Cashcows

[Sokar Rostau]

In MTW there were a few hugely profitable regions, some very profitable regions and all the rest were "normal" or worse. There were also a couple of regions that were nothing special until you got to the highest level of Farming technology when they suddenly became hugely profitable.

Which regions are the biggest cashcows in M2TW? Are there any regions that are average until you have the highest tier of economic/farming buildings constructed on them?

I saw a screenie earlier of someone's Byzantine campaign and Constantinople was churning out over 18000 Florins per turn... which is around two thirds of my best economy's annual gross income.

[Samir]

Constantinople, Antwerp, Brugges, London, Alexandria Stockholm, Milan, Venice as well as the small islands all net a lot of income if you have peace, lots of trade and a good gouvenor.

[boerekovic]

the Levantine Coast is my Cashcow.

[Vor]

In Stainless Steel the 3 or 4 regions around Constantinople are highly profitable. The one that's on the Asian side of the city, then the 3 or so that are along the European side coast, heading down to the castle in Greece.

Fully developed I've had them all pulling in 8-9k a turn before as Venice. I've never been able to get a city to produce over 10k a turn though.

Antioch is decent as well, as is Alexandria.

[Laconian]

with stockholm I was churning out around 4500 - 5000 florins a turn mainly from trade and mining.

[Sacc]

Timbuktu and its gold mines.

Any city with docklands, warehouse, merchants headquarters, irrigation and a green face when highly taxed will net you some nice cash.

[King_Sulieman_YHWH]

The trade resources in Mosul and Baghdad are even better than Timbuktu's gold.

My middle of the line merchant with like, 3 skill, gets 550 florins or w/e per turn, sitting on the blue folded fabric lookin stuff sitting out by Baghdad.

And some say its cheating but not me: Build trading colonies. Take a character, a quick agile army, not too big, along with as many merchants you can get your hands on, and send them all to a single resource. Build a fort with the character directly ontop of the resource. Now 10 merchants can all sit in the fort, all trading that same resource. The garrisson present protects this trade fort from enemy attack, and they do get attacked, and even destroyed. And your merchants die too, so its not quite the cheating that ppl think. It has its' risks, its a very large investment.

[pwijnands]

Timbuktu is land-locked isn't it? Real cashcows must have access to ports/merchants warfs. Pretty much all cities that have expensive trade commodities and can build ports can become cashcows.

[Vor]

Timbuktu is land-locked isn't it? Real cashcows must have access to ports/merchants warfs. Pretty much all cities that have expensive trade commodities and can build ports can become cashcows.

Timbuktu is, but there is also gold in the province West of it, and that has a port. In SS 5.1 anyway.

[Pyrebound]

The city of timbuktu is not the cashmaker itself, but the resources there. I think there was like 3-4 gold mines in there, each giving up to 2000 florins per turn if you have a merchant on them. You can also find many slave resources, that give up to like 1500 florins per turn. The region west of timbuktu is also filled with slaves and gold.

And you dont even need a massive imperium around that city like you need with other cashcows. To make them produce huge amounts of money, you need to have alot of neighbouring regions with max docks and trade.

In timbuktu, all you need is place a merchant on a resource, and in a few turns he has either acquired 4+ finance traits such as knowledge of customs, exotic items and graceful traveller, or then he has corrupted traits as he is bit away from his master :p

Timbuktu FTW.

In SS 5.1 theres also Dongola in egypt, that has 2 gold mines and another 2 slaves. Kinda like mini timbuktu.

[pwijnands]

Timbuktu FTW.

What does FTW mean? I've seen it several times and can't figure out what it means.

The new world is also a good place for merchants, especially because of the chocolate (which doesn't appear elsewhere I think).

[Pyrebound]

For The Win.

Ring yay :d

[Vor]

What does FTW mean? I've seen it several times and can't figure out what it means.

The new world is also a good place for merchants, especially because of the chocolate (which doesn't appear elsewhere I think).

By the time your there you don't really need an income boost though

[Idaeus]

I always sent my merchants down to Timbuktu for its enormous incomes in slavery and mines. As a city I don't know tho...

[Sacc]

^ Plus ivory.

[pwijnands]

Ah, thanks.

[prakimus88]

IMHO, they key six cities that form trade hubs are Venice, Constantinople, Genoa, Antwerp, Antioch and Cordoba. They all become huge cities very early on, they all are port cities and have the potential to make ridiculous amounts of money.They also give you a naval hub into all the key entry points into the sea.

The best indicator i see is the starting/early size of the city. All the best money-makers start the game off as pretty big sized cities. Of course this may just be because by the late game, i'm earning so much income that i don't pay so much attention to it.

[Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh]

In Broken Crescent, my Khwarezm Shah City of Samarkand produces 8000 per turn, and it is landlocked. But it is a mod, so perhaps thats the reasoning.

[tallstark]

Hi all, apples to apples has anyone done any comparisons? I have made very good money in cities not on some of your lists. Marsailles for instance, and I have had Stockholm cranking, and Kiev as well but its probably because of a number of buildings, routes, etc...

Is there a base trade rate in any of the game description files?

[barit]

While we are on the subject of cashcows...

If I have a merchant on a resource in a region I do not control, does it make any difference on the income if I am at war/trade/alliance/etc with the faction controlling the resource?

Most I have had coming out is 5200 from Antwerp, but it depends greatly if I have 1 or 4 standing armies.