Worker Thieving

[cairnsy44]

What is your preferred strategy and/or tactic for swiping a worker?
Do you prefer to steal from a rival civ or from a CS? A mix?
Do you stay at war and keep tapping that source?

 

[Resipsa]

1) Find AI
2) Grab the worker straight away if you are only going to be hit by the city and a warrior and can move 2 spaces on the next turn, if not wait for the improvement to finish and then capture and on the next turn pillage and move.
3) Scouts can sit on a hill 2 spaces away and can often tell when the AI has sent another worker to repair the pillaged land you can grab an additional worker this way
4) Take another from a CS around turn 22-25.

Tich did a good write up on this in one of his guides

 

[joshua43214]

I prefer to steak them from civs rather than CS's since I seem to get a milder diplo hit for it.

If possible I stand off a couple tiles with my unit and farm them for workers/settlers until they make it impossible. IF given the opportunity, I will steal them from 2 AI's very early since the diplo hit will wear off and I have yet to meet more civs, otherwise I just farm one AU for them

 

[SYKOJAK]

I prefer to have my scouts sit back and observe which Barbarian camps are taking prisoners (settlers/workers
Then I either hit the camp and wipe it out, or take the loose ones roaming about. Either way I don't take a Diplo hit regardless of whom the unit(s) belonged to in the first place.

 

[DizzKneeLand33]

Exactly. I don't personally "steal" workers since it is not a exploit that the AI would use. That said, I don't mind "blocking" a Settler or two with a few scouts and "allow" a barbarian to capture said Settler, then taking that worker for myself.... it's so much more ethical that way!

 

[neoaspilet11]

my rule on emperor up is steal two workers from the nearest cs. steal a worker then pledge to protect cs.

 

[Arachnofiend]

The AI breaks when you steal a worker. If I feel the desire to take one I'll take it from a city state.

I usually just hard build it though. I seem to have bizarrely bad luck with nearby city-states getting their workers out in a timely manner, I'm an Immortal player and often times it's faster for me to just build it myself after the monument and granary. :|

 

[Walter R]

I'm an Immortal player and often times it's faster for me to just build it myself after the monument and granary. :|

You build granaries? Damn, that's what I've been doing wrong...

I play water maps a lot, so I don't often have the chance to nick one from a neighbouring civ (either directly or via barbs) in early game; so if there's a CS nearby I do, otherwise it's hard build

 

[Memoryjar]

Depend of the map. But allways, one, usually the first, from CS.

In Immortal, I know, if I grab two workers from CS and after a worker from AI, I'll have Dow of all AI without friendship declaration.

 

[sendos]

I've only done this once on my Austria immortal game against the Iroquois. I captured one of their settlers to stall their rapid expansion. The Iroquois still don't want to end the war after 200 turns and they're demanding me to hand over 2 of my cities for peace. I even razed one of their cities and they are also making that demand.

 

[Quineloe]

declare war, steal worker and make peace in the same turn is basically an exploit that should carry the same influence penalty as enslave a worker - which basically should be available as soon as the CS has a worker out, and not be protected by that stupid "low pop -300" modifier. If the player wants to mistreat a CS and take their workers as slaves, then the game should reflect that and not force the players to cheese their way around it.

I've only done this once on my Austria immortal game against the Iroquois. I captured one of their settlers to stall their rapid expansion. The Iroquois still don't want to end the war after 200 turns and they're demanding me to hand over 2 of my cities for peace. I even razed one of their cities and they are also making that demand.

The AI sadly doesn't take the course of conflict into account at all, you can murder a hundred units without a loss, if the AI still has stronger numbers, it thinks it can make demands in the peace deal. Last game, Suleiman DoWed me, I sent a submarine fleet to his continent, sunk his embarked army, pillaged all trade routes and ended his navy and then blockaded every single port with a submarine, instant-gibbing any cargo ship leaving port right away. Since he had annexed the only CS on his continent, he had no gpt from own trade routes (and no one traded with him either) - any player in that situation would have been desperate for peace due to massive negative GPT, but because he had dozens of land units on that continent I wasn't willing to touch he didn't mind demanding all my luxury resources in every peace offer.

 

[Doktor Vic Tim]

The AI breaks when you steal a worker. If I feel the desire to take one I'll take it from a city state.

:|

Wait, what? The AI completely shatters if you steal a worker? This explains why G&K France who tends to be quite expansive totally gave up when I stole their settler early game. They didn't expand ever.

 

[whoward69]

Early game, swipe the worker from a CS. Then, late game when it's no longer useful, escort it to a barb unit, let it get captured, retake it and then return it to the CS for the friendship boost

 

[Carazycool]

Early game, swipe the worker from a CS. Then, late game when it's no longer useful, escort it to a barb unit, let it get captured, retake it and then return it to the CS for the friendship boost

This is a really good idea, but how can you keep track of which worker was a CS worker? I guess you just need to have a great memory....like keep him in the same city the whole time and have him as the only worker in that city. Still, when I tell myself to remember something for 3 turns that I won't be prompted about, I usually get distracted and forget.

Like, sometimes, when I have workers without anything more important to do, I will start pre-chopping forests near a soon-to-be-settled city location. Just 2 turns of chopping per forest, but stopping them immediately before cutting it down. Then, once I plant the new city I can immediately chop all the forests and get a huge production boost to get the ball rolling on the new city.

...but the trick is remembering to stop chopping! Agh! I forget so often.

 

[Sid Simelia]

It seems to me when you take a worker from the AI, they can't seem to find time to build a new one. They start mass producing units for war, don't have time for buildings or settlers and then spend the whole rest of the game playing catchup.
Some of my worst games are when a barb manages to get my first worker. I try not to let it happen often, but going to war and taking cities is really the only way to catch up after that.

 

[whoward69]

but how can you keep track of which worker was a CS worker?

One of my mods enables the "Edit unit name" button the whole time, not just when a unit is being promoted, so I just rename the worker as "Worker (cs)"

 

[MisterBoomBoom]

I rarely declare war on a CS or AI foe to steal a worker (a tactic I will use for deity games however)so as for all this "it's an exploit" discussion; my belief is if the game allows you to do it ...do it.

Also...allowing a barb to take a CS worker and then freeing them (often you can do this repeatedly thus gaining cred with the CS several times) is something I try to do often in the diplo game. Again...if the game lets me do it...it is just one more thing in your toolbox to even out the AI advantages on higher levels.

 

[TractorBoy]

Also...allowing a barb to take a CS worker and then freeing them (often you can do this repeatedly thus gaining cred with the CS several times) is something I try to do often in the diplo game. Again...if the game lets me do it...it is just one more thing in your toolbox to even out the AI advantages on higher levels.

I use raging barbarians specifically for this reason, it's possible to gain enough favour to be allied for the whole game when only 10% into the game.

 

[Quineloe]

I rarely declare war on a CS or AI foe to steal a worker (a tactic I will use for deity games however)so as for all this "it's an exploit" discussion; my belief is if the game allows you to do it ...do it.

Also...allowing a barb to take a CS worker and then freeing them (often you can do this repeatedly thus gaining cred with the CS several times) is something I try to do often in the diplo game. Again...if the game lets me do it...it is just one more thing in your toolbox to even out the AI advantages on higher levels.

Is there anything the game doesn't let you do?

 

[Sid Simelia]

Is there anything the game doesn't let you do?

Stop playing