Curious about Yorien's posts in a couple other threads, I wanted to do a head-to-head comparison of dust-focused empires with industry-focused empires, particularly in the opening moves, where it matters most. I expected industry focus to be more effective, but I wanted to give dust focus a shot.



I'm putting this in guides particularly because I'm giving some exact build orders, which some players might find useful.



What I did was play two games on the same seed to turn 36 (which was when I took my first city in my first game). I used vanilla Broken Lords who are the faction mostly suggested for dust focus. My goal was to get an army of 3 Stalwarts and 1 Bishop as soon as possible-- that's an army that can take cities on Impossible or easier, and defend good terrain in perpetuity on Endless.



Both games played fairly similarly: I ended up settling the same tiles, in the same order, because they were the best for both focuses. The biggest difference in dust focus was prioritization of empire mint over mill foundry buildings (and tech).



I thought quests could play a confounder, but I didn't really get anything interesting.



Industry Focus



Techs researched, in order: Mill foundry @turn 3, Public Library @4, Sewer System @8, Language Square @13, Geomic Labs @16, Alchemist's Furnace @18, Mercenary Market (from quest) @20, Open Pit Mine @22; Dust Bishop @25, Imperial Coinage @29, Tier 2 Weapons @32



First city buildings, in order: Founder's @4, Mill @5 (buyout), Settler @9, Sewer @12, Mint @13 (buyout) Public Library @14, Settler @17, Borough @20, Geomic @22, Stalwart @26, Dust Bishop @29 (buyout), Glasteel Extractor @ 31, Stalwart @33

Settled second city on turn 14, and my third city on turn 20. Maintained 2 population in each city, on industry throughout the game.

Accepted +20% science for empire plan.



Ended up with a total of 146 industry, 161 science, 27 dust on turn 36, without any appreciable savings; that was with Titan Bones and Moonleaves active, and with a fully kitted (if 4-man) army with titanium accessories and tier 2 basic armor and weapons. 2 settlers on their way to settle my fourth and fifth province. 1 turn from Meritocratic Promotion.



Dust Focus



Techs researched, in order: Public Library @4, Sewer @8, Language Square @10, Geomic @12, Mill @17, Furnace @20, Mine @22; Dust Bishop @25, Prisoners @29, Coinage @33

First cit buildings, in order: Mint @5, Founders @6 (buyout), Library @7, Settler @10 (buyout), Sewer @13, Borough @16 (buyout), Geomic @19 (buyout), Stalwart @22, Mill @24, Glasteel @26, Dust Bishop @28 (buyout), Borough @34 (buyout), Mill @34 (buyout), Village @35 (buyout)

Settled second city on turn 17, third on turn 36.



Ended up with a total of 95 industry, 153 science, 279 dust on turn 36, with 167 dust in the bank. Dust orchids and dustwater active.

Accepted +3 dust per population for empire plan. Population was 4 in my first two cities, 2 in the third. Many of those were on dust duty.



Conclusions



It's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be: I thought industry would be a clear winner. The dust focus doesn't have the two extra settlers, but other than that, it nearly keeps pace in science, and I actually had my dust army ready a little bit sooner.



Still, I think the industry focus is better poised than the dust focus.



It's pretty cool, because it means that Mill Foundry isn't quite as must-have as I thought.



There are some weird unexplainables, like why science in dust-focus lagged then caught up, or why the dust-focus settler took longer to reach the same tile. I can't say I remember

This is really an interesting and detailed post. Thank you, sir!



Key newb note: natev's above trial was conducted with the Broken Lords, who receive 1 additional dust per dust tile (and skip food), so the method will not work the same with other factions.

Here is another great post, further to the topic:

/#/endless-legend/forum/9-tips-tricks/thread/3822-you-don-t-have-to-be-broken-to-ignore-industry-a-fdsi-primer