Some questions about workers and tiles

[Luke Bioware]

I am just finishing up my first game ever (never played Civ before, do have IV, but found it too daunting ). My German empire is steamrolling the entire world (they just have to be puppets). Although that's not an incredible feat on the first level of difficulty.

My first question: is it profitable to immediately search and occupy every tile you gain? I was looking at the city screen and noticed you can allocate your population. Is this just a bonus or do you only get resources from the tiles those people are working? If so: you just need to improve as many tiles as you have citizens right?

The second question: what do workers do automated? Is it advisable? Do they start building roads in random places? I am micromanaging all those bastards right now, but that's quite a lot of work to be honest.

 

[Nilzor]

My first question: is it profitable to immediately search and occupy every tile you gain? I was looking at the city screen and noticed you can allocate your population. Is this just a bonus or do you only get resources from the tiles those people are working? If so: you just need to improve as many tiles as you have citizens right?

The answer is yes. You only get resources from the tiles those people are working on.

edit: I might have misunderstood your question. You must differentiate between strategic & luxury resources and regular resources (food, production & commerce). My answer only applies for the regular resources. Strategic & luxury resources, on the other hand, simply need to be within your borders and the tile must be improved with the appropriate construction (mine for metal, etc).

The second question: what do workers do automated? Is it advisable? Do they start building roads in random places? I am micromanaging all those bastards right now, but that's quite a lot of work to be honest.

I can't answer that - havent tried, but I read in another post here that they went crazy with trading posts, replacing any existing improvement. So that might not be what you want. Or it might .

 

[Ahriman]

Worker automation will chop down forests even if you want to keep them, and will build over your existing improvements if it doesn't like what you have. Not worth it, IMO.

Its road construction is fine.

You only get resources from the tiles those people are working on.

To clarify: you only get tile yields from the tiles your citizens are working.
You still get luxury and strategic resources from any such resources that have the improvement on them built, without being worked.

 

[slobberinbear]

RE: worker automation, I think it's worth doing once and watching closely so you can see the various improvements in action. The previous posters are correct regarding the tree-chopping and trading posts. New roads are thankfully not spammed, which would send maintenance through the roof.

I would retain control of your workers.

 

[Lacerda]

Luke Bioware, sorry to use your topic for my doubt, but seems appropriate instead of creating another whole new thread with such a doubt.

1. I actually didn't tried, afraid to fail hard, but, I've heard, and rationally seems quite interesting to have, for example, three cities, each one focusing on different resources, these being: food ; production ; gold.

My question is, if in the city focused on gold of production, don't I'll have the problem of a quick starvation, therefore stagnation of this city?
Same for food, requiring more production, and so on?

The cities are independent of their use of resources right? So they wouldn't take a resource of other city that they would need... Is this correct?

 

[Luke Bioware]

No problem at all. Would like to know that too. So resources with that icon nesr them don't need citizens? Boy. I feel stupid about all my wasted farms and trading posts now .

 

[Lacerda]

1. I actually didn't tried, afraid to fail hard, but, I've heard, and rationally seems quite interesting to have, for example, three cities, each one focusing on different resources, these being: food ; production ; gold.

My question is, if in the city focused on gold of production, don't I'll have the problem of a quick starvation, therefore stagnation of this city?
Same for food, requiring more production, and so on?

The cities are independent of their use of resources right? So they wouldn't take a resource of other city that they would need... Is this correct?

bump.

 

[slobberinbear]

City specialization presumes that you have enough food to feed enough citizens to do whatever it is you want the city to do.

Production: Food + Mines/Lumbermills + specific production building (forge/barracks for military city, workshop for wonder city)
Commerce: Food + Trading Posts + gold buildings (Market, Bank)
Great Person: Food + specialist buildings

You always need food. Of the three cities, Commerce cities can probably get away with less food production than the others, since most trading posts are built on tiles that produce some food.

Also, not all cities can be specialized, either because they have a mixed bag of tiles or due to insufficient food. Maybe you placed a city to grab strategic or happiness resources, or to block the AI from expanding.