alright whats going on here?

[Orgath]

i keep reading these forums about people raising armies of 10 stacks with hundreds of thousands of florins in the coffers just to take one city. while im trying to gather a couple of half-stacks of mediocre men to take 7 cities with no more then 30k in the bank. how do you get so much money and make so many men without your cash being dented at all? i try every money making scheme in the book and im carful with spending my money and i still havent been able to get my coffers above 50k. i just want an endless pit of money so i can raise huge armies and make all of europe mine!!!!

also wen i grow to be the most powerful faction in the game i still end up getting my butt wooped becuz every1 turns on me at once. WTF!?!?! ill be #1 in everything and then in just a few turns ill lose 5 cities and ill be in dept becuz ill still have most of my army intact. i really want to play the byzantines but im worried that ill be forced to give up becuz of these things. do i just suck? am i giving up too early? idk anymore.

its strange i never had any problems in RTW. in RTW ill have huge armies and even bigger bank accounts without any problems. but that became too easy and i got bored. i dont know wut im doing differently in MTW.

well im not guna sit around and wait for replys. ima jump right into the byzantine campaign and i WILL kick some serious medieval ass!!!!!!!!!!!!

[J.B.]

Well, how far in-game are we talking about?

also wen i grow to be the most powerful faction in the game i still end up getting my butt wooped becuz every1 turns on me at once.

- You don't get excommunicated, do you?

[dr_guerra]

Okay.

First off, all settlements that aren't bordering enemies should be cities. Don't build many castles, as they don't produce much money.

Build merchants, train them up, and then put them on resources and acquire foreign merchant assets.

Roads are important, keep them clear of rebels as they will stop trade.

First thing you should do is make a trade agreement with everyone. Send out two diplomats in different directions and trade with everyone. In your cities, build farms, as they produce money and increase growth, markets, docks, and any other economic buildings. Town Halls are good to increase happiness. You can increase taxes in cities with very high public order so long as it doesn't stunt growth.

Militia armies should be kept in cities, as they are free to a point. Try to have spear militia or the best quality militias in each city. So if you have 2 town militia and 1 spear militia, get rid of the town militia and build another 2 spear militia.

Don't make overly large armies, just what you can manage to take the areas you need. Expensive armies aren't that great. If you have an option between two different kinds of infantry, one that costs 225 a turn, and another that costs 150 a turn, and the differences are small, stick with the cheaper unit.

Focus on economy, build as many merchants as you possibly can. Also remember that having a priest in each city improves the piety of the governor, which essentially improves the happiness of the city, thus making it more productive.

[Orgath]

ok i see. i do some of those things, such as making lots of merchants and getting trade agreements. however i start losing alot of money when i start making alot of enemies. at least thats what happened to me in my british campaign. but when i played the venice campaign i controlled a large portion of the mediterranean and i still made alot of money even when i lost alot of allies. so ill just keep my empire based around the mediterranean.

also i usually jsut ignore rebel armies becuz i didnt kno they were causing problems. and i shud probably lower my amount of castles, i usually just leave them the way they are.

alright thank you for the tips. with these i shud be able to get lots of money and it is a well known fact that the sinews of war are infinite money

[Bob The Fearless]

however i start losing alot of money when i start making alot of enemies. at least thats what happened to me in my british campaign.

Orgath remember if you are trading with a particular faction i.e. France, then you go to war with them the trade between you and France will stop.

This will reduce your income.

If your going to attack someone it may be wise to check how much trade you do with them, and how much income you stand to lose per turn.

Maybe look to strengthen your position/relations with those factions you do a lot of trade with.

I lost half my income once by not checking this our properly.

[Wheelchair]

There are many things that reflect income and how much money you get.

Venice is my favorite faction, due to their trade opportunities. Economy is where I really shine in MTW, I 90% of the time I auto resolve battles... Well I auto resolve in early game as Venice because Italian Militia OWN everything.

As Venice my economy is my top priority, but that doesn't mean I don't fight, oh no! I slaughter whoever is on my trade area... Example would be the Milanese, they have my cities which are great for trade...Milan and Genoe.

Milan, Genoe, Venice, Bologna, and Florence, my 5 main trading cities in the Italian Peninsula, at around turn 20 I control all of them via Blitzkrieg. These cities will generate around 20'000 a turn... and that's only with some of my economic buildings.

Also, I use Iraklion as a base of operations for Invading the Byzantines, where I take Athens and Corinth to get a foothold and when I'm ready I take Thessilonica and procede to Constantinople (my city!)

