Between Towns And Cities?
As mentioned,there are a handful of differences between Towns and Cities that you’ll need to understandfor strategic placement.
Specialization
Town
Towns have no production queue, and instead, they convert all of their production into gold.
Gold can then be used to purchase units, buildings, and more within the town’s borders.
Resources and yields work identically to cities. However,towns often have smaller borders.
You’ll want tobe strategic about where you place the town,as it won’t expand as much as a city.
Towns can have a specialization or ‘focus,’ granting boons to certain yieldslike food, production, or influence.
City
Cities have production queues, meaning that you’ll need to spend production over several turns to develop units, buildings, and wonders.
Resources and yields work identically to towns.
However, there are ways to boost yield output, andcities tend to have large borders, meaning they can produce more yields.
Cities do not have ‘focuses’ butcan employ Specialists to boost yieldson specific tiles.
In the Exploration Age, if you’re pursuing an Economic Victory,placing a settlement in Distant Landscan prove quite helpful.
Where To Place Settlements
With all of the above in mind, it’s time to figure outwhere to place new settlements. Generally speaking, there are a handful of broad tips to keep in mind.
Having strong, unified borders is helpfulfor many reasons, butit’s especially useful for warfare. If you suspect an enemy might be mounting troops near your settlements, you can close your borders, protecting farther away cities.
But,if your borders are a bit scattershot, enemies can exploit thisand move units into your backline.
Look For Fresh Water
Beyond these general tips, the most important thing to look for when constructing a settlement is tomake sure you have fresh water. Fresh water isimperative for your settlement’s growth. Without it, the settlement won’t flourish nearly as well.
Plus, if you’re near a navigable river, you can use this to transport naval units.
Check Adjacency Bonuses
You can earn Adjacency Bonuses for many things, including being near Natural Wonders, Coasts, Rivers, and Mountains.
Coasts are great as these can give you access to additional continents via naval exploration, as well as food bonuses for fishing-based improvements.
Even if you find a place to settle that might be great,you might want to consider a specific tile over another if it has a mountain tile or another adjacency bonusthat can improve your Civ’s happiness, food, or gold.
Prioritize High Yields
Most importantly, you’ll want tomake sure whatever tile you place a settlement on is near a decent number of high yields.
Strategize based on what yields you need, not which yields are the highest. Is your treasury a bit low? Look for tiles that have gold yield bonuses and settle there rather than one with higher food output.
Generally speaking,the best yields to focus on can be ranked like so:
If you’re not trying to prioritize one specific yield,refer to the above list and select tiles for settlements with the highest food, gold, or production yields first.
