The Settlers: Fourth Edition

aka: Die Siedler IV, Gongren Wuyu IV, The Settlers IV
Moby ID: 3326

Description official description

The Settlers IV is the 4th real-time strategy game in the Settler series, building upon its predecessor with some graphical improvements, new buildings and features. You now can zoom in and out without steps and the game supports resolutions up to 1280x1024. Also there are enhanced multiplayer features and the game supports built-in voice chat, so Roger Wilco is not needed anymore.

The world the settlers live in is threatened by Morbus who wants to turn the land into a wasteland with the help of his Dark Tribe. There are 3 normal short campaigns where the player controls either the Romans, the Vikings or the Mayans. In a much longer campaign you switch between the three races to combat the threat of the Dark Tribe. The tribe sometimes abducts setters and puts them to work on their fungus farms. To defeat them you have to destroy their fungus farms that maintain a toxic barrier around their dark fortress where they also build their troops. After the fortress is destroyed you win the game. You can turn the wasteland back to greenland with your gardeners and priest's.

During the game you have to build a working economy usually starting with a stonemason and woodcutter. The logs from the woodcutter are reworked in a sawmill to make planks. Most buildings require planks and stone to build. Your settlers also need food which can be acquired by a fisherman, hunter, a farm producing animals that can be slaughtered at the butcher or building a grain farm that requires a windmill to make flour. The flour is used by a baker to make bread. To build an army and additional tools you need iron, coal and sulfur. A suitable location for a mine can be found by a geologist on a mountain range. With the iron and coal the blacksmith and tool smith can make weapons and tools after the iron ore from the mines has been reworked in bars by the smelter. To produce stronger fighting units, you need gold which can also be mined and melted into bars. The number of settlers can be increased by building more houses. You can only build in your own territory. To expand your territory you can train pioneers or build towers. Conquered enemy towers also gain additional territory. With ports and harbors a shipping line can be maintained between different islands. In addition to warriors there are also priests that can use spells like summoning raw materials, tools, weapons and supports your armies in battle with spells that turn enemy troops in your own troops. These spells need mana that can be produced after building a certain chain of buildings.

Spellings

  • IV המתיישבים - Hebrew spelling
  • Поселенцы IV - Russian spelling
  • 工人物语IV - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

120 People (112 developers, 8 thanks) · View all

Producer
Heads of Development
Graphics Engine Programming
AI Programming
Tools Programming
Sound Programming
Network Programming
Additional Programming
Art Director
Objects and Textures (Graphics)
Additional Graphics
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 29 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 28 ratings with 1 reviews)

A very interesting, if difficult, RTS game.

The Good
A very detailed and very pretty looking settlement simulation game. Chop down trees to build buildings, mine ore, smelt the ore into metal and build weapons. Grow food, feed your sheep, slaughter the sheep for meat. You can spend hours watching your settlers walk around busily working. Trying to come up with the most efficient arrangement of buildings so everything is made quicker is a fascinating task.

The Bad
The game is extremely hard. It takes 14 tutorials just to learn how to make a sword. You cannot learn it on your own or through the manual because the interface is not intuitive. The AI is very skilled and aggressive and you have to be very good or you'll quickly become overwhelmed by hordes of enemy units. The first roman level if fairly easy because the AI is penned in by a desert, but after that you need to be very quick or you'll be crushed. The game is supposed to be about settling, but there is only one "free-settle" level which comes with the game, and all the single player scenarios are combat based.

The Bottom Line
A complicated simulation RTS game where you build a settlement. The focus being on combat and on supply chain management. You can lose the game because you built your grain mill too far from the wheat farm, creating a bottleneck and slowing down your weapons production. Quite satisfying if you can get it right.

Windows · by Tony Maki (10) · 2005

Trivia

In January 2001, Blue Byte released Settlers action figures.

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  • MobyGames ID: 3326
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Erwin Bergervoet.

Additional contributors: MAT, Paul Budd, Alexander Schaefer, Unicorn Lynx, tarmo888, Crawly, Klaster_1.

Game added February 13, 2001. Last modified March 22, 2024.