In that case, you need to add a forester annex to a lodge, and because main structures can only have three additions attached to them, space restrictions can become a concern. For instance, you might need to gather wood on barren land. Matches can be challenging nonetheless, and resource imbalances may require you to approach things a little differently every time. If your mints aren't pumping enough gold into your coffers because you are low on the coal they need, a little icon will appear over the building in need to let you know. This sounds complicated, but it's easy to get the hang of, and the game does a good job of pointing out gaps in your economic chain. Then, you need to make sure to attach a butcher annex onto a noble house-which itself requires regular food to operate. Your armies require fancy food, which means you need to build lodges near forests teeming with wildlife or build piggery extensions onto your farms. For instance, you need wood to make planks, which are in turn used as a basic building material for standard structures. The campaign starts you off slow, introducing you to concepts one by one, but in time, you discover just how complex the economic web can be. Then you expand your realm across the map by taking over connected settlements, whether they be neutral or already taken by an opponent. The game is all about setting up supply lines by building appropriate structures and abodes in the appropriate places, and then balancing the stream of resources that your settlers then automatically collect. It isn't as complex or as varied as similar offerings-Dawn of Discovery, for example, or even previous Settlers games-but it has a mesmerizing flow that has a way of pulling you in. If you're the patient type, however, you'll probably want to put up with the ongoing connectivity issues simply because The Settlers 7 is fun to play. These soldiers are the cutest little killing machines you ever did see. Unfortunately, server problems occasionally make the game inaccessible for hours at a time, which is an issue that does not appear to be improving as the weeks pass. Even if you are only interested in The Settlers 7 for its single-player features, you have to be connected to the Internet and signed into Ubisoft's online portal to play.

The latest in the long-running Settlers franchise is as charming and enjoyable as past installments, though it's hard to escape on-again, off-again online troubles that have plagued the game since release. And when you play this economy-heavy strategy game, you'll be just as busy-and content-as these tiny computer people.

In fact, if you don't have anything for them to do, they might cry out for a little work to ease the burden of their own laziness. They mine for coal, shear sheep, chop wood, and smelt iron yet ask for so little in return. The little workers that follow your orders in The Settlers 7 are a tireless lot.

The settlers game icon