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

[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.

[professorspatula]

I'm glad you managed to find a way to escape your debt, whereas my Italian faction's ecomony is fast plunging into horror! Seemingly reliant mainly on sea trade, I was more interested in building up a massive trade fleet and controlling just a few provences here and there than total domination. But after being excommunicated when I wouldn't give up a provence to a tiny Spanish crusade army that had been retreating continuously for 10 years before I took the region out of frustration, things have gone nightmare-ish. My large 90K treasury and 10K a turn profit plunged to +3K a turn, then +2K. But I was able to keep the trade routes going, although I was constructing so many buildings and troops, that I was really losing about 6K a year. Then the Turks launched a couple of assaults in the same turn, which I fought off, but then the French joined in the 'lets make the Italians suffer' game. With most of my trading partners gone, and trade routes blocked off, suddenly I am losing 10,000+ florins a turn!

I realise now that continuously training about 20 units a turn was a bit much, and construction of new non-profit making buildings have been halted. But I just can't make any new friends or barter for a much needed ceasefire with anyone so I can claw back some trade. My king has maximum influence, but that carries no weight it seems. Princesses, emissionaries et al are useless too. I really didn't want to take over large chunks of land in this campaign, but with my ridiculous sized army (about 20-25 thousand in size for a medium unit scale setting) unless I disband about half of them, I'm going to have to go on a blitz campaign and see how much land I can grab in the hope of thinning out their ranks whilst gaining more income. Fortunately I had the sense to keep about 40 ships in the seas to tackle enemy navies, because they're the lifeblood of my faction. I even decided to leave the papacy homeless just so the excommunication would end so I could hopefully regain some reputation with my fellow Christians.

I fully expect to be staring at large figures in red text for quite some time! What a shame you can't trade within your own faction. Bah!

[gaijinalways]

Conduct a 'scorched earth' policy on provinces where you can raze the most buildings and you will fare okay, especially if you still have florins to spend. Don't worry about adding provinces to your empire, just cripple your enemies' chances of building up their military and other units by wiping the buildings clean. If you can, improve your farming in the provinces you already have, especially where it will return the most, this will boost your non-trade income. By attacking, any soldiers you lose will cut your expenses, and always take prisoners but don't execute them as some will be ransomed back, again generating some income.

If you must, sacrifise some provinces to save money and to consolidate your position if they are provinces that are difficult to keep (border-wise, loyalty-wise, etc.).

I managed to get out of the hole, and am now having to do the same again as the HRE, the BYZ, and the Spanish still all refuse to make even a cease fire with me after 20 years. But managed to hold onto my empire and am making the Spanish suffer again (with the HRE maybe being next once the pope's 10-year-warning period lapses)!

[Kralizec]

To avoid situation like these, I always upgrade farming even while I'm making in tons of cash from trading. As you know when you're at war with an AI faction with lots of ships they'll often (deliberately?) disrupt your trade routs. Having lots of farms and maybe some gold/silver mining to fall back on eases the pain.

A tip: if you wipe out the Spanish fleet and have no land bordering them, retreat your ships to waters that don't border their land. If you have no land contact with them and keep it that way for one turn your diplomatic stance with them should revert to neutral and you can start trading with them again (I hope you didn't raze their ports!)