Uber production capital

I just played my first archipeligo game (on Prince, as Isabella) (and won with minimal warmongering too - mainly self defense). What was interesting for me was my captial... it was surrounded by hills and didn't have enough good food squares to cottage spam. It had a river and a coast, so there was still gold coming in, but its main strength was production. For all of the middle ages I could build all units in 1-2 turns; during the industrial ages, once I had Ironworks, I could churn out any military unit in 1 turn! This one city saved me during wars - when Tokugawa and Monty both attacked me, I held them off with endless streams of frigates and ironclads from Madrid!

I beelined to Destroyers and, well, destroyed Tokugawa's fleet. I was happy to see that he had no oil (at land or sea), so my iron warships mercilessly bombarded and blockaded his cities. He was history.

Not much more to say... I took a few of Monty's islands that were close by and fit nicely into my empire's shape. I got a nice bit of gold out of both of them for peace.

Anyone else ever have an uber Ironworks unit-producing captial? My usual plan is to build Ironworks and Heroic Epic in a hills city, but this game just asked for something different.

how much hammers exactly?

and while numbers are good, the extra 4 exp from west point can be a boon also. i normaly save the iron works for you citys that build wonders and GP

intresting idea, i should try it sometime.

i had a capital that produced 200 gold per turn and 245 production per turn..don't know if thats good or not.

The 200 gold production isn't that stellar, but the production is!

i had a capital that produced 200 gold per turn and 245 production per turn..don't know if thats good or not.

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Joe that's pretty good how did you do that and at what level?

Ballisto a pic of the city would be nice exterior as well as city screen to see your output.

i had a capital that produced 200 gold per turn and 245 production per turn..don't know if thats good or not.

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Joe that's pretty good at what level were you playing. Do you have a pic of the city would be interesting to see. The city screen would be good too.

Ballisto your's too would be interesting too see as well

I apoligize for the double post however the browser seemed to crap out and I thought it was lost. So I did it again. Do not like to double post...

I often use a super production capitol, in fact my first 3 cities are production, after that i dont build any more cities, i just conquer everything else in the world and make it in to commerce, 3 units/turn + whipping for emergency is all you ever need. Sometimes 4 production cities with 1 dedicated to wonders works nicely as well.

Give your capital Bureaucracy for extra fun.

Early and mid-game production powerhouses tend to be hill sites, but you probably want to plant your Ironworks city near a river, as by then you'll have replaceable parts, machinery, and be close to electricity. People call this strategy "Riverside Ironworks." I throw in forests into the equation... so it's Forested Riverside Ironworks to me.

Here's how it works: you want to find a place that has a snaky river or two, some food resources like pigs or something, and nearby forests. Build the city next to the river so you can build Three Gorges Dam in it later on and also for health bonuses. Also, try to find a place near the equator if you think you'll build the Space Elevator.

Watermill as much as you can, mine any hills nearby, and lumbermill the forests that survive your watermill campaign. (I prefer to leave the forests standing whenever possible to get the +health benefits, as I play Monarch and tend to run into health problems all the way through the midgame until I get some of the advanced health-related techs like refrigeration.) Mine the hills and develop all of the special resources nearby, especially the food resources. Any leftover grassland or plains tiles (i.e., grassland and plains tiles that can't be watermilled) can either be farmed or workshopped.

Why is this better than hilly areas? Hills are NOT self-sustaining; they require you to farm nearby stuff to generate the food for the miners. Although watermills and workshops won't beat mine production on a tile-for-tile basis, the trick is that State Property will give extra food to watermill and workshop tiles. That extra food can let watermills support the hill tiles WITHOUT farming, and workshop tiles become self-sustaining. Any excess food can go towards engineer specialists. I don't like workshops and prefer lumbermills for the health, though. If my late-game health surge allows me to, I can always convert some lumbermills into workshops.

