Greetings, I have been changing Treasury since the first Shogun Total war (much Koku), and then on 2002 when i registered here at the ORG I learned to mod these games and always moded Income and Treasury.
And I do not consider Modding Economics and Money as a Cheat any more so than any other Mod that chnages stats/parameters of the vanilla game.
It is a playing style for me, some of us just do not like spending endless "turns" trying to have enough funds in order to be able to advance our civs and have fun with the battles. Some people like the economical Play, I prefer the Military Play. My Fun comes form battles, frequent battles, Large Battles in the series within a campaign.
In order to do so in a reasonable to me time, one needs more Cash Flow than what is possible in the game by default. In some games it unbalances the play (Such was the case with the first Rome TW), as you could bribe yourself all of the map. It requires some responsibility to maintain the focus on what gives one fun.
Plus, lets not forget tha the AI cheats anyways. While I am not AI expert on the game, from playing I have noticed that the AI simply cheats. When you raise difficulty the AI does not become more intelligent it just has more resources, even unlimited money at its disposal, and that is how it fields armies upon armies to invade you and give you the impression that the game is harder, because you have to deal with the meager finaces the difficulty setting sets for you. At least from playing observation.
Well I like a different kind of difficulty and excitment which comes from battles. So these are my reasons why I have been modding Income and money in all of the TW games.
Having said this,
I would like to share an approach that I develloped over time, and found to be better than just adding 5 000 000 starting cash (enough for a whole Large campaign usually)
I started doing this with Empire Total War. And it takes a bit more time and effort to mod but I found it was very worth it.
Using the Moding tools what I do now is Modify the Upkeep of the units.
I reduce that to 10% of the original value, so if a unit upkeep was 900 it becomes 90. You may play with the percentage that you desire, 50% makes already for a better experience and flow and pace of the game that does not have you pressing "Turn Button" without doing anything in the turn just to accumulate cash to build 1 structure or recruit 2 units.
You can also do this selectivelly only to the faction you play (and since the AI cheat anyways), depends on you, and make sure to make backups of your pack files etc, should you want to play another faction.
In combination tothat I set the game to hardest difficulty setting VH/VH etc...
Having a low Upkeep cost permits all the normal economic mechanisms to work as intended in the game, retains importance of Trade agreements and Routes etc, and permits you to field many large armies and have a healthy Income every turn to pursue Structure buildings and have something to manage/build every turn (combine that with 2/4 turns per year too, makes for a great campaign).
Just wanted to share this approach should someone be interested like me in that kind of play experience, without having to feel handicaped on the economic area of the game, while having a very intense Tactical/Strategical Military Campaign experience
Cheers!
PS: I am currently playing Vanila Rome II, I am still evaluating the economics and pace of the game, these seem to be a bit better than previous games of the series, Trade agreements play a bigger role it seems adding much needed cash, one has to explore however establish contact with as many Factions as you can. Also pay attention to their ressources. Conquering cities which have some ressource and having more resources/commodities under your control will make you a more desirable Trade partner and this will boost your Income. I'll do at least one vanilla Campaign and then have a good idea of what needs to be moded if necessry.
Tool - EditSF 1.0.7
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