Factory builds question

[JWW]

Could someone give me an idiot's guide to factory building? What is a good rule of thumb, for example, to building factories in the Confederacy (I'm focusing on them for a while; will try the North later.) I know for example not to waste time building factories in locations that are likely to be captured earlier in the war. But what are the benefits, and about how many should I build? Because they are a longterm project, and I'm not sure how much the benefit is. I'm still trying to get my arms around the economic game. I have a much better idea than when I started, but factories are still something of a mystery to me regarding how much they help me.

[Joel Billings]

They help especially in the later years of the war, when you can expect to have a lot of your factories captured. IIRC, as Confederates it seemed a good idea to build a new factory every other turn during the first year or so of the war.

[Treefrog]

I think the concensus of experienced players I've observed is for the CSA to build about eight to ten new factories immediately. Do not build on the coast or typically rivers that allow amphibious invasion.

Typical: Richmond, all interior North Carolina (no map here, but I think Fayetteville, Greensboro, Charlotte, and Raleigh), Columbia S.C., Atlanta, Knoxville, Chatanooga, and Memphis.

For USA many build at Cairo to help TC bonus later. Otherwise, I build about 10 new factories first turn. Don't build in any border state as the population doesn't typically build up to support it and you end up wasting all those turns to have a factory at the last stage of production without sufficient population to actually build it.