Worker Spies, AI Overkill?

[eric_]

OK, so, one of my favorite things to do during war is capture enemy workers near the front lines and then send them deep into enemy territory to get a feel for their unit numbers and placement.

Well, in my current game, the AI seems to like to do this, too...or at least France does. For a good portion of the war I'm in with them, they *spammed* my lands with workers. I mean, every turn, I'd capture 1 or 2 workers, and on the next turn, 1 or 2 more would enter.

I'm wondering if they're using them in the same fashion as me (getting the lay of the land)? If so, that'd be great, except they're going way overboard. If they spent even 1/4 of the resources on troops that they spend on workers, I'd be long gone by now. Maybe they are just left over from before our war? If not, maybe it's a bug of some sort where they produce workers instead of units during war? An argument against the latter is the fact that the flow of workers eventually stopped completely, suggesting they just had a bunch milling about with nothing to do.

Anyway, has anyone else seen the AI doing this?

 

[aimlessgun]

I've seen the occasional rambo worker here and there, but not a flood as you describe. And the workers have usually tried to avoid my troops. The AI does definitely have lots of workers though.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Need multiple attacks early so I can wade through those workers faster.
Terribly frustrating when a bunch of tanks get stopped by a wall of workers.

Hmm. Maybe those chu-ko-nu can capture 2 workers a turn?

 

[eric_]

Hrm...maybe they were trying to cross my empire to get to the one tiny remote city they acquired from Sully many centuries ago...

At any rate, it's very odd.

 

[Soronery]

I thought capturing workers didn't take any extra moves

 

[Martin Alvito]

Hrm...maybe they were trying to cross my empire to get to the one tiny remote city they acquired from Sully many centuries ago...

They do that. I sold Nobunaga a French city once to get out of Very Unhappy at the end of a war, and he promptly sent a flood of Workers across the map that got stuck on my borders.

 

[eric_]

In that case, that's a borderline bug, imo. I wonder if it has anything to do with why he hasn't been interested in peace for the last 1000 years?

 

[harry_flashman]

My favourite thing to do with enemy workers is to use them as target practice for my ships. I don't like to kill them though. I prefer to have the ai waste money on maintenance. They build way too many of the buggers.

 

[Raethwyn]

I thought capturing workers didn't take any extra moves

I was definitely able to capture 3 workers with a single Mech Infantry in one turn during my last game. I'm not sure if it prevents you from making an actual melee attack with a military unit, though. If it does then it would limit your actions during a turn to just capturing the line of workers if you couldn't find a way around them. I'm pretty sure they don't have a zone of control so you should be able to just move around them and attack units behind if the terrain isn't too rough.

 

[eric_]

So, it turns out, France *was* just sending those workers to that remote city. Once I took it, the flood receded and shortly after that France finally was willing to go for peace. What a jackal! Probably not a "bug," per se, but it's extremely wasteful.

Good question about taking workers affecting military operations in the same turn...

 

[bryanw1995]

I was definitely able to capture 3 workers with a single Mech Infantry in one turn during my last game. I'm not sure if it prevents you from making an actual melee attack with a military unit, though. If it does then it would limit your actions during a turn to just capturing the line of workers if you couldn't find a way around them. I'm pretty sure they don't have a zone of control so you should be able to just move around them and attack units behind if the terrain isn't too rough.

your mech infantry had blitz. I thought that I could just capture as many as I wanted, too, but last night I could only capture one at a time with my non-blitzing units.

btw, it takes literally FOREVER to get to 100 experience if you don't go down the honor path. I'm on a large earth map with ~ 30 puppets, have been in war for most of the game, and I don't have a single mech inf with blitz

 

[iop]

your mech infantry had blitz. I thought that I could just capture as many as I wanted, too, but last night I could only capture one at a time with my non-blitzing units.

btw, it takes literally FOREVER to get to 100 experience if you don't go down the honor path. I'm on a large earth map with ~ 30 puppets, have been in war for most of the game, and I don't have a single mech inf with blitz

If you have a city-state very close to your first few cities, so that there is at least one hex of your territory within the city-state's bombard radius (ideally a hill or forest tile), you can accumulate xp quite nicely by not making peace after stealing the initial worker. Simply fortify a unit on your territory and have the CS bombard it. Your unit will heal back the bombard damage and gain 2xp each turn. If you built/bought your unit in a city with barracks+armory, it'll take you 35 turns to get to 100xp. Then you upgrade to MechInf and win.