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Hardest possible amounts of people, tools and wares (via manipulation of .RTX files, as well as via making a map in the map editor to account for this, or to make it so that this works by checking the HQ territory terrain of any other map):

People: None or 1 Geologist (if locations of resources have not been ratified, but this basically reduces the difficulty).

Tools: 1 Hammer, 1 Pair of Tongs

Wares: 59 (minimum required on a 2 mine for each resource ratio)-71(minimum required on a 3 mine for each resource ratio, however 2 mines is sufficiently difficult, as 3 makes no difference to the degree of difficulty within the level of process, but extremely difficult and almost impossible to make wood stockpiling feasible within the parameters of how many stone deposits you can put into an area for a quarry, so this is the one decided to be the choice) Planks, 2 Stones, 2 Coal, 2 Iron Ore, 2 Iron

This is the minimum and most difficult requirement for any Headquarters.

P.S. This takes into consideration that the emergency building program (Which gives 4wood and 2 stone, if memory serves). If this is inaccurate, take the deficit in resources into consideration.

Build Metalworks. After that, start building a Quarry. While it's being built, make a Pick-Axe at the Metalworks, via the tool-making menu. Stop production at the Metalworks as soon as it's made. Make sure the building gets occupied, so make sure the tool is available BEFORE the Quarry has been built. After quarrying 2 stone, build an Iron Smelter. During the construction, via the tool-making menu, make a Crucible in the same way you made the Pick-Axe, making sure the tool is made before the construction of the Iron Smelter has been completed. Stop Metalworking production. Make SURE no more resources end up taking up spaces in the metalworks. If excess resources have been sent out from HQ, cut the road connected to the Metalworks, and demand the resources back via the menu you get from clicking on the HQ.

HQ territory area = no trees within a cutting area, but there are stone deposits of 36 (based upon needing to start a wooden plank production process on location only once)-82 (based upon the stockpile of wooden planks at a positive rate of 1 every time a forester, woodcutter and sawmill need to be built and demolished) .

Area = 6 or 8 iron ore deposits in the ground, depending on location being Inland, Island or coastal, with a further requirement of at least 2 or 3 different mining locations.

Area = 6 or 10 coal deposits in the ground, again depending on 2 or 3 different locations.

At the Iron Smelter, make 2 iron. Start building a Coal Mine where the coal is, while you send the iron to the Metalworks, and start making a Pick Axe. After the Coal Mine has been built, start building a Fishery IF you're near the coast, or a hunter IF there are animals around. If there are no animals around are there are no coastal areas to fish (very rare), then the following deposits need to be funded with food from the wares located in the HQ, so account for this in the final sustainable tool-making process. While the Hunter or the Fishery is being constructed, make sure the tool of either the Bow and Arrow, or the Rod and Line are made before the construction is completed. Now, your miner is now fed to extract the coal.

Now there's coal, but no iron. You're going to have to demolish and let the Coal Mine burn, after the very few deposits you extracted have exhausted the mine of its coal.

Now build an Iron Mine, where the Iron ore is. Extract the Iron, which should be sent to the Iron Smelter, along with the necessary amounts of coal for 2 iron.

Now, make a Scythe at the Metalworks, while building a Farm from the resources gathered from the quarry. After the Farm has been made, start making a Mill. After that, a Bakery. While that's being constructed, make a Rolling Pin at the Metalworks.

Construct a well. The economy for the production of food for the mine, can now extract enough to produce the proper amounts of resources required for the Iron smelter to make a further 3 iron. Now while you're making your Forester, make a shovel at the Metalworks. While you're making your Woodcutter, make an Axe at the Metalworks. While you're making your Sawmill, make a Saw at the Metalworks.

Now, the economy can sustain itself in the production of wood. In an island scenario, the economy will need 69 planks, not 40, as there are further amounts of stone and wood needed.

As construction is now sustainable, there should be no problem in making a Brewery. Divert the needed grain from a Farm, when the mines have been exhausted, to produce Beer.

Now that Beer has been made, build an Armory, while making a Hammer at the Metalworks. A sword and a shield is made, and a military unit has been recruited (private).

