workers

[NVP]

When I have a large empire I find it very tedious to control all my workers, and usually spend 90% of my time just moving them about. As such, I generally automate all of them when I have about 15 or more. However, I don't need to tell you all that this is often very detrimental to the economy. In a recent game, the AI decided to irrigate all the grassland around my capital (which had 4 floodplains and 3 wheat) so that at size 12 it had a (useless) food surplus of 14 but only 6 shields. Is there an easy way to make your workers automated AND effective, or do I have to control every single one individually to get a decent balance?

[Dominae]

You have to order them around yourself if you want results.

One thing you could try is the "automate but do not replace" command: as the name suggests, Workers will improve unimproved tiles the way they see fit, but will not undo all your own previous hard work. So you could manually improve the core of your empire, and leave the rest up to automation.

[Paddy]

[Theseus]

Originally posted by Dominae
You have to order them around yourself if you want results.

One thing you could try is the "automate but do not replace" command: as the name suggests, Workers will improve unimproved the way they see fit, but will not undo all your own previous hard work. So you could manually improve the core of your empire, and leave the rest up to automation.

Yep, a must... it is "shift-a", btw.

I automate when I have core tasks completed, prolly earlier than the best players. Typically not until I have all desired tiles either mined or irrigated, and the military RR in place connecting all cities.

On a related note: Try building MANY MANY MANY more Workers than you are used to... use Worker Pumps and also slip Workers in each time a town that can;t grow further hits 6 pop. Get those core tasks done FAST, and than join ("b") the surplus Workers to towns with rivers or with Aquaducts completed. You'll be amazed at what this does for your growth!!

[Solomwi]

Also use the "Road To" button (can't remember the shortcut) if you're bound and determined to automate just a little bit. If you've got a two-tile stretch, say to a new city, that needs a road, just click the button, then the destination tile. There's no AI decision making involved, and you don't have to fool with him for eight turns.

[-SafaN-]

with ctrl-shift-r u can railroad to a space:
when u have steam power, just do this for every city with two workers: the network wil be laid very soon. Just keep some workers to improve the cores manualy.

Greetz

[C. Free]

either ctrl-n or shift-n, i can't remember which, is good, too. road network: connects all cities, resources, and luxuries.

[asleepathewheel]

Yup, I'm with T. I work up my infrastructure at my home cities then put them on auto. I just find it too tedious. I hope cIV has more pinpoint controls: Mine all grass, irrigate all plains, etc.

[vmxa1]

Never auto workers, but it is a pain at times.