工业化是游戏的关键战略：工厂可以在游戏中后期获得很高的利润，而且工业是决定总分的三个因素之一。
早期工业化的危险
即使是最强大的国家，早期工业化也很困难。
手工业者开局时比工业效率更高，结果会导致工厂倒闭- 世界市场没有足够的资源(例如，它们没有得到有效的开采和市场上没有足够的数量)来为大规模生产提供原料。 比如，像普鲁士那样早期的工业化会导致工厂一半的时间都在缺少关键资源，即使这些工厂需要
煤炭之类的东西，而德国大量生产煤炭。在POPs和RGO效率低下的情况下，没有足够的煤炭来维持
水泥或 
钢铁工厂每天的全速运行。 - 由于技术落后，RGO的劳动力没有得到有效利用，因此没有现成的劳动力来运营工厂。对
技工的国家焦点将会是灾难性的：
劳工和
农民将会离开低效率的RGO前往工厂，进一步减少工业原料投入的能力。
早在1836年就拥有工厂不一定是坏事(看看英国)，但它可能具有挑战性。许多国家将需要补贴工厂一段时间，同时用他们的国家焦点鼓励
资本家。从本质上说，这将把国家财政的钱转移给资本家。一旦技术进步使RGO的效率更高，工厂将更有利可图，这将给你带来优势。富有的资本家会为你建造新的工厂和升级铁路。如果你可以任命一个国家资本主义的政党，那就从有生产所需原料的RGO的地区建立生产水泥、钢铁、
木材等基本商品的工厂开始。尤其要提防军用品工厂，因为投入和需求可能是不定时的。在游戏的后期，你的经济将会以更少的投入运行。
为工业化奠定基础
早期的游戏需要专注于为未来的工业化创造坚实的基础。一般来说，工业至少要到19世纪60年代才会起作用。
研究
研究工业和商业科技以提高RGO的效率，让你更轻松的从RGO中解放POP高RGO效率可以解放劳动力，而提高工业效率则使工厂能够与手工业者竞争。商业科技是重中之重。
- 商业科技—经济思想与批判：1850年左右-4%的工厂投入是可能的。
- 商业科技—市场功能：1850年左右+30%RGO输出，+5%工厂吞吐，+2% 工厂输出和-2%工厂投入是可能的。
- 商业科技—组织结构：1850年左右+16%工厂产出是可能的。
- 工业科技—动力技术：1850年左右+30-60%RGO输出是可能的。
- 工业科技—机械化：1850年左右+20%工厂吞吐是可能的。还可以提高几种RGO和几种不同工厂的产量。
政策
- 在游戏开始时，像国家资本主义或计划经济这样的允许你建造工厂的政策是最理想的，因为资本家并不多，建造一个不正确的工厂(如:快帆船)可能会导致巨大的负面后果。
- 只有当一个国家有了已建立的工业基础时，自由放任政策才是可取的。一旦一个国家拥有发达的经济，能同时有5家以上的工厂由资本家建造，自由放任政策就是一种非常有效的政策，特别是考虑到它可以提高吞吐量。它基本上让一个国家的工业处于自动状态。然而，较小的国家总是使工业受控更有益。
- 促进识字率是确保人口自然升职的关键。国家焦点应该集中在
神职人员身上，而不是技工，直到他们在全国的比例达到2%。之后，对职员和资本家的焦点起到了很大的作用，因为他们都能使工厂更有效率：
职员可以使工厂投入增加50%。 - 铁路改善了工厂和RGO的吞吐。铁路是另一个例子，不断发展的技术为工厂提供了持续的利益，而手工业者们却被留在历史的垃圾箱里。
预算
- 关税是非常重要的，因为超过10%的关税将使工厂挨饿，造成滚雪球效应，因为RGO的工厂需求将更加昂贵。最终，一个国家的POP会降为农民，而你将回到开始。因此，只要可能，关税应设为0%。
- 税收应主要用于确保POP的需求得到满足。这确保了当地POP有能力购买工业生产的产品。
Sphere of Influence
Nations that are a great power should work on bringing countries into their sphere of influence that provide raw materials for industry. However, beware of China! Sphering large countries with a substantial RGO and artisan base will cause demand for factory-made goods to cease. Sphering any of the large Chinese nations in the early game (1836 to 1880), will cause your industry (and possibly the world economy) to implode.
Prestige is absolutely critical. The difference between being #2, #7, and #29 is vast. If you can get and keep #1, you are well on your way to building an awesome economy.
Critical resources
Successful nations must either sphere or annex critical resources, lest they are doomed to be an agrarian power until gaining enough prestige to buy them from nations that finally produce enough.
Dye is controlled by the UK and Netherlands until Synthetic Dye is invented, so you are at their mercy if you want to produce cloth.- Coal is used in so many industries, not to mention POPs using it up, that if you don't have your own coal, you are at a serious disadvantage to everyone else.
Iron is really important in the early and middle game.
Timber is useful early on, but once Russia gets some techs, it gets much more common.
Sulfur is vital to anyone who wants to produce weapons.
Factory Management
- Guide industrial development during the first half of the game using available resources. Let the artisans satisfy demand in other products, but let factories only work along supply chains you have full access to. During the second half of the game, you can start looking at demand more often, but even then you still need to monitor supply. The specter of supply chain problems never disappears completely.
- Subsidizing industries must be carefully considered. Industries that just keep failing every day of their life should be deleted or closed. The only time subsidizing is important is when you have a sine-wave supply bottleneck or when you need to immobilize labor in a state while you build new factories. That sine-wave bottleneck is a real problem, since the factory gets its inputs half the time, but half the time it's missing something. Rather than just close it down or let it fire workers, I can run that factory at 100% the moment it gets inputs again. Still, letting workers move to industries that are doing better is usually the best strategy.
Heart of Darkness Changes
In Heart of Darkness, the industry system has been massively revamped. Factories are now able to artificially reduce throughput temporarily when running a deficit, instead of immediately laying off workers. Furthermore, Capitalists are once again somewhat improved. Most important however, are the resource throughput bonuses. Factories can achieve up to a 25% bonus if all inputs are produced in the state, either by RGOs or by other factories. An example chain of industry for Scotland to maximize production would then be as follows;
- Steel produced in the Lowlands, garnering a 15% bonus from the coal (but not the full 25%, because the Lowlands lack iron)
- Machine Parts and Steamers produced in the Lowlands, getting the full 25% bonus from the coal and the Steel plant
- Ammunition, Fertilizer, Explosives and Artillery all produced in the Highlands, as they complement each other and create a full chain of production from RGO to artillery guns
As you can see, planning factories in Hearts of Darkness is somewhat more in-depth than simply building in your most populated states.