I earn no money - I can't play :-( - Please help.

[manman]

Hi folks,
I am quite a newbie at playing this game.

Here is a situation I got: I play as one of the Irish counts. I earn quite nothing (I have only one vassal). If I make war, the neighbours destroy me with theire armies. I earn less than 1 gold.

Now: I need money! Without money I have no 'acrions' to do. So, my playing consists in 'waiting that something happens'. Without money I can't buy any buildings or armies or.... so I am stuck. And this is quite boring. BUT this game is wonderful, if I cold only play it more.

Can you give me a hint? I also use ck2+ and some other cool mods. How do you behave in such a situation? Is this playable somehow? Is there a a-earn-some-money-mod? Or should I cheat and give me at the beginning of the game 200 golds? I play in the easiest mode. Nevertheless I have no money.

Dear community, please give me some insights. I really would like to play this game.

cheers

 

[Dracko81]

Patience. Money come from large amounts of land and vassals. You should organise alliances and spread your realm. Only when you are large will you have enough cash to do as you please.

Also build castle towns and put your steward to work to increase taxes. It will help slightly early on, but there isn't any easy solution to making large amounts of cash early. Unless you are also tribal, in which case raid your neighbours.

 

[manman]

Thanks. Alliances means marriages, correct? That should be the way it works, if I understand it corectly. I see, it is still a long way to get all the mechanics...
greetings

 

[Dracko81]

Yes marriage which gives you a non aggression pact, followed by an alliance. The alliance here means you have more troops in the coming combats. So looking for stronger allies is good. It also means you might get a claimant in a few years for their titles.

 

[kviiri]

Are you playing in a time when Ireland is tribal? Tribal rulers earn pittance from their normal holdings and are expected to raid for money - something which takes a lot of patience if you're not Norse (who get ships earlier, and thus have more easy targets).

 

[Sgt. Lewis]

Borrow 300 gold from Jews then expel them and get 500 gold. Rinse and repeat.

 

[kviiri]

Borrow 300 gold from Jews then expel them and get 500 gold. Rinse and repeat.

Expelling the Jews, as far as I know, provides gold scaled by yearly income now, and provides a tax hit and -2 diplomacy. It's not the best way to get rich anymore.

 

[Iron Chariots]

Expelling the Jews, as far as I know, provides gold scaled by yearly income now, and provides a tax hit and -2 diplomacy. It's not the best way to get rich anymore.

It can still be very worth it early on, depending on your start. A bit of gold at the beginning can get you moving down that exponential growth pattern sooner. The trick is to not just use it "to get money" in the abstract, but rather, if there's a specific investment you need that money for. Mercs to win your first duchy or even kingdom, for example.

 

[Kumicho]

Ireland (especially 1066+) is known as "tutorial island", as it's a nice and quiet little quiet sandbox to play in. Play there for a little while to learn the ropes (if you're tribal you can raid your neighbors, for instance, and if you're feudal build castle towns and put your steward in your capital to generate income) and then quit and go play somewhere more fun.

Borrow 300 gold from Jews then expel them and get 500 gold. Rinse and repeat.

Can we not automatically hand out advice that is basically "go buy this DLC" to new players who come on here asking for advice? Yes, borrowing money from the Jews is great, but if you don't have Sons of Abraham (a pretty obscure and in my opinion not very worthwhile DLC) that's not an option... I don't agree with PDX's locking strategic decisions behind the DLC paywall since it smacks of a pay-to-win attitude, and your post is a pretty good example of that.

 

[Bernard95]

Hi folks,
I am quite a newbie at playing this game.

Here is a situation I got: I play as one of the Irish counts. I earn quite nothing (I have only one vassal). If I make war, the neighbours destroy me with theire armies. I earn less than 1 gold.

Now: I need money! Without money I have no 'acrions' to do. So, my playing consists in 'waiting that something happens'. Without money I can't buy any buildings or armies or.... so I am stuck. And this is quite boring. BUT this game is wonderful, if I cold only play it more.

Can you give me a hint? I also use ck2+ and some other cool mods. How do you behave in such a situation? Is this playable somehow? Is there a a-earn-some-money-mod? Or should I cheat and give me at the beginning of the game 200 golds? I play in the easiest mode. Nevertheless I have no money.

