To begin with, I believe that the following gameplay addition would help solve a frustrating game mechanic as well as add some extra strategy- not simply more complexity.

Ok, as the title implies, the idea behind this is for one city to be able to assist another in its production. In "real life", a smaller-ish city wouldn't provide all of its own "hammers", it would get production from other areas- much like how Pittsburgh has historically been a provider of steel for projects all over the country.

In the game, I propose that this ability would be unlocked in the city which has built the Iron Works national wonder. Thus, when built, an option in that city's build options would be: "Assist production in [city]"- where you could choose the city to assist. I would suggest that the [iron works] city would only provide a fraction of its hammer/turn so it isnt overly powerful- perhaps anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2, maybe dependent on distance. (perhaps other requirements would be a connection by railroad or sea)

This would help solve the problem of building up infrastructure in captured or new cities built in the later game where hammers are very scarce. It doesnt make sense that I'm waiting 40 turns to build a lighthouse in a new city, when in real life, that "production" would come from elsewhere. Of course, using slavery, universal suffrage, or chopping would help, but this isnt exactly realistic and doesnt always do the trick. It would also give the option of more or less "rushing" late wonders or spaceship parts with the extra hammers- some additional strategy.

All in all, this isnt anything crucial of course, the game is great how it is, but again, I feel it would certainly add that extra realism and a bit of strategy.

So what do ya think? Decent idea or another worthless addition? :p

To begin with, I believe that the following gameplay addition would help solve a frustrating game mechanic as well as add some extra strategy- not simply more complexity.

Ok, as the title implies, the idea behind this is for one city to be able to assist another in its production. In "real life", a smaller-ish city wouldn't provide all of its own "hammers", it would get production from other areas- much like how Pittsburgh has historically been a provider of steel for projects all over the country.

In the game, I propose that this ability would be unlocked in the city which has built the Iron Works national wonder. Thus, when built, an option in that city's build options would be: "Assist production in [city]"- where you could choose the city to assist. I would suggest that the [iron works] city would only provide a fraction of its hammer/turn so it isnt overly powerful- perhaps anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2, maybe dependent on distance. (perhaps other requirements would be a connection by railroad or sea)


I think the mechanism that is wanted here is not something new, but some elaboration on building workers in one city and joining them to another. Specialist workers you can build only with the Iron works that carry a one-time productivity bonus with them to whichever city they join - Great Workers, even.

The failure mode you want to avoid here is the overpowered Civ 2 caravan build, where it's trivial to get an unbeatable range of wonders ahead of everyone else by stacking up caravans in advance, and there's no real counter or downside to that strategy if you throw even a third of a moderately-sized empire at it.

I like it...

To offset this new function, wonders could be made even more expensive than they are now, giving players the option of finishing them faster with this assistance from other cities with the tradeoff being that you can't produce anything else in the assisting cities, of course. It could maybe even be a requirement for some wonders - Requires 3 cities assisting?

It could maybe even be a requirement for some wonders - Requires 3 cities assisting?

I thought it best to only allow the city which built the ironworks to be able to assist builds- not any city, could work though, but that lends itself to alot more micromanaging.