Need help with middle to end game!

Please only post to this if you have completed several full campaigns with different factions at different levels. Other than the English campaign on easy that I originally did to unlock the factions, I am having trouble finishing the campaigns of other factions especially at harder levels. I am running into money problems in the middle and can only field usually one full stack army at a time in order to conquer territory. By the time I get enough money in the late game to wield two and three full armies I don't have enough time to take a city, negotiate papal politics and build garrisons so that I can keep the armies moving along to finish up at turn 226.
Advice Please!

Remember to properly develop all of your cities and turn any castles that are not necessary into cities for the economy. Try to not enter war with everyone at once since your trade will just plummet. Also, try to garrison all of your cities with the free upkeep units. Disband any mercenaries that are not being used due to their high upkeep, and in general try to sack every city you conquer since relatively little population is killed while you get a large chunk of money

develop, trade, conquer neighboring rebel states as fast as you can disband unneeded troops, sack, btw, im sure you can manage with 2 armies and the third 1/2. and what faction are you having trouble with?

For the most part I'm following this advice all though I may be able to tweak it better. As to factions I have tried them all and have tried to plat to completeion at least six of them, including France, Poland, Milan, Egypt and the Moors!

You could also use my strategy of building up huge armies at the start and allowing yourself to go into debt.

Sack cities and immediately use the proceeds to start critical building projects and recruit mercs.

It doesn't matter if you go into the red if you're the strongest nation militariarly, as you'll eventually turn a profit.

Sack every city you come across. Empty your garrisons and turn them into sacking machines. No sense having valuable income generators sitting around in your castles waiting to get attacked. Stop building those 4k-10k buildings unless you REALLY need them. Your money troubles soon turn into a gold bonanza.

Don't have bigger garrisons than you actually need. And make sure that they are the cheapest units you can recruit. F.eks. a standard garrison for one of your cities far from the border, would be it's full allowance of militia units, and then as many peasants/woodsmen as needed to keep the order.

Always remember to disband or use units!

Oh, and make sure that you don't have complete idiots as governors of your biggest cities, and a genius sitting in a wooden castle...

The thing about the trade rights can't be stated enough. Send out diplomats, secure trade rights with everybody. Don't go to war with more than one or two factions at once, so your trade doesn't get hit too hard.
Remember to clear rebels away from your roads once in a while, too: These block trade flowing on that road. Attacking with a superior stack drives them from the roads; let them sit in the forest and rot, as long as they're not hurting your money.
Also, don't underestimate merchants. Level them up by monopolizing some simple resource close by, then send them abroad. Depending on where you are, try to find the following: sugar in southern Spain; amber in Norway; gold and ivory near Timbuktu; silks near Constantinople. I had typical exp eight merchants rake in more than 150 a turn, sometimes far more than this, up to 300. That way, merchants pay for their rather high starting cost and provide upkeep for one elite unit. Granted, you'd need a lot of merchants to pay for your armies, but every little helps.
Keep your ports unblockaded by maintaining a good fleet. This can then also be used to blockade enemy's ports to reduce the armies available to them a little.

I have to restate one point over all the others, because it's so important: Sack cities and castles when you take them! This nets you a five-digit sum typically, enough to keep you going for a long time. Even a full stack of elite units costs only around 3000 fl / turn in upkeep, so the 15000 or so you can get out of sacked settlements really help you take off.

Well, most of the vets have said it better than I could. Would just like to add that you may want to convert seaside castles into cities. The key is not getting 1 or 2 city ports; you want as many of them as possible (without compromising security of course).

Yup. Any castle you have that is not critical to troopproduction or defense, should be converted. And try to focus your production inland, so that it frees up the ports for cities. For example, when playing the english, convert every castle in england into a town when you have conquered France. Militias, mercenaries and the late professional troops are more than enough to beat the rebels.

My apologies if someone has mentioned this already but farms are super important for your economy!! Building them early in the campaign will make a big difference in the middle and end game on your income.

The three primary ingredients in war are money, money, and money. Always build income generating buildings first. You can beat the AI with militia and 1st level castle troops if you need to. Get trade rights with everyone as fast as you can, and keep them active as much as u can. Cities make more money than castles. So convert all castles that you can to cities. Especially castles with ports. Keep just 1 castle (inland) per region. Use the armies that you do have to generate money by sacking cities. The rest of your troops should primarily be free upkeep militia in cities, and cheap units in castles. Finish off one enemy before fighting the next enemy when ever possible. Did I say that war is all about the money:focus: "Money is easily converted to power". You want a big military, then you have to have the economy to support your war machine :duel:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DukeKent

TYou can beat the AI with militia and 1st level castle troops if you need to.

---

Most player problems with money come from building too good of an army too soon. People upgrade military buildings to get those good units, too.

The one thing that made the greatest impact on my economy are farms. At first I was reluctant to build them as in RTW squalor could easily spiral out of control and make cities a burden, but in M2TW farms are nothing but good.

In M2TW squalor can NOT go over 80%. It's capped.

Let me repeat: there is a squalor cap! Which means that once you reach it, farms and increasing population is nothing but good for you as 80% unrest is easy to overcome with some churches/inns/etc. Over time, farms end up being a huge source of income, easily an additional 25%-30% of your total income if you develop them. That makes a big difference.

Build farms first, then roads/markets/ports. If you focus on the economy and keep your city:castle ration at 4:1 or better, you will be swimming in cash. You literally won't be able to spend it all.

Although squalor does cap out, it is also good to note that in some cities, the population is simply too high too start out with and grows too fast. Constantinople, Jerusalem, Cairo, Antioch, Venice, and Milan come to mind. If you build lots of farms early in the game, you will not have all of the buidlings that increase public order which as a result will force you to keep a significant number of military units wasting away in the city

Well, i would say troubles in mid-game occur due to screwed-up start.
If you lose few early battles (or even win them with Pyrrhic victories) then you will face slowing of your Empire expansion and BIG problems later (e.g. you have recruited a bunch of mercs and they have failed to take some city in order to loot it and cover the bankrupting budget). I have abandoned one of my campaigns because of that (Hungary h/h). Later you just do not have enough money to build up your trade, since all your neighbors wage war against you (because you failed to finish them off early) and all your money goes to recruiting everything you can get...
Just my IMHO, it has been so in my games for England, Spain, Hungary and HRE (especially for last one, since it was played on vh/vh :smash: ). Not sure if it is true for factions though...