There are six resources in Rise of Nations; five (food, timber, wealth, metal, and oil) are discussed here. The sixth, knowledge, is discussed in depth in Chapter 4, however, it is referred to in this chapter when it has bearing on your economic efforts.

The comments on the game resources also discuss their relative importance. Do not let this lead you into thinking that one resource is more important than the others. It might be so at times, depending on your current goals and game conditions, but keep in mind that the game's five economic resources are closely interlinked.

It's impossible to increase production of one resource without an ample supply of others; building farms costs timber, wood-cutting camps cost food, and the like. Creating any military unit always requires two resources (for example, food and timber, metal and wealth), and building an effective army depletes all resources across the board.

For ease of reference, the game resources are discussed in the same order in which they appear in the game. Note that all production figures use the game scale: number of units gathered in 30 seconds of game time, irrespective of game speed.

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Food

In Rise of Nations, food truly is the stuff of life. It plays a particularly important role in the game's early stages, especially so if you begin playing in the Ancient Age. Here's a summary of food uses:

• Creating new units. The basic cost for a citizen is 20 food, increasing by one food for every citizen you already have. Caravans cost a minuscule amount of food; much more importantly, you'll be spending many thousand units of food on new military units.
  
  
• Research. There's a research-induced food crisis in every game that starts in Ancient Age (mostly Quick Battle scenarios; the campaign game is different-see Chapter 10). Knowledge isn't available as a game resource until Classical Age; prior to that, Ancient Age research consumes more food than any other economic activity. Civic and Age advances always carry food costs. Age advances are particularly expensive, progressing well into four-digit numbers in the later stages of the game. Quite a lot of ancillary research conducted outside the library requires food, too.
  
  
• Building Wonders. Building a Wonder can carry heavy food costs; the Statue of Liberty, for example, consumes 600 units. Exact stats for each Wonder are available in-game.
  
  

Note: You'll need all the food you can get to advance through the final couple of ages in the game. You'll also need plenty of food when a war turns for the worse: Replacing lost civilians on top of creating large numbers of new military units can instantly drain food reserves.

Warning: Occasionally, food is also required for new buildings (such as a lumber mill). In most games, food demand follows a pattern: It hits the roof right away and then gently plateaus in the middle game. Don't make the mistake of neglecting the food industry when demand slackens briefly!

Collecting Food

Note that on water maps, food can also be produced by fishermen, the waterborne equivalent of merchants.

• Farms: Each farm produces 10 food, and there's a limit of five farms per city (Egyptians can build seven). Thus, base food production of a single city equals 60 units.
  
  Your first farm will cost you 40 timber; each subsequent farm costs four timber more. Building a full set of five farms around your first city costs 240 timber, and jumps by 100 timber for each subsequent city. Building the maximum number of farms in a rather modest empire consisting of three cities costs 1,020 units of timber! This timber investment translates into a base food output of 180 units (more for nations with food bonuses).
  
  On top of that you have to consider the cost of creating citizens to work on 15 farms: 420 food for 15 new citizens. Fortunately, there's also a +20 food farm completion bonus that helps offset the citizen cost.
  
  It's good to build farms right next to the city, even though it might not please you aesthetically. This will let you defend them more easily in case of an enemy raid. Losing a couple of farms right at the outset of a game greatly harms your chances of victory; at the two highest difficulty levels, you might as well start over again.
  
  
• Granaries: You can build one granary per city once you've researched Science level 2 and advanced to Classical Age. It will cost you 60 timber and 10 wealth to begin with, and 40 timber for every subsequent granary.
  
  Benefits: A granary in a city boosts farm food output of that city by 20% (a full set of five farms translates to 10 food).
  
  A granary also lets you research three types of techs: Herbal Lore, Medicine, and Pharmaceuticals, which are principally useful in war and exploration. Agriculture, Crop Rotation, and Food Industry boost a city's farm food output by 50%, 100%, and 200% respectively.
  
