Problems making money

[DukeKent]

M2TW is about the money. One simple trick is to always focus on Economics first each turn. Do the buildings first. Always focus on building that generate money first(ports, roads, merchant buildings, mines, farms). Then look to the rest. You need a strong economy to afford a strong military. Don't buy the expensive toys (er units, and military buildings) until you can afford them. In M2TW most of my armies are primarily militia. Most of the rest of the troops come with castle upgrades. You just don't need any better to beat the AI militia armies until way later in the game. Even then you should be able to beat the AI with an inferior militia army. Excepting the Mongols and Timurids. They have a much better AI in my experience. I have actually had a couple of good battles against the Mongols. Did I say its about the money

[holycow]

I don't think you're using your merchants to their max capacity. You will generate more $$ by acquiring other merchants than sitting on a resource, unless it's gold/amber. side query why is amber so expensive? you get more from amber that silver? go figure.

anyways, march your merchants along with a spy a few provinces away to skill up your agent to about 4 and then march into Milan area - it seems that merchants like to congregate there and acquire other merchants. depending on their level should generate anywhere from 500-2k.

as mentioned earlier the gold and amber are easy and rich resources, but if you are able, also target the spices and silk in Middle East - should generate 700-800.

Lastly, how do you get -80k at end of game? I normally play English and by the time I take out France, I'm pretty much rolling in $$.

[dumas]

side query why is amber so expensive? you get more from amber that silver? go figure.

It's kind of offtopic, but silver is much more abundant(and therefore cheaper) than most people think. And it's also much easier to extract in mass quantities comparied to amber, especially with low tech.

[Memnoch]

I just noticed this...I'm having problems making money too. But how do you end up with -80000? I thought the game didn't let you run deficits?

[gardibolt]

I just noticed this...I'm having problems making money too. But how do you end up with -80000? I thought the game didn't let you run deficits?

It's very, very easy to run deficits if you build an army bigger than you can afford. When the Black Death hits and your taxpayers all die (as well as your trading partners), you can easily end up with a huge hole in your bank account.