Anyone who has played Caesar 3 for awhile knows that central and southern wheat farms produce twice as much wheat per month as northern wheat farms, pig farms, or vegetable farms. A wheat farm in a central or southern scenario produces 19.2 carts of food a year while other farms only produce 9.6 carts per year. Each cart equals 100 food units and your population eats 0.5 food units per month per person (or 6 per year). Therefore using central/southern wheat halves the cost in workers to feed the same amount of people. In a city of 10,000 people for example, 32 wheat farms will feed all the people while 63 fruit farms would be needed. A great savings in workers.

But did you know that fishing wharves produce even more? On the average, one fishing wharf can produce almost 30 cartloads of fish per year. If they did not have to sail out to the fishing spots and then transport the food to the granary, they could produce over 40 per year. But if the sailing distance is fairly short and the granary is close to the wharf, a good working average for their production is 28.8 carts of food a year. That’s fifty percent more than a central/northern wheat farm. And a fishing wharf only requires 6 workers as compared to a wheat farm that requires 10. This 40 percent reduction in workers is quite dramatic in a large city.

Let’s look at a city of 10,000 people again. In order to feed everyone for a year you will need 60,000 units of food. If we have to feed them northern wheat/ fruit/ pigs/ or vegetables it will take 63 farms (63*9.6*100 = 60,480) with 630 workers. If we can feed them central or southern wheat it will only take 32 farms (32*19.2*100 = 61,440) and 320 workers. That’s a saving of 310 workers. But if fishing is available, it will only take 21 wharves (21*28.8*100 = 60,480) and 136 workers (6 per wharf plus 10 for the shipyard to build the ships). That is a further saving of 184 workers over central/southern wheat farms.

Could you use 184 extra workers in your city? That could supply the workers for a Hippodrome, two chariot makers, a prefect, and an engineer to top off your city’s culture. Or for those of military persuasion, an extra 36 manned towers for your walls. In any scenario that allows fishing where the fishing spots are close to the wharves, it is in your best interest to build wharves instead of farms.

So the next time you find yourself short of needed workers, my best advice is… GO FISH!

All roads lead from the winery, then to the olive farm, and finally to the bath house!!

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Bob the Lethargic