Economy in early-game

[Morzi]

What strategy should I follow at the beginning of the game? Is agriculture profitable?

[ryantheskinny]

Agricultural industry can be very profitable, like selling alchohol, or even food. At the beginning I would recommend starting a small Border town, for your initial population and construction office, since self building is a very big part of this game, and also becoming fully self sufficient is quite a nice goal to push for.

[thorstein92]

In terms of export early on - power, alcohol, clothes.
If you can afford - oil processing (even with imported crude).
Later trucks on western license

[TheAmishStig]

As far as strategy for exports?

The most game-breaking is to set up a Refinery. Running at full tilt (500 workers at any given time), Importing oil it's good for about $15,000 per day, using domestic oil it's good for closer to $50k.

Beyond that, Clothing, Alcohol, and Western vehicles exported to Soviet nations (bought on license at the Vehicle Assembly Hall, built, and exported) are solid choices too, while Electricity is a reliable earner, just not a super fast one. Many of the other really good ones [like Chemicals] are locked behind Research at the Technical University.

When it comes to self-sufficiency, exporting Crops directly isn't worth the trouble early-game (late game where you're producing more than you consume, there's no harm in flinging the excess over the border), but Crops is a core component in a lot of things your citizens want you to provide (Food and Alcohol directly, Clothing and Electronics indirectly [through being used in Chemicals]), so the sooner you get it sorted the sooner you can wean your industries off the imports. Likewise on the construction side, Gravel is used in a bunch of things...directly, in Cement, in Concrete, and in Asphalt. If you're going to be building things in-country, you're going to use a LOT of gravel.

Where you can save a fortune too is by setting up Construction Offices. Even if you're importing the building materials, labor is about half the price of any given structure, so if you can fling a bunch of Boozed-up Bored Bolsheviks at a construction site instead of paying foreigners to do it for you, your money will go a lot further.

[MG83]

Originally posted by MG83:

Originally posted by MG83:

----------------------------------------------------Profit--------Profit per woker
Oil Well-----------------------------------------159.36------59.36
Power Plant-------------------------------- 1,012.52------50.63
Refinery------------------------------------16,786.66------33.57
Coal Ore Processing Plant----------------472.95------31.53
Iron Ore Processing Plant-----------------472.26------31.48
Gravel processing plant--------------------190.89------12.73
Chemical Plant-------------------------------582.42-------11.65
Live Stock Farm-----------------------------546.29-------10.93
Coal Mine-----------------------------------2,306.66-------10.48
Cement Plant--------------------------------306.38--------10.21
Food Factory------------------------------1,427.97----------8.40
Distillery---------------------------------------836.26----------8.36
Iron Mine-----------------------------------2,075.38----------8.30
Clothing---------------------------------------610.11----------7.63
Brick Factory---------------------------------543.63----------7.25
Fabrics Factory------------------------------515.19---------5.15
Prefab Panel Factory-----------------------312.81----------4.81
Electrical Components Factory-----------540.94--------3.61
Electronics Assembly Hall-----------------528.58---------3.52
Mech---------------------------------------------400.71--------2.67
Sawmill-------------------------------------------53.09--------2.65
Wood Cutting post 3xU377-------------------7.00---------1.40
Steel---------------------------------------------344.48---------0.69
Plastic Factory---------------------------- -5,741.86----- -57.42
Concrete Plant---------------------------- -638.19----- -127.64
Asphalt Plant--------------------------------- -697.71--- -139.54
Slaughter House------------------------- -13,750.21-- -275.00


Here are the state numbers for 1960 !

[JimBarracus]

Best thing at the beginning is a power plant.
needs very little workers when importing coal ore, which is very cheap.

next thing would be oil, needs quite a few people, but you can use the fuel for yourself and sell the rest. It also makes asphalt roads affordable.

[MG83]

Originally posted by JimBarracus:

Best thing at the beginning is a power plant.
needs very little workers when importing coal ore, which is very cheap.

next thing would be oil, needs quite a few people, but you can use the fuel for yourself and sell the rest. It also makes asphalt roads affordable.

best thing at first is refinery. beats everthing.

power plant refunds itself in 5 year. refinery in 5 month :D

howevern when you improt lots of oil and export lots of fuel bitumen its profitability can fall down to 10 ruble per worker. due to price change.