Economic Strategy... and all the fun that entitles...

While I know there are a lot of you out there who play mostly for the conquest part[bleedin' savages......], which do find myself doing on occasion, one of my favorite particulars of EB is the new economy. I like to micro-manage, so it suits me.

I thoroughly enjoy the economic sitiuation set-up in EB. Each faction has it's own unique problems and advantages, it's own specific little qaundries, all of which can be remedied or taken advantage of in it's own little way.

Mediterranean nations often have little to worry about, with steady acsess to a lively sea-trade and all, and the Eastern nations have acsess to the flourishing Silk Road, whereas the tribal people of western and central Europe have problems maintaining an economy steady on any level accept the local.

This has led me, and doubtless the rest of you, to create your own viable economic strategies. I'm open to others ideas [Sauromate in particular.....:D], and willing to share my own!

I find that as the Getai (and I assume I would use this tactic as the Sweboz too) the best moneymaking tactic is to exact tribute or single payments from neighbors in return for not burning their city.

On a related note, what difference do "increase in tradeable goods" buildings make? Do you get a trade bonus with each successive level of market you build, or just one with the first building? How big is the bonus? Because I've been trying to judge the difference, and to be honest, I don't really see a jump.

Offer to fight the Eleutheroi for a few K. Every single turn. You actually get paid for expanding your little empire this way. :2thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by paullus

On a related note, what difference do "increase in tradeable goods" buildings make? Do you get a trade bonus with each successive level of market you build, or just one with the first building? How big is the bonus? Because I've been trying to judge the difference, and to be honest, I don't really see a jump.

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I've always wondered about this too. Is it maybe not fully balanced yet? Or are the changes just not supposed to big?

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Originally Posted by Tiberius

Offer to fight the Eleutheroi for a few K. Every single turn. You actually get paid for expanding your little empire this way.

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Hmm... seems a little cheap, but I guess you could justify your way out of it, especially since it's EB level difficulty.

Huge changes in resources are taking place now. The economic situation of a number of provinces will probably change a lot in 0.8, which will then need to be tweaked for the final release.

TA to the rescue! I can't wait, for 0.8! Come on everybody!

I played as the Sauromatae once and found that occupying armenia with its rich mines was the most viable strategy. Also ofcourse because the armenians always try to expand north.

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Originally Posted by Mad Guitar Murphy

I played as the Sauromatae once and found that occupying armenia with its rich mines was the most viable strategy. Also ofcourse because the armenians always try to expand north.

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Sounds plausible. I'd spent many a turn trying to figure out how I could sift some money out of those god-forskaen plains.....

I'm against explointing Eleutheroi, as when you play on a harder difficulty, it's almost akin to the 'add_money" command, since the AI doesn't think twice about it and will bankrupt themselves to pay you......

On another note, I figured out a pretty easy way to play as the Sweboz. I usually play long lasting games, in which for the most part I end with borders on three of my country's four sides, living me few independent kingdoms to assimilate. All you really have to do is maintain a one unit garrison in all your cities to keep your wages low. Keep on major army in order to conquer the smaller provinces directly around you, Once you start coming on independent nations with full stack garrisons, perform a little action I call 'gathering the tribes'.

For the next two turns, if it's possible, train the best availiable units in every city in your possesion, and send them to a centralized rally point. From there, proceed to send them down to city under siege to beef-up your attacking forces. Once the city falls, send all those individual units back to their home cities and disband them. This works well in other circumstances as well, such as foreign invasion, raiding, and 'urban pacification' [I hate when cities revolt. I prefer to bring down the iron fist of pain rather than buy them back....].

This leaves you free to focus on domestic growth rather than managing large, expensive, and bored armies.

And thanks for that helpful bit of information mister Archelaou! I could tell some provinces were a little overpowered.....

Well steppe units might get a reduced upkeep cost to help AI, but also to represent the different economies and make it a tad easier for the steppe factions. In a few testruns it has actually helped the Sauromatae, Saka & Pahlava a good deal, yet not making them overpowered. Plus, it seemed to make the Parthians go after Seleukids sooner than never. :laugh4:

that sounds great!

As the Sauromatae, there's this city to the north of your citys thats above the capsin sea. It has 2 mines *1 gold, 1 silver*, iron, copper, and 1 or 2 others I think. It's my biggest money maker for me.

Woops double post, sorry.

