The Plague

[Gdek]

So I've been continuing with my England campaign after a bit of a break.

I'm holding 30 or so provinces, including Jerusalem, and am aiming to make the final push to finish the long campaign objectives.

Unfortunately, the Black Death has just appeared. In the past 2 turns, my income has gone from having 5-10k excess per turn to being 11k in the hole.

Other than disbanding all my forces, is there anything I can do to get back onto the positive side? I fear that if I start culling armies to bring down costs that I'll lose large chunks of the territory I'd gained.

How long does the Black Death last? It seems fairly pervasive, as I think it's affecting every single one of my settlements, and I seem to be loosing 25k population per turn, or more.

Thoughts? Hints? Gifts of cash?

Gdek

[FactionHeir]

Duration is just about the time of a normal plague but i think it does more damage is all. It sweeps from east to west sparing a few towns along the way (edinburgh being one of them, i think one in german territory too)
Just don't move units in or out of settlements (if you have to, move stuff out, but not in again)

Contrary to popular belief, there is no harm in letting agents/family members stay inside the settlement. Oh, and for towns not yet hit, move out anything you still need before it hits.
Disband excessive garrison troops as the plague will help you manage PO issues.

[Furious Mental]

The Black Death ain't that bad. You might have to reduce the size of your armies but in my experience the AI, which is equally effected, doesn't tend to attack much during the Black Death. If it was as severe as its historical counterpart we'd have a real catastrophe on our hands.

[Aaron A Aardvark]

Apart from not moving characters around between settlements, I mostly ignore the Black Death. You just have to ride it out. There's not a lot you can do about it.

Economy collapses. Army loses men. Family members die. Then it goes away. Everything gets back to normal.

Look on the bright side - it culls your excess population.

[Bijo]

Look on the bright side - it culls your excess population.

Exactly :)

[HoreTore]

it's about 10-15 turns without doing anything, nothing more really...The economy will get back up again as soon as it goes away, no need to worry about it.

The thing you should worry about however, is the timurid invasion coming in just afterwards... That's the real hit you get from the plague.

[The Teacher]

I use it to my advantage. Once I get the first plague warning I save up money. I normaly stop saving once I hit 100K. Then you can keep you wars going even though you economy is being destroyed. Normaly once I get to about bankrupt levels of income then the Plague lifts and I carry on as normal.

:)

[SadCat]

Look at it this way. God calls a time out and you have to sit in your room for 6 turns watching you country die. Then it moves on and in 1-3 turns that huge debt is gone and its back to war. SadCat

[TevashSzat]

Yep, it is more of a blessing in disguise than something to worry about

[steev]

It definitely pays to stock up on cash well in advance of the plague. The first time I had the Black Death I had a huge cash balance of about 300K, but the Black Death wiped over 100K off it. Last campaign I noticed i was taking a hit of about 30K per turn while it went on. Usually when i have about 30 provinces I'm building like crazy to avoid getting a huge balance, so when the plague hits I just stop building, recruiting, replacing, fighting etc. Seems to hit the AI worse, as it doesnt plan in advance too well.

[Caliburn]

The AI is hit worse than you mostly: hit them when they're down. Exterminate for cash, it's an insane time of death, why not act like it and seize the day for an orgy of destruction.

[craziii]

hmm, it only lasted like 4 turns for my entire empire except 3 cities. I am playing unofficial 1.2. I had like 34 provinces and 24k income every turn. I was still building up my cities even during the pleague, nothing to it.

[phonicsmonkey]

I too had a very easy ride with the Black Death..lost about 150k in population across the board, which just nicely trimmed the troublemakers out of my larger cities...

I stopped building immediately it hit and saved money for a few turns. i think it only lasted three turns for me as I didn't spread it by moving units from city to city.

but I agree with the previous poster who said it leaves you badly prepared for the Timurids...I'm hoping my frantic production of artillery will bridge the gap when they appear in the next turn or two...

[Ciaran]

Look on the bright side - it culls your excess population.

That´s the weirdest thing, actually. By the time the Black Death arrives, my cities usually are the size so they go to yellow status, even on low taxes. As soon as the plague hits and kills off the first batch, they go up to green
I think at least for the duration of the Plague public order should take a massive hit. On the one hand, the public security forces are drastically reduced (think about it, they move all about the city and especially those parts likely to be affected by the plague) and when you´re likely to die the next day anyways, why bother with such niceties like law?

[FactionHeir]

Plague does decrease PO by removing trade and lowering population growth two fold.

[steev]

I paid a bit more attention to the progress of the plague in my latest game. The thing I found most amusing is the message that comes up "the plague has now passed" - meaning it has now hit all your cities. Because its the three turns after this message that you get the real financial hit. The AI's idea of a good wheeze, no doubt.

[Patricius]

I line up some city sacking armies of second rate forces with a some first rate field forces that stay outside cities for the duration to tackle invaders. I also find the ai is fairly quiescent during the Black Death.

[Ciaran]

Plague does decrease PO by removing trade and lowering population growth two fold.

True, but the net effect is still that the plague tends to increase the overal public order of a settlement, the squalor reduction due to the population loss has a greater effect than the ones you stated.