building composition and numbers

Well I've been going at this for a number of day's and there are too many input variables, this building needs that one for production chain, but they produce stuff at different times etc. So if we assume high levels and all enabled buildings, how many buildings of each type is needed for efficient gameplay.
I would hate to have like 10 pinewood cutters, upgrade them to high levels and then to find out I just need 2 of them and all the rest will have to be demolished. And so for each type. So how many of each building type is optimal, assuming free building licenses, even 10 extra if I have to buy them.

It depends a lot on what you want to focus on and how upgraded your buildings are. Some like to have a strong brewing, hunting or horse production and use the excess to sell on. Brewing is a solid thing to focus on as it can be converted to gold in the provision house as well as necessary for army building.

I recommend a strong pine wood production as it's a virtually free and unlimited resource that you can turn into hardwood and even overproduce to sell on for other items. The best way to work it IMHO is build one building.. check the details tab and economy view to see what you need to keep it supplied or supplying.

Right now at level 43 i have: 14 Foresters, 12 Cutters, 3 Sawmills, 8 charcoal makers and 1 bowmaker all around level 3 and it overproduces a little to sell on.

I know when i started i had like 6 sawmills to get my production going but as licences got limited i reduced them to 3 upgraded to level 3 (most buildings can be upgraded to 3 pretty easily) and a similar deal with bowmakers. I also have 8 charcoal huts as i prefer to get my coal virtually free compared to the hassle and expense of a half dozen coal mines... you might think otherwise and have fewer huts and more sawmills.

Upgrading is a funny thing most of my friends haven't upgraded much over 3 for any building (except silos, breweries and residences) due to the cost and even though you might need 1 or two more buildings it's worth it to spend resources on the buildings that need it most.

I've seen people complain in the forums that they upgraded all their buildings to level (eg in iron and steel production and products) and then find keeping them supplied with the raw coal and iron almost impossible.. it's all about balance.. just coz a building is level 5 doesn't make it particularly long-term efficient.

Don't be afraid to pause a building production.. horses are handy and slow to produce but 2 stables at level 2 is a lot cheaper to upgrade than 1 at level 4.. harder to keep buffed but you can leave 1 of them producing a lot easier with less stress on wheat production and then popping in to find your brewery has been on stop overnight as it's sucked up all you wheat and water.

Always save gems up for +10 building licences as they are invaluable to the growth of your economy as a whole.

You can also friend and visit some high level players and see how their setups work and get an idea of where they are going and what works for them.

Check out some of the wiki's for production chain information: http://thesettlersonline.wikia.com/wiki/Production | http://www.siedlertools.de/wiki/Produktionsketten

The buildings you need changes every level. And depending on your game play style, and how much time you have each day to game, will affect what buildings you need.

You could focus on certain chains to sell excess resources, and buy in others you don't produce.
OR, you may wish to be self sufficient, to do less trading, in which case you need a fully balanced spread of building types.

You may love adventuring, to earn exp/resources, so you will need to have a high production chain of Bread, brew and bronze swords.
OR, you may simply love taking care of your island and do 1-2 adventures now and then, so you won't need a huge production of weapons/brew, and instead focus on other things like gold and trade-goods.

You may have real $$ to invest, which allows you to buy more licenses, vet general, and a constant flow of parrots for gold mines; in which case you may wish to build a large gold chain, and/or build an automated island with watermills/Silo's.
OR, you may not want to spend anything, and tick along happily replacing wheat/Marble/Water/etc refills daily, chatting away to people, selling the odd resource for gold to upgrade.

I don't know. Decide what you want to do, figure out what resource you need to do it, how many buildings you need to get those resources, and the rest of the back-chain and build it.

If there was an easy Guide to exactly what you need, it'd have been done by now, but rarely are two people the same.

There are limitations on what you will need, or what you can use.
EG. If you have time to use the maximum amount of troops you can produce every day, you are restricted only by your barracks.
- Depending on your barracks level, you can only make x Recruits per day, and X recruits require Y Bronze swords, and Z brew. So you build the number of buildings you need to produce Y and Z.
- Recruits also require settlers, and your mayors house doesn't recruit settlers fast enough, so you'll need to make settlers in your provision house, in addition to producing Baskets/Sandwiches for buffing, and Meat/Fish refills. The Meat you need to make Sausages, which together with Fish and Bread, you make Baskets for buffing.
- Depending on your Provision House level, you can only produce A Baskets, B Sandwiches, C&D Fish&Meat refills, plus E Settlers for making Recruits. So you'll need to work out How much of each thing you need, how much your Prov house can produce, which of these things is a priority. Then from those numbers, build the building chains you need to produce them.

I can go on and on, but you get the idea I hope. Just start from the top, and calculate what you need to produce what you want. If you arn't sure, start with 1-2 of the top of the chain, and work backwards. After a few Days/week gaming, see what you don't have enough of, and build another chain of buildings for it (Pinewood Planks, Bread, and Bronze swords are usually in high demand)

Oh yes, two other tips:
1: Use up all your licenses, then
2. Upgrade everything that doesn't need gold to level 3 asap.