In my last game I planted Heroic Epic / West Point in a good early-production powerhouse place near hills and corn, and I added 10 Great Generals to it (9 as instructors, 1 as a Military Academy) to crank out Level 6 tanks without using Vassalage or Theocracy (but I also had The Pentagon and barracks, for a total xp of 27). My ironworks plant also got a military academy. That gruesome twosome made a great tag team... uber-tanks for offense and ironworks marines for defense. Later on when I got my health techs, I could build a mech inf every turn at ironworks and have hammers left over--and this is despite playing at Epic speed! So you might want to give Riverside Iron a try in your next game.

I've attached a screenshot of one of my more uber Capitals with every +military production bonus except a Military Academy.

My game speed is always Normal.

Consider the following:

• Power. +100%. Every city in your post-Assembly Line empire can have a Forge + Factory + Power.
• Police State. +25% military. Every city in your post-Fascism (or Masonry w/ Pyramids) can benefit from Police State.
• Military Academy. +50% military. Theoretically, every city in your empire can have a Military Academy.
  
  
• Ironworks. +100%. One city in your post-Steel empire can have the Ironworks.
• Palace. +50%. One city in your post-Civil Service empire can have the Palace to benefit from Bureacracy.
• Heroic Epic. +100%. One city in your post-Literature empire can have the Heroic Epic.
  
  
• 240 . The most expensive conventional land unit is the Modern Armor, costing 240 . This is your post-bonus goal.

If you can create one powerhouse capable of producing 80 per turn, then with only Power and the Ironworks (or HE), this city can produce any conventional unit in just one turn. (See attached city, which is one GE away from 79.)

A city with 69 can accomplish 240 in one turn with the Ironworks (or HE) and a Military Academy.

A city with 60 can do it with Ironworks, HE, and MA.

A Capital with 54 can do it with Ironworks, HE, MA and Bureaucracy.

The worst case scenario is a city with only 46, which will need all +425% to pull off 240 per turn.

I've attached a chart I made of pretty much all the combinations and what you need to accomplish multiple 'one-turn' cities. As a general rule of thumb, Bureaucracy is more effective monetarily in a SE/FE, since losing Free Speech means a cumulative loss of 2 per Town throughout the empire.

You forgot Organized Religion's +25%.

Jerrymander said:

You forgot Organized Religion's +25%.

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I actually have that in one of my spreadsheets, but for this example, I figured I'd stick strictly to military unit production, since that's really what matters in a "one-turn" city by this point in the game.

I can get a 300 on Noble now. I got a 250 or so on Noble as Louis (Vanilla)

I don't know if this is good or not but I've gotten my capital to produce 450 something beakers per turn.

rabidveggie said:

I don't know if this is good or not but I've gotten my capital to produce 450 something beakers per turn.

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Well that is more than i have got in a long time. Good job.

Thanks I believe I had the Great Library, a bunch of specialist. and Oxford in it.

axident said:

Also, try to find a place near the equator if you think you'll build the Space Elevator.

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I didn't know the location of your city had anything to do with the Space Elevator. Would you explain?

1001.00 per turn

Now my capital seems like crap.

rabidveggie said:

Now my capital seems like crap.

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Probably not as much as you might think.

Bureaucracy accounts for 208.8 of those beakers. Switching to Free Speech would have lowered my beaker count by -61.2 in this city but would have increased my empire's overall output by about +50 ... I generally only run Bureaucracy when I'm building +% buildings here.

Representation accounts for 140.4. Since I was in a space race, I would've otherwise been running US.

Stagnation accounts for 36 ... while I was growing, one of those floodplain towns was a farm, and those two riverside windmills were mines.

Production accounts for 29 ... similar to stagnation, I was usually building something instead of devoting hammers to Research.

Growth accounts for 9 ... I just added a Great Scientist and Scientist a few turns ago.


Moral of the story:

20 turns ago when Istanbul was still growing & building stuff and I cared about squeezing in a Space Race victory a couple turns early, this city was closer to generating 550 or 600 -- not much more than your capital.

I bet if you damned your empire and ignored victory, you could do the same thing.

Maybe but your capital was still impressive.