inflation v. budget

[ethanf]

i've been playing EUIII for a few weeks now and whenever i branch out from the France/Ming/Castille powers i always run short on $ or troops. i've read this forum enough to know big inflation=bad but if i play as a country who needs to mint to get money i have no choice.

so my question is, how minting is too much or is there a better way for smaller nations ex: Portugal/ Bohemia/ Muscovy to get money

 

[DanaDark]

Get a Master of Mint advisor to reduce your yearly inflation. Try to live within your means, and sometimes doing so will result in a loss in war, which sometimes you cannot avoid.

Remember to lower military maintainance while not at war too!!

 

[lordkestrel]

Remember to lower military maintainance while not at war too!!

Only do that if you don't have a widespread rebel problem. It's no fun losing a 10k stack of infantry to a 4k rebel spawn because you had the military slider at 50%.

 

[DanaDark]

Well duh.

 

[unmerged(134744)]

Tweak your army maintenance sliders and pick National Bank as your first NI, easy as that

 

[mallard454]

Only do that if you don't have a widespread rebel problem. It's no fun losing a 10k stack of infantry to a 4k rebel spawn because you had the military slider at 50%.

That could be avoided by having military drill, giving you a +1 morale bonus. With that NI, even with 50%, you would have ~3 morale total, which should be more than most rebels.

Playing as britain, or any other major naval power, you could reduce the naval upkeep during peace to ~25% of normal upkeep and still do fine, while saving bundles. As long as you stay within your supply boundaries, and are not in ocean waters, you don't lose power.

 

[unmerged(76922)]

Learn to use your troops effectively - it lets you get by with fewer of them which in turn reduces costs. Avoid the enemy doomstack and remember that your 3x1000 men stacks can seige rear areas just find - just pay attention to the wandering enemy forces and be prepared to retreat to save the troops if needed.

 

[Shiggs]

Only do that if you don't have a widespread rebel problem. It's no fun losing a 10k stack of infantry to a 4k rebel spawn because you had the military slider at 50%.

i don't know how on earth you could do that. in times of peace i usually keep the land military maintenance at maybe 15-20% and have rarely if ever even lost a battle to rebels, especially with greater numbers.....never seen that. you should definitely be taking military drill for one of your first 3 NI's. I like to do that along with being defensive so i can keep the maintenance very low without losing insta-sieges or even having to worry about rebels. at any point in the game rebels will never be a big problem to you if your using military drill, and it saves you countless ducats on maintenance over the years of peace, and gives you a decided edge vs your would be equals in battle.

simply raise and lower it as needed. honestly if your revolt %'s everywhere are less than 0 i would keep land military maintenance at 0, and keep the army inland, not adjacent to any potential enemy armies. that way if someone does declare war on your, you'll have a couple months to get your morale back into shape, before some doomstack annihilates your army before its ready.

 

[UrineArtist]

Mint.

Survival and expansion are more important than inflation, you can deal with inflation when you are strong enough to deal with it, there is no point 100 years down the line having a modest 2% inflation 0.0 inflation a year and 3 cored provinces with 3 big neighbours each 4 times the size of you looking rip you to shreds.

Compare to, 100 years later, 30% inflation and 15 cored provinces running at -0.1 inflation a year, it beats the first scenario any day of the week.

 

[unmerged(76922)]

i don't know how on earth you could do that... ...you should definitely be taking military drill for one of your first 3 NI's.

The second quoted part is the reason for your reaction in the first quoted part, fyi. I've lost 10k stacks to 4-5k as well at 50% maintance, though not often I'll admit, and NEVER with military drill. But it can certainly happen, even moreso in HttT then IN.

 

[unmerged(11600)]

Part of this is miscommunication: I think the earlier poster used "50%" to mean all the way to the left, what Shiggs calls 0%.

-Pat

 

[ethanf]

okay. i spent three hours putting what you all said into practice as the palatinate, and whether god hates me (since i converted to prot) or nature conspires, Austria inherited Hungary and poland while becoming the leader in a union with Lithuania. they immediately took bohemia and ate up germany bit by bit.....

but anyway, before the appocolpyse i kept trying to gain a stable economy and get a decent army. i had low maint, nat bank, and military drill. i took three tiny neighbors and vassalized switz. but in the end a combined bohemia (pre- austro apotheis) and lorraine invasion vassalized me... so i guess this post is: how can i keep a reasonable army as a small nation without inflation killing me? at the same time, is there a decent way to keep those mid sized or massive nations from killing me so that the benefits that UrineArtist talked about?

 

[cocodtim]

with HTTT you can make 3 inflation advisors that can help you survive without lowering maintenance. (i do it in the beginning)

At least that's what i do with every nation. And when i have 100% cultural tradition i replace the weak advisors i hired in the beginning allowing me even more money without inflation.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Mint for 0.1 a year and try to run a yearly balanced budged. It is okay to lose money each months as long as your census taxes compensate. Most nations will do fine with this procedure.

If you still lose too much money, reduce army maintance to ~20%. Get master of mind & national bank during the early game to mint more money.

 

[unmerged(179463)]

You may listen to all the advice people give you, you won't be able to manage money successfully unless you try to understand how all the income stuff works. You need to know about core and non-core land income, direct tax, production and trade efficiency, various effects of stability and religious intolerance on income, what kind of provinces is worth seizing depending on culture and products, etc...

Following guidelines about inflation and recruiting advisors won't help you when playing a harder nation, you need to know exactly what you're doing. I'd say try to absorb the rules, you will be much more efficient.

 

[vitek69]

Yes, listen to Musaylima, he's absolutely right. You need to have experience and understand the game mechanics to be able to play (AND have fun with) smaller nations. When you do, you'll realise that it's much greater fun to grow from some minor to number one power than to rampage everybody from beginning playing say as France
Edit: In the first post you mention Portugal so you could always pick QftNW as your first NI and colonise - that way you can make a ton of money as well, but it takes longer