Workers

[sssmith]

Hello. I have justed started playing Civilization III. I seem to have lots of workers but all I can get them to do is build roads, mines, fortresses, clear forests or irigation. I have completed the tech tree for Ancient Times. Is there anything else I can do with them? i.e. convert to attackers, etc...

Thanks

 

[RobOz]

No. All workers do is build your infrastructure and keep it clean (from pollution). They don't turn into attackers or defenders for that matter. But there is a good article (I believe it's in the War Academy) about using the AI's thirst for slaves against them.

Basically it just says that the AI is hot for your workers and you can use your worker to draw the AI into a less than tactical situation.

I hope this answers your question.

 

[nullspace]

If you've already got all of your tiles improved, you must really have a lot of workers! Once you get the engineering tech, they can plant forests and then chop them down. Each forest you cut returns 10 shields to the nearest city. (But you can only get those ten shields once from each tile). If the workers really have nothing to do, thye can join your cities. There's a strategy article on workers that explains lots of unorthodox uses for them.

 

[MTheil3508]

If your not producing any pollution and all of your tiles are improved, you can sell them or give them as gifts to your opponents or add them to a cities population. Otherwise, just put them on automate (don't replace existing improvements) in case if you go to war, so then they can improve any new cities or replace tiles that have been bombarded.

In PTW, you can have workers build airfeilds, outposts and radar towers.

 

[cymru_man]

Originally posted by MTheil3508
You can sell them or give them as gifts to your opponents

Just to clarify; put the workers in your capital then open up negotiations to do this

 

[MTheil3508]

Thanks, I forgot.

You can also buy/trade workers from other civs (if they are in their capital). I also think that the workers work twice as slow as yours. I know that this is so when you capture them, but I also think this happens when you trade them. Unless you are industrious civ, then they work normal speed, your regular workers are twice as fast as everyone elses then.

 

[cymru_man]

any foreign worker, captured, traded or whatever works twice as slow.

What I want to know is:

When you capture a worker from a foreign civ and you are industrius, do they work at normal(non-industrious) speed or at half normal speed. I.E. do they inherit your industious trait?

When you capture a worker from a foreign civ and they are industrious do they work at normal speed? I.E. do they retain they're industrious trait?

Or does neither happen and the industrious trait of the worker or civ is lost in the mists of time .

 

[MadHatter]

sssmith,

Once you get the Steam Power Tech, you'll need all those workers to lay railroad track across your empire.

 

[Angmar]

From my reading if you are "industrious" then all the Workers under your control work at twice the speed as a non-industrious civ would.

If we use a normal worker of a non industrious civ as the base working his own fields as a base, this means:

1> Your workers work at twice the speed of the non industrious worker

2> Your captured/traded workers work at the same speed as as the our default worker.

I used to think that it was great capturing enemy workers as you didnt have to pay upkeep for them. Then I realized that they only work at half the speed. SUCK. They make great radar towers mind you

 

[Globetrotter]

Originally posted by nullspace
If you've already got all of your tiles improved, you must really have a lot of workers!

...Or very few cities...

You also can make them join cities that can handle them so that they contribute to increasing the population.

 

[Rabid Pop Tart]

The other day I had just finished laying down railroad on every tile in my borders, and had an overload of workers. I decided to go for the great wonder Universal Suffrage, which France and Germany had already been working on for quite some time. I put in 7 workers to increase the population from 12 to 19, which cut the turns down from 12 to 6. I now have the great wonder

~ Brendan

 

[Scyphax]

I know that captured slave workers do things slower than normal workers - but I don't know if and industrious captured worker is faster than a non-industious captured worker.

After every thing is developed I use workers as:

border guards - they stop friendly civs passing thru.
to occupy key transport junctions so that 'friendly' civs don't block my railways
to occupy free land where I don't want a civ to set up a city in

finally in war -
if you plan on attacking a civ and there are some jungle that will slow down your cavalry during peace time use your workers "to aid" your under developed neighbour by clearing a path thru the jungle before you declare war. Build roads to your objective if they do not exist. Evacuate your workers. Declare war. Take the first city. That turn get your workers to build railroads to the captured city and on to the border. Send more troops by rail and initiate an attack on the next city that turn. With Cavalry or Tanks and a bit of luck with the city spacing you can take many cities in one go.