My Economic Recession

[JKLeibrandt]

I cannot for the life of me, figure out why I can never make any decent money when playing my Campaigns as the Romani Or Avernii, I like having good troops instead of stupid levies so is that my issue? I know there must be a secret to a good economy in this game, but Im clueless.It just seems like the AI always has a load of great troops, but when I try to get a stack of principes with some cavalry it then takes me 20 turns to save enough to upgrade a farm or something like that, is that normal, or am I slowly getting dumber from trying too hard and smashing my head on my desk becasue I hate using money codes?.............

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

The AI gets scripted money, so that is why they never seem to suffer.

There are many guides out there telling of how to make money, though I'm sure somebody will post their advice here soon...

[Mjolnir]

Could you post some screenshots of your financial ledger, armies, etc.

[JKLeibrandt]

I wish I could I just aint played in a while and Im getting a new computer so I figured I would brush up and try to get my head in the game but one of the things I remember was having such a hard time finacially. I am installing the game on Friday so I can get some by then

[Mjolnir]

Well there's the basic stuff like, 1) concentrate on building and upgrading roads, mines, ports, and farms to increase income, 2) keep your taxes as high as possible, 3) use low upkeep units to garrison cities, 4) keep a close eye on your troop upkeep and stop building troops while it gets too high relative to your income, and 5) continually taking and enslaving cities really helps.

Follow the above and you shouldn't have any problems with money especially with Rome, Carthage, or one of the Hellenistic factions. But if you're still having problems come back here with screenshots and we'd be happy to give more specific advice. Your economy is much more important and tricky in EB then in vanilla RTW, but I think it makes EB that much more fun and realistic.

[JKLeibrandt]

Thats totally right, I love EB, you guys did an amazing job. I will definantly have to foces on cheaper units for my garrison now that I think of it that might have been my issue. I just hate fighting battles with cheap units it drives me nuts, but I guess if I want the historical experiance thats what I will have to do.... Plus the fun level of two armies of Gaesatae and Cohorts Reformata going at it is much more enjoyable than Lugoae and Polybian Hastati slowly nipping at each other...... or maybe thats just me.....

[Subotan]

Historically, pre-renaissance, the government did not interfere with the economy at any meaningful level, beyond tariffs and taxes, and the odd land reform. This was because
A. The various economic schools had not been developed, and there was no alternative to decentralisation
B. There seemed to be no need to interfere, as the system appeared to work fine, today's industrialised economies, with vastly higher levels of production and efficiency, were not around at that time, and the people were happy.
C. The concept of the state providing services was totally unknown. The first instance of what we might recognise as social democracy was the Islamic Caliphate, Zakat, but as modern medicine and technology was not present, this was of limited impact.

So therefore, EB making the government provide all these services (School/Blacksmith/Healer etc) is historically inaccurate, as the state wouldn't give a rat's ass about the infrastructure of the country, except in the case where the millitary would need to use those services (E.g. Roads). Ofc, the local cities/towns might decide "Let's build an aqueduct", but there was very rarely any state intervention, with money being collected into the treasury almost never finding it's way back into the hands of the poor.

This gives me an idea for a mod; Oeconomia Barbarorum! An Economically accurate modification of Rome: Total War!

[JKLeibrandt]

That makes perfect sense, however I know that many of the german tribal warriors were responsible for a majority of their own food on campaign and supplied most of their own weapons and armor out of there own coffers, It just seems odd that the upkeep costs of many of the Barbarian units are so high, despite the fact they were mostly self sufficient unlike the locally garrisoned Roman counterparts, Its just hard to come up with the hordes of "Wild Barbarians" that I like to use to swarm the Roman Cohorts, I still enjoy the game but I guess I need to brush up on my economic gaming instead of giving myself so many "Economic Stimuli..cough...cough" haha thank you for your post is was very informative

[Maion Maroneios]

Ah, so you have difficulties making money eh? Well, there are several things you can do about that. As the Romani, making money is about the easiest thing you can do. Just follow these simple, yet very effective ways of beoming filthy, filthy rich:

1) Use good governors in your cities. Good governors (with appropriate traits and management points) always help you make even more money in settlements.
2) Set taxes as high as possible (I personally allow my cities to have a 'yellow face' for public order maximum)
3) Set building priorities. Prefer markets, ports and income boosting temples whenever available. Or just any other economic building, like mines. Especially mines
4) When out conquering, make sure you chose targets that are going to make you richer. So areas like Iberia (good mines) and Hellas (good trade plus mines) will make you very rich.
5) Use as small garrisons as possible in cities that are not directly threatened by your neighbouring factions.
6) When having a peaceful time (quite rare, but happens), disband as many troops as you deem fit and see your incomes hit the skies.

