The enemy's economy

**muaythaisoldier** · February 27, 2010, 02:26 PM

I've always felt that when I raided enemy settlements and destroyed their economic capacity I was limiting their capacity to build and sustain a military force. I won the egypt campaign quickly by running and army through the lightly guarded towns in the east and destroying everything, looting 20,000 Per turn and burning the land behind me. I captured the 2 victory points by avoiding enemy armies and sending them to siege towns I'd already left burnt behind me. In the longer european campaign I'd like to use sea based raiders to strike Britain and cripple their economy. However I'm wondering if this will have any effect on their navy. Suppose I loot and burn Ireland and Scotland with hit and runs, will I see any effect on Britain's capacity to sustain it's navy or armies?
Since I'm never sure which games let the AI cheat I thought I'd check with ya'll.

PS anyone seen much benefit from trading in Napolean? I have about 6 trade ships in Africa and it looks like good money. Empire TW was a cakewalk once you monopolized the trade lanes.

**Brusilov** · February 27, 2010, 03:45 PM

As with ETW it's worth trading. Keep an eye on the 'supply and demand'. If a product is high (ivory and spices) then don't put all your trade ships there as it will eventually drop the prices.

Be prepared to defend your trading zones though.

**muaythaisoldier** · February 27, 2010, 07:51 PM

alright well I've slipped around england and liberated scotland, given it to the locals.
Ireland was undefended and fell easily to 8 units of line infantry, 2 given to me when liberated scotland.
Burnt Whales into the dirt and have ships pirating English shipping lanes. It says England Itself is making 3.5G per turn. England has over one stack of troops and the FULL navy full of ships which I'm sure cost nearly 500 per turn each.
I've surely put them into the red in spending, does the AI cheat and not lose men when they run out of money or have I likely failed to devestate them monatarily enough?
Spain has ships on every good trade spot, Ivory expecially. It seems actually worth pulling troops from the east and taking over spain just so I can be economically stronger in the long run.

**richardsharpe** · February 27, 2010, 08:00 PM

In my europe campaign I sent a stack over to take England. I destroyed every building in London/every port/every town. Unfortunately, this had no effect on their armies, but I have noticed they are no longer as aggressive and are not recruiting new troops as often.

**Lord Dakier** · February 27, 2010, 08:41 PM

Yeah someone needs to confirm this cause in Empire and from what I have seen in NTW it doesn't make much difference to their finance.

**muaythaisoldier** · February 27, 2010, 09:10 PM

at the very least it's fun to raid towns and set them back to the stone age. Get a fair amount of money from it sometimes. Problem is if they rebel you might have a stack of enemy troops on your hand that are controlled by your enemies faction. Sometimes the rebels are just factionless rebels and noones problem. In Empire I would sell the burnt husks of regions to a friendly faction, but now it seems you can't even GIVE away these regions. Are region trades totally skrewed up or is it just that I've burnt them and every factoin knows damaged goods?

**Gunodd** · February 28, 2010, 03:07 AM

Speaking of trading, the Indiamen are INSANE now! The Danes turned on me without me noticing and sailed down to the coast of Spain to take my trade nodes, but 6 Danish ships, one with an admiral, fell to a single Indiaman...my Indiaman. I just maneuvered decently and repaired mid-combat when needed. Trying to get 3 Indiamen into every trade fleet now. I also make some 2000-3000 from every trade node, I wouldn't be able to wage war without them.