Are you a Spender or a Saver?

[Galain_Ironhide]

Just as the Topic asks - Every Turn in a Grand Campaign do you:

Save your money and try to have a treasury? Greedily sitting on your piles of gold while the peasants go hungry?

OR do you:

Spend every florin at every turn, constantly providing settlements with upgrades, refreshing troops, creating diplomats, spies, assasins, etc, etc.

I always nearly manage to spend my cashflow every turn, whether it be at the start of a game or even late into the game when you are making tons of cash. Its never enough for me.

[Privateerkev]

I tend to like getting my generals high chiv in my SP games so I'm a spender. If you save too much, you start getting dread traits.

[Ratwar]

I try to have a balance, which basically means I want a treasury of about 40-50k and on a regular turn, making either less than a thousand or losing less than three (allowing sacking to keep me positive.

[aimlesswanderer]

At the start money is normally tight, and you have to be careful about what you spend. Then there is usually a jump in income when I take a few provinces, then I usually overspend, then have to cut back spending, then money build up, then I overspend....... I don't like keeping more than about 30k, since all my people tend to be massively extravagant, and one always needs more military units, spies or assasins.

[Grombeard]

I usually spend everything but ~5000 florins (just to have something left for any emergencies that may occur at the end of the round). I always try to have building queues running in every city... ;)

[rossahh]

I spend, spend, spend, yet after 30-odd turns your economy should be ticking along so nicely that no matter what you spend, you should have tens of thousands left in the bank.

[Ethelred Unread]

Spend, spend, spend, just like in real life.

[Galain_Ironhide]

Very one sided at the moment, must say i am a little surprised though. I have seen screenshots in the past where players have had 100s of thousands of florins in their treasury (discounting blitzers that is. They aquire too much money to spend within the small time frame that they are trying to dominate).

[Diehard_TH]

I never have cash in the bank, if you have it's wasted. Build queues are always full unless i have no cash. When i get a ransom or aquire assets i spend it on the best 'income' builds.

Savings? Why would you want to, it's not like you get interest or anything!

[Rhyfelwyr]

I spend all I've got and I still can't help getting stinking rich.

Although money has proved tighter than usual as Spain, mainly because I have to keep a full army with a General parked in Antioch so I can't expand any further into the Holy Land.

[trickydicky]

I like everyone else it seems am a spender.

I do make sure I don't overstretch myslef though. I keep my field armies as small as I can. And always build roads, ports, markets etc in every province. Money does not become an issue after you have a nucleus of 5-8 cities, that are geared the right way.

[Privateerkev]

I try to keep it under 60k so I don't lose chiv points. I even go so far as to gift the excess to an ally (usually the Pope) every turn. Ironically this causes the Pope to have tons of dread points... :laugh4:

[Ramses II CP]

Like everyone, I spend every florin I can every single turn. Why worry about the future when you can always sack a nearby town? :laugh4:

:egypt:

[Martok]

I generally try to keep a modest cash reserve for emergencies while still investing money back into my military and/or infrastructure.

[Quickening]

I tend to leave about 2000 florins in my coffers each turn unless I really need it to hastily train an army. Reason being that I like to be able to upgrade my settlements as soon as they're ready to prevent any unhappiness amongst the population. You also never know when some swine might attack you with no warning and in an unexpected location thus meaning you need some defense pronto (Im looking at you Ireland).

[ReiseReise]

Spending is the only way to go. Like Martok said, money in the bank is not an investment, it is resources sitting idle. Every correctly chosen building or troop you buy will bring you more florins later on. Eventually you (hopefully) get to the point where it is not possible to spend every florin and you start to accumulate large treasuries, but that is different from choosing to save.

I could ramble on but I am busy learning Python (not Monty:laugh4:) and there are only so many hours in the day :beam:

[Duke Bart]

I used to be really spendy spendy all the time. Except then a series of disasters struck and i couldnt keep up financially, even with 2k in reserve. Ive changed my reserve to an 8000 florin reserve and when disaster struck again it really helped.

By disaster i mean a sudden war (playing as byz nd you are at war with the turks for example and then both hungary and venice decide they have had enough of you.)

Having a small reserve will work in the first turn of your emergency, but the issue is that if you cannot keep up with new troop costs then you have to make some tough choices really fast "should i just get rid of my navy, or perhaps some soldiers"

Wheras a large reserve will allow you to maintain your troops either long enough to resolve the conflic through a peace treaty, fight back hard enough to perhaps even take a city or two and restabilize your economy through added income, or modify your current economy to meet the cost of your war.

[CynicalP]

I like to maintain a positive balance after each turn. Although I never hoard the florins.

[Askthepizzaguy]

I think we all knew where I stood on the issue.

What advantage does an aggressive player have to have money sitting in some vault?

Money means troop recruitment. New recruits means more standing armies. More standing armies means more rebels under seige, which means more sacking florins, which means more troops, which means I go to war with the richest and most bloated empires around me, sacking their cities, nabbing more florins to recruit replacements, build new barracks...

by the time the Mongols roll around I've taken the entire map, and am filthy stinking rich, and I have a horde so massive it makes the Mongols run and hide in fear.

This is AFTER disbanding two thirds of my army to make it leaner. Some of those stacks are only generals and their bodyguards, and thats why they are 'small'.


https://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh137/askthepizzaguy2/0311.jpg

[Galain_Ironhide]

I think we all knew where I stood on the issue.

What advantage does an aggressive player have to have money sitting in some vault?

Money means troop recruitment. New recruits means more standing armies. More standing armies means more rebels under seige, which means more sacking florins, which means more troops, which means I go to war with the richest and most bloated empires around me, sacking their cities, nabbing more florins to recruit replacements, build new barracks...

by the time the Mongols roll around I've taken the entire map, and am filthy stinking rich, and I have a horde so massive it makes the Mongols run and hide in fear.

This is AFTER disbanding two thirds of my army to make it leaner. Some of those stacks are only generals and their bodyguards, and thats why they are 'small'.


https://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh137/askthepizzaguy2/0311.jpg

Did you end up fighting those Mongol dogs?

Would be interesting to see a full stack of Generals fighting if you had screen pics.

[Askthepizzaguy]

oh yes, I ended up wiping out the Mongol horde. Lost only about 1 full stack of troops in the process. My England AAR thread should show you exactly what happened to the Mongrels.

Just skip to the last few pages if you aren't interested in seeing how I got to that point.

England's mad, mad, mad conquest (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=87236)

:focus:

Actually, all-general stacks aren't particularly effective. You're better off with knights than can be replaced and are more numerous. Also, when generals die, their bodyguards scatter. So losing a few generals in a battle is completely stupid.

[Galain_Ironhide]

Actually, all-general stacks aren't particularly effective. You're better off with knights than can be replaced and are more numerous. Also, when generals die, their bodyguards scatter. So losing a few generals in a battle is completely stupid.

Very True.

Sorry to the OP for the thread hijack...... Oh wait, thats me!:clown:

Seriously :focus:

:2thumbsup: