Currently, you have to rely on traders or improve your city to a T3 townhall to unlock a “Foundry” before you can produce anything metal-related or rely on traders.
For a medieval setting we really ought to be able to make basic metal implements from the get-go. With a little bit of clay, time, and a LOT of charcoal, you should be able to smelt small amounts of iron relatively inefficiently using a small bloomery.
Simply in-game, it’d be a 1-by-1 structure like the beehive/apiary. It’d provide a use for the charcoal kiln early-on in-game. And it would allow the player to gather enough iron to make a few sets of tools or an extra weapon–not really suited to mass production. It would require clay to build, could be upgraded into an improved stage using bricks, and maybe–if we wanted–bellows could be simulated by requiring a hide to construct.
There’s a lot that could be discussed about how in-depth metallurgy would look like (casting vs wrought metals, cupellation, recycling byproducts, varying grades of steel alloys, etc), but I’ll probably make a huge separate post for that later. For now, I think just having a bloomery for the early game, would improve the experience a lot instead of twiddling your thumbs and waiting for 150 immigrants to arrive.
Agreed, I was also thinking it could make sense to have the current blacksmith and foundry as tier 2 buildings that are upgraded from less “industrial” versions available from the second age (pre 150 pop)
Going a bit further, it might be interesting to break the gameplay trope of metal “being advanced end-game stuff.” The bloomery process is easily doable by frontiersmen with basic equipment and know-how.
In the “early-game phase,” there’s no need for deep mines like in T2 or T4; any swampy land should have enough bog iron for a forager shack to gather from peat soil by hand.
The first kind of housing should just be a basic tent (maybe T0). Shelters (T1 housing) and all the various wooden constructions we build ought to require nails and metal rivets which require a small amount of metal-working from day-1.
Once again, there’s a lot about metallurgy that can be done; will compile it all in another post later.
I was also thinking it could make sense to have the current blacksmith and foundry as tier 2 buildings that are upgraded from less “industrial” versions available from the second age
The thing is: A “Foundry” implies that we are casting metal (like how a statue in-game requires several hundred iron ingots). The thing is: processes to make cast iron were not known in the West until the mid-to-late 15th century. The way we build stuff out of ingots in-game is impossible as we can’t fully melt iron with the technology available (1538 C). Instead iron was just heated to be malleable and then had the impurities beat out of it and shaped by striking it with a hammer (wrought iron). But bronze, copper and lead could be fully melted down and cast into molds as they had much lower melting points. The difference between wrought and casting metals is a big distinction here.
A more realistic progression would be having a basic clay-bloomery that needs repairs after each use. A more permanent and re-usable version made out of brick would be the next tier, and the final tier would be a water-wheel power version (lookup a Catalan Furnace for example). Very end-game–beyond iron–you might have consistent steel-making using the crucible method (likely requiring a guild with inside knowledge of the closely guarded secret; only a very select few who traveled abroad to the Middle East or India knew how to do this in the West).
Really the blacksmith should be for making small metal implements like nails, rivets, chain links, or a sword out of iron. The foundry should be for bronze or lead making larger objects like pots, church bells, statues, plating, etc.
