Worker use

[CenturionV]

what is the bets way to use your workers? automate them or micro them? i often see my workers un-doing inmprovments they jsut finshed a few turns ago? is this jsut because the worker ai is dumb and cant see that the irrigation the city needs will be avalible just a few turns after there done a mine on the same square or what?

 

[gugalpm]

I prefer micro all the time...
See the manual for the command that orders them to automate without changing what you already have

 

[gugalpm]

the command is shift + A

 

[gugalpm]

sorry for double posting... damn computer...

 

[WildFire]

If you use automate they are just going to whatever they choose and that could be a problem.They could mine over irrigation and the city will starve or just the opposite. I think it is best just to manage them yourself and know what they're doing

 

[bbaws]

Shift+a is handy to have a wee force of workers on pollution patrol and also pretty handy to tidy up newly acquired lands. I always micro in the early stages though.

 

[Bamspeedy]

WildFire, Shift-A prevents them from changing mines to irrigation, and irrigation to mines, and will not cut down forests. I definitely recommend manually moving them in the early game, because automating them will cause them to irrigate grassland, which is useless while you are still in despotism (unless it is grassland with a bonus resource). Manually moving them right from the start of the game will give you a powerful jump start.

Whether you feel you need to keep manually moving them throughout the rest of the game depends on map size, how many workers you have, and how much patience you have. Playing on a huge map with well over 100 workers, I would suggest you keep your sanity and use shift-A.

 

[civ_steve]

I echo Bamspeedy. Manage every move of your workers early on. Once your region is mostly developed, use SHIFT-A, which prevents them from changing anything you've already done (Irrigation or Mining stay). When I get Railroad, I regain control over the workers to connect all my cities, then set them back to automate. I usually retain control over a small group which I use to make small tweaks in food supply, if necessary.

 

[cracker]

I bet you knew it would only be a matter of time before I added a post to this thread.

You should not automate any workers in the early game.

There is a really important reason that every civ begins the game with two basic units: a settler and a worker.

Because of how they impact the game, these two units are the most powerful units in the game. Why would you automate your most powerful assets and give up their advantages in favor of playing with pointy sticks instead. You have to manage workers AND manage your military.

There is a transition point in the game that occurs somewhere around 1000BC depending on your initial growth rate and whether you are industrious or not.


(click on the image if you want to read a better discussion of these issues.)

Prior to that transition point you cannot afford to automate any of your workers. After the transition point you can automate your workers and give up about 30-40% of your initiative or you can focus on understanding the appropriate crew sizes to manage workers on some more focused and more profitable tasks.

I would never consider automating any of my workers until after I got beyond the Democracy+Replaceable parts threshhold and even then I would find a place to join all the workers of my nationality into cities before I would consider automating the workers to be an even remotely viable decision.

Once you understand how to manage the appropriate sized work crews, this sequence of tasks is relatively unchallenging and can yield benefits that at least allow the workers to pay for their upkeep.

 

[Woody]

My general strategy is to micro mange them until I get railroads then after I have connected my major cities I turn em loose on automatic, I know I can get terrian built up more effeciently by micro managing them but by the time I get railroads it just get to be too time consuming. I will still take over a group of them if there is a specific task I need done quickly or if I am about to go to war and need to move them away from the border.

 

[Zachriel]

Of course, never automate in the early game.

However, even later in the game when automation is the norm, never surrender complete control of your workers. That is, keep a close eye on how they are progressing. Keep some on manual control for rushing mines or other important improvements; assign some to connect roads and rails (ctrl-shift-R); reassign some to important cities with ctrl-shift-I; use some on the offensive to manually rail to recently conquered cities, or to rush forts when on the defensive; etc.

And listen to cracker. He has spent a great deal of time analyzing the game (in often excruciating detail) and he has garnered many insights.

 

[bbaws]

True enough but there is a difference between having expertise and setting yourself up as a guru. Any game of Civ comprises thousands upon thousands of decisions all of which are interlinked. There isn't one single right way to play the game. Bogging yourself down with numbers seems a bit daft when you could just spend some time acquiring an intuitive sense of how the game works. And keep in mind it is a game and have some fun.

