Q about the economy...

[Sainty]

I just wonder what army size is normal to keep. I understand that u have to have an army that fits your need but for me it looks like its never enough. I cant get teh economy to get rolling :-/ always going minus 100 every month (yeah, i gotta cheat cash).

I'm playing France and and i usually keep 2 armies at 10'000 each when at peace. When i go to war (in europe) i usually build 4 armies that have 40-60'000 men.

I also keep 10 warships. I got one colony (iceland). I suck

So any army tips for me?

 

[enragedcow]

I just wonder what army size is normal to keep. I understand that u have to have an army that fits your need but for me it looks like its never enough. I cant get teh economy to get rolling :-/ always going minus 100 every month (yeah, i gotta cheat cash).

I'm playing France and and i usually keep 2 armies at 10'000 each when at peace. When i go to war (in europe) i usually build 4 armies that have 40-60'000 men.

I also keep 10 warships. I got one colony (iceland). I suck

So any army tips for me?

It totally depends on what country you are playing. As France, you need a much larger army than, say, Stettin. So long as you aren't getting pounded all the time by AI armies, I'd say whatever standing army you currently keep is sufficient.

 

[unmerged(34554)]

Ahh, armies.

As Burgundy (having taken over most of France), I keep about 10,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry in Zeeland to deal with revolts, and another similar army in Bourgogne to do the same there and provide backup. I'm allied with Spain and Austria, though, which means that I'm not expecting any big wars, but even so if you're not expecting attack there's no reason not to keep minimal forces unless you're going to war within 5 years or so.

As the Ottoman Empire, expecting attack at every turn, I have 8000 men in Alexandria, 10000 men in Sivas, 13000 men in Thrace, and 10000 men in Jedisan, and I've been at peace 10 years. A very different situation--can be attacked anywhere at every turn, and any war will be a big one against a scary European alliance (Poland/Lithania/Brandenburg/Bohemia/Sweden is one; Hungary/Venice/Ragusa/Genoa I sort of pulled the fangs of but is still major).

 

[dharper]

I just wonder what army size is normal to keep. I understand that u have to have an army that fits your need but for me it looks like its never enough. I cant get teh economy to get rolling :-/ always going minus 100 every month (yeah, i gotta cheat cash).

Wow, I've never been that far in the hole! Remember that you pay far more for armies beyond your maintenance limit - it's actually cheaper to have almost exactly your limit at full strength than a couple thousand over it at half strength...consider getting rid of excess armies ASAP.

As a general rule of thumb I keep about half to all of my maintenance limit during peacetime - you know, the number you can keep cheaply? The exact number depends on how big I am and how friendly my neighbors are. Playing as Byzantium I always had more troops than I could afford cheaply - I knew I'd be swallowed up if I didn't and I wouldn't have the time to build more. Playing as France, I knew I could always lose a couple provinces to invaders while I built more...or waited for more income...so I kept smaller forces, about half my limit. To save money, I would often keep the forces at half strength in peacetime - it helped that I was ahead of my neighbors in land technology. As Byzantium, I kept them at full strength most of the time, except right after a peace treaty with the Ottomans.

In peace you can keep relatively small armies - a few thousand infantry on top of suspicious provinces, maybe ten thousand cavalry somewhere where they can easily get to random rebellions. I usually kept three to four armies as France in different strategic provinces so they could reach most of the kingdom in only one to two moves. In war I would leave out-of-the-way armies where they were - it's all too easy to suffer a terrible defeat and suddenly lose so many troops that your other neighbors decide to join in the war against you! So I would keep two armies standing far from the fight while I used my other two to delay the enemy long enough to build real numbers in the capital.

Part of my playing strategy is to avoid war - I find it tedious (!) and only fight when I have to. This means that as France I enjoyed long periods of prosperity, allowing me to get mayors (and higher production efficiency) in the late 16th century. This is a massive boost to your economy - you won't be hungry for cash again! Well, unless you're spending a hundred ducats a month on your armies. Selective trade also helps considerably. With so much money rolling in I was able to absorb longer wars without going into debt, although I rarely had more than 100,000 troops on the field at one time.

I also keep 10 warships. I got one colony (iceland). I suck

Hey, Iceland is cool. Invest in a thousand troops, a tax collector and a judge and you get your investment back in a decade.

I don't know how I ended up owning Iceland, but I did...I must have "won" it in a war with one of my allies against Denmark...but I don't remember ever having such a war (and I fight few wars!). I simply had an event one day that said "Revolt in Iceland" and I went "Er, excuse me? What?" It was strange but profitable.

