ETW SO SO EASY

so easy to win Grand Campaign on VH/VH than any other previous Total War.

Trade a lot, buy province. Avoid war.

Trade a lot: quite obvious, try to get trade agreement w/ lots of factions early on. within ten turn you should get like profit of 100k or 200k. after 20+turn, as UP my profit is like 500k a turn.
Avoid war, no no, war is bad, any one near you dislike you, gave them gift,

And buy provinces: early on, those island on caribe worth like 30-80k. and guess what. Cuba alone bring me 50k per turn. buy all those caribe island.

and buy all province in South america from new spain. much better way than started a war. also, when you buy province, they hardly revolt (no need for huge garrison, i love it)

Build up a huge armies. each theater i have like 5 full stack on ready to go status.

I play quite peaceful for the first 20 turn, only building and trading economy. and when my armies is ready, i pick on weak opponent with few trade partner and no allies. just buy all their province, they only keep capital, prepare your armies --> declare war --> move in. I can destroy a nation in a single turn. so actually my list of enemies is very few. always only 1 or 2.

sum it up, money rule, and be diplomatic, save your friends and alliance for the last war.

I feel AI so dumb. :wall: they let me do the same tactic again and again. As UP, i hit otoman, russia, marathay, Mugal, Persia, all the same way.

that's why i feel so bored, and bad. why would a nation ready to sell all their provinces. i bought all ottoman, anatolia, egypt, syria, palestine, for like 1millions = 2 turn profit. so cheap. most province AI would sell for 100k, strategic province, maximum is like 300k,

well, i feel bad for exploit this tactics so much as UK, France, UP, Marathay, Ottoman, i mean this tactic work almost for any faction. Just get the caribe island first.

AI got no sense of strategic thingking. Much like playing chess with an old computer, u can just make a sacrifie and win the game.

I expected some thing more.

And CA should have some hot key build in more. oh god, clicking mouse is so tired. And a feature of update all, or something. each time i got a new technology, i have to cycle through so many farm and town and mines and ... or dear. so many times lost for micro repeated task.

500k a turn?! 50k from Cuba?! I didn't know it was even possible to get that much from a single region.
As the Marathas, with all of India, the Carribean, and Sth/Central America fully upgraded (except for some of the american regions) I still only get 110k a turn. And this is all workshop buildings, except for enough pleasure buildings to maintain order, as well as trade with everybody possible. Are you doing something special here? :inquisitive:
Last thing, you can use the autobuild button and the computer will build and upgrade for you. With that much money coming in you probably wont be that fussed about what it builds, so it saves time.

Oh yes, and Welcome to the Org!

Hey, nifty, 100th post. YAY!!! :balloon2::balloon2::balloon2:

I have to be honest: I have a REAL HARD TIME believing those figures :inquisitive: 100k PROFIT by 10 turns? I doubt you'd be getting much like 100k income, never mind profit :idea2: Half a mil profit by 20 turns? No way. Simply not possible. And 50k PROFIT, PER TURN? From one island?

You're gonna need to back up those outlandish claims with some pictars innit :yes:

Pics or it didnt happen.

E:TW is harder to win.

Patches will make it harder as well. (no more buying provinces as much etc)

This guy is obviously a troll inspired by this earlier, similar thread.

It always boggles my mind when I read posts like the OP's.

Sure it's possible to play like this, but why in the sacred unknowable name of dog would you want to? To "prove a point"? To "prove CA are cheating" you?

The point is to build troops & fight battles,right? So why would you avoid this? WHY man, WHY?


Ahem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Turbosatan

It always boggles my mind when I read posts like the OP's.

Sure it's possible to play like this, but why in the sacred unknowable name of dog would you want to? To "prove a point"? To "prove CA are cheating" you?

The point is to build troops & fight battles,right? So why would you avoid this? WHY man, WHY?


Ahem.

---

Nice use of the dramatic 'Ahem,' there Turbosatan. Well done. :clown:
Ill second your point there, they did call the games 'Total War' for a very good reason. Still, I suppose you should play however you like to.

Ill also second the others in calling for screenshots-500k a turn seems too good to be true.

