Optimal Production Strategies

[EZRhino]

I think at least 2/3 of civilization is ultimately about economics. Assuming expensive units and city improvements, no incremental rush buying, essentially vanilla terrain resource values and moderately lucrative potential for trade should the optimal strategy for maximizing production favor massing trade units and rushbuying or maintaining production improvements like the factory or mfg. plant? What sorts of trade offs are there, are there any increasing or decreasing returns to scale? I know that this question can hugely affect players overall strategy, so from a balancing point of view I wonder what you guys all think: factories or caravans?

 

[Harry Tuttle]

I say caravans. A bet Agricola will too.

 

[CurtSibling]

Harry is right - Caravans/Freights - Send them far and send them often!

 

[AGRICOLA]

Not long ago, I played Jamesstout's Hundred Years War. The following is an excerpt from my comments after playing it.

Finished scen in 49 turns by doing minimal fighting, maximum trading and using FRIARS to subvert cities.
Not exactly how the scen is supposed to be played . . . . but very efficient. Having good relations with other civs meant that did not have to worry constanly about defending own cities.

When the scen was well under way, I was delivering 10-20 caravans per turn to overseas, foreign civs.


Agri the Good

 

[Harry Tuttle]

So in other words, make everything really expensive and units given by timed events only.

 

[Cyrion]

Not long ago, I played Jamesstout's Hundred Years War. ...
When the scen was well under way, I was delivering 10-20 caravans per turn to overseas, foreign civs.

I remember using exactly the same strategy in this scen, with similar (though probably slightly less impressive) results!

This was an excellent example of using trade to buy most cities instead of conquering them!

 

[AGRICOLA]

So in other words, make everything really expensive and units given by timed events only.

In his Red Front scen, Captain Nemo's does an excellent job of balancing the scen by spawning 2 or 3 freights (unbuildable) per turn. Here, the challenge is to figure out how to ship them across a U-boat infested north Atlantic for delivery in the Soviet Union.

Freights delivered to the best cities generate approximately twice as much cash as taxes. With the freights the scen is tough, without them . . . . probably unwinnable. The problem for designers is to achieve the right balance.

 

[McMonkey]

Free trade in multiplayer games is an essential element of play. Against the AI it gives the player a huge advantage. This is ok if the odds are stacked against the player, but can unbalance the scenario in the players favour if the Civs are of roughly equal size. In my Fortress Europe scenario I have ditched trade units in favour of a Lend Lease unit (a ship) which must travel across the Atlantic and dock near Liverpool, which actually means attacking an invincible Barbarian unit to trigger an event. This event gives the Allies much needed money and a unit but unlike a trade unit arriving it doesn't boost the science rate. These Lend Lease units are created via events in New York so it is easy for me to tweak the frequency at which they are spawned to get the balance right. In this particular scenario trade units would make balancing an unpredictable nightmare!

 

[CurtSibling]

Indeed, trade can unbalance things against the AI when on equal terms.

That is a good work-around ystem!

 

[McMonkey]

Yes, it allows me much tighter control of the pace of development. Also as my scenario is a European WWII one trade seems a little bit redundant.

 

[keu]

This was an excellent example of using trade to buy most cities instead of conquering them!

Is it the solution if we disable "revolt" option in diplomat's menu?

 

[AGRICOLA]

I'm pretty sure that Cyrion used the "Subvert city" option to capture enemy cities. I certainly did. This costs twice as much as "Incite revolt" but avoids an "incident" which almost certainly would have resulted in a declaration of war . . . exactly the opposite of what we wanted.

Changing the lines
Incite revolt.
Incite revolt (causes incident).
Subvert city (Goldx2, no incident)."
in the GAME file to blank lines would certainly eliminate the option.