Quote Originally Posted by Loopy
Struggling with your budget is one of the strategic aspects of the game. What's the challenge if you have unlimited funds? You can build as many troops as you want and just steam roll over the other factions... boring.
Struggling? Struggling? what are thee talking about? The vanilla game brings in so much money, you can afford to buy a huge city every turn in mid game (if you had a relative success early on).

If you want a financial challenge, try the Total Realism Mod. I am playing Greek city states (a relatively rich faction, in the vanilla game) and I am just entering late game. Controlling more than 25 provinces (all the rich Asia Minor and middle east, included) and I am actually struggling with the lack of money - none of my cities is fully build, I haven't bribed a single enemy city (only a rebel city, in the game start) - because I ain't got the cash to do so - and I even hesitate to build Spartans because of the high cost (purchase and upkeep).

Try that for some actual struggling...