Should I whip the first worker?
Most definitely. Then whip the 2nd and the next settler. Like Atom says "When in doubt..."
. Whip. Whip. Whip. Use the excellent tips Atom gave, but if ur not using slavery much already just use it - don't be afraid, click the button! Using food as mfg in this way is much much more effective (usually) than growing a little bit more to work mines. With a granary, good food and a low population you grow back super quick (so that you hardly lose out anyways). It also actually means you need less workers ^^, because say you only worked 6 tiles in a city and it takes 6 turns to grow from 5 to 7, then you slave 2 guys every 6th turn and NEVER have to work that extra tile (apologies for naff example
). I kind of try and slave when my city grew to the point that it can no longer work super tiles (but that's not a hard and fast rule). It's also worth noting that you might want some cities to grow more so they can work more cottages (especially the capital) - even so you will still slave in these cities
.
Like MLL says with us playing on noble level (shouldn't we be playing on a harder level? IDK), it takes some time to reach your hapiness cap. However some cities will get unhappy
. This makes hooking luxuries (and planting that city in such a way so that you will be able to hook the beaver
super important, it also makes monarchy a bit of a priority tech. That said in very high food cities I sometimes find myself over slaving, so watch out for that.
But say u r running hereditary rule and your front city has a lot of food and like 30 units in then slave to your heart's content.
Globe theatre is best put in a high food city, this way you can slave every single turn (although alternate turns is better cos of the penalty when zero hammers are invested in something) and never ever get unhappy.
Don't be afraid to have low population cities for the first few turns - it will really pay off in the long run. Too often I hear people say, "but my city needs to grow." Why does it need to grow, huh? That logic is plain wrong.
Slavery is totally game breaking. Learn how to us it or suck @ CIV.........forever.