wassa asks an interesting question about building.

In the early stages when Im building up I tend to use existing citizens to do my building, for instance, when its time to build a granery I'll select a citizen from a farm and shift queue the order to build the granery then return to the farm. Same goes for lumber mills, I'll grab a citizen from a woodcutters camp to build the mill then return to gathering wood. I was wondering if thats how the experts did it or whether you guys create a citizen as a "builder?"

I create guys to build, but that doesn't mean I never use an existing worker. It's very important to keep your economy fully maxed and to stay there. One villager as builder only costs about 45 food, but he will pay for himself over the course of build a couple of buildings. A Granary is 45 sec; that's 15 food right there.

What some players do is to make an extra villager for local ruin scouting, scouting in the corners, etc. and then bring him back around classical time so that they can use that villager for building. If the villager finds just ONE ruin, he's paid for himself and then you don't need to remove econ villagers for building.

If I ever do use villagers, I try to use miners first. The urgency for metal is much lower, whereas food and wood are more critical.
posted by Tim at 8:04 AM