The Pros and Cons of an Early Manufactory

Seabastian Civ

Seabastian Civ

King
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Sep 10, 2012
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It might be an unpopular strategy, but I love going for either Stonehenge or the Pyramids ASAP. Why do I love it so much? Well, the +1 engineer point virtually guarantees my one wonder turns into two in < 100 turns. At least, I usually rush a second wonder.

I'm wondering now if there is a good argument that can be made for putting down a manufactory instead of rushing a Wonder... I guess my thinking is that the manufactory can give such a big boost to production that it may end up being more valuable than a mediocre wonder.

Of course, if I can get Chichen Itza, Great Mosque, or Oracle, I probably will... just wondering what the forum thinks. Does anyone forgo the wonder for a manufactory? Is this just too foolish to even consider?
 
It largely depends on what level you're playing on...

At Immortal and Deity, you're lucky to get any Wonders (maybe a couple at Immortal), so you would always tend to use a GE to finish one.

At Emperor, Wonders are easier to get, so the choice can make more of a difference... personally, I don't think it makes a lot of difference longterm.

At King and below, so it's not so important, as it's easy to spam Wonders anyway.
 
The two free workers are helpful if you are avoiding the Liberty tree and don't get the one if offers. But I wish the pyramids were allowed to be built earlier.

Stonehenge is a nice faith boost, but a luxury. Unless you happen to sit in a pretty placement and can create faith by the boatload with the proper pantheon it is my last wonder build.

The NEED for a manufactury, I find is rare and I would rather spam a wonder with my Engineer early on. But such are the choices in the game.
 
Seabastian Civ said:
It might be an unpopular strategy, but I love going for either Stonehenge or the Pyramids ASAP. Why do I love it so much? Well, the +1 engineer point virtually guarantees my one wonder turns into two in < 100 turns. At least, I usually rush a second wonder.

I'm wondering now if there is a good argument that can be made for putting down a manufactory instead of rushing a Wonder... I guess my thinking is that the manufactory can give such a big boost to production that it may end up being more valuable than a mediocre wonder.

Of course, if I can get Chichen Itza, Great Mosque, or Oracle, I probably will... just wondering what the forum thinks. Does anyone forgo the wonder for a manufactory? Is this just too foolish to even consider?
Click to expand...

It's not foolish at all if you plan on early warmongering. A manufactory + heroic epic + barracks is a powerful combo.
 
I usually play on Immortal in SP. I usually go tradition, build a CB army, then build/buy 3-6 settlers for expansion.

I also like the stonehenge rush in MP if I'm out of the way from an early rush/in an easily defended position, because I completely agree- Stonehenge is a luxury. However, if you can finish it, tithe/itinerent can be game changing. That early faith investment can pay huge dividends once the religion is enhanced, in my experience.
 
Korean manufactories might be worth trying, especially if you can finish Freedom.
 
If you pack 3 cities close together you can put a Manufactory in a spot all three can work. Then you can swap between them. A Manufactory can really get a small city going in a hurry when you don't have a wonder to build.

I don't know if it's actually a good strat, but it can be fun.

PS
 
I find engineers are kind of the opposite of scientists, better to use their ability early, and plant them later. There comes a point where engineers stop providing all the production needed for a wonder, I think it's the Industrial era, and that's usually when I start planting the engineers I get. Of course if there's a wonder I have to have I might save an engineer for that, but in generally I start building manufactories in the Industrial era (hmm... how fitting, never noticed that before).
 
triheptyl said:
I find engineers are kind of the opposite of scientists, better to use their ability early, and plant them later. There comes a point where engineers stop providing all the production needed for a wonder, I think it's the Industrial era, and that's usually when I start planting the engineers I get. Of course if there's a wonder I have to have I might save an engineer for that, but in generally I start building manufactories in the Industrial era (hmm... how fitting, never noticed that before).
Click to expand...

Actually manufacturies, much like academies, will pay off more if planted early, and later on, once you have the population, it's better to use them to insta pop wonders.

The catch is that on higher difficulties, getting the tech sooner is more likely to give you better chances at getting the wonder than having more hammers, so for the purposes of getting wonders, planting the GEs isn't going to do you much good.

However you can work some conquest strategies where you get one city that has massive production, the heroic epic and exp buildings and just start forcing your unit down someones throat... Planting a GE or two can work wonders with such an approach.
 
Furycrab said:
Actually manufacturies, much like academies, will pay off more if planted early, and later on, once you have the population, it's better to use them to insta pop wonders.

The catch is that on higher difficulties, getting the tech sooner is more likely to give you better chances at getting the wonder than having more hammers, so for the purposes of getting wonders, planting the GEs isn't going to do you much good.

However you can work some conquest strategies where you get one city that has massive production, the heroic epic and exp buildings and just start forcing your unit down someones throat... Planting a GE or two can work wonders with such an approach.
Click to expand...
If you are cranking out experienced units, then why not let the AI build the wonders for you?
 
Planting manufactories is also reasonably useful if you plan to go for a Cultural (Utopia Project) or Science (Apollo Program and Spaceship parts) Victory since the extra hammers will speed up production of the Projects which can't be bought or hurried by a GE.
 
its usefull if you are going for domination you can crank out units faster at cities who don't have any production
 
triheptyl said:
There comes a point where engineers stop providing all the production needed for a wonder, I think it's the Industrial era
Click to expand...

It scales with your production. So if you do it in a high production city you can get most wonders down to one turn, while it won't be nearly as useful in low production cities.
(so do a max production focus in your city before using it, so you get the most hammers out of it)
 
Actually it scales with population...the more pop in the city, the more hammers.
 
I consider it best to make manufactories earlier and use a GE later. The raw number of hammers you get from an early manufactory is pretty massive, and, while a 1 turn wonder sounds great, I always feel like I'm wasting a lot of potential doing that. I'd rather take another 3 turns to finish a wonder and not have anything cut off the top and go to waste.

That being said, sometimes an early wonder can make a difference worth rushing and just forgetting those beautiful hammers from the manufactory.
 
Gamewizard said:
Actually it scales with population...the more pop in the city, the more hammers.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure I got a key wonder down from 4 turns to 1 with a switch to full production focus when I had food focus. Where do you get that info from?
 
I don't find engineers very useful mid-late game where all my cities have huge production and my capital can usually build a wonder in 6 turns or less (quick build speed). I usually go for the early manufacturoy to speed things up for my capital (or pop a wonder if i need to grab hanging gardens or something)
 
greetswithfire said:
just wondering..if you settle a manufactory on a mining resource do you get that resource?
Click to expand...

Not quite true. It will hook up any strategic resource but not any of the luxury ones. So when it comes to mining, it won't help with Gold, Silver, Gems, Salt, or Copper. But go ahead and plant it on Iron, Coal, Aluminum, and Uranium (or Horses and Oil).
 
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