Bankruptcy

[claymore]

I have depleted my 200K + war chest in an endgame slugging match with the other remaining opponent left in the game (the Spanish).

I am currently 25K "overdrawn" with no hope of increasing my income due to the war, what does the future hold? I'm beginning to see more and more victories against the Spanish and reckon I can beat them in about 15 years - if I had the cash. Plundering captured provinces is not making up the shortfall and I am running an overall loss of about 8-10 k a year. The Spanish have had a number of rebellions but I can't trade with these nations as despite my naval supremacy it seems one Spanish caravel can disrupt trade despite my 8 cog fleet in the same sea!

How much money can you owe and what are the consequences of being increasingly in debt other than not being able to build / train. i.e rebellions civil wars etc? I presume the Spanish are suffering the same so I'm hoping it will affect them before me as they are a larger empire with more outgoings.

On other related point before the attack on my kingdom which forced this death match. I noticed my coffers decreasing even though my finance sheet told me I was generating an overall profit each year. Any medieval accountants out there?

If sue for peace to give me a respite but the Spanish refuse every time, any ideas on that one?

[Hold Steady]

I have depleted my 200K + war chest in an endgame slugging match with the other remaining opponent left in the game (the Spanish).

I am currently 25K "overdrawn" with no hope of increasing my income due to the war, what does the future hold? I'm beginning to see more and more victories against the Spanish and reckon I can beat them in about 15 years - if I had the cash. Plundering captured provinces is not making up the shortfall and I am running an overall loss of about 8-10 k a year. The Spanish have had a number of rebellions but I can't trade with these nations as despite my naval supremacy it seems one Spanish caravel can disrupt trade despite my 8 cog fleet in the same sea!

How much money can you owe and what are the consequences of being increasingly in debt other than not being able to build / train. i.e rebellions civil wars etc? I presume the Spanish are suffering the same so I'm hoping it will affect them before me as they are a larger empire with more outgoings.

On other related point before the attack on my kingdom which forced this death match. I noticed my coffers decreasing even though my finance sheet told me I was generating an overall profit each year. Any medieval accountants out there?

If sue for peace to give me a respite but the Spanish refuse every time, any ideas on that one?

Woops, dire straits.. Well, there are no consequences IIRC, other then unable to build/train. There are no bigger (loan)sharks than yourself in this game, so nobody is gonna break your legs or pop a kneecap or something. As far as I know, there are no happiness or loyalty penalties (there should be if the game was very realistic, on account of payment to your troops, but there aren't).

Can you disband useless troops, sell of buildings and with the cash build agricultural improvements and mines? Also, if you need to garrison some provinces that are not profitable, give 'em to the rebels.. If you have naval superiority, try to destroy all his fleets. try to find trading partners outside his reach. And try to assign high acumen governors to the most profitable provinces. What is the area you posses? Which provinces? How many troops do you keep up?

[claymore]

Can you disband useless troops, sell of buildings and with the cash build agricultural improvements and mines? Also, if you need to garrison some provinces that are not profitable, give 'em to the rebels.. If you have naval superiority, try to destroy all his fleets. try to find trading partners outside his reach. And try to assign high acumen governors to the most profitable provinces. What is the area you posses? Which provinces? How many troops do you keep up?[/QUOTE]

I cleared the build list - still a few Fotressess under construction but these are already paid for. I have not been producing an new units for a few years now How do I sell buildings - is this the same as destroying them? I have almost complete dominance of the sea and want to keep it that way - I need to build ships to maintain this. I destroy his fleets and they reappear again - so I know he is still building. The odd defeat is picking away at my fleets slowly but surely.

Most of the rebel provinces are in the not so profitable North African coast - he has held Tripoli etc from the rebels. The Spanish control the southern half of the map - 1/2 France, Spain, Italy, All the former Byzantine and Egyptian lands bar Corsica and Sardinia still held by the Italians.

I control everything East of England as far as Kahazar and as south as Swabia/Poland and 1/2 France- I think he has Hungary - so he's definitely bigger than me, I will try giving up some of the Russian provinces to rebels and see if that helps. I was hoping to launch attacks through Khazar into the mid east to deprive him of that area - trouble is I'm also retaking France province by Province and have a raiding party in Spain trying to cause trouble - don't know if this will make a lot of difference. I honestly don't know how many stacks I have, probably around 10-12 good stacks of about 1000-1500 men. I keep very few good garrison troops some regions don't even have a garrison as they are over 200% loyalty. I don't think my luck is going to hold much longer. Have to try playing the Spanish next time!

[Ludens]

Destroy buildings, filter your construction queue's (you'll get your money back if you stop building the fortresses) and disband mercenaries and expensive, unnecessary garrison troops. I assume you can't trade anymore, so there is no objection to focussing all your ships (except for a single one in each sea) on the enemy. I advice going straight for his heartlands: this will cripple his production and the countries of Spain are very rich even without trade. Also: do you regularly check your provincial governors for vices? I scan my units about every decade to see if someone more skilled has appeared that can take over the governing of my provinces. Four acumen governor can really increase your cash flow in wealthy provinces.

It is too easy to become reliant on trade income to supply your armies. Once the end game starts trade income will dry up leaving you without the cash you used to pay your armies with. Try no to become to dependant on it. Keep your armies small but well equipped and don't be afraid to disband units that are obsolete or unneeded. Keep small and cheap garrisons and place a spy in every province to keep loyalty up. Take special care with mercenaries: only use them when you have no alternative unit. Mercenaries are very expensive.

[mfberg]

Encourage rebellions and capture the rebels.

Kill any ship you see, find out which province they are building ships in and crush it.

Use your mercenaries as front line troops, and disband any that remain alive. Mercenary cavalry are money-pits.

mfberg

[claymore]

Thanks for the advice - I don't really do Mercenary troops unless I really need to - I don't have any currently but if there are no consequences to going furhter into the red I might hire some to weaken the stronger spanish stacks before sending in my own troops.

I will try getting rid of some buildings to see if that helps - my agriculture and mines are to the max at the moment so there won't be any joy there. I have been fairly careful about not building too many unecessary buildings though so I don't know how much I can raise through that. I think the raiding party in Spain is going to have to ramp things up with a bit of scorched earth - hopefully that will stop the ships appearing and also lead to rebellions - esp Portugal which seems to rebel every third year. I will give up some of the Russian provinces as these are stretching me thin at present.

I'll try the spy tip too - I've only really sent them to foreign provinces before now.

I've got a general who's an outlaw - I stripped him of titles and command moved his unit out of the stack and tried to assassinate him but he'd he's quite difficult to get rid of - I feel a suicide mission coming on - shame to lose the good troops he commands though - but maybe the spy would work on him - currently don't have any spies as they have all gone by the wayside but may have problems training any more.

Still if people aren't bored to death of my antics then I'll see if any of these things work tonight and let you know how I get on.


Cheers all

[bretwalda]

Kill the Spanish. Burn n' loot. This way they get beaten and you lose troops for which you don't have to pay maintenance. Trash you mercenary troops on the enemy, especially. This time the more men they lose the better... Do this to your ships as well, it is a very good time to kill enemy ships as long as you keep you line of shipping open (I mean at least 1-2 ship in each sea area) If you lose 4 out of your 8 ship fleet is no problem - less maintenance you have to pay. Keep you own infrastructure intact but sell all building is the provinces you don't want to keep (for now). Let those border provinces rebel. Shorten your borders. Defend them the at the fewest possible provinces. This way you will consolidate your empire and deal a great blow to the enemy.