Captains of Industry (Part 1): New Era of the Multi-working Manager

Day 1,166, 12:44 • Published in Canada Canada • by Plugson


I am a fan of 4X strategy games, my favourites being Civilization and Master of Orion (MOO). I found there were two ways to win in these games.

--1) Be a warrior civilization that focuses solely on military strength (Mrrshan) with the aim of doing a quick strike early in the game to claim territory and weaken the opponent. The reason for this being that these civilizations usually lose in the long-term game when industrial/research civilizations eventually outpace them in production.

--2) Be an industrial civilization (Sakkra) by playing defensively early on but with the long-term aim of building an economy that can create more units that steadily increase in value as more funds are invested into war research.



eRep is a long-term game. There are no quick strikes that will win the game early on. Nations fall and rise over many months. Citizens exist forever, never really dying. Therefore, your goal is long-term growth: build wealth, strength, work skill, experience – with the aim of one day laying down serious damage on the battlefield. You can only do that with strength and weapons. Strength takes time to build ~ there is no short-cut on that. Q5 weapons can be purchased instantly but establishing a permanent supply of them takes time and connections.

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“The laws of industrial Captain and industrial Soldier, how much more of idle Captain and industrial Soldier, will need to be remodelled, and modified, and rectified in a hundred and a hundred ways,--and not in the Sliding-scale direction, but in the totally opposite one! With two million industrial Soldiers already sitting in Bastilles, and five million pining on potatoes… what a business will this be, groping this long while somewhat absurdly about it and about it, call 'Organisation of Labour;' which must be taken out of the hands of absurd windy persons, and put into the hands of wise, laborious, modest and valiant men, to begin with it straightway.”
--Past and Present ~ Book III ‘The Modern Worker’ Chapter 10 “Plugson of Undershot”

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The New World witnessed the advent of a major game change on day 1,150: the era of the working-manager. We have yet to determine how managers who work multiple companies will affect the economy. What we do know is that it is now possible to run a business without needing money or employees. Granted, efficiency of such a company is not optimal. A good GM will make more profit playing the markets and adjusting employee salaries. However, this requires a certain amount of time, business savvy, and a good grasp of mathematics (none of which I really have).

The working-manager option has simplified the business module drastically. Now, I can buy a company and create profit simply by working it myself once a day and posting the stock for sale. Assumingly, one would then spend your profit on food, weapons, or boosters each day to support the economy and maintain skill increase.

For those playing the short-term game, that method is fine. You will be doing a service to the country by paying taxes and oiling the economy. However, you will not improve your citizen at a fast rate unless:
A) you purchase Gold for real money
B ) you create more companies and manage a work force
C) you join a group such as the CAF or TCO to help with added funding/skill increase
D) you become CP or a Minister and steal the treasury (PLEASE don’t do this)



Want an option that does not involve the 4 mentioned above? Here it is. I call it the path to becoming a Captain of Industry. The concept is lifted from Thomas Carlyle’s lofty and long-winded vision of the Captain of Industry as an industrial soldier:


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“The Leaders of Industry, if Industry is ever to be led, are virtually the Captains of the World; if there be no nobleness in them, there will never be an Aristocracy more. But let the Captains of Industry consider: once again, are they born of other clay than the old Captains of Slaughter; doomed forever to be no Chivalry, but a mere gold-plated Doggery. Captains of Industry are the true Fighters, henceforth recognisable as the only true ones: Fighters against Chaos, Necessity and the Devils; and lead on Mankind in that great, and alone true, and universal warfare.”
--Past and Present ~ Book IV ‘Horoscope’ Chapter 4 “Captains of Industry”

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The process is two-fold and is based on a long-term game plan of encouraging new citizens to invest part of their wage and gold rewards into purchasing their first business:

1~~Captain: Using funds to build strength and establish a source of food and weapons for more fights with more damage.

2~~Industry: Creating grain/food companies, followed by iron/weapon companies, with the aim of increasing your work skill/productivity and generating funds to invest towards strength and company upgrades.

The main benefit of this process is self-sufficiency (something I value as an independent, self-funded soldier). The downside is that it could downplay the social aspect of eRep, which is why I propose a commune of worker-managers who pool excess stock to support developing Captains of Industry. The best part is that TCO and the CAF are already geared for this set-up ~ sharing stock and nurturing new players is what they are best at doing. The Captain of Industry model only requires a shift towards building a base of companies rather than spending extra money on higher quality weapons and strength boosters.

You can fight fast and hard right to win the immediate battle. Or, you can save slowly and work smart for the long-term war. It’s a matter of choice between being a soldier or being a industrialized warrior. Let me end off by saying that in the last 12 days of experimenting with this project, I have gained 60,000 work skill as well as produce 200 food and 9 Q1 weapons a day, while still being able to fight 20 times ~~ all at no cost except an initial investment into companies (roughly 180 Gold). It’s self-sustaining, takes little time to manage, and will pay for itself in the long-run. This is the new reality for eRep.



This ends the introduction to the Captain of Industry method. The next two instalments will elaborate on the process and weigh the pros and cons of following this model:


Part 2 ~ Building a Base: Fortifying with Food and Gold
--Creating a self-sustaining food source and building wealth for the industrial soldier (80 food for 60 wellness, 7x gain of work skill at a profit)

Part 3 ~ The One-Man War Industry: Rise of the Captains of Industry
--Establishing a weapons source, upgrading companies, building a Captains of Industry commune (warrior industrialists supporting a regiment of emerging working-managers)

Part 4 ~ Conclusion: Weighing the Future of Warrior Industrialists
--Anticipating the coming module changes, the pros and cons of the Captain of Industry method, balancing wellness for work with wellness for fighting, going off the grid in an age of accountability.

Stay tuned as numbers and production tables are studied to provide a better reckoning of how the one-man war industry can be managed.

Cautionary note: Investing gold into eRep can have unpredictable results due to the constant tinkering of the Admins with the economy and other game modules. The current proposal only works if the multiworking-manager method continues to be permitted. Proceed at your own risk and watch for game updates.
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Published Jan. 29th '11, this series is dedicated to The Bare Knuckle Field Marshal ~~ always looking for ways to help out new players even when he had nothing.