Originally posted by Fester
I'm playing my first game (Austria 1492) and I'm up to early 1600's. My general approach is to pile up the merchants in the different CoT's to keep revenue rolling in. As soon as I hit stab +3 I concentrate on both infra and trade.
On the games I win (Very Hard/Coward), the economic category is always the major source of my points. Here is what I do:
Loans are bad, mmkay? Avoid taking them as much as possible. In response to events, I will sometimes prefer to take a stability hit over having to take a loan.
Set merchants on autosend and forget about it unless I am desperate to raise funds to pay off a loan. Then I send out no merchants at all.
Set all sliders to equal (with zero in stability) unless stability is less than +3, then I fix monthly income at the 0.2 inflation gain and max out stability until stability is +3.
Every province that can have one gets a tax collector, then a judge, then a governor. Governors are critical. They are cheap and smash inflation.
Build at least one of each type of manufactury as soon as you are able, and do so on the right territory if you can. Refineries are very nice. If possible, go for two refineries before you go for two of anything else.
Colonies can be the lifeblood of empire. Colonial powers have a significant advantage. If you are landlocked, get a seaport. If you are not a colonial nation, play with your policies so you have some colonial capacity and choose them strategically. Diplomacy can substitute for explorers if you choose potential map trading partners wisely. If at all possible, annex pagan countries that own a center of trade and convert the territories post-haste. Indeed, pagan-to-me conversions are one of the few things I will take out a loan to do.
