Importance of factory in EA?

[True God]

I've just started a factory build in EA and was wondering what the main benefits are? 30,000 oil i hope it's worth it!

 

[Persia]

It's not really critical, as Gatling Guns can't shoot over walls and they're outclasses by archers anyway, in range and damage when you consider the troop space. Guerillas are niche troops, insofar as they're good on paper but it's kind of hard to stay away from defenders so you have to get them backup. More trouble then they're worth versus offensive power, IMHO.

 

[True God]

It's not really critical, as Gatling Guns can't shoot over walls and they're outclasses by archers anyway, in range and damage when you consider the troop space. Guerillas are niche troops, insofar as they're good on paper but it's kind of hard to stay away from defenders so you have to get them backup. More trouble then they're worth versus offensive power, IMHO.

Decided in the end not to build one. Strengthening my generals instead.

 

[vincentdang4]

I didn't find factories all that useful until I unlocked APCs. Now I raid with them. I tried using HTs but it was very expensive both in resource requirement and training time, plus I don't use them in war, so switching from HT raiding to a warring army was not smooth.

 

[Federer835]

If you plan to stay in EA awhile, I recommend building a factory and upgrading it to lvl 2 before going to IA because you pose less of a target for attacks that way

 

[Manifesto]

If you like Heavy Tanks and/or APCs you'll want to get a factory, naturally, and prioritize upgrades as much as Armory, for example.
Otherwise, it's something to do at your leisure once you're sufficiently upgraded in IA.

 

[Veldan]

Yeah, basically only 3 troops were useful in the factory: heavy tank, bazooka and APC. Now since the tactics changes, heavy tanks are a lot harder to use (can't sab all those nasty anti tank guns anymore) and probably not worth their cost, which leaves bazookas as the first useful unit, and it's only unlocked in the global age. So you can safely ignore the factory in EA and IA.

 

[JMoney]

You can demo the anti-tank tower, you can draw its aggro with decoys ontop of it (the number of targets the AT-tower has to attack increases with decoy levels, more targets = less attacks on your actual units). Less sabotage is not the end of the world for heavy tanks.

 

[Veldan]

JMoney maybe not, but the point of a HT setup was that for certain bases it was superior to a regular setup. I mean, for them to be good, you need the library research + the armory upgrades, and then the high oil costs for the HTs themselves. If with such a heavy investment requirement you get something that's barely, if at all, better than normal barrack troops, you're much better off not doing any HT upgrades and using all that oil elsewhere. I feel like that is the current situation.

 

[obsidi]

i have found the 'destroyer' (guerilla/commando) to be wonderful; that little guy rips apart half a base by himself .... but yes you have to use him wisely, and watch him/back him up with air power.

 

[Glacier]

I built and capped it early, like the third new structure once EA. Refinery was my 1st task then. My main purpose of wanting the factory was it's troop space, 2nd purpose was it was another time consuming building attackers need to destroy in war.

 

[True God]

I built and capped it early, like the third new structure once EA. Refinery was my 1st task then. My main purpose of wanting the factory was it's troop space, 2nd purpose was it was another time consuming building attackers need to destroy in war.

I'm concentrating on walls at present as well as library/university stuff.