Now make a military building, and cross to a further expanse of territory, where resources can be constrained according to the difficulty. For the highest level of difficulty, there should be no gold whatsoever on the map, and the coal:iron deposits ratio should be 2:1, with there being the minimum construction areas, as well as the minimum resources required to further expand the territory. It should be calculated how long all of this can possibly take, then in order to factor this into a further level of difficulty, make it so that the enemy computer will border territory as soon as the terminal amount of resources that are the minimum required to win, are put at the furthest possible level of reach. The bigger the map, the less margin of error there is for military building location choice.

As a side note, if you're used to the timings of the economy, then try to time everything to be as proximal as possible to everything else, in order to make things run faster.

For added difficulty, make it so that each building once made redundant in its necessary use to sustain a working economy, HAS to be demolished, in order for there to be space to build the next. This means that for the Mill, once all grain that's needed for the sustainability of the economy has been made into flour for the Bakery, it HAS to be demolished to build the Bakery in the first place. The same can go for the placement for the Farm, the Iron Smelter, the Metalworks, the Armory and the Sawmill, and any other buildings for that matter. This can be done by the terrain being harsh in the territory, by there being enough unusable areas to limit the construction to the very minimum required.

For further difficulty, you will have to enable Harbors and Shipyard Ship Construction, as well as the shipping to work.

In the scenario you go for a further difficulty, then a Harbor will HAVE to be constructed, and the expedition should replace the military building, with the expedition landing at a certain location, where there will be the resources to either further expand the territory, or further increase the level of resources required to send another expedition, to another island location, where eventually after the set amount of expeditions needed has been met, the location has been found where the resources can be sourced from, via the production of a military building, to further expand the territory from the final expedition's Harbor location.

Instructions for this case:

Build a Harbor, and do NOT start sustainable plank production before you do this. Construct a Hammer in the Metalworks, while making a Shipyard.

Construct a ship. This is 13 planks of wood, if anybody didn't realize.

Have enough resources for an expedition. There is no room for a sustainable amount of wood to be constructed, as the Harbor and Shipyard were required to leave the island, and their locations would have taken up the space to get the wood and the area for the buildings to harvest and produce planks from any trees planted by a Forester. However, it could be further made more difficult, by making wood sustainable on the island first, in order to build a Harbor and a Shipyard, and then start the economic production of wooden planks, for the location of an expedition that does supply enough space.

For something more irritating than more difficult, make the land as elevated as possible.

To clarify:

Building Location for all buildings: Castle Marker with an anchor (Harbors can be built), OR Castle Marker for Inland difficulty (but these statistics do not relate to this, so make a note in accordance with this).

-59 Planks, 2 Stones, 2 Coal, 2 Iron Ore, 2 Iron

Metalworks: 2 Stones, 2 Wooden Planks.

-57 Planks, 0 Stone, 2 Coal, 2 Iron Ore, 2 Iron

Pick Axe: 1 Iron, 1 Wooden Plank.

-56 Planks, 0 Stone, 2 Coal, 2 Iron Ore, 1 Iron

Crucible: 1 Iron, 1 Wooden Plank.

-55 Planks, 0 Stones, 2 Coal, 2 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Metalworks demolished for space to build Quarry.

Quarry: 2 Wooden Planks. Quarrying gives 36 stone, then:

-53 Planks, 36 Stones, 2 Coal, 2 Iron Ore, 1 Iron

Quarry demolished, for Iron Smelter space (all stone deposits are located on mining areas).

Iron Smelter: 2 Stones, 2 Wooden Planks. Iron Smelter gives 2 Iron, then:

-51 Planks, 34 Stones 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 2 Iron

Iron Smelter demolished for Metalworks location.

Metalworks: 2 Stone, 2 Wooden Planks.

-49 Planks, 32 Stones 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 2 Iron

Pick Axe: 1 Wooden Plank, 1 Iron.

-48 Planks, 32 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 1 Iron

Coal Mine: 4 Wooden Planks.

-44 Planks, 32 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 1 Iron

Rod and Line OR Bow and Arrow: 1 Wooden Plank, 1 Iron.

-43 Planks, 32 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Metalworks Demolished for Fishery or Hunter location.

Fishery OR Hunter: 2 Wooden Planks. This exhausts at a production of 4, if possible. If not, a maximum of 9 is allowed from this food resource, so a farm MUST be built for the final piece of coal or iron.

-41 Planks, 32 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron, 4 Fish or Meat

Collectively, mines (4 Fish or Meat) make minimum of 2 Iron, 2 Coal in accordance with exhaustion required to be no more than 2 per mine:

Coal Mine demolished for Iron Mine miner.

Iron Mine: 4 Wooden Planks.

-37 Planks, 32 Stones, 2 Coal, 2 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Fishery or Hunter demolished for Iron Smelter.

-35 Planks, 30 Stones, 2 Coal, 2 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Iron Smelter Makes 2 Iron.

-35 Planks, 30 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 2 Iron

Iron Smelter Demolished for Metalworks.

-33 Planks, 28 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 2 Iron

Metalworks makes Scythe: 1 Wooden Plank, 1 Iron

-32 Planks, 28 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 1 Iron

Rolling Pin: 1 Wooden Plank, 1 Iron

-31 Planks, 28 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Metalworks demolished for Farm location.

Farm: 3 Wooden Planks, 3 Stones

-28 Planks, 25 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Farm produces up to 6 grain, which takes 6x longer than it would normally take, due to there being only 1 location to grow the grain.

Farm demolished for Mill.

-26 Planks, 23 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron, 6 Grain

Mill makes Flour. Mill Demolished for Well, or visa versa.

-24 Planks, 23 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron, 6 Flour

Well produces 6 Water. Well can now be demolished for Bakery.

-22 Planks, 21 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron, 6 Water.

Bakery Makes 6 Bread. Bakery demolished for Iron Smelter.

-20 Planks, 21 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron, 6 bread

Coal Mine constructed and mined. Exhausts at 4 coal. Demolished.

-16 Planks, 21 Stones, 4 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron, 3 bread

Iron Mine constructed and mined. Exhausts at 4 Iron Ore. Demolished.

-12 Planks, 21 Stones, 4 Coal, 4 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Iron Smelter makes 4 Iron.

-12 Planks, 21 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 4 Iron

Iron Smelter demolished for Metalworks.

-10 Planks, 19 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 4 Iron

Metalworks makes a Hammer, a Shovel, an Axe and a Saw.

-6 Planks, 19 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Metalworks demolished.

Forester built.

-4 Planks, 19 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Forester demolished after all available placements for trees have been exhausted (keep it to a minimum of 7 planting locations, for repeating the wooden plank collecting process to a maximum limited by stone deposits).

Woodcutter built.

-2 Planks, 19 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Woodcutter demolished after all trees are chopped down. Sawmill built.

-0 Planks, 17 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Sawmill demolished after all logs are made into Wooden Planks. Process repeated upon desired degree of difficulty.

Wooden Planks stockpiled to 23. As 6 are required for a reproduction of wooden planks, wooden planks total in HQ is 29.

-29 Planks, 17 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Build Shipyard.

-27 Planks, 14 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Make Ship.

-14 Planks, 14 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Demolish Shipyard, construct Harbor.

-10 Planks, 8 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron

Make an expedition. Repeat process for desired result of difficulty.

-6 Planks, 2 Stones, 0 Coal, 0 Iron Ore, 0 Iron (required for wood reproduction)

Upon landing at expedition, make sure there is:

-at least 2 coal deposits
-at least 2 iron ore deposits
-at least one castle marker building location
-at least one building location at least far enough away for a military building to be placed
-any more stone deposits not found in original HQ location, for quarrying required for further expeditions, if desired
OR
-granite mine deposits

If there is not, then you will have to find another location, and source the resources for another expedition from the HQ territory.

Once you have settled and extracted enough resources to now begin the production of swords and shields, you need another hammer to be made first.

Iron Smelter first: make as much iron as you can. Then demolish.

