money..help!!

[hitman00]

hey guys...

this is my 1st post one here

the problem I have when playing most nations is after awhile..my money is deep into the red...

am I attacking to fast?

and therefore have to many cities?

any advice will help..
thanks

[YAKOBU]

Hi Hitman00

Welcome to the org ~:wave:

I have only played a few factions in RTW but have not found having too many cities to be a problem. I try to just use my initial starting troops to begin with while building up my income builds such as roads, ports and markets whilst ensuring my diplomats are striving to get trade agreements with all factions. I do not even use the sale of maps as find this was giving me too much income in earlier patches. I try to keep a key few towns for building units whilst the rest are built for income generation. I also try not to keep excessive troops in the field and garrisons to a minimum. With these few tips I have succesfully completed a few campaigns on single player and play by e-mail campaigns.

I hope this helps you on your way.

:charge:

[IliaDN]

Also try to garrison your towns with cheapest units ( peasants will do ) , because quality of units does not matter.
:bow:

[professorspatula]

Early on, I tend to prioritise the construction of the most profitable buildings for each settlement. Ports are first priority, then possibly paved roads and traders. Also, don't feel you have to build every type of barracks and stables in every settlement. Have one settlement focus on cavalry, another on infantry, and one on missiles. That way you save yourself several thousands of denarii to waste on throwing expensive parties, or rather on your armies. Finally, for your most secure settlements (ones where the enemy can't get to without going through others first), don't waste money on garrisoning expensive troops. Peasants and militia will do. Once you have a secure financial base, move on to the next city and take it by force. The extra income will be welcome. Don't worry if you see negative incomes on the strategy map for your cities, they're all still adding income.

Also...

At the very beginning of the campaign, you can sometimes get a 1000 denarii or so from your neighbouring factions by asking for money in return for a trade treaty. After the first turn or two, that no longer works though and they have the cheek to ask you for money instead. Another way to get money from the AI (aside from the selling of maps), is to ask for money whenever they ask something of you. For example, if they force you into becoming their protectorate - always ask for money before agreeing. You should be able to wrestle 5,000 or more out of them, but aim higher and really drain their coffers.

[hitman00]

thanks guys...really try these tips out...cause it looks like a great game


one other question...in single i see you can only play as the 3 roman armies....how do you unlock or get to play with the other countries??

thanks again ~:cheers:

[Copperhaired Berserker!]

Well you can unlock ALL playable factions by completing the game with Romans doing any difficulty or length of campaign I'd advise to play easy and short campaign. Now when I said "playable factions" I meant the only ones you could unlock. Aparrently RTW wasn't completely finished so not all factions were able to be played. Don't worry because you can get loads of mods for RTW which can unlock all factions.

[hitman00]

what faction will be availible when u unlock it??

o yeah how do I keep my cities happy?should i build every posible building?

how can you get more faction leaders?cause there are many cities with out any leaders in them?

thanks ~:)

[Dutch_guy]

for keeping your people happy, build temples which grant bonusses to happiness or to law etc.
Like as the Julii build a temple for bachus ( something like that ) or build arena's

as for the leaders you - If you have to few leaders - adopt every ca;tain you can, and let captains lead your army for the man of the hour ( captain get's promoted into family member )

And there is a mod out there which let's you play ever y facvtion there is in RTW , don't have the link though.

:balloon2:

[amazon77]

Well, 1st of all wellcome to the forums ~:grouphug:

Now, on to your questions:

What has been said by other members be4 is correct.

I'd like to emphasize on the matter of the negative money town/city. You may see a city with negative money tag, but this doesn't mean it losses money. Thay always get money for you. The reason behind the minus gold is this:

You have to pay money to your troops (including officers and boats). It's the upkeep cost of your faction/nation's armies. These are paid by your cities (which is were you get gold from) BUT cities pay according to their population! So let's say you have to pay 10,000 gold/turn to your armies and you have 2 cities. City1 has an income of 8,000 gold and 18,000 population, while city2 has income 3,000 gold and 2,000 population. Thus the total ppl of youe nation is 20,000 people. Now, 18,000 / 20,000 = 0.9, which means city1 must pay 90% of the total cost of your armies, or: 0.9*10,000 = 9,000 gold. So since the city "only" makes 8,000 it will show the income as "-1000". Your second city, will pay 0.1*10,000 = 1000 gold and so, it'll say: "2000" as the money you get from that one.

If you calc. it as: (8,000+3,000) - 10,000 it gives a +1,000 money in the bank.
If you calc. it as: -1000 + 2000 = +1000 also.

So that means a town that gives more money, may show a giving less or even negative! Usually, large towns (city/huge city) will have a negative amount attached, while a "village" of 500 ppl will say 1,000 gold.

Thus, getting many towns early always helps! ~;) Not vice versa.

Onto what you can do to cut losses.

As others have pointed out, use the min amount of troops to guard. That means peasents in every case. When guarding, the quality of troops doesn't matter, only the number of men. So peasents are the best, since they have the lowest upkeep/man.

