What do you do with your workers when...

[Takagi Hiro]

... you find that you've pretty much done everything you need them to do? Do you disband them or save them? Do you tirelessly look for something new for them to do or just put them to sleep? I'm curious because in so many of my games, I tend to prioritize worker movements to the max, so when there's nothing else to do with them, I'm sorta lost with what to do next!

Thoughts? Tips? Should I just build less of them?

 

[Valvts]

Is there a chance, to make Liberty finisher: No maintenance on workers while inside cities(up to 1 worker per city)? Or the like.
Maybe general bonus while they are inside a city, or on a village!

 

[Takagi Hiro]

Is there a chance, to make Liberty finisher: No maintenance on workers while inside cities(up to 1 worker per city)? Or the like.
Maybe general bonus while they are inside a city, or on a village!

Eh, I'm not really looking for a balance change; I'm just curious to know what other people do. I'd hate to leave workers sitting around doing nothing. I AM paying for them. At the same time, I'm not sure if it's worth it to disband after most of your work is done and just build them as needed later on.

 

[callmewoof]

I keep mine on sleep for the eventual Railroad upgrades. I also use them for a more mobile army (building roads up to their cities for faster deployment), and I keep them up with the army for a quick turnaround on plundered repairs after I capture a city.

 

[Takagi Hiro]

I keep mine on sleep for the eventual Railroad upgrades. I also use them for a more mobile army (building roads up to their cities for faster deployment), and I keep them up with the army for a quick turnaround on plundered repairs after I capture a city.

Thanks for the reply. So, you never disband? Don't think it's worth doing so?

 

[Scuts]

I usually send them sailing as disposable scouts. I do make sure to save some and either have them patrol around or sit in town depending on how expansion is going. But extras have gotta put themselves to use.

 

[Funak]

I actually don't tend to get all improvements done before I hit railroad tech, mostly because of (military)(over)expansion. Also my focus on bordergrowth and my tendency to place cities way too far away from eachother (seriously one of my main issues is AI settling cities in between my cities and breaking my city-connections) also keeps my workers working non-stop.

 

[callmewoof]

Thanks for the reply. So, you never disband? Don't think it's worth doing so?

The only time I really find myself disbanding them is when I have plenty and I capture several from the AI. I figure a few gold a turn is worth it, because having to buy/make a new worker when something goes wrong isn't very cost effective; not saying I'm right, just my thought on the matter.

I've tried using them as disposable scouts but I prefer using actual units or AI captured Missionaries. The missionaries can cross through anyone's territory so it's super useful. They will "die" on the fourth attrition tick, but you can often times find a way to hopscotch your way across the map and avoid this problem.

 

[WileyNg]

It would be nice to "upgrade" villages to towns, then to hotels.

Like the game monopoly.
Give something for the idle workers to work on. Is there any mod out there that does it?

 

[Funak]

It would be nice to "upgrade" villages to towns, then to hotels.

That actually just sounds really annoying, like having to build roads before you build railroads.

 

[Enginseer]

My current mod below supports the Pontoon Bridge made by BlouBlou which I made a customization to which the pontoon bridge produces +1 culture and +1 gold while also giving a promotion on the unit standing on it to receive a temporary no -50% attack penalty, +10% cover, but -25% when attacking cities from a pontoon bridge.

it's really helpful when the game gets longer since workers are still significantly using up AI turns if they're not doing anything to which with the mod, they sacrifice themselves as a pontoon bridge to help lessen AI processing.

 

[Finarvi]

I actually don't tend to get all improvements done before I hit railroad tech, mostly because of (military)(over)expansion. Also my focus on bordergrowth and my tendency to place cities way too far away from eachother (seriously one of my main issues is AI settling cities in between my cities and breaking my city-connections) also keeps my workers working non-stop.

That's my problem as well Why building 2 cities when you can place one in good spot and take 80% of desired resources with little cost (and less management).

Back to workers: I tend to have average 1 worker / city. There are moments when I need more hands to work and moments when workers stay idle but it's not bad approximation.

 

[Takagi Hiro]

Thanks for all of the feedback.

 

[Gazebo]

it's really helpful when the game gets longer since workers are still significantly using up AI turns if they're not doing anything to which with the mod, they sacrifice themselves as a pontoon bridge to help lessen AI processing.

Workers have minimal impact on turn times.

 

[Enginseer]

Workers have minimal impact on turn times.

Huh, was following vanilla BNW logic. Never thought CP would fix it. Good to know.

 

[vyyt]

The only time I really find myself disbanding them is when I have plenty and I capture several from the AI. I figure a few gold a turn is worth it, because having to buy/make a new worker when something goes wrong isn't very cost effective; not saying I'm right, just my thought on the matter.

Also note that you get some 30 gold if you disband a worker within your territory which can prove useful in early game if you run in problems with gold. I often capture too many workers from AIs during war, so I bring them to my territory and disband them for gold.

I usually have 1 worker per city in the very early game and later I add 1-2 to help where needed. I rarely pick the policies which make workers work faster, beacuse I think there are always more important ones to pick.

When I get some early wars, I usually keep 1-2 captured workers to help mine where needed and disband the rest of the captured ones for gold. It rarely happens to me that workers have nothing to do, but if it does happen, I disband them. The new workers are cheap and quick to produce in later stages of game.

I will add a tip, the players new to CBP might not be aware of. As farms get extra food from every 2 neighboring tiles, it is sometimes worth farming even tiles in the 4th ring of your city just to get the extra food on a farmed tile in you 3rd ring.

 

[Pfeffersack]

Also note that you get some 30 gold if you disband a worker

With this fact in mind, I quite often disband most of the surplus ones - because at the time they start to become idle, the upkeep tends to be already at 3-4 each turn, while most cities can rebuilt them quickly if needed.

 

[callmewoof]

With this fact in mind, I quite often disband most of the surplus ones - because at the time they start to become idle, the upkeep tends to be already at 3-4 each turn, while most cities can rebuilt them quickly if needed.

That's a good point that I didn't consider. I should really examine how many I have and how much I'm going to actually need them. It's probably better to disband at least some of them at some point in the game. I forgot to add though that I also use them for Archaeology to pre-chop forest/jungles, so by the time the guy arrives at the dig site, he only has to do the normal dig and not the chop + dig. Saves a lot of time.

 

[Funak]

That's a good point that I didn't consider. I should really examine how many I have and how much I'm going to actually need them. It's probably better to disband at least some of them at some point in the game. I forgot to add though that I also use them for Archaeology to pre-chop forest/jungles, so by the time the guy arrives at the dig site, he only has to do the normal dig and not the chop + dig. Saves a lot of time.

I usually don't have any forests/jungles left in my territory by the time archaeologists arrive . Lumbermills just feel too weak.

 

[Strigvir]

I don't know why do you need to bother with pre-chopping as AI doesn't seem to spam archaeologists the moment they get available.
Forests aren't that weak, but I tend to chop all of them in the radius of specialist cities in favour of mines and farms. Honestly, that forge/workshop change was uncalled for.