Barbarian Settlers

Barbarian Settlers
Race	Barbarian
Req. Town Buildings	None
Construction Cost	60
Upkeep Cost	2 1
Unit Properties
# of figures	1
Moves	1
Defense per figure	1
Resistance	5
Hit Points per figure	10
Unit Abilities
Create Outpost

Barbarian Settlers are a type of Normal Unit that may be recruited in Barbarian Towns for a Construction Cost of  60. The successful creation of this unit reduces the City's population by 1. Lacking virtually any combat capabilities, the Settlers's only real purpose is to create a new settlement for their Race, by traveling to the desired location and executing the "Build" command.

Barbarian Settlers require an Upkeep Cost of  2 and 1 to maintain. Failure to pay these costs will result in the unit being disbanded automatically.

Unit Properties

Physical Description

The Settlers unit appears in-game as a single horse-drawn cart. However, it actually represents several hundred people – regular civilians – traveling by cart with their possessions, carrying an ample supply of building materials destined to start a new settlement in an uninhabited region.

Barbarian Settlers are a  Single-Figure unit.

Attack Properties

The Barbarian Settlers have no method of attack whatsoever. The unit may still instigate a Melee Attack against enemy units during combat, but will not inflict any  damage upon them – only makes itself vulnerable to their Counter Attack.

Defense Properties

The Barbarian Settlers' Defense score is a paltry  1, meaning that on average they will block only  0.3 points from Conventional Damage attacks – virtually nil. Fortunately, the unit may be able to at least take some hits without being destroyed, thanks to having  10 Hit Points. However, this will rapidly be depleted if they do not escape battle immediately. Barbarian Settlers don't have a high Resistance score either – their  5 is rarely enough to protect them from Unit Curses or other combat maledictions.

Other Properties

The Barbarian Settlers unit moves at a slow 1, and can only traverse land tiles. It has no special movement properties.

Creating Outposts

Main article: Outpost

The primary purpose of Barbarian Settlers is to establish a new Barbarian settlement. To do so, they need to move to a land tile that is at least 4 squares away from any other Town, friendly or otherwise. In other words, there have to be at least 3 tiles in any direction between the Barbarian Settlers and any other City. The tile may also not contain a magical Node or Tower of Wizardry. Whenever the unit is selected with these criteria matched, the "Build" command becomes available in the unit window, near the bottom right of the screen.

Executing this action immediately destroys the Barbarian Settlers unit to create a new Outpost in its place. This is the precursor to a Town, that can not yet produce anything until it grows into an actual Hamlet. Its growth can be monitored by right-clicking on it, just like a normal Town, except instead of displaying a numerical "Population" value, it will show a row of 10 housing icons, of which only 3 are filled when the Outpost is created. These increase (and may occasionally also decrease) over time, with the Outpost turning into a full-fledged Town once all 10 are full.

Basic Strategy

As explained above, Barbarian Settlers are not built for combat. They will likely be destroyed if ever attacked by an enemy force. They have some staying power, and might be able to survive a battle if other friendly units are there to fight in their stead, but will still need to be kept away from the enemy and safe from harm.

Settlers are used to expand the players' empires. Since each type of Settlers unit can only found Towns that match their own Race, it may require some careful consideration determining which Race's Cities to build these units from. It's also worth remembering that creating Settlers reduces the Population of the source Town by 1, in other words 1,000 citizens – which can even be used to remove unwanted settlements from the map without any loss of Fame. However, it often does take some  Gold to buy out the last unit or two, as at that point, the recruitment of Settlers is typically slower than the Town's Population Growth.

Ability Overview

Create Outpost

• This unit is able to create a new settlement on any land tile that is at least 4 map squares away from any other Towns, and does not contain a magical Node or Tower of Wizardry. The unit itself is destroyed in the process, and the new Outpost will match its Race.
• To use this ability, the unit needs to be on a valid tile, be selected, and have Movement Allowance remaining. If all requirements are met, the "Build" command becomes active in the unit window at the bottom right of the screen.

Experience Table

Although Barbarian Settlers are not designed for combat, they still benefit from Experience bonuses for the purposes of defending themselves. While Settlers rarely exist long enough to gain significant Experience, their advancement table is presented below for the sake of completeness.

Level Icon	Level Name	EP	Defense	Resist	Hits
	Recruit	0 - 19	1	5	10
	Regular	20 - 59	1	6	10
	Veteran	60 - 119	2	7	10
	Elite	120	2	8	11
	Ultra-Elite	120 *	3	9	11
	Champion	120 **	3	10	12

* To achieve this level, either the Warlord Retort or the Crusade spell must be in play.
** To achieve this level, both Warlord and Crusade must be in play simultaneously.

None of this unit's other properties and abilities are affected by Experience.

Acquisition

Barbarian Settlers may be produced in any Barbarian Town – they do not require any special Town Buildings in order to recruit. The Construction Cost of this unit is  60. Upon its creation, the City's Population is reduced by exactly 1,000 people. If this results in it dropping below 1,000, the Town is removed from the map entirely – it does not revert to an Outpost. For this reason, Settlers may not be created in a Fortress City that has less than 2,000 people.

Settlers may never appear for hire as Mercenaries, and Barbarian Settlers are no exception. They can only be constructed in a Barbarian Town.