Can't build railroads in newly captured territory?

[Jessica]

I am currently engaged in a land grab with the Zulus against the Persians. In a sense, I am racing the Zulus to get the cities that are near me (so we don't end up with the silly checkerboard I've seen so many times). I have been using my workers to extend my rail network into new cities as I capture them to speed my movement into Persian territory. Last turn, I razed a city instead of occupying it (it was much too close to its neighbors). The resulting change in territory opened a tunnel in the Persians' cultural boundaries.

-- If this is tough to picture, see the attached image. Russians (me) are brown, Zulu are yellow, Persians are green. The area in question is outlined by the white box. --

So of course my first thought is Yay I can connect the two halves of my empire on this continent. But, alas, NO. The workers in the territory that was formerly within the Persians' cultural boundaries CANNOT BUILD RAILROADS. Hmph. They can build fortresses and other improvements, but not railroads! I can move the same worker back into territory that has been mine for a few rounds and the button for building railroads reappears. The restriction remains in the next round, too.

Has anyone else noticed this behavior with workers?

Thanks,
Jessica

[Travathian]

I have, but IIRC the problem went away the next turn. I triple checked to make sure I had access to coal/iron, I did. I also noticed it only seemed to happen for certain tiles, so I usually ended railroading from a different point to the same destination.

In my current game I'll be at railroads soon and will research it further.

[quinalla]

Wow, looks like you are taking over! Anyway, I have not run into anything like this before, but if you attach your save file, I could take a look at that and see if there is anything I can find.

-quinalla

[Chuckles]

The only time something similar happened to me was when I was on a new island that did not have a harbour or airport yet so I had no access to coal or iron. After I built a harbour on the island the problem went away.

However you are on one giant continent so that can't be the problem for you.

[napalm010]

Are u sure the tiles already had roads? Civ3 will not automatically build roads then railroads on a tile when using the "build railroad to" command. U must build the road to selected tile first. Then use the build railroad to command.

[Skanky Burns]

To build railroads, your worker needs iron and coal. Now before you yell "BUT I HAVE THEM!!!", read on.

The worker needs access to the coal and iron. If the worker in question is not in your cultural border, and is closer to an enemy city than your city, it will not be able to build railroads, even if its not in anyone's cultural border.

2 things I can suggest would be to either get a RoP agreement with the Zulus (possibly more trouble than its worth. The other option is to plop down a new city in the middle of the unclaimed area, and rush a few cultural improvements in it so you dont lose it. This will allow you to build railways around that city, and hopefully join your 2 empire segments together.

[Travathian]

"If the worker in question is not in your cultural border, and is closer to an enemy city than your city, it will not be able to build railroads, even if its not in anyone's cultural border."

And you came to this conclusion how?

[m0nk33]

I've noticed this recently and was entirely baffled by why my workers couldn't build railroads in certain sqaures even though I had the resources and a road was there. After a bit of experimentation, I realized that it does have something to do with being near enemy territory, as Skanky says, although the rule doesn't seem to be as simple as whether the square is closer to your or your enemy's territory. I wish there was some documentation about how this works from Firaxis. Maybe there is somewhere and I haven't seen it?

I know one of the things the designers have put some thought into is not making it too easy to blitzkreig another country. It's already a bit too easy to do this IMO. After learning the trick of razing a city, plopping down one of mine, building RRs to it, attack next city with 3 movement point units, repeat, I found that I could wipe out a medium sized civ in a few turns. It just feels a bit too easy to me, and I know that if the AI did me this way, I'd be screaming. I'd sure be putting alot more thought into where I built my cities.

Anyhow, if anyone knows how this works exactly, I'd love to hear it.