Money money money

[BigC5]

Whats the best may to make money when starting out? ~:pimp: I always seem to go into the red after two or three turns. Am I trying to build too much too quickly?

[danimal]

If your talking about MTW, I found the best way was to expand your borders and usually by taking rebel provinces, these yield loads of cash. Always chase down routers after the main battle has finished as these guys add to ransoms, especially the quality troops and nobles. If you haven't got the guts, men , or resources to start invading then make sure your invaded and win, you can again make sure you take as many quality troops captive as possible to earn some lovely cash.

[YAKOBU]

Hi BigC5 ~:wave:

I generally play as English but the following helps me get through first few years with no cash flow problems:

- Make generals with 4+ acumen governers of my high revenue provinces.
- Allocate acumen giving titles to governers of high revenue provinces.
- Increase taxes where possible in high revenue provinces.
- Upgrade for income in high revenue provinces (20% farms, mines).
- An early rush will secure further high revenue provinces as well as booty and possible ransoms.
- I do not build in all provinces until I have a healthy bank balance.
- I also only build sufficient troops to secure my kingdom. More troops have an additional cost and support cost impact. I may use mercenaries short-term to support my armies on the conquest.

I hope this helps but feel free to ask anything specific ~;)

[Leodegar]

another good thing is to establish trade as fast as possible. it's the best way to make money, if you have provinces with many trade goods and access to the sea.

[Sociopsychoactive]

This was originally written to answer that exact same question, but specifically for the english. The only real difference that makes is that factions with richer farmland at the start (french, german, whoever holds the holy lands) should ALWAYS spend their initial money on upgrading that farmland.


Ok, first things first.

The english are a fun faction, but their lands are not especially rich in farmland or resources early on, so what you NEED to spend most of your 10,000 on at the start is building farms up to 20% at least everywhere you can, and 40% and higher anywhere they make a good amount of money. Any mines you can build should be built immediately and up to complexes as soon as you can after this as this is a guarenteed income that will not change at all.

Also, taxes, if you are new I suggest you use the auto tax feature (open the control panel next to the mini map in the campaign screen and check the auto tax box) because this will enable you to get as much money out of your lands without spending hours checking every province, do remember to press and hold shift once a year and look over all provinces, any that are yellow or red need more troops to prevent rebellions, but auto tax will adjust tax rates to prevent this happening as best it can.

Next, trade. Trade is a great, but VERY unreliable source of income. To effectively trade the province you want to trade FROM needs some tradable goods (seen at the top of the province info scroll found by fight clicking on the province). Then you need a trading post, which itself frequires a fort. THen, you will be earning a very small amount of money from local trade. You next need a port in every province you want to trade form (aswell as the trading post this is) and ships.

All of this is expensive, ships cost quite a bit to build, and money every turn for upkeep (more money the further away from one of your ports they are). When you have a good number of ships you need to strech them out so that you have one (or more) in most, if not all sea zones, and the line of ships must not have any gaps, no empty zones, between the last ship and your provinces you want to trade from.

You will then automatically trade with any nuetral or allied factions province that has a port, and does not already have the goods you are trading. This brings in big money every year, but the moment your ship line is broken, a war breaks out with a large faction, or a storm sinks a crucial ship, the entire trade income may vanish for a good long while.

The other way of making money is slightly simpler. WAR!

War makes money, it always has. When you conquer a province some buildings will be destroyed, and you get half their value back. When you capture enemy soldiers the enemy can pay you money to ransom them back, kings or very good generals and princes earn loads of money, sometimes more than 10,000 for just the king.

So, with your first 10,000 set up mines and farms to ensure you have an income, you are not loosing money. Then develop your farms some more in the better provinces to ensure you are making enough money that you can spend it. Then either start training an army and go to war, or start building a navy and trade. Armies and navy's both cost money every yer in upkeep, so make sure you have a solid econamy before going to war, or you have enough troops to conquer a few good provinces to earn you enough money to build farms.