  
• Wonders and Other Means: Some Wonders benefit food production. The Pyramids increase your food gather rate by 20% while raising the food Commerce limit (production cap) by 50. The Pyramids are available as early as the Classical Age and relatively inexpensive, so they make a very attractive Wonder. The Industrial Age Kremlin Wonder increases your food production cap by 200! See Chapter 5 for more Wonder details.
  
  Sending merchants to exploit rare resources such as Whales, Spice, and Citrus also boosts food production. The rare resource bonus can then be increased by researching the Taxation line of techs at the temple-see Chapter 4 for more research details.
  
  

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Timber

The foundations of your empire are built of timber. Just look at the many roles timber plays in the game:

• Building and repairing structures. The vast majority of game buildings are made of timber. All of them get more expensive with each subsequent building. Roughly half the Wonders that can be built in the game require large amounts of timber, too.
  
  This should be quite enough to convince you to put a priority on developing a timber industry. You already know you'll need plenty of timber to build a food industry. Well, you'll also need plenty of timber for building just about anything else (just look at the stats available in-game).
  
  
• In Diplomacy games, food (or any other economic resource) can be sent or received as tribute. You may also obtain food as plunder from enemy buildings/cities.
  
  Note: Build granaries! You need only one granary to conduct granary research, but you should build one in every city with a full set of farms. Remember that a new farm needs a citizen to work it; a granary doesn't. Building granaries lets you create more military units within your current population limit.
  
  
• Research. Players that begin in the Ancient Age are due for a particularly heavy timber hit: You need a lot to research Science level 1 just at the time when it's desperately needed for everything else. Later, you'll need timber for mainstream Commerce and scholar productivity techs.
  
  
• New units. From Ancient through Enlightenment Age, the health of your military depends on timber. It's needed for all ranged attack units (light infantry, too). Juggling military and construction timber needs is so difficult that if you opt for the military route, it's better to follow through fully and capture cities rather than build them from scratch.
  
  Both caravans and merchants require timber. Merchants can be a problem because you'll be sending them out while concurrently expanding in all other areas; their cost (30 timber and 10 gold for the first merchant, 10 more of each for every subsequent merchant) can hurt. Caravans aren't really cheaper (10 food and 30 timber for the first, 10 food and 5 timber more for each subsequent), but they're easier to accommodate because you'll create fewer caravans than merchants in the early game.
  
  

Building a strong timber industry is much easier than building a strong food industry. A single farm can accommodate just one citizen worker who produces 10 food (national bonuses excepted). A single woodcutter's camp can accommodate, in practice, up to 12 workers (once in a blue moon you'll get 13 or 14).

Your first camp costs 50 food, every subsequent camp 20 food more. In most games you'll be hitting the timber production cap (just 70 units at the starting Commerce level) with the very first camp you build. Unlike farms, camps can be built outside city limits, but still must be built within your national borders. It's easy to achieve a gather rate of 200-250 timber with just three camps, which costs 210 food.

It all adds up to this: You won't regret developing the timber biz first. This doesn't mean ignoring the food industry; that whole strategy is fully explained in Chapter 8. It does mean hitting the timber Commerce cap the moment you research at least the first three Commerce levels. Failure to do so might mean losing the game on anything but the Easiest or Easier difficulty levels, and leaves you without no chance at the three higher difficulty levels (Tough, Tougher, Toughest).

Collecting Timber

Note that rare resources are a fairly reliable source; many provide a base boost to your timber gather rate.

• Woodcutter's Camp: This should be the very first structure you build in all games starting with Nomad or City Center Only. If you start in Nomad mode, your first priority is to find a city site that allows at least one very productive woodcutter's camp within city radius, or two to three less productive ones.
  
  Remember that hitting the timber Commerce cap is priority number one! Occasionally, you might have to settle for building a camp outside of city limits, but next to a particularly lush forest. Unfortunately, camps outside city limits aren't included in the timber production bonuses granted by a lumber mill, which can boost city timber production by up to 200%.
  