Dear community, please give me some insights. I really would like to play this game.

cheers

Even though Ireland will forever be known as Tutorial Island, you're honestly far better off playing as a Christian Duke in 1066. As a duke you'll at least have some money and troops to work with plus you stand a far better chance at playing the marriage/inheritance game. Specifically, try anyone in the HRE save for Luxembourg (you will always be at odds with the Kaiser since your lands encompass the de jure capital of the HRE, Julich) since the HRE has the same things going for it that Ireland does- its sheer size provides isolation and protection.

And on a side note, until you really learn the game I would stay away from mods. CK2+ is a great mod but it does substantially increase the difficulty and as a beginning player you'll have enough to deal with and learn as is.

Edit: Also, one particularly easy way to make some extra cash if you're completely broke but have some prestige is to take the Business focus and hope that "minting coins" event pops up or otherwise one of your event-based investments pay off such as the "trade route".

 

[StarSword]

Hi folks,
I am quite a newbie at playing this game.

Here is a situation I got: I play as one of the Irish counts. I earn quite nothing (I have only one vassal). If I make war, the neighbours destroy me with theire armies. I earn less than 1 gold.

Now: I need money! Without money I have no 'acrions' to do. So, my playing consists in 'waiting that something happens'. Without money I can't buy any buildings or armies or.... so I am stuck. And this is quite boring. BUT this game is wonderful, if I cold only play it more.

Can you give me a hint? I also use ck2+ and some other cool mods. How do you behave in such a situation? Is this playable somehow? Is there a a-earn-some-money-mod? Or should I cheat and give me at the beginning of the game 200 golds? I play in the easiest mode. Nevertheless I have no money.

Dear community, please give me some insights. I really would like to play this game.

cheers

Here's what I did as the Petty King of Dal Riata in 769 (tribal Irish independent duke in northwest Scotland).

• Immediately set my spymaster (I married Bertrada Charibertid for her 25 Intrigue, which probably obliterated any chance Charlie had of uniting France but the hell with that guy) to farming tech points.
• Borrowed money from the Jews to invest in tech. (Only available if you're playing Sons of Abraham.) Note, I have never taken the option to expel the Jews since Jewish stewards, chancellors, and spymasters saved my bacon so many times, and expelling then inviting them back is a net loss of money.
• Appointed a friendly bishop for tax purposes (it seems the pope could care less about tribal rulers as far as investiture law is concerned).
• Married my son into Mercia for protection. This is admittedly more important for my specific start, since k_scotland exists as Pictland and d_isles (Dal Riata) is de jure part of it; you don't have any real local enemies if you're actually on the Green Isle.
• Once tech points were high enough the first thing I bought was a shipyard. Once you do that, you can start raiding vulnerable feudal counties down south (Hwicce and Brittany are good targets) for money which I farmed into more tribal buildings to increase my troop numbers and raid more. I actually managed to get ships before the Vikings did, and turned feudal before I even founded Eire.

 

[Kumicho]

• Borrowed money from the Jews to invest in tech. (Only available if you're playing Sons of Abraham.) Note, I have never taken the option to expel the Jews since Jewish stewards, chancellors, and spymasters saved my bacon so many times, and expelling then inviting them back is a net loss of money.

All good points, but I will clarify that expelling Jews is only a net loss if you have to wait out the 20 years (of reduced income). If you expel them right before you die (say, after you reach age 60) it's a net positive to welcome them back immediately with your new ruler.

Of course, I expelled the Jews at 60, and then lived to be almost 80 in one of my games...

 

[kviiri]

One option is simply to wage war, and imprison people who can afford their ransom. Courtiers with no special value are worth 10 gold, baron tier rulers 25 gold, counts are already 70 gold, dukes a whopping 145 gold, and kings and emperors are over 300. The latter usually can't afford their ransom though.

 

[Finnish Dragon]

As a tribal you can raid other lands. Can you build a shipyard by using prestige? If you can then do it show that not only Vikings can raid but also tribal Christian Irish can do that. Just be careful not to be attacked by infidel armies though.

Another thing to remember as a tribal is that you can raise tribal armies by spending prestige. Use your chancellor to fabricate a claim in one province you need to conquer in order to create a duchy. When you have enough both cash and prestige, declare a war and raise a tribal army. Conquer that province and create a duchy (or a petty kingdom). Now you can start your path towards feudalism.

You can also use steward, marshal or priest to raise smaller forces. Use them to help your cause and crush your neighbors´ armies. Just be sure that you don´t use raiders in a siege because they will plunder the target settlement.

 

[StarSword]

All good points, but I will clarify that expelling Jews is only a net loss if you have to wait out the 20 years (of reduced income). If you expel them right before you die (say, after you reach age 60) it's a net positive to welcome them back immediately with your new ruler.

