Trade & Rhodes

I'm playing through my first RTW game right now, as the Brutii. I've got 11 regions under my control so far, not a very large empire but it's not too weak, I think. I've got some trade going and I was making a decent profit per turn, I had around 250,000 denarii in the bank (very useful-it seems even easier in RTW than MTW to set up a large trade!)

I take Rhodes from the Greeks, and capture the Wonder-a Collossus. (sp?) I was like: "Hmm. Interesting." And then I read the description.

40% increase in sea trade? ~:eek:

My last turn's profits were 35,000 denarii.

Somehow, I don't think I'm going to run out of money for a very, very long time... ~D

And I only have 11 regions! I wonder just how much profit I'll be making 30 regions later. Anyone else find it nice and easy to get the money flowing?

Anyhow, the main point of the thread was to point out that if you can take that Wonder, it's very, very helpful.

It gets better.
I'm at around 210BC in my Brutii Campaign.
I've taken all of Greece, Macedonia, Asia Minor and I'm now holding position at Jerusalem while I take Rome and knock out the other Roman factions.
Here's the fun part .... I have 1.2 million D in the bank.

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Originally Posted by Spuddicus

It gets better.
I'm at around 210BC in my Brutii Campaign.
I've taken all of Greece, Macedonia, Asia Minor and I'm now holding position at Jerusalem while I take Rome and knock out the other Roman factions.
Here's the fun part .... I have 1.2 million D in the bank.

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Now it is time for you to make someone a protectorate... :pirate:

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Originally Posted by Red Harvest

Now it is time for you to make someone a protectorate... :pirate:

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so do you or do you not automatically pay their debt (if they had any) when they become your protectorate ? I know this was a debated issue, but I don't know if a conclusion was reached. And is there any real benefit in having a Protectorate besides having Military Access to their lands ?

There is the separate issue of the corruption traits you acquire if you have too much money (>50,000) in your treasury.

How do you guys get so much money in the bank?

I may have a huge income but i have such a large army that the upkeep stops me from getting serious profits. My largest treasury has been 98k!

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Originally Posted by sapi

How do you guys get so much money in the bank?

I may have a huge income but i have such a large army that the upkeep stops me from getting serious profits. My largest treasury has been 98k!

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I say the same. I guess we just spend to much, huh...... ~;)

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Originally Posted by bmolsson

I say the same. I guess we just spend to much, huh...... ~;)

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I think it depends on:

where.. the Brutii naturally access some of the largest cash engine provinces on the map (vs. the Julii for instance, where Gaul and Spain basically suck).

Get the right govs in the right provinces, things get better.

Spend carefully. I always check my cash and expected net profit right at the beginning of the turn, to see how much cash I have to play with. And I always try to keep 5K positive cash flow at all times so as to have flexibility and $$ to invest in growth (i.e. buildings).

That said Spuddicus, I'd like to hear how you manage your provinces so as to get 1.2 Million D in like 120 turns. (I've not played Brutii yet.. I've won the Julii long campaign and am now playing past the 'win' point to see if I can trounce the world.. and currently have a Greek campaign going.. played some Egypt when I first got RTW.. but I was still figuring some things out then..):)

Are you prebuilding cheap garrison troops behind your main line of offense so that your main armies can keep moving? I've done that some, but I don't manage it closely enough to keep my armies moving more than 50% of the time.. In my Julii win my win point was 160 BC.. and my armies probably kept moving 40% of the time (other times waiting for garrison troops to catch up/build before moving on)

Play the Bruti, Duck, and you will understand. I had 1 million in the bank by 230 BC as the Bruti. There's a screenshot somewhere in this forum someone else posted of the Aegean, and the amount of money he was making. I've got one of my own at home I can post if you're interested. Even big cities there make tons of money. If you own Rhodes, you will have a sea trade route with Halicarnassus in all probability. That one trade route alone generates well over 1000 per turn. Athens will turn a profit of 5-6000 every turn, even with a high population. It will go down if it's your biggest city, but it makes FAR more money than Patavium could ever think of doing. Add the fact that the Bruti have the Mercury temple (increases trade goods) to the fact that the Aegean sea trade is the biggest cash cow in the game and you will be able to make money faster than you can spend it. If you want to spend down, you nearly always have to dump cash on another faction by a diplomat once you get going.

