quote:
Originally posted by raynor:
It wouldn't bother me so much ... IF you could only use the component every 4 turns--since that is how long it would take for you to spend the same resources maintaining the component that you spent constructing it.[/b]
The point behind maintaining reserves is to decrease downtime. Why would you bother maitaining reserves (which cost you money and manpower) if it didn't help you in any way?
A real world example is changing the engine on an F-16. If we have damage, it takes us a maximum of 6 hours to change the engine. An engine shop then repairs our damaged engine (taking weeks if necessary) and holding that repaired engine as a spare.