Worker Unit stacks

[wellside]

Hi all

This is my first post and I'm fairly new to the game. (Civ III van.) Just 3 years late!

I'm just getting a feel for the game. I've realised it's best to have workers in stacks, but how many do you guys put in a stack? Just now I'm using 8 cos it seems to get most jobs done in 1 or 2 turns.

Any tips appreciated

 

[Theoden]

I will often have specialized worker teams which has the exact number to finish the improvement in 1 or 2 turns. So irrigating teams will be 2 or 4, while mining teams will be 3 or 6. For roading I mostly only use one as more seems to be a waste of moves.

 

[Tomoyo]

Roading - 1, 2 for IND, or 3 for Non-IND.
Irrigating - 1, 2, or 4 for non-IND, 1 or 3 for IND
Mine/Rail - 3 or 6 for non-IND, 4 for IND.

 

[mikezang]

Stacking Workers – This strategy is to work one tile as quickly as possible. One of the mistakes a new player might make is spreading out their workers to work on 3 or more tiles at once with one worker. The reason this is wrong is because the city can grow only so fast. To put this into perspective, let’s say Thebes is size 1 (it just built a settler), and there’s 6 workers clearing 6 jungle tiles around Thebes. For non-industrious civs, it will take them 24 turns each. For industrious civs, it will take them 18 turns each. The equation is: (Turns to Complete / Number of Workers) rounded up. Below is the time to clear 1 jungle tile.

Number of workers 1  2  3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Non-Industrious   24 12 8 6 5 4 4 3 3 3  3  2
Industrious       18 9  6 4 4 3 3 3 2 2  2  2

Egypt is industrious, so it will take them 18 turns. Thebes will be size 2 in 20 turns, meaning, it won’t be able to use those other tiles until it reaches size 6. However, have those 6 workers clear one tile, and you’ll have a free tile in 3 turns. The next turn (turn 4), you can have those six workers build a road (2 workers), and a mine (4 workers) in 1 turn. Every 5 turns, you can clear, and work one jungle tile. On turn 15, you can have 3 tiles cleared and worked, while Thebes would still have those 3 tiles as jungle if you put one worker to one tile. The extra turns gained can go towards improving terrain for another city. This is what makes stacks so potent. If you have a foreign worker, place two foreign workers together to equal one native worker.

From C3C Bonus Disk Strategy Guides (8 MB ZIP)

 

[wellside]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I have too many in stacks of 8. They sure do get things done quickly tho' especially in mountainous regions

I'll try stacks of 4 or less as suggested for my next game. It does seem a bit more efficient when you think about it.

Great forum BTW. Lots of good reading. Better than the PDF instructions that came with the game.

One last thing totally off topic....being Scottish I can't find a civilisation to identify with. England is probably the nearest but it pains me to do it (esp as my girlfriend is English ). Currently playing as Japan but Rome is my favourite.

 

[mikezang]

Try China, they are still on the way from ancient to now

 

[zerksees]

One last thing totally off topic....being Scottish I can't find a civilisation to identify with. England is probably the nearest but it pains me to do it (esp as my girlfriend is English ). Currently playing as Japan but Rome is my favourite.

Forget sentimental favorites. Play the civ with the best traits to win. In vanilla civ I think Persia is tough to beat.

Or at least play what you like based on the traits and unique unit strengths.

In my first game I played Americans but quickly learned there were better choices for my skills at that time.