Gaul

[Dominii]

Hi everyone, I've just started playing as Gaul in RTW and I've noticed that whilst all my other settlements are making money or have a + income, both Patavium and Mediolanum seem to be hemorraghing money with as much as -1200 a turn. Has anyone else had this and is there any way to fix it?

I'm currently not at war with anyone due to playing M/H but since I lowered my taxes to promote growth to get those lovely forrester warbands my economy has stunted so I'm slowly loosing a few 100 denarii a turn and not gaining any.

Is there any way to boost the income from both Alpine cities?


Dominii.

[Ludens]

IIRC Patavium and Mediolanum are the biggest cities of the Gauls. This means that they pay the lion's share of your unit and agent upkeep. The cost for supporting your units and agents is divided over the cities on a population basis, with the bigger cities paying the most. So these cities are not actually costing you money (no city ever does) and attempts to bring in more cash need not be limited to these cities.

The best way of making money in this game is by trade, especially sea trade. Ports should therefore be your first priority, followed by traders. Patavium is a real money spinner when developed. Do keep in mind though that there has to be something valuable in the province to make trade worthwile: check potential benefits in the city detail screen before deciding. A second option to gain more cash is by building farm upgrades, but I would stay clear of those except in provinces with a low growth rate. You cannot demolish them once built and in an already fast-growing city like Mediolanum this leads to massive squalor. The third option is obvious: get your best manager to manage you high income cities. Don't be guide by what is says on the campaign-map: go to the city detail to see which city is really making the most cash. Also, pay attention to traits and ancillaries: traders are more useful in Patavium than in Mediolanum. Lastly, see if you can reduce your expenses to army upkeep by disbanding a few useless units.

Welcome to the Org, BTW .

[gardibolt]

What Ludens said. Essentially, the numbers under each city are just an accounting figure and not anything to get concerned about. You're not actually losing money in that city. People=more tax income=more expense of armies allocated to them. On the whole, you're better off with more people, especially early in the game.

[Dominii]

Having read a few others posts on here, I thought I'd contribute with my Gaul campaign so far.....

Having taken all advice from Ludens and other posts on here, I started again on M/M with a few surprising results. Having captured the rebel provinces of Lugdunum, Massilia and Segestica and parked stacks on all the bridges in Northern Italy to deter the Julii I set about making trade agreements with the Britons, Germans, Spanish, Carthiginians, Roman Factions bar the Brutii and most of the other barbarian factions in northern Europe. That was in addition to dropping the taxes in Patavium and Mediolanum to get access to the forresters quicker. I spent the next few turns adding to the stacks on the bridges and training more units in Alesia for the inevitable attack by the brits.

By this point I'd allied with Rome, the Julii and the Scipii in the hopes of seeing off war for a bit longer, Spain to protect my border and Germania, Dacia and Thrace in order to create a barbarian alliance to combat and/or distract the Romans once they attacked. Then the strangest thing happened.......the Spanish attacked the Julii. Of course I had to side with the Romans as they were a more pressing concern on my southern border, and with the Spanish busy against the Romans they wouldn't cause me much concern. By now I had 2 3/4 full stacks on the bridges and another one hovering around Alesia as a deterrent against the strangely quiet Brits.

Using spies and diplomats, I saw the Julii's territory strangely devoid of troops so seized my chance, sent one stack to Segesta, one to Arinimum and one to Arretium. They all soon fell, bar Arinimum which the triple chevroned 1/2 stack SPQR army helped to relieve the siege of. I decided to fight them one army at a time. Suffice to say, the Senate army quickly folded against my army's warcry, druids and surprise appearance from hiding in the forest. This was greatly helped by them having to march all the way across the battlefield and up a steep hill to get to me. No more than a handful survived.

Having dealt with that threat, I laid siege to Arinimum again and had the 1/2 stack garrison vanish upon the sally turn. After exterminating the populace I set about retraining my troops ready for the assault on a now detrementally weakened Rome. At around this time the Britons declared war against Germany, but with not enough troops in that area, and a menacing Briton full stack hanging around Samarabrinova I decided against striking the British exposed backside.