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by bbaws
. And keep in mind it is a game and have some fun.

Here, here!

 

[satchel]

I agree with the general sentiment on this thread - I never automate in the early game, but I will later on when I get bored. When automating I always use 'SHIFT-A' - I'm not really sure why anyone would use 'A' - and I always keep a close watch on what they are doing and keep a few unautomated workers handy at all times. But I'd go nuts if I never automated any of them.

That's really the main thing for me - I enjoy some of the micromanaging aspects of the game but I can't micromanage everything from start to finish without losing interest. So, I may never be a supreme power player but I can do okay for myself on Regent or Monarch. cracker's essays are impressive and insightful but frankly I don't have the patience to implement all his ideas.

 

[cracker]

Satchel,

Don't fret too much about a lack of patience from time to time.

The articles are meant to be more of a summary point of reference that can serve as a foundation to let you make the decision of which choices buy you the most benefit in the current games you play. Some people will get a lot more benefit out of the articles than others and much of this will have to do with how well the light bulbs click in and mesh with the individual play objectives.

I try to do most the things listed in the articles but I am a fragile human as well as the next guy. I will wake up from time to time in a game and suddenly realize that I should have been doing X about ten turns earlier, but we all live and learn.

My only purpose in crafting the articles in the webpage format is to make sure that the thoughts are easily accessible to players as early in their game playing experience as possible. I like to control my destiny and I sense that most civ players share that desire. I find that the more I play with these articles as a reference the more the important tasks become instinctive and second nature.

(tongue in cheek: It sort of like the hairclub for civ3 strategy: I wrote em but I use em on a regular basis and get better with every game turn played.)

One thing you should not take wrong about these detailed strategy articles is a sense that they might make the game less fun or more tedious. I make many of these decision intuitively because my intuition is now twisted in that direction. I will go hacking and slicing through 30 or 50 turns of game play and then just stop and check myself to see if I think there are any things I want to explore in greater detail to see if they might make the game easier for me in the future.

 

[CenturionV]

ok another question? later in the game is it wise to basicly irrigate every possible square and only mine the hills/mountaisn or should you have a mix of irrigation and mining or does ti really matter?

 

[Bamspeedy]

People that irrigate every possible tile are 'milking' the game. Meaning that they easily have the game 'won' and can win the game whenever they want, but are holding off on winning to slap on more points to their total score. Irrigating adds more population points which increases the score.

If the game is not in that stage yet, and you have several capable opponents left you should be having a good balance of mining/irrigation so that every tile is used and you have maximum shield output.

Specialists (taxman, scientists) only add 1 gold or 1 beaker. They are however, immune to corruption. So in your high-corrupt cities, where mining everything will still net you only 1 or 2 good shields, you might as well irrigate everything to get the specialists. Around your palace you still want maximum production since they don't lose any (or very few) shields because of corruption.

 

[Zur]

hmm, to get the most out of corrupt land, isn't it better to ICS for the 1 shield & 1 commerce minimum per city, and then go for max food to get as many specialists per city as possible? Sounds much better than putting widely-spaced 1 shield 1 commerce cities with worked land all going into corruption.

 

[CenturionV]

but what about if i cant go any higher pop wise(i need a hospital but wont get sanitation for 30-40 turn and am already at 12)? should i un irrigate alot of my squares and mine them for those 30-40 turns and then re-irrigate them when i get sanitation or should i just leave the improvments i have on?

 

[Zachriel]

Here is an example of the city screen of Smolensk. There are two ways to arrange the citizens; one for growth and one for balance. In this example, the former has nine food growth and 16 shields; the latter has zero food and 22 (soon to be 24) shields.





Generally, you move citizens in the city screen from working on irrigated grassland to forests, or better yet, mined hills and mountains. When you get the Hospital built, then you reassign your citizens for growth. (Also note the six ganged workers on the far eastern tile mining the mountain there.)

From GOTM7
IROQUOIS NATION
http://www.zachriel.com/gotm7/