Iron Mine is a type of iron resource building in Napoleon: Total War.
Description[]
An iron mine makes the recruitment of land units cheaper, and adds to a region's mining wealth.
Lit only by candles or lamps, most miners work in hellish conditions. In some mines firedamp, or methane produces a constant risk of explosion thanks to the naked lights. The risk of a slow death is there too: stone dust and poisonous minerals such as arsenic ruin a man as surely as any blast.
Historically, mining accidents were very common. Miners were paid only for the valuable minerals that they extracted, so there was little incentive to carry out safety work. Pit props will prevent a roof from collapsing, but putting them in did not earn any payment. Indeed, mine owners were known to charge for the wood needed to make them. It was not just men who laboured below the ground. Women often pulled carts from the work face to the surface. Children needed less space and air than adults, which made them ideal support workers, clearing tunnels and taking food and water to the miners.
General Information[]
This building pays for itself after about 25,610 gold has been spent on units, or in 17-30 turns from taxing the region wealth assuming standard tax rate and depending on the level of the administration building in the region (if any), or a combination of the two.
Units in Napoleon: Total War usually cost between 500 and 1,000 gold, which means that in practical terms, iron mines pay for themselves after about 20-40 units have been recruited. The region wealth provided by the mine itself in relation to its cost, however, while poor, still pays for itself relatively quickly due to the low cost of building an iron mine. The combination of the unit cost reduction and region wealth can make building iron mines quite worthwhile. Units become more expensive with higher difficulties, making iron mines correspondingly more useful in such circumstances.
The effects of iron mines stacks with those of other cost reduction buildings, such as the Manufactory and Gunsmith lines of buildings. Regions with iron mines in conjunction with other cost reduction buildings, such as Brandenburg with its pasture resource, are excellent locations from which to recruit units.
The Peninsular Campaign[]
Iron mines that dot the cost of the Iberian peninsula are valuable as these regions can recruit many troops at once if they have the supply port line of buildings.