Would this kill me on Sid?

[axehaxe]

From the very beginning, I only build like 4 of my own workers and buy the rest. Throughout the game, I buy workers from the AI every single time they are available and I can afford them. I pay them always in gpt unless I am about to go to war with them. This strategy works like nine out of ten times because they will lose their worker which was equal to a population point, and AI attitude towards the civ who sold me the worker drops each time. This does 5 things:

1. The AI builds slower
2. The AI is now more likely to end up in a war with other AI
3. I saved my own population point at the expense of theirs
4. The work my new slave worker does eventually more than compensates for the usual 7gpt I have to pay.
5. It would be awkward for the AI to go to war with you because you are paying them and they'd lose their money much like gifting their worker for free.

Now if I did this on Sid, which I haven't tried yet I wonder what would happen...

 

[vmxa]

If you have enough money to buy a worker the Ai will demand it. If you do not pay, it will be war. Most likely you will not be in a position to win a war so early.

I have only rarely been able to kill a sid civ in the early part of the game, if take luck and a very good UU (AA ones).

Second you will not be able to keep the empire rolling by waiting for workers to go on sale.

Sid civs are not going to have workers as the game gets later and later. This is becasue they build structres so fast, that they crank out too many units. Soon they are at max cap on free unit support and disband workers.

This is one way we crank down the AI, go to war and force them to cap out support.

Don't know what level you are use to playing, but 4 workers is not going to get the job done and buying enough is not viable on any level IMO.

I mean that you will have to be under staffed for workers using that method.

 

[hrhomer]

Don't know what level you are use to playing, but 4 workers is not going to get the job done and buying enough is not viable on any level IMO.

I mean that you will have to be under staffed for workers using that method.

Yeah, I can't imagine it. I play Monarch / Emperor, and if, by the time I have 7 cities I don't have at least 10 workers, I consider myself crippled. There's just NO WAY that the AI will be willing or able to sell me that many workers (That work at 1/2 speed, no less!) at that point in the game.

Even on lower levels, I don't see how it's possible to thrive in the early game using mainly foreign workers.

Joe

 

[axehaxe]

Originally Posted by hrhomer
Yeah, I can't imagine it. I play Monarch / Emperor, and if, by the time I have 7cities I don't have at least 10 workers, I consider myself crippled.

Are you serious? I beat Deity a few times without having half as many a workers to city ratio. No and I didn't use an industrious civ. It certainly cannot hurt to have as many workers as you are saying but I prefer to buy most of my workers. I don't see why its not just as powerful to build like 5 of your own workers and buy out 10 AI workers over time as it is to make all 10 of your own workers. If you play with all 16 civs on a huge map, you will have no problem building a HUGE stash of slave workers you won't know what to do with by the time the industrial age is over. Thats as long as you keep buying out AI workers whenever they are available. Trust me. Maybe you guys were thinking I played against only like 5 or 6 civs - Heh, then you'd be screwed.

 

[vmxa]

There is no doubt that a huge map will let you get lots slaves, once you start razing cities. The issue is the first 150 turns or there abouts. You may not even have contacts in the first 100 or so turns on a huge map, depending on if you are on a pangea or not.

You won't have the cash to buy workers very often in the AA or even the early Middle Ages. This is the time that workers are the most important.

I would like to see someone make only 5 workers and fare well. I am not sure you could buy 10 workers in any event. I doubt I see 10 workers for sale in a whole game.

They only come up for sale, if a worker is in the capitol. In the first 10-20 turns, you see a worker accidentally enter the capitol and if you have 120, go for it. That is if you have contacts and that is not a given at that stage.

At deity and Sid, barbs do not drive workers into town, only wars do that as the AI will clear barbs very fast.

 

[drakdan]

I would like to see someone make only 5 workers and fare well. I am not sure you could buy 10 workers in any event. I doubt I see 10 workers for sale in a whole game.

I'm gonna do this right now on a tiny map and see what there is to see.
UPDATE
Persia, Tiny Map, my Immortals smoked the Mayans, and I have 5 workers (built 3, lost one, captured 3 from the Javelin Throwers.)

Unfortunately Russia has dominated the Aztecs and has 34% (to my 26%) of the land mass on this small earth. And me without enough galleys to get to her. Update: ToA Culture Expansion gave me 34% to Russias 37%.

Yeah, the decently high number of slaves I have will support at least my working Citizens, albeit not being able to completely road everything. I didn't raze any cities for ToA, Oracle, Pyramids, Hanging Gardens. Nice haul from the Mayans.

 

[vmxa]

I do not count map ssmaller than std as meaningful. The tiny maps are just too distorted to be valid. I speak of std maps, unless otherwise stated. In those it will probably be a huge map.

If you only only a few cities, you can get by with few workers.

 

[axehaxe]

Originally Posted by vmxa
I am not sure you could buy 10 workers in any event. I doubt I see 10 workers for sale in a whole game.

I've never encountered this kind of thing happen to me. Usually by the late medieval times I have at least 15 workers from buying alone. That combined with workers from early wars and a few of my own usually serves enough. On a huge map I would have about 25 to 40 cities frequently by this time. I money rush granaries in just about every city as soon as possible when the growth box says 2 turns. This helps a lot despite not having like 60 workers because you get lots of commerce from raw population even if the tiles are not roaded. But you definetly do have to be careful with this because if you find yourself in a war, the high population won't help you at all with war weariness and chances are you haven't been building up military while building your growth stuff. Also the low worker count means you don't have enough roads yet which definetly will slow down your flow of troops to the front.

 

[vmxa]

I do not see any good reason to buy workers after first 200 turns. It will not hurt the AI that much and I need my gold, if I have any.

Then again, I mostly play AW, so I cannot buy anything from them.

 

[Ansar]

Hmm, kinda related question:

When a AI builds a settler, is it true that on their trade screen, two workers for sale will pop up?

 

[vmxa]

I have not seen that and it does not make sense to me.

 

[axehaxe]

Originally Posted by ansar
When a AI builds a settler, is it true that on their trade screen, two workers for sale will pop up?

Absolutely not. I've seen settlers enter their capitals tons of times and nothing pops up. Because the only time a settler ever becomes 2 workers is when you capture them. You can however see like 4 workers on sale at once and that is usually when the civ is getting owned by another civ. But personally I would not consider this a jackpot because the money you pay this civ is going to make the other civ thats pounding the daylights out of this civ richer.

 

[btfx]

Unless it's a backwards civ, just give them techs for workers.

 

[axehaxe]

Originally Posted by btfx
Unless it's a backwards civ, just give them techs for workers.

Good call.