Using Workers Efficiently

[eagle-bear]

Hi everyone,

I've worked my way up to winning reliably on Monarch, but reviewing these forum discussions, it seems like everyone but me is directly and carefully controlling what their workers do.

I tend to just automate them, and let them take care of my economy, and also tend to have only about 0.5x or 1x as many workers as my number of cities, which many people have said is not good.

My question then is how to manage my workers *efficiently* and without cutting too much into my time, especially if I take the advice here about increasing my number of workers. I'm in grad school (geography, ironically) so Civ is a nice diversion when I'm too burnt out to work or socialize. The notion of having to babysit 20+ workers every turn seems ... time-consuming, and I wonder how I can improve my strategy without having to devote so much time to this aspect of the game.

Are there some tricks maybe for using the more customized automation settings, like in terms of setting up specific economies ("cottage" or "specialist")? If I change the "emphasize" buttons on the city interface, do workers try to go along with this? Or do you guys seriously micromanage every worker throughout the whole game?

Thanks in advance.

 

[DaveMcW]

Automating works pretty well if you have 1.5 workers per city.

 

[CornPlanter]

Or do you guys seriously micromanage every worker throughout the whole game?

This Well, not throughout the whole game, just until the victory is clearly mine and/or there's nothing left to improve/reimprove. The only automation I do is "build trade network" for 1-4 workers @ the second half of the game.

Micromanaging workers is a pleasure for me. I wouldn't like automation thing.

 

[smackthewise]

The same thread is already ongoing: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=348832

I change the "emphasize" buttons on the city interface, do workers try to go along with this?

Yes they do, this is the best way to automate them.

At least manually control what they build in your main and best cities, you can set to automate trade network to save time.

 

[velcrox]

I often make small stacks of workers once I'm out of the critical early game period, it simplifies things nicely for me

 

[Oggums]

I micromanage what they do for the entire game.

I often make small stacks of workers once I'm out of the critical early game period, it simplifies things nicely for me

This.

Once things are moving and I already have my critical improvements, I'll start grouping them. Three workers grouped on epic (2 on normal) will road most tiles in 1 turn. You will waste worker turns this way (e.g. something that would take 4 turns with one worker is going to use up 6 worker turns with a group of 3), but it's far more convenient.

I never do the 1.5 worker thing. I usually play epic, and I'll have multiples of three....9, 12 or 15 workers depending on empire size. Sometimes I even just disband a worker that I get in wartime, because he wont be "complete" unless I make 2 more, and I'm busy building an army. If I find I'm short on workers, I'll queue one up in three different cities, for another group.

Late game, when I do a lot of farm/workshop conversions, they're in groups of 6. I split them back in 3's for railroads, but if I'm not roading it's 6.

 

[lymond]

I often make small stacks of workers once I'm out of the critical early game period, it simplifies things nicely for me

I do this as well and also have some automated for trade routes to fill in roads.

 

[Gliese 581]

The more efficiently you use your workers, the fewer you need. With automation and looking at the numbers and difficulty level you've given I'd recommend you to build three times as many to move to the next level.
If you control them manually you only need to build twice as many as you're currently building.

 

[Cam_H]

The same thread is already ongoing: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=348832

On to its fifth page of discussion, when the answer is so apparent.

Automated workers do not understand city specialisation. Automated workers do not know your game plan. Automated workers do not prepare themselves for new technologies. Automated workers replace useful terrain improvements for inappropriate terrain improvements.

I am alarmed that some of the more experienced members of this community even half-entertain the suggestion that workers be automated.

... and welcome to CivFanatics eagle-bear!

 

[Gliese 581]

Ultimately you need to consider what makes the game fun for you to play. While automated workers is going to be a big drawback, there's lots of handicap you can put on yourself and still win on the highest levels. On monarch there's even more room for personal preferences.

 

[Oggums]

Automated workers replace useful terrain improvements for inappropriate terrain improvements.

Although, you can turn that off in the options.

 

[joanne]

Usually I try to have at least one worker per city. In the early game I would assign at least one worker per city, micromanaging them to work food then hammers then commerce tiles in that order(perhaps with the exception of cities with lots of commerce tiles, like jungle gems, in which case I assign at least two workers in that city to clear the jungle, as with other jungle cities). If I have extra workers I use them to build our road network (you can get a few extra workers through early war)

Later in the game when they've worked all workable tiles and completed the railroad network I automate them with "workers leave old improvements/forests" in the gameplay options turned on.

