[EXCEL] Fort and garrison combinations - prices and power

[delra]

Here's the table I made in Excel. It shows annual cost of each level of Fort and Garrison, effect they have on raising the power of your armed forces and price per soldier.

Conclusions:

1. Upgrading Fort beyond level 1 before upgrading Garrison to the max is a huge WASTE of money.

2. Best combination seems to be Garrison Level 4 and Fort Level 1. For 18 500 pounds yearly you get a force of over 1500 Marines. Means you pay only 12 pounds per each Marine. Best bang for buck.

Compare with Garrison level 3 and Fort level 4. Same force and its cost is over 40 000 higher. Yearly!

3. Upgrading Fort to the highest levels should be avoided at all cost and as long as it's possible. It's much easier to build a fleet and retake the port from AI that stole it from you than upkeep that thing year by year.

4. The effect of cannons isn't included in this math, it's only the amount of Marines and their power increase by the port in there. Still, paying extra 46 500 per year for 40 cannons doesn't seem to be worth it.

For that cash you can put a fleet Frigates at the entrance of the port. 5x Frigates with 200 heavy cannons cost 22 500 per year + captain's salary. Construction of 5x Frigates costs 500 000, upgrading a Fort to level 4 is 720 000. Frigates can beat any approaching fleet unless it's composed of SOLs. And even SOLs they will damage so much that attack won't succeed.

Seriously, upgrading Fort beyond level 1 is a huge expense for little gain. So don't do it unless you swim in cash.

5. To check if my math is correct or to fiddle with numbers even more, you can use the Excel sheet I made:

http://www.speedyshare.com/166226517.html

Enjoy.

 

[Deleted user]

But you are forgeting that some missions are given to you with out the choice of accepting or declining them. The missions say somthing like this: "We have reason to belive that the portagual company is going to attack our port of cochin. Since this port is a valuable part of our company, you must hold the port for 5 years and an extra 1,200,000 pounds will be added to your account. If you fail to succeed, half of your succesion reward will be deducted from your account.

 

[delra]

Complete and demolish. Or simply refuse the mission. Cheaper than pay upkeep...

 

[Slaists]

Complete and demolish. Or simply refuse the mission. Cheaper than pay upkeep...

Well, but what do you do with all that cash? At some point in the game, cash just keeps coming in and you have no need for more fleets So, at that point, why not waste some cash on a fort.

 

[delra]

I monopolize and start buying tons of either diamonds or gold storing them in my home warehouse so shareholders can't rip me off my cash (dividend payout event). I also use them to deal with AI since their value in AI homeport is huge if AI can't import due to monopoly I hold.

3 additional ports and 15-20 million cash in Diamonds is enough to drain you dry of ANY amount you might have extra. At least on Hard. On Normal I probably would actually have cash to spend on Forts.