Well ... I am at turn 250 with over 1000 iron stockpiled. Have not built any Iron-based units yet. Am hoping to equip a Regiment of Iron-based units .... the only problem is that the maintanence for such a unit is ... significantly greater than the 12.5 gold per turn that I had previously proposed ... and thus I need ALOT more gold per turn in order to field 250 units at one time (even if they are in the same unit) ... so essentially I will need at least 2 size 5 cities almost COMPLETELY devoted to building markets.
We seriously need a better source of income ... Maybe Tax Offices that use only 1 space and increase gold by 20%?? Max of 8 in a size 5 city???
Maybe a Bank that uses 4 space and produces 10 base gold per turn??
Maybe each gold producing building produces +1 gold for each size of the city??? So a Merchant produces 6 gold in a Size 5, a Market produces 9 gold, and a bank produces 15 gold, ect.
It would certainly bring a new meaning to "boom of small busisnesses"
Even with enough passive Maximizing Stockpiling, there simply is not enough Gold capital to support such a massive army. I am slowly building my mining Infrastructure to the point where I will be able to get 100s of new Iron relatively quickly (hopefully, currently still at 8 per turn), however the GOLD simply isn't there.
I would say that the two Three things this build is currently lacking is Cheap and effective housing (Slums which provide 300 housing, and cost 12 food, at -2 prestige), Serious gold income (Tax Office and Bank need major boosts, roads between large cities need to produce extra gold if they don't already), and some Serious Prestige income (nothing says amazing like a 1 space theater that gives you 5 prestige).
I would wager that Merchants and Markets should At LEAST be double effective at size 5 (meaning that merchants will make 2 gold per turn and markets will make 8 gold per turn) ... and in this case Banks should be making about 15 gold per turn (at least) on a size 5 city. Perhaps Banks are available at size 3 and provide 10 gold, while Exchanges are at size 5 and provide 15-20 gold per turn.
I mean ... currently there is 0 Maintenance for Cities, and already we are having gold problems?? Im not talking about being able to Stockpile gold, I have over 1000 gold, (constantly in flux), however having the necessary gold PER TURN to support a massive army is nearly impossible. At least with 4 armories and a Barracks I can build a Regiment in only 6 turns (but thats just the grunt soldier, not sure about the Elite Guards).
Also, I have to admit ... being able to Build 4 Armories and 1 Barracks (or anything that adds up to 90%) should DEFINITELY stay in the game. Otherwise it would just be pointless to try and build giant units (you need to stockpile the materials anyways). Maybe even allow total buildings to decrease training times up to 95%, since Legions would still take forever.
Since an Armory takes about 40-50 turns to build (apiece) anyways, it about evens out in the long run (that whole "investment" business).