Sometimes If our unit costs are so high because of war and we can spare a few workers I use them as bait to divert enemy units from my cities while they whip/draft defensive units, or send them in with the offensive stacks in the hope of luring at least one garrisoned unit out of the target city - just before attacking the city I separate them from the offensive stack and leave them on a tile right beside the city, preferably a flatland tile or a tile opposite a river for a river city for my units to kill them without the city defense bonus or to make them think twice about attacking my units in the newly captured city with the river crossing penalty, respectively.

 

[Zink]

I do everything manually up to Calender. When i have connected vital Calender resources (ie. for happy-cap) i _gradually_ give them all the auto command.
Mostly i have one group of 2-3 workers that i keep manual until the end of game though (for vulcanos and other events, new resources, chain irrigation -> the AI really sucks at that).

 

[TheMeInTeam]

On to its fifth page of discussion, when the answer is so apparent.

Automated workers do not understand city specialisation. Automated workers do not know your game plan. Automated workers do not prepare themselves for new technologies. Automated workers replace useful terrain improvements for inappropriate terrain improvements.

I am alarmed that some of the more experienced members of this community even half-entertain the suggestion that workers be automated.

... and welcome to CivFanatics eagle-bear!

Auto workers will build improvements based on governor emphasis. Things like 1800's space on emp/immortal are doable with auto workers. They can also be blocked from replacing terrain improvements (better AI does not do that by the way).

The biggest problem with them is the other stuff you mentioned, namely they don't plan ahead. They're not in position when new cities are settled (exception ---> new cities post railroad) and so take longer to hook up critical resources. They also waste turns, which is why you need more of them early.

Their end improvement setup is fine if you know what you're doing though. If I had infinite worker turns I'd never micro them, but as it stands I usually wind up controlling them well into the 1000's AD's nowadays even though I don't like it.

 

[shyuhe]

I'll generally micro my workers until about RR, at which point I'll connect key cities and mines but leave them on auto otherwise. I guess that means I micro workers for about 2/3 of my games. But if I didn't micro my workers, I'd probably just be hitting enter for many of my turns

As for speeding up worker micro, short-cut keys help a lot. Also, plan ahead so that your workers don't have to travel many tiles to go to a new tile to improve. Strategic roading (sending one worker to road a forest before others join to improve that tile) can help speed up micro since you can move stacks of workers around (except for the roading worker). Also, posting signs for what a city is for helps remind you what improvements to build around that city without having to look inside the city.

 

[Zeusophobia]

I definitely micro manage workers at the start of the game to get hooked up on crucial resources, after that it depends. If I have a relatively small civilization and I'm going for cultural or space victory, then I'll probably micro manage throughout the game to make sure I'm being as efficient as possible. If I'm conquering, then I'll usually just let most go on auto and a few to control myself so I can concentrate on attacking.

 

[yanner39]

I've always micromanaged the workers simply because I don't understand how the automation works. I mean, the only exception has been the "Automate Trade Routes" but that is simple enough.

If you automate the worker, how does the worker know to build a cottage instead of a farm in my commerce city (especially along a river)? How does it know to build a workshop instead of a cottage in a production city?

Is there a way to can set or emphasize what they do? I know if the city menu, there is a button to automate the citizens - the white circles.

 

[Gliese 581]

I wish you could order your workers to prebuild stuff, that would be a great timesaver.

 

[Dirk1302]

^What do you mean by prebuilding stuff Gliese?

Automated workers waste turns. In the early game it's often that you have to move a worker 2 tiles to work a resource for instance.You can only work the resource next turn so you should build something on the tile in between. Don't forget to end that improvement same turn. Next turn you improve your resource and coming back to that in between tile you can go on with that. Automated workers don't get that, they also don't always get that improving resources near new cities has priority 1,2 and 3. So they tend to linger. I automate workers around 1000 ad when every tile is improved. Handle them myself for a few turns after RR to get mines and main connections up then it's back to automate.

It is possible with the mouse to give a worker a whole chain of orders. Giving this whole chain of orders is a bit of a pain though and sometimes you need to deviate from the chain anyway.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I've always micromanaged the workers simply because I don't understand how the automation works. I mean, the only exception has been the "Automate Trade Routes" but that is simple enough.

If you automate the worker, how does the worker know to build a cottage instead of a farm in my commerce city (especially along a river)? How does it know to build a workshop instead of a cottage in a production city?

Is there a way to can set or emphasize what they do? I know if the city menu, there is a button to automate the citizens - the white circles.

The emphasis the city governor is given affects the improvement workers make. If you pick hammers and are in SP, they will dutifully spam shops/mills (note that early game they will still spam cottages on the green tiles though, as they have no alternative if they can't irrigate and workshops are justifiably terrible).

I wish you could order your workers to prebuild stuff, that would be a great timesaver.

I know for a fact BUFFY (the current HoF mod) has this in some form.