The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom
By Blue Byte, most recently distributed by Ubisoft
Genre: Real-time strategy
For almost twenty years, a German-based software company, Blue Byte, has been manufacturing some of the best-regarded “underdog” strategy titles, the Settlers series. This series, while it may have a storyline in some of its installments, and sure, a little combat, focuses less on those and more on resource management. The result is not half bad, actually!
The basic formula in all seven installments (so far) occurs like this: you have a castle as your starting point; this also serves as initial storehouse, settler recruitment point and military depot. From there you build your network of roads, and off of them build resource gathering buildings such as Fisherman’s Huts near rivers, Hunting Lodges and Woodcutters near forests. Near mountains you can build mining concerns to gather gold, coal and iron; in open fields you must reserve space for farms so your miners can be fed; and (in the earlier installments) military buildings such as barracks and watchtowers are built on your frontier to extend it.
That is basically how the game is played, though later installments would definitely change things up. What I’m talking about in specific is the changes brought by the most recent: The Settlers 7. While very similar to the previously most popular installment, 2, which received a 10th-anniversary version back in 2006, the resource gathering and production is now centered around several main buildings and their work camps; also, the military aspect was changed up quite a bit over the years.
Mountain Shelters can now have built onto it Work Camps for miners and quarrymen; Lodges deal with collection of forest-oriented resources such as wood and meat from animals (as well as re-planting the forests), and Residences and Noble Houses, along with increasing the maximum amount of non-villager citizens, have work camps dealing with processing resources such as gold and coal to make gold coins in a Mint; raw meat into steaks at a Butcher, and wood into planks at a Sawmill.
All this and more is focused (at least in the campaign) into making more troops to take over the various regions of the map. At first, the only troops your General can command are Pikemen and Musketeers; melee and ranged combat respectively, but more will be made available with time. After your men have vanquished any Palisades or Emplacements, your General will enter the enemy camp and negotiate a surrender, after which the territory is yours to build up and exploit as you see fit.
As mentioned before, the story doesn’t really figure into game play, as it’s a strategy game at heart, but rather facilitates it; most likely gives an excuse for doing what you’re doing. Zoe, princess of the land of Tandria wishes to rule over it but must prove that she has what it takes as a religious, economic and military leader; you take her role in shaping the land to those ends.
Excellent game and excellent series; a little slow-paced for most gamers these days, but I sure love them. Five out of five for this seventh installment!