A strategy for the Indian UU ( and its immense advantage )

[aneeshm]

I'm making a few assumptions here . The first is that Indians have a UU that is given an extra movement point . The second is , like in Civ 3 , even 1/3 of a movement point can be used to move to any place , or to initiate an action .

Taking that , on a terrain of type T ( which has movement cost 1 , i.e. , a unit with two movement point can cover two such terrain squares in one turn ) , it takes N workers to construct a road in one turn , then , given any number of workers higher than N , it will take any civilisation whose worker has one movement point a minimum of M ( and a maximum of 2*M , which is much more common ) turns to construct a road across M tiles of terrain type T ( assuming that no infrastrucutre existed in the first place , as is the case in the early game ) . The Indian worker can , however , do this job in M/3 turns ( or rather , M/(bonus granted by roads ) ) .

This is rather simple to show . Imagine six adjacent squares A , B , C , D , E , and F ( of terrain type T ) . Imagine we have put 3*N workers on A ( divided into three sets of N workers - X , Y , and Z ) . N workers use their movement points and construct a road on A ( X has used their movement points ) . Then another N workers ( the set Y ) move to the next tile ( which is B ) , and use the one remaining movement point to construct another road on B . The last remaining workers ( set Z ) use the already constructed roads on A and B to move to C , with only 2/3 movement point remaining , and construct a road on C . The turn ends . The position at end-of-turn is - X on A , Y on B , and Z on C , and roads on all A , B , and C .

On the next turn , X ( located now at A ) move across the roads on B and C ( which use up 2/3 movement points ) , and land on D . Having 1/3 movement point remaining , they construct a road on D . Y ( located at B ) move across the roads on C and D , and , like X , construct a road on E with only 1/3 movement point remaining . Z ( located now at C ) move across the roads on D and E and , like X and Y , construct a road on F with only 1/3 movement point remaining . The turn ends . The position is identical to the end of the first turn , with X , Y , and Z poised to construct roads on the next three squares in the next turn .

Let us see what the Indian workers have accomplished in two turns - all starting on the same tile , they have constructed a road on six tiles in one two . This means that it will be possible for the Indians , if you take the road route , to have workers build roads for your army units ( having one movement point ) as the army moves along plain terrain ( with the army always exactly one turn ahead of the workers , if it starts on the same tile ) . This is a fantastic advantage for a warmonger - your army becomes effectively a "treat all terrain as roads" on all plain terrain ( and also obviously so for a builder ) .


But this is only the tip of the iceberg - the effect mentioned here is scalable . It is obvious that , when railroads come out , it will be possible for 10*(k*N) workers to build railroads across 10 squares ( of terrain T ) in only one turn ( where k*N is the number of workers required to build road+railroad in one turn ) . Imagine an industrial army of artillery and infantry ( as currently that is the most powerful ) which can treat all plain terrain as railroad .



All this is , of course , assuming that the Indian worker is faster in that it has an extra movement point . If Firaxis says no , this elaborate model I've constructed will be shot to hell .


Note : This should really have been in "Strategy and Tips" , but as the game isn't released , there is no strategy and tips .




UPDATE : This strategy is no longer exclusive to the Indians , and can be used by all Civs . The Indians have an advantage only in that they can road six squares in place of the three others can , given enough workers .

[ixnay]

I assumed that the fast worker constructs tile improvements faster rather than having an extra movement point.

But hey, I could be wrong.

[aneeshm]

That's the problem - I don't know . But if "fast" means having an extra movement point , then my post stands .

[Cabbagemeister]

I hadn't even thought of the Indian worker having extra monement before, but now that you mention it, it sounds more plausible than having shorter build times (which was definitely overpowered as the Civ3 Industrious trait).

But as for your strategy, remember that (as far as we know) you can't use roads inside another person't cultural borders. So while an Indian army with a lot of "combat workers" can move fast over neutral terrain, it gets no bonus in those last crucial squares before attacking a city. And since most people will prefer to attack a close neighbor, it is only in the early game, where empires are still small and widely spaced, that you can expect to have a lot of neutral territory to cover. And you can't expect to have enough spare workers hanging about in the early game to pull this off.