Another tip: You don't need transports. They cost more to maintain than a flotilla of warships. Get rid of them! And you can safely leave ships in port at half-strength without worrying about enemy attacks - you should have enough notice to build them up to full strength before they're forced to leave.

I hope some of this helps...

 

[Sainty]

altire. but then, i have to put up the tresury taxy thingy wich means that myscience will go down drasticly. some countries, are far more advanced that me and have larger armies. some crap country with 2 provinces have over 60'000 units

I dont understand how i can beat them :-/

i found this game very challenging but my challange the last few days (since i got this game) have been to staying alive

 

[Sainty]

Wow, I've never been that far in the hole! Remember that you pay far more for armies beyond your maintenance limit - it's actually cheaper to have almost exactly your limit at full strength than a couple thousand over it at half strength...consider getting rid of excess armies ASAP.

As a general rule of thumb I keep about half to all of my maintenance limit during peacetime - you know, the number you can keep cheaply? The exact number depends on how big I am and how friendly my neighbors are. Playing as Byzantium I always had more troops than I could afford cheaply - I knew I'd be swallowed up if I didn't and I wouldn't have the time to build more. Playing as France, I knew I could always lose a couple provinces to invaders while I built more...or waited for more income...so I kept smaller forces, about half my limit. To save money, I would often keep the forces at half strength in peacetime - it helped that I was ahead of my neighbors in land technology. As Byzantium, I kept them at full strength most of the time, except right after a peace treaty with the Ottomans.

In peace you can keep relatively small armies - a few thousand infantry on top of suspicious provinces, maybe ten thousand cavalry somewhere where they can easily get to random rebellions. I usually kept three to four armies as France in different strategic provinces so they could reach most of the kingdom in only one to two moves. In war I would leave out-of-the-way armies where they were - it's all too easy to suffer a terrible defeat and suddenly lose so many troops that your other neighbors decide to join in the war against you! So I would keep two armies standing far from the fight while I used my other two to delay the enemy long enough to build real numbers in the capital.

Part of my playing strategy is to avoid war - I find it tedious (!) and only fight when I have to. This means that as France I enjoyed long periods of prosperity, allowing me to get mayors (and higher production efficiency) in the late 16th century. This is a massive boost to your economy - you won't be hungry for cash again! Well, unless you're spending a hundred ducats a month on your armies. Selective trade also helps considerably. With so much money rolling in I was able to absorb longer wars without going into debt, although I rarely had more than 100,000 troops on the field at one time.

Hey, Iceland is cool. Invest in a thousand troops, a tax collector and a judge and you get your investment back in a decade.

I don't know how I ended up owning Iceland, but I did...I must have "won" it in a war with one of my allies against Denmark...but I don't remember ever having such a war (and I fight few wars!). I simply had an event one day that said "Revolt in Iceland" and I went "Er, excuse me? What?" It was strange but profitable.

Another tip: You don't need transports. They cost more to maintain than a flotilla of warships. Get rid of them! And you can safely leave ships in port at half-strength without worrying about enemy attacks - you should have enough notice to build them up to full strength before they're forced to leave.

I hope some of this helps...

thx man, that was some good tip
i guess i will have to start over again hehe.

 

[dharper]

altire. but then, i have to put up the tresury taxy thingy wich means that myscience will go down drasticly. some countries, are far more advanced that me and have larger armies. some crap country with 2 provinces have over 60'000 units

The AI tends to do that - and it works - but you'll usually find that human players outperform the AI in technology by the mid-game.

One successful strategy I've used against such powerful minors is to use attrition against them. That's especially useful in cold countries or colonies where attrition can be deadly - up to 25% losses per month in an enemy province! - but you have to be careful it doesn't hurt you as well. Having large forts in high-attrition provinces helps hurt the enemy, too - notice how badly Albania manages to hurt the Ottomans whenever they invade. (As a counter-strategy use leaders with siege values or bring cannons, then attack in March).

Another strategy is to wait them out. A minor can raise armies but often, because they are spending all their money on maintenance, can't raise replacements. Don't try to match their forces, just keep enough to beat them back, then wait until their forces have been whittled down before invading. Also, keep in mind Sun Tzu's advice - they have a powerful force but they also have a big weakness - minors have only a few provinces, and if you can occupy them they can no longer build new armies. In fact, you'll most likely be able to bring them to the bargaining table. In a war with a minor I usually ignore my own provinces in favor of taking theirs, then take back my own provinces at my leisure - they can't build new armies to stop me.

