a question about building an iron making economy on the iron isles. is it better to choose one of the biggest mines on each of the isles, then centralize all the economic development around it; drasticly expand the mine, build a town around it, create a great harbor, all future roads on the islands go the settlement, etc. or is it better to just expand on all the mines, just to a much smaller degree so you have a ton of smaller mines instead of one massively developed one?

Depends where the ore is, I suppose. And I think the bigger issue is one of human capital – can you get enough good ironsmiths and tinsmiths (because tin actually has a good amount of commercial value, and the Iron Islands can’t afford to underutilize resources) – and capital capital. Given the cultural baggage of the gold price vs. the iron price, where do you get enough merchants with the capital to not only finance production of iron and tin goods, but also the capital and connection to handle the transportation and marketing and distribution?