New Here--And A Question About Workers

[NYwRiter94]

Hi everybody--I'm NYwRiter94. I've been playing Civilization for as long as I can remember, since it's the only video game my dad has ever played. I've been playing since Civilization II, and I have II through IV. However, my favorite game is Civilization III--I just feel like it looks the best, and is the most fun to play.

So I picked up a save game that I had started a while ago, on Warlord with the Americans. I was back in the Ancient Age, but I'm pretty sure I screwed everything up pretty bad in the last day or two. I lost over half of my cities, including Washington, and am stuck on a small section of my continent, losing the tech race by nearly an entire age. I read an article in the Strategy Section about someone who came back from a nearly impossible situation to win, and I'm starting to implement some of my own ideas there now. I just fired the game up again in around 1850 AD, which means I don't really have the time to get to first place--just stay alive.

Anyways, one thing I don't understand is worker management. How do I use my workers to get the most out of my land? I pretty much just put roads everywhere, and occasionally mines on good resources or on hills and mountains.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

Welcome!

The simplest advice is mine green, irrigate brown. That covers most of it. If you have a city that's very food rich and would be productive, more mines would help. On the other hand,a city in a cluster of hills and mountains with only a bit of grasslands could benefit from irrigation there.
A town you plan to churn out workers and settlers is a special case and there's a nice article on this site on "Settler factories".

If you have the leisure, grouping workers to finish jobs in 1 turn is valuable, just make sure it's the right number for the job (2 or 4 on irrigation, 3 or 6 on mines if I recall). Planning your work to minimize moving them around saves time and gets your production up faster. Again, there's a nice very detailed article in the War Academy on this site called opening moves, I think.

Note-I don't pretend to be a master of worker management. More experienced players, feel free to correct me...

 

[Raliuven]

Greetings!

I don't hold myself up as a great worker manager either, but there a few things that helped me go from warlord to a solid Monarch player. Most of this is advice I picked up around these forums. Also, it might be helpful to read some of the Stories and Tales threads. I like the GK2 training day.

1. Although you eventually want to improve almost every tile, you should pay attention to the most powerful tiles first. You will need to pay attention to the value of each tile and how you can improve it, particularly taking into consideration the despotism penalty. You'll be stuck with that penalty for most of the REX, so learning how to manage your tiles with the penalty is, IMO, more important. It only gets easier. Read Cracker's Opening moves. Then read it 2 more times. Refer to it often.

2. The object is to try to make sure every citizen (the people in the city working the tiles) is working an improved tile; otherwise you are not getting the most out of them. So, if you have a city that is at size 6 and can't grow, there is no reason to improve the 7th tile - at least not immediately. If you have a city that is pumping out workers and is only using 4-5 tiles, there is no reason to improve the 6th tile until you think you will need it. Move on to improving a tile for a nearby city that needs the improved tile for a working citizen.

3. Be careful of wasted worker turns. Do you need to cross that river? Will you need to cross back? Is there a compelling reason to move two workers to start a road (unless industrious)? This will require you to plan ahead. This is one of my failings, but I do well enough to win at Monarch. Just be careful and ask if the wasted worker turn is justified.

4. Talking about wasted worker turns, almost always road a tile before leaving it. Watch those rivers. Can’t use bridges until Engineering. Take as many movement points before crossing a river as possible. Cross on the last movement point whenever possible.

5. To begin, work flat tiles. Hills and mountains take a long time to improve in the early game and lack food anyway. You usually have enough plains and grassland to keep you busy at the start. Once the flat tiles are done (excluding desert), then start to look at those hills and mountain. You will eventually get to them, but they are last. Usually There may be an exception but it is rare, IMO.

6. And how is all this work going to get done you ask? Your warriors don't come with shovels, axes and picks? Workers. Need them. Got to have them. Improved tiles means power. The sooner they are improved, the more power you will reap over the next 500 turns. Suggestions vary, but I would say 1 per city is a widely accepted minimum.

Good luck!

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Lots of good advice, the only thing I would add is focus your mining/irrigation work on your core cities where your corruption is low. Roading is important to all tiles of your core while as you move away from your core all you need is connectivity.

 

[Raliuven]

There are two other critical things I didn't mention, but now that I think about it, it should be said. This is what really takes you from Warlord to Monarch+

Do not automatic your workers or use the city governors. I relied upon the city governors for a long time to avoid worrying about happiness. Micromanaging (MM) is the key to success. I personally have always directed each and every one of my workers from the start to the end of the game, so I didn't have to break that habit, but DO NOT automate workers. Remember, if the computer is running your workers and governors, you get the same results that the AI gets. And that is your edge to win, expecially at Monarch and above when the AI has a production bonus.

Become accustomed to managing your workers and citizens - check different tiles to get maximum production/growth each turn. [For example, if you only need 2 food to grow, and you are producing 5 extra food, the 3 food are wasted. Play around with the tiles to get the most gold or shields, whatever you can get and still grow. Steal every piece of gold you can get!] Learning how to manage citizen happiness is critical at higher levels. You can beat Warlord with the governor 'on'. I've done that often enough. But that is why I was stuck at Warlord.

 

[Nergal]

I used to irrigate brown and mine green but I now may do otherwise depending on the situation. Most brown should be irrigated if possible, it can be worth mining an oasis or sugar because they provide 2 food anyway. If a city is surrounded by hills or mountains then its best to irrigate any available grassland. When you get a goverment the city should get a reasonable amount of growth and end up being pretty productive due to being able to work mined mountains.