  Make sure you can protect your camps in times of war! Remember that timber is essential for repairing buildings as well as replacing the ones that get destroyed. In most games, it really pays to locate a couple of camps well away from possible enemy approaches, and shift production there when danger threatens. Unfortunately, placing them within city firing range means the city has to be built close to a forest in the first place, which limits city space available for remaining buildings.
  
  
• Lumber Mill: A lumber mill increases the timber production of all woodcutter's camps within city radius by 20%; researching appropriate lumber mill technologies will further raise the gather rate by 50%, 100%, and eventually 200%. The other lumber mill research option consists of researching three levels of construction technology, which reduces construction times, increasing the buildings' hit points; see Chapter 4 for research details.
  
  Given the importance of timber, a lumber mill will often be your first production-enhancing building. It's an inexpensive investment, costing just 50 food and 20 metal to start with. Each subsequent lumber mill costs 40 metal extra, however, you'll never need to build more than two if you take the trouble to designate a city or two as timber production centers.
  
  
• Wonders and Other Means: The Temple of Tikal increases your timber gather rate by 50%, and your timber Commerce cap by 100. Unfortunately it isn't available until Gunpowder Age, which generally makes it an unexciting production-boosting option. The Kremlin raises your timber Commerce limit by 200. Most importantly, numerous rare resources supply timber; the majority provide a 10 timber bonus, but some yield more; see the "Rare Resources" section later on in this chapter.
  
  Make sure at least one of your cities, preferably your capital, is a major timber-producing center.

Final Thoughts on Wood: The timber biz is pretty straightforward. Concentrate on developing it to the point where you can work on two new cities concurrently while creating military units. Note that quite a few maps are scarce in timber. It's not easy to become a timber potentate in Great Sahara, for example. If you find yourself playing a map like that, put a priority on founding (or capturing) new cities.

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Wealth

Wealth is the last of the three economic resources that appear when you begin playing in Ancient Age. Generating wealth is a fascinating mini-game within the game; it can be done in an amazing variety of ways, all of which are reviewed here. You need wealth to:

• Create new units. You need wealth to create merchants and many military units. Wealth is partly replaced by oil as a military unit requirement once you advance into the Industrial Age. But life is cruel, and you'll most likely be spending all that extra wealth on oil. Some of the most useful military units (including generals and airplanes) in the game require wealth-lots of wealth.
  
  
• Build new structuress. Not many buildings require wealth, but those that do are indispensable: universities and forts, for example. Wealth is also a requirement for a couple of Wonders (Porcelain Tower, Supercollider). Exact stats can be found in-game.
  
  
• Conduct research. Again, wealth is not a particularly common requirement in that area, but the advances that require it are very important. Science (mainstream library research) and attrition "technologies" researched at the tower (Allegiance, Oath of Fealty, and the like) are very good examples. See Chapter 4 for more research details.
  
  
• Buy needed resources. Researching Commerce level 2 lets you buy and sell resources at the market (see next section). The ability to do so gives you great flexibility and can go a long way toward relieving shortages; for example, the sudden metal shortages that plague most Quick Battle games can be largely alleviated through judicious buying.

Wealth can assume decisive importance in a game, because wealthy players can weather almost any crisis by buying their way out. The next few sections tell you how to become one of these lucky players.

Secrets of Wealth

Wealth production isn't limited to particular game units or buildings. It's all around you. Literally. All you have to do is pick it up. Just count the ways:

• Markets. You have to reach Commerce level 1 to build markets. Each market pumps 10 wealth into your coffers and carries a nice building bonus of 35 wealth. Most importantly, owning a market lets you build merchants and caravans, and later also trade in resources (Commerce level 2). The cost of the first market is 80 timber, each subsequent market 30 timber more. It often gets expensive, because you want a market in every city.
  
