Oedi: xD
i dont know, it was kinda both. you have to understand that settlers, while it was a commercially successful game in germany, wasnt received very well in international press and didnt make a lot of fans outside germany like almost any other typical german computer game ( 1602 AD and successors i.e. ). the only ones i know that were really successful worldwide are the far cry / crysis games. regarding that fact its quite unlikely to find much stuff about settlers in english.
Yeah I knew that which is why I'm a little puzzled there is so much regarding #2 and #3. Well okay not as many FAQs and walkthroughs as say the AOE games, but there are enough around to help with the rough spots.
Odd thing is that I rarely use walkthroughs but S4 has always been really hard for me. All the others in the series were difficult but not impossible.