Any advice on bankruptsy?

[Jolly Rogered]

I just started using this mod and it's great!

I'm playing Great Britain grand campaign Very Hard/Very Hard difficulty and on the first turn I am immediately bankrupt. I'm not too familiar with ETW's monetary system, what should I do to remedy this situation? Should I disband parts of my navy?

It seems like the tax system is based on massive regions and unless I am mistaken I cant adjust taxes based on individual states like in previous TW games.

[JaM]

Financial situation for Great Britain at the beginning is intentional, to give player a bit more challenge. Personally, i manage to handle it relatively quickly - first, start with setting up some trade relations with neutral/friendly factions. Important is to not establish trade with somebody that ends up in war, and his ports getting blockaded.. like for example Danes/Swedes always do. Trade with Turkey is usually profitable, even though if you have to pay them something first to agree..

Next thing are Ministers. you want to have very skilled Minister of Finance, while with Britain having good Minister of Navy is quite important too (reducing the ship cost and upkeep). Minister of Justice is also quite important here, as more stars he has, less you pay for keeping the order in your cities, while he also provides some repression bonuses further improving order. Policing cost is actually what might greatly reduce your income, so making sure your regions are not rebelling (red) is important, even if you have to reduce taxes...

Afterwards, just check if you can disband some unnecessary units, like for example ancient artillery (sakers) which are quite slow to move, which make them not that effective in battles anyway... with garrison units again, its best to check if disbanding them wont increase disorder, which would increase amount of money you have to pay for policing...


Next thing you might try to do is some pirate hunting - any captured ship can be sold for nice financial bonus.. This will give you opportunity to build some government buildings, which increase the tax rate - here definitely focus on rich regions first as those have higher wealth, therefore any tax percentage increase will give you a lot more money. you also want to develop these regions first. Also, if you have some unused ships, you might consider sending them to estabilish colonies in Africa (trade areas) - even combat ships allow you to establish trade ( occupying a trade slot represents establishing colony and securing a trade route for your traders) While income from such route wont usually overcome ship upkeep cost, it will give you access to quite costly resources (Ivory) which will improve your income from trade with your trade partners.

if you follow these points, you will eventually have more and more income which will allow you to develop your regions further, generating more money you will be able to invest further - just remember your fleets are to secure your trade, not the other way around (dont build more ships than what you can actually support - same is true with armies, but with England being an island, navy can easily handle any possible invaders)

[Marku]

thanks JaM

[JaM]

With planned ER 5.0 there will be one challenge for a hardcore players - Ottoman Empire - In the past i opted to adjust the Ottoman AI to be greatly economically challenged to prevent them from forming massive armies which can be stuck at the landbridge close to Istanbul resulting in huge campaign slowdown and eventually unplayable game.. It's beyond me how this bug was never discovered by CA, but after 9 years, there is no 100% fix for this, except for what i did..

Anyway, this brings me to the challenge part - playing as Ottomans in ER 5.0 will be the hardest thing you can do. They will become broke in second or third turn no matter what action you take, and your only hope is to somehow stabilize the economy in time.. Last night, i started such campaign and it took me 25-30 turns to get out of bankruptcy, and start rebuilding the empire.. Main problem was public order, as cost you pay to neutralize European region is brutal (-9000 per turn) even with excluding them from taxation.. Anyway, eventually, and thanks to a bit of luck of getting capable ministers into right position, situation started to turn. Now, its 1713 (ER 5.0 is 4TPY) and my Ottoman Empire has income 10.000 per turn, solid trade lines, and good military presence in Europe, just in time to repel Austrian armies in Balkan area.. I did not lose any regions, on contrary i gained two since start.. Gameplay was quite interesting, and challenging, making it very different kind of experience to European factions, as Ottoman's biggest problem is the actual number of regions under control which kills your taxation income completely to the point, increasing taxes is overruled by increased policing cost.

So, with ER 5.0, Ottoman Campaign will be considered an Insane difficulty campaign for those who really want some challenge...