Cyc
Looking for the door...
Remind me of this when I next time assign you as Ambassador for our team
I thought I did the last time!?!? Maybe I was being too diplomatic....
A Sultanic Thread - Term II
- Thread starter Chamnix
- Start date
I thought I did the last time!?!? Maybe I was being too diplomatic....Some musing about railroading (assuming we have or can acquire coal)… the usual priorities when starting to railroad are to get a network connecting all your cities so troops can move around quickly and to railroad your core for extra shields, then gradually move outward into the more corrupt areas.
I have been trying to keep a majority of our workers relatively close to our core for this reason, but I’m wondering if that is the best approach for our setup. First, it seems that it is unnecessary to prioritize a rail network for connection purposes. We will have every single tile on our continent railed in about 20 turns from when we first have Steam Power and coal. I don’t think there will be a dire need to zip from one end of the continent to the other earlier than at the end of those 20 turns.
Regarding adding shields to our core – what will we do with them? We should be able to get factories within a few turns of discovering Industrialization with proper prebuilding (although we can’t get them all right away because I think we only have 2 real prebuilds available – palace and Mausoleum of Mausollos; everyplace else will be stuck using a colosseum). We may be able to shave a couple turns off factories and a few off coal plants (assuming we want them) with railroading, but that will again leave us with shields that we don’t really have a use for. At some point we will have to build a real military, but that requires something like either Military Tradition or Replaceable Parts. For the short term, we will probably end up building more moveable shields which means 1 railroaded tile provides 1 spt which we will disband elsewhere for ¼ spt.
Alternatively, we could railroad the few specialist farms that we have earlier. One irrigated tile railroaded adds ½ a specialist – either 1.5 bpt or 1 gpt. I think those would be more valuable than ¼ spt.
I’m not really planning to follow a hard and fast rule regarding the railroad order - for example, I won’t railroad a mined tile in our core right away in any case if I determine it will only provide a corrupt shield anyway. Or if we are building a wonder, the wonder city will get some priority to the extent that we will lack the shields at the time we complete the required tech. But as railroading time (hopefully) approaches, I’d like a good number of our workers to be in appropriate locations. How do people feel about emphasizing railroading irrigated tiles in our corrupt towns over mined tiles in our core?
I have been trying to keep a majority of our workers relatively close to our core for this reason, but I’m wondering if that is the best approach for our setup. First, it seems that it is unnecessary to prioritize a rail network for connection purposes. We will have every single tile on our continent railed in about 20 turns from when we first have Steam Power and coal. I don’t think there will be a dire need to zip from one end of the continent to the other earlier than at the end of those 20 turns.
Regarding adding shields to our core – what will we do with them? We should be able to get factories within a few turns of discovering Industrialization with proper prebuilding (although we can’t get them all right away because I think we only have 2 real prebuilds available – palace and Mausoleum of Mausollos; everyplace else will be stuck using a colosseum). We may be able to shave a couple turns off factories and a few off coal plants (assuming we want them) with railroading, but that will again leave us with shields that we don’t really have a use for. At some point we will have to build a real military, but that requires something like either Military Tradition or Replaceable Parts. For the short term, we will probably end up building more moveable shields which means 1 railroaded tile provides 1 spt which we will disband elsewhere for ¼ spt.
Alternatively, we could railroad the few specialist farms that we have earlier. One irrigated tile railroaded adds ½ a specialist – either 1.5 bpt or 1 gpt. I think those would be more valuable than ¼ spt.
I’m not really planning to follow a hard and fast rule regarding the railroad order - for example, I won’t railroad a mined tile in our core right away in any case if I determine it will only provide a corrupt shield anyway. Or if we are building a wonder, the wonder city will get some priority to the extent that we will lack the shields at the time we complete the required tech. But as railroading time (hopefully) approaches, I’d like a good number of our workers to be in appropriate locations. How do people feel about emphasizing railroading irrigated tiles in our corrupt towns over mined tiles in our core?
Cyc
Looking for the door...
I just lost the two long paragraphs I typed up, so I'll just say I agree with your plan for RRing. Irrigated tiles in corrupt cities are always a secondary priority for my games, as that helps boost my point score with little effort. This might give the other tribes something to worry about.
denyd
Emperor
I'd like to first rail the town(s) that would be used for ToE & Hoover if we decide to go that way. My next priority would be to rail irrigated tiles for any cities who are unable to grow due to lack of food. I would then rail mined tiles for cities that are likely to get factories. Finally rail the balance of the island. Once the island is fully railed, I'd like to join all but 6 workers to cities to save unit support cost.
