Grain Industry

Levels at a glance

	Level	Cost	Build time	Minimum settlement	Upgrades to		Level	Cost	Build time	Minimum settlement	Upgrades to
	Milling District (Urban)	1,500	3	large town	Brewing Quarter (Urban)		Brewing Quarter (Urban)	3,000	4	city	Baking Guild (Urban)
	Baking Guild (Urban)	6,000	5	large city	—

Costs in denarii, build time in turns.

Milling District (Urban)

Grain goes in, flour (and life) comes out.

The Milling District spans entire quarters of the city, where countless grinding wheels work day and night. This industrial heartland draws grain caravans from across the realm, funnelling harvests through an intricate network of warehouses, water channels, and stone mills that never sleep. Here, master millers oversee armies of workers who sort, clean, and grind endless streams of grain into the flour that feeds tens of thousands. The district's maze of workshops, storage vaults, and transport canals forms the system that feeds its people, transforming seasonal harvests into year-round abundance. From the main mills powered by diverted rivers to the smaller neighbourhood operations serving local bakers, this milling district ensures no citizen goes without bread.

In a world fueled by grain, the mill is a quiet hero, ensuring every crumb is savoured by the grateful populace.

Requirements: all of these must hold before this level can be built.

• Local Barter or a higher level is built here
• The region has Grain
• Only one urban industry building allowed
• Government Building (Dependency, Indirect Rule, Direct Rule or Homeland)

What it does

• +1 population growth

Brewing Quarter (Urban)

Where the city's flour is made ready.

Here, all the flour from many mills comes together. No longer just a collection of workshops but a meticulously planned industrial behemoth within the city. You see vast, multi-storied structures dedicated to the advanced cleaning, sifting, and mixing of flour, ensuring a consistent quality that feeds a metropolis. Conveyor systems transport the processed flour directly into storage silos, each capable of holding enough to feed an army for a month. Workers watch over everything, making sure it all runs smoothly. This is where raw grain turns into good flour, ready to go to the city's bakeries.

It's the step between the fields and the bread people eat every day.

Requirements: all of these must hold before this level can be built.

• Local Market or a higher level is built here
• The region has Grain
• Government Building (Dependency, Indirect Rule, Direct Rule or Homeland)

What it does

Baking Guild (Urban)

Bread so fresh and soft, it’ll make your legions weep.

The Baking Guild District represents a vast confederation of ovens, workshops, and distribution centers that ensures fresh bread reaches every neighborhood before dawn breaks. Master bakers coordinate enormous operations where hundreds of workers press, shape, and bake these goods in carefully timed shifts. Massive communal ovens, some large enough to bake for entire districts, dominate the skyline with their tall chimneys. Networks of apprentices and delivery carts spread out like arteries from these centres, carrying warm loaves to markets, homes, and temples across the region.

History:

In 171 BC, during the Third Macedonian War, the arrival of Greek bakers established the first professional bakers, known as the pistores, in Rome. It was in ancient Rome where bread and pastries first began to be mass-produced.

Archaeological research conducted in Britain identified five different kinds of Roman baking, including baking in the ashes, baking surrounding hot ashes, the sub testu method, and baking in earthenware vessels. The most basic method of baking was cooking in ashes. The hot ashes and tiles were used to heat the bread. The sub testu method involved baking bread underneath a hot cover or hot coals. These baking covers are typically ceramics with pie-shaped lids and foot-long sides. Although none of the examples have handles or holes at the top, some have flanges on the sides. Bread could also be cooked in earthenware vessels. Pastry cooks were known as pastillarium and bakers of sweetmeats and cakes were termed dulciarius or crustularius. These were respected professions in ancient Rome. By the end of the Republic, private bakers known as pistores used mills to mass produce bread. Trajan is said to have established a collegium pistorum to help ensure the continuous supply of bread.

Requirements: all of these must hold before this level can be built.

• Forum or a higher level is built here
• The region has Grain
• Government Building (Dependency, Indirect Rule, Direct Rule or Homeland)

What it does

• +2 population growth

Traits and retinue

Retinue