The Power of the Worker
- Thread starter blitzkrieg1980
- Start date
I thought civilian units were still 3x the normal speedcost
It's weird. The settler on marathon does cost 3 times the normal cost, 300 hammers is lot and seems to take forever
. But all other units, military units, workers, workboats, missionaries, spies, and executives are all 2 times the normal hammer costs. The lower costs of spies and missionaries can be said to favour (slightly) games based on espionage, religious shrines or culture victory. Marathon is so different from normal I don't consider them comparable in any meaningful sense.
blitzkrieg1980
Octobrist
Oh god. I've never held back so much laughter in my life! My boss is looking at me like I'm insane. I'm lucky she didn't catch me LOL!
It's wierd. It takes me less time to finish marathon games. My last 2 marathon games: 4-6 hours. My last 2 normal games: 7 and 8.5 hours. I'm always so nervous in my normal games (because 1 mistake on normal = 3 mistakes on marathon) so I scrutinize everything. It works out, I still win (albeit later), but I enjoy Marathon games more.
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Scoottr
Prince
How do you worker steal with a warrior when you move next to the worker your turn ends? The worker then moves away. You need to have promoted warriors, extra move in forest/jungle or hills to pull this off.
You need luck scoottr. I don't know how many times I have scouted a very close neighbor but never saw a worker to steal, even with the help of a hill and running around his city. It's like the worker sees you coming and keeps moving around to deliberately miss you! Sometimes you see the worker on the outside ring of the AI bfc improving a tile but from my experience this doesn't happen nearly enough. I'd rather just build my own workers because if you don't get lucky then your further behind.
I suppose I should let somone that actually does this answer...
I think it is done by being at peace, being next to the worker with movement point, declare war...
(or as you say, woodsman II warrior)
One improved pig: 4 food surplus (the guy working it gobbles up 2).
One unimproved food resource or a flood plain: 1 surplus.
A worker is going to do much more than improving a single resource... like chopping out additional workers/settlers for nice snowball effects.
One unimproved food resource or a flood plain: 1 surplus.
A worker is going to do much more than improving a single resource... like chopping out additional workers/settlers for nice snowball effects.
Very true. I find it's usually best go gobble up as much land as possible with max emphasis on horizontal growth in most cases - more workers lead to more land. Too many players for my liking prioritize working cottages and vertical growth when they should be crashing their economy. They tend to think the quicker they work cottages the better they will be - this is usually false. 15 cities will eventually pass and steam roll 6-8 earlier developed cities.
Use the worker to push the expansion in most cases.
Use the worker to push the expansion in most cases.
kcmarkwell
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2005
- Messages
- 91
if you start with a lot of forest in your capital, two worker start before growing is essential
if you start with a military resource in your capital (bronze or horses), two worker start is essential
if you start with alot of seafood in your capital, two worker start is essential (build mines or chop work boats)
if you play multiplayer (which i almost always do), two worker start is essential unless you get attacked and switch over to warrior / archer if you do
in other words, always start with a worker and 99% of the time second build is also a worker, using the first to chop out a second worker after getting bronze
if you start with a military resource in your capital (bronze or horses), two worker start is essential
if you start with alot of seafood in your capital, two worker start is essential (build mines or chop work boats)
if you play multiplayer (which i almost always do), two worker start is essential unless you get attacked and switch over to warrior / archer if you do
in other words, always start with a worker and 99% of the time second build is also a worker, using the first to chop out a second worker after getting bronze
grace1760
Chieftain
Not exactly sure I follow. "Vertical" means city infrastructure, and "horizontal" means REX?
Stolen Rutters
Deity
I agree. Worker rules.
Vertical expansion means growing the population of your cities, usually by adopting the HR or Rep civics. Bigger cities are more productive and usually have a significantly better economy, meanwhile they of course claim less land and resources. So an empire of 5 cities with an average size of 10 is roughly equivalent to a "horizontal" empire with 10 cities with an average size of 5.
Only temporarily. Eventually the person with more land and more cities will greatly outproduce the former, hence quicker space races with 30 cities than someone with only 8, more units produced from 20 cities than someone with 10, etc. If left unchecked, the person with more land always comes out ahead.
So it's important to know when to go vertical and when to look to the horizon.
It is only a temporary thing, until the economy is sorted out. I often use the vertical expansion strategy and limit the number of cities early on as long as I have copper or iron. Once I have HR, courthouses and a load of catapults it is time to expand and I attack the AI which has overexpanded and crashed its economy. The AI is a lot more powerful than my empire according to the power graph but its economy is crap and it's military is backward and spread out. Most of its power is stuck in garrison troops the other side of its empire. So my SoD is concentrated power that just rips through 4 or 5 cities (before he gets longbows) and then I make peace for gold or a cheap tech. Now I might have 5 good cities and 5 crap ones but my economy can deal with the costs and research fast. That AI is left with a bad economy, 8 crap cities and is still backward, plus its military power is broken.
A concentrated vertical expansion can be used to overrun a much bigger but weak empire that has overexpanded and is underdeveloped. The attack has to be timed correctly but it can a very effective way to get land the AI has developed for you. Meanwhile your economy is well established and sound and can afford the new cities.
A concentrated vertical expansion can be used to overrun a much bigger but weak empire that has overexpanded and is underdeveloped. The attack has to be timed correctly but it can a very effective way to get land the AI has developed for you. Meanwhile your economy is well established and sound and can afford the new cities.
AS you know JJ it's all situational. The only real benefit I can see of fewer cities and an immediate vertical strategy is on Deity and perhaps some testy Immortal maps. The reason?
Research, not production. If someone has 5 cities at 10 pop average and another person has 10 cities at 5 pop the only advantage vertical has gained is research. Most cities don't offer more than 12-15H. This is important because the 5 city player will probably not have more than 3 production cities early in the game while a 10 city empire could easily have 7-8 cities which produce 9H or more.
So although the Vertical has the same population points that doesn't equate to better production. In my example they would have very close to 50% less production. It then becomes a cat and mouse game as to who can gobble up more cities and turn their land into an earlier powerhouse.
If you're talking about fewer cities to a beeline tech you then face the problem of having many many fewer cities than a horizontal person does and are forced to wait for a good tech. In that time the horizontal approach could easily have grabbed so much land that they are in a much stronger position. I'll take more cities vs fewer cities on any level besides Deity.
Research, not production. If someone has 5 cities at 10 pop average and another person has 10 cities at 5 pop the only advantage vertical has gained is research. Most cities don't offer more than 12-15H. This is important because the 5 city player will probably not have more than 3 production cities early in the game while a 10 city empire could easily have 7-8 cities which produce 9H or more.
So although the Vertical has the same population points that doesn't equate to better production. In my example they would have very close to 50% less production. It then becomes a cat and mouse game as to who can gobble up more cities and turn their land into an earlier powerhouse.
If you're talking about fewer cities to a beeline tech you then face the problem of having many many fewer cities than a horizontal person does and are forced to wait for a good tech. In that time the horizontal approach could easily have grabbed so much land that they are in a much stronger position. I'll take more cities vs fewer cities on any level besides Deity.
