Worker bonanza

[DarwinMayflower]

Hey. I just registered and wanted to say hello. I got hooked on Civ II way back when, and now I'm trying to find enough time to devote to Civ III. Here's something interesting I found in my current game:

I was playing the Greeks (Warlord level). The Egyptians and the Indians were at war with the Romans. It was clear that the Romans were going down, and I decided I wanted a piece of the pie. I swept into Roman territory and attacked a city which was on the far side of Roman territory from the Egyptian-Indian front. When the city fell, I ended up capturing 12 Roman workers!

It seemed like the AI, sensibly, took all the Roman workers and hid them in the city farthest from the front. But the city wasn't the capital or particularly well defended. The workers were a pleasant bonus in addition to the city! Have other people found the AI using this strategy?

 

[hamster]

I think you just got lucky. most of the time, i see the AI just retreats workers to the nearest safe city.

 

[Captain Pugwash]

Haven't seen that one yet but my current game is also a little weird....all the other tribes keep sending settlers into my territory time after time and when I kill them off I get 2 workers each time. So now I have dozens and dozens of foreign workers for free.

Admittedly I am at war with all other tribes as a result but I am the strongest and can fend them off easily. I have no idea why they all keep sending settlers because there is no unclaimed land anywhere near ...sure gives a bonanza of free workers though.

 

[Cilpot]

Hi, and welcome to civfanatics!

In my game i often raze cities that I capture and follow with my own settlers to build cities where I want them. This way I dont have problems with resisters and I dont have to be annoyed with cities founded "one tile from heaven"..

Anyway.. When i Raze cities i always get a certain amount of workers.. Sometimes over 10. I believed that this was a "bonus" of slave workers who were the inhabitants of the city I just razed.. It seems that the bigger the city is, more workers I get. If my army just murders one million innocent civilians when they raze cities, I`ll certainly court-marshall them!

The constant problem of enemy settlers entering your land is really annoying... And you cannot declare war without gazillions of warnings first... What I have expirienced is that if there is even only one free tile of land on the other side of my territory, enemy settlers will try to get there desperatly. One of my highest priorities is to generate lots of culture early so that i dont have gaps of free tiles in my part of the continent..

 

[ainwood]

You generally get one worker for every two inhabitants in the city. Ie a size 12 city will give you 6 workers if you raise it.

Foreign workers don't work as fast as native ones though.

 

[eyrei]

Foreign workers require no upkeep though.

 

[rodgersmc]

And if you hang on to them until you completely kill off that nation, you can just turn them into population points. Not a good idea at close cities while still at war though...

If you have a good road network, send them far away to join cities. They won't revolt that way, and you get quick growth.

 

[Rhandom]

When I play warmonger (which is most of the time since I can't seem to get into the 1900's without fatal errors), I generally stay as a despot, because... well, it just feels right. Anyway, I really enjoy the population for hurried construction. Every third or fourth enemy city, I raze, just to get the extra workers. The extra workers are joined to a recently captured city, where they are instantly converted into new buildings or units. When I start to get low on slaves to burn up, I just raze another enemy city. This keeps my stretched supply lines shorter, as I can just send the workers back to the nearest city with a barracks to get a more units, while still getting units normally from the home city.

This is probably a little too close to nazi slave labor to be comfortable, but its what the game favors, so what the hell.

 

[eyrei]

How about communism. It allows the pop rush, but with lower corruption and fully effective land tiles. If I am at war under communism, in the cities I want to keep, I quell resistors, and then pop rush a temple,and then a cathedral. There goes most of the foreign population, and the rest becomes content. I also raze the surrounding cities to get the workers, which are likely added to the 'keeper' city to rush more cultural improvements.

Speaking of hordes of AI workers hiding out in a city. How about the hordes that occasionally cross your territory to improve the two squares that tundra city they have can work. I have started many a war because these stacks of 20+ undefended population points are just too tempting.

 

[Rhandom]

If I go war mongering, it starts almost immediately, and rarely allows the game to get to Communism. I only break to consolidate, because it doesn't take long for the AI bonuses to add up against you. Communism would be fine, otherwise.