Acquiring and developing resources is an integral part of any Attila Total War campaign. Some resources are worth fighting for, while others can be ignored altogether. This post will discuss the roles of various resources in the game, explaining how some resources can be more useful than others.

Resources have individual export values. These values are not fixed and rises slowly throughout the campaign. Here is a table listing the values of resources at the start of the Grand Campaign (ordered from most valuable to least):



There is a pattern here. If a resource has lower trade value (eg. lead/timber), its production facility will have some other bonuses attached to it to compensate. On the other hand, for resources with higher values (eg. gem/silk), the production buildings won't do much.

There is one resource not listed in the above table - gold. Gold is the only resource in Attila that cannot be exported to your trade partners. Instead, gold buildings give direct income to your province.

Here is a map of WRE with all the available resources:


I do not place too much emphasis on trade when playing as the WRE, because of the following reasons:

1. Trade partners are hard come by when playing as the WRE (or as any other faction for that matter on Legendary difficulty).
2. Even when trade agreements are made, AI factions will often backstab you and break the agreement.
3. As you progress throughout the campaign, the number of factions you can trade with will diminish one by one.
4. If you cannot secure enough trade partners, you will not be able to export your resources to full capacity.

I will now go through the resources one by one to investigate whether they are worth developing. Gem and Gold are discussed in a separate section below.

Silk

If your economy relies heavily on trade, go ahead and develop it. Otherwise, not needed. Not available in the WRE starting provinces.

Spice

Spice has good value for trading but Spice Ports have much lower income compared to regular ports. The only advantage of having Spice Ports is that they allow you to recruit naval vessels, combining the role of Military Ports and Trade Ports, not to me this is insufficient to compensate for the lowered income potential. So I'm not a fan of spice. Spice Ports are not available in the WRE starting provinces.

Dye

Dye buildings are useless, but the resource is required for some building requirements. Owning one dye production facility is enough. That's Tripolitania when playing as the WRE.

Wine

Go for Fruit Dryer. Wine is the hands down most desirable resource in Attila. It is the only resource that produces food (a lot) and raise public order at the same time. Any province with wine will have an outstanding income potential.

Fur

Good for food production, as fur buildings do not lower public order. Develop them wherever you see them.

Marble

Marble Quarry Complex gives a handsome income boost to the province. Yes it takes up 8 public order which is quite a bit, but it is more efficient compared to other industry bulidings (eg. Leather Factory) that take up more public order for the same amount of income.

What you can consider is to go up the Carver pathway first in order to take advantage of the lower construction cost bonus, then convert it to Marble Quarry Complex later once the province has finished developing.

Salt

Good source of food, just like fur. Develop them wherever you see them.

Olive oil

A massive food booster, just like wine. It is the second best resource in the game after wine.

Iron

The forges help with military recruitment, and are useful when developed in frontier provinces. For the WRE, this means Maxima Sequanorum - iron is a must there if you want to run Maxima Sequanorum as a specialised military province. See Part 6 for details. Foundry has no value.

Lead

Required for construction of some high-tier buildings. You don't need more than one in the Empire.

Timber

Same as lead. You don't need more than one.

Gold and gem are not as straightforward as the other resources.

Let's take a look at gem. Gem is a precious resource for exporting, no doubt. Its value starts at 20 at the beginning of your campaign, and reaches 30 by Year 460. Gem is also required for upgrading gold production facilities into the 'smith' line which is more profitable than the 'mines' line. However there are some dilemmas associated with acquiring gem:

1. There's gem at Dimmidi of Sahara, but Sahara is a province that grows at a painfully slow rate, if the area has been razed and you are trying to redevelop it. Even if it hasn't been razed, Sahara has a huge base Religious Difference (see Part 3 for details) which makes overall province management difficult.

What you can try is to only occupy Dimmidi (forget Cydamus & Garama) and exempt it from tax so that you can benefit from the gem there without having to develop the rest of the province. Take a look at the proposed settlement design for Dimmidi:


Note minimum public order requirement: -12 (religious difference) -8 (Legendary difficulty) -9 (Immigrants) = -29

The table above shows that Dimmidi will lack public order, so you will need to place a priest or governor there to provide a public order boost.

Or you can go ahead and occupy the rest of Sahara, but as I said before, public order management won't be easy.

2. There's gem at Uburzis of Germania as well, but of course this region not easily accessible to the WRE until the late game. If you do somehow conquer Germania, then it is much efficient to develop gem in Germania compared to Sahara.

Now let's look at gold. Here is the building chain for gold:




The 'smith' facilities always beat their 'mine' counterparts in terms of income, but they require access to gem for construction.

I will investigate which tier gold production facility will result in the highest province wealth. Out of the WRE starting provinces, Gallaecia and Aquitania have access to gold, so I will go through province designs for these two provinces, utilising different tiers of gold production facilities. Only the 'smith' line is considered here, as they are preferable over the mines.

1. Gallaecia
Tier 3 and 4 gold facilities are out of the question due to their severe public order penalties. The fact that gold is located at the province capital, Bracara, places a limitation on public order management.

Here are three province designs for Gallaecia, with no gold, tier 1 gold and tier 2 gold.





Out of the three province models, no gold model results in the highest province income for Gallaecia.

2. Aquitania
Public order management is bit easier here since gold is not located at the province capital. Here are province designs for Aquitania, with no gold ~ tier 4 gold.







Again, ditching gold gives you the best result, closely followed by tier 3 (Jewelsmith). Jewelsmith comes with a tariff bonus though, so having a Jewelsmith will actually result in slightly higher overall faction income. Don't be too excited though - tariff bonus won't give you THAT much more, few hundred talents at most, unless you are trading with ten or more trade partners - which is of course near impossible as the WRE.

In summary, regarding gold and gem, there are two ways to go about it:

1. Acquire gem from Dimmidi / Uburzis (with difficulty). Then, develop Jewelsmith in Aquitania which will give you slightly higher income compared to not developing gold. Do not develop gold in Gallaecia. Exporting gem will give you good cash, given that you can secure enough trade partners.

2. Give up gem and gold altogether. Income from this option will be lower than option 1 since you are not exporting gem, but at least you can avoid the headache of trying to acquire gem.

Here's a summary of what to do with your resources when playing as the WRE:

Develop them wherever you see them: Wine, Olive, Fur, Salt, Marble
One is enough: Timber, Lead, Dye, Iron
Ditch: Silk, Spice
Up to you: Gold, Gem

The above verdict is assuming that you are playing as a non-trade heavy faction such as the WRE. If your faction is relying heavily on trade (eg. Sassanid Empire), more emphasis would be placed on resources with higher trade value, such as silk / spice.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=624928863
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=626082337
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=627604661
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=629104910
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=631009077
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=632628967