SETTLEMENTS
Five settlements have been released to date; by far the most enjoyable to play through were Japan and Egypt. By the time Vikings and Aztecs were finished I never wanted to see them again, and I will never touch Mughals once I win the embassy slots I want out of it. Luckily, the 2 best settlements, Japan and Egypt, also have the best time reward buildings, so if you feel like replaying them, you can win useful side buildings: the Timeless Dojo from Japan makes fps, goods and troops, the Ancient Obelisk from Egypt makes fps, goods and provides attack/defense boost of 6%, making it far better than a shrine of knowledge.
Tips that apply to all the Settlements
Only one cultural settlement can be active at the same time. Pick one that you intend to get all the main building upgrades for and keep playing it until you get all of the necessary upgrades. Most buildings, including those won from settlements and events, are not worth the city space they take until you have all, or at least most, of the upgrades needed to build it high enough. A level 1 and level 9 building take up the same space, but the bonuses provided are very different. You do not want to live with the inefficiency of a level 1 or 2 building taking up valuable space during the time it takes to win the rest of the upgrades.
Don't be afraid to let buildings be disconnected for a while to get you over a 'hump' - houses still count for population even when they're not connected by road, and buildings still count for diplomacy too, they just don't produce anything for a short while until you can connect them with roads.
The impediments change along with the goods requirements to unlock the buildings each play through; goods strategies will change as well as the layout.
If you can't beat the timer on a settlement, all you're losing out on is the side building fragments, so don't stress about the timer. You still get all the other rewards, even if it takes you another month. Completing the settlement to get the main building upgrades and embassy slots/ambassadors to add to your daily Town Hall collection is what matters most.
For a more Detailed Guide...
Check out this guide written on the US forums, it's much more detailed than the quick tips listed below:
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/cultural-settlements-guide-v2-202.25131/
Yggdrasil
Viking
Vikings settlement finished with 20 hours left on timer, no diamonds spent. It is possible, but it did require a lot of shifting productions and rearranging city. Early on, you must build houses and stick them in corners without a road for a while, just for the population you need to get goods produced. When you get more land, connect the houses or upgrade them.
One trick I used: you have to build houses and then move them off grid so that you fit in 6 houses and 2 axe goods right at the start, some of your houses won't be connected by roads but who cares, you fix it in 4 hours when you get your first 20 axes, unlock 2 land, unlock shrines, build a couple shrines and reconnect stuff now that you have the space.
You must upgrade to the 3x3 house and 3x3 market as soon as you get them because they're way more efficient than the little houses and shrines. Ditto for the clan house or you won't have room for all the wool production. I did not use shacks once I had the bigger houses, and only used shrines to fill in 2x2 spaces where nothing else fit.
"Yggdrasil" is the tree of life in Norse mythology, and it is pronounced "igh-drah-sihl." This tree holds together the nine worlds of Norse myth. (The nine levels of the Yggdrasil building can be referencing this fact.)
Viking Quest List
1 Have 3 Shacks
2 Have 4 Runestones
3 Have an Axe Smith
4 Have 55 Diplomacy or gather 20 Axes
5 Have 2 Shrines
6 Have a Mead Brewery
7 Have 195 Diplomacy or gather 30 Mead
8 Have 2 Huts
9 Have 280 Diplomacy or gather 40 Axes
10 Have a Beast Hunter
11 Have 375 Diplomacy or gather 50 Horns
12 Have 4 Clan Totems or gather 50 Mead
13 Have a Market
14 Have 595 Diplomacy or gather 60 Horns
15 Have a Wool Farm
16 Have a Clan House
17 Have 855 Diplomacy or gather 60 Wool
18 Have an Old Willow
19 Have a Mead Hall
20 Collect 10 of each Cultural Good and 2500 Copper Coins
Shinto Temple
Japan
The Japan settlement is significantly easier to play than the Vikings - and has great rewards too, the Timeless Dojo makes goods, troops, fps, and medals - I have 3 of them.
Unlock the Merchant as soon as you can and use those negotiations each day to speed your goods along and open up new land. Japan was the most relaxing and by far the easiest settlement to complete within the timer limits.
Japan Quest List
1 Have 3 Gassho-zukuri Huts
2 Have 5 Toro
3 Have a Soy Bean Field
4 Have 45 Diplomacy or gather 10 Soy
5 Have 1 Shinto Shrine
6 Have 1 Gallery
7 Gather 10 Paintings
8 Have 100 Diplomacy or Gather 20 Paintings
9 Have 1 Armorer
10 Have 2 Decorated or Sacred Torii Gates
11 Have 325 Diplomacy
12 Have 1 Instrument Workshop
13 Have 2 Shinden-Zukuri Manors
14 Have 525 Diplomacy or Gather 30 Instruments
15 Have 2 Zen Gardens
16 Have 1 Dojo
17 Gather 2000 Koban Coins and 10 of each Cultural Good
Royal Bathouse
Egypt
Egypt is all about building 2 Nubian archer camps - don't bother with the other unit types except for the free ones you get from the quest to start off. When a quest forces you to build some other barracks, build it for the quest credit and delete it right away.
Get your easy and medium loot fights in each day at the Siege Camp, make your goods, and ride out the timer. When it's time to unlock a new technology, delete some goods buildings until you have enough space to build enough 1 minute decorations for diplomacy, unlock your tech, sell the decorations and rebuild goods or new buildings.
Egypt Quest List
⛏ = Gives Impediment Removal Item
1 Have 4 Clay Huts
2 Have 1 Grain Farm
3 Have 1 Training Camp
4 Finish 1 Egyptian Battle
5 Gather 5 Barley
6 Have 60 Diplomacy ⛏
7 Have 2 Divine Statues
8 Gather 10 Pottery
9 Have 2 Multi-Story Clay Houses or Gather 30 Barley ⛏
10 Have 360 Diplomacy or Gather 30 Pottery
11 Have 2 Water Gardens
12 Have 1 Flower Farm ⛏
13 Have 3 Residential Blocks
14 Have 1 Elephant Stable
15 Have 1230 Diplomacy or Gather 40 Flowers ⛏
16 Have 1 Place of Prayer
17 Have 1 Procession
18 Have 1610 Diplomacy ⛏
19 Have 2 Luxury Estates and Have 1 Oasis
20 Gather 300 Loot and Gather 20 Sacrificial Offerings
21 Have 1820 Diplomacy ⛏
22 Have 1 Pyramid
23 Gather 30,000 Deben and 30 of each Cultural Good
Sun Temple
Aztec
Aztecs - this one is harder, more like Vikings was; I never have enough room and am always running out of cocoa beans for producing goods and building roads. Cocoa beans are precious and roads are expensive, so offset your town hall to the middle so that less roads are required. With the town hall in the center you can use just 1 or 2 road tiles from each side to cluster buildings together using the same small road connection.
The goal is to unlock your Aviary as soon as possible to gain access to the Courtyard Market. Along the way, you'll want to minimize the expenditure of beans while maximizing their production. The bean shortage only subsides once you finally unlock the Texcotzingo (a little over half way through the settlement.) The mini-game in the market is like the old windows game mine-sweeper, except you want to find the goodies instead of avoid them. The mini-game is a welcome change from fights and negotiations, but I don't win nearly enough goods in it to rush land opening (unlike the Japan settlement) and it's a lot more difficult to beat the overall settlement timer.