First of all, i have a hard time believing you are making 500k a turn. 50k a turn i could believe easily because i have done it as Great Britain, but only when i was very developed in industry and had conquered many lands from France and Spain, but 500k a turn sounds like an exaggeration, and a big one at that.

Second, one of my pet hates, exploiting the AI and then complaining about it. Simply put, don't exploit the AI. You've only yourself to blame for your games being boring. 5 full stacks in every region you own is unrealistic to begin with. A full stack in this game should represent around 30-50% of your nations entire military strength, no matter how big, unless you're playing as a nation that has 6 or 7 other factions on its borders, then it's alright to have 3 full stacks to cover the borders.

Third, buying provinces. You said it yourself: Why should the AI want to sell its provinces? It shouldn't, except under certain circumstances, so don't do it.

"get lots and lots of trade... as UP!"

It's impossible, as trade is heavily restricted via sea in number, especially as UP as it is only one port worth of trade routes.

It is an obvious troll.

The only way to get more trade ports as UP is to capture Flanders -> France, or Hannover->Brandenburg or Denmark.

I can believe 150K/turn profit, which I achieved in my Swedish game with only ~30 provinces. BUT in 1745! With all industrial and enlightenment techs maxed out (except for abolishion of slavery), all ports, plantations, farms & industries maxed, and trading with almost every surviving European power (Prussia, Russia, Poland, Courland, Saxony, Crimea & Denmark KIA) + Marathas.

Is it easy? Of course it is. Especially if you play a nation that's main theatre of activity isn't mainland Europe. I'd lump GB and the UP into this category, Spain and France tend to struggle a bit compared to these superior starting positions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pevergreen

Pics or it didnt happen.

E:TW is harder to win.

Patches will make it harder as well. (no more buying provinces as much etc)

---

Harder than what? Certainly not Rome, where you had to leave full stacks in every corner, since all cities rebelled on a 5 year rotation, or MTW 2, where profits rarely kept up with army costs unless you played certain factions. Now, I don't think that easier access to money is necessarily a bad thing. Just saying. Game is ridiculously easy.

The TW games are not meant to be too difficult or too hard to beat IMO. CA has to strike a balance to appeal to gamers of all difficulty levels. CA does allow for modders however to make the game more difficult through various ways. Given time you'll find some mods (if they are not already out there) that'll give the hardcore more challenges for their money. I find the AI, although not perfect (No game AI is), is better than past TW games. Thats just my opinion though.

As for the OP's original claims of profit... I'll take the stand others earlier have said, Show me proof. Its not hard to make money in the game once you learn the ins and outs of trade and taxes but I'm not seeing it anywhere near the levels the Op is claiming.

Also, to keep five full army stacks in the field you dont need to make the profit levels the OP claims. I usually keep four or five full stacks in the field on much less once I got a decent empire going. Its not that difficult. In the beginning years, yes, but not in later years.

I wonder where Pizzas at taking over all three theaters in 5 turns. . . .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skott

The TW games are not meant to be too difficult or too hard to beat IMO. CA has to strike a balance to appeal to gamers of all difficulty levels. CA does allow for modders however to make the game more difficult through various ways. Given time you'll find some mods (if they are not already out there) that'll give the hardcore more challenges for their money. I find the AI, although not perfect (No game AI is), is better than past TW games. Thats just my opinion though..

---

I loathe this argument, that games shouldn't be hard because there are people who can't play on hard, its a fallacy. Difficulty is what difficulty sliders are for. If "Hard" in your game isn't hard, its too easy.

Example of a game that has a real hard mode: Dynasty Warriors 6. The hardest difficulty setting is barely doable. The easiest is exactly that, easy.

Example of a game that is too easy: Empire Total War. You can't lose!

wow, that big a forum and no one exploited it.

sure, give me 12 hours, I'm at office now, you will have your screen-shot.


i'm just a die-hard fan, since shogun, and i feel bad for ETW kind of unbalanced.