Make sure you don't have taxes on Very High, as often you need a lot of troops to counter the negative effect of that penalty (city must have yellow face ~:) ). That means that while 1 peasent unit is enough with taxes on low, you may need 5 for taxes on V. High. But it may be that V High taxes only give an extra 300 gold, while the 5-1=4 extra peasent units need an upkeep of 4*100 = 400 gold! Let alone the cost to train these peasents. Also keep in mind raising taxes results in less pop. groth and thus it takes more time for the town to reach next lvl, where you can built more profitable buildings. Later, as the ppl of the conquered town become less hostile towards you, you can raise taxes.

Another very important thing is your armies. These are that drain your bank dry. Opt to have as little troops as possible, without hindering your campaign plans and without endangering your faction. Always do sth with your troops (conquer new towns) and don't wait to get a full 20 unit army. Just 6-8 are enough. Of course give priority to money making buildings such as ports roads lvl2, markets, etc. Just 2 cities producing troops are enough in the early stages, 1 for melee inf and 1 for cav/missiles. If you find you took some losses in a battle, don't send your unit/army back to retrain, instead hire some merc if good one's are available and continue. It costs much less than traveling a unit for say 2 turns+2turns to come back = 4 with all the army waiting results in a heavy loss of money.

As far as getting more generals, is having a non-general army fight a battle (in most cases it needs to be close to 1 of your cities) vs an enemy (usually rebels) when the odds are clearly in favor of the enemy. Like 1 hastatii+1equitte taking on 4 warbands. It won't always work, but it's a good way to get a general. Personally i use generals only as governors in really big and important cities. Of course, as you go deeper into the game, the girls in your families will start to get married and the husbands will become your generals, while also having male children equals generals when they become 16. After 20 years you'll have all you need of them :charge:

As far as the unlockable factions go, here it is:

At the start of the game, you get to play the "Son of Mars" campaign. Either short or long, whatever difficulty you choose. I played short Julii normal. Then, some of the factions (other than the 3 roman) become available, such as carthage, greek cities etc. But there are a lot of others, like Spain, Macedon, which won't. However, you can do that simply by editing a .txt file, which is very very easy. Here it is how:

Go into folder: \Rome-Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial-campaign.txt

[mystic brew]

bloomin double posts

[mystic brew]

you really don't need to install a mod to unlock all the factions.

if i can edit the text file, anyone can
cos i am a computer numpty!

anyway, all you need to do is go to this directory

D:\program files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign

in here one of the files here is descr_strat.txt

make a backup copy of this!

then cut'n'paste away.

As for money, the strategy guides cover a lot of it.

But...
rule 1 - don't let the computer manage any cities at all!
rule 2 - send out diplomats and get trade deals with everyone you can then build ports, traders and roads everywhere you can. build an academy to help with your regional governers

But the key thing is that you need is to task your cities.

Decide which your powerhouse cities are going to be and prioritise them.
1 city for infantry, one for support units, 1 for the fleet, perhaps? depends on where you are and what you want to do, but you get the idea i am sure.

you get the idea, anyway.

[amazon77]

Go into folder: \Rome-Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial-campaign.txt
Open it up.
Cut the faction from the section it currently is (either unlockable or non-playable and copy it in the playable section.

That's it! (info by FrogBeastEgg)

Oh, make sure you get a copy of the original .txt file just in case sth goes wrong and you need to try again. Also i would advise not to put the rebels and the Senete (SPQR) in the playable part, or you may experience strange gameplay issues, at least that's what i've heard from other members.

P.S. Make sure you read the MTW and RTW guides by FrogBeastEgg. They are awesome! I mean i though i was good at MTW, untill i read her guide, only to understand what an ignorant fool i had been. ~D

Of course make sure you DON'T let the computer manage your cities! Else it'll built all kind of buildings and troops all the time and ruin you :furious3:

Anyway, i hope it hellped.

[amazon77]

Sorry, it didn't take all of my post in the first attempt :embarassed:

[Quietus]

Give credit to LittleCheese07 of TWC for the unlocking the faction info. ~:)

[hitman00]

thanks alot you guys....

got to play all the nations..wich is a good one 2 start of with?

so if you put peasants in to protect the cities and a army with good soldiers attack...then u dont really have a chance..?

[IliaDN]

You are using peasants to mantain order in town , not to dfend it.

[hitman00]

now whats gonna happen when you get attacked with a city full of peasants? :charge:

[Viking]

My cities that are fueled up by peseants are at least one province away from my faction border so that I don`t have to worry about attackers. ~:cheers:

[Dark_Magician]

now whats gonna happen when you get attacked with a city full of peasants? :charge:

Who would have armies in all cities? Are them all border towns facing enemies? It would be waste of military power.

I don't know if it was already mentioned, but to prevent terrorist activities in the cities that your armies of democratic Rome liberated from tyranny you could use "enslave population" or "exterminate population" option. Thus, the enemies of free world would be destroyed and you receive considerable sums of money by collecting their belongings to the budget. If you are in really deep trouble you could also destroy most of the buildings in the city for money, though it would make the city not worth keeping. Other than this, normally you earn by trade.

