Economy

[The10thLegion]

Any tips on building a rich economy?

[Velvet_Elvis]

I keep your number of castles low. Maybe 1 or 2 out of 10 settlements or so. Example: When I play the English, my only castles are Nottingham and Canea.

[InquisitorTorquemada]

if you are mainly coastal, build ports as soon as possible and make friends. As a landlocked state, expand very early and keep the mining going and supplement with merchants. Crusades are a great way to finanacially benefit as they pay alot of your maintenence costs and give u a great cheap military that you should put to use every turn after crusades are over. Take excessive casualties to bleed your excess troops and only when desparate, disband.

[Lord Cave]

Bring up the settlement details when you are choosing what building to construct. Put the building in the queue and look over to the economic details. You will see a ghost like image of farming or mining or trade. If you hold the mouse over it you will see the income you will get once the building is constructed. Then hold over the leftmost dark symbol and you will see how much you are currently earning. Figure out the difference.

Try to build things that will pay for themselves quickest. Mining is usually one of the best. I tend to avoid farm upgrades because you don't want your population getting out of control before you can afford to build larger walls. There's no point in having a large city that is squalid and really doesn't produce anything useful.

My .02

[The10thLegion]

hmmmm, good answers, except now that i do them, the darn banquets and trades appear, and never stop. I dont want to hurt my nobles. Btw, im the byzantines.

[d3v]

also never have standing armies becuase the troop wages are stupid high. if i get attatked i will buy an army of mercenaries and as many levies as i can recruit within 1 turn then use that rabble to fend off the attackers then disband it afterwards.

[The10thLegion]

well, i finally learned to keep my armies home. Lost alot of money (so accustomed to spqr)