This may be old news to some, but I'm relatively new to the boards here, and have only had the game a couple weeks, but I found something interesting and I thought worth sharing.
Late in the game, after railroads are built, I generally have a boatload of workers with not much more to do than clean pollution and tweak ground improvements to optimize city growth/size levels. In fact, it was while doing this that I discovered an interesting exploit. I was trying to get an even number of food produced by large cities to stabilize the population size and get zero growth. I found that clearing forests to create grassland or vice-versa alters food production by one.
Then I noticed that with enough workers, I can clear and replant forests in the same square as much as I want and generate 10 shields each time. I don't need laborers to work the square, and don't need to feed anyone, all I need is workers to plant and clear forests.
For an industrious society with replaceable parts, four workers can clear and replant a forest in a single turn, generating 2.5 shields per worker. The only way for common laborers in a city to generate this many shields is with a mine or special resource. And workers don't consume food or become unhappy. And they can contribute to any city they want, not just the one they live in.
So late in the game, it seems to make sense to sacrifice population for workers in order to produce more shields and rush any project you want. And the workers can rejoin the city any time they want to work squares and generate currency.
I haven't had time to find the best balance for this or see what the cost would be in fewer laborers producing currency for research and taxes, but so far it seems like a pretty powerful exploit, especially if you're industrious. Particularly late in the game when you generally have more workers than you need for other projects.
Late in the game, after railroads are built, I generally have a boatload of workers with not much more to do than clean pollution and tweak ground improvements to optimize city growth/size levels. In fact, it was while doing this that I discovered an interesting exploit. I was trying to get an even number of food produced by large cities to stabilize the population size and get zero growth. I found that clearing forests to create grassland or vice-versa alters food production by one.
Then I noticed that with enough workers, I can clear and replant forests in the same square as much as I want and generate 10 shields each time. I don't need laborers to work the square, and don't need to feed anyone, all I need is workers to plant and clear forests.
For an industrious society with replaceable parts, four workers can clear and replant a forest in a single turn, generating 2.5 shields per worker. The only way for common laborers in a city to generate this many shields is with a mine or special resource. And workers don't consume food or become unhappy. And they can contribute to any city they want, not just the one they live in.
So late in the game, it seems to make sense to sacrifice population for workers in order to produce more shields and rush any project you want. And the workers can rejoin the city any time they want to work squares and generate currency.
I haven't had time to find the best balance for this or see what the cost would be in fewer laborers producing currency for research and taxes, but so far it seems like a pretty powerful exploit, especially if you're industrious. Particularly late in the game when you generally have more workers than you need for other projects.
