making money

[dom385]

my game was going well until the germans decided to attacki was beating of all the gallic attacks and was holding out quite well but now the gauls are coming with chosen swordsmen and noble cavalry which wil be a pain but the germans are coming in force (their early infantry is better than expected) but anyway to the point i need more money to fund the defence of italy and my campaign against carthage which i can only afford 1 army for but is going well so what are best ways to make monmey except enslaving town and spending most of my money on economy buildings.

[Teodosio]

First of all, be sure to exploit the minerals. You can build a gold mine in Arretium that alone will support the maintenance of a full pre-marian legion (2 if you upgrade the mine). A silver mine, with less income but still very good, is available in Reghion. Be sure to build ports everywhere.
Try to cut your expenses too. Don't keep many unneeded garrisons, except in the frontier cities. Disbanding excessive garrisons you will save a lot of gold for maintenance.

[GaussSoldier]

A good way to make use of excessive garrisons is to turn them into makeshift armies. Send them as far north as possible and besiege a town. It should make whatever force is coming next to stop to defend the city.

[Garnier]

Thats not a good idea. It would spawn an AI garrison, and also it costs money, and doesn't really help you at all. Better to just disband the guys and collect taxes off them.

[Samariten]

Best way is to always go easy in beginning of a campign build up italy with traders and ports and roads and markets....as well check youre navy if you dont use it disband it as well for garrison dont need to have loads of it in peacefull parts.

Also when raising new legions calculate how much each legion cost in upkeep and just multiple with legions you want to raise and see if it balance with economy

Problem is if you rush to much without having a plan, things always hit you back

[Garnier]

Yeah. At the beginning of the campaign I ALWAYS get the mine in arretium and whatever the other city is, right at the start. This gives me a ton of money. Then I evenly build up all my cities, with the following buildings in order:

farm level 1, road, trader, port. And I never have excess garrisons and I don't have a navy at the beginning.

[Dingler]

My problem when i first downloaded SPQR was making too MUCH money. I noticed all my generals were extremely disloyal so i kept them in my cities but loyalty never improved. Finally i checked the forum again and found out that having a load of money decreases loyalty..i had 1 million buckeroos and about 12 generals with no rings. So im gonna start the game over and spend more money :\

[Garnier]

They way to keep money at a low balance is to... well... spend it all

Have lots of legions, and always queue as many buildings as possible before hitting end turn. If you have 100,000 or more in the bank before hitting end turn, hire some mercenaries, recruit extra troops or get rid of just enough somehow. This way you will never have corruption. I used to have the same problem, but in my current campaign, I've never gone above 100,000 before hitting end turn.

[dom385]

i found my problem i wasnt having a plan for building i was doing it randomly but a few questiones a bit off topic should i and how do i beat the gladiator army is it possible for the city of carthage to make a profit and whats the best thing to do with a city when i capture it and what garrison for a peace city and whats best in the northen italy citys to defend against gauls and germans (i hate chosen axemen so much)??

[Jonathold]

You have to remember that even if a city says it is making -2000 dollars, that doesn't mean that owning the city is costing you money. The reason Carthage has a negative number is because it is a very large city. The costs of your soldiers is divided into each city by size, so a Huge city pays MUCH more of the upkeep costs of your legions than a Town or a Minor City. You may be thinking you're losing money, but what you actually did was take the cost of upkeep AWAY from your other cities and piled it into Carthage, so that the other cities should be showing more profit now than before. The only way a city could make you LOSE money is if somehow the corruption in the city were making you lose like 3000 dollars a turn, or some ridiculously high number, but thats impossible, I think. I've never seen it anyways.

As for the Germans, I would suggest not even MOVING into Gallic territory until you've hit the Marian reforms at least. DON'T take any enemy cities yet in Gaul, because as soon as you do, you've bordered yourself with Germany, and maybe even Makedon if you've attacked Patavium

[Konig]

My problem when i first downloaded SPQR was making too MUCH money. I noticed all my generals were extremely disloyal so i kept them in my cities but loyalty never improved. Finally i checked the forum again and found out that having a load of money decreases loyalty..i had 1 million buckeroos and about 12 generals with no rings. So im gonna start the game over and spend more money :\

try starting a spending frenzy. build up a legion of assassins, diplomats and spies and build up multiple navies to to destroy Carthage's naval power and blockade all of your enemies ports and buying up map information from everyone else.

[ricardo]

In my first game I had exactly the same issue as Dingler, I also chose to restart the game. Like others have said I keep the money below 100,000 now and have built up all my cities, I have expanded slowly and begun the conquest of Gaul (I think its 194BC and I have 8 or 9 Imperial Cities) but I have carefully avoided taking Patavium. Comments from various posters have made me wary of opening a new front with Germany or Macedon before the Gallic threat is removed.

Did I mention that I love this mod?

[lt1956]

The key to money is play like I do, build legions and keep good garrisons in the border cities, upgrade buildings often as you can afford. Keep spies in your service and atleast 1 assassin to kill other assassins, the AI loves them.

Basically the MORE legions you have the more the AI sues for peace. lol Then you can hold areas like Rome did with legions on the borders and have other legions taking new land somewhere else.

If you run around with just a couple legions and dont upgrade you buildings right then yes you will have too much money. I NEVER have TOO MUCH money in SPQR,so its your style of play that is causing the issue. ;-)

[tai4ji2x]

nm

[Samariten]

You could also lower taxes which will make happiness rise in youre citys aswell as growth....

[dom385]

what about the the big gladiator army in italy what do i do about that.

[Teodosio]

what about the the big gladiator army in italy what do i do about that.

Raise a legion and attack it. Probably you will fail at the first attempt; gather the remains of your assault, refill the legion and attack again. Try until you destroy the rebels.
I succeded only at the third attempt... and I lost the general during that!

It's very important that you defeat them asap; while they stand they are reducing you income of about 1000 denarii per turn due to devastation and lost income.

[Garnier]

Kill it.

[dom385]

do i wait for imperial/republic legions coz i tried with a pre marius but it got beaten badly although i killed either 600 or 160 i cant remember 600 is probly more likely.

[lt1956]

In the new version of SPQR that army is Gone and replaced by something more dangerous and a threat to the little republic. ;-)