Settler

The Settler is the main resource gatherer for most civilizations in Age of Empires III.

Overview
Settlers are relatively inexpensive but fragile. They are not meant for combat, but will fire weak muskets to defend themselves and others. Settlers can be used to collect Treasures. Each Civilization has a limit to the number of Settlers they can have at once. Settlers pay for themselves rather quickly, and the longer an individual Settler is alive, the more he contributes to the overall wealth of a given colony. Some Civilizations may receive Shipments of extra Settlers from the Home City, while others have to rely solely on producing them in the New World.

Tasks
Settlers can be assigned with the following tasks:
 * To build Buildings
 * Gather Food from Farms around Mills
 * Gather Food from bushes
 * Gather Coin from mines.
 * Gather Food from Mills.
 * Gather Coin from Plantations.
 * Herd and slaughter domestic animals to gather Food from them.
 * Hunt and gather Food from wild animals
 * Repair Buildings, Naval units and Siege units
 * Unpack Wood, Food and Coin shipments

Buildings
Settlers can build the following buildings:

Discovery Age onwards

 * House, Market, Mill, Livestock Pen, Dock, Outpost, Trading Post, Wall.
 * British build Manor Houses instead of regular Houses.
 * Russians build Blockhouses instead of Barracks and Outposts.
 * Ottomans build Mosques instead of Churches.
 * Dutch can additionally build Banks.

Colonial Age onwards

 * Church, Barracks, Stable, Artillery Foundry, Saloon (The Warchiefs/The Asian Dynasties)
 * Germans, Portuguese and Spanish can only build Artillery Foundries in the Fortress Age.

Fortress Age onwards

 * Arsenal, Plantation

Imperial Age onwards

 * Capitol

Upgrades
Market provides with: Mill provides with: Church provides with: Mosque provides with: - Ottomans only Plantation provides with: Capitol provides with:
 * Hunting Dogs speeds up Food gathering from Hunted Animals.
 * Steel Traps further speeds up Food gathering from Hunted Animals.
 * Gang Saw speeds up Wood gathering.
 * Log Flume speeds up Wood gathering.
 * Circular Saw further speeds up Wood gathering.
 * Placer Mines speeds up Coin gathering from Mines.
 * Amalgamation further speeds up Coin gathering from Mines.
 * Blunderbuss increases attack.
 * Great Coat increases hitpoints.
 * Seed Drill speeds up Food gathering from Mills.
 * Artificial Fertilizer further speeds up Food gathering from Mills.
 * Town Watch increases line of sight.
 * Millet System increases Settler spawning time.
 * Bookkeeping speeds up Coin gathering from Plantations.
 * Homesteading further speeds up Coin gathering from Plantations.
 * Refineries further speeds up Coin gathering from Plantations.
 * Large Scale Agriculture greatly speeds up Food gathering from Mills.
 * Deforestation greatly speeds up Wood gathering.
 * Excessive Taxation greatly speeds up Coin gathering from all sources.

Shipments
This is a list of shipments that benefit settlers in anyway. {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; margin-bottom:0px; margin-top:1px;" ! sab="1148"| Click for a list of settler related home city cards
 * Note that Germans send Uhlans with nearly every shipment.
 * French do not have Settlers so the shipment list is found here
 * - sab="1147"
 * - sab="1149"
 * sab="1150"|

Spanish

 * }

Civilization bonuses

 * British spawn a free Settler with each finished Manor House.
 * French have powerful Coureur des Bois instead of settlers.
 * Dutch settlers cost Coin instead of Food and gather 15% faster coin from mines.
 * Russian Settlers train in groups of three and are cheaper by 10%.
 * Germans have additional Settler Wagons along with Settlers.
 * Ottomans spawn free settlers from Town Center in a time limit.