GrayTheDuck

I recently picked up the game, and I've been having a blast, I recently finished my first winter, got my first batch of steel and have a nice little workshop set up, 4 windmills feeding into a big gear, down an axle, and out of another big gear 3 different ways to a helve hammer, quern, and pulverizer. My question is this: I understand that putting power through big gear basically "trades" (super technical I know) speed for torque or vice versa. Going through two large gears the way I'm doing it basically evens out the system minus the resistance inherent in the parts. If I want to up the speed of the system (feed the power through a large gear again before the final big gear - > small gear ->clutch/transmission -> machine), is there be a certain amount of windmills I need so that my lack of torque doesn't stop me? Or at least enough that it doesn't always stop me if there's middling wind?