Manage workers

in civrev does anyone actually manage your workers? i usually just leave it on balanced. if you do manage your workers what is the advantages of doing so? ive played civ 3 and 4 and thats stuff i never really messed with. i usually just have my workers on automated.

I definitely manage them. It really depends on what you're doing. If you're working on a wonder, for example, it might make sense to reset your workers to maximize production at the cost of trade and food. You just have to make sure you reset things when your done. Also depending on the situation, sometimes if I'm not that concerned with production in a city I'll either maximize for trade or food.

The computer doesn't really give the absolute max even if you set it to a particular setting. So if you set it to maximize production it typically doesn't go all the way, still trying to maintain at least some trade and/or food. Same thing for setting it to maximize food or trade. Because of this sometimes it really does pay to switch to the custom setting and select the tiles yourself.

ya ive been playing around with it this game im in right now and i can definately see how it could come in handy. it actually changes the whole way i play my game. maybe not managing my workers is why i have so much problems getting passed the king difficulty.

Definitely manage your workers. A specialized city is better than a balanced city.

I've noticed a few occasions where I accidentally left the balance button pressed, looked at the tile and worker usage and realized I could squeeze out more food, production and trade by moving some guys around.

It's usually only necessary in the early part of the game when you're cranking out settlers and you need to get them made fast and then when you need to get your population back up. I usually switch back to balanced once I get settled in.

I'm on the DS version. can anyone explain how the 'trademen' feature works?

My extra population not working the fields are automatically asigned to one of the 8 boxes for trademen, I can't seem to determine where they go and not all boxes are opened up for all cities.

They go and work in the city, usually providing smaller bonuses. If you go in the city screen and hit LT (on the 360 version, anyway), you should see a list of them down at the bottom and what they're producing per turn. If you go into "manage workers," you can assign them to work on a map tile. Workers usually opt to work in a worthwhile tile, but will go work in the city if an enemy unit is occupying the tile or if working in the city is more beneficial (it can be sometimes).

Bismark96 said:

It's usually only necessary in the early part of the game when you're cranking out settlers and you need to get them made fast and then when you need to get your population back up. I usually switch back to balanced once I get settled in.

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I'd disagree, I think it's probably more important in the late game when your cities have more buildings that apply to their bonuses. In cities with libraries and universities, work research. In cities where you only build military units, work production. In cities with markets and banks, work gold. Etc. As a lesson from Civ IV, several specialized cities are more powerful than several well rounded cities.

Once the cities start to get big enough, it all works out. The type of city it is really depends on its location. My production cities are the ones that I build near mountain ranges and my trade/science cities are the ones surrounded by water. By the end, all of my cities have all available bonuses and buildings and the wonders that suit them best, so balanced management keeps production going, as well as more population to fill more production and trade tiles. It all works out in the long run.

dexters said:

I'm on the DS version. can anyone explain how the 'trademen' feature works?

My extra population not working the fields are automatically asigned to one of the 8 boxes for trademen, I can't seem to determine where they go and not all boxes are opened up for all cities.

Click to expand...

The workers will fill up the boxes as the population grows. You cannot assign them to a specific box. If a worker is not out working, the last worker in the boxes will light up to indicate he is working in the city. You will get the highest bonus possible based on the number of workers you have.

population is useless. I usually have it on science only when it's about 5 in size.

Bismark96 said:

or if working in the city is more beneficial (it can be sometimes).

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Can you pls explain that, I have seen it myself, but i don't get it. I´m just with Civ IV, there city prod. is 2 (or more if you place your city on better place).

Edit:
I think I found the answer...

* Laborers (Pop 1-6): +1 production
* Vendors (Pop 7-12): +1 production, +1 trade
* Traders (Pop 13-18): +1 production, +2 trade
* Merchants (Pop 19-24): +1 production, +3 trade
* Importers (Pop 25-30): +1 production, +4 trade
* Exporters (Pop 31): +1 production, +5 trade

GodFearingPimp said:

population is useless. I usually have it on science only when it's about 5 in size.

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Population is not useless.

As a matter of fact its just as important if not more important that any other resource.

With out city population growing you will be stuck with a small amount of tiles to work around your city. You would never take advantage of your courthouse, your culture production would be low as your population is low, low culture means very few great people, etc etc. Grainerys/Harbors/Aquaducts were not put in the game just to make you waste time. They are some of the more important buildings in the game.

As far as manageing your workers goes 'balanced' works well for most of the game however after you have certain buildings made in other towns you need to keep a better eye on what your workers are doing to make sure your not wasteing that Library/Workshop/IronMine that you just built. Also if you have any tiles in your city with special resources ( I.E. Game/Oak/Oil Etc ) make sure your workers are doing what you think is best at the time...

For example if your the Indian civ ( Ghandi ) you start with access to all resources. If your first city has a game tile where it would produce 2 hammers and 1 apple, your workers will go to that tile first then the second tile would be on a forest getting 2 hammers. Leaveing you with 3 hammers and 1 apple... Good for production of warriors but bad for population growth so you can start getting science.