Build and Conquer factories
Build and Conquer industry explained: how factories turn steel, fuel and money into missiles and vehicles, why military production improvements are on the.
Factories are where your economy becomes a threat. They are also the most easily mis-sized part of a country: build too few and your army never arrives, build too many and you have spent your city on buildings that sit idle between wars.
What factories produce
| Product | Consumes | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Missiles | Steel, fuel, money | The main offensive tool |
| Interceptor missiles | Steel, fuel, money | Air defence reloads |
| Vehicles and tanks | Refined materials, money | Ground pushes on the mainland |
| Rockets for HIMARS | Refined materials | HIMARS fire support and spotting |
| Guns and small arms | Materials, money | Squadrons — eight guns per squadron |
Sizing your industry
The rule of thumb that survives patches: size industry to the war you are actually fighting. If you are defending, you need interceptor production and nothing else. If you are hunting missile quests, you need missile production plus the steel and fuel lines behind it. If you are pushing a sector, you need vehicle production, and you need to accept that your city will earn less while you build it.
Two habits that pay:
- Run production continuously, not in bursts. An idle factory is wasted money, and a stockpile is what wins the fight you did not schedule.
- Keep the upgrade-all action in mind. Upgrading a factory line in one click is far more efficient than placing new buildings, and it was added specifically to reduce the busywork.
Coming changes
The developers have announced a military production improvement pass and a ground unit rework as the next major update. If you are planning a very large industrial layout, build one that can be re-tuned easily — districts arranged along roads are cheaper to remodel than one giant factory block.
Where it fits
Industry sits between the resources guide that feeds it and the military guide that consumes it. The factories reference page lists the building family itself.
