Four notes:
- it's not that I like or don't like the system. I'm just giving the advice on the gameplay: don't accept adoptions and marriages because they're
the reasons for the budgetary troubles (unless you want to use the "
free cavalry conquering the world" strategy)
- the issue I've pointed at is not related to the RF submod and it's economy changes in particular. In the vanilla WotnB3.1 it works in the same manner. However, it's related to the
size of the units you play with (you may change it at the beginning of the campaign in the Game settings: Huge, Large etc.). The numbers I've put in my post were for the "Huge" size. If you play "Large" then the prices are lower becaus units are smaller (wages stay the same, but you pay less for the bodyguards). However, the issue of the money-drainage lingers irrespectively.
- the RF submod doesn't have a "completely different economic system". There're changes in the building chains (eg. many buildings are disabled for the Slavic factions) but overall they are rather negative for the income (fewer buildings - less money). I might be wrong in the assessment of the RF mod if it has introduced changes in the files describing parameters to the economy - I haven't checked them.
- anyway, in the WotN it never pays off to have a governor of a settlement (maybe in Osnabruck - the Frankish city, once it's build it up). This is because you'd always lose money. The result is: in this mod the generals are only for conquest.