I hate captured workers!

[Prince David]

O.K., I've read several stretegy articles extolling the virtues of captured workers. I don't get it. I've just about come to the conclusion that they're more trouble than they're worth. They are incredible slow, it takes 3-4 of them to achieve the same speed as a non industrious worker.

Up until just recently I had a pile of them, having just wiped out the two other civs on my continent. They did help get my railroad network hooked up pretty quickly, but the amount of attention it takes to manage them effectively is a drag. Now that my infrastructure is in pretty good shape I've been using them to boost population in some of my far flung coastal towns.

I guess what I'm wondering is how do others feel about them? Do you maintain them as workers or just ship them off to be fodder for pop-rushing? Has anyone ever tried a recyling program (have them join a city and then immeadiately produce a "real" worker)? I've noticed that if I rush a worker in a newly conquered city I get a "foreign" worker, so is there some limit to my recyling scheme? Or can I use it freely as long as the workers are from an "extinct" civ?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Gumby78]

I like using captured workers. They free units that don't cost any support. I maintain them as workers, which are better in numbers. In my last game as the Mayans I had over 40+ captured workers and only 3 or 4 normal workers.

 

[Randy]

Has anyone ever tried a recyling program (have them join a city and then immeadiately produce a "real" worker)? I've noticed that if I rush a worker in a newly conquered city I get a "foreign" worker, so is there some limit to my recyling scheme? Or can I use it freely as long as the workers are from an "extinct" civ?QUOTE]

It won't work until you have your own population in the city. It may be mre work but in the long run you be ahead with the slave labor force.

 

[JaseEmtP]

I have asked a smilar qestion not long ago. The answers that I was given was to keep em. They may be slower but the are free. I was also told not to add them to you cities because it will increase corruption there. Thats all I have to offer.

 

[bob rulz]

It won't increase production but it will create foreign citizens in that city, but at least they get assimilated eventually.

Well, here's the question.

Is it better to have 10 normal workers and 20 captured workers or just 10 normal workers?

I think the answer to that is pretty easy.

Plus they're free.

 

[Turner]

TANSTAAFL. Even though they're free, they're not free, as you've found out. However, I'd still rather have them then not.

 

[rysingsun]

is it fair to say that if i add them to some of my "core" cities .. cities i founded myself and not next to enemy culture areas .. that they wont bring a risk of a culture flip in my cities?

 

[Turner]

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say it wouldn't happen.... Probably not, but YMMV.

 

[Aggie]

First of all, slaves don't cost you anything and are therefore excellent help, even when they are slower.

Don't add slaves to a city when that civilization is still around. It increases flip chances and you will have hapiness problems when at war with that civ. You won't have that risk with slaves of a dead civ. Those act as normal laborers in a city.

I can cases that I have many slaves (more than 100) I would normally first join my own workers to the city, because they cost me money every turn. But first I will make sure that my empire is railroaded and I have hospitals on line. Merging workers and slaves to cities with hospitals after rails gives your empire a gigantic boost.

 

[Kalach]

If there's anything that makes me angry in Civ, it's having foreign units/cities in or around my borders. I feel the same way about foreign slaves too, they are all quickly executed (disbanded) after being captured .

I think this might do something terrible to your reputation with the civ you took the workers from, but I don't want them, and they're sure not getting them back . I think my citizens like pubplic executions in Seoul's city square anyway

 

[Megabyte]

Hi !

I too dislike the sluggish slaves. But they are for free , so i keep them.Until i have researched FLIGHT and then i use at least 30 of my slaves for airfields and later on radar towers.
And in most of my games the slaves are the one who clear up pollution....

Have Fun !

 

[Prince David]

Yeah, I understand the whole "free" thing, it's just the increased work managing so many ineffecient little buggers takes. I think, "20 free workers = 5 paid workers and less hassle" and I'm not sure I wouldn't rather have the increased cost.

I'm probably not being effecient in my use of slaves to increase city pop. I have been using them to bring the pop of a series of small coastal cities w/harbors but mostly tundra & hills for land up to 6. Now that I'm getting hospitals in my major cities I should probably use my slaves to power these up instead. (At least until my granaries refill, then maybe create workers to boost pop in my marginal towns . . .)

