Financial advice for RTW noob

[BFD211]

I've done everything I know how to do and scoured the manual and other forums for help but so far I am still losing money with every turn. Any advice is greatly appreciated. The nearest I can figure out about managing all my settlements is that I have too large an army. I'm playing Brutii and have conquered all the way into Egypt but I'm almost broke and every time I raise taxes I get a riot. I've tried constructing everything that will improve trade but it still looks like my army's upkeep is killing me financially. If I auto-manage every settlement and uncheck both construction and recruitment, will that stop creating new buildings and new recruits? ...and, if so, will that help my money problems?
Dear God someone please help. I play the so-called best PC games as soon as they release for years but for some reason and despite glowing reviews since its release, I never played RTW and now I've have forsaken all other games to concentrate on RTW. Soeone please help. I can't lose my empire !!

Apppreciatively,
BFD211

[Nova Roma]

Army upkeep costs can be kept down by using peasants or town watch instead of hastati or cohorts. Definitely not worth paying upper-tier soldiers to do a job (sit down in city) peasants can do just as well.

Ports and port upgrades are big piles of money, though as the Brutii you should have conquered Athens, Sparta, etc. which are the most profitable places. If you are in Egypt make sure you capture the Great Pyramid for loyalty's sake.

Raising happiness and health in a settlement lets you raise taxes while keeping the face blue or above. (Temples, Sewers, Roman Coliseums) Temples of Juno should be built at the fringes of the empire, not Mars which should be in the huge cities at the center.

Think about relocating the capital to a central part of the empire if distance to capital is causing too much unrest (and preventing the taxgrab).

High management family members can increase productivity in a settlement, high influence governors keep public order high.

And AutoManage totally sucks. Do it yourself. If all else fails, go west to exterminate carthage, raze the buildings and abandon it.

[BFD211]

That's great advice Nova Roma. I asked this same question on other forums and got a lot of percentages thrown at me. Yours is advice I can actually understand and use. Thanks !

[Warmaster Horus]

And of course, if you've got too many soldiers, then disband them.

Since you've got Greece and the area around the Nile (at least, I think you do), trading-wise (and generally income-wise) you should be fine. Those places are the cash-cows of RTW. So just keep an eye on your expenses.

EDIT: Welcome to the forum!

[Quintus.JC]

Using Hastatis and Legionaries as city garrison is the best way to drain your treasury empty, peasants and town watch does a top-notch job at keeping your citizens happy at a minimum price. Also the sea is paved with money, build ports and upgrades as soon as possible, the Aegean sea is made of money, trade, trade and trade, there's no way you can be in debt. Also the Nile dealta has the most furtile farmlands in the game. Just watch your unit upkeep and disaband any unessary units then you'll do fine.

Welcome to the .org

[Katene]

Pffff, be first to develop your economy, then raise troops, if not you will have financial issues right away(however if you are a hyper strategist which can win all battles and cap the settlements extremely fast to solve the problem so I have no idea)... At least have all ports availaible.