It appears everyone on the internet is looking for a guide that does not exist so I thought I would begin writing one myself. There are still plenty of things I do not know about the game but I'm learning as I go. I am currently in the year 1972 as the leader of the country of Peru. I have 5 times the GDP of the united states and otherwise also the highest in the game by far. And I am doing extremely well. There are still plenty of things I dont know about the game and It would be great if anyone else want's to contribute and add to what I put here. Or if I make any statements that anyone knows to be false I would appreciate the correction.
First off some important stats to look at.
Population: Population is one of the most important stats in the game as it ultimately determines the power of your country. Your number one goal as long as you are able to be self sustaining in your country is to increase your population. Because over the long run increased population means more money available to spend on your projects.
GDP: This is the amount of money that each of your citizens on average contributes to your economy. In Supreme Ruler you raise your GDP through Government spending. This may not be completely realistic, but its how it works in the game so the more you spend on your various projects of construction and research the faster your GDP will increase. I could be mistaken but its possible that your intelligence spending may also increase this but I have not verified it.
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Commodities
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Electricity: This is perhaps your most important resource. I generally pursue a strategy of building Coal Power plants because Coal is one of the most stable resources in the game. In fact as your game progresses you may actually see the price of coal drop while everything else increases. I'm honestly not sure what kind of effects are coded into the game concerning Pollution, but I keep my environment spending at over 100% I also build as many Hydro Power plants as I can afford as they are great long term investments which require no resources to power. I have tried Nuclear but unfortunately my country of Peru has no Uranium for me to mine until I take over Argentina or Brazil. Regardless Nuclear seems to not be worth the cost it takes to build vs Coal or even Hydro given the amount of power it supplies.
Industrial Goods: This probably actually ties with Electricity for the most important resource. Build all the Industrial goods plants that you can afford to build. Mostly you will find yourself limited by your Electricity production. But the more Industrial goods plants you can pump out the faster you can build power plants and all the other production facilities that you need.
Petroleum: Petroleum is just a great money maker plain and simple. Obviously your country requires large quantities of it for normal day to day operations but any surplus Oil rigs you can build will provide excellent boosts to your economy In Peru I am producing over 6 Million barrels per day with a surplus of about 3.5 Million daily which gives me over 100 Million a day from Petroleum sales. This is also pretty important for your military as well.
Agriculture: Food is the most basic of your goods and is obviously required. It will never be a huge money maker at least as far as exporting goes but It is certainly cheaper to produce your own food than to buy it on the market and providing your people with food at a cheaper rate than the market will I believe help to offset Inflation and help with population growth.
Water: Water is a fairly volatile commodity. There are times where availability is excellent and times when it is poor. In the beginning of the game when you are trying to get your economy going the availability of water is generally pretty good, in fact it will often be available for less than what you could produce it yourself. Water is a commodity that you may want to purchase in bulk amounts when you find the price dropping below what you can produce for yourself. I usually try to purchase as much as I can and then I find that the market price jumps up to perhaps around 4 times the price that I made my bulk purchase. Actually if you are self sufficient in water then this can be a good way to play the market and make money. Buy low and sell high. So even if you don't need the water buying all of it when the price is low and waiting a month or so for the price to rise then selling it off you can make a lot of cash and possibly hurt some enemies economically as well.
Uranium: This is a commodity that no one uses much in 1949 and the price is pretty low I think it starts at about 5$ per unit. A good tactic I found especially if your country has no Uranium deposits for you to mine is to wait a few years until you have a decent amount of cash in your treasury and then buy up ALL the uranium. I found that doing this I was able to purchase a stock of over 7 Million units of Uranium and I also drove the price up from 5$ to over 40$ This way even though I had no uranium deposits in my country I still had a good supply of Uranium when I decided to build a few Nuclear power plants or Nuclear weapons.
Timber: This is another commodity that keeps a fairly stable market availability from what I have seen throughout the years. However If your country has a good amount of forests then building timber mills is never a bad idea. Along with agriculture it appears that Timber does not require electricity to produce your goods. I would appreciate clarification on that if anyone knows otherwise but I don't see that it shows you consume any electricity to produce it. So building timber mills can provide you with a small but relatively steady stream of income throughout the game.
Metal Ore: This is a commodity that I nearly always purchase from the world market. I suppose every game can be different but it appears that at least through the 70's that Metal Ore is cheaper to buy from the market than it is to mine for yourself. Honestly I never purchased a huge bulk amount of Metal Ore which could be a mistake if the supply ever became volatile, but the supply appears to be extremely stable. It might not be a bad idea to purchase a bulk amount of Metal Ore to insure that your country has a supply in the event that the worst happens, however it's possible that doing so may actually drive the price up and hurt you in the long run if it does not drop back down. If however you find yourself with a country that has a large amount of Metal Ore mines. Then It could also be a good idea to make bulk purchases of the stuff yourself and sit on it to raise the world market price especially if your cost to produce it is more than market price.
Consumer Goods: This commodity can actually be another great money maker for your country. It can sometimes be difficult to simply keep up with the increasing demands of your own people for consumer goods but if you can meet those demands and exceed them then you will find a great deal of money to be made exporting the goods. The only downside is that Consumer goods plants along with Industrial goods take a ridiculously large amount of electricity to power them, so you need to make sure you are continuously building power plants.
Coal: This is a very important commodity especially if you are going the route of Coal Power. Coal is another commodity that is sometimes cheaper to buy from the world market than it is to produce for yourself. And it is an extremely stable commodity. As I stated earlier the price of coal can actually drop during the course of the game. And is so stable in fact that even though I often make HUGE bulk purchases and maintain stockpiles of over 100 Million ton's of coal the world market price doesn't seem to react to my enormous purchases of the stuff. Coal is still cheap to produce for yourself so building some mine's couldn't hurt particularly if you think you may find yourself in a situation with trade embargoes against you due to aggressive behavior. But if your being a good international citizen then its just fine to buy from the world market.
To Be Continued... (Hopefully I can edit this instead of adding a second post. I will try to post more later this evening or tomorrow)
First off some important stats to look at.
Population: Population is one of the most important stats in the game as it ultimately determines the power of your country. Your number one goal as long as you are able to be self sustaining in your country is to increase your population. Because over the long run increased population means more money available to spend on your projects.
GDP: This is the amount of money that each of your citizens on average contributes to your economy. In Supreme Ruler you raise your GDP through Government spending. This may not be completely realistic, but its how it works in the game so the more you spend on your various projects of construction and research the faster your GDP will increase. I could be mistaken but its possible that your intelligence spending may also increase this but I have not verified it.
==============================================
Commodities
==============================================
Electricity: This is perhaps your most important resource. I generally pursue a strategy of building Coal Power plants because Coal is one of the most stable resources in the game. In fact as your game progresses you may actually see the price of coal drop while everything else increases. I'm honestly not sure what kind of effects are coded into the game concerning Pollution, but I keep my environment spending at over 100% I also build as many Hydro Power plants as I can afford as they are great long term investments which require no resources to power. I have tried Nuclear but unfortunately my country of Peru has no Uranium for me to mine until I take over Argentina or Brazil. Regardless Nuclear seems to not be worth the cost it takes to build vs Coal or even Hydro given the amount of power it supplies.
Industrial Goods: This probably actually ties with Electricity for the most important resource. Build all the Industrial goods plants that you can afford to build. Mostly you will find yourself limited by your Electricity production. But the more Industrial goods plants you can pump out the faster you can build power plants and all the other production facilities that you need.
Petroleum: Petroleum is just a great money maker plain and simple. Obviously your country requires large quantities of it for normal day to day operations but any surplus Oil rigs you can build will provide excellent boosts to your economy In Peru I am producing over 6 Million barrels per day with a surplus of about 3.5 Million daily which gives me over 100 Million a day from Petroleum sales. This is also pretty important for your military as well.
