How to you normally obtain your first worker?

[kamex]

Since (at least on Emp and below) it is now necessary to fit a shrine into your opening build order, how do you handle obtaining your first worker unit, and roughly how many turns is it before you get it?

I'm often torn between hard building, buying, or the Liberty SP (if I'm going Liberty of course).

 

[smallfish]

Through hard work, sweat and tears - from my capital.

If I'm in the mood, I'll go for scout-DOW-CS cheese. Otherwise, I'll bring my scout or warriors to a major civ's capital and steal their own hardwork instead!

 

[hug4]

I almost always buy it once i get 310 gold. Liberty worker is second, if I use that tree that is.

 

[Kerosene31]

If I'm going liberty, from that. If I'm going tradition, hard build or buy.

 

[langdon]

The problem is that workers are SUPER expensive. I really don't understand the logic here, but intuitively workers shouldn't be that hard to train, comparing to combat units.

Same with work boats. What we do in the City is just build boats for citizen to use. How hard is that? Trireme, on the other hand, is cheaper, and it requires not only to build boats for them, but also train the units.

 

[Peacemongerer]

I almost always get the one from Liberty. Once or twice I went Pyramids and another time I robbed a CS.

 

[fuzzatron717]

I steal from barbarians that stole a worker from another civ

 

[FeiLing]

Would have liked to see who voted on what

For me it's usually bought. Sometimes stolen from a CS (via DoW). When getting a culture ruin and going for Liberty though, that worker might be before I get to buy/steal one.

 

[Sherlock]

I always go Liberty and then Pyramids. Waiting to see if anyone beats me to the Pyramids is always one of the most exciting parts of my games.

Once I've got the 3 free workers things usually look pretty good.....

 

[VikingHaag]

I always go Liberty and then Pyramids. Waiting to see if anyone beats me to the Pyramids is always one of the most exciting parts of my games.

Once I've got the 3 free workers things usually look pretty good.....

Pyramids, one of the best wonders imo.

-50% worker build time? Yes please. Especially on epic and higher.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

i dont have a "usual" way every game. its just a response to what's around me. now that im not using liberty as often/early its usually my 3rd+ worker. 40% of the time i will rush buy, 40% of the time i will steal from a CS, and 20% of the time i will hard build my first worker. that's about as usual as it gets.

 

[nefloyd]

Too busy building monuments, shrines, settlers, defensive units. Usually let liberty pop the first one unless I have a load of easily hooked-up resources (meaning not forest/jungle tiles)

 

[Harv72b]

Most of the time it's stolen from a CS, with the Liberty tree being the next most often way, then buying with gold. The only times I'll steal one from another civ are when it's a settler that's about to plop on a site I want to settle in the near future, and I just don't find the Pyramids to be a viable early build on anything tougher than Prince.

I rarely hard build a worker in the early game--it ties up my production for far too long.

 

[SouljahAtWar]

Buying with gold would take too long (turn 120+), so the only option is with blood, sweat and tears. The key is getting your economy up and running as soon as possible, and CS cheesing is... cheesy. They are better an ally than an enemy, so BRING ON THEM WHIPS!

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

Buying with gold would take too long (turn 120+), so the only option is with blood, sweat and tears.

You can sell your gpt, usually 2gpt for 45g plus the gold from meeting CSs and the occasional ruins. i usually buy mine in the first 20-30 turns. and that's on emperor or immortal. i dont think theres any cheese involved.

 

[kamex]

Pyramids, one of the best wonders imo.

-50% worker build time? Yes please. Especially on epic and higher.

Interesting. I might have to try this for my first worker(s)... You'd be a bit screwed if you got beaten to it though, although saying that, it doesn't seem to be an AI favorite in my games at least.

 

[LostInTime]

If I go tradition, I steal one from another civ pretty fast. Liberty I wait, unless there is a real need to go fast settler. Then I steal as well

CS gets the worker too late, much easier grabbing them from your neighbor who will declare on you eventually anyways.

 

[Dogmouth]

Buy or hard build. I'm a big fan of settling on luxes, so buying is often fairly quick.

 

[Mesix]

I always go Liberty and then Pyramids. Waiting to see if anyone beats me to the Pyramids is always one of the most exciting parts of my games.

Once I've got the 3 free workers things usually look pretty good.....

That is pretty much my open worker strategy when playing Emperor level or below. Ah heck, I'll even try for it on Deity, but generally lose the race for Pyramids then.

I find that these three workers are generally all I need until I start capturing workers through conquest as I whip up a puppet empire to supercharge my economy. I often find myself deleting captured workers later in the game as I have too many workers sitting around idle.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

The problem is that workers are SUPER expensive. I really don't understand the logic here, but intuitively workers shouldn't be that hard to train, comparing to combat units.

Same with work boats. What we do in the City is just build boats for citizen to use. How hard is that? Trireme, on the other hand, is cheaper, and it requires not only to build boats for them, but also train the units.

I largely agree with this post, but with a caveat: If workers and work boats were really cheap, that would go a long way toward a player cancelling out the AI's bonuses. The AI's bonuses (that are low or high depending on the difficulty level) have more of a pronounced effect in the early game as they can get their civs up and running pretty quickly.

Later on, the bonuses aren't as much help as the player has caught up and largely surpassed all the AI's. Well, it does still help them spam out carpets of doom that they will suicide on you....But anyway, if the player could build/buy workers and work boats more easily that would drastically compress the time the AI has to establish a lead that could last it most of the game.

To the OP, I usually build my workers unless I am able to get enough gold from ruins or tribute to buy one. I always go for Pyramids and the Liberty worker, but I usually have a severe need for a worker before I can get either of those.