Talk:Steel Mill/@comment-145.253.135.80-20120112094300/@comment-1628491-20120327152259

The math works out a little strange.

If you are turning the Steel Mill around on small jobs repeatedly, you will deplete your resources faster than if you do, say, the eight hour job. Advanced Mines help with this (both Iron and Coal) as does a rather large storage capacity.

Medium Tanks are nice units, even set against the Heavy Tanks. Why? Heavy Tanks take a LOT of resources and time to build, and unless you built yourself two Vehicle Factories (hey, at level 35, it's not out of the question) you'll be stuck. Even if you do have two factories, each Heavy Tank takes a whopping 18 hours to build; each Medium Tank takes 14 hours.

You need to make 3,375 Steel or more in 18 hours to replenish the Steel needed for Heavy Tanks. One Steel Mill cannot do this anyway. If you decide to back down to Light Tanks, you still need Steel for that.

Bottom line? Tanks are expensive and will run you out of Steel fast. Even if you have two Steel Mills, your other resources may not be able to hold onto the strain without Advanced Mines or bonus buildings. If you have a friend letting you occupy their lands for resources, that's probably the only way to break even.