Food is a life-sustaining commodity required in the Upkeep for mortal creatures in Master of Magic. Failure to harvest sufficient Food in a particular town can cause it to experience population decline. Not having enough food will result in the most recently-trained Normal Units disbanding.
Unlike Gold and Mana, Food cannot be stockpiled in the Wizard's inventory and held between turns. Any surplus Food you may have gets converted into Gold at 2:1 ratio instead. While the Wizard can spend gold and mana in bursts, his empire's Food harvesting capacity places a steadier, turn-by-turn limit on how many conventional troops he can field and how many townsfolk he can afford to designate as Workers.
Description[]
Food supply is at the center of most economic and political relationships. From their point at the top of the hierarchy, Wizards view management of these affairs with varying degrees of irritation. Most of them still see a need to facilitate production of this basic commodity in their quest for greater forms of power.
The more fertile land a town catches, the bigger its possible Food harvest. Productive races can pursue urban development projects ranging from the basic (like Granaries) to the profound (like Animists' Guilds) to bolster the harvest. Once Farmers are working all the fertile lands, additional farmers will face diminishing returns. From this point the townsfolk are probably diversifying into labor-intensive specialty goods, moving from perishable bread and fresh foods to durables like beer, dried produce, and cured meats that would be valuable supplies for armies on the move.
Base Food Level[]
Each city has a base food level of Food which can be efficiently produced with enough farmers, as follows:
- ½ for each Forest, Hill, or Shore in its catchment area.
- 1½ for each Grassland in its catchment area.
- 2 for each River, River Mouth¹, or Sorcery Node¹ in its catchment area.
- 2½ for each Nature Node¹ in its catchment area.
- The food generated is halved if the terrain tile is shared with another city.
- Terrain tiles with Corruption do not count. However, tiles with unbroken nodes or lairs do count.
- +50% to the above quantities if the city has Gaia's Blessing cast on it.
¹ Reported incorrectly by Surveyor.
Food Production[]
Food can only be produced by settlements, and there is a limit to how much any one settlement can easily contribute. The food production of a city is:
- 2 for each Farmer. This increases to 3 if the farmer is a Halfling or the city has an Animists' Guild.
- 2 for a Foresters' Guild.
- x1/2 the food above is halved if the city enchantment Famine is active.
- If this total exceeds the city's Base Food Level, all excess is halved. So if the food produced is 9, but the Base Food Level is 6, then this counts as 7.
- 2 for a Granary.
- 3 for a Farmers' Market.
- 2 for each Wild Game in the city's catchment area. This decreases to 1 if the terrain tile is shared with another city. If the tile is afflicted with Corruption, the bonus does not count.
Maximum Population[]
- Main article: Maximum Population
The maximum population reported by the Surveyor before creating a city is equal to the Base Food Level. After the city is created, the Surveyor reports the following.
- Start with the Base Food Level.
- x1/2 halved if the city enchantment Famine is active.
- 2 for a Granary if present.
- 3 for a Farmers' Market if present.
- 2 for each Wild Game in the city's catchment area. This decreases to 1 if the terrain tile is shared with another city. If the tile is afflicted with Corruption, the bonus does not count.
- The maximum population is equal to this food output, or to 25, whichever is less.
Food Upkeep[]
Townspeople[]
- Each Farmer, Worker, and Rebel in a town eats 1 per turn from its own town's harvest. Food is not transferred between towns to cover the needs of the townsfolk.
- Attempting to starve Rebels is usually unfeasible and unwise. Firstly, the town forcibly assigns enough Subsistence Farmers to feed the entire population, including the Rebels. Starvation only happens under conditions of extreme unrest and loss of discrete Food sources like Town Buildings and Wild Game. Secondly, it's generally fine to let Rebels eat until they can be pacified, and let the town grow during this period, rather than regrow the town. Finally, when a town does grow while there are Rebels, the new population unit is not necessarily rebellious, because Unrest is a percentage of the population.
Normal Units[]
- Each Normal Unit in a Wizard's army deducts 1 from the pan-imperial food surplus for that turn.
Heroes[]
- Heroes do not draw Normal Unit Food Upkeep. A unit of Food represents such a large package of supply, demand, and logistics that individual needs are economically negligible.
Fantastic Units[]
- Fantastic Units also do not draw Normal Unit Food Upkeep. Wizards bind these magical creatures from outer Realms and sustain them with Mana.
Undead[]
- Normal Units which have acquired the Undead property have passed beyond all earthly needs and do not require Normal Unit Food Upkeep. Used on a grand scale, these units can drastically lower the need to produce Surplus to feed city garrisons throughout the empire. The property is exclusive to the Death Realm and can be imposed on normal units through the following means: