What's the best way to make money?

[Satyr]

Is quick expansion still the best way to make money?

Are building good roads worth it?

Is trade by sea better?

How are you making money with diplomacy?

Thanks for any tips.

[Doug-Thompson]

Plunder a town, delete all the buildings you can and then leave. Use the money to pay for upgrades to your ports and other money-making buildings.

[andrewt]

Trade, especially by sea. For some reason, I think distance affects how much money you can can. I have Corduba trading with Tingi and that's the largest single province to province trade income I have. Might be coincidence, might be not.

[Dorkus]

Trade, especially by sea. For some reason, I think distance affects how much money you can can. I have Corduba trading with Tingi and that's the largest single province to province trade income I have. Might be coincidence, might be not.

probably coincidence. sparta and athens are right next to each other, and they're trade is the best for me. (by far)

[Dorkus]

btw, trade is the best way (aside from the buggy diplomacy) to make money, but the way you get trade is conquering provinces and buldiing ports, NOT building trade buildings.

You don't even need the first level building to get trade.

[Osbot]

Right now in my seleucid campaign, my population was exploding so i've throttled it. I've deleted baths/sewers and build all the public order buildings I can. I set all small towns that I have no major interest in to AI financial build. And I am letting the AI adjust my tax rates. MOST of my cities have hit critical mass around 15-16k and are cranking 2-4k denarii per turn. I've allowed some cities to expand to 24k, these are all universally losing me bug money but I need them for troop production.

It seems the happy medium is to allow squallor to get high, and counter the effects with temples and what not. So far its working well for me.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Try using your Diplomats to squeeze a few denari from your "allies" by offering to attack their enemy, which you were about to do anyway either by Senate mission or on your own initiative. Check the diplomacy window, and send out spies to determine which factions are having a difficult time. Offer them a cease fire or peace treaty... for a price. I did this as a Senate mission (peace treaty with Numidia) and squeezed 500 denari from a reluctant but desperate faction. They were battling Egypt & Carthage too, and apparently didn't want Rome piling on. hehehe

[Dorkus]

Right now in my seleucid campaign, my population was exploding so i've throttled it. I've deleted baths/sewers and build all the public order buildings I can. I set all small towns that I have no major interest in to AI financial build. And I am letting the AI adjust my tax rates. MOST of my cities have hit critical mass around 15-16k and are cranking 2-4k denarii per turn. I've allowed some cities to expand to 24k, these are all universally losing me bug money but I need them for troop production.

It seems the happy medium is to allow squallor to get high, and counter the effects with temples and what not. So far its working well for me.

doubt the big cities are losing money. They're just taking a disproportionately high chunk of your army upkeep costs. A city can be 40% more productive than your next best city, but if it's 50% larger in pop, then in-game feedback will tell you that it's worse.