I love battle of course, in MTW, i used to conquer most europe and prepare for the mongol to showup, oh how i miss the mongul, that twist at the end, i need to have 2,3 time that number to counter them.
And one thing, before battle can fight with more than 2 full stack. now, i can not fight with all my stacks, just wait for reinforcement, and you know what, i broke the bank for the PC to play ETW, yes it's true. i got a corei7, 6gddr3, hd:1tb, vga: 4870G.

my strategy starting from MTW, where you can play that tiny island Sicily and still rule the world. same thing, build up your economy, get a massive army, and steamrolled.


I really like RTW exp, when the western empire start big, and being pushed on so many fronts. with so many unrest at home.

This one, the diplomacy is just great, you can bribe them and not get attacked that sudden. give them state gift. that save a lot of money to build up economy early on.

It's much easier to get to tipping point on this.

it get so much like CIV now, and anyone play CIV know, try to trade as many tech in the first 3,5 turn. and now, you dont have to send a diplomat. wow, things have indeed change.

auto-built: yes, i turned it on later, but they keep building naval hospital on those drydock i prepare to build 1st rate. (u know, the techs for 1st rate, quite long to research)

Once again, simply don't exploit the system.

I can savage any faction on the map, rape their land and bully them for 50 years, then give them a 10,000 state gift (which isn't even a scratch on my treasury) and all of a sudden they're my best buddies, calling me every day asking if i want to go for a beer and telling me i should date their queen.

That's an exploit. I shouldn't be able to rape a nation hardcore and then give them 10,000 and make them my best friends, so you know what? I don't.

I also don't trade with everybody i can. I don't trade with nations who are trading with my enemies. I don't steamroll my enemies or my economy. I don't keep more than one school. I pick my wars carefully and always fight slowly and steadily.

Do all this, and you'll get your challenge.

yea, the are few good things about ETW though.

the battle, once, i got jumped by those natives American. wow, reinforcement spawn from every where, i cannot maintain a line so most my unit form square, the whole group try to maintain a giant square. i lost, army destroyed, but it was fun. waves after waves of native swarm in.

i would really like the old system of battle, many stacks can fight at once. wow, will be nice to have a line across the map and moving in.

Unrealistic though, the enemy would be denied the option of flanking you due to the invisible edges of the battle map which units cannot go across.

have 2 saved game for UP campaigns. cant open the trade details, only the gov details. nothing i can do. CTD. the pix is huge. on 1920-1080. 5mb something each. on my wife flickr. :).

1. Turn 25, income 400.000, exp 50.000. profit 350000=350k

europe: bough flander, another port but dont last long. france soon attacked, and i have nothing inn europe at that time. so about to die ... and no other saved game. I think and I think, and i decided to give it back to Spain. wowla, perfect buffer, france can not move to Amtersdam.

India: bad investment, have bought the entire right-hand side provinces of subcontinent, but very few income.

America. got all the caribe, all central and south america.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85944891@N00/3468274258/


2. Turn 60+ something. income nearly a mil, exp: 250. profit 720k.

ofcourse i hit 500k profit much earlier but just dont have the saved game, i hope u accept it as proof that it can be done.

America: Nothing left. I got it all.

India: Mugal and Marathay allow to have a single region left. I bought it all, no blood shed (I should get a Nobel peace prize, right? non-violence)

Europe: Got like 95% as u can see. just get out of a bloody war with russia. I got many region but some of their stack just keep guriella warfare. annoying. So another eploit. give the peace and load of money. all their army will move back to their province. another frontal attack. all done. At the screen. I'm gearing up for Ottoman. Poor them. My old friends, and longtime trade partner. Just because i got so bored. i'm sorry.
[IMG]http://www.flickr.com/photos/85944891@N00/3468271854/[/IMG]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85944891@N00/3467511979/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85944891@N00/3468274258/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85944891@N00/3468271854/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85944891@N00/3467511979/

try the link, i'm not sure how the posting pic work, 5mb is over size limit ?

langue barrier ?? hey, i'm not native english speaker. maybe we get the term wrong.

by 500k, i mean by 500 grands = 500*1000 = 500.000, right. 6digits.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hathanhson

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85944891@N00/3467511979/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85944891@N00/3468274258/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85944891@N00/3468271854/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85944891@N00/3467511979/

try the link, i'm not sure how the posting pic work, 5mb is over size limit ?

