Economy
Five resources, where they come from, and how to split your workers.
Everything in Aetas comes out of five resources. Split them wrong and you get an army that does not grow, or a treasury that does nothing.
The five#
| Resource | Source | Drop-off | What it buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food | Berries, farm plots, hunting | Town center, mill | Workers, infantry, ages |
| Wood | Forests | Town center, lumber camp | Buildings, ranged units, farms |
| Stone | Rock veins | Town center, mining camp | Walls, towers, forts |
| Gold | Gold veins | Town center, mining camp | Better units, research |
| Iron | Iron veins, abandoned mines | Town center, mining camp | Late units, siege |
A worker chops or digs until it is full, walks to the nearest drop-off and goes back. So walking distance is half your harvest: a camp next to the vein is the difference between twenty and thirty wood a minute.
Forests are in the way#
A forest is not scenery, it is a wall. You cannot walk through it until you have cut a path. That cuts both ways: the forest protects your flank, and the forest stops your army when you are in a hurry. Check the minimap for the gaps before you march anywhere.
Veins run out#
Veins are irregular patches, not bottomless pits. The small ones near your town are for the first ten minutes; the big deposits are further out and worth defending. In most matches, the first fight happens at one of those big veins.
How many workers?#
A rough split that nearly always works:
- Food — about half. Workers, infantry and ages all run on it.
- Wood — about a third. Buildings and ranged units.
- Stone, gold, iron — the rest, and only seriously once you need them.
Keep making workers until you have around thirty. Every worker you do not make is a unit you cannot afford later.
Research that pays for itself#
The mill, the lumber camp and the mining camp all have research that permanently raises your harvest — fifteen to twenty-five percent a step. On twenty workers that pays for itself within a few minutes. The full list is on the technologies page.
Repairs#
Repair a damaged building by right-clicking it with a worker. It costs half the build price, in proportion to the damage. After an attack, repairing is almost always cheaper than rebuilding.