As the english, there are rich lands not far away, most of france and the edges of the germans are all rich lands. If you build a good enough army early on and wipe the french out (do it quickly to avoid them becoming a thorn in your side, but be aware the pope might excommnicate you for warring on a smaller faction) then you have rich farmland waiting to be built on, and money to build on it from conquering.

[Si GeeNa]

C5, Start the game with a faction like Almohad or Egypt to learn the Economic aspects of the game.

Almohad has access to Gold mines in their N.African lands. At least build them to the first level of Mines. Within 10 turns, you'll have broken even and start turning the profits.

Watch your cash flow often. If you find that you only have 500 florins incoming the next turn, try to "upp" it. A crucial aspect of the game that is rarely exploited by new players is the awarding of governorships to generals of Acumen 4 and more. If you have to delay the appointment of governorships by 10 turns, do so. Peasant rarely yield good generals. Build up the infrastructure for Urban Militia. These usually give you good stock for Governors.

In any case, read up on Froggy's guide. It should prove invaluable help in learing the game fast...

~:cool:

[Procrustes]

...

A crucial aspect of the game that is rarely exploited by new players is the awarding of governorships to generals of Acumen 4 and more. If you have to delay the appointment of governorships by 10 turns, do so. Peasant rarely yield good generals. Build up the infrastructure for Urban Militia. These usually give you good stock for Governors.

...



When you first conquer a province, it helps to get them loyal so you can up the taxes quickly. Two ways to do that - leave a great big stack of soldiers there, or assign a governor with high dread. I look for units with both high dread and high accumen - if I can't find one with both, I assign a high dread gov first. Once provincial loyalty is set, then I use an emisarry to strip him of his title and give it to another unit with high accumen. I usually start popping cheap units out of a province as soon as I take it - you often get some suprisingly good ones, and they will be right there handy when you need to switch titles. Use princesses to improve the loyalty of any new govs - generally the title gives a boost to loyalty, but if it still isn't high enough then marry him into your family as well.

[Edit:] Also, I've noticed you get an immediate boost to provincial loyalty by assigning a governor, no matter what his stats. (It can be pretty small if he's a crappy gov, though.)

HTH,

[Maeda Toshiie]

When you first conquer a province, it helps to get them loyal so you can up the taxes quickly. Two ways to do that - leave a great big stack of soldiers there, or assign a governor with high dread. I look for units with both high dread and high accumen - if I can't find one with both, I assign a high dread gov first. Once provincial loyalty is set, then I use an emisarry to strip him of his title and give it to another unit with high accumen. I usually start popping cheap units out of a province as soon as I take it - you often get some suprisingly good ones, and they will be right there handy when you need to switch titles. Use princesses to improve the loyalty of any new govs - generally the title gives a boost to loyalty, but if it still isn't high enough then marry him into your family as well.

[Edit:] Also, I've noticed you get an immediate boost to provincial loyalty by assigning a governor, no matter what his stats. (It can be pretty small if he's a crappy gov, though.)

HTH,


Minimum of a province:
Border forts
Fort
Town guard
200 peasants (100 for homelands)
1 bishop/imam/priest

This should be sufficient. With a 4 feather guy (+40%, excluding mines, to income of province).

[Ludens]

When you first conquer a province, it helps to get them loyal so you can up the taxes quickly. Two ways to do that - leave a great big stack of soldiers there, or assign a governor with high dread.
Third way to do that: place a spy in the province. I keep a squad of experienced spies near my armies to protect my generals from assassins and appease new provinces. A three star spy (possible with Cunny Warren upgrade in Viking campaign) can turn a rebelious province into a satisfied one overnight. In the other MTW campaigns you can get two stars spies with the bawdy house (requires VI), but it still works very well.

But watch out with sending your spies into a enemy province at the same time as your army: the border forts will catch him just before your men take them over.