This article is for:
Experienced players who can make cannons. This article doesn't explain research or trading. It explains tips on making 25 cannons in 1 hour, and some other tips for mass production, logistics, and getting victory points for military players.
The Author is:
TNT Sunyata, once the world's top 14 in Aug. 2011 in Settler 7 official leader board. This article is updated in Jan. 2023.
Build styles
There are some players who use 'minimal build' - you make as few buildings as you can and try to win the game in about an hour with victory points. Every little stone and plank counts in this play style. I'm not good at that, and I prefer 'maximum build' - you make many buildings for mass production lines and keep pushing out cannons.
Food is the magic
If you give normal food (bread or fish) to normal workers, you double the production. With fancy food, you triple the production.
However, for workers in noble residences like cloth makers, with normal food you get 1 production, and with fancy food you get 2 productions.
Let's say you want to make 2 clothes per cycle. You would need:
2 shepherds, 2 weavers, 2 cloth makers with 2 fish --> 2 clothes
However, if you have meat, you need:
1 shepherd, 1 weaver, 1 cloth maker with 1 meat --> 2 clothes
You can save a lot of building space.
And if you have a hunter:
1 hunter --> 1 animal, 1 butcher with 1 fish --> 1 meat production
If you give meats to the butcher, he produces 2 meats but he ate 1 meat, so the net production is the same 1 meat but without the need for fish. It's like the butcher works for free.
If you give meats to both of them:
1 hunter with 1 meat --> 3 animals, 3 butchers with 3 meats --> 6 meats production
You spent 4 meats, so the net meat production is 2 meats per cycle. Please note that this is a simplified calculation, and actually you don't need 3 butchers because they work faster than hunters.
Major steps for making cannons using meats
1. Make a strong construction infrastructure:
- Get a few additional constructor offices
- Get many planks and stones
2. Make a mass meat production line
3. Make clothes and sell them for gold coins
4. Make a sword maker and a wheel maker
5. Keep making cannons
Step 1: Make a strong construction infrastructure
Hire 3 pikemen from the tavern and get 2 sectors that have coal and iron mines.
Step 1: Make a strong construction infrastructure
Hire 3 pikemen from the tavern and get 2 sectors that have coal and iron mines.
Make 1~3 additional constructors' offices, and upgrade it to level 3.
Make 2~3 stone miners
Make at least 3 woodcutters and 3 sawmills. You may hire 3~4 foresters if you want to maintain the woods.
Make 2~3 stone miners
Make at least 3 woodcutters and 3 sawmills. You may hire 3~4 foresters if you want to maintain the woods.
Make a tool maker, give them fish or meats, set them 'On Demand' production mode.
Make an iron bar smelter, give them fish or meats, set them 'On Demand' production mode.
Make fishers if fish is available.
Step 2: Make a mass meat production line
Make 6 crop fields.
Step 2: Make a mass meat production line
Make 6 crop fields.
Make hunters if games are available and give them meat.
Make 3 piggeries and give them meats (2 wells are also needed) --> +9 animals, -3 meats
Make 8 butchers and give them meat --> -9 animals, -9 meats, +18 meats
Make 3 piggeries and give them meats (2 wells are also needed) --> +9 animals, -3 meats
Make 8 butchers and give them meat --> -9 animals, -9 meats, +18 meats
The net production could be 6 meats per cycle, but butchers work a little faster than piggeries, so in my test, the net production is 5.3 meats per cycle, and 1 meat gain per 8.2 seconds in game time.
You should have at least 30 meats at all times to keep this production line working. Otherwise, the production slows down. When it happens, you can see an icon on piggeries or butchers saying that they are not working because meats are dwindling.
Step 3: Make clothes and sell them for gold coins
I think selling clothes may be the best, and selling rings is the next, and running mints is OK but not the best, but I'm not quite sure. Not only raw materials, but also building space needs to be considered, so it is not easy to say which one is the best. Anyway, I usually set up 1~2 cloth production line.
Make 1 shepherd and 1 well.
Make 1 weaver.
Make 1 cloth maker and give him meat.
Step 4: Make 1 sword maker and 1 wheel maker
Make 1 sword maker and 1 wheel maker and give them meat. You may want to change the production mode for iron bar makers 'Always'.