This does not diminish the tremendous value the fast (+1 movement) worker would have in hooking up your road network in the first place--your roads get constructed at basically double speed (right?). But I'm not sure how many other substantial benefits it brings.

[aneeshm]

@ Cabbagemeister

I've taken a model in which the worker has twice the movement points of other workers ( i.e. , has two movement points , compared to only one for other civs ) . The effect this has , however , is that it is , at a miminum , three times faster at builting roads , and , at a maximum six times faster at building roads ( the maximum scenario is much more common ) . So your road network gets constructed at either triple speed or six times the speed ( depending on how good your opponent is ) .

As for the enemy borders thing - this is meant more for use over either neutral or your own terrain , for rapid response ( because railroads no longer confer infinite movement ) .

Remember that this is immensely useful during the industrial era , too - a big stack of workers could , in theory , create railroads on upto ten squares in one turn .

[Cabbagemeister]

Originally posted by aneeshm
@ Cabbagemeister

I've taken a model in which the worker has twice the movement points of other workers ( i.e. , has two movement points , compared to only one for other civs ) . The effect this has , however , is that it is , at a miminum , three times faster at builting roads , and , at a maximum six times faster at building roads ( the maximum scenario is much more common ) . So your road network gets constructed at either triple speed or six times the speed ( depending on how good your opponent is ) .

Yeah, 3-6 times faster. I see that now. Cool.

Originally posted by aneeshm

As for the enemy borders thing - this is meant more for use over either neutral or your own terrain , for rapid response ( because railroads no longer confer infinite movement ) .

But like I said, I just don't see getting much benefit to your military operations from being able to road neutral territory faster. It seems like when there's a lot of neutral territory to road you just won't have the quantity of workers needed to do so that quickly.

Originally posted by aneeshm

Remember that this is immensely useful during the industrial era , too - a big stack of workers could , in theory , create railroads on upto ten squares in one turn .

Yeah, but when building railroads, aren't you mostly just going to be railing over your previous roads? In that case, I can't see any benefit from the extra movement point, since roads already give you the power to "move and improve" in one turn. In Civ3, for instance, your worker stack could immediately rail up half your cities as soon as you got coal. Again, it seems like you only get benefits when you rail neutral territory (which, at least in Civ3, was not that common).

Of course, if there were more tiles, and thus more neutral\unimproved territory in the game, the fast worker would be more powerful. My guess is that the strength of the Indian UU will scale with the size of the map.

[aneeshm]

An update : this strategy is not exclusive to the Indians any longer . This can be used by any and all Civs , as all workers now gain movement points .

The special ability , however , is that now India can road six squares in one turn ( instead of the three others can ) , given enough workers . This may be useful for extremely large maps , but is useless for anything else .

[Jaybe]

From what I gathered, workers are expensive! I remember their costing 40 hammers, though this figure may not be true.

[playshogi]

Re: A strategy for the Indian UU ( and its immense advantage )

Originally posted by aneeshm


This is rather simple to show . Imagine six adjacent squares A , B , C , D , E , and F ( of terrain type T ) . Imagine we have put 3*N workers on A ( divided into three sets of N workers - X , Y , and Z ) .

.....

I'm very sorry, but I cannot imagine this.

Workers cost 60s. I still don't see why, just because the Indian worker has an extra movement point why it is able to build things faster. All it can do is get to the more desirable squares faster, so there is more flexibility and fewer wasted turns just moving.

[aneeshm]

This is covered in the update . I wrote this article assuming that all workers have only one MP , and the Indian UU has two . Even then , if the game links movement points and worker speed ( i.e. , twice the work is done if twice the MP remain when the worker is being assigned the order ) , then the Indian UU is very powerful ( probably very overpowered in the hands of a skilled player ) .