I have a promblem...

[Super_Bob:)]

Workers...
They are very important for resources but what about when your all
done? Now I have six workers all building random stuff. Is the good or bad?
I WAS HERE!

 

[Refar]

You need lots of workers in the early game to get your infrastructure up and going fast. Eventually they will end up having nothing to do... Just put them to sleep somewehre, untill you need them again - sometimes you want to change something around a city, at some point you will need to railrod...

Btw. Six sounds like awfully few, unless you are playing a really tiny map.

 

[Super_Bob:)]

So I should just let them sleep, not build cottages and cut forests?

 

[Refar]

Uh... I said they should sleep if "there is nothing left to do". Building Cottages (improvements in general) is a very important task...

I think i should refer you to http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=165632 - this is a strategy guide for beginners, wery helpful and not too long to read. The information there will help you process and avaluate tips you get from people here, as you will actually know, what the tips are about

 

[troytheface]

turn on automate workers and go attack.

 

[Ultimate_Waffle]

turn on automate workers and go attack.

No, automating workers is a very bad thing to do .

 

[Mike Hussey]

What about in the modern age tho (if the game lasts that long)? Because in previous Civ you could have gotten them to clean pollution etc, but now, you need a decent economy to conquer territory, and if you don't what do you do with spare workers?

 

[Sjaramei]

No, automating workers is a very bad thing to do .

Except when it gets too much trouble micromanaging railroads all over the place.....

Automation has it's place, and thats after you've finished improving most your cities and is busy conquering the whole place
(just remember to check "Leave old improvements" in properties, or you're in for a nasty surprise )

 

[CivMcNut]

I find that using that build trade network automation option comes in pretty handy in the industrial age, workers don't mess with your improvements that way, but they get after those railroads pretty hard. When you discover combustion they will go right to work on an oil patch that doesn't already have an improvement on it, and link up any other unimproved resource you may have overlooked or not gotten around to, but they will not mess with your existing improvements.

 

[Ultimate_Waffle]

But, I'm quite sure there's a bug in the game where they change your improvements regardless if that option is turned on or off.

 

[Gliese 581]

You can prechop and prebuild improvements with your workers if there's nothing to do.. for example I usually up the number of cottages I run in the late game as cities grow and stuff like biology means you need less farms to get a good growth in commerce cities.
Move the worker to a tile you're going to convert and have him build a cottage, then cancel his orders when it says he has 2 turns left..repeat. Now you can switch to a cottage in just 1 turn later on but still keep the farm for as long as you need it.

Edit: Also, you can of course build roads and railroads on every tile you control for maximum defense against invasions.

 

[obsolete]

That was fixed in the 3.13 patch. Then they added in bugs with spies so it's a win/loss situation.

 

[CivCorpse]

Late game gather them into big big groups for repairing damage to resources from rival spies.

 

[troytheface]

what are the spy bugs? must have missed those threads.

 

[ICNP]

Yeah if there is absoulutely nothing to do then just put them to sleep until you get the next big worker tech (Combustion). They're also good for repairing damage by spies and military.

Gliese- I never knew you could build a partial cottage and the farm would stay in tach.