Workers: Auto or Manual?

[tdellaringa]

When I play, I always put all my workers on auto from the get go. The only time I don't is when I want something very specific done, which is rare, or I'm pumping up a city with them.

Wondering what you folks do. It just seems way too much work to move 20-40 or more workers each turn. I wonder about the effectiveness of the AI this way, but the game is long as it is.

Also, I find that in expansion, I like to have one worker per city (and more as the game goes on.) This seems to help production and growth, as they make improvements the cities are better. Granted early on this takes a few turns, but I seem to gain it back once the game gets rolling. It seems the AI does not do this. What do you think?

Tom

 

[D9phoenix]

First worker made is under manual control ( to build roads out for my new cities while the settler is being built with its escort unit.)

Second worker under the same city goes directly into auto( with 1.21f the workers seem to be smarter )

Then once the settler and escort get made and run out to my designated city spot ( with road's built all the way to the front door) and the city founded that worker goes into Auto.

Then rinse and repeat until you have everything you need done.

Later in the game you have soo many workers that you can build huge rail lines very quickly.

And my chosen civ right now is persia just fyi

gotta love industrial/scientific

 

[Hawkster]

my normal method is to have most workers on auto - just keeping a few on manual so I can direct them as needed (early on to connect cities as auto workers don't always do this).

Later in the game I will have some on pollution clearing (shift P) most on auto and keep a couple on manual just in case the auto ones miss anything.

I find auto workers do ok - just like to keep some under my control so I can make sure anything I want is done.

 

[enelrad]

I work on semi-automatic. I give directions to "road to this tile" where my next city is going. This way the worker doesn't go off on some tangent doing useless work.

I start with getting important tiles road-ed for my capital while my warriors are scouting out new locations.

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

I usually manually control all of my workers. Haven't had too much faith in autoworkers but now with 1.21f things might be different. So does everyone agree that under 1.21f autoworkers are more efficient?

 

[No.Dice]

The first half a dozen workers (or so) are on manual, and usually stay that way for a large part of the game. Everybody else will usually go on auto until the industrial era. Once i'm able to, my workers will build railroads on the most productice tiles first. From there everybody is auto unless i need to connect a new resource or clean pollution, i take however many it requires to finish the task in one turn.

 

[keggo]

I tried auto for my first game,then went to manual for all the ones after that.Just a control nut I guess.

 

[Beam]

All workers are always on auto with some exceptions:
- Very early stages, the first three or so.
- Immediately when railroads can be build all of them are ordererd a from-to railroad (auto as well) to connect all cities.
- In the modern ages when major production sites are on critical paths for wonders etc. to clean pollution. Not for the pollution btw but for the shields

Overall it suits me well, it requires minimal attention, although they have sometimes funny behaviour like that-very-important-far-away-tile and almost ignored cities. But that has greatly improved with 1.21f.

Oh, I always use Shift-A, I hate them redoing each others work...

 

[Shink]

My worker usage is heavily influenced by my playstyle, but here it is. Let me preface by saying I play on Standard Maps usually Regent or Monarch level.

The strategy I utilize is this. My first worker I manually use to improve the five best tiles of the capital, first with roads, then with mines one tile at a time (so it roughly corresponds with the growth rate of my capital). Why five? I produce settlers only to coincide with my city reaching size 6, and I usually only produce settlers with my capital (side note: at size four I begin making spearman, spearman, settler, so every new town is sufficiently defended). After my capital has its five best tiles mined and roaded, I begin to work on the second best city - once again building up the best tiles. I usually only make three workers as my non-capital cities spend their time building horsemen. The rest of the game I use slave labor as I put my horsemen to work.

 

[Carver]

Originally posted by D9phoenix
while the settler is being built with its escort unit

Escort unit?


I have NEVER built an escort unit for a settler. Sure, a few get slaughtered here and there. But I think the net result is faster expansion scince you don't have to wait for the soldiers.

 

[Amask]

Originally posted by Carver


Escort unit?


I have NEVER built an escort unit for a settler.

I always have time to build a second defence unit while my city grows to size 2. Then I just use it as an escort with one guy staying in a city. Sometimes I build offnsive units. But that doen't realte to workers much...

 

[Badluck]

i rarely build escort since in 2 turn my citi is founded

Also i normally don,t put worker on automaton on the beggining since they make stu*id thing adn you lost an awesome production.
but later in the game when i am sure to win i normally set them on automaton not to lose time

 

[D9phoenix]

Carver: I tend to play with barbarians at raging. between that and the fact im usually able to crank out 3 warriors/spearmen before im able to crank out that next settler ( yes i always get the worst possible starting location, I swear the computer hates me). I refuse to lose a settler to a barbarian or place a city in a spot i don't want it to be just to keep it from getting killed by a barb.

Some would say its not worth just take the risk.. but thats a huge time investment for me. So i wait that extra 2 or 3 turns to get the escort unit or usually i have it built and waiting for the settler. Then when the city gets built it already has it's defense unit and can start work on a library right way.

 

[allhailIndia]

I like to keep them semi-automatic as somebody mentioned before, using auto for irrigate to, road to, etc. In earlier versions, the worker was too dumb to be used for auto and kept ripping apart every irrigation

 

[Dell19]

I've always manually controlled my workers but since I have built most improvements in my latest game, I will start putting them on auto and see what happens.

 

[chasbolt]

Always use shift A and only manually operate them to build important roads. I'm usually more involved in managing other aspects of the empire; expansion, govenors, and building.

 

[MummyMan]

I put all my workers on manual. I think crafting your cities into shield producers, trade or whatever is a lot of the fun in the game. I also hate how the workers mine everything on auto, it is totally against my strategy.

 

[The Troquelet]

You wouldn't want to put your military units on auto, now would you? Why is that? Because then your military would be as useless as the AI's. Same for workers. The whole advantage of you over the AI is that you actually know what you're doing with your workers. I will put workers on [Ctrl]-[R], build road to this and this place, or [Ctrl]-[N] to make sure I have all my cities connected, or [Shift]-[P] to automatically clean pollution. Other than that, auto orders are almost useless.

 

[LaRo]

My workers are always on automatic

I also play with don't show workers animation. It's much faster because I got a lot of workers from conquest.

 

[LaRo]

Originally posted by Carver

Escort unit?

Yeah, it's like a luxury ressource but cost only the upkeep (plus the tip)