Factory System

This is a very difficult problem to address because it could be so many things an my in depth knowlege is lacking.

First: which version do you play? Base game or do you have one or both of the expansions? I always open by saying that the base game (being from the era before CK2) has some issues. It has been a good while, so to what degree industry may be affected by these bugs I do not recall. The most pressing issues are fixed in AHD. The second expansion, HoD, tightens up the factories significantly, making them scale down production more gradually if they are running in negatives.

Remember to pick up the commerce techs, and not only go all in on industry techs, when aiming to make a profit. Factories tend to remain money drains for a good while into the game, when your accumulated techs and growing demand starts to add up.

You are playing Greece and are most likely in the UK's SoI. Therefore you share a common market with them, which is the worst thing than could ever happen to you. All those Artisans in India will cripple your economy, because the market is saturated already. Also keep in mind that, while Liquor and Wine are great for making money, their demand nevertheless hits rock bottom in times of war. If half of Europe is occupied you won't sell any Liquor at all.

I think your problem might be what Ranjit mentioned. Artisans make the same stuff as your factories and compete with your factories. Once you start growing your factories and improve your efficiency through railroads, clerks and new technologies you will become more efficient than the artisans. But in the beginning of the game, it is a tough competition. So if you are in the same sphere with a country with an enormous population, that country is likely to have a lot of artisans that compete with your factories.

A couple of more tips and answers to your further questions:

You can go to the trade window and see the supply/demand for particular goods. This may give you an idea as to what factories to build. There is also a table in the lower middle of the trade window that shows you the net imports/exports of your sphere. Exports are positive numbers and imports are negative. If you see your sphere is importing a lot of stuff, and you can produce that stuff efficiently, then that may be a good idea to make. The countries in your sphere will buy from you before they buy from anywhere outside of the sphere, so if you see imports, that should be a very good opportunity for you.

You can also hover over factories in the production window and see details about their production and sales. If a factory does not sell all of its goods, it is a pretty sure sign that the demand is insufficient.

Regarding expanding factories: I usually expand a facotry if: it is profitable, I am not subsidizing it, I am fairly sure there will be sufficient supply and demand for it in the future, and it is about to get filled by workers. Regarding the last part, I usually expand when I see three and a half little men in the factory window. This tends to mean that the expansion will be finished when the factory is full. But I do not bother expanding at all if the place is losing money or short on materials.

It has already been explained:

1 - Pay attention if you are in a sphere or about to be sphere by a large country. That can completely ruin your economy. Conversely, if you are a large country yourself and the likes of Belgium or such small countries that happen to be GP manage to sphere you, you can ruin their economies. Unfortunately you do not have control over that.

2 - Your thought process is good: You need oil? go for an oil province. You need coal? Go for a coal province. But always note how much people are producing the goods and how much goods they are producing. Having Atjeh/Sulawesi for Oil is probably insufficient to keep a good fuel industry going, because the land is too empty. Conversely, holding the Congo (as in Zaire) or the nigerian coast (IIRC) for Rubber means easy easy easy cash, and the possibility of a very healthy Automobile industry, because there is so much people there. As someone mentioned, you can see how much you are using and producing of each good if you click it in the trade screen. That can give you a hint on what is lacking or in excess and what you need to import. Also, it's good to check the price of stuff.

3 - Positive Tariffs can severely hurt your industries. Because it makes EVERY SINGLE product more expensive to import, if your industry needs to import anything, it can make them unprofitable (they spend more buying inputs than they make selling the finished goods). A good thing for your industries to succeed early is to set Negative Tariffs. That means you are helping your POPs and your factories by subsidizing everything they import. And because your POPs will always buy from your market/your sphere market first and then from the global market, you are safe from crippling your economy with your own subsidies. There won't be any chinese artisans making it into your market because their products are way cheaper than yours because of your OWN negative tariffs, even though that IS true. Thus, negative tariffs have NO negative effects (besides spending a whole lot of money, that is), as contraintuitive as that can be. Also, tariffs can be the cause of your industries failing: you build yourself an almost-solid base to start industrialization, but tariff the economy to keep yourself afloat and subsidize your factories. That means your factories are not profitable and therefore you need subsidies. So now you are in the red because of subsidies, so you tariff more, etc. I did that A LOT before I realized I was stepping in my own feet.


4 - Prestigious countries come first in the market queue to buy. So if you want some cement to start your railroads but Britain just teched up their infrastructure aswell, you will have to wait patiently until they STOP F&%$&@ USING ALL THE CEMENT before you can use it yourself. This is kind of tricky, because sometimes the first place is not the most prestigious country. I'm not sure if that applies for the Sphere market, though, I need to test that.


Those are the things that I had to learn the hard way to make my industries work. There may be more but I can't think of it right now.