---

Ok, that's nuts. :jawdrop:

Can you explain in more detail how you did this? Particularly how you got your economy that large so quickly. Do you save all your cash and not build any units or buildings during the start-up phase?

Only the top picture works. The other two have been reduced in size so much that the text can't be read.

790K in trade? You can't get that much from owning all the plantations in Europe, Americas & India. I assume you spammed IM and grabbed the trade slots, and kept adding ships, which I also do as GB, UP & France. However, the commodity prices should have crashed. Commodity prices are proportional to demand & inversely proportional to supply. The world population (i.e. your trade partners) should not be large enough to support that much demand in 1736 (at least, it isn't in any of my games!).

Yes that is officially a ludicrous amount of trade.

pics are 'shopped!

For convenience, the screenshots in an easier to access manner. They don't look photoshopped to me. In Turn 63, he owns pretty much all of Europe.

Turn 25 (1712):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://img21.imageshack.us/img21/15...c720eb35eb.jpg

Turn 63 (1731):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://img16.imageshack.us/img16/17...80542c031o.jpg

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://img12.imageshack.us/img12/75...a7dd35c0cb.jpg

They certainly don't look doctored to me.

The last shot is just incredible with Orange covering most of Europe. That I can sort of believe. It's the first two and the numbers in them that are just mad. :dizzy2:

Well come on... look at what you've done. You've teched up 100% in everything and conquered the world, which in itself is not the aim of these games. Of course you're making 1 million a turn with the whole world conquered except for Constantinople.

Play properly, as realistically as is possible and resist the urge to take advantage of the stupid AI and this won't happen.

Here's something fun to do when an enemy refuses peace or attacks you; March through their lands with a massive army, which you'll need because you will take a lot of casualties doing this. March in to their capital region, cut off the roads, destroy their farms and workshops and garrison large armies in them, destroy happiness buildings like churches and inns, leave the school up and you will effectively cut off the enemies trade entirely and royally piss off the population. Keep this up for several turns and if they still refuse peace, capture some remote profitless dump on the edges of their land and then trade it back for peace, they always accept.

You will have dealt your enemy a blow and at the same time helped the AI not be completely dumb. You will have practically bankrupted them, halved the size of their army and then forced them to make peace.

I did it to Wurttemburg in 1704 in my latest French campaign. Unfortunately for me they had no other provinces i could take to force them to make peace so i destroyed the faction in 1710, but i gave it straight to one of my German allies, Bavaria.

He has a modified version of the game for sure. Especially when he says he "bought" provinces and every single game I played the AI wants over 50,000 for the crappiest of provinces.

Trade is never ever that profitable either.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Beskar

He has a modified version of the game for sure. Especially when he says he "bought" provinces and every single game I played the AI wants over 50,000 for the crappiest of provinces.

Trade is never ever that profitable either.

---

I agree that something isn't right about this, particularly in the Turn 25 (1712) screenshot. He's only got 8 trading partners in that screenshot, several of them minor factions, and his naval upkeep is 7257. That doesn't correlate to a massive number of trade ships, which would be required to properly milk the trade theaters. His tax income (64778) also seems absurdly high for that date, considering he only has 2 European provinces.

After the first purchase, the prices will also go up. Happened to me in my semi-peaceful Swedish game. My first purchase was for 60K, then 90K, then ~150K, then went up to 300K, 600K, and then no one would sell me any territory for even 1.5M!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TinCow

I agree that something isn't right about this, particularly in the Turn 25 (1712) screenshot. He's only got 8 trading partners in that screenshot, several of them minor factions, and his naval upkeep is 7257. That doesn't correlate to a massive number of trade ships, which would be required to properly milk the trade theaters. His tax income (64778) also seems absurdly high for that date, considering he only has 2 European provinces.

---

It is. it is obviously false as he has cheated around with trade income numbers as his figures are impossible.

My tax income in my USA game (date 1794) is 72536. However, that is from owning 34 provinces and being late game, so all my areas have high population and good factories, etc.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hathanhson

have 2 saved game for UP campaigns. cant open the trade details, only the gov details. nothing i can do. CTD. the pix is huge. on 1920-1080. 5mb something each. on my wife flickr. :).

