What to do with Idle Workers

[Ataxerxes]

This kind of micromanagement on mid-late game can be really stressing.

I rather keep them roading and railroading and then put them to sit in the middle of desert, to find them quickly if needed.

I wonder if gifting a bunch of them would improve diplo.

Welcome to the forums!

I often road and rail in the late game as well. If you don't mind the risk, you can automate them to build trade routes. Be sure to check that they leave old improvements, however.

Gifting them doesn't include diplo. Unsolicited gifts don't do much for diplo, except on your first meeting. The diplo benefits come from giving them requested gifts.

 

[snepp]

This kind of micromanagement on mid-late game can be really stressing.


I rather keep them roading and railroading and then put them to sit in the middle of desert, to find them quickly if needed.

I wonder if gifting a bunch of them would improve diplo.

There's very little micro to it. Put a bunch of workers in stacks to do the job and you're only looking at a couple of actions each turn. If watermills take 8 turns to build make a stack of 7 workers, their only job being to pre-build watermills, do the same for other improvements.

 

[vicawoo]

Send them to explore the enemy.

I dislike a 1.5 worker rule, and I think a reactionary approach is better. Send away your workers to new cities. If you need to improve more tiles in old cities, build a worker, for the most part.

Pre-lumber mills, if I have too many workers (often a mistake you'll find from the 1.5 rule), I'll have them road the most direct reinforcement routes, sometimes fort desert tiles in preparation for oil.

 

[Peregrine]

I've been told that it's a waste of time, but . . .

Often in the period between the consumation of road-building and the acquisition of Rep tech, I found that there were a lot of workers with nothing to do. Roads everywhere they're needed and every tile improved to my satisfaction.

So rather than simply sit them down for a long lunch break (they do this if you zoom in on the graphic), I send them around my borders building fortresses. Pick likely locations, hills, forests, behind rivers, etc. Space them 2 or 3 tiles apart, and put a longbow in each one--upgrade them to rifles when the opportunity arises.

In my experience, it hasn't been a waste at all. When the inevitable DoW comes from Shaka/Monty/Alex/Ragnar, the fortress units warn me where the strike is aimed. Sometimes, the forts fall--too bad for the single unit manning them. But on other occasions, the centrally-located fire brigade of mounted units can actually reach the fortress in one turn, foot armies in two or three. This has resulted in fighting an enemy stack from a fortress on a hill/forest/forested hill/behind a river. It also happened that, once the counter attack began, and my forces starting pushing into hostile territory, seizing enemy cities, I could add the fortress troops to either the mobile field armies or use them as additional occupation units. The forts also can be positioned over resources, thus adding to the overall trade complement, and--a fort as part of a line is mutually supporting; there won't be a lone fort out there on that oil/silver/fur/whatever waiting to be picked off.

FWIW.

 

[2metraninja]

If you work unimproved tiles, this means you have too few workers, and if you have idle workers before the the late ADs, this means that you either dont plan and tech very well or/and dont expand/conquer at good rate. Most of the time I feel about workers like I feel about the money - you never can have too much of them

Very late in the game when the game is already decided and it comes to just conquering enough territory to hit the domination/conquest limit, I dont care about improving conquered enemy lands, I just group all my workers in few stacks by 10 each and put them on sleep to have them if some resource is destroyed by bombing or with spy.

A bit off- topic question raised in my mind when reading the thread - are lumber mills any good except for tundra tiles? And how this happens that you have forests so late in the game to build lumber mills on them?

 

[yturk39]

1) Assuming you have open borders you can send some workers to your neighbor's land on a goodwill mission. They can become, in effect, temporary scouts. That seems like a better idea than parking them somewhere and putting them to sleep. Maybe you can hook up some resources to his trade network that he's been deliberately keeping off the market.

2) Workers can build roads (and railroads) everywhere. In your land, in hostile land, in frontier land. Maybe you can lay down some infrastructure to move your invading army a little quicker to where it needs to go.

3) Maybe take a look at your cities' tile improvements and see if you can replace some with others that might help you more.

4) Got any cities choking in jungle? Clear some of those jungles away. Forested tiles adjacent to cities that might help an invading army? Chop some trees.

5) Make forts / canals that bypass icebergs or connect inland lakes to the ocean.

6) If you're pretty confident you're buzzing along as efficiently as you can be, try spreading your workers out among your cities, and instead of putting them to sleep just skipping their turns as they come up. It might seem like a pain for a few turns, but it won't take long before you'll find something better for them to do.

 

[Gwynnja]

1) Assuming you have open borders you can send some workers to your neighbor's land on a goodwill mission. They can become, in effect, temporary scouts. That seems like a better idea than parking them somewhere and putting them to sleep. Maybe you can hook up some resources to his trade network that he's been deliberately keeping off the market.

2) Workers can build roads (and railroads) everywhere. In your land, in hostile land, in frontier land. Maybe you can lay down some infrastructure to move your invading army a little quicker to where it needs to go.

3) Maybe take a look at your cities' tile improvements and see if you can replace some with others that might help you more.

