How many workers per town?

[Wlauzon]

There is no set recommended number. It depends on a lot of factors, such as having a lot of jungle to clear out.

However, I tend to build a LOT of workers up front - 2 to 4 per city for the first 3 or so, then 1-2 for the next couple of cities. After that I usually don't have to make any for a long time, or even the rest of the game unless my territory gets pretty large.

If I have a lot of jungle I might make a few more, since it takes longer to clear, and that alone can get you ahead of the AI if he also has jungle. On a game I am still playing, I made *8* workers for the first 2 cities. Only an hour or so into it, but from a slow start it seems to be ramping up very very fast now - I went from #8 to #3 in about 6 turns.

I would say by game end I have between 10 and 20 workers. Every game is different, but for me at least, it seems to work best to get a lot of workers out early.

 

[Wlauzon]

1 per town is too many. I build about 0.8 per town.

That gives you WAY too slow a start from what I have tried, especially after your cities start spreading out. If you are on your 6th city, and they workers are still doing things on the first two, you don't have near enough workers going.

I like to have the first city all done by workers by the time I start my 3rd.

How much difference having more workers makes can easily be checked. Just do a normal game - save it at 4000 BC - for about 10% of the game and check score. Reload the saved 4000 BC one, and try building about 3 extra settlers from your first size 3 or 4 city. You start slower, but you ramp up faster - at least that is my experience. (you can't just use Worldbuilder to try this by adding workers since that would not take into account the time it took to make those workers.)

 

[Wlauzon]

The chance of a resource showing up is every turn, not just the turn the mine is built. So pillaging your own mine is not helping any.

Not quite true. The resource will not show up if you have a windmill or something built there. If you have one of those, the only way to see if a resource might pop is to mine it.

 

[Djc]

Not quite true. The resource will not show up if you have a windmill or something built there. If you have one of those, the only way to see if a resource might pop is to mine it.

Right, but he meant that there is a chance of it showing up in the mine every turn, not jsut when the mine is built. Hence, building and razing is a waste of time and actually lowers your chances of finding anything.

 

[RULEROFALL]

Build A Worker,chop A Forest.build Cottage.build Road,go To Next Tile, Repeat Until You Reach Next City, Then Improve Around City, Unless Forest Then Chop First