Agriculture: Food is the most basic of your goods and is obviously required. It will never be a huge money maker at least as far as exporting goes but It is certainly cheaper to produce your own food than to buy it on the market and providing your people with food at a cheaper rate than the market will I believe help to offset Inflation and help with population growth.
Water: Water is a fairly volatile commodity. There are times where availability is excellent and times when it is poor. In the beginning of the game when you are trying to get your economy going the availability of water is generally pretty good, in fact it will often be available for less than what you could produce it yourself. Water is a commodity that you may want to purchase in bulk amounts when you find the price dropping below what you can produce for yourself. I usually try to purchase as much as I can and then I find that the market price jumps up to perhaps around 4 times the price that I made my bulk purchase. Actually if you are self sufficient in water then this can be a good way to play the market and make money. Buy low and sell high. So even if you don't need the water buying all of it when the price is low and waiting a month or so for the price to rise then selling it off you can make a lot of cash and possibly hurt some enemies economically as well.
Uranium: This is a commodity that no one uses much in 1949 and the price is pretty low I think it starts at about 5$ per unit. A good tactic I found especially if your country has no Uranium deposits for you to mine is to wait a few years until you have a decent amount of cash in your treasury and then buy up ALL the uranium. I found that doing this I was able to purchase a stock of over 7 Million units of Uranium and I also drove the price up from 5$ to over 40$ This way even though I had no uranium deposits in my country I still had a good supply of Uranium when I decided to build a few Nuclear power plants or Nuclear weapons.
Timber: This is another commodity that keeps a fairly stable market availability from what I have seen throughout the years. However If your country has a good amount of forests then building timber mills is never a bad idea. Along with agriculture it appears that Timber does not require electricity to produce your goods. I would appreciate clarification on that if anyone knows otherwise but I don't see that it shows you consume any electricity to produce it. So building timber mills can provide you with a small but relatively steady stream of income throughout the game.
Metal Ore: This is a commodity that I nearly always purchase from the world market. I suppose every game can be different but it appears that at least through the 70's that Metal Ore is cheaper to buy from the market than it is to mine for yourself. Honestly I never purchased a huge bulk amount of Metal Ore which could be a mistake if the supply ever became volatile, but the supply appears to be extremely stable. It might not be a bad idea to purchase a bulk amount of Metal Ore to insure that your country has a supply in the event that the worst happens, however it's possible that doing so may actually drive the price up and hurt you in the long run if it does not drop back down. If however you find yourself with a country that has a large amount of Metal Ore mines. Then It could also be a good idea to make bulk purchases of the stuff yourself and sit on it to raise the world market price especially if your cost to produce it is more than market price.
Consumer Goods: This commodity can actually be another great money maker for your country. It can sometimes be difficult to simply keep up with the increasing demands of your own people for consumer goods but if you can meet those demands and exceed them then you will find a great deal of money to be made exporting the goods. The only downside is that Consumer goods plants along with Industrial goods take a ridiculously large amount of electricity to power them, so you need to make sure you are continuously building power plants.
Coal: This is a very important commodity especially if you are going the route of Coal Power. Coal is another commodity that is sometimes cheaper to buy from the world market than it is to produce for yourself. And it is an extremely stable commodity. As I stated earlier the price of coal can actually drop during the course of the game. And is so stable in fact that even though I often make HUGE bulk purchases and maintain stockpiles of over 100 Million ton's of coal the world market price doesn't seem to react to my enormous purchases of the stuff. Coal is still cheap to produce for yourself so building some mine's couldn't hurt particularly if you think you may find yourself in a situation with trade embargoes against you due to aggressive behavior. But if your being a good international citizen then its just fine to buy from the world market.
To Be Continued... (Hopefully I can edit this instead of adding a second post. I will try to post more later this evening or tomorrow)
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