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Originally Posted by Quillan

Play the Bruti, Duck, and you will understand. I had 1 million in the bank by 230 BC as the Bruti. There's a screenshot somewhere in this forum someone else posted of the Aegean, and the amount of money he was making. I've got one of my own at home I can post if you're interested. Even big cities there make tons of money. If you own Rhodes, you will have a sea trade route with Halicarnassus in all probability. That one trade route alone generates well over 1000 per turn. Athens will turn a profit of 5-6000 every turn, even with a high population. It will go down if it's your biggest city, but it makes FAR more money than Patavium could ever think of doing. Add the fact that the Bruti have the Mercury temple (increases trade goods) to the fact that the Aegean sea trade is the biggest cash cow in the game and you will be able to make money faster than you can spend it. If you want to spend down, you nearly always have to dump cash on another faction by a diplomat once you get going.

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Heh heh.. no wonder the Brutii threw stack after stack at me in my long game as Julii. I was just amazed how much material it could waste and still keep coming.

I'll try the Brutii once I'm finished w/ my Greek campaign (interesting after playing the Julii).

thanks for the info :)

I was off slightly on my dates. Here's the screenshot. It's 231 BC, and I've only got 622k in the treasury. I shouldn't be using the words only and 622 thousand together, but it's ok with the Bruti.
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/...nSeaTrade2.jpg

I tested the effects of the Colossus of Rhodes and it doesn't increase the sea trade in other cities. I listed the trade values on a few cities, captured Rhodes, then checked after a few turns. The Colossus may do it on Rhodes only or it may not do it at all.

Anyway, I finished my Parthian campaign in 197 B.C. I have 3.4 M in the bank. My capital is in Antioch and my biggest money makers are around that area. Jerusalem is making almost 8k a turn, Antioch and Tarsus around 7k, Salamis is making more than 6k and Sidon almost 5k. Petra, Bostra and Thebes are just trading among themselves in the Red Sea and they're actually making more trade income than most of my cities during my Julii game. If you control the Aegean or Eastern Mediterranean, the money just starts pouring in.

I'm making 96k a turn at the end so you might beat the money I have at around 197 B.C. since you have almost 70 turns to make money until that point. I build buildings in all settlements every turn, though so that's where a lot of my money goes.

The amount of money the Aegean trade generates is waaaay too much. I had Athens peak at 9K a turn (normal tax) before I started to build up my forces for the forthcoming civil war.

It meant invading Egypt was a piece of ****. I equipped my diplomats with Acme Evaporators. Upon the approach of a 20 unit Egg army my humble diplomat would open up and launch thousands of silver discs at the enemy who would promptly evaporate.

I conquered the whole Egg empire from Libya to Cilicia and only fought one large engagement (faction heir). Oh and my family is now predominately Egyptian ~;)

lol! egyptian family, hahahah.

i only use my diplomats to send off army's without generals, dont want no stinking (old, few stare'd) generals in my family!

Parthians can get filthy rich too. Although they start piss poor, once you conquer the Seleucid and Egyptian cities, cash flows like a river.

parthians have the Caravan/Spice/Silk trade route line of trade improvements (better bonus than trader/market/forum line). They also have the Execution square/Secret police line of buildings which adds law (i.e less corruption) and they have law in the Zoroaster line of temples.

So although I am raking in 100K per turn now (225 BC), most in trade, I am losing only about 10K in corruption. With the Bruti/Julii I lost up to 1/3 of my income in corruption .

Eastern factions all get the caravan line. Pontus and Armenia has it as well. I'm playing Pontus after Parthia. The market line gives +1/2/3/4/5 to trade while the caravan line gives +2/3/4 so it acts like an additional market line. Parthia has 1 really, really good temple line but that temple is the only temple they can build.

The Collossus works for all settlements, and not only for Rhodes.

Did you test it? I tested it using 4-5 different cities and saw no difference in them after conquering the Colossus.