Need Automation Tips

[adlait]

Okay, in general, the game moves along pretty well in Ancient-> renaissance. Right around Riflemen/Calvary, it seriously starts to bog down. It's especially bad when I have 20 cities and I'm trying to conquer a civ that has stacks of 10 units guarding each city.

Can anyone share some automation tips?

[Proteus_MST]

Tips on automation?
That´s easy:
Don´t use it

[Nugog]

What in particular are you trying to automate?

Workers?

City Work Force placement?

[Nugog]

Welcome to Apolyton BTW.

[frenzyfol]

Personally I hate automation.
However, I sometimes cue a stack of commands.
For example, If I want a worker to build a farm, move build a cottage etc.
hold shift, select farm button, select move to button, select cottage button, release shift. = done.

[Thrak]

I generally take it too far with micromanagement

Only tips I've got are -

worker teams (2 is cool)
use route to
stack commands using shift click if its a quiet city

[Tattila the Hun]

It would not be so bad, if I could tell them what to do by default. A grassland tile, even if it's watered; build cottage. If I decide I want a farm there, I build it non-automated. Same with hills, default a mine, if I want a windmill, I'll build one.

A way to search my lands for certain improvements, or resources not hooked up, would be nice.

[ghen]

I automate workers sometimes, but in the options I make sure that they don't destroy tile improvements to make different ones and they don't cut down forests. I do all that manually.

Mainly I only automate workers once I've improved 75-80% of what needs to be done. This lets the workers fill in the gaps more efficiently.
Once I get to railroads, I take all workers off automation and do up my RR's by hand until the major routes are covered. Then its back to automation.
If global warming starts, or nuclear war spreads, then I pull a 5 worker team for changes/cleanups.

[Nugog]

I rarely automate. Sometimes I do for railroads - but only when I am playing on a huge map and are feeling lazy.

As for teaming your workers up - I sort of do this - but I do not actually "stack" them and move them as a group. I may have 6 or 7 workers moving and building improvements together, but I will move each individually and order them that way too - so as not to waste any movement/turns.

[Will9]

In the late game I group my workers into groups of 3 so they can build RRs in one turn (epic speed). I'll automate some of them to connect my cities while I'll leave the others under my own control to connect the improvements that get +1 from RRs.