Step 5: Keep making cannons
Now you have all the resources for cannons. Keep building or upgrading residences and make cannons. In this phase, monitoring meat stock is very important. If you have 35 or more meats, you can make cannons, but if it is below 35, stop making cannons. You also may need to stop other meat consumers (cloth/sword/wheel makers).
With the above building steps, you can make about 25 cannons in an hour. Very few opponents can attack you earlier than 1 hour, which can be defended with your wall and a few cannons. Usually, you don't worry about being attacked, but losing the game by victory point players (usually church players) who can win in about 1 hour.
Likewise, you can set Geologist even before you complete building a mine work yard. Of course, you should have prestige points and unlock the Geologist.
Step 3: Make clothes and sell them for gold coins
I think selling clothes may be the best, and selling rings is the next, and running mints is OK but not the best, but I'm not quite sure. Not only raw materials, but also building space needs to be considered, so it is not easy to say which one is the best. Anyway, I usually set up 1~2 cloth production line.
Make 1 shepherd and 1 well.
Make 1 weaver.
Make 1 cloth maker and give him meat.
Step 4: Make 1 sword maker and 1 wheel maker
Make 1 sword maker and 1 wheel maker and give them meat. You may want to change the production mode for iron bar makers 'Always'.
Meat consumption:
3 piggeries and 8 butchers: +5.3 meats
1 cloth maker, 1 words maker, 1 wheel maker: -3 meats
1 tool maker works on demand: a few meats
So less than 2 meats per cycle can be saved and used for hiring cannons.
Step 5: Keep making cannons
Now you have all the resources for cannons. Keep building or upgrading residences and make cannons. In this phase, monitoring meat stock is very important. If you have 35 or more meats, you can make cannons, but if it is below 35, stop making cannons. You also may need to stop other meat consumers (cloth/sword/wheel makers).
With the above building steps, you can make about 25 cannons in an hour. Very few opponents can attack you earlier than 1 hour, which can be defended with your wall and a few cannons. Usually, you don't worry about being attacked, but losing the game by victory point players (usually church players) who can win in about 1 hour.
Other tips:
Getting prestige points
For fast development, at least 5~6 prestige points are needed including points for construction office, storehouse upgrade, geologist, and residential upgrade. I usually build an export office or a stronghold and attach prestige extensions. If you don't have space for that, you may use stones and gold coins to build small prestige objects along the roads.
Getting stones
Stones are an intrinsic resource for big villages. Usually, logs and planks are infinite, but stone mines are finite and will be depleted. To get more stones:
1. Using Geologist
Geologists replenish a unit of that mine’s resource, some times they produce a stone, or do nothing. In my test in a gold mine, Geologists did:
- Replenished gold ore 70% of the time.
- Produced stones 20% of the time.
It is not many stones, but still very helpful. However, if the mine is full and needs no more replenishing, Geologists did:
- Produced stones 60% of the time.
So if you have a surplus mine, you can use it as an infinite stone mine. Usually, I don't use a gold mine for gold ore, so I use it as an infinite stone mine.
2. Stone trade routes
You can get one of the trade routes for stones in a trade office.
Upgrade storehouses for mass production
Important storehouses are the ones near the meat and weapon production lines and any storehouses that need to hold more than 20 of any type of resource. Those storehouses often become bottlenecks and slow down your production. Positioning storehouses and streamlining logistics is a very important and tricky part of the game.
Important storehouses are the ones near the meat and weapon production lines and any storehouses that need to hold more than 20 of any type of resource. Those storehouses often become bottlenecks and slow down your production. Positioning storehouses and streamlining logistics is a very important and tricky part of the game.
The below picture shows 'Gather' command for crops, which gathers crops from all around your territories to help speed up piggery production. Only a fully upgraded storehouse can use Gather command.
In the picture below, a storehouse is in the center of the meat production line. In this way, carriers don't need to move crops or animals. They only need to move the final production (meat) out to other places.
Likewise, the weapon production line can get together around a storehouse to minimize logistics hassle. 
However, the storehouse above (next to the castle) needs to handle not only weapons but also crops and lumbers, which makes it a bottleneck. So it is recommended to build more storehouses to take care of all the items passing through the area.
