How much does the black death cost you?

[ChaosLord]

Well, how much? The big outbreak of the black death in my Portugal game ended up costing me around fifty thousand peasants, two to three thousand troops, two family members, half a dozen agents, and roughly twenty thousand florins. This was also during a crusade, which didn't help things much. I've spent the years since the big outbreak ended trying to reorganize my forces, but one of my citadels and a huge city still can't shake the plague so its slowing things even more. The total cost suprised me, given that my empire wasn't all that large, just 9 Cities and 2 Castles.

How much does the big outbreak cost you people who've managed large empires by that time? Wondering whos seen the biggest epidemic.

[rebelscum]

About three pounds fifty from the local market. I once knew somewhere I could buy the ebola virus, but they kept selling out! The mass killers are very poular. I think they have some online web sites. try www.deathbyvirus.co.uk

[Ramses II CP]

I just recently went through this in my AAR; it cost me about 15,000+ peasants per turn, 400 soldiers per turn, and 20,000+ florins per turn. None of my family died, though several members were listed as 'affected' by it for a number of turns after it was officially over. It's especially terrible if you're running a high profit economy, I went from generating 15k of excess income to 5k or more of debt in a single year. Of course once it's over it only really takes one turn to get back in shape, but it's painful to have to stop spending, especially if you're in the middle of a war with the Mongols.

[lancelot]

I think the plauge can be a bit too strong in some cases, in one instance I lost a good portion of my cash reserves. I guess this could be one of the potential side-effects but from a game play perspective it can be slightly too annoying when it crosses the line from annoyance into big game hinderance.

I shouldnt be complaining really but I cant help it...

[joe4iz]

I had one campaign as HRE where I had more than 50 provinces (still had not taken Rome). At the height of the plague, the notice said over 75000 people killed. Let's just say I had around 70k in florin and within three turns was in negative numbers. (and I wasn't building anything).

I don't think the Black Death is too strong. 1/4 of the population of Europe was killed by it. (estimates may varie)

[Rhyfelwyr]

I had a Venetian Empire focused around Mediterranean coastal provinces, so losing all my trade income sent me straight from being stinkin' rich into serious debt, considerng I had about 5 full stacks sitting around Ryazan having a stand off with the Timurids. Or it might have been the Mongols. All I remember is calling a crusade and sending all my Generals over the Black Sea from around Antioch, and then the plague arrived.

[RemusAvenged]

Whatever the cost, be sure and spread it to your enemies.

I like to use the Eternal Plague sometimes against my largest enemy, by keeping 3 agents in plague rotation. Especially target cities with lots of good units garrisoned that you don't plan on taking anytime soon. Just make sure you protect your own cities from catching it back from other spies.

It seems accurate that your economy would die out since no one would risk travelling when that could lead to death through contact with it. As a King you would think you would even impose non-travel orders to keep from spreading it. I don't mind the red so much as long as the plague clears out quickly.

I know if I were a merchant or a sailor for sure I'd be taking a little time off in my country estate.

[Per Ole]

Well, be glad it doesn't affect you as it did in Norway in RL. Killed all of our guys who could write, almost everyone eductated and our royal line died out. we lost over half our population, so we were really fecked. We entered into the Kalmar Union becouse of the Black Death

[Galapagos]

Black death isn't to strong.......It's well balanced.Only if you are at war with a powerful enemy is very very bad.

[joe4iz]

Well, be glad it doesn't affect you as it did in Norway in RL. Killed all of our guys who could write, almost everyone eductated and our royal line died out. we lost over half our population, so we were really fecked. We entered into the Kalmar Union becouse of the Black Death

I'm just glad in general that I did not live in the Middle Ages. It's hard to say how many people died but there were authors who spoke of going into ghost towns where the entire population had died of the plague.

[Zarky]

Its really stupid from the player or AI to fight during Black Death... You might actually lose 50% of your troops before they get to the field...
And then with war it just keeps spreading since spies and diplomats and priests are needed in war.

[Grog]

Here's a few things I do to minimise the cost of the black death.

First, as the plague hits it moves east>west, so my eastern empires I lockdown straight away (no priest/merchant/troops moves), move any uninfected generals/troops out to near borders and leave minimal garrisons. In the west I bang all tax to VHigh, you only get a 1-2 turns so get the extra florins. Also, knock any ungoverned cities to financial. I'll also cut all build queues except for really essential stuff, mainly core city economic development or a key castle upgrade.