For Katraphact:

Have you tried to expand your germanic kingdom to the east?
When i did that i had major problems in controling those regions because i couldnt train any units in them...then the Sauromatae came and wiped 3/4 of my kingdom as my economy was weak although amber gave me some money.

i always expand, exterminating cities, and building economic infrastructure before even thinking of geting military...so first i spend a few years building economic structures, and keep my armies alive, then i bring in the big guns and wipe everyone out...=)

True Scalabitano but....20 turns to build a barracks sort of building sometimes is too long...and alot can happen in the meantime, specially when you're at war with most of the known world and the money evaporates turn by turn :).
I always go for the economic buildings first too, but quite often i have to spend badly needed money in "happyness" structures...and that takes time and money.

that i resolve easily...when cities tend to get crouded and unhappy i get almost all my garrison out, and get the taxes as high as possilbe...soon the city rebels, then i hire a bunch of mercenaries and retake the city...as soon as the city is retaken, i exterminate the city, getting more money, and a low on ppl city, unhappyness apparently tends to dissapear after, don't know why...lol

i know, im ruthless, and possibly even looney, but extreme times demand extreme measures...or so the "wise" "americans" tend to say...

Give the city to another faction if you can and then retake it. Saves you having to kill rebels. Not that population is ever a problem with me. Never play a faction with only 3 levels of development for long enough.

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Originally Posted by iberus_generalis

that i resolve easily...when cities tend to get crouded and unhappy i get almost all my garrison out, and get the taxes as high as possilbe...soon the city rebels, then i hire a bunch of mercenaries and retake the city...as soon as the city is retaken, i exterminate the city, getting more money, and a low on ppl city, unhappyness apparently tends to dissapear after, don't know why...lol

i know, im ruthless, and possibly even looney, but extreme times demand extreme measures...or so the "wise" "americans" tend to say...

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I understand that. I despise rebellious cities...

I've done that on occasion. When a city rebels of it's own accord, I enslave about half the population. If they rebel again, I burn the city to the ground.


*And please. I'm an American expatriate myself, so let's keep the political junk to a bare minimum. Thanks.

I put every settlement on the highest tax setting andspend all the money I get on MICs, governments, and units. I recapture all cities that rebel due to the high taxes and I enslave the populace. This strategy works with all factions I have played, although with smaller factions it is necessary to blitz neigboring eleutheroi settlements to increase your tax base.

I am curious about how people deal with discontent in their settlements, and I think it is a major part of economic planning so I will mention it in this thread:

What do people do to deal with the rising discontent in their settlements?

I find that even with sizeable temples and other improvements I need larger garrisons to keep my people from revolting even at Low tax rates - and I try very hard to avoid revolts.

TK-421 follows a different strategy, spending little and crushing the inevitable revolts militarily.

What do policy do the rest of you follow: pandering to the mob, exterminating them, or some combination?

i have a sugestion to reduce the unhappyness in cities in future releases of this mod...increase the number of civic buildings, and reduce a little bit the building time of such buildings....

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Originally Posted by iberus_generalis

i have a sugestion to reduce the unhappyness in cities in future releases of this mod...increase the number of civic buildings, and reduce a little bit the building time of such buildings....

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We don't have the building complex space and also some of the buildings we had gave +10% and so on to Law, but we discovered it caused CTDs, so we had to abandon it.

Plus, EB shouldnt be too easy now :laugh4:

I usually have problems with too low population numbers, not unrest and squalor :) Constant war with Rome does that to your empire ;)

then in version 0.74 it isn't possible to add any more buildings to our own install, because there is no space? thats bad....well ate least i can still new units and models...=)

A few methods I use if I want to stop growth is to keep taxes on very high for as long as I can. Less takes the more growth. Another method is to NEVER build farms. If I need population I'll build those farms that give more tradable goods as well. Get more money that way AND you can knock the thing down if growth gets too high.

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Originally Posted by Sdragon

A few methods I use if I want to stop growth is to keep taxes on very high for as long as I can. Less takes the more growth. Another method is to NEVER build farms. If I need population I'll build those farms that give more tradable goods as well. Get more money that way AND you can knock the thing down if growth gets too high.

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I use the same system, i always try to set my taxes on very hight, it seems towns get less squallor, i use to build thinks like farms, granary, and build that make to grow your population, only if im sure i can manage the growt, i built Estates and Great Estates only at the end, when i have built almost all the buildings, and my town have +3, +4 icons of puclic order (generally doing in such mode, the town have a lot of public order, so i can allow to build Estates)

@eadingas if you have problem of pop growt too low, just recruit mercenary (if you have the moneys), i suggest mercenary pezetaroi (there are a lot in the sud italy), and them disband them in your town, you will give a bost to your growt. Also if you have a town too overpopulated, just recruit a lot of akonistai (240 men!) and disband in a town that has too low population...
Akonistai are very cheap to recruit and they are a lot!

Wait...

The disbanded mercenaries on the towns actually are added to the nominal population inside the town???

I`ve always believed that the disbanded mercenaries weren`t added to the population inside the settlements at all...

Yep! Disband Gaul mercenaries into the correct city and you can turn them into Spartans. ;)

It must be especially fun if you get mercenaries from the same province you disband them in ;) "I'll pay you 3000 mnai to get that city and live in it! -But... we already do..."

Just ask the Ptolemaics and Selucids. I seriously doubt you'll bankrupt them ~;)