Farmer
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Farmers, (as one might suspect) make their living growing and selling food. The basic idea is to utilize agricultural technology to maximize food production. Tyrannies, Fascists, Dictators, Democracies and Republics can all make pretty decent farmers.
Pros:
- Constant food production
- Versatile
- Easy
- Highest war ability of all strategies
Cons:
- Food prices are volatile
Governments used
One of the unique aspects of farmers is that they can use almost every government type except theocracy. Fascism is perhaps the most popular choice, since food production is directly boosted. However, Democracy exceeds the governmental bonus of Fascism in the later stages of a set because agricultural technology has a high maximum tech level which makes the Democracy technology bonus particularly relevant. Also, the democracy need not pay any market commissions on the sale of food. Dictatorship is also a commonly used government type since farmers generate food no matter how turns are used, and excess turns can always be used to build more construction sites, negating the dictatorship build rate penalty. In addition, dictatorship already boosts the high war resilience of farmers and makes such farmers into the ultimate war machine. It is common to see small dictatorship farmers easily destroy a republic casher (the weakest warring strategy) that is three or four times the size, and some even emerge from the war in a better economic condition. Tyranny is used for the same reason as Dictatorship- a stronger warring ability, but dictatorship is even better in war than tyranny.
Less used governments include Communism and Republic. Communism is used because farmers can be quite easily hybridized with the industrialist strategy given the lower levels of tech needed for a communist. Republic farmers have gained acceptance recently because of their higher explore rates, which farmers can use to a high extent since farmers are the strategy that generally has the most free choice in using turns however they like it since the food produced is the same no matter how the turns are used (a trait that is shared with industrialists).
Only theocracy is a non-useable government type for farmers because of the sharply lower maximum technology levels, and farmers depend greatly on technology.
Synopsis
Most farmers' land is built up with farms, as the sale of bushels is their main source of income. Due to the fact that many people stock bushels throughout a set, many more bushels are bought than what are actually consumed by the population of countries. One of the up sides is that regardless of public market prices, a bushel can always sell on your private market instantly for no less than $29 (higher with military technology).
Guide
Start with a few farms and get around 80 construction sites by turn 99. You'll want to get your BPT even higher in your first few hundred turns. For your first hundred or so turns though, it may be easier (at least faster) to sell bushels on the private market. It is almost always better to sell bushels on the public market if you can afford to wait it out though. If bushels on the public market are 30 or less, you may as well sell on the private market.
Food
You should never experience food shortages as a farmer. Since bushels are used for stocking, there is always a demand for them. Your goal is to get as many farms as possible, and max out your agricultural technology.
Military
Though market conditions will vary from set to set, most of your military will most likely be bought from the public market, unless of course your military technology allows you to purchase from the private market cheaper. As long as you are getting top dollar selling your bushels, you will have no problem mobilizing a fierce fighting force at a moments notice!
Selling
Farmers are often faced with the option of selling public or selling private. If you are impatient or don't intend on waiting for bushels to sell on the public market, consider buying military technology to increase the private-sale value of them.
Technology
Agricultural technology should be your primary focus, though military technology, business technology and residential technology will help reduce overall costs and raise your PCI.