So, build a metalworks at the expedition location, as there is no room at your HQ location (it's taken up with the harbor), and burning the harbor and making a Metalworks, then making ANOTHER harbor is really inefficient at this point.

Now make a hammer for the Armorer, from the iron.

Demolish the Metalworks if the space is needed for the Armory (as it should be: this is the most difficult map that can be made), then make swords and shields. This is funded in iron and coal, with the additional resources from the surrounding location, as well as that you have supported via either a fishery or a farm, mill, well and bakery combination. I would suggest to be made more difficult by establishing a need for a woodcutter, forester and sawmill, to be built and reconstructed, for the construction resources of those buildings, as well as making a maximum of two (for an established build, produce and burn mechanical location, as well as for the barracks) building locations (small and castle), with the small building feasibly far enough away, so that building a fishery would be useless on top of the location.

After making the swords and shields, build and demolish in the correct order, what you need to make beer. Now if needed, ferry the resources back to hire a private.

When it comes to mined resources and food resource estimations, the minimum is assumed as being 1 in both cases, when it comes to the editing process. So perhaps it's possible to create 4 fish in a set location to be fished, or 4 deer (or whatever you desire to hunt) to be hunted. Also, the required amount of resources from the mines should be set to 2 or 3 from each mine. So in this process, the required amount of mines is 2 or 3.

By the reading of all of this, you can tell that I'm completely full of thoughts about the game.

Well, here are more things to help:

If you have gold coins, then it seems you need more gold coins than troops, right? WRONG: you only need 1 gold coin per private, as long as you have at least 1 officer, 1 sergeant and 1 private first class. It costs only one gold coin per military unit, to make each and every one of them a general, with a start-up cost of 3 gold coins, WITHOUT the officer, sergeant and private first class available.

You need to build either a Watchtower, or a Fortress. For the purposes of economic efficiency, I recommend a Watchtower, as this costs less stone to make. However, a Fortress in the long run is probably wiser, as the extra territory given to it, as well as the extra military strength within a single location, could be more viable in times of war. However, you DO have a choice, so choose wisely. If you're relatively an amateur at micro (using the keyboard and mouse) in the game, then the Fortress is for you, as the Watchtower can be tricky to micro, as there is a smaller margin of error. The only thing limiting the choice, would be that you have 4 or less gold coins, which means that a watchtower is far more effective.

Key: G = General, O = Officer, S = Sergeant, P1 = Private First Class, P = Private

For a Fortress, you start with 9 soldiers, like this:

P P P P P P P P P

With no upgraded units, it's an extra cost of 3 gold coins. 3 Gold coins used, and it looks like this:

O S P1 P P P P P P

After each gold coin after this, you get one more general, like this:

G O S P1 P P P P P
G G O S P1 P P P P
G G G O S P1 P P P
G G G G O S P1 P P
G G G G G O S P1 P

Now at this stage, you may want to stop gold coins going into the fortress.

So far you've used 5 or 8 gold coins. What most people do, is use 4 more to produce 4 more generals. DO NOT DO THIS.

Depending on the availability of privates, it's feasible to keep that additional private, as you may need him later. Also, in case there's already a coin on the way, you can plan ahead for that problem. Either use one more coin (if you have 6 more privates), or keep it for later.

Now, empty the building using the military territory menu, and then what type of military unit you want in the fortress.

Depending on how many times you want to use this military upgrade trick, will depend on what units you want back in the fortress.

Whenever you need to fill it all up with generals, do not get rid of your sergeant, officer and private first class. They can be used later for another building. Always keep your officer, sergeant and private first class until the very last 3 coins, and even then, if there's any privates left, then they will become the officer, sergeant and private first class. So in reality, you will always have 1 officer, 1 sergeant and 1 private first class, unless you have 3 more gold coins than soldiers.

This being the case, the mining ratio works like this:

For every piece of gold mined, there are:

-5 pieces of coal mined
-2 pieces of iron mined

If granite is found, for every 5 coal mines, 2 iron mines and 1 gold mine, you can build 1 granite mine, and expend 1 miner. This ratio works out because every piece of stone that's used by the catapult, has the capacity to kill one unit.

But there's a problem. You have an EXTRA process going on for the Armory, so Iron will always be lagging behind the coal, causing coins to be made quicker than soldiers, as well as Beer. The initial amount that's mined, isn't important to the initial amount made. What you need to be focusing on, is the spread and speed of the resources to fit the building, and the net amounts of coal, iron ore and gold to be in the ratio of 5:2:1, in the representation of what's made from them. So, what actually will happen within an economy, is a slowing in production, even if there are the correct ratios of coal, iron and gold within the economy, to represent the finished product. To fix this, you need to either build your economy around taking this into account, or providing a surplus of resources to keep everything ticking over. Making excess resources is inefficient, and is the easier option.

To have the most efficient economy, all wooden planks, food, and subsidiaries that go into making them, are to be made sustainable. So these need to fit around the needs of what isn't sustainable, relative to the time and efficiency that's needed.

I'm not sure exactly how long it takes to plant a tree, cut down a tree, then make it into a wooden plank, because apart from making a log into a wooden plank, it varies and is a rough science. However, as long as you have stones and wooden planks, then construction is as efficient as the road network you have. As it's the most difficult to accurately calculate the time it takes to get, then it should be the one that has the least level of priority within the network. Stone on the other hand, has a higher priority than anything else, when you have catapults that are within range of enemy military buildings.

When it comes to construction, it's best to get things relative to their processing, ready as fast as possible. If you've acquired new areas to build, then you need to at first check if what you can build there can be passed within the network, and not compete against other resources that have already established themselves, that have already been calculated to be prioritized before whatever you will produce after the building has been occupied, and production starts. Then, and only then, do you start building. But when you can, you do it steadfast.

For particular foodstuff, you're looking at particular networks.

Meat is by far the most difficult thing to make it as efficient as it needs to be, so it should be the last thing to add to the economy.

Fish is unsustainable, so it becomes a foodstuff that's very useful at stockpiling and when first available, ideal to supply directly to an unsustainable source. Fisheries should be replaced as soon as they are exhausted, with a Bread network.

Bread networks are the sustainable lifeline of the foodstuffs, and are more efficient than meat. The process in order to produce the bread, can seem to start with how long it takes the grain to grow. This should be negligible: the grain is actually disconnected, and the Farms relate to the Mill, and that connection is not the one you need to focus on. As each process relatively takes the same amount of time as the next, when the miller makes the flour, and the well produces water, the only amount of time that's waited upon, is the time it takes to get there, from door to door. This time, is the one to prevent an inhibition in productivity, but if addressed by means of incorrect substitution of this time with yet another producer of a subsidiary, causes an excess. The time of the process itself relative to the time it takes to get from one place to the next, needs to be calculated to the % it takes. This is why proximity is so important: as yes, you can have 2 mills to one bakery, and yes, 2 wells to one bakery, but what happens is that the proximity is the thing that has to suffer, to stop excess causing too much traffic.

In digression, things to calculate:

However long it takes to make a sword or a shield, should be how long it takes to provide and deliver the coal, as well as make and deliver the iron. The accuracy of this can be increased with calculating what is the shortest time you can get the resources from the Coal Mine, and what's the shortest time you can get the resources from the Iron Smelter. In doing this, you can readdress the imbalance in the amount of processes it takes for coal, relative to the amount it takes for the iron.

However long it takes to make the iron, should be however long it takes to provide and deliver both the iron and the coal. What's important is making sure the amount of coal that comes, is exactly the same as the amount of iron. This is by far the most difficult balance, as the coal itself is already in harmony with how long it takes to make iron. This means a separate amount of mines for the Iron Smelter, in a separate location is needed to keep productivity, as well as stopping excess. Sourcing coal from relatively the same location, should be avoided, and at the very least, do not source coal from the same mine for both the Armory and the Iron Smelter.

However long it takes to mine the coal, should be however long it takes to get the food to the mine.

However long it takes to make the bread, should be however long it takes to supply the bakery with flour, as well as however long it takes to supply the bakery with water.

However long it takes to make the flour, should be however long it takes to supply the grain to the mill.

