Smithy vs Crafting Tools

[Ex Mudder]

A Smithy and Crafting tools give about the same bonus to crafting. Smithies can also attract creatures, weigh nothing, do not take up an inventory slot (but do take up a building slot) and increase everyone's crafting skill, not just 1 per tool.

I should probably prioritize smithies over Crafting tools... silly me.

Do multiple Smithies stack?

[KhashFirestorm]

yes

[Galdred]

They do, however, eat one building slot, and cost one tech. Granted, you should make the tech back by crafting more stuff, but still, crafting tools definitely offer some benefits.

[Ex Mudder]

Ofc, but I think I would rather have 1 Smithy made of Gold or Steel than 6 +3 crafting hammers. But I can stack the crafting hammers bonus on top of the Smithy bonus, once I have surplus gold / silver / iron/ steel / mithral to build them.

[noone_86]

I prefer having both.

[ap.trash]

Well in a way they serve different purposes in the game. The smithy costs a tech, when you might not want to spend it and LOTS of resources for the early game.
Crafting the hammers early on the other hand, when you usually also have only 1-2 crafters and no materials to keep more busy, is a good way to a) get a research increase due to the crafting bonus and b) get some research point due to finishing the hammers themselves.

So I guess, what makes the most sense is starting materials -> hammers, then after some 50-150 turns get to building the smithy, then finish equipping every crafter with the best hammers. My verdict at the moment.

[Galdred]

The main advantage of the blacksmith is that it allows warriors and other characters with zero skill to cook at the village instead of doing nothing (I hope nobody minds the metal powder in the meals...)

[Ex Mudder]

I disagree with "a lot" of resources. It is not that hard to get 50 wood or 50 stone. More difficult than a Cabbage Field, Pasture, or Well, but no worse than a Watchtower. I can usually get that much quartz from breaking down heavy loot.

Getting enough metal to attact something, that is more difficult.

Edit: to clarify, I would make silver crafting tools, but not steel or gold ones.

[licker34]

I usually make 3-5 tools through the early game, but it's more about research points than worrying about actually maxing crafting. As opposed to gathering, slower crafting really doesn't impact you very much.

I'll make the smithy mid game with some kind of attract bonus, but it's really just there for the attract bonus, by that point I should have a solid number of crafters with skill over 10, and adding another 5/10/15 to help them out doesn't matter very much.

On a harder difficulty where you don't have as many people it seems as though you're better off with the smithy so that anyone can do work, but on harder difficulties you usually have other issues to prioritize before you can take the time and research to worry about the smithy anyway.

[mistralic]

Originally posted by Ex Mudder:

Edit: to clarify, I would make silver crafting tools, but not steel or gold ones.

I build crafting tools asap, if i get the materials. These mats are otherwise lost to these anoining bandits. They seem to always show their greedy faces in the early game.

[3tamatulg]

I don't think the smithy is worth either the research point or the building slot, nevermind the cost of the two combined. You want maximum child/human/other attract.

It's easy enough to just make some tools for the crafters in the village, since due to the way the crafting/gathering system works, the person with the highest craft counts for double. If you have 3 people crafting one thing, let's say they have 10, 5 and 5 skill, and you have a choice between a single +5 tool, or +2 across the board (giving +6 total), you benefit more from the single +5.

(150 + 25 + 25) = 200
(120 + 35 + 35) = 190

I feel that you're playing suboptimally if you aren't constrained on the supply side of crafting as opposed to the throughput of your crafters.

[Spider]

If you want to build buildings for the attraction bonus build palisades. They need 40 material for primary and secondary each so the bonus will be higher.

Gimping your well, smithy or watchtower for an attraction bonus isn't worth it imho. If you spent research on those buildings you'll want their unique bonus as high as possible.

[Spider]

Metals are usually only usable for the secondary slot and while Mithril is good I'd rather use it for armor, unless you're swimming in it. Granite is good for buildings if you have some.