Hiring Generals
As soon as you start earning coins, hire a general with 10 gold coins. Theobald is the best with a 29% bonus, Cuno is the second with a 17% bonus, and Philipp or Siegfred is the third.
Cannon's power with a standard bearer against troops:
Theobald: 7.5
Cuno: 6.6
Ordinary: 5.8
This means to fight against Theobald with 10 cannons, an ordinary general should have 13 cannons.
However, Cuno has a 17% bonus against fortifications as well. So you should choose Cuno when Theobald is already taken.
Someone can research Ballistics in the church tech tree, then:
Theobald: 10
Cuno: 8.8
Ordinary: 7.7
So, in the worst scenario, to fight against Theobald with 10 cannons and Ballistics, you need 17 cannons with the ordinary general.
Overview screen
Do you want to set food for a work yard that is not completely built yet? You can! The feature is hidden in the Overview screen. Click Food and click work yards to switch between no food, normal food, and fancy food.
On this screen, you can also click buildings and upgrade them.
In Overview > Work Yards, you can see the number of work yards for each type. Click them to see where they are.
You can also check the efficiencies of work yards. It is useful to get the Economist victory point.
Utilizing tree planters
Usually, there are many trees at first, but in mid-game, you may need tree planters for a constant inflow of logs for tools, swords, and wheels. In my test:
Time to plant a tree seedling: 53 seconds or more (game time).
Time to grow a tree: 200 seconds (without the related technology)
This means that a tree planter needs a small space that can hold at least 5 trees.
Time to cut down a tree: 40 seconds or more. This means:
1 woodcutter, 1 planter: OK, but the woodcutter wastes 33% of his working time. If there is a sawmill next to it, it also wastes time.
2 woodcutters, 3 planters: Better, but now planters waste 12% of their time.
3 woodcutters, 4 planters: Ideal.
Time to make a plank: 35 seconds. This means 1 woodcutter and 1 sawmill is OK, but more woodcutters than sawmills are recommended. To streamline or boost your wood production, you can give fish or meat to either of them. You may need to divide them into different lodges. Tree planters do not consume any food even if you give them food.
To see if the soil is fertile or barren, click a spot of soil. Only fertile soil can grow trees (the 2nd picture below).
Utilizing Hunters
Like Piggeries, it is better to provide them fancy food. In early games, hunters are very helpful but they are not very productive in mid or late games, because the regenerating time for an animal group is about 7 minutes in 'Fast' game time. 7 minutes of game time is 4.7 minutes in real-time.
Working time: Hunter gets an animal in about 75 seconds or more, Piggery in 53 seconds (without related technology).
Animals are grouped by animal groups, and the initial 4 animals are in 1 group. So if you see 8 animals in a sector, they are 2 groups, which means 2 animals are regenerated in 7 minutes. If woodcutters cut down most of the trees around an animal group, that group dies and will never regenerate. You can have tree planters together to keep animal groups alive.
Getting living spaces
As you build mass production lines and a big army, you will need a lot of living spaces in residences. A residence costs 2 planks and 1 stone and provides 4 living spaces, that is 0.75 resources per living space. Upgrading a residence costs the same.
On the other hand, a noble residence costs 1 resource per living space, which is more expensive, but after fully upgrading it, the overall cost is 0.87, which is similar to 0.75 of a normal residence. So if there is not much free space in your sectors, which is almost always the case, noble residences would be better.
If you have Architecture technology, a noble residence is cheaper than a normal residence when fully upgraded (with Architecture, residence: 0.5, noble residence 0.47, with Hygiene, residence: 0.86, noble residence 0.79).
Getting victory points for military players
In this game, it is much easier to defend than to attack, thanks to the walls. When an enemy attacks you, you attack back to his/her sector so that your troops can attack them while your wall is tanking. Your troops will not be attacked as long as your wall stands. Be careful not to go out your walls and fight in the fields. You may need to go out and back and go out again to make sure you fight just behind your wall.
Victory point players (usually church players) can be faster than military players on many maps. So it's not easy to win by conquering the opponent's main base, but they can try to win with victory points. Followings are victory points for military players.
