What is the best use of idling workers?

halo everyone... heres a micromanagement qn:

I am wondering what do you guys do with excess workers....

Often at the beginning i produced loads of workers especially if my starting position is engulfed by jungles.... When i reached
middle ages, i find myself 14 to 15 workers nothing much to do.
I dont want to disband them or return them to the cities coz i
am anticipating massive railroad building in the next industrial age, and the pollutions in the modern age...

Also when i captured a faraway enemy city, i often raze it rather
than keeping it. This will result in more foreign workers.

Do u have any good use for them while awaiting future tasks?

sorrie, if this qn has already been addressed somewhereelse in the forum, pls direct me to it...

Thanks alot in advance

 

Shift-A. Automates your workers without changing existing improvements. They will go to the nearest city and sit there and do nothing until needed. If you build or capture acity on the same continent, they will rush to improve it. When railroads become available, they will automatically build them on all tiles within your borders. When pollution appears, they will automatically clean it up. Do that and you won't have to worry about telling them what to do anymore.

Micro can be fun, but macro can solve some problems.

 

Build Fortresses and barricades on the borders.

 

Normally i then road every tile inside my borders, even mountains out of range of every of my cities. The same later with rails.

 

Turn their motors off to save gas! HaHa Just kidding.

Sentry them in a central location till needed.

I'll use some as "bait" near border areas. The AI will move past you to attack your workers, leaving their troops vulnerable to counterattack. (& recaptures the worker, too!)

 

Thanks guys for the tips...

i totally forgot that they can build fortresses... and as for the "bait" idea, well i tried but the AI too clever to take the bite...
maybe i did not do it right...

by the way, do planting forests help to reduce global warming hence lower pollution? if so, i will plant more in advance....

Thanks again...

 

No, I don't think forrests help w/ G.W.

I'll plant them along my border to serve as a "buffer zone".
Slows down the enemy advance into your territory. I've saved many my cities from capture by doing this. No more one-turn sneak attacks vs your city, giving you time to reinforce it.

 

Plant forests and harvest them: 10 shields every time.

 

That's right. just remember you only get the shields once per tile.

 

Building forrests is a good idea but reducing the extra food produced at size 12 is what I spend my time on.

A grassland produces 2 food mined and 3 irigated but 1 food if forrested. A standard grassland will produce 1 shield mined, 0 shield irigated and 2 shields forrested.

By using this simple information, you can squeeze 2~4 more shield out of a city which may allow for faster completion of buildings and units.

 

I'd be careful about that idea. I have had the AI take some settlers of mine, and then immediately disband the resulting pair of workers because it realized they would not get them out in time.

 

I usally am to lazy to micromanage.
I just hit shift-a and shift w (clear jungle and swamp).

 

What the hell does sentry mean?

 

SACRIFICE them for rush jobs (if playing despotism or Feudalism)
Or add to populatuion. They are slow indeed.

 

I usually just send them home to spend time with their families and those that don't have family to go back to, I just let them sleep at the steps of my palace until I finish my spaceship. I'm sure they will be needed again to colonize other planet.

 

How nice


You can also give your workers to the underdog civs.
That way you can even the balance out a little between foreign countries. Oh and get better attitude from them .

 

I use them to max out my cities, by joining and changing some irrigation and mines.

 

I sometimes build 3 or 4 fortresses around my empire, and then sentry the workers in those fortresses until needed later. It makes it easier to clean that first pollution square, or build that first railway line, if most of my workers are in just 3 squares...

Nobody has addressed the issue of foreign vs. domestic workers. If idle, foreign workers cost no gold, but domestic workers do. Those are the ones that will be added to my cities first...