What do you do with your early workers??

[Worthingtons]

Well I usually tend to get a couple setting up a road network, whilst the majority Build mines or irrigate cows/wheat, but it's always interesting knowing which one to do and which would benefit most.

[watorrey]

As in all things with this game... it depends. The road network is the highest priority but i need the production where i can benefit from mines and if starting in poor terrain, irrigation may be the most important. That said, i vote for roads.

[Aeson]

I usually build a road, then mine, then move on to the next square. I try to have roads in place to new city sites before the Settlers get there, and if possible a mine. The only irrigation I do in Despotism is Flood Plains, everything else gets mined.

[YC4B4U]

Road / Mine / Road / Mine etc. When building settler -> build road only.

Usually only have to put mines in three or so squares for each town before moving on. Then later in game, when growth is occurring come back and finish the rest. The idea is not to waste time building improvements I don't need!

[Da_cOmRaDe_MiKe]

i just automate my workers for the whole game...

too much tiime wud be spent on them if i didnt...

[Arrian]

Road, then mine or irrigation, depending. The squares I irrigate (or sometimes, depending on circumstances):

Wheat on FP (4 -> 5)
Wheat on Gr (3 -> 4)
Cows on Gr or Pl (3 -> 4, 2 -> 3)
Game - chop frst, mine if Gr, irr if Pl.

Squares I often mine:

Grassland - either type.
Cow on Gr
Wheat on Gr
Plains (if city has tons of food)

Hills/Mts/Desert I do later ('cept for gold hills, or hills/mts with lux resouces).

It all depends on what other terrain the city has. I normally spend some time developing my capitol (4-5 squares improved) before moving on to build roads outward. I've been playing Egypt a lot, so it doesn't take very long.

-Arrian

[Ghengis Brom]

The first thing I do is build a road in that first tile the first citizen starts working. Since this tile usually contains a shield or bonus resource like a cow or wheat I then mine it. My next priority is to start a road to my next city location. Once the second city is built I finish the road then build a mine for the second city, then I'll go back to the first city and build another mine or irrigate. I basically repeat the process with every new city, once I've discovered my third city I usually have my second worker or I'm in the process of building him. I use the second worker to start improving tiles while the first is building my network of roads. After I have 4 or more workers I like to start teaming them up in 2 man crews, this makes things go much quicker, particularly with industrious civs.


I AM ABOVE THE LAW!!!!

[nbarclay]

Mine/road/mine/road or irrigate/road/irrigate/road, depending on what the terrain calls for, until I have enough improved tiles for all the people the city has or is likely to have in the close future. I HATE having city dwellers waste their potential working unimproved tiles. Somewhere along the line, I'll take some time away from that for a road network to connect luxury goods and/or resources, but getting good production, population growth, and income are my top priorities. (And it's more efficient to have workers build a road while they're there to mine or irrigate than to have them come back and do it later.)

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by Da_cOmRaDe_MiKe
i just automate my workers for the whole game...

too much tiime wud be spent on them if i didnt...

Amen! But I usually keep one or two on manual for my personal projects.

[Worthingtons]

yeah but a great benefit can be derived early on from controlling them manually.

I am suprised by the overwhelming majority who put priority on roads, this is usually my last priority if there a luxury very close by, perhaps this is one of the things i'm doing wrong

[SpencerH]

I build roads, you have to expand quickly against the AI.

[randommushroom]

I used to automate my workers, until I actually began looking at the game mechanics, and discovered just how abysmal a job the automated workers do (and consequently the AI since they use the same code I'd guess). It's one of the big advantages we have to use against the AI--get your workers mining and maxing the production, and make your roads count to increase the commerce.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by randommushroom
I used to automate my workers, until I actually began looking at the game mechanics, and discovered just how abysmal a job the automated workers do (and consequently the AI since they use the same code I'd guess). It's one of the big advantages we have to use against the AI--get your workers mining and maxing the production, and make your roads count to increase the commerce.

I guess that's good if your a warmonger. But I tend to dig myself in and wait for the right time. I'm one of those who plans to survive a large attack then to make one.