I wonder if anyone knows how to build a railroad, other than one tile at a time? Is there anyway to buid a railroad like building roads?

You know the button that lets you build a road from one tile to another?

If you already have roads built, and you click it again after you can build railroads, it will begin building a railroad from whereever you choose to wherever you choose, in the same way that it works for just plain 'ol roads.

Er, sorry if I'm not explaining this well, running on five hours of sleep.


....because of CIV!! :lol:

After you get railroad tech, and have coal hooked up, set your spare workers to "build trade natwork" (its one of the worker action buttons). They will automatically go over your existing road network with rails.

I think that once RR is discovered and you have the necessary coal, ANY time you select "build road to ..." it will build rails...even if there are no roads there already.

^^^ what he says! Plus, the only way to build only a road is one space at a time :)
Also, you may have to build RRs in short sections to get them exactly where you want them.

If you use 'route to' mode to build RR, it's very aggervating when the worker decides to build RR in a \_/ formation instead of a --- because they see they can use the existing RR in the tile diagonal from the path you want them to take. I"d rather them just take straight lines, like real RR tracks. I hope that makes sense.

If you use 'route to' mode to build RR, it's very aggervating when the worker decides to build RR in a \_/ formation instead of a --- because they see they can use the existing RR in the tile diagonal from the path you want them to take. I"d rather them just take straight lines, like real RR tracks. I hope that makes sense.

Your best off just building RRs everywhere. That way your troops can move quickly anywhere within your empire if you're attacked. I never thought I'd ever find myself saying that after despising RRs so much in Civ 3, but at least the graphics for them in 4 are fairly easy on the eye.

Willem- that's just what I'm saying. The worker tries to re-use a RR tile instead of building a NEW RR right beside it. In my Civs RRs are like carpet-- wall to wall. I've even been known to build them for me my "friend" so that when I conquored him, I'd already have some RR to use when his culture went away.

Willem- that's just what I'm saying. The worker tries to re-use a RR tile instead of building a NEW RR right beside it. In my Civs RRs are like carpet-- wall to wall. I've even been known to build them for me my "friend" so that when I conquored him, I'd already have some RR to use when his culture went away.

Just get a few Workers using the Build Trade Route automation. It might take awhile but eventually they should get around to putting RRs everywhere. At least that's how they operate with Roads. They're first priority though is to connect the cities and Mines etc. When they run out of those connections they'll move on to the rest.

Just get a few Workers using the Build Trade Route automation. It might take awhile but eventually they should get around to putting RRs everywhere. At least that's how they operate with Roads. They're first priority though is to connect the cities and Mines etc. When they run out of those connections they'll move on to the rest.

You do need to be careful with this as the workers do tend to "drift" in a certain direction. My observations is it tends to be south. Really the best bet is to take some time and do a massive RR build que for your workers or you end up with a pile of workers off in some desert or tundra when they should really be over at your main cities making full nice rings around them. It is the general rule of thumb for any worker automation.

You do need to be careful with this as the workers do tend to "drift" in a certain direction. My observations is it tends to be south. Really the best bet is to take some time and do a massive RR build que for your workers or you end up with a pile of workers off in some desert or tundra when they should really be over at your main cities making full nice rings around them. It is the general rule of thumb for any worker automation.

Yes I've noticed this, though it's north as well as south. For some reason with Workers automated, I'll end up with tons of them building Lumbermills in my Tundra cities, even though there's not enough population to work them all. Which is why I don't use the basic automation very much. I still find the Build Trade Route option to be useful though. But mainly I'll do everything myself.

I used to use worker automation for everything; now I can't stand it. I must be in control of every little detail that happens around my city.

I found you can use the 'route-to' function to have them clear small distances (about 3-4 tiles), which frees up a few turns of dealing with that worker before he needs new orders. That's only if I'm building roads to specific places.

Heh, why despise RR? The only civ RR I dispised was RR water in Civ1.

That was really dispisable.

Heh, why despise RR?

Because in Civ 3 it was ugly having Railroads everywhere. Thankfully they've toned down the graphics considerably in cIV.

Civilization 1 was highly amusing. Building railroads in oceans, iirc, would prevent ocan units from sailing into a square, so you could use them to totally seal off an island empire. Hee!

All aboard the trans-atlantic expressway! :king: