Some thoughts on worker stealing

[10000hours]

I would venture a guess that it IS harder on quick, because the AI can pump out more units quickly. In addition, the more time you spend hanging around waiting, the bigger the loss from not scouting the area and finding other AIs. I usually play on epic and although I'll occasionally botch a worker steal and restart, in most of my games I can steal from the AI without too much trouble.

Sometimes you have to wait for them to try and clear a nearby barb camp, or, like TheMeInTeam said above, camp likely improvements like luxes or strategic resources and bide your time.

 

[reddishrecue]

Worker stealing makes you highly dependent on other people's workers and not your own so when you're changing to worker stealing, make sure you do it right by stealing from 1 city state.

 

[wayneb64]

I would venture a guess that it IS harder on quick, because the AI can pump out more units quickly. In addition, the more time you spend hanging around waiting, the bigger the loss from not scouting the area and finding other AIs. I usually play on epic and although I'll occasionally botch a worker steal and restart, in most of my games I can steal from the AI without too much trouble.

Sometimes you have to wait for them to try and clear a nearby barb camp, or, like TheMeInTeam said above, camp likely improvements like luxes or strategic resources and bide your time.

I feel the 'lost' exploration opportunity on quick makes working stealing much more problematic. I normally only steal from CSs as the only reason I want to start an AI war that early is to stop their settlers.

 

[reddishrecue]

Stopping their settlers could be worth it but sometimes your troops are there late and their city gets built.

 

[consentient]

OK I've made the first two parts of an LP with the Zulu. There is plenty of worker stealing stuff to be seen in the first part.


Link to video.

 

[revelation216]

OK I've made the first two parts of an LP with the Zulu. There is plenty of worker stealing stuff to be seen in the first part.


Link to video.

Put in a comment on the video, name's Permanent Quandary!

I would suggest purchasing the Mt Kilomanjiro at Umgungundlovu before the CS grabs it. I believe it was one of the reasons you settled up there?

 

[wayneb64]

Fantastic start location, triple salt, river on the ocean with a triple salt river right next door and a bonus Mt Kilomanjiro. Don't think I have ever seen a start that good before.

 

[reddishrecue]

I liked how he abstained from stealing workers because he couldve stole workers from Arabia but didnt since there are so many troops around protecting the workers.

 

[wayneb64]

Every time lately I try and steal AI workers (Immortal/Quick) I see three warriors plus the city that are just going to kill me and take the worker back on the next turn. Settlers are almost always accompanied by a warrior.

 

[beetle]

Every time lately I try and steal AI workers (Immortal/Quick) I see three warriors plus the city that are just going to kill me and take the worker back on the next turn. Settlers are almost always accompanied by a warrior.

This has mostly been my recent experience as well, see my post on the first page. Consentient has a different opinion, but did not address the AI being better about escorting settlers. So the worker stealing opportunities might still be pretty good (but different), even if sniping an earlier settler is no longer likely.

 

[Acken]

It's harder on immortal. Should still be opportunities though. Setting a CS farm is still easy though.

 

[consentient]

Fantastic start location, triple salt, river on the ocean with a triple salt river right next door and a bonus Mt Kilomanjiro. Don't think I have ever seen a start that good before.

Start is OK, but the overall landmass shape is poor for Domination, so I abandoned the game.

This has mostly been my recent experience as well, see my post on the first page. Consentient has a different opinion, but did not address the AI being better about escorting settlers. So the worker stealing opportunities might still be pretty good (but different), even if sniping an earlier settler is no longer likely.

What are you talking about? Did you watch my last few videos? They all have worker stealing in, unless I'm misremembering. Worker steals are still pretty easy unless the AI has no interest in moving its warriors (Venice, for example).

 

[johnnybaseball]

At what turn do you start to think about building a worker if you can't steal enough? Some games I can grab a few very quickly, sometimes I don't see any good AI targets. CS worker is easy to grab but CSs are too slow at building new ones to rely on for all your workers.

BTW - Consentient, I really like your domination beginner's guide! It is very helpful. I am looking forward to the section on unit positioning because that is definitely a weak area for me!

 

[Acken]

After your scouts and monument. May want a shrine before if there is a powerful pantheon.

 

[reddishrecue]

Varying a shrine with a monument after the dual scout start is something i do if a start benefits from a pantheon.