A guide to the "Hammer Economy" please?

[InFlux5]

It would be nice to have a proper guide regarding the "hammer economy" or HE. (Of course there is the caveat that few games will run a "pure" economy of any type or other.)

I can understand the basics of it surrounding Alphabet (for building Research) and Currency (for building Wealth). In another thread, TMIT also layed out a basic principle for which one to build:

-If you have more multipliers than multipliers in your cities, build Wealth.
-If you have more than multipliers, build Research.

It was pointed out that in most games you will have more multipliers and will thus be building Wealth (usually after building Research in order to get to Currency faster.)

But beyond that, well, the last game where I tried a HE it seemed to peter out in the medieval period or thereabouts. I was playing as Bismarck and used the Oracle for Metal Casting, getting early forges in my cities. (The capital was quite production-heavy.)

But after a forge, there are few hammer-boosting buildings for quite a while. Because of this, I couldn't help but feel like running a HE past the Classical era means that you have a very stagnant economy. Both cottages and specialists ramp up as you enter the Middle Ages while, again, there is just a simple forge to increase hammer output.

So, am I missing something with regards to a HE? Or is it just a late-Classical/early-Medieval economy?

 

[DaveMcW]

1. Build mines
2. Build military units
3. Conquer cities
4. Goto #1

All these "one trick" economies rely on killing your opponents to make up for the fact that don't produce as many beakers as cottages do.

 

[ahmedhadzi]

In another thread, TMIT also layed out a basic principle for which one to build:

-If you have more multipliers than multipliers in your cities, build Wealth.
-If you have more than multipliers, build Research.

Where is this thread? Since I fail to see logic behind the idea, I would like to read more about it. Thanks

 

[TheMeInTeam]

You need state property, caste + chemistry, and assembly line before you can just spam workshops everywhere and call it a day...and enough land such that doing so is worthwhile also.

IMO it's somewhat a late game (or mid game if you're fast) setup, and as Dave points out, it's usually used to just bludgeon the hell out of the competition, which of course has high returns if successful.

 

[DampRain]

Here is how I tend to play HE.
Capital is the best commerce city. So I run bureau and put ox there. Most of my other cities tend to be hammer cities with exception for gpfarm, Hepic city, and if you have enough cities, another commerce city. I run the slider at 100% science, and I make up the gold deficit by building wealth. Should a war arise, or I gain a key military tech (rifling/steel as good examples), I reduce research and spam units . Caste system + workshops can help alot in the early. I've also put globe theatre in my capital before and run caste system past emancipation (heavily situational).

And yes like dave said, you really need to be aggressive and crush those cottage spamming empires .

 

[Maronae3]

Where is this thread? Since I fail to see logic behind the idea, I would like to read more about it. Thanks

Its because gold and science that you build doesn't get multiplied by multiplier buildings, so if you have more science multipliers you'll be generating more science by normal commerce anyway. Therefore you need to build wealth.

 

[Yared]

You need state property, caste + chemistry, and assembly line before you can just spam workshops everywhere and call it a day...and enough land such that doing so is worthwhile also.

IMO it's somewhat a late game (or mid game if you're fast) setup, and as Dave points out, it's usually used to just bludgeon the hell out of the competition, which of course has high returns if successful.

Don't forget that guilds give +1 and they don't come late IMO...

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Don't forget that guilds give +1 and they don't come late IMO...

I meant guilds rather than caste. Caste is early, it's the other two that are more mid-game.

 

[Crusher1]

There are 6 basic ways and each of these methods should eventually take you to Communism/Biology. Food is very important because you are going to want to make some nice bulbs to make sure you get Communism before 1200 AD.

1. Pure hammers from the get go.
2. Specialist/hammers then a complete transition after Chemistry (Guilds could work too)/nearing Communism.
3. Cottages/Specialist then a complete transition after Chemistry/nearing Communism.
4. Cottages/Specialist/Hammers then a complete transition after Chemistry/nearing Communism.
5. Pure cottage then a complete transition after Chemistry/nearing Communism.
6. Pure specialist then a complete transition after Chemistry/nearing Communism.

