Okay... need help!

[seireikhaan]

Hey all, I'm an old MTW player, and thanks to a new computer, I finally can give M2 a chance. However, I'm totally thrown through a loop right now on the campaign map. So far, I'm playing Stainless Steel 4.1, and every time I play, I inevetibly go bankrupt. How the heck do I start earning more money?

[pevergreen]

Alright. I play FH's mod and SS 6.1

Build trade buildings, increase taxes, roads, get trade agreements with surrounding areas, get rid of any unit you dont need etc.

Maximise trade and mines etc, reduce spending (ie units, fleets)

[spud_u_like]

As far as units go particularly keep an eye on any mercs you recruit - they cost a fortune in upkeep in SS.

Also farms often provide more of an income boost than trade buildings, so bear it in mind. Also merchants can be very useful.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Always build farm upgrades before anything, bar particularly valuable mines, or if they are available the sea trade line of buildings (eg Merchant's Wharf etc).

Each level of Farm upgrade will give +60 farm income on an average harvest, regardless of the regions base farming level. It also adds +0.5% to population growth, which will help gradually increase your income for taxes. Early on, in a standard town a Grain Exchange will usually add +10 to +30 trade income in a settlement. Unlike with farm income, the bonuses from trade buildings are proportional to what the settlement already earns. So building a Fairground in a Huge City could add over +100 Florins each turn from trade.

Despite what the description says, Dirt Roads do not add to a settlements income. But Paved Roads can in some cases double a settlements trade income. Always look at the settlement details scroll before you build something. The greyed-out trade carts will appear when you add a building ot the queue, so you can see if it will repay its construction costs.

While there was no reason not to crank up taxes to the max level in MTW, in M2 the growth gained from lower taxes will soon outweigh the short-term benefits of high taxes.

Also sine alliances often count as 'Generous' when offered early on, you can extract some tribute from the surrounding factions to boost your economy early on.

[WarMachine187]

Sacking and pillaging would really helps an economy.After sacking a city or exterminating the population,set the tax as high as possible.Also learn to use merchants as they can provide a good amount of cash.Watch out for rebels on your roads and make trade rights with factions you dony plan on assaulting any time soon.After building ports and other economic bulidings you should be set.

[PBI]

Agreed, I find in vanilla that sacking is so profitable it almost makes actual economic development pointless. Not sure whether it's been toned down in SS though, but it still works well enough in BC (well, it's harder since sieges are harder, but it's also harder to turtle in that mod due to the higher building costs which I believe SS has too.)

[Rhyfelwyr]

Sacking is OK for an early boost to your economy, but in the long term you will lose out if you sack, or much worse exterminate, when it is unecessary.

The exception to this is the Americas campaign, where the money gained from looting is much greater than usual. I got over 50,000 Florins sacking one place as the Aztecs.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Basic rules of balanced budget:

1. Income must exceed expenses.

That's all.

________________________


Open your trade scroll....

Your more or less permanent budget:
1. on the one side you have farms (most basic income... low usually) example: 780 per turn
2. taxes (adjust higher for more money but slower growth...) example: 5680 per turn
3. trade (the big one) 4030 per turn

4. on the other side you have wages (generals... low usually) 1550 per turn
5. and army expenses (usually your biggest expense... for me anyway) 8700 per turn

----------

your variable budget
6. Rercruitment cost (one time expense)
7. Building cost (one time expense)
8. merchant income
9. diplomacy and corruption income and expense (you can get positive corruption)

---------------

2 and 3 together must be more than 4 and 5 together to have some semblance of a workable budget that stays afloat year after year.

Basically, what you earn in taxes and trade together should be the MAXIMUM you spend on general's wages and army upkeep combined. You need to have your farm income be free and clear as a budget surplus. If you cant do that, then disband some ships and some non-front line troops until you can, or sack a province and hold it with those "spare" troops.

