by grant5
MK99 wrote:
I'll admit I've only played the game a few times. But my experience has been the most critical resources is turns. Let's say, for example, that you're playing a three player short game. There are twelve rounds of seven turns each - which means each player only gets twenty-eight turns (plus the end turn). And you've got to feed your population twelve times during the game.
That means that even if you figure out a way to cover your food needs in a single turn, you're going to spend twelve out of your twenty-eight turns just producing food. And that means you're only going to have sixteen turns to do all of your economic development.
And this is the reason building boats is critical. Boats produce food automatically. If you can feed your people from your fishing fleet then you don't have to use your turns producing food. If you can reduce your food-producing turns from twelve to four then you're raising your economic development turns from sixteen to twenty-four - a fifty percent increase in the amount of economic development you'll be able to do during the game.
That means that even if you figure out a way to cover your food needs in a single turn, you're going to spend twelve out of your twenty-eight turns just producing food. And that means you're only going to have sixteen turns to do all of your economic development.
And this is the reason building boats is critical. Boats produce food automatically. If you can feed your people from your fishing fleet then you don't have to use your turns producing food. If you can reduce your food-producing turns from twelve to four then you're raising your economic development turns from sixteen to twenty-four - a fifty percent increase in the amount of economic development you'll be able to do during the game.
This is also why judicious use of loans is critical.