does building a rr take less time if a road is already in place?

[Dis]

I've always wondered this. I usually preroad forest squares, especially if my workers have nothing else to do. Like the time when I finish all farms, mines etc, but before I get lumbermills.

anyways I should get 2nd xp, still only have warlords. been so busy with wow, I only play civ4 when my internet connection goes out at night time (apprantly my city is not advanced enough to have internet access at night)

[Will9]

Yes. I once had to build railroads in a war raveged area with no roads and my standard 3 teams of workers couldn't make the RRs in 1 turn. I'm not quite sure, but I think roads are made quicker once RRs come around.

[Risa]

No. Roaded or not roaded, it takes the same time to build railroad.

[marvinkosh]

Steam Power is a pre-requisite for making railroads and allows all your workers to perform tasks 50% faster than usual.

Building roads on a square before railroads are available has the advantage that there will be less time wasted when workers come back to add railroads

[halfapple111]

Yes.

[TriMiro]

It always takes the same amount of time to build the RR itself, with or without a road first. With the steam power, the base time to build RR is two turns, so a team of two workers builds it instantly. However, if you are building the RR over desert or tundra or flood plains, the time to build it is now 3 turns, so a team of two workers would take 2 turns to build it (thus one of the workers would waste a turn).

Above is the time to build the RR itself, however, the workers need to move over the corresponding tile first. If the tile is a mountain or forest or jungle and if you have not already build a road, the workers would waste another turn to move over the tile. The exception here is the Indian fast worker, two fast workers can move over a mountain tale and RR it the same turn (unless it is a desert or tundra mountain).

The moral of the above story is that if the workers have nothing better to do, just build roads on every tile especially the forest and hill ones. Then when you are building RR, use teams of two workers to work over the regular grass and plains and teams of one or three workers to work on the desert and tundra.

Serfdom changes the above equation a little. With serfdom a worker can RR a grass/plain tile instantly and desert/tundra tile in 2 turns. However, I never use serfdom so late in the game.

[couerdelion]

Originally posted by TriMiro
However, if you are building the RR over desert or tundra or flood plains, the time to build it is now 3 turns, so a team of two workers would take 2 turns to build it (thus one of the workers would waste a turn).

The worker only "wastes" a turn, if you do not use it to do something else that turn. If you select those workers, you will notice that one of them still has a move.

[Yosho]

Originally posted by TriMiro
Serfdom changes the above equation a little. With serfdom a worker can RR a grass/plain tile instantly and desert/tundra tile in 2 turns. However, I never use serfdom so late in the game.

Eh...if I'm Spiritual, I'll sometimes switch to serfdom for 10-15 turns or so around this point in the game to quickly build railroads and lumbermills and such.