Capitalism vs. Communism: Build Your Utopia (or Dystopia) in Workers & Resources
A game about building, transporting and economy. But also about secret police, propaganda and unstable loyalty of your citizens.
Strategic, town-building games were my favorites of all the time. From the times of early SimCity or Transport Tycoon games, I liked to build my towns, road, or railroad networks, satisfy my citizens in all their needs and make a profit from all of these.
In Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic you will try to build the whole republic for your inhabitants.
Or maybe inmates.
It all depends on how you will take the grasp of the leadership. You could try to fulfill all needs of your people but it will cost you so much.
The most important in this game is to have your factories running. And for your factories, you need happy citizens. And for happy citizens, you need more “factories”.
You see, it is a circle and you need to find the right balance. It is not an easy task, especially if you play on hard mode and enable all “harder” variables in-game settings.
Auto Building or Piece by Piece
At the start of the game, you will get a budget. It is up to you how you will spend it.
You could “auto-build” any of your buildings using money, which means that you will pay some sum and the building will be raised in a couple of moments.
The cost of building is variable and the main price changer is how far is it to the border. If you build near the border, the cost will be lower than if you build in the center of the map or on the opposite side. The difference is significant there.
The second option is to build your building using building materials. You can buy these materials at the customs offices at the borders and use your vehicles to transport them to the building site and let your workers build the building. It takes some time but it is much cheaper.
Or, you can mix it all. Do you produce some materials already? Then you could use these and import the rest. You don’t have enough workers to raise that building or do you simply need to have it finished quickly? So just click the button and the rest will be done using money.
It sounds simple but it could get pretty complex.
Your citizens are hungry!
Speaking about your workers, they have their needs and if these are not satisfied the workers will not work or worse, they will die or run over the borders.
So, you will need some food to keep your population alive. They will also need clothes and electronics to be happy. Some warmth during cold winter months will ensure that they will not freeze to death.
Do your citizens have kids already? Then you will need some kindergartens otherwise the parents will need to stay with the kids at home and so you will miss them at the workplace.
Also, some sports and free time activities like culture or pub culture will be needed or at least moderated.
It is a complicated task to keep your people satisfied, but everything could be automated, you just need to think before you build any building around.
Enough propaganda is not enough
Have you seen that part in the name of the game, “Soviet Republic”?
Yup, that’s right, your republic is not just an ordinary colony, your people elect your party to rule them. Even though elections are not on the table in this game.
You are simply elected, this is your republic, but if the people are not happy or better say not loyal enough, they will either leave your republic, work less, or even cause instability by telling others to work less than is required.
To mitigate the risk of disloyal citizens you will need to raise the loyalty for the party in some way. You could build monuments, run propaganda on the radio or television or teach the kids the “right way” of thinking in schools, orphanages, or universities.
But again, your teachers must be loyal enough to provide sufficient actions in this matter.
What else, with the respective game settings you will even don’t know who is loyal and who is not, for this you will need to have some secret police to find this information for you.
Cars, Trucks, Planes, Ships, Trains…
Regarding the transportation of any materials, goods, or people, you have plenty of options to choose from.
For shorter distances, your people could simply walk or could use Cars, Trucks, Buses, Trams, Trolleybuses, or Cable Cars, for longer paths you could use Trains, Ships, or Planes.
All of these could be also built in your local factories or imported from abroad, the same as any other goods.
To the West or the East?
As I mentioned borders several times already, it would be good to tell what borders are around you.
As your republic is placed on a map with the shape of a square, you will have four borders. eastern borders with other Soviet Republics where you will exchange anything for Roubles and Western borders with “NATO” Republics where you will need dollars.
Some materials will be cheaper on the east while others on the west. Also, the vehicles are different for each side.
Import and export or be self-sufficient?
It is up to you what you will decide to import or export and if you prefer east or west. Just mind twice the cost for transport, as the gas is also not free (or it could be, once again, based on the game settings).
Your republic could be also partially or fully self-sufficient, depending on the level of infrastructure and industry you have.
Enemies of the Republic
There are no enemy forces that will try to disintegrate your lovely towns and villages. The only real enemy is the economy itself. And maybe winter. And the influence of costs.
And your disloyal citizens… Simply you will need to keep an eye on everything, or you will be in red number really soon and it is not that easy to get back on track.
Conclusion
Workers and resources — Soviet Republic is one of the most in-depth logistic/building games you could get. Various playstyles are possible due to their building variability. If you like pure town-builders, this is a must for you.
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