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Can I create a settler in city A, move him to city B and add him to city B's population?

You could do this in the old civ games.

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No, you can not move population with Settlers.

Settlers and Workers in Civilization 5:

  • Do not (directly) reduce population in the city they are built in.
  • Can be built by cities of any size, notably without destroying the city.

In Civilization 4, (possibly earlier, but I don't remember) those limitations were replaced by workers/settlers using all excess food in the city while they were being constructed, effectively stopping growth.

In Civilization 5, settlers still use all excess food, stopping growth. Workers do not use food and can be built without any special limitations compared to other units.

To the best of my knowledge, if you did build a settler anyway, you can't add the settler to an existing city, but only start a new city.

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    Being able to move population in this way would be badly broken in Civ 5, considering how fast a small city can grow/build a settler and how that person's effectiveness would be multiplied in a large city. A couple small cities and your large cities would gain a population point every turn.
    – bwarner
    Commented Nov 17, 2010 at 18:16
  • @bwarner: I assume this imbalance is because each 'population point' is not equal. Going from 1->2 citizens represents a much smaller increase in total population than going from 10->11.
    – Akusete
    Commented Nov 17, 2010 at 22:54
  • @Akusete That's how they try to explain it, but it doesn't really make sense, since total population is meaningless and every population point is equal in terms of the benefits it gives you.
    – bwarner
    Commented Nov 18, 2010 at 3:32
  • @bwarner I disagree completely. More population in a big city lets you have a higher ratio of specialists, or people working on special tiles the Great People build. Those are things that small cities simply can't afford because they don't have enough tiles with 3+ food production. Those are greater options (you can still work the same normal tiles as small cities) and thus greater power. So, population matters more in a bigger city.
    – WillfulWizard
    Commented Nov 18, 2010 at 3:40
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    @fly Have you tried buying off some Maritime city-states? That should significantly increase the rate at which your mountain city can grow.
    – bwarner
    Commented Nov 19, 2010 at 22:29

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