Going Bust

[unmerged(5649)]

I've just started my second GC, playing Dakota. I start with very little money and a very low income. I got an unfortunate (random?) event in the early 1420s which took 200 coins and took me into the red and I was forced to take out a loan.

The loan interest means that my expenditures are bigger than my small income, even if I have my budget slider to the far right at the exclusion of everything else (which means inflation is now ranpant!). I have +3 stability and I'm at peace, so my income is probably as high as I can realistically make it.

Am I doomed to go bust, or is the situation likely to rectify itself? My trade etc levels will increase slightly due to my monarch's admin skills, and my population is increasing slowly. Does this mean that my income will increase and slowly eclipse my expenditure? Or should I speculate (invest in colonists, merchants etc) to accumulate with my declining funds to put together some longer term income boosting infrastructure?

Any advice welcomed - I was hoping to build up a semi-decent county to give me a fighting chance when the Europeans turn up - but after 30 years of overdrafts that's beginning to look unlikely!

 

[Sikker]

You need to have the same income as expenditure. This can be done by investing in trade - if it is not possible to gain a balance, then, yes, you are doomed to go bust.

 

[Owl]

The N American Indian nations are almost unplayable so are best left until you're a jaded veteran in need of a major challenge. It can be done but you need lots of patience and every trick in the book ....
Play as a large or medium-sized European country for the first few campaigns. Or allow yourself one little cheat just to get the economy back on the rails.

 

[Heretic]

alternaticvely, just take out the next 4 loans as well, and go bankrupt.
if you spend the money quickly you will get some benefit.
unfortunately you will then have high inflation for a very long time.

stay with the europeans for a bit, there are lots of things to get the hang of before you give yourself a headache

Heretic

 

[unmerged(8900)]

BTW why the hell play Dakota ?

 

[unmerged(6729)]

Originally posted by boultan
BTW why the hell play Dakota ?

Who knows???

 

[Generalisimo]

Originally posted by Sikker
You need to have the same income as expenditure. This can be done by investing in trade - if it is not possible to gain a balance, then, yes, you are doomed to go bust.

what's the point of investing in trade????
i played with the incas, and trade level 2 cost me 42353 ducats....
and what do i get from that??? i only know 1 center of trade, in my capital city, and i am the only one trading there.
So, what's the point of that? i cannot see any benefit in investing in trade at the beggining....

 

[unmerged(6729)]

Originally posted by Generalisimo

what's the point of investing in trade????
i played with the incas, and trade level 2 cost me 42353 ducats....
and what do i get from that??? i only know 1 center of trade, in my capital city, and i am the only one trading there.
So, what's the point of that? i cannot see any benefit in investing in trade at the beggining....

And how many ducats did you get every year?

 

[Generalisimo]

Originally posted by Sir Axel


And how many ducats did you get every year?

A LOOOOOOOOOOOOT but all come from gold provinces, i have 5 of them, all with 100+ income, so i have to be very carefull in the "to treasury" slider, if not my inflation goes to the sky!!!!
but i prefer to invest in land, naval or infraestructure rather than trade.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Generalisimo

A LOOOOOOOOOOOOT but all come from gold provinces, i have 5 of them, all with 100+ income, so i have to be very carefull in the "to treasury" slider, if not my inflation goes to the sky!!!!
but i prefer to invest in land, naval or infraestructure rather than trade.

Interesting.

As the Incas you basically have two good long-term research strategies*

1. Invest in trade to get trade3 ASAP then infra5, because the huge dividends from 20/20 monopolies in Manhattan, Zacatecas, and Cuzo, will kill much of your inflation from gold as your non-gold income rises, and will make infra5 easier to obtain because of greater funds.
2. Invest in infrastructure to get infra5 ASAP then trade3, because you will be able to kill your inflation earlier, thus gaining trade3 cheaper.

Once you have both trade3 and infra5 it isn't so hard to gain tech since you will be at 0% inflation and have a monstrous income. [You did colonise and conquer enough provinces to allow you to promote one or two hundred governors, didn't you - and you did go naval to increase your chance of getting explorers, so you could go and see the world, I assume )

If you don't try to bring your inflation under control and your trade up, investing in land or naval is a doomed strategy for the Incas





* apart from the "stay as a backwards native nation throughout the game

 

[Generalisimo]

Originally posted by Peter Ebbesen

Interesting.