While we're on the topic of ToE, is there a consensus of whether ToE (& Hoovers) are on the agenda? We've got about 15 turns to decide (ToG=4 + Mag=4 + Steam=7 for those 15), then we'll need to commit to either Electicity or Industrialization for the next research project. If we haven't been able to secure a research partner by then I'm thinking that's our best shot to get a short-term tech lead on Frouncil. There is a risk that we won't get there first since we'll have to research all 4 IA techs ourselves, but we do have a 66% chance of getting one of the 4 as our bonus.
We could let our IA bonus tech point out the path for us.
Medicine would lead us to Steam Power->Electricity->Scientific Method and ToE taking Atomic Theory & Replaceable Parts, then Industrialization->Electronics (for Hoover). If we get ToE first, I doubt the other teams will be in a hurry to research the lower branch after RP as there are few benefits for SM & AT.
Getting Nationalism would say forget ToE, research Steam Power then Industrialization. At his point, we could consider Communism & Espionage and trying to steal techs. We do have the kind of economy & island to support such a plan.
Getting Steam Power gives us a head start on either ToE or Industrialization (though no longer the Communism/Espionage option) and we could debate it again.
While we're on the topic of ToE, is there a consensus of whether ToE (& Hoovers) are on the agenda? We've got about 15 turns to decide (ToG=4 + Mag=4 + Steam=7 for those 15), then we'll need to commit to either Electicity or Industrialization for the next research project. If we haven't been able to secure a research partner by then I'm thinking that's our best shot to get a short-term tech lead on Frouncil. There is a risk that we won't get there first since we'll have to research all 4 IA techs ourselves, but we do have a 66% chance of getting one of the 4 as our bonus.
We could let our IA bonus tech point out the path for us.
Medicine would lead us to Steam Power->Electricity->Scientific Method and ToE taking Atomic Theory & Replaceable Parts, then Industrialization->Electronics (for Hoover). If we get ToE first, I doubt the other teams will be in a hurry to research the lower branch after RP as there are few benefits for SM & AT.
Getting Nationalism would say forget ToE, research Steam Power then Industrialization. At his point, we could consider Communism & Espionage and trying to steal techs. We do have the kind of economy & island to support such a plan.
Getting Steam Power gives us a head start on either ToE or Industrialization (though no longer the Communism/Espionage option) and we could debate it again.
Check.
There aren't really any of these. For most second ring towns, we irrigated until they grew to the maximum size they could without increasing the luxury slider above the 30% that was necessary for our core towns. After they reached that size, they were mined until they had no excess food. Now we have war happiness, but we lowered the luxury slider to 20%. Some second ring towns could add a citizen or two, but I didn't think it was worth irrigating again just to grow from size 7 to 8, for example. We should expect to add workers to these cities, but I thought we should wait until after railroading is done.
Check.
Check.
I'm not sure we should go quite this far. We will have factories and if we aren't building Hoover Dam, then we will probably have coal plants. 6 workers may not be enough to clear all pollution quickly. Also, we have to expect war this game, and it will no doubt involve enemies pillaging our tiles from air or sea (and maybe nukes), so I think we need enough workers to keep our terrain improved.
That being said, we can still add almost all our workers to second ring towns in the short-term as long as we keep a steady flow of workers coming out of our corrupt towns, but I wouldn't be comfortable spending a lot of time with only 6 workers.
The other danger of adding workers is that we may have a hard time keeping second ring towns happy if other teams decide to stop trading us luxuries, but I think it is worth getting the extra commerce and production short-term since short-term may actually last a while.
As far as I can tell the decision hasn't been made yet. We could have as few as 4 turns from now to decide if we can buy Theory of Gravity and get Steam Power as our freebie.
Makes sense. I would also add that our rivals' free techs could sway the decision. For example, if we get to the Industrial Age and both FREE and Council already have Steam and Medicine (they each got 1 freebie and they swapped), then I think we should forget the ToE even if we get Medicine.
I think the additional scientists in the outer rim would be more immediately beneficial then some extra shields in the core, with out someting to build at least.
The reason our ecomomy is so strong is our well manicured lands with our industrious workers directed so carefully by our Sultan.
I think it's worth a try to get the ToE, but not put all our eggs in that basket, so as it approaches we can see better. As you said it will take 24 turns to build, can we shave that down a bit, and then if we get Medicine as our free tech, I think that would be a pro towards trying for it.