  
• Caravan routes. Naturally, first you need to either own two cities or have an alliance with a nearby foreign city. Income from caravan routes is influenced by the size of the connected cities and the distance between them, number of buildings in the connected cities, and whether the route is national or international. Caravans to allied nations' cities are worth more money, but their income is split between you and your allied trading partner. You'll be getting your share from their caravans to your cities, too - the A.I. is quick to set them up.
  
  The main rule you should remember is that caravan income always increases with time: You can usually count on a 300% increase within 2-3 Ages, provided you don't retard city development. Thus, a caravan that begins by bringing in 11 wealth contributes 30 or 40 wealth by the time Age advances turn it into a truck.
  
  
• Temples. The temple is your second most important moneymaking building, and that doesn't mean just the 25 wealth building bonus. A temple lets you research increasingly effective ways of collecting a sort of real estate tax, plus new means of increasing your territory, which brings in still more tax.
  
  It's a beautiful little scheme but shouldn't be jumped into too early; researching Taxation isn't inexpensive, and commonly yields just 8-10 wealth with your initial pair of cities (capital plus brand new city; exact income can vary according to map, proximity of other nations, and so on).
  
  Your first temple costs 80 timber, each subsequent temple 30 timber more. It gets very expensive because enemy cities are easier to capture if you destroy the city temple first, and once they become yours, you want a temple in there too, for obvious reasons.
  
  
• Merchants and Fishermen. Many rare resources exploited by merchants and fishermen contribute 10 or even 20 wealth. As explained earlier, merchant costs, although not high, often have to be incurred at a particularly expensive time, and can be a bother. Fishermen are even more expensive if you consider you need to build a dock first, however, they receive a terrific production boost once you research the agriculture line of techs at the granary: up to 200%.
  
  
• Industry Buildings. Any building that produces or boosts production of resources is automatically a moneymaker once you can trade it, which is early (Commerce level 2). Any buildings/structures within city limits. Every single thing you build inside the city radius increases the income from caravan routes to that city by one wealth per building. Farm, mine, temple, market, barracks, tower, lumber mill-they all count.
  
  
• City Size. This ties in with the number of buildings within city limits. As you know from the ingame city panel, a certain number of buildings plus Age advance brings about an increase in city size (for instance, five buildings plus Medieval Age turns a Small city into a Large one). Each increase in city size increases the value of caravan routes to that city over the income provided by the buildings within city limits. Your territory increases in size along with your cities; the larger the city, the stronger its effect on your national borders (+2 for each increase).
  
  
• Territory Size. More territory means more tax income and longer caravan routes; longer routes make more money. Don't try to save on building forts (see Figure 3.6)! They cost a lot of metal plus wealth, but increase your national territory and thus tax income. They also significantly cut military casualties, which saves plenty.
  
  
• Research. This doesn't just mean just Commerce; it means practically all research. That might seem far-fetched, but consider: Civic advances enlarge your territory and let you research increasingly efficient forms of taxation; Science research cuts research costs in general, lets you build production-boosting buildings, and subsequently research production-boosting techs.
  
  Military lets you build better military units, which means fewer losses and more captured cities plus adjoining territory. Plunder. If you're a good military leader, this can mean periodical bonanzas of all game resources except knowledge. Knowledge cannot be seized, bought, or sold.
  
  
• Wonders and other means. The Colossus, Porcelain Tower, and Taj Mahal affect your wealth very directly and drastically. Practically all Wonders, however, bring some potential wealth benefits. The same applies to rare resources; they're worth money even if they don't produce wealth as such. Yet other means include forcing other players to pay you tribute.
  
  The one other thing you need to become wealthy is patience. You cannot expect three small cities with caravan routes to satisfy your needs right away. You have to make the cities grow along with your industries.

