Food trickle efficiency: Ice House vs Corral + Cows

[ffm2]

I was recently calculating whats a better investment for food trickle, a ice house or a farmstead and cows garrisoned.

 

ICE HOUSE (Limit: 5)

Base building:
  Cost:       100 stone, 100 wood
  Build time: 60 s
  Trickle:    1 food / 2 s   (0.5 food/s)

Aqueduct upgrade:
  Cost:        300 stone, 300 wood
  Research:    40 s
  Trickle:     2 food / 2 s  (1.0 food/s)


5 ICE HOUSES (max):

  5 × (100 stone + 100 wood) = 500 stone, 500 wood
  1 × (300 stone + 300 wood) = 300 stone, 300 wood

  Total resources:  1600
  Total trickle:    5 food/s

  Cost per 1 food/s:
  1600 / 5 = 320 resources


CORRAL + COWS (Limit: 50 cows)

Corral:
  Cost:        100 wood
  Build time:  50 s
  Capacity:    8 cows

Cows:
  Cost:        150 food
  Produce:     60 s
  Trickle:     3 food / 3 s  (1.0 food/s)


7 CORRALS + 50 COWS (max cows):

  7 × 100 wood         =   700 wood
  50 × 150 food        =  7500 food

  Total resources:       8200
  Total trickle:         50 food/s

  Cost per 1 food/s:
  8200 / 50 = 164 resources


Summary:
Ice House:      320 resources per 1 food/s
Corral + Cows:  164 resources per 1 food/s

 

Corrals win by far. I think the ice houses should be better considering they are a civ specialty.

Edited Friday at 20:52 by ffm2

[chrstgtr]

Interesting but it’s an incomplete picture. 
 

1. Corrals use food as a resource input, which is slower to gather. 
2. Corrals use of food to gather food also means that the food collection chart will have lots scarcity dips caused by capital investment costs. This is pretty dangerous and can bankrupt a player quickly. 
3. Corrals require more micro.

4. Corrals require continual investment/management whereas ice houses just need to be built once. 
5. Ice houses are unique to Persia, which has a higher pop cap/ eco potential, so more it’s easier to collect the input resources 

6. You’re missing the corral training tech

7. Cows can be batch trained 

8. You can build 7 (or more corrals) all at once  

 

all in all, I agree ice houses need a buff but I don’t think it’s as desperate as the above portrays 

Edited 1 hour ago by chrstgtr

[Arup]

320 per 1 food? if you add the house tech into it,it probably become somewhere around 180 (guesstimate, not calculating)

that's not bad for a obscure piece of the biggest civ in game right?

the persians need a lot of balance changes (both buffs and nerfs) perhaps I'll make a thread on its own

[Dakara]

don't buff persians 

plus persians can cumulate theses 2 solutions 

btw corals