Building those factories

[madgamer2]

I have found that building some additional factories to be a good idea but would like to have some input as to where and how many some of the players have done.

Madgamer

[Bo Rearguard]

If playing the South, you want to set up any new factory sites somewhere where they're not in any immediate danger of early capture in the game either from a coastal invasion or near the border. The best bets would probably be Fayetteville and Charlotte, NC. Atlanta and Rome, GA. Possibly Selma AL and Columbia SC.

If in the North you want a factory somewhere with a good surplus population if you wanna do more with them than build supplies. New York, New England, Chicago and Philadephia would probably be good choices.

[Habbaku]

Playing multiple games as the Confederacy, I find rather difficult to get by without ramping up your industry in the early game.  I usually expand to around the 50+ mark.

[PyleDriver]

Columbia is my first choice, then Charlotte, Atlanta and Richmond for sure. If you lose Richmond, the war is lost anyway. I don't agree with Rome, it's the wrong side of the a river defence if the Union breaks the center. Selma is not a bad choice, however you may find that in trouble if the west breaks open...In my AAR with James I have made up for the 3 lost factories and have 4 in production...As the Union, Cairo, St louis or Cincy are good, as additional GB's can be produced, but that needs alot of balance.

[8D]
Jon

[Twotribes]

As Union I build more factories in New England and any where I have manpower to pay for it, as I can depending on other builds. In the late game you can run out of supply, the more factories you managed to work in early the more supplies you can make when that happens.

[Nibelung]

I build 30 factories as Union in 61-62 and don't regret it. In winter or in regions without railroads, troops can use 2 or even 3 supply point per brigade!

[tran505]

I agree with the rest of you guys. Factories are good. More factories are better. I shoot for about 85 for the Union. I am playing my first CSA game so I don't have a target in mind yet, but it makes sense to me to build them where they will last a while!

One additional point I don't think has been brought up -- you can increase Theater effectiveness by getting friendly cities you intend to use as a TC base up to 4 combined points of population and industry. That means, for example, if you want to rebase your western US TC to Cairo from St Louis, it is a good thing to plan ahead by building 1 factory in Cairo. That would get you to 1 pop plus 3 factories -- your magic 4 points! [:D]

- P