How Much do you Prep for Invasions?

[Aabraxan]

At this point, I'm as puzzled as you are.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Did you have harbors on both shores? Is it possible that your 'shipping route' cut across territory of a civ with which you were at war?

This last part ... those invisible trade routes cutting across someone else's territorial waters. Or even a few enemy ships in the wrong place.

 

[r16]

workers built/bought from captured cities are bound to look like yours , costing money but doing half the work . Get them captured by their Al , so that you can capture them again as slaves . ı stick to a mod where settlers have 3 population points late in the game , at one point ı had 4 settlers to be captured . Of course that means 12 workers costing 12 pieces of gold per turn so the Al would disband them or maybe add them to the cities . Accordingly your designated tile for capture must assure the "saved" workers would use their entire movement points escaping to the city you will be capturing the very next turn .

 

[Lanzelot]

workers built/bought from captured cities are bound to look like yours , costing money but doing half the work .

They don't cost you money, why do you think they do? It's free labor, I've been using them for years.
(And the "display bug" (= they look like your native workers) goes away, after you save the game once and then load it again. After that they look like slaves, so they are easier to recognize. Before you saved the game once, you have to right-click them and check their nationality, which is quite cumbersome.)

 

[r16]

ı like have been blessed with odd versions of the game , currently when ı fortify a ship in the open sea it starts seeing up to 3 tiles away . That was previously only two . No doubt intented for lazy cowards who have never heard anything like save and reload . ı should have working science ages instead ! When ı get a worker from a captured city , it looks like my worker , does half the work , its nationality is clearly stated , costs money , and considering the scenario ı stick too , it is fully possible for an human , elf , dwarf or hobbit to become an orc worker (lsengard does have this change around the midgame) and they can not be liberated by capture as they have a defence of 1 and will die in battle .