My thoughts on granaries

[Out4Blood]

Thoughts on granaries

[HalfLotus]

That's good number crunching. Granaries cost some wealth which is more valuable than timber in the early stages. Especially if you go early Classical. Though Romans/Incas manage it very nicely. And Herbal Lore is a sweet upgrade for those early attacks.

I'm still amused by the guy at RoNH who said "YOU DONT NEED GRANARIES, JUST MORE FARMS/VILLIES, NOT THAT HARD". No, it was't apollyon.

[Solver]

A good post, O4B. I now remember that my general way of playing seemed to be getting 5 farms immediately on getting a new cities, till I have 20 farms...

[Out4Blood]

LOL. Yea 20 farms would be a bit much ... unless you had global prosperity!

[Out4Blood]

Granaries cost some wealth which is more valuable than timber in the early stages

Yea, but it's only 10w. Which is = to about ~12-13t/f/m if you sell it at market.

[HalfLotus]

Yes you might adjust according to strategy. Early classical and early raiding has high wealth demands. Also consider any wealth rares. In some cases it might be better to build 1-2 more farms rather than granaries, especially on a timber heavy map like rainforest or old world.

There is also the issue of longer build time for granary, you are losing a small amount of food compared to farm construction. Not a huge savings in either case, but something to consider.

[Out4Blood]

Yea granary takes 42 sec vs. 15 for a farm. What I normally do (now) is build 10 farms and then make the 2 granaries. Then drop a third city (unless early third is tactically required). That gets me to +150. The first upgrade then gets me to +180.

[HalfLotus]

Sounds good, what civ are doing this with? I presume a non bonus civ for testing, but which do you use for regular games? I play germans and romans alot, and they can both pull a few tricks with their early game resource bonuses. Germans can do almost anything, and the Roman +15wealth per city opens up all sorts of early game possibilities. An easy Colossus for one.

[Ecthy]

I almost never build any granaries ecept in my capital because usually my commerce doesn't cover all the extra food.

[Out4Blood]

Then you are building too many farms. Research SCI before COM and build the granaries as you tech up in commerce.

[Ecthy]

why should I? farms are cheaper than granaries, and what extra gain do granaries get me?

[Out4Blood]

A farm by itself might be cheaper than a granary, but you also have to consider the cost of the villager who's doing the farming. Each farm costs 5 more food/wood than the previous one, so the seventh farm costs more than the first granary.

But really, you're free to do what you want.

[HalfLotus]

Etch did you read his article? It's simple math, each farm costs more than the last, so at a certain point its much cheaper to build a granary or two instead of more farms. And the Agriculture line of research is absolutely essential, one-time research gives large gains to all cities with granaries. Otherwise you will be building dozens of _very_ costly farms and villagers, which also leaves you with less room under the pop cap.

[Endurnence*uk*]

well personaly it really depends on the circumstances eg: what map , amount of wood , oppenent civ , my civ.

think about what you would do with japanese with nice amount of wood? more farms or a granary or two?

[Out4Blood]

More granaries silly. +20% +20% is a lotta food!