Didz
Posts: 728
Joined: 10/2/2001 From: UK Status: offline
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I was studying Ralegh's guide in bed last night (sad isn't it) and decided to try out his tips from 'Economy for Dummies' this morning and see if I could apply them to a practical situation. I selected Russia 1805, and set about making an opening Economic saved file. My aim was to establish a basic economic set-up which would allow me to produce a steady flow of troops for the army and small vessels for the navy. So, timber was not a high priority so much as men, horses and iron. A shame because Russia seems to have a lot of timber but I figured Russia was never going to be a significant naval power, and has no need to be given that its high feudal levels 'nerf' its merchants so badly, so what the hell. I went through the process suggested by Ralegh, e.g. - maxed Wine producing provinces on Agriculture - maxed Textile producing provinces on Textiles - maxed Luxury producing provinces on Luxuries. Then went back and fiddled with the provinces which hadn't already been maxed. I also added 'Bank developments' to provinces with high cash incomes (+6 to +9) and 'Farm developments' to a couple of the provinces producing high levels of agricultural resource. Secondary Production At about this point I realised I'd missed a trick. In allocating labour to my chosen activity (e.g. Agriculture) I hadn't really paid much attention to what was left. Most provinces still had residual labour allocated to other activities, and I discovered that by marshalling these left over workers into a secondary activity of my choice I could usually squeeze more production out of the province. This was particularly true in provinces with multiple specialities (e.g. Wine & Iron) where maxing Wine and placing everyone else on Iron still produced a small amount of Iron. Likewise, where a province specialised in producing Timber but I had maxed its production for Labour. I found that putting every left over worker on Wood still produced a small amount of Timber. I also discovered that sometimes reducing the allocation to the chosen Maxed-Out activity did not always reduce production of that resource but could produce another resource if added to the secondary activity. Development It sounds stupid now but as I was working through the provinces yet again looking for tweaks to make to allocations. I noticed this allocation category at the top of the list called Developments. I hadn't taken any notice of it before as it wasn't mentioned in the guide. I was puzzled by it as Ralegh hadn't mentioned it and I wasn't sure what production would be affected by allocating labour to it. I chose a province and fiddled with it for a bit, but it didn't seem to change the output of anything. It finally clicked that I had to allocate labour to Development in provinces where I was building a Bank or Farm. That discovery meant going through the entire process again to free up workers in those provinces which I had chosen to develop. Best Results so far Right I've been fiddling with this most of the morning. Setting up and saving Economic files and then running the game for one turn and checking the production figures. BTW: Where is the Production Report Ralegh mentions. The only thing I found was an Income Report near the end of the Economic Report. The Production tab report on my game is always blank. Russia 1805 (Turn 1) Income Summary (Totals in brackets) Money +177 (341) Men 0 (80) Labour +25 (25) Horses +20 (20) Food +127 (133) Iron +44 (74) Timber +38 (68) Wool -13 (17) Cotton -34 (-4) Textiles +26 (56) Wine(vodka) +27 (57) Spice +24 (54) Luxuries +24 (54) A quick check confirmed that I my population was happy and that I had the resources to produce an Infantry Division, but not enough Timber for a Privateer. Actual figures being: Money 184 Horses 48 Labour 25 Men 13 Iron 74 Timber 68 Textiles 56 Not sure what long term impact the depletion of Wool and Cotton will have but there were no obvious immediate impacts. Any comments or feedback on these results gratefully received, as I would like to make sure I fully understand the subtleties of the economic's before I move on to the other area's. Thanks
< Message edited by Didz -- 5/9/2007 5:08:17 PM >
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Didz Fortis balore et armis
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