Hi all,

Here is a guide I’ve created about stealing workers from the AI and city-states, which can be a powerful strategy to jump-start your early game and help you catch up to the AI on higher difficulties.

I’ve seen multiple opinions on this subreddit about whether stealing workers from the AI is wrong/cheating. All I can say is that if capturing the citizens of a neighboring country, enslaving them, marching them away from their homeland, forcing them to toil for thousands of years, and then executing them for in the late game sounds *wrong*, then this guide may not be for you.

If you prefer pictures, here is a link to an imgur album I made.

The basic strategy of this guide is:
       Declaring war and grabbing an initial worker,
       Escaping safely with your units,
       Camping two tiles outside of their borders,
       Moving and taking a second worker once you see it, and then
       Making peace immediately.

(Disclaimer: this guide is aimed at higher difficulties on a standard size, Pangea map, with standard speed, but its techniques are widely applicable. Everything in this guide is based on my personal experience, and I would really appreciate any input or other information.)

 

Some vocabulary I will be using

• NC: National College (most important science building of the early game!)
• CS: city state
• ZOC: zone of control
• Expand: non-capital cities
• Cap: capital
• UU: unique unit
• UA: unique ability
• Radaring: if you put a civilian unit in “move mode”, by mousing over tiles you can see which are obstructed (they’ll be red) and which tiles are clear (blue). If you are at peace with AI, it will show any tile within their borders as obstructed; if you are at war, you can use radaring within their borders.

 

The importance of early worker stealing

A key concept in Civ is that early turns matter more than later turns. Saving one turn on your NC might later determine whether you get one-turned on that key wonder or not.

Stealing workers both saves you valuable turns of early game production and allows you to get workers faster than if you had produced them yourself.

Opportunity cost. Building a worker has an opportunity cost of 70 hammers--hammers that can go to getting key buildings up early. In the time it takes to build two workers, you could have a shrine (), granary (), and monument () up. In ~one more turn than it takes to build a worker, you could have a library or caravan (). Early and free workers allow you to improve luxes faster and keep your cities growing, improve tiles and increase and , and sell strategic resources and luxes for .

 

Building	Cost
Worker	70
Library	75
Granary	60
Shrine	40
Monument	40
Caravan	75

 

Overview and Timeline

Overview.
City States:

• At around T20, the first CS worker will be out. (Coastal CS can sometimes take longer to produce their first worker.) They will normally start by improving a pasture, mining lux, or a farm on wheat. Ideally, you’ll want to snatch up the worker as soon as they’re done improving the tile, pillage, and then move off. Hopefully then when the next worker comes out, you’ll be able to steal it from the same tile.

• Camp two tiles outside their border (out of their sight) and wait for the next worker, which should be about T45. I recommend camping with two scouts if you can’t get the T45 worker right away. If you want, you can radar inside their borders to find where their worker is (or pop in and out with a scout).

• Note: On Immortal, I believe the first CS worker should be out around T30 or so, but if anyone has any more information/experience I’d appreciate the input!

AI:

• Stealing workers from an AI is much more difficult than stealing from a CS.

• After settling my capital, I like to start out with my warrior in one direction until I find an AI. (Try to stick to open terrain when you do this). If the first AI city you run into is an expand, you can often poach a worker right away. If you run into the capital first, scout around the capital and look for an expand.

• AI workers normally improve tiles in very roughly this order: farms -> pastures/mining luxes -> roads -> calendar luxes -> quarries. The best and earliest worker steals will be when they are initially improving farms/pastures/mines in the expand--you’ll want to stay away when they’re on roads, as roads normally run between the cap and expand where you could be hit by both city shots.

• Scouts can normally survive 2 hits, warriors 3 hits, and spearmen 4-5 hits.

• To poach a second worker, camp out two tiles away from their borders near an improvement that AI workers will prioritize. Make sure that the AI will accept peace (see "Miscellaneous Notes" below)--then you can steal another worker and peace out right away.

Timeline: Deity, Standard Speed.

T8-15: Best chance of stealing workers from an AI out of their first expand. Workers are most likely working on primary improvements, such as pastures, farms, or mines.
T20: First CS worker out. AI workers most likely working on secondary improvements, such as calendar, quarries, or roads.
T30: This can sometimes be a good opportunity to steal more workers from the AI: occasionally the AI will leave their cities relatively unguarded, or their workers might be improving tiles in the 3-ring (and are easier to steal safely there).
T45: Second CS worker out.

 

Miscellaneous Notes

• Stealing workers is easier with civs with a warrior/scout UU, such as the Aztec or Shoshone.

• If you find Mt. Kilimanjaro, prioritize the High Altitude Training promotion for scouts--it makes the second worker steal really easy.

• Make sure to keep track of who has the Goddess of Protection pantheon.

• To check if the AI will accept peace, you can propose a peace treaty and click “What will make this deal work”. Also, the AI leader screen will indicate whether or not they want peace: “We can now make a deal to prevent your utter obliteration” or “For the good of our two nations let us make peace” mean they’ll accept peace, while “Come to beg for mercy?” or “Now is not the time for peace” mean they won’t.

• The rule of Zone of Control: if you are adjacent to an enemy, moving to another tile adjacent to that same enemy uses all of your MP. (But there's wayyyy more to it than that.) Learn Zone of Control! Understanding ZOC can allow you to (1) move more effectively, and (2) control where your enemy can move (because they are governed by ZOC too). It is especially important with worker stealing, where the goal is to escape safely rather than killing enemy units. Link.

• On Immortal, the AI starts with 1 worker, 1 settler, 2 defense units, 1 scout, and Pottery, Animal Husbandry, and Mining already researched. On Deity, the AI starts with 2 workers, 2 settlers, 2 defense units, 1 scout, and Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Mining, and The Wheel already researched. Link.

 

Conclusion
Stealing workers is a powerful (and sometimes fun!) tactic. You can see the imgur album of a play-through I made here. Hope this was helpful, and thanks for reading! :)

  --Moonboatingbears