4) Got any cities choking in jungle? Clear some of those jungles away. Forested tiles adjacent to cities that might help an invading army? Chop some trees.

5) Make forts / canals that bypass icebergs or connect inland lakes to the ocean.

6) If you're pretty confident you're buzzing along as efficiently as you can be, try spreading your workers out among your cities, and instead of putting them to sleep just skipping their turns as they come up. It might seem like a pain for a few turns, but it won't take long before you'll find something better for them to do.

Fantastic post, yturk39.

 

[NovaKart]

I need to get more into strategy. I usually have them hang out in the cities until I need them for railroads or uranium or whatever.

 

[Blue Arc]

Around the midgame I usually just put 2 or 3 on automatic improvement building and another 2 or 3 on automatic road building. The rest go to the capital until I need them for railroads or for hooking up a late game resource.

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[oldskald]

1) Assuming you have open borders you can send some workers to your neighbor's land on a goodwill mission. They can become, in effect, temporary scouts. That seems like a better idea than parking them somewhere and putting them to sleep. Maybe you can hook up some resources to his trade network that he's been deliberately keeping off the market.

2) Workers can build roads (and railroads) everywhere. In your land, in hostile land, in frontier land. Maybe you can lay down some infrastructure to move your invading army a little quicker to where it needs to go.

3) Maybe take a look at your cities' tile improvements and see if you can replace some with others that might help you more.

4) Got any cities choking in jungle? Clear some of those jungles away. Forested tiles adjacent to cities that might help an invading army? Chop some trees.

5) Make forts / canals that bypass icebergs or connect inland lakes to the ocean.

6) If you're pretty confident you're buzzing along as efficiently as you can be, try spreading your workers out among your cities, and instead of putting them to sleep just skipping their turns as they come up. It might seem like a pain for a few turns, but it won't take long before you'll find something better for them to do.

All this, but most particularly point 2. Because I'm an evil swine I always improve invasion routes into "enemy" territory if I have open borders and nothing more pressing for my workers to do. The payoff in saved time later during military opps is worth the improvements I'm making to my rivals' territory.

 

[Gwynnja]

Around the midgame I usually just put 2 or 3 on automatic improvement building and another 2 or 3 on automatic road building. The rest go to the capital until I need them for railroads or for hooking up a late game resource.

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I'm lazy and auto-trade route them <N>, but only after I've decided what improvements I want in every city's bfc.

 

[wolfblue]

<-- i end up leaving them sitting some where easy to find.

i really wish there was a way to cycle thorugh sleeping workers to make them easier to find when i need to rebuild a sabotaged improvement or get them ready for the railroad rush.

 

[Gwynnja]

<-- i end up leaving them sitting some where easy to find.

i really wish there was a way to cycle thorugh sleeping workers to make them easier to find when i need to rebuild a sabotaged improvement or get them ready for the railroad rush.

Use the military screen to find one and alt+stop/wake to wake/stop all of them.

 

[wolfblue]

sweet thanx

 

[jordiflor]

A bit off- topic question raised in my mind when reading the thread - are lumber mills any good except for tundra tiles? And how this happens that you have forests so late in the game to build lumber mills on them?

I avoid to chop flat non-river forest/plains if i can manage to get my favorite wonders without them, because chopped plains are quite useless. Afterwards, these lumbermills can be converted into forest preserves.....
... hopefully I'm becoming more and more warmonger... so I will have no more need for these long-long-term concerns.

 

[PreLynMax]

My problem with windmills/watermills/workshops are by the time I research them, I've had just about every tile worked on with mines/farms/cottages by the time I research them. I rarely build those improvements unless I have have unworked tiles (and I use that term loosely; 14 cities and maybe 3-4 unworked tiles by 1400 A.D.) to work with.

I tend to overbuild workers, usually 4 workers with 2 cities, and 10 workers with 5. Funny is by the late game, I send them to build a trade network, and I seem to can't find those little buggers to work newer cities.

 

[Farm Boy]

If they road/railroad everything in your territory they park themselves in a city close to where they wind up. Usually they all seem to wind up in the same 1 or 2 cities.

 

[Gwynnja]

My problem with windmills/watermills/workshops are by the time I research them, I've had just about every tile worked on with mines/farms/cottages by the time I research them. I rarely build those improvements unless I have have unworked tiles (and I use that term loosely; 14 cities and maybe 3-4 unworked tiles by 1400 A.D.) to work with.

I tend to overbuild workers, usually 4 workers with 2 cities, and 10 workers with 5. Funny is by the late game, I send them to build a trade network, and I seem to can't find those little buggers to work newer cities.

Use the military screen to find one and alt+stop/wake to wake/stop all of them.

<F5> will take you to this screen

Spoiler :

[/URL] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]

Click on workers and they'll blink showing you where they are. It's pretty simple.

 

[Ramesses-Rules]

If you just set them to automatic (make sure you check the box that stops them from changing improvements or cutting forests), they will just build roads all over your empire. That helps if you get into a war late in the game. Take control of them again when you acquire new techs to build lumbermills, railroads, etc.

 

[Winsling]

Nobody else worldbuilders in bears and stages gladiatorial games?