Economy 101

[terje439]

Now look at this, a one star general that is from Georgia. Maybe promoting him will please Governor Brown?

So I press the upwards pointing arrow with the four stars below it at the bottom of the screen.

[terje439]

The only opening for a general at this time is for a 2 star general. So I press "2 stars" and chose ok.

1 star generals are leaders of brigades
2 star generals are leaders of divisions. You can only have as many 2 star generals as you have DIVs
3 star generals are leaders of corps. You can only have as many 3 star generals as you have CORPS
4 star generals are leaders of armies. You can only have as many 4 star generals as you have ARMIES.
5 star general is special in that only one will ever be available (if you build enough academies). He will then be overall commander of all your forces.

If I demoted a 3 or 4 star general, or built a new army or corps I would have been able to promote this general to 3 or 4 stars.

NB! If you read AARs or other threads on the forum, you will often come across the term CONTAINER. This is a word used to describe any DIV/CORPS/ARMY/FLEET. In other words, special units that can contain other units.

[terje439]

April is a special month. This is the month that your available manpower is "recharged".
Note the message "Camps consumed total population: 14".
Every camp might take away population from your city, this has some bad effects;
-with higher settings, cities with no population available will produce less resources each turn
-with noth enough population available, you will not be able to build/muster units

The promotion of General E. Johnson improved our relationship with Governor Brown slightly. The higher a position a general is awarded, the happier the governor of the generals state will become. Note however that the reverse is also true, semoting a general is a fine way to make a governor rather annoyed at you!!

[terje439]

Remember how camps consumed population? Well New Orleans lost ALL its population and will now yield less resources for atleast a year (untill next April).
We can also see that there are 3 camps in New Orleans (the small clusters of tents with a flag above them).

[terje439]

Richmond did not lose any population even though it has a camp.

[terje439]

Remember that I told you that if a city has no available population it cannot build any units? That is a semi-truth to be honest. It can build some units, just not those that needs a certain ammount of "men" to be built. However the units you will want to build the most of, do have a recuirement for a number of "men".
INF costs 2 "men"
CAV costs "1 "men",
as can be seen above.
The city of Jackson has a population of 2, as can be seen two places in this screenshot. It is aahown by those two light blue men at the middle of the screen, and if you look at the top row of the unit list, you will see "men":2.
This means that the city of Jackson can build 2 CAV brigades or 1 INF brigade per year (population restocks every April remember).

[terje439]

Every building you build in a city must be supported (camps does not count towards this limit!!).
Most of my cities can still have more buildings built in them, with the exception of Milledgeville which is at 4/4.
To change this, we will need to build a plantation or a mansion in Milledgeville. Plantations are only available to the Confederacy, so the Union must build mansions. Both these buildings will allow the construction of 4 more buildings in the city they are built.
The main difference between a mansion and a plantation are build time, cost, and the effect that a plantation will also provide a small boost to resource income of the city it is built in.

[terje439]

This is our resource stockpile.
Money, Labour, Iron, Horses, Weapons, Railroad capacity.
Money, Labour, Iron, Horses and Weapons will be changed by our current national income every turn.
If you have an iron output of +10 and you have a stockpile of 90, next turn you would have 100 iron (unless off course you spend iron on something).
Added to the national income is the effect of gifts from Europe, and the effect of your blockade runners.

Labour, Iron, Horses and Weapons stockpiles will cap at 500, while money will cap at 2000 (or is it 2500?).

Railroad capacity however is different. This will refill to its maximum every turn, so at this moment 10 is the maximum for the Confederacy, next turn it will remain at 10, it will not be at 20. If I want to increase my railroad capacity, I will need to build railroads in my cities. Every railroad will give +5 to the max ammount of railroad capacity.

And I bet you are thinking, well that is all nice, but what is it used for?
See that greyed out button that says "use Rail move"? If you press that one, you will order your units to travel by train instead of by foot. This can speed up movement greatly. However 10 railroad capacity is not alot. 1 point of railroad capacity allows ONE brigade to travel ONE territory. So to move an army over several provinces by railroad might require a railroad capacity of several hundred.