Final Thoughts on Wealth

Becoming wealthy requires logical, consistent development of your whole empire. Look to that, and the money thing will work out all by itself. Do not be afraid to trade through the market; just watch how much you sell! Consistently selling a single resource in large amounts depresses its market price quickly and fairly permanently. Market prices rise and fall within limits defined by other factors: commodity selling patterns, stock levels, production, and finally a random factor.

Becoming the Wheat or Timber King isn't a solution: It will drive the price of the oversold commodity very low. There's no limit to how high or low prices can go, but it's far easier to drive the selling price down to one wealth (per 100 units) than to raise it to more than 100. In consolation, buying prices rarely rise over 200 wealth per 100 units. To get good money for your stuff, sell excess units in small batches, varying commodities: a couple hundred timber, then a couple hundred food is often the pattern in the later stages of the game. Similarly, space out purchases over a period if you can. Don't wait for the actual emergency to strike! Emergencies tend to come in pairs, sometimes even groups.

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Metal

Metal makes an appearance in the Classical (second) Age and gradually grows in importance for the rest of the game. Its value rises especially sharply when you enter Industrial Age; however, note that in non-violent games, metal is of marginal importance. As the list here shows, almost all its practical applications are military. You need metal to:

• Create new military units. At first, metal-consuming units consist of just heavy infantry, heavy cavalry, and artillery. The bubble grows and bursts with Industrial Age: all of a sudden, you'll need tons of metal to control land, sea, and air.
  
  
• Research. Metal is a factor in all military-related research after Ancient Age: both in the library and out of it (for example, attrition techs at the tower).
  
  
• Build structures. Structures that require metal fall into a few distinct classes. All military buildings that don't produce new military units, such as towers and forts, require metal. The second group is oil industry buildings (oil well, oil platform, refinery). Lumber mills also require metal, and several later-Age Wonders require substantial amounts of metal.
  
  If you're beginning the game in the Ancient Age, beware of rushing things and focusing on wealth production at the expense of other sectors such as research and defense. You'll be surprised how quickly your wealth gather rate can hit the roof once you advance to Medieval Age!

Collecting Metal

• Mine: There can be only one mine per mountain/cliff, and you'll occasionally go to war because of that. Mine productivity depends on the size on the mountain/cliff it adjoins and whether it falls within your national borders (that will lead to a couple of wars, too). Mines aren't expensive: 50 timber for the first, 20 more timber for each subsequent; however, a mine site that will accommodate many workers is much harder to find than a comparable site for a woodcutter's camp. Mines that produce 50-70 metal are the norm; occasionally you'll be able to cross 100.
  
  
• Smelter: The smelter is a very valuable building: In addition to boosting the metal production of all mines within city limits by 20%, it lets you research advances that reduce your army's vulnerability to attrition. Like with other production-boosting buildings, you can also research boosting metal production by 50%, 100%, and 200%. Making a point of being ahead with metal production can win a game!
  
  Unfortunately, prior to building a smelter you have to research Science level 3 (one level higher than required for a granary or a lumber mill). Your first smelter will cost 70 timber and 50 wealth; each subsequent smelter costs 40 timber more. Most games will see you building just a couple of smelters, so this won't break your back.
  
  
• Wonders and Other Means The Angkor Wat is the designated metal Wonder (+50 metal to production, +100 to metal commerce cap). It has other wonderful benefits fully described in Chapter 5; what you should note for now is that it arrives on the scene with perfect timing: Enlightenment Age, right before the big metal hunger begins.
  
  The Kremlin increases your metal Commerce cap by 200. Other Wonders (Statue of Liberty, Space Program) have an indirect effect. You can also obtain metal by sending a merchant or a fisherman to exploit an appropriate rare resource. This is especially helpful in the earlier stages of the game. Naturally, you can also blackmail a weaker nation into a metal tribute (Diplomacy games). Plunder can be a surprisingly good source.
  
