Lousy economy

[AJ]

To give you a little background, I was a TW player, but I wasn't exactly great at it. I now have MTW, and I'm not that great at it either.

Specifically, I always seem to be broke. Sometimes I make money by ransoming an enemy king/heirs, but that's about it. I can never make money on my own.I invest in economic upgrades, but that doesn't help me very much. So what's my problem? Do I need to have smaller armies? Then I have problems taking over territory. Maybe I need to get better militarily so I can get more land with less troops. Any thoughts?

[Chromebender]

Take over some good farmland early on (the longer you hold it the fewer rebellions, generally).

Upgrade this land as much as you can afford.

Find several generals with high acumen (one of mine has 9 acumen, that's 90% bonus to income for one province), and appoint them governors of your most valuable lands. It helps if you can make one of them Lord Chamberlain for a nice acumen bonus. I suspect if you maintain a large garrison and increase the tax rate, you can probably make at least 1500 florins per turn off some of the better provinces.

And disband your mercenary troops when they are no longer needed, they can be a major drain on the economy. However it often helps to pillage through several provinces first. Even if you can't hold them, you can make several thousand Florins per province easily.

[insolent1]

TRADE
In my campaign at the moment I have 710,000 in my warchest its 1239. I'm makin 35,000 a year with 20,000 profit. I have 12 full stack armies with a stack or 2 in reserve. Just do a search in the forum for trade or go to the great table of contents and you will get all the info u need there.

[Chromebender]

And one more thing - when you get the chance to fight a monarch, control the battle yourself and try to capture him. If you kill him then oh well, you really hurt his realm's stability. If not, you can ransom him for _mucho_ florins.

[Pachinko]

Thats good insolent1. What country? For me... The Italian it is pretty hard to get the florins. The English its easy. Same for the French.

P.

[Alrowan]

started a new itallian campagin on hard yesterday, and already i control the mediteranian seas and some of the other ocean areas. the trick with money is in trade. Try to get at least a merchants guild in all your ports, this should make income a lot higher, as for those astronmical figures, just dont get involved in countless wars, they slow trade to a standstill... in one war as English last game, my treasury dropped from 150k floriens to nothing within a few years. Be careful to make an invasion of a seapower quick, trade is vital

[insolent1]

Pachinko,
i'm playin as the french starting in early period on GA mode. I'm now makin 40k ayear with 27,000 profit & I had to get some more warchests & some more guards for them as its gone up 1,100,000 & its going up every year by 30k...lol i'm building fortress's everywhere & the AI is too scared to go near me & its only 1250 http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[Paladin]

Cool. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

I was at -157,000 in 1336 when I took over 60% for a victory. I didn't have a positive balance for almost 30 years and yet I still won. That was not a fun game since I couldn't build anything.