Aztec Quest List
⛏ = Gives Impediment Removal Item
1 Have 3 Macehualtin Huts
2 Have 5 Honoring Sculptures
3 Have 1 Vegetable Garden
4 Have 55 Diplomacy or Gather 10 Vegetables
5 Have 2 Simple Shrines ⛏
6 Have 1 Quetzal Aviary
7 Have 195 Diplomacy or Gather 20 Headdresses
8 Have 2 Yaoteguihua Residences ⛏
9 Have 280 Diplomacy
10 Have 2 Maize Farms
11 Have 4 Decorative Statues or Have 4 Ornamental Statues ⛏
12 Have 480 Diplomacy or Gather 30 Maize
13 Have 1 Texcotzingo
14 Have 595 Diplomacy ⛏
15 Have 2 Stone Carvers
16 Have 2 Pipiltin Palaces
17 Have 855 Diplomacy or Gather 40 Stone Figures⛏
18 Have 1 Sun Stone
19 Have 1 Great Temple
20 Gather 3000 Cocoa Beans and 20 of Each Cultural Good
Mughal's Temple
Mughal
Well, Mughals has a very slow start due to limited rupees, and like the Aztec settlement, roads cost so much you won't have enough left over to make goods if you build a lot of roads, so keep the roads to a bare minimum. You just have to build as many houses as you can and collect every 4 hours until you get the 4th building (chhatri) unlocked, which allows you to produce more rupees. Until you get to the chhatri, your only option is the 4 hour houses and they don't make enough to keep more than 1 goods building going.
The Mughal settlement is the worst so far (in so many ways) at making you tear apart and rearrange your entire settlement every time you have to unlock a new tech, because you have to chain as many water canals as possible to the side of the town hall - which is why it's important to expand sideways/lengthwise first and as much as possible. With this settlement, don't worry about any of the timers, I have never beaten the first timer and sometimes I don't make it before the 2nd or 3rd timer either. The fragments for the minaret don't really matter, the main building is also kind of ho hum, so the only reason to do this one at all is to unlock the extra embassy slots and ambassadors to put in your town hall.
Mughal Quest List
⛏ = Gives Impediment Removal Item
1 Have 6 Bhavans
2 Have 3 Alleys and have 102 diplomacy
3 Have 1 Rice Paddy and gather 10 Basmati ⛏
4 Have 3 Water Canals and have 214 diplomacy
5 Have 1 Saree Weaver
6 Gather 10 Saree ⛏⛏
7 Gather 500 Rupees
8 Have 2 Shanti Ghar
9 Have 2 Chhatri
10 Gather 1500 Rupees and have 540 diplomacy ⛏
11 Have 1 Spice Trader
12 Gather 10 Spices
13 Have 2 Baldachin ⛏
14 Gather 2000 Rupees and have 870 diplomacy
15 Gather 20 Basmati and gather 20 Saree
16 Have 1 Lotus Flower Farm
17 Gather 10 Lotus ⛏
18 Have 1 Charbagh
19 Have 1 Haveli and gather 4000 Rupees
20 Have 1500 diplomacy and gather 50 of each Cultural Good
Hut of the Sacred Instruments
Polynesia
NO ROADS! The intrigue of the Polynesian settlement lies in its unique approach to urban planning — there's no need for street connections. This gives you the creative freedom to design your island paradise without constraints!
New Production Times: For its cultural buildings, the Polynesian Settlement has different production times compared to the rest of the game, but these times are also in effect in the Quantum settlement.
Instead of 4h, 8h and 24h, productions now are 5h, 10h and 20h.
Polynesia Quest List
⛏ = Gives Impediment Removal Item
1 Have 2 Small Huts
2 Have 3 Masked Totems
3 Have 1 Rahui Fisher ⛏
4 Have 30 diplomacy or Gather 5 Fresh Fish
5 Have 2 Dance Stages
6 Have 1 Palm Garden ⛏
7 Gather 10 Coconuts
8 Have 2 Pile Dwellings
9 Have 2 Melodic Statues or 2 Statues of Music ⛏
10 Have 1 Kava Farm
11 Gather 20 Kava
12 Have 2 Communal Cooking Areas ⛏
13 Have 1 Catamaran Builder
14 Gather 20 Catamarans
15 Have 1 Family Hut ⛏
16 Have 1 Nature Totem
17 Have 1 Hut of the Royal Storage
18 Have 1000 diplomacy or Gather 4000 Shells // Gather 5 of each good