I rarely build larger armies than I can maintain cheaply, even in war. Unless I'm seriously worried about surviving intact (e.g. Spain invades during the War of Religion in France, or Hungary, Venice and Austria team up against the Ottomans) I prefer to keep reinforcing my smaller armies until the enemy is beaten back, making separate peaces with countries I don't care about or making general peaces with weak leaders to avoid facing large, powerful allies.

Again, hope this helps.

 

[dharper]

i found this game very challenging but my challange the last few days (since i got this game) have been to staying alive

Hmm. That's unusual for France.

If you're being invaded a lot, try arranging Royal Marriages with your neighbours. All of them, except ones you're planning to invade. Even the minor ones. Why? Because often the larger ones are allied to a minor one, and if the minor starts a war with you the larger ones, married to your family, will invade anyway. Grr. This will give you breathing space (15 years) and works well if the country hates you but isn't close to -200 or 0 relations (that is, they will almost always accept at -50 or -100, but never at -5, +10 or -190). You may want to give gifts to neighbours as well if you're especially worried, or to ensure they'll accept a Royal Marriage. This works best with smaller countries (since gifts go farther and cost less) but is sometimes worth it with big, frightening rivals (such as England, Spain or Austria for France).

Also, always keep enough forces to 'frighten off' your rivals. A country that dislikes you (-100 relations) will almost always invade if your army is smaller than its own. Try to keep around half your limit on hand - in a way, it's cheaper to maintain the army than it is to keep fighting wars! This amount won't always work with countries capable of building large armies (e.g. your powerful enemies, England, Spain and Austria) but will still prevent them from ganging up on you!

Here's a strategy for winning the game that's not obvious to a new player: pump most or all of your research into Infra. Most (large) countries get more money from production than trade, and it's easier anyways. But that's only a fringe benefit. What you really want are judges and mayors (Infra 4 and 5). Both of them reduce revolt risk while increasing revenue - not as much as a tax collector, but enough to make a huge difference in a large country. More to the point, your mayors let you mint gold (or maintain many gold mines) without inflation or actually decreasing inflation. This means you can mint 20% of your income and still decrease inflation by 5% a year (in v1.08 - in earlier versions of the game mayors decreased inflation by 1% once per mayor. Get 1.08!). This does slow down research, but not by much, and the gold you have coming out of your ears more than makes up for it.

Around Infra 5 you can safely put Infra research down to zero and concentrate on Land or Navy technology. You should be getting a good neighbor bonus (since your rivals are usually far better than you by this point) but you'll overtake them quickly since your economy is so much bigger than theirs with all your mayors, judges and manufactories (you get Luxury manufactories from Infra 2 and Refineries/Breweries from Infra 3). For France, refineries are gold - you have about six provinces that produce wine (Champagne, Provence, Burgoigne, Gascoigne, Rousillion and one or two more). That will increase your income substantially, increase population growth, decrease revoltrisk and give you a large bonus to your trade research (+5 a month per refinery adds up quickly!). In fact, manufactories are the second-best investment you can make in the game.

What's the first-best? Paying off your debts. The amount of interest you pay can quickly add up, especially if you can't pay back loans when they come due. Check your ledger (I go to the third option then scroll back two pages, it's fastest) to see your loans (pause the game first - very annoying if you're in the ledger and an event comes up) and make sure you have the money before they come due, plus a little extra in case of events.

Some players say that lending money to other countries is the best investment you can make, and it is profitable, but the AI doesn't handle it well and many long-time players consider it cheating. It's also hard to do unless you're on good terms with the nation.

If you're STILL having trouble, try reading an AAR. That's After Action Report, and there's an entire forum for them here. Many of them go into detail about what they did and how they succeeded, and it makes for interesting reading as well as good advice!

Good luck!

 

[unmerged(25696)]

Don't disband more troops than needed to go under the maintenance limit, they're more expensive to recruit than to maintain (especially at 50%).

To win wars, avoid the battles. Let them siege one province with 50k troops, while you siege two provinces with 10k each (or more if fortress level is higher).

Royal Marriages can be concluded to relations from -150 to -1, and from +21 (tough you need a good DIP-skill under +50) to +200. Under -150, and between 0 and +20, they'll always refuse.

How can you get -100d monthly ? What are your inflation, your maintenance limit, your other costs (loans ?) ? What year is it, what are your tech levels ?