I don't understand the AI economy

[88th Legion]

Ave
First i gonna tell what i have done.
I'm playing as Rome, and for the moment I have focussed my armies on the war agaginst Carthage.
Meanwhile, the macedonians, who now controll all of Greece have delcared war on me.
I assembled an big army and marched in to Greece and and went on a "hack'n'slash marathon. I invaded every city, small as big, massacerd all of the population and raisd all buildings that i could. As soon as I was done with a town and went for the next one. The macedonians never took back the cities I had taken from them and in a few turns, the ungarissoned city was taken by rebillion.
But as I checked the macedonian status, the economy was only growing, and fast!!!, In four years (eight turns) It hade gone from 20k to 130k gold.
Now my question
How does this make sense, they don't have any cities (and population also for that matter) to taxe, the sea trade network is collapsed.
When my army was finaly destroyed, they hade almost 250k gold but just six cities under controll.

I also have smaller question concerning economy.
Time to time during the game, my economy collapse for a few turns for no particular reason. And after a while it comes back, only to collapse again.
Why does do that?
It would be logical if i were building big armies, and the upkeep were wearing the economy down or if I were losing cities fast but that's not happening.
Anyway, I appreciate all the help I can get, thanks

[Brusilov]

How does this make sense, they don't have any cities (and population also for that matter) to taxe, the sea trade network is collapsed.
When my army was finaly destroyed, they hade almost 250k gold but just six cities under controll.

I also have smaller question concerning economy.
Time to time during the game, my economy collapse for a few turns for no particular reason. And after a while it comes back, only to collapse again.
Why does do that?

Which version of the game are you playing RTR 6 Gold or RTR PE?

What difficulty level are you playing the campaign at? I believe that on VH and maybe even H the AI are 'gifted' about 10K per turn. You will also find that the Agean area is awash with trade. If Macedon, for instance, holds Rhodes then there is a 40% bonus to sea borne trade.

With the economy the only way to find that out is to keep track of where your income is sourced from. You may find that trade suddenly reduces as one of the factions you were trading with loses a settlement or has a famine (for instance). You may also find if there's been a natural disaster somewhere that will also affect your trade.

It could also be a bad harvest.

Are you keeping a look at how much corruption in your settlements?

[88th Legion]

I'm playing RTR Platinum and medium difficulty
I don't extatly understand what you mean by "I believe that on VH and maybe even H the AI are 'gifted' about 10K per turn"
Anyway, looking at the rate of money, the macedonians got about almost 20 k or more each turn and I have been playing further now and still it rises, now they have almost 450k.
I have Rhodos and looking at the mini map I see that they don't have Babylon( and the farming bonus from that wonder)
I have been trying a new tactic and holding on to the cities and pushed the macedonians all the way to turkey, all that they have left now i central turkey but still nothing happening with their economy.
The biggest problem with all this that they can assemble endless huge armies and attack on multiple fronts at the same time and still uppgrade their cites to max, while I have big problems recruting soldiers and get them to the battle and still have money to actually build something my self except soldiers

On the other question I guess that i can be all of those things
I just find a bit strange when all goes wrong in one turn and the suddenly everything goes well again next turn over and over again.
Anyway, thanks for the help
March on!

[Korlon]

By gifted, Brusilov meant that all the enemy factions seem to get extra money each turn. Even in medium it happens.

I just started playing again and I tried out the console the other day. If you press up, you can see the previous codes inputted. I looked at it and there were things like add_money and process_cq and other things in the code box aimed at other countries that I know I did not input. And this was just in medium. In very hard, there must be this sort of thing happening all the time. So yeah, one of the main hard points of very hard and hard is that the other factions cheat a lot as well as you getting less money from farming and things.

[Brusilov]

I just started playing again and I tried out the console the other day. If you press up, you can see the previous codes inputted. I looked at it and there were things like add_money and process_cq and other things in the code box aimed at other countries that I know I did not input.

Wow, I never knew that! It's something I will try out. Thanks

Edited: I just tried that in RTR 6 Gold and does not work. Maybe it's a RTW BI feature rather than a RTW one.

[88th Legion]

Ok I see, well I guess that's how the AI must do on the strategymap go get some "edge" when you have high difficulty settings. It's like on the battlemap they have higher hitpoints/charge per unit than you, but still the same manoeuvre tactic as before on the battlefield.

I guess this is much to ask, but i would really like a kind of "walkthrough" on economy aspects, how it really works in in numbers for example on trade agreement, dock trade , management points effect and all that.
I would really appreciate all the help i can get on this matter.
March on!