DeletedUser6857
Guest
@ShneekeyTheLost
You missed the first available AW, the ToS. I didn't check for all of the lower chapters, but I think it out performs a workshop now.
Also, regarding the Endless Excavation, while it does take up 20 squares compared to a 12 square workshop, that workshop needs pop and culture, which adds another ~20 squares I think.
But you need to balance that against the KP needed to build an AW. That is something hard to give up in the first 5 chapters as you are trying to move though the tech tree. As Shneeky pointed out, you really don't get tech locked in the first 5 chapters unless you have made some grave miscalculations on how many WP and factories to build.
The ToS sounds great until you realize that the award is per scout. If you aren't over scouting that's 20 scouts per chapter. Looking at chapter 3 that's probably an average of a scout every other day. Let's be generous and say your main hall is maxed at level 9 for all of chapter 3 that is 120K * 6% = 7200 per scout every other day as measured against a level 8 WS at 249 / h = 5976 per day. Assuming you don't do hourly production If I look at my level 7 WS it yields 431/3hr before culture bonus = 3448/ day. I don't think the culture bonus applies to the AW so I think the WS will still be a better deal than the ToS.