Sending out a silver weaponed, triple bronze chevron, bronze armoured army of warbands, swordsmen, some barbarian cavalry and 6 forrester warbands against Rome, I had to retreat when I came under attack from two sides from beseiging their fort just south of the mountains south west or Arinimum. This allowed me to destroy the captained army that followed and attacked again. This left all but one Senate family members in the fort and just 3 units in Rome itself. After starving the fort into sallying, it was an absolute delight watching the forrester warbands tear apart the Romans before they even reached my line. I did suffer casualties as I had to attack into the fort due to the arrows running out. But with the fort gone, 4 out of 5 Senate family dead and only a small army left in Rome, it was a simple matter of beseiging the city with siege towers to send troops around capturing the towers which would be in my path to the square. Rome quickly fell.

I then retrained that army, and just in time as the Scipii had nicely recalled probably all their armies to Capua and decided to lay seige to Rome with one of them. Fortunately, I sallied forth, keeping my forresters on top of the walls to drive the Romans back (there's nothing better than gold weaponed forresters ) By the time my army was deployed the chorus of retreat was heard and I sped my cavalry and fresh troops straight towards the retreat point of the enemy, cutting down half their army on the way. The same thing happened a few turns later. At last count, the Scipii have about 4 full stacks sat West of Capua, threatening any further expansion by my forces.

In the mean time, I had a diplomat make an Alliance with the Spanish to re-protect my borders there and discovered to my horror, a Julii captured Osca along with a full stack garrison. Unfortunately, the stupid Spanish had been sending weak and small detatchments of troops to try to recapture it, allowing even the town watch and peasants to gain units of valour. Raising an army urgently in Numantia I sent them to join with my other army of recruits from Lemonum, Narbo Martius, Massilia and Alesia. Unfortunately the Julii caught my small contingent sneaking North around Osca and proceeded to annihilate it, although fortunately my family member survived. Licking my wounds I retreated back to Numantia to continue raising a bigger army, in the meantime my large army of warbands and swordsmen parked themselves on the mountains north of Osca for a terrain bonus. Unfortunately, the Julii attacked in force with wardogs. I was pretty much thoroughly whooped as their generals tore through my left flank whilst my cavalry was busy supporting my right. They then proceeded to mop up the rest of my army and left me with only remnants of 1500 men.

Whilst this was going on, the Dacians decided they wanted a piece and promptly attacked me at Segestica, fortunately I re-loaded the game early enough to get a sizeable force up to help the seige, but it was too late. I lost the town but gained the advantage as I beseiged it immediately afterwards, trapping the Dacian king inside. I assaulted the next turn and annihilated the attacking army, killing their king. I've not seen any further signs of a fight in the mean time. Immediately after this the Brutii decided to show up to reclaim the Julii land and grab some glory for themselves. After despatching both armies they sent up, my current army is undergoing retraining in Patavium whilst the Brutii remnants sit in the mountain wondering what to do next.

As it stands now, I'm allied with Thrace, Spain and Britain (the Germans cancelled the alliance when Dacia attacked, allowing me to ally with the Brits), at war with all of Rome and Dacia and have trade rights and map information from almost everyone else. The Brutii have halted their expansion as they have to deal with me, this means they have Appolonia, Salona, Thessalonica and Byzantium, with a very powerful Greece controlling everything below that line. The Scipii have 4 armies camped outside Capua waiting for my next move and thanks to my failed attacks and the Spanish incompetence, the single Julii city which sits in my unprotected heartland has a full stack of experience troops just waiting for an opportunity, including a 2 silver chevroned wardog unit

I have another army marching from Numantia to try and take Osca with reinforcements from more experienced and better armoured units coming by land from Northern Italy. The Britons have taken Trier which gives me a nice buffer between myself and the Germans, should they decide to help the Dacians, and Thrace are at war with the Dacians thanks to my request. The Brutii have an army camped just at the edge of their territory west of Rome, unfortunately my Julii conquests are unprotected against such a force and they're a considerable source of worry.

I think my next step is to annihilate the Julii utterly in Osca, and train a few more armies in Northern Italy to take care of the Scipii (I've no money to bribe). Watch this space..........

[Lorenzo_H]

The Gauls are a very interesting faction. They are incredibly easy to destroy when you're fighting them, but they have some crack units like the Foresters and Chosen Swordsmen. I think they are cool, but not as good as the Britons.

Here is my Barbarian faction ranking:

1. Germania
2. Britons
3. Gaul
4. Scythia
5. Spain
6. The Rest
7. Dacia