Money too plentiful?

[Rhyfelwyr]

In the past I used to set taxes to the highest level I could without risking rebellion. But in the last few campaigns I realised that this is not necessary, and have played with low taxes everywhere. In the early game buildings are dirt cheap and your armies tend to be low quality, low upkeep affairs. And by the time I have around 30 regions my money seems to just get ridiculous and I spawn armies at an absurd rate. So many times I have conquered the Iberian peninsula in ten turns.

And from then on its just a case of spamming armies and conquering everywhere as quickly as you can, with the two World Wars coming half a millenia too soon against the Mongols and Timurids respectively, I can't take any more wars of attrition against them.

Right now I'm playing as the HRE and I own almost 90 provinces. And my money is at something along the lines of 1,200,000 Florins. I have around 10 full armies fighting the Mongols in the Holy Land, plus another few holding the Timurids around Bulgar.

Even playing as what many people call the 'poorer' factions such as Poland and Sicily I never had problems with money. How can you struggle when you have Strzelcy?

But seriously, money seems far too readily available in M2TW. And its making the game too easy.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

Im not that courageous, i wont simply do an all out attack on an enemy, i simply wait to be attacked, force their armies back, send up a small army, then get forced back, a bit like trench warfare but without the trenches I always seem to be in the minus money, figures, i always build a towns economy up, to have the town taken from me the very next turn

[Duke Bart]

What difficulty are you playing at? Im sure its my crappy managing techniques but if i dont have the taxes at low or at MOST medium, cities get pretty prissy pretty fast. That and i always find myself ending a turn at or near zero florins :'( any advice you have on maintaining a strong economy early on would be nice. Especially since im starting a broken crescent campaign nd money will be nice since idk the area too well

[Korlon]

Yep, same here. About ten turns in I can start putting low taxes on almost every settlement and stuff make bushels of money every turn with all settlements undergoing construction.

What difficulty are you playing at? Im sure its my crappy managing techniques but if i dont have the taxes at low or at MOST medium, cities get pretty prissy pretty fast. That and i always find myself ending a turn at or near zero florins :'( any advice you have on maintaining a strong economy early on would be nice. Especially since im starting a broken crescent campaign nd money will be nice since idk the area too well

I generally play at VH/VH. It's not very hard at all compared to most other strategy games. Build economic buildings fast. Always be building if you can. Try to learn good tactics with your troops so that you lose less in a battle or so that you don't need as many troops to take over a city. This means you don't need to spend as much on upkeep, which is your big treasury killer.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Agreed!!!
I set my Kings purse between -500 to -1000 depending on the faction and 20 turns in (except for a couple of factions) I'm almost always drowning in florins. I didn't consider myself as a great player but I do build for economy and only ever use a very small standing army for attack/defense since I like to turtle. Really seems as if theres no economic challenge in the game which is a real pity as one would expect this on VH instead of the current gang attack diplomacy.

[Dead Guy]

I feel the same way, and frequently have more than 500k florins without any problems. 500k AND three or four rampaging armies is just so mind numbingly easy! You can build in every city, in every turn, as soon as a construction is complete or a city is ready to upgrade I can do it, and at the same time recruit. it's sick.
Then I tried The Long Road! I can build in two or perhaps three cities per turn if i don't recruit at all! I REALLY have to choose when to upgrade a city since it costs more than I make per turn, and I can't have two full stacks walking around while I do it. Nothing but militia in my settlements or I'd be ruined. Finally a little challenge in the campaign. Because my concentration of my forces at points of conflict, half my empire is wide-open to attack and I'd have little chance to defend against a surprise attack from my thus far loyal allies. I've actually lost settlements in my TLR campaigns! That i tried not to lose! That's unheard of!

[Rhyfelwyr]

Well I keep a close eye on my settlement details scroll, showing the income, loyalty factors etc. In the early game, farming is always your best source of income. So the first buildings I build are the Land Clearence and then Communal Farming, each giving on averag +60 income per turn from farming, plus +0.5% to growth. After that, Crop Rotation is a bit expensive for the early game, so I usually build Market and Port buildings. This is also when I build mines, although if they are very valuable mining provinces eg Zagreb or Vienna, then I build mines there before anything else. Always build the Naval Trade buildings as soon as they become available. In places like Antioch, a Warehouse can send your trade income from 2,000 to nearly 3,000. Military buildings can save you the most money of all, but only in cities. If you find your cities garrisoned by castle-troops, take them out, either disbanding them or using them to fight. Peasants in my Town will cost me 90 Florins per turn. If I build a Town Watch and replace those peasants with Town Militia (free upkeep), then that is +90 Florins per turn. More than any farm or trade buiding will get me early on.

And of course, always occupy in the early game, or sack if you need a quick income boost desperately. Only ever exterminate once you are economically comfortable and need to keep everywhere content while you rampage across the world.

[phonicsmonkey]

the wonders of compound growth mean that if your population growth is high then you will make masses of cash in the medium to long term

that's why I always set taxes to low and build farms to maximise population growth as early as possible

more turns with higher population growth = more people paying more taxes for longer

then you build ports and warehouses, markets and roads to boost trade income

I have never had money problems in M2TW playing this way

in fact the only TW game I have ever struggled to make money in is the mod Europa Barbarorum where upkeep is insanely high - recruit one too many units and watch your income plummet or go negative!

[Rhyfelwyr]

Yeah I remember starting with a ship that cost 5,000 upkeep or something like that. Seemed a little extreme.

But as for M2TW, I'm a fan of low taxes as well. They do the job early on and make you develop way faster than anyone else.

[Old Geezer]

Playing LTC or SS, I have encountered money problems for a longer period than in retofit or vanilla. One good thing about having a high diplomatic rep is that you can buy and trade provinces which can use up excess cash. I always try to keep the cash level below 50k so I don't get those extravagant traits on generals. Also,when I play chivalrously and don't sack or attack other factions with a similar religion, I have a whole lot less money to play with than if I blitz. I find that if I recruit a lot of the most expensive units I can that the reserves can plummet.
One could refrain from building paved roads, warehouses, mines, farms, and markets. That should have a great effect.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I actually just managed to go into debt for a few turns in my Spanish campaign there. Got out of it once an army set off on Crusade and got free upkeep.