Once fully in plague, I will lockdown everywhere, no building/training/retraining and set all taxes to low/growth. Existing troops are free to act if needed, as they are being paid, plague or not.

Also, if you can get a high chivalry general in your best cities during the plague (my older chaps tend to spend their last years governing a fine city in a gloriously decadant manner), you can really minimise the population hits if you keep taxes low. ie: some of my big ungoverned plague-ridden cities were on 6-7% decline, while my high chiv guys lost only 1.5-2.5%. In a city of 50,000+ this can make a big difference.

Finally, after the plague passes. I will keep taxes low for a few turns, especially in developing cities.

So how much did this cost in my last game? I had around 40 provinces with France playing a max chivalry game, strong western core, V.trustworthy rep, holy lands conqured/converted and mongols beaten to a sorry halfstack horde.

I went into the plague with 250/270k florin treasury making around 140k a turn gross. When my last city came clean I had around 30k left.. My income in plague years must have dropped below 60k gross for 3-4 turns, but I didn't grind to a halt on building.

Still, I was filthy rich again when the Timurids appeared near Tbsili

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Well .. don´t know how many people i lost in my spanish campaign but the only city that was left alone from the plague was Florence...
Also .. it hit me so suddenly that 3 strong first class armys i just builded got affected and they were just sitting in there forts and didn´t manage to use them before the plague was over .. and i took forever ...
And even then when most of my empire was free from plague it took 10 turns to get rid of it from Paris, Dijon, Marseille and Milan... somehow if they got free from plague next turn they were affected again... was there someones spy involved???

[uruk-hai]

by the time the i got the black plage i was so rich that a few truns of makeing littile to no money would not hunt me at all.it kill one time just about ever one in my family tree. countless death peasants,and i think 20000- 60000 per trun.maybe more.1000 and 1000 of troops die luckly not any of my main army got the plage.

[Sp4]

/me grabs shock paddles and revives dead thread. (Hello fellow BF players =P )

The plague =S I had totally forgotten about that...

I was in my English campaign just now basically and finished conquering Tunis, so my empire now stretches from the Scottish highlands, across France, all over modern-day Spain/Portugal and into Northern Africa.
I had focussed very heavily on building up trade and thus was generating around 70,000 florins per turn with thousands of merchant wagons and ships going all over the place.

I had the plague around 1100 before in Rennes only but it stopped there, killing only about 5,000 people and a few hundred soldiers, however when the real plague arrived (1350s afaik), it did so with deadly force...
Pretty much like IRL, it started in my regions closest to Italy (Marseille/Genoa) and spread to modern-day Spain via sea trade and across France via land trade. From there it hopped over to England on another merchant ship (I really wish you could stop all trading for events like this).

It took 2 turns for every single one of my regions to become affected and the toll was heavy.

Although, I was floating roughly 200,000 florins at the time and my empire was in relative peace, save for the border to the HRE, it really did hurt.

I instantly stopped moving troops, sent fleets out to the high seas to remain there, sent generals to the egdes of the map along with most of the agents that were close enough but it did not really help. The plague lasted for around 6 turns, peaking at 3-4 and then slowly dieing out until now, only Antwerp is still affected.

I didn't bother retraining units, until it was all over, so I just sat there and waited. On average, I lost around 30,000 citizens (45,000 during the peak) and 2,500-3,000 soldiers per turn.
Rebuilding just more or less finished now, with my bank having gone from 220,000 florins to about 110,000. Ontop of that, about 1/4 of my family and agents died and the Germans/Venicians attacked and captured 3 regions with full stacks (were they not hit by the plague?).

After I took one of the regions back from the Venicians, they came to me begging for a ceasefire, so I told them to give back my regions. After giving them an additional 20,000 florins, they handed over the cities again and now I am going to take them out...

I really did not expect the plague to be that bad =O

[Lord Brennus]

It's usually not that bad, I lose a lot of people, even some family members, but it's easy to recover from.

[Sp4]

I recovered quickly but while the plague was around, it was extremely annoying..

[Myth]

I like how it's the plague now, and the Mongols a short while after, and then the Timurids some time after them.

[Sp4]

I actually haven't seen either of them yet (even though they are there). The Mongols apparently just captured their dream settlement from where to inflict evil things upon the Europeans but I need 4 more regions then I'm done.

[Myth]

You can continue playing you know.