As the Incas you basically have two good long-term research strategies*

1. Invest in trade to get trade3 ASAP then infra5, because the huge dividends from 20/20 monopolies in Manhattan, Zacatecas, and Cuzo, will kill much of your inflation from gold as your non-gold income rises, and will make infra5 easier to obtain because of greater funds.
2. Invest in infrastructure to get infra5 ASAP then trade3, because you will be able to kill your inflation earlier, thus gaining trade3 cheaper.

Once you have both trade3 and infra5 it isn't so hard to gain tech since you will be at 0% inflation and have a monstrous income. [You did colonise and conquer enough provinces to allow you to promote one or two hundred governors, didn't you - and you did go naval to increase your chance of getting explorers, so you could go and see the world, I assume )

If you don't try to bring your inflation under control and your trade up, investing in land or naval is a doomed strategy for the Incas


* apart from the "stay as a backwards native nation throughout the game

I only invest in land and naval because it cost me 1500 ducats +or-, so in not so many years i could get that level. Then i switched to infraestructure, now i got level 3 and going to level 4.
I do not invest in trade because i only know the CoT of Cuzco, my capital city, so there is the only place where i can have a monopoly.
Moving to full naval cost me a lot, because at the beggining i was at full land, but i am making it slowly.
I needed to move the narrowmind slider also to get some colonist. (i already done this, that's why i am not at full naval now)

 

[unmerged(5649)]

Thanks for the advice - it looks as if I'm stuck with my financial problems at least in the medium term. Thanks also for warning me I've given myself a challenge.

As for 'Why Dakota?', my main interest in the EU period is the N American colonies; having experienced colonisation playing England I thought I'd try to rewrite history from the other side and chose Dakota at random from the native tribes.

 

[unmerged(9945)]

Trade lvl 2 is the most important advance for the Incas once Spain comes knocking you will have tps and colonies everywhere. A few state gifts will stop Spain from taking them and eventually you will be in position for an alliance. Investing in naval is pointless as the incas by the way. Discovering a few bodies of water is not worth it and when you go to war with a A european nation your outdated navy will only help you lose percentage points. You are better off building infantry/cavalry and garrisoning your provs only going on offensive when you know you can win.

 

[Castellon]

Originally posted by chilliwilli
Trade lvl 2 is the most important advance for the Incas once Spain comes knocking you will have tps and colonies everywhere. A few state gifts will stop Spain from taking them and eventually you will be in position for an alliance. Investing in naval is pointless as the incas by the way. Discovering a few bodies of water is not worth it and when you go to war with a A european nation your outdated navy will only help you lose percentage points. You are better off building infantry/cavalry and garrisoning your provs only going on offensive when you know you can win.

I like trade tech as well by why is TRADE2 specifically so important, other than it leads to trade3.
Why as the Inca would you build TP's, you want colonies.
Also naval tech will help when you want to get that army to Europe without losing them all to attrition.

 

[unmerged(10355)]

Dakota and Navajo are the most isolated of the American countries, and the least likely to be attacked. If you want to fight off the Europeans, you'll need to do quite a bit of colonization, and annex the other countries near you before the Europeans show up. If you want to keep their capital around to reduce your tech research costs, you can diplo-annex all of their provinces and then release one or two as a vassal.

Sure, you don't have much income when you start with four provinces, but you'll have a lot more income when you have fifty provinces after mass colonization and annexation. You might not be strong at the start, but neither are your early enemies.

 

[unmerged(8089)]

Scrap the Dakota game and play Iroquois.

Never invest a ducat in Land or naval tech - especially land, if you look at the combat charts you'll know you want to stay at lvl2 as long as possible.

Go for Trade3, then Infra5.

I can give you more tips if you need.

Trade maps to reduce isolation penalty and do not annex your neighbours until you have trades maps with a European. You do not need to ally with the scum, you can easily defeat them with numbers even at 3 CRTs down.

Eventually you will be able to take the fight to Europe and carve out some land.

Oh and play on "Very Hard" it is the easiest level of difficulty for this GC actually.

 

[unmerged(9895)]

so has anyone ever actually invaded europe as the incas and won something?? i mean, i know its only against the ai, but even on the normal difficulty level it must be hard to do. How about the aztecs? anyone every conquered both north and south america as the aztec indains? that would be something to see

 

[Castellon]

Originally posted by KrisKannon
so has anyone ever actually invaded europe as the incas and won something?? i mean, i know its only against the ai, but even on the normal difficulty level it must be hard to do. How about the aztecs? anyone every conquered both north and south america as the aztec indains? that would be something to see

Owned all of NA and SA as Aztecs as well as some of Europe!