Blackhole economics, escaping massive debt, my apologies, long post

[gunslinger]

I wouldn't disband mercs or sell buildings. You don't get much cash for buildings anyway. If you want to get rid of mercs, make an army out of them and attack! Even if you lose, you should be able to do some pretty serious damage to the enemy while lowering your own costs.

You can always take those mercs, along with any outdated troops still on your roster, and make them the first line of units for a battle in hilly country. Put out 13 of those kind of units as well as your general, one spear, and one unit of bows. Set up those three units on a hill near the edge, and let the other 13 charge straight up the mountain into the enemy. Try to engage as many enemy as possible (no double teaming or flanking). Your "throwaway units will rout soon enough, and the enemy units will then tire out while chasing them all over them map, while "eliminating" some of your overhead for you. As your units rout off, you bring in your "keeper" units from the reserve and line them up on the hill with your general, spears and archers. The enemy units that have been chasing your throwaways will probably now attack your fresh units who are sitting on a hill in a nice defensive formation. After you destroy them, you are free to march your army across the map and mop up the scattered enemies.

You should kill a boatload of enemy units this way while you only lose units that you didn't really want anyway.

[gaijinalways]

Interesting idea gunslinger, though it depends on the terrain and your general not routing. I may give it a go. I still tend to disabnd merc units that are very depleted unless I use them as a harassment unit or if that's all I have.

[gaijinalways]

Well, I have managed to get out of the hole, but as yet my economy is still bleeding money. I accidentally earlier got excommed (stayed in a castle one turn too long). Took the pope down, but now have some other problems with lost turf and continuing lost trade (and got some cash ). Need to reconsolidate, though am currently attacking and damaging Spanish territory to raise money and whip down my mercs. Alos heading off the Spanish armies on my other side as well.

Have about 6k in the bank, but still my economy is overheated. Been using most of my merc units to try and whittle down the enemy units.

[gaijinalways]

An update, back in the black again. managed to seal off my borders except for provance and dump my mercs. Building up my navy as I take the Sopanish down. Used my old ploy, attack, raze, move on to the next province. I often like to leave a castle and occupy it with a small unit of 5 men or less, because often the AI will hesitate before sieging. You can keep the AI from building for quite some time, thus removing a higher income producing province and a source of fighting units.

My games often seem to cycle this way, but this game featured a bigger drop then I have seen before when my trade was snapped off suddenly.

[Martok]

Good job, gaijinalways. Way to battle your way back to profitability!

[Csargo]

Cheat.

[gaijinalways]

Not sure if it's a cheat, but rather using a tactic that takes advantage of the AI logic. Though, to be honest, it doesn't always work, as sometimes the AI sieges in short order depending on the castle's defenses and if the AI has siege engines.

Out of places where I did this (Leon, Castille, and Syria), Syria fell quickly, Leon fell twice and Castille fell and then was retaken (happened when the Spanish attacked me again in Navarre and Aragon, nice victories for me too).

I am still surprised by the AI on occasion in battles, and I don't always get easy battles, still challenging. Something that makes MTW a very enjoyable game, its replayability.