Gladiola
Well-Known Member
After playing since March, I've made my meandering way to the beginning of the Dwarves chapter. (And you thought I would never get here!)
I consulted elvengems, which is a great resource. In terms of upgrading settlement buildings, Gems' advice is "UPGRADE PORTAL OR MINES, FIRST? Portal first."
While that is probably good advice for later chapters (like Fairies where you have to have a certain level of portal to even be able to collect certain goods -- which I know thanks to Elevengems), it does not seem to be useful for the Dwarves chapter. The granite mines and copper foundries can be upgraded with just coins and supplies, so they don't compete with the Portal for resources -- it's not an either/or proposition. You have to upgrade the portal to at least level 2 in order to research copper foundries, but after that there is no barrier to fully upgrading them. The only resource that is in conflict is builder time, and since everyone has at least 2 builders, that is not really a conflict.
It makes the most sense to me to at least fully upgrade the granite mines while you're waiting to accumulate enough granite to upgrade the Portal to level 2. Of course this will delay your accumulation of granite a tiny bit (because of the time the mines are out of service while being upgraded), but you can upgrade 5 of them to level 4 in the first two days after you complete the research, which will result in much faster production than if you had left 10 of them at level 1 and waited to accumulate enough granite to upgrade the portal. (At 400 granite per level 1 mine per day, times 10 mines, 4000 granite per day, it would take a little more than 2 days to accumulate enough granite to upgrade the portal to level 2. Some time would still be required to build those mines, so it would probably be more like 3-4 days.)
I have a tiny city (30 expansions) so I'm making a go of it with just 5 granite mines, at least to start. I estimate they will each produce about 1200 granite per day, or 6000 total. Even with the additional building time (2 days to build five to level 4), I will have accumulated enough granite after the first 4 days to upgrade the portal to level 2, nearly as quickly as I could have done with 10 level 1 mines, and I will have 5 level 4 mines plus a level 2 portal in about the same time as I would have had just a level 2 portal and 10 level 1 mines.
This post is not a complaint about elvengems, which is a terrific site. I'm pointing out that there is a different way of calculating the cost/benefit for upgrading the granite mines first. Upgrading the portal to level 3 requires copper, and I think a similar calculation can be made that it makes sense to upgrade the copper foundries while you're waiting to accumulate enough copper to upgrade the portal.
I consulted elvengems, which is a great resource. In terms of upgrading settlement buildings, Gems' advice is "UPGRADE PORTAL OR MINES, FIRST? Portal first."
While that is probably good advice for later chapters (like Fairies where you have to have a certain level of portal to even be able to collect certain goods -- which I know thanks to Elevengems), it does not seem to be useful for the Dwarves chapter. The granite mines and copper foundries can be upgraded with just coins and supplies, so they don't compete with the Portal for resources -- it's not an either/or proposition. You have to upgrade the portal to at least level 2 in order to research copper foundries, but after that there is no barrier to fully upgrading them. The only resource that is in conflict is builder time, and since everyone has at least 2 builders, that is not really a conflict.
It makes the most sense to me to at least fully upgrade the granite mines while you're waiting to accumulate enough granite to upgrade the Portal to level 2. Of course this will delay your accumulation of granite a tiny bit (because of the time the mines are out of service while being upgraded), but you can upgrade 5 of them to level 4 in the first two days after you complete the research, which will result in much faster production than if you had left 10 of them at level 1 and waited to accumulate enough granite to upgrade the portal. (At 400 granite per level 1 mine per day, times 10 mines, 4000 granite per day, it would take a little more than 2 days to accumulate enough granite to upgrade the portal to level 2. Some time would still be required to build those mines, so it would probably be more like 3-4 days.)
I have a tiny city (30 expansions) so I'm making a go of it with just 5 granite mines, at least to start. I estimate they will each produce about 1200 granite per day, or 6000 total. Even with the additional building time (2 days to build five to level 4), I will have accumulated enough granite after the first 4 days to upgrade the portal to level 2, nearly as quickly as I could have done with 10 level 1 mines, and I will have 5 level 4 mines plus a level 2 portal in about the same time as I would have had just a level 2 portal and 10 level 1 mines.
This post is not a complaint about elvengems, which is a terrific site. I'm pointing out that there is a different way of calculating the cost/benefit for upgrading the granite mines first. Upgrading the portal to level 3 requires copper, and I think a similar calculation can be made that it makes sense to upgrade the copper foundries while you're waiting to accumulate enough copper to upgrade the portal.