99% of the time I eschew nationalism, but if we did get it I'd like to go for Espionage, I think our Big cash economy might be able to damage some of the others through covert activity, maybe even sabotaging those opposing builds.
Another thing I want to mention is the Wall Street, available with corporation, after we have our 5 stock exchanges it would be nice for an extra 50 gpt.
Finally, I think its worth it to try, again upon reaching industrial age and seeing the lay of the tech situation, to try to pick up economics so if we do miss our ToE we can recycle it right into Smith's, which pays for all markets, banks, stock exchanges, harbors, airports, and commercial docks. Beside markets and harbors, and sometimes banks, most of those aren't worth building, but if we did have smiths then they would be maintenance free and having more shields than we have use for could really benefit us, especially the commercial docks being on an island. Something to think about.
The reason our ecomomy is so strong is our well manicured lands with our industrious workers directed so carefully by our Sultan.
I think it's worth a try to get the ToE, but not put all our eggs in that basket, so as it approaches we can see better. As you said it will take 24 turns to build, can we shave that down a bit, and then if we get Medicine as our free tech, I think that would be a pro towards trying for it.
99% of the time I eschew nationalism, but if we did get it I'd like to go for Espionage, I think our Big cash economy might be able to damage some of the others through covert activity, maybe even sabotaging those opposing builds.
Another thing I want to mention is the Wall Street, available with corporation, after we have our 5 stock exchanges it would be nice for an extra 50 gpt.
Finally, I think its worth it to try, again upon reaching industrial age and seeing the lay of the tech situation, to try to pick up economics so if we do miss our ToE we can recycle it right into Smith's, which pays for all markets, banks, stock exchanges, harbors, airports, and commercial docks. Beside markets and harbors, and sometimes banks, most of those aren't worth building, but if we did have smiths then they would be maintenance free and having more shields than we have use for could really benefit us, especially the commercial docks being on an island. Something to think about.
Cyc
Looking for the door...
Can we please switch a citizen from working in the mountains NE of Woundhealer to the inland harbor, SE of the city. Let's not reduce the size of the city.
I'm not going to let any of our citizens die 
. I periodically run cities at negative food temporarily, but I always make sure we don't lose any people.
IIRC, I left Woundhealer working the grassland to its northwest, and that will be irrigated this IBT, so it shouldn't even be at negative food next turn.
It won't be growing the way I left it, but I didn't think that was important right now - it would take a long time to grow naturally, and we would lose lots of shields while we were working the extra food. I'm acting on the assumption that as soon as we are done railroading, we will add many workers to whichever cities can keep them happy.
. I periodically run cities at negative food temporarily, but I always make sure we don't lose any people.IIRC, I left Woundhealer working the grassland to its northwest, and that will be irrigated this IBT, so it shouldn't even be at negative food next turn.
It won't be growing the way I left it, but I didn't think that was important right now - it would take a long time to grow naturally, and we would lose lots of shields while we were working the extra food. I'm acting on the assumption that as soon as we are done railroading, we will add many workers to whichever cities can keep them happy.
Cyc
Looking for the door...
Thank you, Chamnix. I just like to throw in reminders to safeguard my citizens.I'm not going to let any of our citizens die
Uh, no sir. That grassland is already irrigated and roaded, but is being used by the City to the NW (Caliburnus). If you let Wounhealer use that tile, then the NW City (Caliburnus) will immediately lose a population point. I believe we need to take a closer look at this situation.
You're right. It's not that important to grow at this point, but Woundhealer will lose a population point if a change is not made now. I don't want Woundhealer to get to a critical level just to get three extra shields for one turn. Let's act now. Railroading is a long way off. Our people will die now. Please make the switch.
The problem with PBEM on Civ 3 is that there is no way for anyone (including me) to find out how I left things at the end of the turn. Regardless, your point is taken - I agree that a few shields short-term are definitely not worth losing a citizen over, and I will take care to make sure we don't lose any.
Does everyone agree in general not to grow our size 7+ cities naturally right now? For example, every town that is content at size 7 now would also be content at size 8 since the 8th citizen would be happy we're at war. Other second ring cities may be able to grow a bit without happiness problems as well.
The problem is that it takes 40 food to grow at that size so growth won't come quickly, and while we work high food tiles to grow, we are not getting all the shields we could get. Once a city reaches size 7, I have been emphasizing shields over growth planning eventually to add workers to them to reach their happiness cap.
Right now our terrain is pretty much fully improved, and our workers have primarily just been planting forests and chopping them down for extra shields. We could add some workers to cities now for extra shields and income, but I'm not sure we want to do that right before (hopefully) railroads are available.
At one point, I estimated that it would take about 900-950 industrious worker turns to railroad every tile. Right now we have about 42 industrious workers and 2 slaves. I'd like to stay around 20 turns to complete all our railroading in case we don't have coal, so we only need to buy it for 1 20-turn period.
What do people think? Add some workers now, emphasize growth, or continue as I've been doing (emphasize growth only to size 7, then emphasize shields)?
Does everyone agree in general not to grow our size 7+ cities naturally right now? For example, every town that is content at size 7 now would also be content at size 8 since the 8th citizen would be happy we're at war. Other second ring cities may be able to grow a bit without happiness problems as well.
The problem is that it takes 40 food to grow at that size so growth won't come quickly, and while we work high food tiles to grow, we are not getting all the shields we could get. Once a city reaches size 7, I have been emphasizing shields over growth planning eventually to add workers to them to reach their happiness cap.
Right now our terrain is pretty much fully improved, and our workers have primarily just been planting forests and chopping them down for extra shields. We could add some workers to cities now for extra shields and income, but I'm not sure we want to do that right before (hopefully) railroads are available.
At one point, I estimated that it would take about 900-950 industrious worker turns to railroad every tile. Right now we have about 42 industrious workers and 2 slaves. I'd like to stay around 20 turns to complete all our railroading in case we don't have coal, so we only need to buy it for 1 20-turn period.
What do people think? Add some workers now, emphasize growth, or continue as I've been doing (emphasize growth only to size 7, then emphasize shields)?
Cyc
Looking for the door...
I think we should keep our workers active until we are close to completing all our railroading.
As far as your other concern about growth, I'd like to say that if Woundhealer switches from shields to food for growth, the working citizens will bring in one gold extra a piece. Keeping in mind that the city will be growing, this will play out with more and more gold generated each growth cycle.
In terms of city improvements, I would ask for a Harbor and Temple (not neccessarily in that order). Growth and happiness are my main concerns, and hopefully this sentiment will spread throughout our great nation.
As far as your other concern about growth, I'd like to say that if Woundhealer switches from shields to food for growth, the working citizens will bring in one gold extra a piece. Keeping in mind that the city will be growing, this will play out with more and more gold generated each growth cycle.
In terms of city improvements, I would ask for a Harbor and Temple (not neccessarily in that order). Growth and happiness are my main concerns, and hopefully this sentiment will spread throughout our great nation.
denyd
Emperor
If we have a city at size will take quite a while to get to 7, I'm in favor or adding a worker or 2. That's 2 more units of support (4gpt), we can always pop out replacement workers from one of the larger cities.
Cyc
Looking for the door...
Yes, you're right about that. But it will also take quite a while to build the Temple and Harbor in Woundhealer. But it will all come about at the right time. So if the time line for both basically match, where's the problem? What else is my city going to build that will be as beneficial?
I don't think adding Workers is the way to grow Woundhealer. We have no Temple to handle the unhappiness and we have no Harbor to sustain the Population.
I don't think adding Workers is the way to grow Woundhealer. We have no Temple to handle the unhappiness and we have no Harbor to sustain the Population.
We have 6 mainland towns (Dirk, Caladbolg, Catclaw, Vorpal, Lightsaber, and Bayonet) that are over 75% corrupt and will probably never be useful for anything except producing a worker each every 10 turns (unless we go Communist).
We also have 3 towns (Zar'roc, Tanto, and Stiletto) which are not wholly corrupt but are in such poor terrain that there isn't any point in letting them grow. They are each producing a worker about every 5 turns so overall we are continuing to produce about 1 worker per turn on average. Pretty much any cities that have enough shields to produce workers faster are already size 7+.
By my count, we could potentially add about 40 workers to second ring towns once we have secured luxuries (although there is some risk to that - if we lose a luxury, then we would have to starve those cities, use specialists, or bump up the luxury slider beyond what our core needs). We have about 42 workers now, so it is really just a question of when we want to do it. I'm assuming there will be a mass add once we are railroaded, but we could do some sooner if we want.
We also have 3 towns (Zar'roc, Tanto, and Stiletto) which are not wholly corrupt but are in such poor terrain that there isn't any point in letting them grow. They are each producing a worker about every 5 turns so overall we are continuing to produce about 1 worker per turn on average. Pretty much any cities that have enough shields to produce workers faster are already size 7+.
