Purpose of Worker Ants?

[ⒺⒹⒾⓃ]

Why build worker ants at all? 7 you get at start is enough top break down earth and such, and warrior ants can do EVERYTHING else....they can kill better, they can carry food...what else is there? why have worker ants?

[ArterialSpray1066]

On the first beach level I had a lot of success with using workers to run food and not fight, while the others defended them.
Workers are also MUCH cheaper so they can get a lot more shifted for the same investment.

[Chuck]

I agree with above^^ use workers in their only pheromone group to gather food with fighting turned off. I use soilders to defend them. I'm able to get a lot further faster in the missions by doing this strat

[Mike]

On 2_2 I like to use the tactic of using a meatwall of workers to keep nipping at the heels of the ladybirds. You'll find you have a lot more food that way.

[Serafine]

The workers barely do any damage to the ladybugs. All they do is slowing them down so the mortars can actually hit them.

This worker-soldier differenciation and the "90% soldier population syndrome" is really a huge issue and I guarantee it will cause further issues down the road if it doesn't get adressed, especially in all levels where food is scarce.

(this however mostly affects F. fucsa, in 2.1 and 2.2 you play F. rufa and these actually don't need soldiers at all because the shooters deal an absolutely ludicrous amount of damage and for meat shield purposes the workers are doing fine - why build soldiers when they don't do any significant amount of damage and your artillery battalion nukes all opposition to bits with 2 salvos anyway?)

[Cataclysm]

Also, soldier ants can not collect seeds.

[ⒺⒹⒾⓃ]

Originally posted by Kirk:

Also, soldier ants can not collect seeds.

what do you mean, it can collect everything...I did it

[Ed]

Originally posted by Serafine:

...the "90% soldier population syndrome" is really a huge issue and I guarantee it will cause further issues down the road if it doesn't get adressed, especially in all levels where food is scarce.

^ THIS.

[Serafine]

Originally posted by Kirk:

Also, soldier ants can not collect seeds.

That's actually not true.
I can't think of any soldier caste ant that is incapable of looking for themselves except leafcutters and Eciton army ants (leafcutters are special in every regard and Eciton soldiers are simply geared towards pinning and killing targets vastly larger than themselves which interferes with their ability to cut off and carry food bits).

In all other ant genuses the soldiers or majors are very capable of killing, cracking up and eating food, in some genuses (Pheidole, Solenopsis, Camponotus, Messor) the larger ants even do most of the heavy lifting.

[rata]

when the colony is two big, 7 workers isn't enough. Am I right?

[morriskend]

Most ant species don't actually have dedicated warrior ants ,"there are a few exceptions army & driver ants being 2 of the better know". Some of them do have various castes of minor and major workers . The majors and minors all tend to fill various roles in the hive & generally aren't that specialised.

[Chuck]

@Rata i've noticed that when my nests get to big 7 workers is not enough to keep up with Egg production. Especially if you keep losing multitudes of ants repeatedly. I usually add in another 7-10 workers to the 7 in the nursery already.

[ⒺⒹⒾⓃ]

Originally posted by Chuck:

@Rata i've noticed that when my nests get to big 7 workers is not enough to keep up with Egg production. Especially if you keep losing multitudes of ants repeatedly. I usually add in another 7-10 workers to the 7 in the nursery already.

I did the whole campagin, didnt build even 1 worker....no need for them, they just taking valuable space for warriors...7 is enough

[mrgreen13194]

Originally posted by morriskend:

Most ant species don't actually have dedicated warrior ants ,"there are a few exceptions army & driver ants being 2 of the better know". Some of them do have various castes of minor and major workers . The majors and minors all tend to fill various roles in the hive & generally aren't that specialised.

actually thats not true most ant specie queens will start to produce soldier ants or majors when the colony starts to mature. these majors are a lot larger then workers and specialize in defence and helping in cutting up larger food, one examples is the Marauder ants, and another is fire ants but fire ant majors are less noticeable.


cool fact about Marauder ants, majors will let worker ants ride them so they dont tire out as fast. and if you love ants i reommend you all watch a youtub channel called AntsCanada

[Serafine]

The Marauder ant majors are actually walking storage containers, they don't really fight. When Marauder ants like Carebara attack prey they swarm it with tons of small workers and the medium workers (Carebara is trimorphic) will try to cut off legs and other weakpoints.
The really large workers usually only come in when the prey is already dead to cut it apart, if they show up at all.

Messor majors although capable fighters due to their sheer size aren't exactly combat units, they are more often used to crack hard-shelled seeds which is in fact their primay task.

Camponotus majors do sort of specialize in killing other invertebrates (and they are ridiculously effective at it) and they're probably the closest polymorphic ants have to soldiers but they aren't really soldiers either - just like Pheidole majors they actually do forage and they can also act as storage containers (and will then avoid any fighting to protect the precious resources they carry in their gasters). They can actually feed brood, too - mine definitely do that.

The only ants that have highly specialized soldier ants purely designed to kill stuff are driver ants (Dorylus, Eciton) and leafcutters (Atta, Acromyrmex). Pheidole soldiers are kinda in a grey area.

Originally posted by mrgreen13194:

and if you love ants i reommend you all watch a youtub channel called AntsCanada

AntsCanada's scientific accuracy is pretty questionable at times. He's a bit too far on the enterntainment side of things.

Jordan Dean from AntsAustralia did some really amazing videos on certain genuses like Camponotus, Formica, Myrmecia etc. that are definitely worth watching.
https://youtu.be/2dSMU3HNhD0
https://youtu.be/8XAcFDfiXsY

[mrgreen13194]

Originally posted by Serafine:

The Marauder ant majors are actually walking storage containers, they don't really fight. When Marauder ants like Carebara attack prey they swarm it with tons of small workers and the medium workers (Carebara is trimorphic) will try to cut off legs and other weakpoints.
The really large workers usually only come in when the prey is already dead to cut it apart, if they show up at all.

Messor majors although capable fighters due to their sheer size aren't exactly combat units, they are more often used to crack hard-shelled seeds which is in fact their primay task.

Camponotus majors do sort of specialize in killing other invertebrates (and they are ridiculously effective at it) and they're probably the closest polymorphic ants have to soldiers but they aren't really soldiers either - just like Pheidole majors they actually do forage and they can also act as storage containers (and will then avoid any fighting to protect the precious resources they carry in their gasters). They can actually feed brood, too - mine definitely do that.

The only ants that have highly specialized soldier ants purely designed to kill stuff are driver ants (Dorylus, Eciton) and leafcutters (Atta, Acromyrmex). Pheidole soldiers are kinda in a grey area.

Originally posted by mrgreen13194:

and if you love ants i reommend you all watch a youtub channel called AntsCanada

AntsCanada's scientific accuracy is pretty questionable at times. He's a bit too far on the enterntainment side of things.

Jordan Dean from AntsAustralia did some really amazing videos on certain genuses like Camponotus, Formica, Myrmecia etc. that are definitely worth watching.
https://youtu.be/2dSMU3HNhD0
https://youtu.be/8XAcFDfiXsY

thanks for the new info i looked it up to and im glad for the correction thank you