HUBS & HINTERLAND
Every tile you own either quietly pays you a little forever, or loudly pays you a lot and sends you a bill.
THE ASYMMETRY
Rural tiles are self-sufficient. Their population feeds itself, they need no staffing, and they cost nothing to hold — they simply trickle resources every turn, forever. They are also low-stakes: when attacked, they change hands quietly and fold into the conqueror's hinterland.
Hubs are the opposite bargain. Enormous concentrated output, in exchange for upkeep every turn, staff to run them, and their own sentiment that can turn against you. They are the crown assets and therefore the war targets.
THE RURAL TRICKLE
Per tile, per turn — modifiable by research:
| TILE | CAPITAL | NUTRITION | MATERIALS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arid | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Fertile | 5 | 15 | 5 |
| Mineral | 5 | 5 | 15 |
Small numbers — but they compound across dozens of tiles with no upkeep against them, which is what makes wide expansion a viable strategy in its own right.
THE HUB TYPES
| HUB | TILE | STAFF | PRODUCES | GARRISON |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | Fertile | 100 | 350 food | 5 |
| Extraction | Mineral | 100 | Materials | 5 |
| Manufacturing | Any land | 100 | Industrial or automatons | 5 |
| Scientific | Any land | 100 | Technological | 5 |
| Data Center | Any land | 50 | Compute | 10+ |
| Military Base | Any land | 25 | Nothing — it is a fortress | 50 |
STAFFING & YIELD
A hub's output is the product of three things:
output = base × staffing ratio × global tech × sentiment
Staffing is linear and caps at 100% — a hub with half its required manpower produces half. A fresh hub starts at 50 staff, drawn from the surrounding hinterland, so it runs at about half capacity until you grow or redeploy people into it.
Casualties can empty a hub completely. It produces nothing, but the structure survives and can be re-staffed. Only capture or razing removes a hub from the board — which is why war is fought over hubs rather than around them.
MANUFACTURING MODES
A Manufacturing Hub picks one mode per turn. Industrial converts materials into industrial goods for building and upkeep. Automaton spends 1 material + 1 technological per unit to build robotic population instead. Switching is free; you just cannot do both in the same turn.
THE MILITARY BASE
Not a hub in the economic sense: it produces nothing and bears no sentiment. What it does is host 50 military power (against 5 on an ordinary tile) and project a 2-hex defensive radius over everything around it. It is how you make a region genuinely expensive to invade.