Blue Steel Production Guide

To procure the necessary materials you will need:

IDEAL LOCATIONS

• PRIORITIES:
  • Mountains – it is necessary for you to be able to have mines for the production of iron. Choosing anywhere that’s not by a mountain will make it impossible to produce blue steel.
  • River – lumber is a key component of blue steel builds and rivers will do wonders for your wood production. Rivers will give you a few extra tiles to work with by  Do keep in mind that bodies of waters flood mines and thus slow down their production so a river opposite the mountain-side would be ideal.
  • Forests – the extra money you get from selling the ponds in a forest gives beginners a buffer to avoiding bankruptcy while learning the ropes and gives advanced players a quicker start to getting over the early game hump of making your town sustainable. The abundance of trees in a forest provides a steady supply of wood that greatly supplements the lumber production necessary for blue steel builds.
  • Plains – the open fields that the plains provide allows an easier expansion when you have your initial income generating setup in place. The abundance of pastures will also supplement your animals If you opt to go for a ranch start and build up to uniforms as a source of income.
• AVOID:
  • Oceans– are only useful for the production of salt which is not necessary for the production of blue steel. 
  • Deserts – the passive energy from power plants negates the need of an oil seep for quick crude  oil and energy production. Working around the pollution from the oil seep alongside the shade from a mountain limits the space you have for efficient growth of trees.

SETUP GOALS

1. ENERGY PRODUCTION

• Iron, Steel, and Blue Steel all require significant amounts of energy.
  
  • Creating a setup where your industrial buildings are given enough passive energy is ideal. Working purely off of wind turbines or power plant production using crude oil will take up too much space to be efficient.
  • Maximize the power plants that you place down by surrounding them with as many buildings that need energy. Design your layout so that your lumber mills are within the range of the powerplants providing energy to the mines and steel mills. 

2. WATER DRUMS

• Edge requirements make it impossible for you to have passive water drums for your mines without compensating production time. The ponds you will have to place for your water pumps will flood them. To have green timers on your mines you will have to set up water facilities. 
• Ideally you will want to surround your steel mills with water pumps. Steel needs 5 water drums and making this passive greatly reduces the collection aspect of their production. Placing your water facilities by the ponds for these water pumps allows them to continuously produce water drums.
• To avoid flooding your storage facilities with water drums, place them far away from the water facilities. The distance the workers will have to cover to drop off the water drums significantly prolongs the production process of the water facilities.

 3. UNIFORMS

• Uniform are the most flexible component for a uniform build since you only need 1 uniform for each blue steel.
  • Production speed for uniforms is not an urgent concern, you can have red timers on your crops or have the necessary buildings all over the map and your workers should still be able to produce at least 1 uniform in the time it takes to produce everything else for blue steel.
  • Alternatively, producing uniforms efficiently provides a decent source of income to combat the common financial concerns of a blue steel build. 

THINGS TO CONSIDER

1. MANAGING FUNDS

• The blue steel product line generally provides higher points but produces less profit. Industrial buildings also tend to have higher wages for their workers.
  • You will need a comfortable buffer of funds when transitioning to steel production to account for the slower production before you’ll be able to sell.
  • While building up towards the higher tier products is usually the most logical path, starting with more profitable products not necessarily needed for blue steel is a valid early game option. This will however require some study and calculations to be able to determine when you should transition from earning enough money to producing more city-points.

2. PASSIVE IS NOT ALWAYS FASTER

• Providing passive resources is more often than not the way to speed up production, but may not be necessary if you can’t gather or produce the rest of the materials fast enough.
  • Blue steel production requires 10 energy, but surrounding the steel mill with powerplants goes to waste if you aren’t able to produce the necessary steel fast enough. An extra lumber mill or lumberjack might speed up production more than a passively filled steel mill.