Tile improvement speed

[Pawninthegame]

I have, until now, more or less ignored the Pyramids and the Liberty-worker SP that gives faster tile improvements. I can understand that it is desirable, but I guess that your early worker will improve tiles faster than the population of your city can grow and work them. So, is it basically a waste? I have always chosen the Liberty-settler SP instead to grow that way instead. But now I'm not so sure any longer.

 

[vanjito]

Consider it a discount in upkeep unit price. It goes higher as you move to advance to new era's.

Ask yourself, with how many Workers do you have trough the game and if that % would be desirable

If you have 2 workers whole game then % is not worth it, if you need 10 of them maybe you could have 6 or 7 -> so 3-4*(times number of turns) = net gold gain


I kinda like the workers able of completing their tasks fast

 

[Randall Turner]

What he said.

Also, there are times it's more than a cost-saving measure, it can be a multiplier - you can exploit a newly acquired resource faster (coal, uranium, etc.).

But the biggest multiplier is the railroad connection stage. (damn, that eats up workers.)

Edit: often end up deleting workers right after finishing the rail net, they do cost as much as your fighting units.

 

[jagdtigerciv]

I just finished a game where I really took a great notice. I don't normally build the pyramids, but I beelined it quickly, after my National College (went directly Library -> NC after Writing). I was playing Egypt, and thought it might be interesting to give it a shot.

It worked surprisingly well, especially early game. I always play Epic (and perhaps this makes a major difference) but improvement completion felt significantly faster and made a noticeable difference. I didn't REX either. I felt early roading was significantly faster, saving that dreadful maintenance cost (before the trade-route itself compensates) which can hurt early game, when +3 is a big difference. But more importantly I was able to quickly benefit from earlier luxuries, multiplied and sold.

The result was far more gold, far more earlier. Which meant I grabbed the right city states earlier and use my money that much quicker and gain the benefits that much earlier. I really think this is where the Pyramids shine, especially if you have the right resources that the right civs are paying for.

 

[Bungle]

I use it(free worker from Liberty) to save hammers in the early game. I nearly always do NC start and want my capital to become bigger and more productive as fast as possible. Not only does my capital get better tiles to work, I can also skip the early worker and build a monument, granary or warrior instead