All your settlements should have farms so they can grow, but you can skip it if you want to get merchant or agent recruitment buildings first. But farms do two things: They increase your farm income over time (negligible but still worth it long term, and it adds up) and they help increase your population growth.

Your biggest income sources that dont involve conquest are taxes and trade. But you can only make your taxes go so high, and you should only raise taxes if you're mobilizing troops for war. Otherwise, use the peace to boost your provinces' happiness and population... leading to more trade.

In the very beginning, spending all your money on trade buildings is pointless because you have few provinces, small population, and closed borders and no ports. First, focus on expansion. You need cities and towns and castles and you want lots of them, especially around each other and the ocean shore.

Conquest will allow you to sack cities (if you want to), which can help fund expansion and especially recruitment. Once you've decided to stop expanding, make sure you focus now on population growth and trade.

(some players, like me, never get to this stage because they can Zerg rush until the entire map is destroyed)

Populocratic Oath:
First, do no farms. Then do some farms.

Farms are great! Yes, jolly good fun. But wait a second. What happens when you build a farm? you get a slight boost of income and a .5% population boost. But folks, check your scrolls. Don't other buildings increase population growth too?

Brothels usually do. And they provide spies AND public order due to happiness. And they are priced near what a farm is, most cases.

Ports provide trade, which boosts the population of castles. Did you know that? A port can act as a farm if it's being used for trade, sir. But finally, to continue boosting, you're going to need a farm. Don't even upgrade your province until you've built the necessary farms first, because pop growth will come to a halt soon due to squalor, unless youre building a castle and youre not planning on growing it, just recruiting from it.

Building your trade network: Once you have your base population growth bonuses in effect, NOW it is wise to invest heavily in trade. When you have several interconnected provinces which are growing, the amount of trade they all produce increases tenfold to become the dominant source of income.

Think about it... when you have a tiny motte and bailey, a couple towns without roads, and your capital, nothing produces much trade. The farming income doesnt ever go up that much, but the trade income will always increase. Then you add the trade multipliers and it increases how much each trade route is, and each port increases the number of trade routes, and by now all your settlements are growing, and the population increases how much trade routes are worth too. It snowballs into a huge avalanche of profit.

But you're in debt... what do you do?

Unless you're down to a single province, likely the culprit is too many armies. There is no greater expense. So you have two options; disband, or use them to expand. Sack whatever you can get, the larger the city the better, and keep moving. Aim at your most dangerous enemy and make them play defense. With them retaking their old provinces which you've razed to the ground (sold the buildings), they are busy rebuilding and you're busy making a profit.

Accelerate this effect with multiple sieges on multiple fronts, closer to your capital and larger the settlement the better. If you go a few turns into debt, thats fine, just make sure you keep sacking or you sack, then disband.

Your "kings purse" should allow you to field one defensive army. Use this as a last resort when your budget is broken. But the best defense is a good offense, and the best way out of debt is pillaging and plundering and taxing new subjects.

Use chivalrous generals close to your capital to quickly increase population for trade bonuses. Use dread generals in the furthest trade centers to improve order and increase taxes. Keep garrisons small, use free militia or one worthless unit apiece. Use small ships for transport, and only use large navies in hotseat games against human players.

In summary:

1. Use the early game to expand, not babysit your provinces and play defense.

2. Use the sacking florins to continue expanding or improve population growth and public order, use merchants

3. Focus on trade

4. When you're way ahead of your opponent, slow down and play defense, or kill them outright.

5. When running in the red, sack something quickly or disband. Dont waste troops.

[seireikhaan]

Alright, I think I'm at least getting the economic side of things down well enough. Currently in a campaign as Portugal, and though I'm not overflowing with money, its enough to supply my somewhat small empire enough funds to constantly be upgrading in most of my cities. Currently control roughly 3/5 of Iberia after taking Salamanca and the other rebel city to the south, as well as kicking the moors not only out of Spain, but taking their three westernmost African settlements.

