Which civ farms best?

A farm grows, it does not just empty

People often picture a farm as a pile of 175 food that the farmer empties. In fact it works like a small field that grows: its food appears bit by bit, at most 0.4 per second, or 24 per minute, and the farmer can only gather what has already grown. If he is faster than the farm, he empties its stock and waits.

A farmer can gather 0.53 food per second, or 32 per minute. Yet he only brings back 20 per minute in the Dark Age and 23 in the Castle Age. Where does the rest go? He moves to a new spot on his farm four times per load and gathers nothing during those few steps, he walks to the mill or town center and back, he reseeds his farm when it runs out and, from the Castle Age on, he waits for the farm to grow back.

The ranking, age by age

For each civ, eight farmers on eight well-placed farms for 25 minutes, reseeding included, across three different games. Up to the Feudal Age, civs that speed up their farmers lead. In the Castle Age almost everyone hits the farm’s limit: most civs end up between 23.2 and 23.6 per minute, and only six civs stand out.

Why some bonuses fade in the Castle Age

There are two kinds of farm bonus. Those that make the farmer more efficient: the Khmer never walk to drop off, Aztec farmers carry more. They shine in the Dark and Feudal Ages, when the farmer still spends a third of his time walking. But once Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart are in, the farmer is already faster than the farm: making him faster still is useless, he just waits longer. The Khmer go from +9% in the Dark Age to +2% in the Castle Age.

And then there are bonuses that make the farm itself more generous. They are the only ones that let a farmer go past 24 per minute, and so the only ones that really matter in the late game.

The five civs that go past 24 per minute

Slavs, 27.1 per minute. Their farms grow 15% faster than everyone else’s: their ceiling rises from 24 to 27.6 per minute. And since their farmers are faster too, they can keep up with this more generous farm, which an ordinary farmer could not. The result: +16% per farmer in the Castle and Imperial Ages, the biggest lead of any civ at any age. It is the only bonus that never runs out of steam.

Romans, 24.6 per minute. Same idea on a smaller scale: farms that grow 5% faster (25.2 per minute at most) and slightly more efficient villagers. A quiet bonus, but there at every age.

Danes, 24.6 per minute. Here the farm does not grow faster: every food drop-off is worth 5% more than what the farmer was carrying. The farmer hits the farm’s limit like everyone else, but what he brings back is worth more. The downside: without Crop Rotation, their farms run out quickly and cost them a lot of wood.

Poles, 24.5 per minute. Their bonus comes from the mill: their farmers gain extra food when they work around it. It is in fact the only civ whose farms around the mill bring in more than those around the town center. To benefit, you have to cluster your farms around mills.

Mayans, 24.3 per minute. The oddest case. Their resources last 15% longer: every bit of farm harvested is worth a little more, which raises their ceiling to 27.6 per minute, like the Slavs. But their farmers work more slowly and cannot reach it: last of all in the Feudal Age (21.1), they climb back above 24 in the Imperial Age, with farms that also last longer.

And the others? The Khmer, Aztecs and Burgundians have genuine farm bonuses, but they speed up the farmer, not the farm. Once the farmer is faster than his farm, they have nothing left to give: they all end up between 23 and 24 per minute.

Hand Cart does nothing for your farmers

This is the most unexpected consequence of that top speed. In the Castle Age our tests give farmers the same rate with or without Hand Cart (even a hair lower with it: they carry more, empty the farm faster and wait longer for it to grow back). Hand Cart is still worth it, but for other reasons: +7% for lumberjacks and +3% for gold miners. Wheelbarrow, on the other hand, still gives farmers +9%.

Late game: 30 farmers

For the late game we put 30 farmers in the Imperial Age around two town centers and two mills, and measured the food coming in over an hour of play, reseeding included. At 30, farmers do not get in each other’s way: each brings in as much as at eight.

In practice, 708 food per minute keeps about six stables of knights running non-stop. The Slavs almost run a seventh with the same 30 farmers, or field the same army with 26 farmers instead of 30.

Work out your economyHow many farmers, lumberjacks and miners to keep producing what you want, with your civ and at your age: our villager calculator uses these measurements.Open the calculator →

The real hidden gap: farm wood

An exhausted farm costs 60 wood to reseed. What changes from civ to civ is how much food a farm holds before it runs out: 550 with all three mill upgrades, only 375 for civs without Crop Rotation. The Sicilians have huge farms (about 1,000 food) and the Teutons cheaper ones. With 30 farmers, the difference adds up to dozens of wood per minute.

A Teuton or Sicilian player therefore saves 30 to 35 wood per minute compared with a typical civ, and almost 70 compared with civs without Crop Rotation: enough for a trebuchet’s wood every six minutes. The Chinese, for their part, have slightly bigger farms but no Crop Rotation, and finish last on both food and wood.