Easy POW workers & the best SoD production

[Aceman101]

It really depends.
Huge Archipeligo maps would be good because you don't have to go around with naval units and capture workers. But there is no clear "best". Everything in the game can make the outcome of AI's building workers vary. Perhaps AI's will build more when there are jungles.

 

[darski]

I would think that Pangaea would make it easier to get to workers. No need for sea travel.

 

[TheOverseer714]

How do I get my slaves? I capture enemy cities, refuse to let them grow, then I build workers til the city is down to one citizen. After that all new citizens are yours. I also do most, if not all of those tricks for capturing them "in the wild" listed above. The downside of razing enemy cities is it ruins your reputation, which affects your already tenuous relationship with the AI. I try not to unless the war gets ugly(I.E I'm getting my butt kicked). I usually have dozens of slave workers by the end of a major war, if I'm winning. Thats how I picked my username

 

[Pyrrhos]

What is the point of using slaves? They only work at 50%, which means that using one slave, it takes 6/12/18 turns to build a road and 8/16/24 to build a rr or clean up pollution. Conversely, it takes 6/12/18 slaves to build a road or 8/16/24 slaves to build rr or clear up pollution in one turn.

Granted, if there's a high risk of the AI capturing your workers or you need them as bait, slaves have their use. But - unless you want hundreds of them to develop your land (for the feel-good factor of being a slave master?) - do you really need more than a few?

 

[Aceman101]

. Slaves can be vey useful - in large quantitities. The key to slaves is - SIZE MATTERS! In the end the slaves will finish the job in 1 turn if the stack is large enough. You can usuallly get a lot of slaves from your enemy by bombarding terrain. What for them to come out and fix the craters. Then use marines to capture them before they can escape .

 

[Pyrrhos]

That's just it - in great quantities. In my last game, my workers - about 2/3 of the number I needed to develop my own territory (the rest were on pollution detail) - built rail after my advancing troops and developed the land around recently liberated towns. I captured tons of slaves but just ended up stacking and stashing them away in the end as I had no real use for them. I s'pose I could have gone communist, joined them to cities and pop rushed marketplaces, courthouses, police stations and factories but what the heck - I was aiming for conquest/domination...


Then again I suppose it could be useful if you didn't want to ship your own workers to a recently aquired colony overseas. As you suggest, lunar landscaping then capture slaves to develop your own land.

 

[Aceman101]

There's always terrain to be improved with your workers (even slaves). And if there isn't any terrain to be improved. Then that's a sign that you need to get more land to improve .

 

[Pyrrhos]

And if there isn't any terrain to be improved. Then that's a sign that you need to get more land to improve .

This is true!

 

[Theryman]

I aim to have a completely foreign work force, because they are free, while your own cost upkeep.

 

[Sashie VII]

That's just it - in great quantities.

Even half a dozen is helpful, they're free after all. And quantity is relative; a couple of slaves in the first 20-30 turns is definitely plenty for me.

 

[TheOverseer714]

And theres always pollution in the late stages of the game, even with Mass Transit and Recycling, you will be getting anywhere from 2 to 10 squares per turn polluted, and if you let it go any farther, it affects production and eventually population. Use the slave workers for fast cleanup, and on the low pollution turns, park them. I prefer to use unit support for military, as every supported worker costs gold that could be used to further victory. I use regular workers as long as I have to, but I prefer freebies. And I also love captured artillery for the same reason, no support costs. Its just a shame the AI doesn't build many....

 

[Sashie VII]

Its just a shame the AI doesn't build many....

It's just irritating that they don't build much of the units that we like to capture huh