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Sawmill
CITYSCAP-057-ANIBUILD-sawmill-anim
Races All except Lizardmen
Construction Cost Icon Production 100
Upkeep Cost Icon Gold 2
Sells for Icon Gold 33
Standard Effects
Increases the total Icon Production Production of a town's citizens by 25%.
Building Progression
TownBuilding Sawmill
Flowchart Up Split DownRight Flowchart Left To Right TownBuilding ForestersGuild
Flowchart Up To Down TownBuilding ShipWrightsGuild
Flowchart Up To Right Flowchart Upleft Converge Right TownBuilding Shipyard
Units Unlocked
TownBuilding Sawmill + TownBuilding Barracks
Standard Unit Icon BarbarianBowmen TransparentUnit Icon GnollBowmen TransparentUnit Icon HalflingBowmen TransparentUnit Icon HighMenBowmen TransparentUnit Icon NomadBowmen TransparentUnit Icon OrcBowmen TransparentUnit Icon BeastmenBowmen TransparentUnit Icon DraconianBowmen Transparent
Racial Unit Icon Longbowmen Transparent

A Sawmill is a type of Town Building. It can be constructed by any race except the Lizardmen. A town must also have at least one Forest or Nature Node tile in its vicinity in order to construct a Sawmill. The building has no other prerequisites. Its base construction cost is Icon Production 100.

The Sawmill increases the total Icon Production Production output of all the town's citizens - a significant bonus that speeds up all construction in this town. It also unlocks the Foresters' Guild, which would improve the town even further. The Sawmill and Barracks together enable the creation of Bowmen. With the Sawmill and Shipwrights' Guild, a sea-side town can construct a Ship Yard, which builds Galleys for transportation and naval warfare.

The Sawmill requires an Upkeep Cost of Icon Gold 2 per turn for its maintenance. If you are pressed for Gold, a Sawmill can be sold back for Icon Gold 33.

Description[]

A Sawmill is a workshop designed for transforming tree logs into wooden planks (which are used for construction), wooden tools and bows. The Sawmill uses water to power its machinery via a waterwheel. A circular saw, driven by the watermill, slices the logs, after which they are processed into ready-to-use wooden products.

The Sawmill appears as a tall wooden house, with its large waterwheel clearly visible at the front of the building. Strangely, this water-wheel will spin just fine even if the town has no visible access to any running water. It is assumed to be powered by a nearby stream that's just too small to be displayed on-screen.

Races and Construction[]

All Races in the game except the Lizardmen have access to the Sawmill. Woodworking is an essential and very basic skill in all construction, and as such is important for everyone.

The Sawmill can only be constructed in a town that has has at least one Forest tile within its catchment area. If no such tiles exist, the Sawmill does not appear on the list of possible construction options. Note that spells like Change Terrain can be used to add a Forest where none were previously, enabling construction of a Sawmill in any nearby town. However, once the Sawmill is constructed or is in the process of being built, the Forest tile can be changed again with no adverse effect.

A town requires no other Town Buildings in order to create a Sawmill - it is available for construction as soon as a town becomes capable of producing anything.

Construction of a Sawmill costs Icon Production 100. Despite this cost, the building is usually created early-on, as it improves the construction speed of all other buildings and units, allowing a town to develop more rapidly.

The Sawmill requires an Upkeep Cost of Icon Gold 2 per turn. Failure to pay these costs does not cause the Sawmill to be abandoned - Town Buildings only drain your treasury, so that you have less Icon Gold Gold with which to pay for other things.

Continuous Effects[]

Production Bonus[]

While a Sawmill exists in a town, it will boost the Icon Production Production output of this town. Essentially it increases the productivity of each worker by 25% - though the percentage applies to the total production of all citizens put together, rather than individually.

In other words, the game looks at the total Icon Production Production of all citizens in the town, and then the Sawmill produces exactly 25% of this - rounded down. The extra Icon Production Production is listed separately in the Production Breakdown chart, so the Sawmill's effect is clearly visible there.

For example, if the town's citizens yield a total of Icon Production 100, the Sawmill will add a bonus Icon Production 25. If they yield a total of Icon Production 50, the Sawmill will add Icon Production 12 (50 * 25%, rounded down).

The bonus is automatically adjusted whenever the citizens' Icon Production Production output is changed for whatever reason. Therefore, if a town grows or diminishes in size, or its citizens are redistributed, the benefits of the Sawmill will rise and fall respectively.

This bonus is calculated based only on the total Icon Production Production generated by the citizens - ignoring any other bonuses or other sources of Icon Production Production a town may get. For example, the presence or absence of a Miners' Guild -- which also increases Icon Production Production -- does not affect the bonus from the Sawmill in any way.