Field Marshal: Have many troops.
Emperor: Conquer many sectors.
Special Sector: Conquer special sectors.
Banker: You would already have mass meat production lines, so you can have 2 clothes makers and earn a lot of gold coins.
Sun King: As you conquer many sectors, you can build many prestige objects in non-essential sectors. If you don't have big free space, you can spend money to build small prestige objects.
Generalissimo: Kill many enemies. Just don't lose your troops recklessly attacking an enemy's mighty strongholds.
Economist: You would already have streamlined production lines, so a little bit of management can make overall efficiencies very high, like 95%, in work yards. Ether destroy not-needed work yards or set them 'Idle'. However, setting them 'On Demand' lowers the overall efficiencies. The Overview screen helps to see which work yards just stand there and wait for input resources.
Metropolis: You would already have big villages, and you can build many more storehouses to get this victory point.
Note that it is very hard for a military player to compete with a church player with Architecture technology. A storehouse normally costs 1 plank, whereas it is free for a player with Architecture, meaning a constructor can build tens of storehouses without any resources, even without moving back and forth. It only costs free space for buildings and living spaces in residences. Residences are also 50% cheaper with the technology. However, upgrading a storehouse will cost 1 stone (normally 1 plank and 1 stone without the technology). So if a military player has more sectors and starts building and upgrading storehouses much earlier than a church player, you may have a chance.
8 Official Empire mode maps
Monheim Vally
Tower Island
Grassland Mesa
Tempest Taiga
Crushed Mirror
Blazing Heat
Bandland Ridge
White Waterfall
* The list may be incorrect.
In my classification:
Class A: 12 wheat fields, 6 piggeries in the main sector, like Monheim Vally and Tower Island. These maps are for military players. With a lot of meats, you can make 25 cannons in 1 hour, the opponents' main base is close, and the church tech tree is a little complicated in those maps.
Class B: 6 wheat fields, 3 piggeries in the main sector, like Grassland Mesa
Class C: A map with a small main sector. A major headache Simcity maps if you try to make mass production lines. Good for church players with a minimum build style.
Sample village layout: Monheim Vally
Construction: 3~4 constructor's offices, more than 10 woodcutters, 5 sawmills, 3 stone miners, but they are demolished in the pictures above.
Mining: 14 coal miners and 4 iron ore miners (most of them are geologists to get stones).
Meat production: 11 wheat fields, 6 piggeries (given meats), 12 butchers (given meat), a few hunters (given meats).
Mining: 14 coal miners and 4 iron ore miners (most of them are geologists to get stones).
Meat production: 11 wheat fields, 6 piggeries (given meats), 12 butchers (given meat), a few hunters (given meats).
Gold coin production: 2 shepherds, 2 weavers, 2 cloth makers (given meats).
Military production: 1 iron smelter (given meat), 1 sword maker (given meats), 1 wheel maker (given meats).
Others: 1 tool maker (given meats, works On Demand)
The picture above is taken after about 1 hour and 45 minutes when I have 4 generals with full troops (each general has 29 cannons, 5 pikemen, and 1 standard bearer).
Military production: 1 iron smelter (given meat), 1 sword maker (given meats), 1 wheel maker (given meats).
Others: 1 tool maker (given meats, works On Demand)
The picture above is taken after about 1 hour and 45 minutes when I have 4 generals with full troops (each general has 29 cannons, 5 pikemen, and 1 standard bearer).
Sample village layout: Tower Island
Sample village layout: Grassland Mesa
Sample village layout: Tempest Tiga
Sample village layout: Crushed Mirror
The current muli-player user base in 2023
If you have the old Settlers 7 Gold edition, you can still play the competitive multi-player match, the so-called Empire mode. There are some players, especially in the evening time of Europe. If you are outside of Europe, the connection would not be optimal, but still playable. The leaderboard is still updated.
If you have the recent History edition, well, no thanks to Ubisoft, you can't play Empire mode. You can only play with friends with the History edition. Cross-play between the Gold edition and the History edition is not possible, as far as I know, and it seems the Gold edition is not buyable.
The Map Forge feature (editing map properties) is supported in multi-player games with the Gold edition, but not with the History edition.
