Workers: solo vs team?

[Hermann the Lombard]

What are some considerations about the choice between using solo workers and using them in teams? Of course it's situational, and I use a mix, tending to use solo workers for early roads (and early work in general, since I have few workers then). Later I tend to concentrate them in teams to drive roads into (former) enemy lands. When I upgrade to rails I want to do so at one turn per tile.

I guess my question applies most to the mid-game, when I see that a city could really use some more shields. I want to mine a hill or two (and it's easy to pop out a worker), but 12 turns seems a long time to wait for any return on the effort. [I've gotten spoiled by playing industrious civs!]

[theDragon]

I tend to stack em if I have a ton of em. I hate waiting so long for a simple thing. I am normally a terrible industrialist however, so I just tend to hit the Automate button and let them play on their own until I need some roads or rail laid down. I know thats not smart on the ungodly levels of play, but I am on the lower echelon of playing Civ3, so my advice isnt the best here at Apolyton. But in most accounts when I need something constructed ASAP, the stack of workers is a must.

[joncnunn]

After you have rail, have enough to do everything you want that turn.

Prior to rail, I usually keep native workers indivually for light jobs. It just takes so long to commute between various cities in the empire. The exceptions are for bigger jobs, especally when non-industrious.

For slaves, I keep them in stacks of two when non-industrious and stacks of 3 when industrious so that one of these stacks has the same rate as a native worker.

[Modo44]

Those are not set rules, but more general ideas. Try to use solitary Workers (preferably Slaves) to build Roads whenever possible. Try to team Workers together when they can move and start working on the same turn, preferably enough to finish the build on same turn. Try to move the Workers as little as possible - they should be adding improvements, not walking around.

[cousLee]

I stack em 98% of the time. It does mean more micromanagement though, but I hate to wait for an improvement. I make task speceific crews. IE: a 3 slaves stack does nothing but new road. the next turn the move to a new tile and build another road (one turn to reach new tile). the 6 stack of slaves follows behind and does the railroad/mine. The 3/6 stacks of regulars do the same thing for hills. When I decide to improve the mountain ranges, I create an appropriate stack for the job (5 regs for the road, 9 regs for the RR/mine). If I have a limited number of workers, I will use 2 stacks of 5 and road all the mountains first, then back-track and finish.
By using stacks, you really don't save the much time. If I place a single worker on a 3 different tiles, it takes 3 turns to road them. If I use them in a stack, it still takes the same amount of time, but each turn a new improvement is useable, where-as working singles this is not the case.

The other benefits of using stacks, is if some bad guy shows up, I don't have to cancel work orders or garrison protection. I can move them out of harms way and use the unit I would have to fortify with them to dispatch the tresspasser.

just my .02 workers worth

[Hermann the Lombard]

Thanks to all! I tend toward task-specific stacks myself, though I seem to have a penchant for 2-turn work, such as 2 workers for irrigation (or 4 slaves, or a suitable combo). But I always screw up and have that stack build a road, leaving one FTE (full-time equivalent) either standing around or going off to start something else. Ah, the joys of micro!

[Aqualung71]

Hermann.....good to see you around again - where have you been hiding all this time? AU misses your great story-telling

[Hermann the Lombard]

Thanks, Aqualung! I hesitate to admit it (since I'm not wearing my Nomex/Kevlar bodysuit), but I've been seduced away by younger, sexier games and also distracted by Real Life. [Among other things, I got married August 21, went to Hawai'i for two weeks on our honeymoon and spent half of November in the hospital (NOT related to being married!!!)] However, when those younger games begin to pall, I find myself drawn back to Civ III (C3C specifically).

As for AU, I play so slowly that it's hard to keep up, and I can't really play one of those for relaxation (diversion and satisfaction, yes, but relaxation, no).