[terje439]

I promised to take a further look at mustering.
First off I want to find a governor that supports the idea of mustering. Governor Letcher of Virginia is my kind of man!
Since he supports the idea of mustering, I will not risk upsetting him by performing a muster in any of the cities in Virginia. Note however that I can still muster if this is not supported by the governor, this will however reduce the governors feelings towards you!

[terje439]

So, I chose to go into the city view of Richmond, VA.
Behind the "muster" button it is written 70%, this is the success chance for the muster. If I succed, I will raise a new infantery brigade. It also states Gov-10, this means that if Governor Letcher did not support the idea of a muster, our relationship would take a 10 point damage.
When mustering, it is also worth to keep an eye out for the available number of population (how many men are colored light blue), this is because you need atleast 2 available population for the muster to be successful (since that is the number of men needed to build an INF brigade as mentioned earlier).

NB! A mustered brigade will be of lower quality than a brigade you "build/purchase".

Conscript: This guarrantees you a brigade (see that the % is listed at 100!), however there is also a 40% chance that the city will riot, denying you any income for a number of turns from this city. The riots might even spread to other provinces. A conscripted brigade is also the unit of lowest quality, so use this as a last resort only!

Impressment: 40 money 70% means that if I chose to do this, there is a 70% chance that I will recieve 40 money, there is also a 40% chance of a riot. This can sometimes be used if you are in dire need of certain resources. It is worth mentioning that conscription and impressment in a state were the governor does not support these ideas will result in a relationship hit with that governor.

[terje439]

This is how the muster button looks like when it is pressed.

[terje439]

Last turn I mustered in Richmond (as shown), but also in Norfolk. Both attempts were successful, I gained 2 new INF brigades, and since Governor Letcher supports the idea of mustering, I suffer no penalty in my relationship with him.

[terje439]

Well, that was a brief introduction to some of the more important aspects of the game, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
I hope you have gained some insight in the following areas;
-the importance in were you build your mines and research facilities
-how muster/conscript/impressment works
-how to change your economy from producing one thign to another
-how to build units
-how to manage the ammount of buildings you can build in a city
-the importance of moving your runners
-a little bit about railroads.

Terje

[terje439]

This is the buildings that can be built with all advanced settings.
The buildings under the tag "Resource Developments" all relate to the resource output of your city.
The buildings under the tag "Military Developments" all relate to your military units.
The buildings under the tag "Upgrade Developments" all relate to research.
The buildings under the tag "Logistic Developments" all relate to your military units.
The buildings under the tag "Political Developments" all relate to the state/city currently selected.

Resource Developments
Mint: This increases the output of money generated in this city. If this city is set to generate labor instead of money, building this building in this city would be a waste.
Factory: This increase the output of labor in this city. If this city is set to generate money instead of labor, building this building in this city would be a waste.
Mine: This increases the ouput of iron generated in this city. If this city is set to generate horses instead of iron, building this building in this city would be a waste.
Horse Farm: This increases the output of horses generated in this city. If this city is set to generate iron instead of horses, building this building in this city would be a waste.
Arsenal: This adds to your national production of weapons. Weapons are the one of two "resources" that does not compete with another "resource" in each city.
RR Station: This adds to your national railroad capacity. Railroad capacity is one of two "resources" that does not compete with another "resource" in each city.
Bank: This earns you an interest on SAVED money each turn. In my oppinion its high cost makes it of little use.
Iron Works: This doubles the output of iron produced in any mine in the city. This is a building you will only want to build in cities you have set to produce iron.

Military Developments
Barracks: This is needed for the building of military units in this city. More barracks in a city will allow you to build more units.
Foundry: This is needed for the building of artillery units in this city.
Shipyard: This is needed for the building of ships in this city.
Training ground: This building increases the quality of units built in this city's state.
Mfg. Center: This building increases the speed of which units are built. Too see the full power of this building, look at the build speed of military units in Boston as opposed to other cities.
Academy: These buildings trains your military containers (Div/Corps/Army), and having enough of these also unlocks the 5 star general.