Note: Although the building's in-game tooltip indicates that the Sawmill's bonus is based on the number of Forests around the town, this is not the case at all. The Sawmill only takes citizens into account as explained above. One nearby Forest is sufficient to begin construction of the building, and no Forest tiles at all are required for it to provide the full 25% bonus, for instance if the original tiles were destroyed by Icon ChaosRaise Volcano. Additional Forests do not improve the bonus either.

Housing Bonus[]

The special Housing project available in every town takes the town's finalized Population Growth rate, and increases it by between 0 and 125 percent. The formula for determining this percentage is as follows:

Bonus = (Workers / Total Population) • 100%
        + 15%  if a Builders' Hall is present
        + 10%  if a Sawmill is present

Note that the Bonus is irrespective of the raw number of Icon Production Hammers being generated, and is instead based on the proportion of the population currently designated as Workers, and whether a Builders' Hall and Sawmill are in operation. Therefore, without a Sawmill for example, the maximum growth bonus obtainable with Housing is 115 percent - the case where all citizens are assigned as Workers and the Builders' Hall is completed.

Unlocked Town Buildings[]

Upon its construction, the Sawmill immediately unlocks the Foresters' Guild. The guild will improve town Icon Production Production even further, and will also add a bonus amount of Icon FoodFood - allowing more citizens to be turned into Workers if necessary. As a result, further improvement of this town becomes even quicker and easier. This combination is essential for any town that you're hoping to develop rapidly.

The Sawmill is also one of the two components required for constructing a Ship Yard in sea-side towns, for races that have access to this building. The Sawmill provides high-quality planks of wood, whereas the Shipwrights' Guild - the other required component - provides skilled ship-building craftsmen and a place for ships to dock. The Ship Yard becomes available once both structures are present.

Once it is built, the Ship Yard can produce a mainstay transport and combat vessel called the Galley, which is important for sea-faring empires and maps with plenty of continents. A few races can then go beyond Ship Yards to construct Maritime Guilds and/or Merchants' Guilds.

Unlocked Normal Units[]

The Sawmill itself unlocks no new units for production, since it only produces wooden weapons for soldiers to use. In order to actually unlock new units a Barracks must be built as well - providing a place for new trainees to live during their training period.

With the Barracks[]

When a town contains both a Sawmill and a Barracks, it can begin to produce basic Ranged Attack units, at least for those races that have access to them. This includes the Bowmen and Longbowmen.

Bowmen are available to the Barbarians, Gnolls, Halflings, High Men, Nomads, Orcs, Beastmen and Draconians. Within their armies, Bowmen provide an early-game Ranged Attack capability, which is initially quite poor and useful only against other weak Normal Units. Bowmen however improve well with Experience, and can often cause serious damage to Normal Units once sufficient Experience has been acquired. Until then they are both weak and vulnerable, and will mainly tag along with other armies to gain Experience in combat.

Longbowmen are available only to the High Elf race. They are significantly stronger than Bowmen, and are capable of seriously injuring most enemy Normal Units at a great range. Their accuracy means that they improve very well with Experience, and will generally become very threatening at high levels. This is the main reason why a Sawmill is essential in all High Elf towns - and often constructed early.

Strategy[]

The Sawmill should be the second of two definite goals in each new settlement's basic development path, the primary goal being the Farmers' Market. Unless the town's catchment area lacks a Forest tile or is populated by Lizardmen (making construction impossible), or perhaps if it needs to take a prompt measure against Unrest, it is a solid idea to begin work on this building immediately after completing the Farmers' Market. It can even be rushed, if finances permit.

While the Icon Production +25% is ineffective when the population is tiny, similar to the Builders' Hall, the Sawmill boosts Housing with a constant bonus. It is therefore needed for growing the population at the maximum possible speed. By contrast, all of the other production-boosting structures are worthless during a Housing spree, due to how the Housing Bonus is computed (see the Continuous Effects section above).

The standard build order for a population blitz is as follows:

  1. Builders' Hall
  2. Granary
  3. Smithy
  4. Marketplace
  5. Farmers' Market
  6. Sawmill
  7. Housing

Whether the Sawmill is installed by a fast-growing race or a slow-growing race is going to affect the number of people it contributes per turn during Housing. Nevertheless, the payoff is the same in either case: it reduces the number of turns needed to make the town viable.

Bear in mind the future assets unlocked by the Sawmill. Every town is probably going to want a Foresters' Guild as soon as it has had a chance to grow, in order to speed up the rest of its projects. The Sawmill is especially useful to the High Elves, who need it for one of their definitive racial units, the Longbowmen. Early production of these can mean dominance over the surrounding area. Sea-faring races and empires also require a Sawmill in their naval production centers, as they lead to the Ship Yard and thus to advanced ship construction.

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