1. Turn 25, income 400.000, exp 50.000. profit 350000=350k

europe: bough flander, another port but dont last long. france soon attacked, and i have nothing inn europe at that time. so about to die ... and no other saved game. I think and I think, and i decided to give it back to Spain. wowla, perfect buffer, france can not move to Amtersdam.

India: bad investment, have bought the entire right-hand side provinces of subcontinent, but very few income.

America. got all the caribe, all central and south america.

---

Have I said not plainly.

That how it stand at turn 25. i have provinces everywhere.
Seriously, no one have that much money ?? cant be true. it just plain obivous for me.

I will write a detail report of how to do it and all can see.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hathanhson

Have I said not plainly.

That how it stand at turn 25. i have provinces everywhere.
Seriously, no one have that much money ?? cant be true. it just plain obivous for me.

I will write a detail report of how to do it and all can see.

---

If this is so easy to do, you should be able to do it again in a new game. Do so and take screenshots of your trade screen and other pertinent stats every 1-2 turns.

I am almost all of America, Half of Europe and Half of India and pretty much everyone else is my protectorate except for Ottoman and Russia. I am only getting +148595 per turn at the moment profit and that is end game with everything tech and large populations/etc. If you are getting 400,000+ profit in trade alone at turn 25? You obviously got some sort of cheat, it is impossible.

ah, it will be hard-labour :laugh4:

i will see what i can do.

Are you playing on.... Very easy campaign difficulty?

Send us the savegame - an alternative is if you post the trading screen tab we can see each individual searoute and landroute and see if the numbers add up.

It may seem like everyone is ganging up on you, but the numbers do seem extraordinarily large for so early in the game.

However, it also depends on how much you were able to protect the sea routes from east india - I've never had the time or inclination to bother with those routes - but they may be very profitable!

I understand why people think like that ? I'm just suprise that these many veterans and no one knew.

So i just played the GC as UP again. screenshot will be up, when i wake up, going to bed now. because timezone is 11h30pm now. still g2g to work early 2morrow.

the detail is like this.

1st turn: research the tech to build college (i always do that). send europe fleet to caribe (not important). upgrade what you can. important, recruit 2 unit at your island on caribe. also, upgrade the gold and gem mind on Dutch gyuana something (hehe, cant spell).

2nd turn: recruit 2 more unit again at the island. and 1 fluyt and i just sit around do nothing.

3rd turn: enough money to buy cuba. spain sell for me at 58800. i also hit trinidad pirate island. Go for the port so your amry can march right in

4th turn: my europe feel arrive this turn or the previous, i send them to the 2nd pirate island. send the fluyt with 2 more units to trinidad.

5th turn: got 80.000, Spain sell me the hispana something island (right hand side of cuba), thank you your majesty.

6th turn: with 5 unit, easily captured the 2nd pirate island. always go for the port if possible. i was lucky to destroy the pirate fleet on the sea. so it is easy for me. Buy Bahamas from England for 60.000. Income show that i make profit of 100k already. quit game and go to here to post. try it at home.

Excuse me, but your starting amount as UP is 8K IIRC, and your income is not good enough to build the improvements & recruit the units you mention and have 58.8K in turn 3!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by anweRU

Excuse me, but your starting amount as UP is 8K IIRC, and your income is not good enough to build the improvements & recruit the units you mention and have 58.8K in turn 3!

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Indeed, that is correct.

ETW WAS SO CASH

He has enough to build the gold and gem mine upgrades, 2,000 each, recruit 2 units of militia or whatever he recruited and a Fluyt (or floating fortress as i like to call them) on turn 1, but even with taxes turned up to absolute max for every theatre i'm suspicious about the 58k he has in the treasury on turn 3. Even if you take the pirate islands on turn 2 and have their plantations and ports fully functioning and have trade with the max amount of factions and none of your trade routes are being blockaded i just don't see how you can get 58k at turn 3, it seems impossible to me.

Hahaha, just for reference.

In my USA game, I own everything bar Morroco, Algiers and Caracas and I am at max tech and basically everything is fully upgraded.

