Playing the long game

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  • After further review, I think because the total resources is equal to the money for all levels and the generation rates are the same for all provinces, the ROI is equivalent for money and resources. ROI, however, will vary based on the output of the province, which can also vary based on morale. If we assume a 1:1 resource ratio, provincial morale is 100 and use 6000 resource production (core, double-resource, urban), we get the following days to breakeven:

    Urban Provinces
    Level 15.33
    Level 24.72
    Level 34.75
    Level 45.07
    Level 55.61



    Using the same assumptions above, but use a 1500 resource rural province and the appropriate rates we get:

    Local Industry
    Level 16.10
    Level 24.36
    Level 33.80



    There are some rural provinces that have other rates, Indianapolis for example in HWW is only 750. Breakeven takes a fair bit longer for those rural provinces:

    Local Industry
    Level 112.19
    Level 28.72
    Level 37.60



    Breakeven for a non-core double is discouragingly long (1500 assumed resource rate):

    Urban Provinces
    Level 121.33
    Level 218.89
    Level 319.00
    Level 420.27
    Level 522.44



    Non-core rural provinces aren't worth bothering with at 1500 normal base (375 actual for non-core) and would be worse for the 750 base provinces:

    Local Industry
    Level 124.38
    Level 217.44
    Level 315.20



    The big takeaways are:
    1. Don't bother with non-core unless you plan to play for another month.
    2. Local industry level 3 has the shortest ROI for 1500 base provinces and level 2 is shorter than the average ROI for urban industry. This indicates to me local industry should be an early priority to get to level 3. Particularly for oil, metal, rare materials.
    3. Diminishing returns start to kick in after level 3. It takes longer to see a return on the resources invested versus previous levels.
  • I will probably reorganize this at some point to make a true guide, but I'll go ahead and touch on the rudimentary points that were raised earlier.

    Provinces are of two types, urban and rural. Urban provinces are cities and they are worth victory points. Urban provinces generally produce more resources than rural provinces and are where unit production structures are constructed. Each province may produce a resource, in addition to the money and manpower all provinces produce. The amount of resource, manpower, and money produced are based on what I will call the "base province production value". This will vary, some urban provinces only have a "single resource" while some have a "double resource". As you would expect, doubles produce twice as much as single resource provinces.

    The amount that a province actually contributes to your economy is modified by morale. Let's take a look at an example province in the UK on Clash of Nations:

    The morale of this province is 70%, meaning the output is reduced by 30%. I can calculate the base value, what the province would produce if the morale was 100 by multiplying the current production by 1.3. I get 6016.4 which seems a little off, I know the true value is 6000 at 100 morale. Perhaps there's some rounding going on here.

    Morale is extremely important to your economy. As you can see, each province's output is reduced when morale is below 100%. This can have a massive impact when your country is large, 30% of a huge economy is a lot of resources. Losing your capital will reduce morale in all provinces by 20%. Obviously you want to avoid that. Claiming an enemy capital increases morale in all provinces by 10%. Obviously you want to do that as often as possible.

    When morale is below 31% a province may rebel, resulting in a loss of control and resetting morale to 25% if the province is reclaimed. You can avoid this by taking an enemy capital near the end of the day to raise morale to 35% in all newly captured territory. You can also leave garrison troops in low morale provinces to reduce the chance of rebellion. If the force is strong enough, it will prevent rebellions completely. Check the morale info button for details.

    Propaganda Offices are an important tool if morale management. If you are unable to take capitals, propaganda offices are the only other option to increase provincial morale. Propaganda offices increase morale generation by 10/20/40 depending on the level. You can review the factors that effect morale generation by clicking the morale info button. Sum the bonuses and penalties to morale, if you have more penalties than bonuses your morale threshold will be reduced. Let's say for example you have an expansion penalty of 4 but a neighbor bonus of 4. In this case morale will be stable at 100 and no office is needed until more expansion takes place.