But another question: How do I get crusades to work? Supposedly they're supposed to be summoned by Cardinals? I've tried, but no sort of extra icon ever showed up.

[Askthepizzaguy]

to call a crusade, your relations with the Pope need to be somewhere in the neighborhood of perfect, and then you need to click on the papal standings menu, and look for the blue highlighted cross. Suggest to the Pope which target...

he may or may not call it. The higher the rating, the higher the chance. Sometimes he calls them by himself. Sometimes theres one already in progress or recently over, and it takes another 10 turns to call a new one after the last one ends.

[PBI]

I think the chance to call the Crusade may also depend on how much the Pope hates the target faction, and how worthwile he thinks the target is. Certainly he seems to me to be much happier to call Crusades against Muslim factions than against excommunicated Catholics or Orthodox factions, and it seems to me he will almost never agree to a Crusade against a small or unimportant settlement.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I think the chance to call the Crusade may also depend on how much the Pope hates the target faction, and how worthwile he thinks the target is. Certainly he seems to me to be much happier to call Crusades against Muslim factions than against excommunicated Catholics or Orthodox factions, and it seems to me he will almost never agree to a Crusade against a small or unimportant settlement.

What about the nearly standard Crusade to Tunis?

I think the settlement listed near the top of the Crusade target scroll are higher priority, since Capital cities and larger settlements tend to be there, and I've noticed that once I have a request for a settlement further down the scroll turned down, I can usually get one for a higher ranked settlement.

The Pope is a schizophrenic anyway. If you play as the Papal States he will reject his own calls for a Crusade, only for one to call itself a few turns later.

[seireikhaan]

Okay, I know how to REQUEST for a crusade, but I still don't know how to actually START the crusade. Any info would be great, thanks in advance.

[pevergreen]

If you request one, the pope either accepts or denies. If he accepts then it is started, and you get 2 pop ups, one telling you it has started and another telling you to join.

[Askthepizzaguy]

to join a crusade, you need to have a general from a nonexcommunicated Catholic faction and at least 7 military units in one stack, then click on the general's scroll and there should be "hire mercs" and "join crusade" buttons. Click the blue join crusade button.

[FalloutBR]

If there is one thing that I learned while playing Rome Total War and now my jsut recently bought Medieval 2 Total War is to never stay still and leave your troops or agents stand still. Especially in the early game, if I know I won't have much use for my troops or agents in the next turn or two, I'll usually disband them. Also, I never leave any garrison in my cities or castles unless it's the free upkeep militias or just enough to have high taxes and/or happiness requirements so they don't revolt.

Of course, there are exceptions, like when I know I'll be under attack soon, by I find this almost makes the game a little bit too easy. After I've conquered a few provinces and get a little more money, I'll invest in money making buildings as soon as possible, and only then I'll start pumping out troops, alwats paying attention to my finance screen.

And a little building tip: if you are low on money, and just hate to waste a turn without building anything (I do!), try to build things that take more than one turn, so you can somehow have some spare money every other turn.

Hope these tips help, good luck.

[PracticalEnglish]

Call a crusade and sack your way to the destination. Use all available Generals to gather few week units and join the crusade, request a rely far city so you could recruit a lots of units cheap. It works for muslim's Iam, jihad. If you crusade to arthurs, from moor or egypt, you can sack fifteen cities before it's over. That can take care of your economy for the first thirty turns.

[PrestigeX]

One thing I've noticed in the game is that..

Taxations are good to keep High in the early period for some of your settlements in order to keep the money.. BUT, afterwards it's better to lower them because you will increase the population growth and public order. I usually keep all my settlements on 'Low' taxation once I start taking over new territories.

Another thing is to use militia units for city-garrison. When I invade I normally have armies of castle-built units - cavalry, knights. I try to replace them with free-garrison troops in the places I don't expect to be attacked. it'll save money.

High Taxes reduce population growth and happiness. I'd much rather make less in tax, for more population and less chance of civil strife.