200k in the bank ... what to do?

[noramis]

I'm at 27 provinces and the managing is becoming somewhat hard. I have around 200,000 in the bank and I find it near impossible to spend it all. Even if I wanted to spend it ... what would I spend it on? Bribing cities?

Any ideas what to do when your sitting on a mountain of cash?

[ghostcamel]

I like to prop up declining empires. Of course my bank wasnt 200k, but i imagine with that much money you could create a massive ai empire, then demolish them in the late game. Maybe bribe some cities over to them. I play the game with an eye on geopolitics, not conquest. So i also dont play as Romans because the Senate forces you to be Mussolinni.

Remember, you dont have to fly your flag over a province to control it ;)

[Shottie]

I would also buy some units conquer anything you can, maybe buy a some nice jewlery for the Queen, maybe a little victory car for you. I like the new mustang. But I would use it in anyway to help your empire, maybe making better more 'high-tec' units?

[Mikeus Caesar]

Ehehe, i'm the one who should be thinking of what to do with a pile of cash. I have 5,000,000+!!!!

[Maltz]

You are most welcome to transfer the money to my bank account...

Oh well, a good company runs when cost and profits are in a good balance and the surplus are put in good use. I suppose if you have too much cash, it is an indication that you can afford more armies. You might want to send out another stack or two... In my own experience (in VH), in mid-late game, the army upkeep is about 120% of tax income, which is about the same as my trade income. Minus all corruption then I have just enough to spend. Early on my army upkeep is about the same as my tax income, which is about 70% of all income sources.

In the current VH campaign (the Armenian one) I finished the map (103 settlements), my bank never exceeded 150k and actually came down to ~40k until I stopped all military productions. I only had a few troop producing centers for cataphracts throughout, but I do pick up tons of mercenaries on the way.

Later in the game I guess there are just too many rebels to bribe here and there... I also bribe rebel towns to kill extra money. If you are one of the conscientious players that don't like bribing, then I guess the only way is to make more armies...

[Silver Rusher]

Sometimes u get mad income and can't actually make enough troops to keep up with ur cashflow.

I would pay other factions to get them to do whatever you want, that's often a good way of pissing off money.

[Shottie]

If you have a big income and you are spending it on an army and all your needs and wants and you still have money left over, its ok. I think you should have money saved, just in case someone gets the balls to attack you and actually hurt your income a little you will have money to back that drop of income up.

[Kraxis]

Hehe... Use the money to get a couple of factions into a massive war, then pull a 'Persian' and fund them in their war. For instance if one side conquers a city, then you give the other side a lot of money to get it back.

It doesn't really benefit you, unless you are kept up fighting on other fronts. But it can be a fun game in itself. Money makes the world go around...

[Grifman]

You need a large reserve because once you declare against the Senate, trade income drops precipitously and you'll run in the negative.

Grifman

[Oaty]

I'd start spamming out shops and bankrupt myself just for total dominance of the seas

[Drewman]

When I'm playing a Roman faction, I'll start feeding money to Carthage, the Greeks & Macedon, or the Gauls as appropriate to keep rival families weak.

[Sin Qua Non]

I'm also a fan of the benefactor nation role. Especially if I'm non-Roman, I'll try to make a pan-Eurasian anti-Rome alliance with as many people as possible. Not always successful and fun to try. Anything to shake up the Romans. If I am Roman, I'll often embark on some gargantuan civil defense project, like a wall of forts across my entire front, or maybe an enormous invasion of some far-flung land, only to disperse the land among several nations.

[AssasinsShadow]

Yea, I always used to do that in M:TW. I'd play as the Italians, build a small empire, usually around 20 providences, maybe less. Then I would launch picket fleets around the world, harassing certain factions so as to make others stronger. My best success was getting the danes to take Sweden, Norway, AND Saxony.

[Mikeus Caesar]

I'll often embark on some gargantuan civil defense project

Hehe, i wasted about 100k on building forts everywhere to stop attacks on my frontier towns, and now the greek empire is inpenetrable!! Right now i'm having a bit of fun funding all of the factions that are against rome.You know, giving them about, hm, let's say....20k per turn. It is quite effective.....

[Silver Rusher]

OR

Give all your money to factions on the other side of the map that you generally consider to be weak, but that have interesting armies. For example, as Macedon give loads of money to Spain. This makes for an interesting endgame.

[m4rt14n]

Click Automanage all settlement. See ur money go flushed down the toilet in 5-10 turns

[LordKhaine]

When I was Parthian and making a ton of cash, I gave the Greeks 100k to attack the Romans. And then I bribed away the Roman armies attacking them, and they soon were up from 2-3 doomed cities to all of western Greece. And then I allied and continued to fund them to tie up Roman armies and attack Thrace. All this to attack Rome.. without ever being at war with Rome. I even tried bribing Roman factions to attack non-roman factions, simply so I could then fund the non-roman faction to attack back

I must have spent about 50 turns doing this, until the Scipii finally attacked me. By the end of the game, I was still allied with Greece. And they had a pretty impressive empire themselves. Certainly made that campaign a lot more fun!

[Kraxis]

Ah... Persian gold. Yes the Greeks have always been a little weak at the knees for that.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Bwahaha!!! All of europe falls down before my mighty (and very expensive) armies!!! I rule the world!!! Now i just gotta figure out how to use the oliphaunt cheat, and finally smash the roman scum....

[Malbulga]

In my first campaign as the Brutii (M/VH - I was very familiar with the battle game and could take the challenge, but was still a little unfamiliar with the campaign games subtleties) I found that with enough well placed temples of Mercury, the entirety of Greece and the Aegean region, Rhodes and Large Chunks of Turkey etc under my control, that my bank account quickly grew to between 500,000 and 600,000 denari. This was accomplished by before 220 BC, and allowed me to seize Rome, Sicily and the entirety of the Italian mainland in the two years between 199bc and 197bc.... all told this only cost me around 100,000 denari in lost trade (i.e. my bank account only dropped to 420,000 at its lowest point). One way of putting such alot of money to use is to start building forts and garrisoning them with semi large armies, so when the time comes to seize Rome you can safely divert all of your experienced armies towards the other factions. I never really wanted to give handouts etc to other factions (that moneys mine...... ALL MINE) as I wanted to have enough money to seize Rome without any difficulties, and feel secure when I can spend in excess of 50,000 on construction for a single city in a single turn and only see the slightest dent in my bank balance...