[Barbarian_King]

Economy is a big problem in the beginning of the game imo.
Usually by taking new settlements, you can bring in more income.
Dont listen to that woman Victoria, I think her advice on buildings is crap.
You can manage the tax by urself, for example when a settlement has few or no buildings to build, then u should lower the tax to increase the population growth. If a settlement has just upgraded and there are plenty of new buildings to build, then you can set the tax higher.
Try to have the people with high managment skills stay in the settlement.
You can also make some money by just asking for it from rival factions when they propse a cease fire to you.

~:cheers:

[Enderel]

I'm also having a bit of money problems on my current campaign, I've gone past 50 settlements and a lot of settlements are needing advanced buildings. I'm running out of money to build, but not in red yet. Although my military is suffering a lack of major armies.

I tend to have a fair few units in each settlement to sally out and attack rebels. I'd thought about an all pessies defence force(bit like Dad's army) with a roaming family member to take down rebel's, but I never have enough of them to do it. Maybe a 10 stack cav / inf army wandering between 5-6 cities would do the job. Anyone done this? Does it work?

What sort of ratio should you have for military upkeep in a city compared to settlement money making?

[Dark_Magician]

I'm also having a bit of money problems on my current campaign, I've gone past 50 settlements and a lot of settlements are needing advanced buildings. I'm running out of money to build, but not in red yet. Although my military is suffering a lack of major armies.

I tend to have a fair few units in each settlement to sally out and attack rebels. I'd thought about an all pessies defence force(bit like Dad's army) with a roaming family member to take down rebel's, but I never have enough of them to do it. Maybe a 10 stack cav / inf army wandering between 5-6 cities would do the job. Anyone done this? Does it work?

What sort of ratio should you have for military upkeep in a city compared to settlement money making?

The rebel threat tend to disappear once your provice is sufficiently developed and has a city instead of town.

If mney issue is taken care of the diplomat should be able to buy off those rebels that don't go away at the edges of your territory

[Armoryk]

The campaign game is all about money management. Moving the stacks of soldiers around on the board and smacking other factions is of secondary importance and difficulty.

That said, play from the beginning to maximize income, and later in the game reap the rewards.

Build the roads, markets, mines, and other economic improvements first, you can pay for other buildings and troops from the profits later.

Don't build units in newly territories for the first two or three thousand people! The drain on population will prevent growth and population growth is the engine of a good economy.

Concentrate troopbuilding in your initial, largest cities to reduce the population drain. If you have a choice between attacking a town or attacking a large city, attack the large city. Make sure you have governors in the places where you want new population and enslave the new city. You will still be able to build improvements according to the level of government building, rather than the current population if it gets reduced by the enslavement. And enslavement increased population growth and order in the new city. It's much more efficient than occupation.

Also, keep the tax rate low in new settlements to encourage population growth. Ship excess population via peasant armies from high population/low growth cities to low population/high growth towns, then disband them to pump up the local population by 120 (or whatever your unit size is set at for peasants).

Another good strategy for peasant growth is to start with a fertility temple until you get to minor city, then destroy it and start over with a mercantile temple for the trade bonus (if you get one). The difference in population growth helps in the small cities.

And, whatever else you do, capture and hold Rhodes and it's wondrous colossus! This little baby increases all sea trade.

"Infinite money forms the sinews of war." This quote from Cicero is the most important in the game.

[Enderel]

The rebel threat tend to disappear once your provice is sufficiently developed and has a city instead of town.

If mney issue is taken care of the diplomat should be able to buy off those rebels that don't go away at the edges of your territory

Looking at my campaign game last night I see that your right, the large more "civilised" populace areas (Italy, Greece) seem to have smaller rebel armies that the "wilder" unpopulated just taken over areas (in my campaign most of Germanic Europe is just under my control)

What other factors influence rebel appearence? Population? Govenor management? Is there a wieghting depending on the province area (like cities have unhappiness negatives as default)

I'll try and bribe some of the rebels but money wise still I'm stuck a lot! Think I'll let some of my large cities rebel then raise them down for plunder, although last time I did that I gave Egypt a massive army which wandered off on its own, leaving me to beseige a city with loads of rebel peasants. (double rebellion anyone?)

[Franconicus]

My cities that are fueled up by peseants are at least one province away from my faction border so that I don`t have to worry about attackers. ~:cheers:
Right now I even try to work with no garrisons at all. This works pretty good as long as you're citizens are happy. For example: The British main island has three cities. I have a FM in Londonium together with 1 peasant and 1 warband. My other cities are empty and I do not even have the facilities to build trops. If a rebel army appears I build one or two additional units in Londonium and kill them. Then I send the units I do not need to the front.

Note: Rebels never attack towns, even if they are empty.

[ChaosLord]

Actually, rebels attacking depends on the patch. In my latest game of RTR i've had myself besieged twice by rebels and once an attempted siege. So in 1.2 rebels/brigands do actually attack, though sometimes they just wander around aimlessly despite having a soft target infront of them.