Other uses for workers

[holyman]

for prventing enemy establishing city near ur area, u dont have to block all the way for slow units like spearman or conscripts with a settler. u need only 3 in a triangle formation. just walk side by side with them vertically or horizontally. they wont pass thru. and the ai will not produce/send more to that area if the one got blocked didnt settle down to built a city. playin in deity diffculty.

 

[RAL2000]

Because I raze cities routinely, by late game I often have dozens and dozens of workers.

A couple uses I have not seen mentioned--

1) They can be liquidated and used to build things far from administrative centers, i.e. barracks, temples, etc. You only get two shields, but a stack of ten gives you a big head start on putting in culture or a barracks. Arty works great, but even workers can be useful here.

2) I use communism a lot because of its military advantages. I will keep a stack of workers fortified and 'stored' until I want to rush something. Then I bring them in and add population to a city and immediately lose it again to rush build. This works pretty well to get culture going or barracks on those distant continents.

 

[RAL2000]

Other point on workers --

You can also increase the number of workers by bargaining for them if you remember to do it. Just click on workers a the negotiating table and if the other side agrees the specified number of workers will show up in your capital the next turn. I have yet to see a deal tipped from go to no-go by including workers == usualy I forget to ask.

You can use them to jack up your score at the end although this is a bit tedious. If victory conditions are that you obliterate the other side and they are efffectively neutralized, you can add the workers like salt to bread in any city where you can get an additional qualifying population point to increase your score.

 

[Fanny Brice]

Doesn't your population get pissed off if you're using foreign workers under a democracy?
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Does this happen? I must have missed this. Does anyone know the factors involved?

for example... do the captured works actually have to be performing a task to anger your own population?

If you have them sitting idle (fortified), does that count too?

Just for fun, I usually hang on to the workers I capture. I "collect" them from the various civs... . I've had up to 40-50 of them from a single civ.

Using them for labor is a pain since they are half as effecient. I consider them "detainees" instead of "prisoners of war."

 

[cegman]

Dude I doubt if foriegn workers anger your Population
In Depotism, Monarcy, and Republic they are slaves captured by war or traded
Democracy they are immigrants
Communism they are pow used in mines that they die while you gain from them

 

[O_o]

As someone said :use workers against ur enemy- wannabe by taking advantage of right of passage and destroying (forrest etc) his tiles! .Also deploy captured workers to attract and diverse enemy units and kill them easily afterwards and taking the workers back too

 

[durendel]

Can anyone tell me how to create additional workers. I have read the manual and searched through the system but can't figure this one out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Durendel

 

[Shaitan]

Workers are just another unit that you can build from each city. Each worker will reduce the city by one population when it is built so it needs to be at least size 2 when the worker is completed.

 

[deckard]

I'll have to try the worker sabotage operation, it looks like a really good way to soften up an opponent before attacking. Kind of sneaky though. But all is fair in love and war.

 

[Shaitan]

It was, until 1.21 came around. Doesn't work so well after that version.

 

[Chieftess]

If you look at the thread date, it's been over a year since someone revived it. So, the worker tips here might not even work anymore. (newer patches)

 

[Shaitan]

Quite true.

The ability to build a worker each turn in a size 6 city ready to grow to size 7 is no longer possible. When a city grows to size 7 now the food box is completely depleted even with a granary present.

 

[cavemanf16]

I find that I like to not spend much time using workers to 'defend' my shores. Most of the invasions I face are from land. Not until the modern ages do I get sea invasions in great quantity, and by then it's more beneficial to nuke a couple of the enemy civ's largest cities than to try and block amphibious assualts by marines.

 

[Reagan1984]

O.K., glad the thread finally got to...."Sleeping Workers"

First off, I try to have a large brigade of Workers to maximize Revenue and production. I find it keeps me at least a step or two ahead of other Civs.

Also, I automate most workers, keeping a couple on manual for special tasks....

Anyway, here is my two fold question...

1) IS there a way to automatically have these workers wake UP when a new taks presents itself.. The best example being pollution...

I find that, I have to go manually wake them up... Then they'll go back to sleep and the process just repeats itself...

2) At this point, do you guys add these workers to the population of existing cities???


Thanks for your help....

GB

 

[Norlamand]

In MP games I've tried, and liked, the population shifting use of workers and settlers. I can quickly build a distant city into a productive one by adding pop'. I try to keep a fair number of workers (at least 4-6) moving as a crew from city to city maximizing production with appropriate development of the terrain. Even though they are less efficient, I never get rid of slaves captured from other civs. Free labor, even if slow, is better than paying for it. I like this so much that in some MP games I will swap slaves with an ally to save us both some cash......usually only in team games. It can really add up if you trade 10 workers with an ally. Thats 10 gpt that can be used to support a larger military. In a similar way I ALWAYS buy slaves from the AI if I can, though I much prefer to just take them. Once I have enough slaves I will turn all of my non-slave workers into either increased population, outpost/radar stations, colonies and the like (whatever I need most). Saves gold and improves my lot in the game.
The worker/slave is an under-rated and invaluable unit. No wonder Ramses didn't want to let go of Moses' people!

 

[The Last Conformist]

Not so much a sensible tactic as a way to show off your uncontestable power, but anyways:

I was methodically eradicating Persia, and thus got heaps and piles of Persian slave workers. I had no plans to actually colonizing the continent except for holding on to a few cities with Airports and/or Wonders or Luxuries, so had nothing to improve there, and setting up the logistics to ferry them home seemed pointless since my homeland was already fully developed and a humongeous legion of slaves from earlier wars stood ready to descend on any pollution that dared rear its head. So, I took and fortified the Persian slaves all across the cleansed lands to prevent Barbarian villages from popping up!

 

[budweiser]

Nothing is cooler than watching 30 or 40 workers all working a separate tile in a big patch of your empire. The amiamtion almost make them look like ants. Its good to be the King.

 

[cookie_monster]

I like to buy AI workers and then join them to my cities on emperor. It has slowed them down. I pay 6 gold per turn. So 120 gold over the 20 turns. Plus it lessons the risk of war. The foreign worker then earns me around 3gpt so 60g over 20 turns. It boosts my pop and slows them. Its not so good when your at war with them but I spread them between cities. Plus when a civ is being dogpiled I demand them and cities, and usually get them.
I dont like to control the slaves when Im none industrious.
Is this a good strategy? On my PTW biggest default map I didnt think they could be fast enough developing terrain. Plus I didnt want the rep hit of using them as I like to choose when to war.

 

[WildWeazel]

Originally posted by Reagan1984
Anyway, here is my two fold question...

1) IS there a way to automatically have these workers wake UP when a new taks presents itself.. The best example being pollution...

I find that, I have to go manually wake them up... Then they'll go back to sleep and the process just repeats itself...

2) At this point, do you guys add these workers to the population of existing cities???


Thanks for your help....

GB

Instead of making my workers "sleep", I simply set them on automate (Shift-A) and let them improve to their digital hearts' desires. When all of you territory has been mined, irrigated and.. paved(?) the workers will automatically go to either the nearest city or the capital , I dont remember which but I think its the nearest city, and wait. When a new improvement opportunity prevents itself, the automated workers will do whatever and then return to their posts and wait again. This works well, but I tend to forget that they are there and do not use them to their full potential (like adding them to cities). The main drawback to automatic workers is that whenever war breaks out, the little cowards automatically retreat to the safety of the nearest city.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

Yea it is a good idea and all, but aren't you 4geting about unhappiness?