Putting my taxes on absolute only gets me +805,684 in money, that guy is using a cheat or something for certain, especially since trade never gives you a big income like that.

Edit: I actually owned all of them now, I will post a screenshot for you.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4288/maxt.gif

So I did what the OP said he did. Played on VH.

In order to maximize trade profit, I divided the trade fleet in the East Indies into three, and assigned one IM to each trade spot (to get 60 spices instead of 54).

I left the taxes at 3/3, which gave 1424 in Europe, 346 in the Americas and 214 in Ceylon. Maxing to 5/5 gives 2176, 554 & 352 for the first turn.

Starting cash: 7500. Construction costs: farm in Holland 300, gold mine (2 turns): 1600, gem mine (2 turns) 1800.
Cash on hand at end of turn 1: 3800
Turn 2: Cash on hand 5857. Two pirate fleets (Ivory Coast and Madagascar straits) raid the trade routes.
Turn 3: Cash on hand 8719.

No where near 58.8K claimed by hathanhson. The Spanish essentially told me they would bury me when I offered them all 8719 gp for Cuba.

Alternative: Use military access exploit. Can get 400 to 500 gp from each European power; 400-500 each from the three Indian powers, and may be 1000 each from the 9 Colonial / Native American factions. An optimistic estimate is 23K.

23K + 9K = 34K, without recruiting any military units, so avoiding their recruitment costs and upkeep.

Even with that exploit, the funds come up short.

I tried what he said with a UP campaign. Turn 1, i got trade rights with the only 2 other nations i could, Westphalia and some other, had to pay 1300 for each trade right though. I upgrade all gem and gold mines in America and India, didn't recruit or disband any land units and disbanded worthless naval units like sloops and brigs. I set all taxes to max in all 3 theatres without making unrest go into the minuses.

On the second turn my treasury sat at 5,538. There was nothing else i could have done here that would have given me anymore profit on turn 3 because all my upgrades, like plantations, would take 3 turns, so i simply ended turn. Turn 3, my treasury sat at 11,567, and this was without even recruiting any units, which you said you did on turn 1 and 2.

The only way you could have gotten in excess of 50,000 on turn 3 is if you exploited the AI by selling military access, in which case you have no ground for claiming the game is too easy, because you used exploits.

can u post your screen shot for the gov details of turn 1, 2 and 3.

Since i didn't take screenshots the first time, i just did another 3 turns as UP on VH/M.

The following screenshot was taken just before i hit end turn on the very first turn of a UP campaign. I upgraded all gem and gold mines, a logging camp in Dutch Guyan(?), disbanded all units except for 3 units of militia and 1 unit of company linemen to keep the peace in each city, disbanded all navy except for the 3 trade ships and 3 escort ships in Sri Lanka, and raised taxes as high as i could without public order going negative.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://img17.imageshack.us/img17/50/turn1.png

The next screenshot was taken once again before i hit end turn on my next turn. Here i upgraded the farm in Amsterdam which i could not afford to upload on the first turn, and there was nothing else i could do here other than hit end turn again.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://img18.imageshack.us/img18/9683/turn2x.png

The following screenshot shows my third and final turn, what was upgraded and my treasury balance on turn 3, after disbanding all land and naval military units and upgrading everything that could be upgraded.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://img18.imageshack.us/img18/5606/turn3part1.png

Following screenshot shows income, expenditure and projected treasury total for next turn.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4739/turn3part2.png

Short of playing on easy/easy or exploiting the hell out of the AI, there is absolutely no way to do what you are claiming you did, absolutely no way at all. At that rate of growth, it would take me around another 4, maybe 5 turns to reach a treasury of 50,000, and that is without recruiting or building any more upgrades.

The key point he makes which may not be clear is:

"3rd turn: enough money to buy cuba. spain sell for me at 58800."

How much money do you need to buy Cuba? Because it looks like he sells it back to Spain for 58800, and that is where he makes his massive profit.

I interpreted as follows...

3rd turn, enough money to buy Cuba, Spain sells it, for me, for 58,000...

No AI nation has 58,000 on turn 3, not even GB. They spend too much money recruiting armies and navies. Especially Spain, whose empire, despite being the largest after Russia, is extremely backward, under-developed and poor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dayve

I interpreted as follows...

