Get rid of 'em

[King Henry V]

Do you have cash problems? Is your treasury bleeding more than a haemophiliac? Find too much money is being taken out of the till? Then there is one easy solution: get rid of your family members! Just move them out of your cities and send them for a nice long holiday in the countryside, coupled with a bit of brigand hunting. Most of the time, you'll find your decifit might turn into a profit and your citizens will be happier to get rid of the lazy scroungers!
This what I just did in my ERE campaign. I had gone up to about 40000 dinarii, then I just plumeted overnight. At one point, the exchequer was just gushing out money at the rate of about 9000 florins a turn. I was reaching the bottom when I decided that I should try to take my family members out of the cities, and I soon had a pretty sound annual profit coming my way (6000 dinarii per turn). My treasury did slump that turn to the lowest point ever, just two dinarii, but that was because the Goths plundered Thessalonika.
Now I'm going smash those Sassanids once and for all and take back old Constantinople!

[x-dANGEr]

Well, I do think that every faimly member should oppose 1-2 cities. So if you have 10 family members, you should have 15 cities and so on. That way, you can't blame your goverenors for they high upkeep. High upkeep means good quality, so use them in battles to gain more cities to support that opposition is a better thing to do.

[Goofball]

Do you have cash problems? Is your treasury bleeding more than a haemophiliac? Find too much money is being taken out of the till? Then there is one easy solution: get rid of your family members! Just move them out of your cities and send them for a nice long holiday in the countryside, coupled with a bit of brigand hunting. Most of the time, you'll find your decifit might turn into a profit and your citizens will be happier to get rid of the lazy scroungers!
This what I just did in my ERE campaign. I had gone up to about 40000 dinarii, then I just plumeted overnight. At one point, the exchequer was just gushing out money at the rate of about 9000 florins a turn. I was reaching the bottom when I decided that I should try to take my family members out of the cities, and I soon had a pretty sound annual profit coming my way (6000 dinarii per turn). My treasury did slump that turn to the lowest point ever, just two dinarii, but that was because the Goths plundered Thessalonika.
Now I'm going smash those Sassanids once and for all and take back old Constantinople!

This only applies if you governors have money-costing vices (i.e. "Embezzler"). Some governors actually enhance city revenue based on their traits/retinue. Just read up on each family member before banishing them to the boonies.

[Doug-Thompson]

Family members should have some qualifications before being assigned to cities as governors. I leave them in a town with "higher education" institutions until they have an entourage. Also, strip some characters of their entourages and assign them to "good" family members, making those governors.

It's amusing to remove some family member's "mistress" and assign her to another.

[gardibolt]

I just started a new Brutii game in 1.5 (hadn't played a Roman since my first game, so I thought it was time---and they're SO much easier than everyone else!) and built an academy in Tarentum; the governor there picked up 3 retainers with management bonuses in the first turn, so I may send him on a tour of the provinces to drop those off to his brothers, then go back for more.

[player1]

The rules are simple.
If governor descreases city income while in city and has no other useful benefits (like better public order), then don't have him in the city, use him like cavalry or if having good command as general.

[Divine Wind]

Family members should have some qualifications before being assigned to cities as governors. I leave them in a town with "higher education" institutions until they have an entourage. Also, strip some characters of their entourages and assign them to "good" family members, making those governors.

It's amusing to remove some family member's "mistress" and assign her to another.

Call me stupid, but i never realised you could actually do that! How do you do it?

[Herakleitos]

Just make sure they are in the same army or city. You then select the guy whose retinue you want to give away and it's 'drag and drop'...

Note that generals can have a maximum of eight retainers and obviously no doubles. (Also, have fun with clicking away the 'retinue expands'-messages).

[Divine Wind]

Just make sure they are in the same army or city. You then select the guy whose retinue you want to give away and it's 'drag and drop'...

Note that generals can have a maximum of eight retainers and obviously no doubles. (Also, have fun with clicking away the 'retinue expands'-messages).

Thankyou!

[RemusAvenged]

Stripping the retainers is great. I do that for all crappy generals and anybody over 55. That way you don't loose them when the general dies.

[AntiochusIII]

I also remembered a trick in 1.2 to train 2-turn units in one turn using ancillaries, too. Just collect those who reduce unit training time enough that their combined bonus add up to 50%. For me, though, I only care about named ancillaries. Archimedes lives forever in many of my games.

Also, if the messages bore you, just right click the boxes instead of left click, and they'll disappear rather than open the message.

[Cras]

what worked for me is combining the traits of 2 family members, give all the good traits of the older one to the new young one...

immidiatly increased the happiness of the city (after i moved the old traitless one out)

[red comyn]

I also remembered a trick in 1.2 to train 2-turn units in one turn using ancillaries, too. Just collect those who reduce unit training time enough that their combined bonus add up to 50%.

Anyone know what the triggers are for gaining the relevant ancillaries?

[Doug-Thompson]

Apologies to Divine Wind for not seeing the question until now, and thanks to Herakleitos for answering the question.

Also, I misspoke by referring to "entourages." That makes it sound like only retainers can be moved. Offices and relics can be moved, too.

[teja]

Stripping the retainers is great. I do that for all crappy generals and anybody over 55. That way you don't loose them when the general dies.

Works also with spies, assasins and diplomats. Already proven persons with good traits will get retainers much faster than others. So use them to become 'trainers' for newbies.
For example, I have some older assasins with good retainers. I stripped them. Send them out to kill captains or enemy generals. I often get a new retainer when they succeed. Sometimes I recived up to 3 (!) retainers for my old veterans with one success! They work like a trainer for sure.
Not that easy, but similar with generals. Put a newbie into the same city with a proven, great other family member. Strip the veteran of retainers. If you do this inside of a city with good education buildings (Akademy upwards..., big temples and stuff) there are good chances that your veteran will get a new retainer soon and you can strip him again.
Similar with battles. A veteran general will get retainers in battle easier when he already has several good traits and NO retainer left, when he commands a force in the battle as main general. Works almost fine in killing big numbers of rioting peasants on his own^^