In order to fully ascertain the network, what first needs to be calculated, is what equations fit around whatever design the network can best be determined to be.

Processes should never be reliant on a network, where different parts of them intersect, so there has to be a means of priority, to calculate which one is taken. IF this cannot be avoided, then there needs to be the calculation of how much longer it will take with whatever passes along the network.

However, to start with, all processes should be aligned, from the very first manufacture. This means building times need to be calculated.

In order to calculate building times for buildings, what should be built first, should be what is highest on the list of what can be subsidized for with excess. If no excess is present, then you follow the means of priority along the order of each and every process.

What should be built after taking this into account, is the base of which the chain of supply starts. In the case of the most efficient military economy, this will be what makes the food. Fisheries can be built a lot later than Farms need to be, relative to the building of the mine itself. The relativity of the mine to the Farm, is that the mine has to wait for the Farm, Mill, Well and Bakery to be made, and for the process to produce bread, in order for it to be finished and occupied.

As a builder takes as relatively the same amount of time as it takes for each individual wooden plank, or each individual piece of stone, you can further quantify how long it will take in the relationship to what's being built.

For example, if the builder has to make a slightly longer trip to a building that has to be built after another building that it relates to in proximity, then it should be added to the time it would take, for both buildings to be ready for each other.

Take the relationship between a Watchtower or a Fortress, and the Mint.

If the Mint is closer to the HQ or Storehouse, then it will take less time to build, relative to the time it takes for the Fortress in its process to be built.

Let's give a more specific example, that pretends that both will have their builders arrive at the same time, as well as the resources needed to build, to be sent at the same time. Actually, a more efficient process would be the resources needed to start with, are sent to the HQ or Storehouse from the source, at relatively the same time it takes for both to be built, without an interruption in what the builder is doing.

Now, a Mint requires 2 wood and 2 stone. That's 4 time periods of building. The military unit will take as long as the guy making the coins will take to get to the building, so that's discounted. Obviously in the case of the relationship of proximity, both need to be accurately calculated.

However in this case, only the fact that the Fortress requires 4 wood and 9 stone, is the fact to consider. A ratio of 13:4, so the Fortress will take 325% longer to build. The Mint takes approximately 69.23% less time than the Fortress. So, roughly 70% into the time it takes into making a fortress, will be approximately 10 build periods into the manufacture, which is 4 wood and 6 stone into the build. So at that time, the builder should start to build, in coordination with how long it takes to make a gold coin.

Bakeries are relative to proximity, and this number is taking into account there are no fish and no meat, as well as not taking into account the mines will exhaust. Do not forget to either build a storehouse near the next mine requiring bread, or if it's unfeasible and ultimately unproductive to transport the bread across such a location, to build a storehouse where the Bakery is, to stop excess clogging up the economic network. If it's at all more efficient, then calculate if you can do both.

Farms I'm not sure about, but if I remember rightly you needed 2 per Mill... but a farm at 100% production EVENTUALLY gets the productivity of the Mill and the Bakery up to 100%, however the real-time productivity is halved, I think. Remember, however long it takes to get all the Grain that's harvested to the Mill, should account for the fact the Mill has 6 slots, and at the very least, those slots should never be full when there's grain being transported from the farm. Farms usually can usually grow and harvest 6 Grain from the surrounding area, so what I think is the case, is that a Miller uses 6 Grain twice as fast as it takes the Farmer to grow and harvest the 6. Obviously if it's less or more multipliers of how long it takes the Miller to go through the 6 delivered, then that's the answer to the amount of Farms needed.

Do not use Fish on mines that are either at almost the end of their life, or have very little resources shown by either the geologist, or if you're cheating, the map editor.

Do not waste Fish on Granite mines, if you can help it.

Depending on your speed at the game and the amount of builders you have (or can possibly afford to "hire" with the use of newly made hammers, at the expense of military units), it will depend on how many sawmills, woodcutters and foresters you need. The maximum amount you need for any speed, is 6 Sawmills. Making any more will overflow your roads, even if you have an efficient storage network.