By my count, we could potentially add about 40 workers to second ring towns once we have secured luxuries (although there is some risk to that - if we lose a luxury, then we would have to starve those cities, use specialists, or bump up the luxury slider beyond what our core needs). We have about 42 workers now, so it is really just a question of when we want to do it. I'm assuming there will be a mass add once we are railroaded, but we could do some sooner if we want.
Who would have gotten Military Tradition?
Babe- not advanced enough
Gong - they would have traded it with us for ToG + Magnetism, wouldn't they?
Council- Was busy getting to the IA
Free - The only option then?
Why would they let Free research Military Tradition, unless they're planning on attacking someone? Perhaps because Free finished their last MA tech too soon?
Babe- not advanced enough
Gong - they would have traded it with us for ToG + Magnetism, wouldn't they?
Council- Was busy getting to the IA
Free - The only option then?
Why would they let Free research Military Tradition, unless they're planning on attacking someone? Perhaps because Free finished their last MA tech too soon?
It could be Babe - they have Metallurgy, and they could get Military Tradition without anything on the Education path.
I don't see FREE or Council getting an optional tech for units that will be kind of obsolete (for everyone except Ottomans certainly) by the time fighting begins.
I don't think GONG has gotten back to us regarding that 2 for 1 trade, but I think they probably would take it if they had MT - they should want Magnetism ASAP so they can trade with Babe.
My money is on Babe being the one that has it already.
I don't see FREE or Council getting an optional tech for units that will be kind of obsolete (for everyone except Ottomans certainly) by the time fighting begins.
I don't think GONG has gotten back to us regarding that 2 for 1 trade, but I think they probably would take it if they had MT - they should want Magnetism ASAP so they can trade with Babe.
My money is on Babe being the one that has it already.
My guess would be GONG - Babe can't have it since it requires Education, and I don't see why Frouncil would do it. I think that GONG could have done it so they could trade over ocean/end turns on ocean tiles, and it comes earlier in the tech tree than Magnetism. They could turn research off at that point until the Great Elevator scheme.
That would make perfect sense to me, but then the fact that they traded Metallurgy to us for Physics makes no sense. Physics is useless to them, so why help us for no gain to themselves?
I also think it has to be GONG based on the fact that we just spotted a GONG caravel on ocean. Really, the only reason I checked to see if anyone had Navigation was sighting that caravel - I had just been assuming no one would bother with Navigation (nobody has Economics or Music Theory BTW). Suiciding caravels when they can get Magnetism anytime from us cheap would be even crazier.
That would make perfect sense to me, but then the fact that they traded Metallurgy to us for Physics makes no sense. Physics is useless to them, so why help us for no gain to themselves?
I also think it has to be GONG based on the fact that we just spotted a GONG caravel on ocean. Really, the only reason I checked to see if anyone had Navigation was sighting that caravel - I had just been assuming no one would bother with Navigation (nobody has Economics or Music Theory BTW). Suiciding caravels when they can get Magnetism anytime from us cheap would be even crazier.
Some thoughts about workers...
We have 45 workers and 2 slaves as of turn 154. When we receive turn 155, we will have a 46th worker, and we are devoting enough crap towns to workers that we will continue to produce an average of 1 worker per turn ad infinitum.
Assuming we pick up 3 luxuries this turn (we offered 2 to GONG and 1 to Council last turn), every city with a marketplace can be size 12, and every city without a marketplace can be size 8 with 0% luxury spending. That means we could have the following extra citizens with no happiness issues:
Woundhealer – 5 (but we need a harbor first to feed them all)
Zweihander – 1
Yanagiba – 4
Damocles’ Sword – 1
Rapier – 4 (after completion of marketplace on 156)
Mos Eisley – 1
Wakizashi – 5
A total of 21 more citizens short-term. I’m not positive we will have food for all of them without railroads, but I will certainly make sure we can feed them before we add workers. I’m also not sure they will all have enough tiles to work, but I will check that as well if I sell people on the general concept.
I have been thinking that we would mass add after completing our railroading, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of adding workers to cities sooner rather than later. Obviously we would like to get railroading done as soon as possible, but I’m not sure how fast it really has to be done.
Railroading is going to be mainly about getting more shields – our core cities are already size 12, so they won’t grow any. We will railroad the mines for extra shields, and railroad the irrigation so we can mine over other irrigation and produce more shields. We don’t really need more shields in the core short-term – all cities there will have prebuilt factories (which can’t finish until at least 5-6 turns after we get Steam anyway since we have to get Industrialization so there isn’t any urgency to railroad the core).