1 - works great with lots of food and lots of hills. After all, it takes until guilds to make workshops worthwhile.
2 - works great with lots of food and a moderate amount of hills.
3 - works great when food is not abundant. Cottages fuel research while a city or two produce the GPs needed to bulb key techs such as paper/education/pp/chemistry, etc.
4 - works great on a moderately typical and perfectly balanced map that offer some great commerce cities/specialist cities, and pure hammer cities (lots of hills).
5 - works great with a totally food poor map with little hope of even getting a decent GPF. You'll need mass cottages to power research enough to reach the key techs of Communism/Biology.
6 - works great with abundant food and virtually no production/hills to be found.

1,2,3,4, and 6 all lead to more production from whip and by working more production tiles so infrastructure and any national wonders and or world wonders should be completed much faster.

The great thing about this strategy is the ability to quickly mass a huge army at a significantly quicker and earlier time than a typical cottage economy. After all, it takes about the same amount of time for a CE to get Democracy as it does a Hammer Economy to get Communism. Cottages still need some time to grow into enough towns to make US/Rush buy a more attractive option.

You can typically go on a decent war with mass Trebs/Mace as you are in route to Comm/Biology and new cities will be up in running very fast assuming you have the workers to quickly transition farms/workshops.

The bad part about a Hammer Economy is if you don't make good decisions and pick bad transitioning points you will have a very hard time balancing infrastructure/units/ and research. If you do make the good decisions you will set yourself up for a much stronger game position than can normally be achieved.

I meant guilds rather than caste. Caste is early, it's the other two that are more mid-game.

Yep, making workshops before Guilds is a complete waste.

 

[Bandobras Took]

-If you have more multipliers than multipliers in your cities, build Wealth.
-If you have more than multipliers, build Research.

Why would either matter? Does building Wealth/Research now run through those multipliers?

 

[PaulisKhan]

Why would either matter? Does building Wealth/Research now run through those multipliers?

No, but your commerce does, and what multipliers you have on cash or research determines which way you want to send your commerce.

If you have more science multipliers then you want to convert your commerce into beakers, however in order to do this you need to get your cash from somewhere else to pay for it, so you build wealth.

 

[UWHabs]

Basic example of why you build wealth when you have more science multipliers than gold ones. Say you have only a library in a city. You have a city that gets 10 hammers and 20 commerce, and say you need to get 10 gold to pay for maintenance and costs.

Build wealth: 10 coins from wealth, 20 commerce goes into 100% science + 25% library = 25 beakers per turn
Build research: need 50% slider for 10 gold for maintenance, so you get 50% slider*25% library bonus = 12.5 beakers, +10 from building research = 22.5 beakers per turn.

Thus, slightly better to build wealth.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Never mind, Habs beat me to it and basically used the same analogy I did.

 

[Bandobras Took]

I see. I was assuming low or no Commerce -- more of a "pure" Hammer Economy, so to speak.

 

[Shurdus]

This looking at the multipliers logic is indeed true, but with the addition that this optimises for the amount of beakers per turn. There are other benefits to building wealth that have nothing to do with the science slider, like when you need to accumulate gold for upgrading units.

I just wanted to point this out since it is indeed quite obvious, but to the uncareful reader it may seem as if you always want to do this. I find that sometimes that is just not the case.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I see. I was assuming low or no Commerce -- more of a "pure" Hammer Economy, so to speak.

Trade routes and passive tile commerce almost always give a material amount of commerce in at least some of your cities, though.

 

[muxec]

I tried a truly hammer economy in my Shaka Monarch game. The trick was to build Research until I get an important military beelined tech and then build newly available units. When I got a "diplomatic" (aggressive diplomacy FTW) win I just researched rifles with H. Capac having MM and Rocketry and fascism. I had huge land and I think my cavalry could kill Capacs tank due to outnumbering him so much. I had almost enough votes by myself and Rousvelt loved me for killing Monty. It's hard to outtech the enemy with HE, IMO, but you can flood him with highly promoted (mass GG) horde of obsolete units.

 

[DampRain]

Going a "pure" hammer economy is a bit silly imo. It works even better when combined with a bureau super commerce capital. Although if you are doing it for a challenge I can't say anything .

 

[Earthling]

I pretty much agree with some of the very smart posters on this thread. Early game, Hammer Economy basically means just building military and killing people. Late game, warfare is still generally the easiest goal though you have flexibility, and you're utilizing civics like SP, Caste for uber-workshops.