Of course, I expelled the Jews at 60, and then lived to be almost 80 in one of my games...

Yeah, if I did that it would backfire; my kings regularly live well into their seventies.

In any event, all that early tech investment paid off. My troops quickly became much better than most other people in Britain and I could often even defeat larger forces. I only had to use a tribal army once (to fend off a Pictish conquest attempt) and mercenaries once (to help take Dublin, which had some strong alliances).

You can also use steward, marshal or priest to raise smaller forces. Use them to help your cause and crush your neighbors´ armies. Just be sure that you don´t use raiders in a siege because they will plunder the target settlement.

Actually you can use them in tandem with besiegers. Looting the settlement weakens its defenses and lets your besiegers then capture the place much more easily.

 

[Sonmi]

Hi folks,
I am quite a newbie at playing this game.

Here is a situation I got: I play as one of the Irish counts. I earn quite nothing (I have only one vassal). If I make war, the neighbours destroy me with theire armies. I earn less than 1 gold.

Now: I need money! Without money I have no 'acrions' to do. So, my playing consists in 'waiting that something happens'. Without money I can't buy any buildings or armies or.... so I am stuck. And this is quite boring. BUT this game is wonderful, if I cold only play it more.

Can you give me a hint? I also use ck2+ and some other cool mods. How do you behave in such a situation? Is this playable somehow? Is there a a-earn-some-money-mod? Or should I cheat and give me at the beginning of the game 200 golds? I play in the easiest mode. Nevertheless I have no money.

Dear community, please give me some insights. I really would like to play this game.

cheers

If you don't mind being cheesy as fuck, here's something you can do as an Irish count to farm money and prestige:

Gratuitously imprison and liberate your vassal bishop over and over again. Each time he revolts nets you around 8 gold and 50 prestige, if you're patient/dishonourable enough to cheese optimally, you can easily end up with 2k gold and around 10k prestige at the end of your first year.

Keep in mind that your subjects will absolutely loathe you though, and that you'll have such low piety that creating titles will become too expansive to be worth it... you will have the money and prestige required to completely upgrade your province though. (Keep your steward on Improve Construction for it to go faster)

I do not suggest you go that way, as it feels cheap and breaks the point of the game, but if you want to ease your introduction without exactly "cheating", that'd be the best way to go.

 

[Secret Master]

If you have a high martial score, and a good marshal, you can just loot your neighbors. It sounds stupid, but bear with me.

What I do is take my larger stack and raid a neighboring county. I coax them into deploying their levy to fight mine, crush them completely, then siege down both the tribal holding and the church holding. The tribal holding is worthless, but the church has real value.

Note that this hurts the moral authority of Catholicism, but what has the Church done for you lately?

You can also just turn your neighbors into tributes, but this might drag you into wars you'd rather not fight. And I can rinse and repeat raiding on all neighboring counties in a sequence that means the first county I hit is ready to be pillaged again by the time the last neighbor is fully looted.

 

[alanschu]

Just started an Ireland 769 game and the Tributary is how I've consolidated a lot of my power. It tends to have a cascading effect as acquiring Tributaries makes it increasingly easy for get more Tributaries (I've been able to get some of the Feudal Lords as tributaries even!).

I started with a 17 marshal count and my armies were often twice the size of my neighbours so raiding or warring were both pretty easy to do. Bonus from the Tributary wars was gaining Prestige to upgrade my holdings.

 

[Narvait]

To get money as tribal Catholic
1) raid
2) establish vassal merchant Republic (when you are king)
3) borrow from Jews
4) apparently Pope can be milked nicely, but I dont have much exp in that
5) business focus
6) build money buildings

But in general my tribal games go like this.
1) bit boring until I get 500 prestige
2) subjugate everyone (not sure if Christians can do this, if not then CB becomes an issue).

Money is not really concern, I am even too lazy to raid. I do it when I really NEED to.

 

[kviiri]

4) apparently Pope can be milked nicely, but I dont have much exp in that

Pope could, at least in previous patches, be milked nicely - as long as one was a good Catholic (Eg. one with Papal Investiture if possible, enough piety, and good relations). However, it's not a good way to riches for tribes, as the gift size (but not the piety cost) scales with income. It is/was very strong for countries with already good income (merchant republics in particular) while hardly worthwhile for smaller, less wealthy ones.

(My experience on this with vanilla is very limited on later patches - I've played almost exclusively with CK2+ since before Horse Lords)