Test: The Maximum Economic Power of Iron

[yuriseme]

The strongest resource in the game — as everyone can probably guess — is iron. The secret of its power lies in the sheer number of goods that can be produced from it — 10 in total — and in the fact that many of these goods have the highest market value in the game. Because of this, even when production is maximized, price drops can be avoided with proper management. No other resource in the game has these properties.

At the same time, iron is one of the most difficult resources to profit from, as it has the longest production chains and requires a large workforce. This makes good planning and well-organized logistics absolutely essential. However, when executed correctly, iron enables the highest possible income in the game.

The best Origin for iron is Nuremberg Prospectors, as it provides:
+30% mine maintenance duration;
+20% armor value;
+20% armor production.

(-30% cost for importing iron and salt — is still bugged, hasn’t been fixed, and hasn’t worked since the beta)

These bonuses were fully leveraged in this test. On a rich iron deposit, 4 fully staffed deep iron mines were built, all running on double tool maintenance, producing about 3.4k iron ore per year. To efficiently process this into iron slabs, around 10 bloomeries are required.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3652742880
The processed iron is then distributed across multiple production chains to reach an annual output of roughly 300–340 units per product. It has been experimentally verified that 1 tier-2 burgage smithy is sufficient to supply tools for the entire production.
Production was set up as follows:
- 2 armories for helmets (sale price: 7)
- 4 armories for mail armor (sale price: 10)
- 6 armories for plate armor (sale price: 19)

Optionally, 2 smithies for sword production (sale price: 6) can be added, but at lower priority, in order to distribute iron more evenly across products, avoid market saturation, and eliminate the need for manual sales regulation.

At full capacity, this setup generates 12–13k annual income from iron-based goods alone. Total annual income can exceed 22k, with regional wealth reaching around 80k. This level of performance is achievable by approximately year 10 of settlement development.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3652742382

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3652742539

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3652743210
The best complementary production for iron is raising goats (providing 2 types of food), producing leather and shoes. Pears and cabbage are also ideal, offering the highest yield and value among fruits and vegetables.

[Doc_Hotpants]

default settings?

which year are you in with those screenshots? I'm assuming something between year 10 and 12?

[yuriseme]

Originally posted by Doc_Hotpants:

default settings?

Yes, but this only matters for population growth, to avoid any delays at the start.

Originally posted by Doc_Hotpants:

which year are you in with those screenshots? I'm assuming something between year 10 and 12?

10
12 families per year, meaning the year is not over yet

[Primemus]

you make a good case but, your on easy mode as your town is defenseless and open to bandits attacks which would kill most of your work force as well as burn most of your houses down...Though you aren't wrong assuming you have that resource in abundance..

[yuriseme]

Originally posted by Septimus Omega:

you make a good case but, your on easy mode as your town is defenseless and open to bandits attacks which would kill most of your work force as well as burn most of your houses down...Though you aren't wrong assuming you have that resource in abundance..

This is a test run, not an easy mode. Do you seriously think it would be difficult for this settlement to hire mercenaries or raise a retinue of any size?))
To produce 216 spears for the militia you need 108 iron — which is a trivially easy task for a settlement producing 3400 iron per year !!!
The game simply doesn’t offer mercenaries of a quality or cost that could realistically pose a problem for a settlement like this.
Hypothetically, you could equip a militia of 6 thousand within a single year — but that’s no longer the scale of this game, that’s already Total War territory.

You have typical beginner-level player fears. For me, none of the military modes are interesting at this point — they pose no real challenge and only become tedious with their monotony and repetitiveness. Like an annoying fly.

[Doc_Hotpants]

Just finished my playthrough on rich stone, and with little to no surprise to you or me, stone can't make those numbers. (I usually also don't build four quarries, and you likely could make the same stone turnover with fewer quarries, but that's a math problem for a different day)

However, the investment necessary for your iron min/max is considerably higher than the one for stone.

Max. stone-based turnover I could achieve was 7.2k in a year.

