When a Factory is worth building
Build a Factory only after confirming that trains are available in the match; they are documented for single-player and private lobbies.
A Factory spawns trains rather than producing gold by itself. Gold settles when a train visits a City or Port owned by you or a partner, so Factories without a reachable station do not create the intended income.
Factories and Ports share one escalating cost counter: the first of either costs 125,000, followed by 250,000, 500,000, and 1,000,000. Buying a Factory first therefore raises the price of the first Port; a common opening order is City, Port, then Factory. The hotkeys are 2 for Factory and 3 for Port.
Place the Factory so it can reach at least one controlled City or Port within about 110 tiles, and divide the route into segments shorter than about 155.6 tiles because longer single hops can fail or pay poorly.
Factory timing decisions
- What should I establish before the first Factory?
- Secure one compact land mass with a City for troop capacity and, when the water has a useful role, a Port. Place the Factory only where the ghost-rail preview actually reaches that City or Port.
- When should I postpone the Factory?
- Postpone it when no City or Port is in range. Also prioritize immediate, inexpensive land when Overtime—the falling 80% bar—is about to close the free-for-all instead of waiting for a 20-second rail.
- How should the map shape affect the choice?
- On skinny water maps such as Las Vegas Strip, Gibraltar, and island chains, reserve the next build for a Port when naval gold offers more value than a mid-game Factory. Factories are better suited to inland continents such as Europe, United States, and Pangaea once the first City exists.