Minimal worker strategy

[killomatic]

Unless I'm on an island by myself, I never build more than 1 worker. Attacking an AI neighbor can usually get you more workers than you'll ever need.

[CerberusIV]

One worker per city for the first 3-4 cities then one worker per 2 cities after that, up to around 7 or 8 workers max (standard size map at Prince). Serfdom helps, as does letting the AI have all the jungle terrain if possible.

At Epic the time taken to build roads in open terrain is minimal so I always build a road before the worker moves off that square. This is quite useful for moving a garrison unit out of the nearest city to kill any pillager (especially barbs early on) then back to keep the population happy.

[zeace]

Originally posted by johnmcd
The idea that should space out tech so your workers never have too much to build is nonsense.

I'm not suggesting that worker actions be the only reason to research something, but I think it's a good idea to bear in mind whether your workers are busy or not when making decisions. I think that water and wind mills are very nice, but if I know my workers are busy building other things, I'd rather have, say, currency now and I'll get machinery later when I have more worker-time.

[MasterDave]

Originally posted by zeace


I'm not suggesting that worker actions be the only reason to research something, but I think it's a good idea to bear in mind whether your workers are busy or not when making decisions. I think that water and wind mills are very nice, but if I know my workers are busy building other things, I'd rather have, say, currency now and I'll get machinery later when I have more worker-time.

I always view machinery as critical for the unit techs it allows (Xbows and Macemen). For me, the windmills and watermills are strictly window dressing. Of course, this is because I am warmongering multiplayer freak and you need those maces and Xbows to keep up with the other warmongering multiplayer freaks!!

The only time of the game when I allow the availability of workers to dictate my tech order is the beginning of the game. I generally try to time it so that I dicover animal husbandry (or mining/ agriculture depending on which Civ I have) right around the time my first worker pops out. I hate having my first worker standing around because they do not know how to make a cottage, farm, mine, pasture, or chop trees.