Request: info on income by province

[dismal]

Has anyone seen a good analysis of which provinces generate the most income?

I know it depends on a variety of factors, but I'm looking for an "all other things being equal" analysis.

A test that would be nice to see:

Income (excluding allocations) by province with
- one faction owned every province (all trade possibilities possible)
- no governors
- maximum economic buildings

Maybe with and without wonder bonuses (rhodes).

[Kekvit Irae]

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=39404 is a good thread to read about trade income. In fact, all the threads of that subforum are a good read to see the inner workings of RTW

[Mikeus Caesar]

I find that most teched up cities in the Balkans and Asia Minor tend to be my high earners. Some of them earn up to and over Dn9000+ e.g. Pergamum, Athens, Byzantium. Byzantium especially, as it controls access to the black sea, and all the trade to the northern part of my empire, and my trade routes with Armenia.

[Quietus]

Has anyone seen a good analysis of which provinces generate the most income?

I know it depends on a variety of factors, but I'm looking for an "all other things being equal" analysis.

A test that would be nice to see:

Income (excluding allocations) by province with
- one faction owned every province (all trade possibilities possible)
- no governors
- maximum economic buildings

Maybe with and without wonder bonuses (rhodes).

The "all other things being equal" condition is not possible because one long-suspected factor is distance. But again, province locations are fixed and distance is relative. If you want to see the highest earners, just right-click the city tab in the strategic map (and a scroll will appear). Then click the "income" header to arrange the city by income toggled from highest/lowest vice-versa.

In addition, nobody knows how exactly the game determines which cities will trade with which at any given time. Hence, values will change depending which cities you own and the relative distances of your cities and other factors.

[Productivity]

All other things held equal = ceteris paribus

[TF923]

Any time you have two ports on two different land masses which are very close together, that is a high money-maker. One pair of ports like that can out-earn an entire empire of land-locked cities. Here's a few off the top of my head:

Corduba-Tingi
Londinium-Samarobriva
Rhodes-Halicarnassus
Byzantium-Nicomedia
Carthage-Lilibaeum
Tarentum-Apollonia

Those are the best to have. Any of those cities, as long as you are at peace with the other port, will make you tons of money.

[MajorFreak]

yup. Sea trade eclipses taxes, mines AND farming combined. I've been playing the Brutii faction and have all of greece and turkey under my heel. Athens is an amazing breadwinner - trade alone brings in 4500 gp (that's without a governor, nor trade temple; 16k pop minimum for all nearby provinces)

[dismal]

The "all other things being equal" condition is not possible because one long-suspected factor is distance. But again, province locations are fixed and distance is relative. If you want to see the highest earners, just right-click the city tab in the strategic map (and a scroll will appear). Then click the "income" header to arrange the city by income toggled from highest/lowest vice-versa.

In addition, nobody knows how exactly the game determines which cities will trade with which at any given time. Hence, values will change depending which cities you own and the relative distances of your cities and other factors.

I understand there are limitations on my "all other things being equal" request, but I think my approach to setting all of the provinces to one faction would give you some idea as to which provinces would have the most potential value as part of a large empire.

Once I had that info, I might test to see which other provinces they depended on to get that income and any other important rules of thumb that would apply. (For example, is trade higher with an ally, neutral faction or with yourself?)

Ultimately, I'm just looking for a handy reference to help prioritize which provinces to take as I plan the shape of my empire.

[MajorFreak]

well, like we've said before it's all about coastal ports. (relative population modifies this, but it's not that spectacular a modifier; just like taxes)

• once you understand that it all becomes incredibly easy: finding neighbouring port allies or, baring that, conquering those provinces ASAP

This also makes you realize how devastating blockades can be against your allies' enemies. (who are too far away to trade with you anyways)

[Quietus]

Once I had that info, I might test to see which other provinces they depended on to get that income and any other important rules of thumb that would apply. (For example, is trade higher with an ally, neutral faction or with yourself?)

Technically, with a fixed number of cities, you get more from trading with the AI due to trade rights bonus. Have you read my Guide? Go to the economics section.

[dismal]

Thanks, I appreciate the effort you put into the guide. It's a good theoretical overview.

It would still like to get down below the theory to the individual provinces.

Do we have a list of the trade goods available in each province and what their relative value is? (I remember seeing this in MTW).

Do we have a list of the base farming income and pop growth rate by province?

Can some provinces reach more land trading partners than others?

In fact, it would be interetsing to see if you can take the theory as you've laid it out in your guide and the raw province data I describe above to create a spreadsheet which calculates which provinces are the most valuable - and test the results against the actual game.