Upgrade Developments
These buildings will add to the national output of research in their various fields. The only buildings in this list that are special in any way, are schools and universities.
Schools: Will give +1 to all research fields in the city.
University: Will give +1 to all research buildings built in this city. This bonus is however not added to schools. (That means a city with a School+a university, but no other research building, will still only yield +1 to all research fields (from the school)).

Logistic Developments
Camp: This building will increase the output of reinforcements each turn. This building is affected by total population of the city in which it is built. This means that they do mroe good in a city with high population (New Orleans as an example for the Confederacy). There is however a chance that a camp will reduce the available ammount of manpower in a city every April. This means that it will often be a good idea not to build these in cities were you intend to build alot of military units, as the camp might deplete the manpower needed to build brigades.
Hospital: This building reduce losses from diseases in nearby containers.
Telegraph: This doubles the reinforcement rate into the province in which it is built. It does not however increase the ammount of available reinforcements per turn.
Signal Tower: This building will give a bonus to the scouting check of your armies located in the province in which it is built.

Political Developments
Capitol: Each state needs a capitol to allow its cities to produce resources. A state capitol is a city marked with a star on the map.
Mansion: This building adds support for 4 more buildings in this city (camps does not count towards the max # of buildings in a city).
Plantation: This building is equal to a mansion in that it increases building support by 4 in its city, however it also produce +1 money, +2 labior and +2 horses in the city in which it is built. The downside to this building is that it takes a longer time to build than a mansion.

[terje439]

Unit production

So, when you want to boost the number of brigades, should you muster, conscript or purchase the units?
As always there is no correct answer, however I will usually only
-muster in the first 6 months of the war
-conscript if I am really really desperate.

This is because a conscripted unit is the weakest of the units you get (moralewise like).
Mustered units are better than conscripts, but still not as good as purchased units. However in the opening months of the war, you are going to need more brigades, and mustering in those states that supports the motion of mustering will give you the needed brigades.
Purchasing units is always the best choice, this will give you units with higher morale, and it is also the only way to produce anything but Infantry. Both conscription and mustering will produce INF brigades only.

So as a rule of thumb;
conscription<muster<purchase.

[GShock]

A very nice explanation of how the economy works in FoF, terje.

Of course this doesn't really explain how to use it correctly in relation to the player's situation and that' s another candy the player has for this wonderful game: learn by trial and error so ur economy does what u need in a specific area, time and situation.

I guess everyone can see how detailed this is in FoF. I am curious about your settings though. I play with unbalanced economy and a small boost to USA economy (in all fields) but just Sargeant difficulty level and i use the same settings regardless of the side i play with.&nbsp; What about you?

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: GShock

A very nice explanation of how the economy works in FoF, terje.

Of course this doesn't really explain how to use it correctly in relation to the player's situation and that' s another candy the player has for this wonderful game: learn by trial and error so ur economy does what u need in a specific area, time and situation.

I guess everyone can see how detailed this is in FoF. I am curious about your settings though. I play with unbalanced economy and a small boost to USA economy (in all fields) but just Sargeant difficulty level and i use the same settings regardless of the side i play with.  What about you?

All advanced options, full general, slight boost to the Union. Always play as the Confederacy when I play the AI. (The Union won after all IRl, so how fun is that to redo?? Now winning as the South on the other hand [:D]).
Only option I do not use that much against the AI is the "random general" option, as I have too hard a time adjusting to a Jackson with poor-poor-poor-poor as ratings...

And I agree, (believe I also stated so??) that there is no correct way to do things in this great game.

[LarryP]

Terje439: I really appreciate your AAR. I printed some of this out for my huge FOF folder and I will read it more. After not playing this game for over a year, I have come back to it with a fervor for play! Thanks a bunch for your time. Well done! [;)] [&o]

[terje439]

NO worries, if you have any other questions, just ask [:)]

[EisenHammer]

Thanks terje... for the economy 101 class[:)]