I do use slaves for airfields and radar. I used to always include a couple of workers in my second wave in IA/MA wars, but with Transport's reduced carrying capacity in 3C3 the space is too valuable. On the + side you can now airlift them (now if you could only airlift artillary and leaders . . .).

So, how do I get the most from my slaves? What size stack? Mix them w/natives? (Thank god for the new graphic!) I do wish the "move same units" command would differentiate between slaves and natives, though.

I was also told not to add them to you cities because it will increase corruption there. Thats all I have to offer.

I had not heard this. Is this true in all cases, or only while at war w/their original civ? What about pop from dead civs? For ex. if I've wiped out the Incans, will Incan slaves increase my corruption?

 

[Aggie]

I don't think this was about increased corruption, but instead it had to do with increased unhapiness. Foreign citizens don't like it when you attack their country and will turn unhappy. That's why you always should join slaves from dead civs.

By the way 20 slaves = 10 workers regarding worker speed.
Workers are extremely important. You should improve your lands as quickly as possible, including rails. You need a lot of workers for that. Slaves help and I usually need all the help I can get.


How to stack them? I mostly get a stack of units that together will finish an improvement in one turn. I don't mind mixing them, as long as I get an efficient stack.

 

[Akka]

Yeah, I understand the whole "free" thing, it's just the increased work managing so many ineffecient little buggers takes. I think, "20 free workers = 5 paid workers and less hassle" and I'm not sure I wouldn't rather have the increased cost.

You know, you can just automate them. It's still better than to disband them
You don't have to manage them, and you have the free workforce.

 

[huh?]

I move all the captured workers to my captial and use them in negotiations with other civs. The AI really seems to like them. I especially like trading Civ#1 workers to Civ#2 when they are at war with each other.

 

[huh?]

Just for grins and giggles, I made a "melting pot" city with captured workers.

This city was beside my capital and was in the tundra on the coast. Without any bonus food in the area it was never growing, but it could sustain its own size. So far, it has a celt (me), chinese (extinct), russian (extinct), summerian (extinct), and an arab. I just wish there was a way to stop the assimilation process for this one city.

 

[eg577]

It's not that hard to micromanage them. Don't worry so much about getting the right number of slaves per group since you get oodles of them. Just put 4 in a stack and have them always work on the same tile. So if the group finishes with 1 worker still free have that worker skip his turn. The key simplifier here is never mix your stack of slaves with another stack of slaves/workers. As long as each slave group stays on the same tile and never mixes with other workers it is easy to manage them.

 

[juballs2001]

ok heres the thing. 3 slave workers= 1 real worker. Here is a sure way to deal with them. Somewhat group them together in groups of three by using the "move units in stack" button, this will limit confusion. Continue using these 3 united workers until all tiles have railroads on them. Then quickly disband all slaves over a city producing a airport or commercial dock etc. You dont require more than 16 actual workers after that because pollution is the only thing that can happen to your terrain aside from global warming change. These 16 workers can be divideed into 4 groups of 4, and can be sent anywhere due to railroads to clear pollution in 1 turn causing large cities to not starve.! but thats just my opinion.

-Juballs

 

[Catt]

I'm of the view that slaves are incredibly valuable -- if my entire worker force is slaves (and I want a large worker force, for reasonas mentioned by others) then I'm happy. I don't particularly mind having to hit "R" or CTRL-C twice as often to accomplish certain goals each turn, but that's a personal preference / tolerance issue.

Then quickly disband all slaves over a city producing a airport or commercial dock etc. You dont require more than 16 actual workers after that because pollution is the only thing that can happen to your terrain aside from global warming change. These 16 workers can be divideed into 4 groups of 4, and can be sent anywhere due to railroads to clear pollution in 1 turn causing large cities to not starve.! but thats just my opinion.

I wouldn't under almost any circumstance disband any workers -- each disbanded worker is worth all of 2 shields. Just adding the worker to a city and converting that worker (now a city laborer) into a taxman would add 2 gold per turn to your treasury -- I'll take 2 gpt over 2 shields in a one-off deal any day of the week.

 

[Shirastro]

I usually use captured workers for boring jobs, like clearing jungles. I just set them on "auto clear jungles" to keep them bussy, and use my normal workers (manualy) to do other things. Later in the game (once everithing is on its place) i just put all the workers on "auto improve without changing", so it doasn't matter if they are mine or slaves.
Anyway once you are in democracy, and have researched replaceble parts their speed is beareble.