Want to start using workers my own way.

[kamidan]

Hi,
I have very little experience with the CIV franchise. I attempted C2 and C3 but found them very overwhelming and at that point in my life I was less than visually stimulated so I discontinued playing them.

But I've had CIV4 since it was first release but only played very minimially and generally let the game take care of a great deal of things that are going on.

So now I would like to put my workers to use in my own way instead of letting them be automated, but that leaves me wondering what exactly I should do with them. I have no idea if I should task them to build something, or improve something etc. I've obviously watched the workers when on automated but it still leaves me confused as to why the game chooses what it chooses.

I think if I could understand this better than I might ahve a better grasp over the whole game.

As it is now, it's pretty hard for me to lose on the settler easy setting with the game automating much of what is going on.

Thanks if you can point me towards obtaining the knowledge I desire with regards to workers and putting them to work for me.

[Snotty]

well, I would start by improving any special resources you have in your city radius as they give good bonus when you improve them.

Ater that I guess I build cottages if I want stronger tech/economy or build mines if I want the city to produce more hammers and so build stuff faster.

I get the workers to chop forests near cities that I want things hurried in, like if I want to build a library fast for culture, or a granery fast because the city has high food output from its other squares.

I think learning to manually control your workers will make your empire much more efficient, especially early on. best of luck

[CerberusIV]

Controlling the workers yourself is one of the biggest advantages you get over the AI's.

I use 1 worker per city for my first 4 cities and then stick to around 2 workers per 3 cities after that.

What you get the workers to do depends on the size of a city. There is no point in having them develop lots of tiles that the city doesn't have enough citizens to work. Develop the tiles that the city is going to use plus a couple of extras then move the worker to another city. You can bring it back later when the first city has more citizens.

Start with any special resources - horses, copper, iron and any food specials. Next priority is tiles along rivers (most of these give an extra commerce in output). Then irrigating tiles next to lakes.

Start by ensuring the city has enough food to grow moderately (2 or 3 surplus), then a few mines for the production. After that put down cottages because you will need these to keep your economy going.

Plan ahead. Once you discover Civil Service you can extend your irrigation and build extra farms. Don't waste time building a cottage on a tile you will want as a farm later. Machinery allows windmills which produce an extra food. If a city has a lot of hills you will probably want most of them to have windmills for the food so don't put in a lot of mines you won't be able to use.

The difficult choice is between farms and cottages. My motto is "Cottage where you can, farm where you must". Cottages grow into towns and are essential to your finances. You only need enough food for the city to grow to a size just below where you will too many unhappy citizens.