That's all I can think of ight now. Follow these simple steps and your coffers shall swell with hundreds of thousand of mnai in no time. Plus, you'll earn the right to become a member of the filthy rich EB players

Maion

[von_neurath]

I dare give some pieces of advice, which I took a long time ago from the EB community, in what concerns Romani expansion, besides the ones already given:
1. in the beginning, I only maintain the 2 consular armies which I rebuild each time they suffer from casualties of war.( I know, it is time consuming when far away from home but, till you get back to your cities, the economy is relaxed by lesser troops around).
2. I pick on easy targets, and only attack Taras when its troops are shipped back on the mainland. Then easily I make peace with Epeiros having a stable trade partner in Adriatic Sea
3. Besides Hispanic mines, the most accessible are the ones on the Illyrian coast. They can give you sometimes more than 10000 minai, in time. Of course, you have to protect them from Epeiros and Makedonia but it is cheaper to retrain and reinforce by sea the garrisons in Illyria than going all the way to Iberian peninsula and losing on the way good troops in Eleutheroi, Gaul, Lusotan or Carthaginian skirmishing.
4. Don't invest too much in troops. Historically, the Romans didn't have too many armies at the same time, and they only organize them on necessity. Roman cavalry usually sucks and too many triaries are expensive and can be easily brake by some of other factions elite troops. It is better to read the presentation of the main troops a faction has (on EB site) before you launch an attack on it. Therefore, maybe you don't need cavalry(on sieges and in woods) or heavy infantry (especially in the desert) too much, and your costs are kept low.
5. I prefer playing sieges more than open battles because: a. infantry is the key to victory; b. sometimes is cheaper for my troops, especially after spying on the cities; c. you can kill everyone inside(they cannot run away), so the adversary is crippled for at least a short period of time and it does not have the time to reinforce.(and in any case, AI is pretty dumb).

[JKLeibrandt]

thats makes alot of sense, I have some learning up to do haha usually I use the money code cause everytime I try on the difficulty settings I get run over in the first two or 3 hours, so It will be a process for me I guess, I get my new computer tomorrow.....yessssssssssssssss, then the slaughter will begin.....muahahahahahahahahaha

[Watchman]

So therefore, EB making the government provide all these services (School/Blacksmith/Healer etc) is historically inaccurate, as the state wouldn't give a rat's ass about the infrastructure of the country, except in the case where the millitary would need to use those services (E.g. Roads). Ofc, the local cities/towns might decide "Let's build an aqueduct", but there was very rarely any state intervention, with money being collected into the treasury almost never finding it's way back into the hands of the poor.

I would argue this is a somewhat excessively literalistic take on how the in-game building system works - nevermind now that the more centrally organised realms in fact did consciously and specifically invest heavily in various aspects of the infrastructure, be it building roads, expanding temples and their associated structures and institutions, actively encouraging the production of quality war gear (didn't Rome at least under the Republic persistently try to ensure arms production met various standards of quality and quantity...?), making all the complicated arrangements to supply the naval arsenals with the necessities for building larger and more sophisticated warships, et multiple cetera.

In the case of the less centralised societies things of course get rather a bit more abstract, and are better thought of as more "grassroots" level "resource allocation" for diverse ends by the varied inhabitants, petty nobles etc. of the province(s) concerned, say the local merchants and their patrons seeking to expand the scale and scope of their operations or whatever.

[JKLeibrandt]

Thanks everyone for the information, it will be put to good use, and I pray the Flying Spaghetti Monster chooses to spare my pathetic insignificant existance, however, I do have a pirate outfit, so hopefully I am in his fair graces........ oh, is there any specific way to increase the management efficiancy of certain governers like keeping them in a city with good schools or something...?

[Mooks]

Thanks everyone for the information, it will be put to good use, and I pray the Flying Spaghetti Monster chooses to spare my pathetic insignificant existance, however, I do have a pirate outfit, so hopefully I am in his fair graces........ oh, is there any specific way to increase the management efficiancy of certain governers like keeping them in a city with good schools or something...?

Yes, it helps massively in the long run to build a major school in Rome to train governors up till theyre 23 or something. Gives them pretty good retinues. In my Carthrage game right now (VH/H) every governor I have has a massive retinues that increase tax/trade massively.

I even believe in this so much I build schools in all of my main provinces. They pay for themselves.