How Many Workers Do You Have

[Brew God]

Hello Fellow Die Hard Civ Fans:

On average when playing how many workers do you build. Of course map type will determine this...islands vs. continents or small land size vs. large etc. I was running a huge debt per turn around 150 gold. I started deleting all my workers and was able to cut the debt down to actually plus gold per turn. I usually like to have a few but when you discover railroad I get over eager and want railroads done quickly so I over build workers to 15-20.

Thoughts?

Brew God

 

[Loucypher]

Usually, I tend to have about 1 per city, sometimes slightly more, sometimes slightly less. At some points in the game I might build a few more, pending on the civ (Brazil around Acoustics, for example) and around Railroads, but then quickly delete them, especially once not much is left to cultivate.

 

[TurboJ]

Early game:

Liberty - I go for 2 workers/capital, one for each other city maybe one extra in total, to build roads early

Tradition - 2 workers per each city. I know most people call that overkill, but If you can manage the gold cost and are able to steal as many of those initial workers as possible, you will see an early game boost in pop and prodution (and more early money as you can improve the extra luxuries faster).

Later on, I will keep the same workers if I'm still expanding or warring. Otherwise, I feel it's better to disband a few once you begin to have enough production to pop a worker in 2-3 turns when you need to. If there's no war/expansion, you shouldn't need more than 1 worker per city at this point, usually less.
Then, come fertilizer/railroads, you will have enough production to build a couple workers to deal with that - I think that is better than to sit all those workers idling for a 1000 years Gold upkeep.. There's better use for those coins!

 

[SULOMON]

I usually have around 1 a city. If I get surplus workers from war I use them if there is anything important to build (railroads) otherwise I delete them.

 

[Brew God]

Having one worker per city are you guys not too concerned about how many turns it will take to build a farm or quarry or mine etc. This is the main reason why I will build 2-4 workers per city so I can get the raw goods on my land produced to get my economy up quicker and food production up to grow. I will start a new game today and go with 1 worker per city and when all land tiles are worked then delete the worker. When my city borders expand I can always build another worker and then delete.

Brew God

 

[chazzycat]

2-4 per city is a bit much. 1-2 is really all you need. If you're improving tiles that your cities can't work yet, it's a waste of maintenance for the workers. In a perfect ideal scenario you would only have enough workers to complete each improvement right before the city grows into working that tile. After connecting lux & strategic resources of course.

 

[phillipwyllie]

3, 1 from the liberty policy, and 2 from the Pyramids. I delete all but one when all workable tiles are improved to create mines for coal etc, if needed. When Railroad is about to be researched then all cities are on worker build alert.

 

[jlim201]

often, i build one per city, but when I settle/conquer more I forget to build them. they slowly die due to barbarians and other civs capturing hem and eventually I end up with like 1 worker during Railroad time and have to waste 6 turns building 6 of them.

 

[Fluffball]

As always it depends on the situation but as a rule of thumb i tend to have one worker per city at the beginning but will often concentrate them on a certain city if that city needs a lot of work done to it.e.g. a lot of resources to improve rather than keep them spread out with one worker at each city and only build more if a number of cities need a lot of work.

Later on i tend to have at least a couple of extra workers from wars which i tend to use in concentration to improve cities or public works (roads/railroads) sweeping across my empire. Once they start to run out of work to do i look at the situation and may delete them.e.g. i am not looking to expand/conquer and/or there are no new resources about to appear, or i may put them to sleep until they are needed again.e.g. i am planning/expecting a new war where i will take cities that will need reworking and/or a new resource is about to appear.e.g.coal, oil, railroads.

 

[joncnunn]

Here's my norm:

1 city -> 1 worker
2 cities -> 2 workers
3 cities -> 2 workers
4 cities -> 3 workers

A lot of Jungle would cause me to continue the 1:1 ratio past 2 cities though.

 

[notyourtypical]

I either have not enough or too many. At least it seems that way.

 

[cpm4001]

I usually get 1 per city plus one extra.

 

[danaphanous]

I regularly delete and then ramp-up numbers between the renaissance and industrial. I will then delete most of them as I complete all tiles and railroads later in the game, keeping a very tiny amount on standby. By late-game you can hard-build loads of them in 1 turn and they cost 6-10 gpt each so they aren't worth keeping around if you can't use them. I've also taken to deleting them and rebuilding them on-site if my colonies are far away. Doesn't always pay off in gold, but could result in you getting them to the colonies quicker. Honestly, I'm really wasteful on unit maintenance late game as a run a massive positive every game. This past game I found myself building medical labs everywhere and other 5 maintenance cost buildings that had little return. When I realized this I stopped...but I'm still running +500/turn and running out of things to spend it on. I also hard-built and had about 20 workers running around because I had a huge jungle area this game to put trade posts on. Even with 8 workers attacking it it took about 70 turns to complete to project. I also trade-posted all of my tundra down south, now I'm deleting them all again.

 

[Avatan]

I usually get 1 per city plus one extra.

That's my baseline too.

 

[NASAROG]

Early game - 1 to 3.

Mid game, 1 per city.

Late game - 1 to 3.

 

[Pippy]

Early game:

Liberty - I go for 2 workers/capital, one for each other city maybe one extra in total, to build roads early

I almost always go with liberty first for this reason. I hate building workers early game because you really should get a few warriors out to protect against barbarians and dissuade anyone who may want to get you out early.

If possible, I attempt to build the pyramids so I may get two free workers. I'd only do this if in good standing all around and have at least three cities.

 

[sun8119]

Usually if going tall then
3 cities: 5 workers
4 cities: 5-7 workers

 

[black8]

usually 1 worker per city and as i keep expanding i add workers sometimes.I am not keen on disbanding units.