For our second ring where we really would like more shields, we can railroad irrigation so they grow faster (but not nearly as fast as they would grow by adding workers), and we can railroad mines to give them more shields (but probably no more shields than they would have by adding workers).
In our corrupt area, we will railroad for extra food enabling more specialists, but we are only talking about 20-25 flatland tiles, so we don’t need very many workers to complete that pretty quickly.
I estimate that we need 900-950 industrious worker turns to railroad our island completely. If we don’t add any workers to cities, then we should finish in about 17 turns (based on 48 workers when we start the railroads increasing by 1 worker/turn – if we don’t get Steam for free, then we will have a few more workers by the time we start so it will take even less time). If we add 21 workers to cities right away, then we are looking at about 24 turns to railroad completely (based on 27 workers when we start railroading increasing by 1 worker/turn). In the meantime, we save a lot of cash on unit costs, plus we get all the extra shields and commerce produced by our new citizens.
I think the difference in having 21 extra citizens for the next 30 or so turns is more significant than whether we complete railroading in 17 turns or 24 turns. We also delay some forest chops costing us shields short-term, but we will chop every tile eventually. I won’t add any workers this turn since I didn’t give people enough warning to have time to discuss this, but if there are no objections, I think we can start adding workers on 156.
Thoughts?
EDIT - one other thing to add - if we are going to add workers soon, then we can consider changing a couple towns to workers. In particular, Facon comes to mind (just started an aqueduct, but is only size 4). Maybe Estoc and Karabela as well.
We have 45 workers and 2 slaves as of turn 154. When we receive turn 155, we will have a 46th worker, and we are devoting enough crap towns to workers that we will continue to produce an average of 1 worker per turn ad infinitum.
Assuming we pick up 3 luxuries this turn (we offered 2 to GONG and 1 to Council last turn), every city with a marketplace can be size 12, and every city without a marketplace can be size 8 with 0% luxury spending. That means we could have the following extra citizens with no happiness issues:
Woundhealer – 5 (but we need a harbor first to feed them all)
Zweihander – 1
Yanagiba – 4
Damocles’ Sword – 1
Rapier – 4 (after completion of marketplace on 156)
Mos Eisley – 1
Wakizashi – 5
A total of 21 more citizens short-term. I’m not positive we will have food for all of them without railroads, but I will certainly make sure we can feed them before we add workers. I’m also not sure they will all have enough tiles to work, but I will check that as well if I sell people on the general concept.
I have been thinking that we would mass add after completing our railroading, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of adding workers to cities sooner rather than later. Obviously we would like to get railroading done as soon as possible, but I’m not sure how fast it really has to be done.
Railroading is going to be mainly about getting more shields – our core cities are already size 12, so they won’t grow any. We will railroad the mines for extra shields, and railroad the irrigation so we can mine over other irrigation and produce more shields. We don’t really need more shields in the core short-term – all cities there will have prebuilt factories (which can’t finish until at least 5-6 turns after we get Steam anyway since we have to get Industrialization so there isn’t any urgency to railroad the core).
For our second ring where we really would like more shields, we can railroad irrigation so they grow faster (but not nearly as fast as they would grow by adding workers), and we can railroad mines to give them more shields (but probably no more shields than they would have by adding workers).
In our corrupt area, we will railroad for extra food enabling more specialists, but we are only talking about 20-25 flatland tiles, so we don’t need very many workers to complete that pretty quickly.
I estimate that we need 900-950 industrious worker turns to railroad our island completely. If we don’t add any workers to cities, then we should finish in about 17 turns (based on 48 workers when we start the railroads increasing by 1 worker/turn – if we don’t get Steam for free, then we will have a few more workers by the time we start so it will take even less time). If we add 21 workers to cities right away, then we are looking at about 24 turns to railroad completely (based on 27 workers when we start railroading increasing by 1 worker/turn). In the meantime, we save a lot of cash on unit costs, plus we get all the extra shields and commerce produced by our new citizens.
I think the difference in having 21 extra citizens for the next 30 or so turns is more significant than whether we complete railroading in 17 turns or 24 turns. We also delay some forest chops costing us shields short-term, but we will chop every tile eventually. I won’t add any workers this turn since I didn’t give people enough warning to have time to discuss this, but if there are no objections, I think we can start adding workers on 156.
Thoughts?
EDIT - one other thing to add - if we are going to add workers soon, then we can consider changing a couple towns to workers. In particular, Facon comes to mind (just started an aqueduct, but is only size 4). Maybe Estoc and Karabela as well.