  

Final Thoughts on Metal
A game that begins in the Ancient/Classical Age can be over before Industrial Age comes along. If it isn't, metal suddenly becomes almost as important as oil. You might have had enough metal all along to build strong armies and multiple forts; once tanks and airplanes appear on the scene, you'll get a chance to replenish metal reserves only if you run short of oil and/or the wealth to buy oil.

Turning a city into a metal industry giant isn't as hard as it seems: Almost every map lets you place a city between two or more mountains and/or cliffs. Make a point of owning a city like that well before Industrial Age, and invest in a smelter plus smelter-based research.

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Oil

Oil is the stuff that nearly turns everything onto its head when it appears in Industrial Age. What's more, on many land-only maps, oil is available in meager quantities: Not every rocky patch is an oil field! This is probably why every refinery boosts the production of all the oil wells and platforms in your territory. Oil is needed for three purposes:

• Creating new military units. A modern military drinks up oil as if there were no tomorrow. It results in a major drain on all your resources: You'll be selling plenty of food and timber at rockbottom prices just to buy a little more oil.
• Building new military structures. There are only a couple that require oil, but both are important (air base, missile silo).
• Research. Specifically, oil is needed to advance to Modern and then Information Age. As you might guess, both of these Age advances are crucial. This list might be short, but the needs are long. The oil field situation is often better on sea maps, but owning oil platforms necessitates owning a powerful navy as well as air force (which soaks up all the extra oil, and often more). If you must see what a big oil surplus looks like, play a solo sandbox game.

Collecting Oil

• Oil Well/Platform: Oil wells come in land and sea varieties (platforms). They both cost 100 timber and 50 metal to begin with, and both produce 40 oil; however, the cost of the oil wells grows in increments of 15 timber and 15 metal for each extra well, while platforms grow in increments of 20. Platforms are also much easier to destroy than oil wells (because of the big difference in hit points as well as difficulties inherent in a sea defense). They're expensive, they're invaluable, and they can be a source of both oil and constant worries.
  
  
• Refinery: You need to research Science level 6 to build a refinery. You can build one per city, and you should as long as you can afford it. Every new refinery increases the output of all your oil wells/platforms by 10 oil each (25%). Four refineries mean doubled output. If you're still fighting for victory in modern times, be aware that refineries make prime strategic targets for missile and air strikes.
  
  

Some land maps such as the Old World have little oil; others (Great Sahara, Australian Outback) have plenty. You can check out each and every map type's potential by setting the game to start in Information Age with All Revealed (Quick Battle Options screen).

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Two Rules for Getting Rich

Happily, getting rich in Rise of Nations is easier than in real life. You can achieve it through the following means:

• Increased production. Rise of Nations lets you boost production of resources in several ways. You can build new resource-gathering structures (farms, woodcutters' camps, mines, oil wells, and the like), which gets increasingly expensive with each structure built. You can send out merchants to exploit special resources (such as wine, spice, gems), which yield one or more needed commodities plus special bonuses (as from rare resources).
  
  After conducting relevant research, you can build special buildings that provide a resource production bonus (granary, lumber mill, smelter, refinery). Specialized research conducted in these buildings provides yet more production benefits.
  
  You might also enjoy higher production through selecting one of the many Rise of Nations nations that have special economic bonuses, such as the Nubians, Germans, Egyptians, and Japanese.
  
  Merchants and fishermen are very efficient workers; on the average, one merchant or fisherman is worth three working citizens. This lets you save resources and build more military units within your population limit. Merchants and Fishermen are also usually more geographically isolated and easier to pick off - both for your opponents and for you.
  
  
• Wise spending. It is always much easier to squander resources than to produce them. Squandering resources occurs very frequently, even among the best players, because it's easy to get carried away by the excitement of the game. Wise spending is absolutely necessary to win solo games at the Toughest level, where the computer player(s) enjoys greatly boosted resource gather rates. You may also choose to stack the deck a little by playing a nation that enjoys economic advantages.