Ouch....

[Thaatu]

Blitzing sucks. Debt is fun.

[underthesun]

Thanks guys for your help.

So my economy is okay. I haven't done much development of the conquered settlements beyond roads and governments. All of Gaul is conquered except Britanny and Belgium. I'm pretty much consolidating my position.

Question: How do I increase my income? As in, what should I focus on constructing? I can't have massive hoards unless I have the economy to support them.

Question 2: Anything I should watch out for down the road, after I've consolidated Gaul? I have the Casse and Sweboz as allies, but I question the latter's loyalty.

[pezhetairoi]

1: Set very high tax rate in every single settlement you capture, and leave a family member to garrison it if need be. Build Markets and Ports and Mines as soon as possible. Ports being priority, then markets. Mines come last because they're the most expensive.

2: Sweboz tend to go eastwards. You don't really have to worry about them. After consolidating Gaul you are practically free from threats. You can choose to invade wherever you want. Crush the Romani before they hit you. Or take out the Sweboz. Up to you. In my current campaign I beat up the Romani, then turned on the Sweboz.

[Imperial Fist]

My advise is to disband cav in the early game. The horsemen r just to expensive.
Thats what i did when i played the sweboz who have the same financial probs in the beginning.

[pezhetairoi]

Yes, the cavalry are absolutely useless. You need a hard punch in the beginning, and your FMs can do that for you. They are heavy cavalry, after all, so that's the major part of your problem fixed.

[underthesun]

Hey thanks guys this is all really helpful. Just a few more questions:

1. Should I bother building that one 12000 mnai improvement? With it you can build Leuce Epos (light cav) and the Gaesatae (sp?), Naked Fanatics. But it's one hell of an investment. Do I?

2. How much need I worry about the Romans? Currently I'm not particularly strong (All told I have just under two full stacks of units running around Gaul). And if I do need to worry about them, what kind of units should I go after them with?

[bovi]

You want gaesatae.