3rd turn, enough money to buy Cuba, Spain sells it, for me, for 58,000...

No AI nation has 58,000 on turn 3, not even GB. They spend too much money recruiting armies and navies. Especially Spain, whose empire, despite being the largest after Russia, is extremely backward, under-developed and poor.

---

Good point.

The least I could get Cuba for as Sweden in VH was 120K around 1730s, but I chose to buy another province at the time (I think New Foundland for 90K from France). I ended up buying Cuba anyway at a later time, for 600K (~1743-1745).

The very first purchase I made in that game was Ceylon for 60K around 1718 or so (after I had my two revolutions to get to CM, and didn't need my rainy day fund anymore as I went on a central-eastern Europe conquest spree). So buying Cuba for 58.8K on turn 3 should be possible, while it is still underdeveloped. However, how did he get the money without cheating?

AFAIK, you will make less money on Easy compared to Very Hard, not more. That has been the case for my games, as I progressed from E->M->H->VH, which is why I play strategy on VH now. Which IMHO makes the strategy VH setting easier even than Easy!

As for what funds the AI has available, I concur with the above point that the AI doesn't have much cash on hand. In my Hard GB campaign, I captured Flanders on turn 2 and sold it to UP for 6K. That was the maximum I could get out of any country. The AI may have significant amounts of money by mid-century, once it manages to develop its holdings, but even then, it has a massive military that I doubt it could match a semi-peaceful player with only 4 full army stacks and 2 full naval stacks.

hathanhson,

Where did you get your E:TW? Was it purchased boxed from a store or downloaded via Steam?

Did you get any additional units?

Alright, I started a UP game in the name of a trade empire with my way of doing things, but just for reference.

> I own every trade point bar the two portugal start with.
> I have seven trade partners.
> I own South America and majority of the islands bar the British and Spanish islands.
> I have 4 Classic Universities (Netherlands and Flanders) pumping out technology for economical and social, allowing me to upgrade all my plantations and docks.
> I have 12 Protectorates.

This is my current incomes (taxes are set at the middle of the slider).

Quote:

---

Tax Income: +10922
Trade: +14845
Other: +6834

Army Upkeep: -6906
Navy Upkeep: -4040 (Trade points only have 1 flyte on them at the moment)

Income: 21646

---

I am getting nothing like the trade you are getting, as that trade is completely rigged. I have very good trade for my current situation, but according to you, I should be getting near +300,000 not around +15,000. I think you are talking out of your behind in any claims saying you are getting otherwise, especially at turn 15. :smash:

Here is later on, as I said, this is a trade Empire so I am not blitzing, but just for information, I will list my incomings.

> I own all trade areas, 3 flyets on each point.
> I own Central, South and Islands of America.
> I own Ceylon and Goa in India.
> Flanders and Corisa in Europe.
> 15 Protectorates.
> 10 Trading Partners.

Tax Income: +30738
Trade Income: +37855
Other: +8386
Total: +76979

I am no where near touching that +300,000 you apparently had in turn 15 even though I own all the trading points and have a big trade Empire.

Something isn't adding up right, and it is on your side. Your figure is impossible.

Here is the last update on that game I been playing and proof those screen shots are fake.

> I own all trade areas, with 10 fluyts on each.
> I own all South, Central and West America. Don't own Canada/East Coast above Georgia.
> I own Ceylon and Goa in India.
> I own Flander, Corisa and Rhineland in Europe.
> 12 Protectorates.
> 13 Trading Partners.

Currently, I put Taxes on lowest just to spur up population growth and it is far easier to manage. Last game, it was on the middle.

Tax Income: +39746
Trade Income: +61426
Other: +10054
Total: +111226

I can safety say, OP is rubbish at this game, simply because he has to cheat and even fakes his screenshots with the impossible. Enough said really. If this game is "So Easy" why don't you play it for free without false screen shots and if they are inaltered, play without a modified version of the game on VH/VH and lets see you get that far so fast. :smash:

On a side note: Never trust a person with the gimp-mask avatar, they all talk rubbish.