Money

[Drake]

I am finding it very difficult to generate sufficient funds to mobilise armies and build anything. I'm now at the stage where I am charging from settlement to settlement sacking each one for the maximum quick buck possible. Anyone have any stable ways to make cash?

[econ21]

Money was tight for me in the early days of the Julii campaign, now it is much better. Charging round taking enemy cities does not seem a bad way of making money - not only do you get the loot, the city will also provide you with future income. I think conquest was the key to turning my economy around. However, I enslaved rather than exterminated.

Dorkus has posted some stuff about economic upgrades, saying they are often not that lucrative. I prioritised them anyway (for small towns, population growth is so slow you can easily make most upgrades it seems). Port and port upgrades may be very lucrative though - I sent a diplomat on a ship to do a world tour, signing trading rights with all and sundry, this might have helped (no one would trade maps though).

I micromanage taxes to get them all "very high" (ie lots of town watch to maintain order etc.).

Profit is income minus expenses, so being parsimonious with your armies may help. I try to use only one for each area of conquest, with smaller defensive ones for every 3-4 cities to hunt down bandits etc.

[Morindin]

Simon I have to disagree with the very high tax rate.

I have done the OPPOSITE. A lot of my provinces where on high tax rates and I found it much cheaper to lower the taxes and disband the unneeded militia.

This is town depending of course, if the tax difference between say normal and very high is over 1000 then of course it might be different.

But remember each militia unit costs something like 100 per turn.
Changing an average sized cities (10,000) tax rate from normal to high only gives to an increase of 100-200, whereas disbanding those 3-4 extra militia needed just for the extra tax saves you 400!

I only raise more troops as a last resort - as a rule I try to keep everything on normal tax or higher (depending of course), but if the city needs to go on low taxes and there is nothing else to build (temples, government building, sewer, public path, whatever, depending on the problems) then I will resort to more militia.

Anyway, one of the biggest costs that was making me go broke was the AI building troops for me. It would fill my cities up with expensive Auxulia skirmishers, so I went around and turned off the AI recruitment in all my managed cities.
Now I have about 40 family members so I dont even need AI goveners. :)