Investment: 16 workers in quarries, 2 in lime kiln and 3 in stonemason huts.

Meaning: I make 342 coin per worker per year (max) despite falling prices, based on 7.2k (best case), 247 coin per worker per year (worst case and pretty consistent minimum turnover for several years).

Your investment: 20 workers in deep mines, 20 in bloomeries, 12 in armories

Meaning: you make 231 coin per worker per year.

So more net income through iron, yes (though I can't complain about my purse, tbh), but as you yourself say in the post prececing mine in the thread, there's really nothing to spend it on.

Anyway, here are the screenshots from the last month when I ended the test playthrough:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3652918658

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3652919127

It'll be interesting to see where the developers will take the trade and pricing mechanic.

In the meantime, for the record: I never said that iron wasn't a great resource. I will still argue that rich stone is the faster in-game money-maker, though, and the most efficient to get you up and running on a challenging playthrough (as long as you have a normal iron node which will provide more than enough iron for weapon production).

In closing: well done on those trade numbers but it's not the way I like to play :-)

[yuriseme]

Originally posted by Doc_Hotpants:

Just finished my playthrough on rich stone, and with little to no surprise to you or me, stone can't make those numbers. (I usually also don't build four quarries, and you likely could make the same stone turnover with fewer quarries, but that's a math problem for a different day)

However, the investment necessary for your iron min/max is considerably higher than the one for stone.

Max. stone-based turnover I could achieve was 7.2k in a year.

Investment: 16 workers in quarries, 2 in lime kiln and 3 in stonemason huts.

Meaning: I make 342 coin per worker per year (max) despite falling prices, based on 7.2k (best case), 247 coin per worker per year (worst case and pretty consistent minimum turnover for several years).

Your investment: 20 workers in deep mines, 20 in bloomeries, 12 in armories

Meaning: you make 231 coin per worker per year.

So more net income through iron, yes (though I can't complain about my purse, tbh), but as you yourself say in the post prececing mine in the thread, there's really nothing to spend it on.

Anyway, here are the screenshots from the last month when I ended the test playthrough:

It'll be interesting to see where the developers will take the trade and pricing mechanic.

In the meantime, for the record: I never said that iron wasn't a great resource. I will still argue that rich stone is the faster in-game money-maker, though, and the most efficient to get you up and running on a challenging playthrough (as long as you have a normal iron node which will provide more than enough iron for weapon production).

In closing: well done on those trade numbers but it's not the way I like to play :-)

Thanks, but this is exactly the way I like to play economy-focused games: achieving maximum efficiency from available resources — essentially, GDP per capita. You haven’t seen the trade balance my Sweden has in EU5 — it exceeds the closest competitor by several times:) And I do that while playing with almost no conquests — pure internal economic development.

Iron is also more efficient at the start and can reach up to 300 coins per capita, because it can actively leverage production doubling thanks to relatively cheap tools. The productivity of some bloomeries reached 70 iron slabs per month, compared to the usual now 30–40. Obviously, this is the effect of increased production scale combined with deteriorating overall logistics — buildings simply spend more time idle. It’s also unclear whether this mechanic works properly for smithies and armories; it appears to be bugged there.

What surprised me was that you didn’t increase the efficiency of other production chains despite having such a strong trade bonus from the perk. With nearly the same population, your income from secondary production is worse than what basic stone provides, which lowers overall GDP per capita. In my case, the auxiliary economy stays on par with the iron-based core and does not reduce GDP per capita. I’ve long developed the habit of reinvesting income into new production, which you obviously don’t do. For me, keeping a reserve in the treasury isn’t as important as growing the overall GDP.

Yes, it’s interesting to see what the devs will change, because the current situation has already become boring and I’d really like to see some more interesting solutions. The main thing is that the new system actually works and isn’t bugged.

[choulaung]

please step aside iron, for the saltking has come

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3653775506

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3653775384

6x4 miners + 5 butcher = 29 fam
mind i am only in year 8 and stoped growing 2 years ago. of cause market prizes are devastating low (salt3 / saussage4). startet last year to rebuild forrest for higher pork yield.

[Doc_Hotpants]

Originally posted by yuriseme:

What surprised me was that you didn’t increase the efficiency of other production chains despite having such a strong trade bonus from the perk. With nearly the same population, your income from secondary production is worse than what basic stone provides, which lowers overall GDP per capita. In my case, the auxiliary economy stays on par with the iron-based core and does not reduce GDP per capita. I’ve long developed the habit of reinvesting income into new production, which you obviously don’t do. For me, keeping a reserve in the treasury isn’t as important as growing the overall GDP.

Not sure what you're referring to here? For this test playthrough, I charged max. 3% in taxes.

And again: I don't min/max (unless I have to).

The coin per worker income was calculated on just stone/iron to compare, though, not overall trade.

PS: GDP is a really bad way of looking at economic power, but that's a subject for a different day.

[yuriseme]

Originally posted by choulaung:

please step aside iron, for the saltking has come

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3653775506

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3653775384

6x4 miners + 5 butcher = 29 fam
17900 salty things / 29 = 617 per capita
mind i am only in year 8 and stoped growing 2 years ago. of cause market prizes are devastating low (salt3 / saussage4). startet last year to rebuild forrest for higher pork yield.

You know yourself — if you put 5–6 mines on iron, you know what’ll happen)) The price there won’t drop.
What’s interesting is how the central mine is connected to the road — looks like an interesting bug exploit?
At this pace, you’ll turn salt into a commodity with a unit value ) Tell me later how badly you managed to crash the price of that good — I’d never have thought of doing something like that myself.

[choulaung]

in you screenshot only plate armor has its base sell value of 19, meaning you are not even close to oversupply with that one. chainmail is 9somewhat of 10 base, helmets are 6,9 of 7 base.
i know exactly, what will happen. you can produce more iron armor but the price will drop significantly. or you produce weapons and other iron goods at lower sale prices.
salt is normaly worth 5, saussages 7 (same as helmets, just for comparrison).
but i am willing to learn, if there is something more on top of it.

btw- there is no road glitch i use, since there is no road connected to that center mine. maybe you will come behind this one yourself

[yuriseme]

Originally posted by choulaung:

in you screenshot only plate armor has its base sell value of 19, meaning you are not even close to oversupply with that one. chainmail is 9somewhat of 10 base, helmets are 6,9 of 7 base.
i know exactly, what will happen. you can produce more iron armor but the price will drop significantly. or you produce weapons and other iron goods at lower sale prices.
salt is normaly worth 5, saussages 7 (same as helmets, just for comparrison).
but i am willing to learn, if there is something more on top of it.

btw- there is no road glitch i use, since there is no road connected to that center mine. maybe you will come behind this one yourself :cozyhitman2:

Crossbows sell for 5 and swords for 6, but the logic is a bit different here. Prices work somewhat differently for iron goods. And actually, helmets are better than armor in some respects. maybe you will come behind this one yourself)

If you crash the price of salt down to 1, it’s not competitive at all. I’m even curious about how fast the price would crash with such supply.

[yuriseme]

A 2-minute riddle. The solution is visible in the screenshot for anyone interested, showing how the road works out.
That means iron could reach sales of 18–19k without crashing the price, since there are plenty of other types of goods. The salt king didn’t last long!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3653848146

[choulaung]

so you did not get it then...

edit: dont just state things, show me those 18-19k.

[yuriseme]

I won’t do it just for you — only if I have the time and the mood.
Mathematically, it’s solved like this: (5 + 6 + 4 + 3)*300 + 3*200 ≈ 6k

But I’m testing the salt in this mode, because I’m really curious) How long will this last?

[yuriseme]

Originally posted by Doc_Hotpants:

PS: GDP is a really bad way of looking at economic power, but that's a subject for a different day.

And which indicator do you think is best for measuring economic strength?