I've read somewhere that it's 3 woodcutters for every forester, but that's not sustainable... it's 2 woodcutters. Eventually the productivity of the woodcutters suffers, as the trees slowly dwindle. Especially in built-up areas, where it takes a lot longer for locations to be found, for trees to be planted. I recommend AGAINST the advise you normally read about not building a forester next to your headquarters: it's not about if you build one, it's about WHEN you build one. Build it last (if there are trees around: if not, then build it just before the woodcutters, so that when the first trees are ready to be cut, the woodcutters occupy as and when that occurs) after all other buildings (make sure you leave space for it), and because it needs no road network after it's been occupied, cut it off from the transportation network.

It's quite difficult to show the most efficient road networks and economic networks, when I can't screen shot the game... but, I'll try to explain the most efficient lines to get everything working and being produced as rapidly as possible.

It all falls under the rules of proximity: if it can be passed on as quickly as possible to manufacture the next process, then it will be done that way.

Let's start by assigning your headquarters. Contrary to popular belief, you need a maximum of 4 road networks, not as many as possible coming from the Headquarters. The ONLY thing passing into the headquarters should be Wooden Planks, Stone, Swords, Shields, Beer and Tools (if needed), as there should be an efficient storage network already manufactured, before excess production from foodstuffs occurs, when mines exhaust.

Let's figure you have all the tools you need, in order to manufacture the correct economy. So to start with, the Metalworks is pointless.

This means you only need 4 lanes of traffic: For Swords, Shields, Wooden Planks and Beer.

The only problem with this game I would change, would be the case to stockpile wooden planks. I find that if you're building something, the wood shouldn't have to go the HQ or the storehouse, then go all the way back along the road network to wherever you're building. It seems you can't do this, which is a shame.

Anyway, From the 4 lanes of traffic, you have 4 spirals of building, when it comes to the proximity network. None of these should really overlap, unless congestion inhibits the network. In that case, recalculations would be needed to reaffirm the relationships of time between each and every process, so everything comes together at the same time, for the same resource.

If a road requires lots and lots of flags, it's too long: that's the rule on flags. There are exceptions, but generally you won't need to make a road that's sole purpose is to ferry one resource back and forth.

The brewery, armory and the sawmill need to be the buildings that are the closest to the HQ or storehouse. There shouldn't be the need to make flags at all: the flags of the buildings themselves should join in such a short length of road, that there's no place to put flags.

Waterways are by far the worst method of transporting any goods. They are a novelty at best, and cause contraflows in economic traffic. The only time they are useful, would be that they are the only choice for ferrying goods back and forth from a location. This is HARDLY ever the case, and when the alternative is a long and winding road that takes longer, then that would be the time to choose them. You're not going to be left with no alternative (it's a more time-consuming alternative, usually), unless somehow the territory borders have been manipulated by forces outside of your control. They do not carry people, so you can't build anything except roads and flags, to somewhere that is only connected by waterway.

The problem with proximity, is that there needs to be a feasibility for it to exist in the first place. Figure out how much space you need, depending on certain locations.

For example, tight spaces caused by no build locations and surrounded by rich mining areas, calls for a storehouse to be built as close as possible, as it's a single building needed for proximity, rather than a series of buildings.

If food and mines are separated by huge distances, this is the way to go.

Mines drive the location of all buildings, except military buildings. Prioritize proximity along the lines of the process.

OK, so as a rule, you should use IF functions for proximity.

IF mine, then:

nearest place available, build Bakery / Fishery / Hunter (based upon which will be the most productive, divided by the amount of time it takes to go back and forth from the nearest location, and the most efficient from that is what you should choose)

IF room for Bakery, then:

-Mill as close as possible. The Mill goes with the Bakery, so if there's no space for a Mill right next to the Bakery, forget about being productive.

-Well is the same. 2 Bakeries to 1 well, usually.

IF room for Mill, then:

Farm as close as possible. Again, it's pointless to waste time having long road networks, to fit everything in your territory. If you can't build everything close to each other, don't bother.

IF all of the above, then:

Whether it's Sword and Shields, Iron or Gold Coins, build what's needed to continue the process.