This all can be done in 30 turns, I go around a nominal pace and most times get it by 40-50 turns. So, now I stand at around 30'000-40'000 florins at turn 30, and I also have 3 full stack armies, 1 to defend my priorities in the Italian peninsula, 1 gaining new priorities in Greece, and 1 conquering the Italian peninsula from the Sicilians. I generate 11'000 a turn, Italian Militia have an Upkeep of 125, so theoretically I could produce 88 more units of Italian Militia without going into Debt... thats 4 and a half more armies!

but I don't do the above for the following reason, by the time I produce that many, I would have slowed my ecomemy.. by reducing population by an unnecessary amount in my cities AND by they time they were all produced They would be out of date.

So anyway, thats my rant/strategy.

Heres how to do it.

Beginning

The first 10 turns are the most important, capture all the rebel settlements around your area, most new players play France or England, so if your England take the Isles, if your france try and Capture the land around you to make it look like Modern day France, if you control these your income will be substantial.

Make sure you have around 5-6:1 City to castle Ratio, in the begginning 3:1 is fine. when expanding into new territory, convert previous castles to cities (don't unless you do not need them)

Now, it's best to turn Island settlements into Cities, As the AI dosn't usually bother Islands, and it has increased trade due to the fact its an Island.


Buildings!

Building order: Roads>Market>Warehouse>Port>Farm>Townhall

In cities always build economic buildings first, and don't spend to much time building all the buildings in Castles, try having 1 castle devoted to a distinct Unit, Example: 1 Castle will build Knights, 1 will build Infantry, 1 will build Archers.

Disbanding

Make sure to disband uneeded Naval units, this is key for Sicily and Venice in the begginning, Naval units in MTW Essentially are used for Transportation, there is a rarecase where you can use it effectivly otherwise.

Disbanding can be your best friend, if you have some knights in a foriegn location, and you KNOW they will not be retrained soon, then disband them.. (if their below half strength). In some cases this would not be logical if theres enemies near by.

ARMY SIZE

Now, army size. 80% of the time this is the problem. Do not build units EVERY turn, especially mounted knights. Avoid using all Cavalry Armies, as they are expensive and the upkeep for a whole Cavalry army exceeds 5000; Whereas a variety army is more effective at half the upkeep cost.

Its not the size of the army.. It's how you use it! You don't need full stack armies to take a city that has a defence of 2 units... Its not logical, split your forces up and take 2 cities, When attacking make sure you have double the garrison size.

MERCHANTS

Try not to use merchants early game, they will only slow you down. Do not use merchants in Vanilla (non-modded game). However; If you ARE infact playing a mod, Preferably Stainless Steel, then use Merchants.

Merchants can be very effective, you can use a little "exploit" as some people refer to it as, because the AI cannot do it, But In my honest opinion, what good leader in the ancient times didn't protect a group of merchants with a fort to make a huge ass amount of cash? See Below.

Take a General, construct a fort on a valuable trade resource: Slaves, Ivory, Textiles, and Gold.

Now, take the general out, and put 20 merchants inside the fort... You don't need 20 but its the best way to make a fortune.

All the merchants get the benefit of the resource, so say if its Slaves for example, 20 merchants making average 260florins/turn, 5200 Florins a turn! in 10 turns thats 52'000! that could also fund an entire army (even a cavalry one)

ALSO: 5200 florins a turn is not constant, and this is the reason merchant forts are extremely efficient. Every few turns you'll notice your merchant income increase by a few hundred, thats because your merchants gain more skills and sell their stock better.

My last Venice game I had 3 merchant fort set up, my best Merchant fort has atleast 15 merchants generating 1100/turn. All together I was making 41'000 a turn from merchants alone.

IRRELEVANT TIP: Select all of your units in an army and press M, this will merge all identical units. so say you have 6 units of 20 Spearman in each unit, if you press M it will merge them all into 120 men (on Huge game settings), This can speed up retraining and make your army able to fight the next turn!


I Hope this helped! (This was taken from a previous post I wrote)

-Wheelchairs

[masterbaker]

"The sinews of war are not gold, but good soldiers." Machiavelli

[dr_guerra]

If you want to reduce the amount of wars you get involved in, build up your defenses more. Have 6 armies or more in every border settlement, with a large central stack ready to move to help.

The AI will attack your weak border towns, even if you have good relations.

Also, marriage alliances are very rarely broken, except by factions like Milan.

[Desperado †]

also wen i grow to be the most powerful faction in the game i still end up getting my butt wooped becuz every1 turns on me at once. WTF!?!?!

I love this new part of Medieval II. It isn't always that obvious, but (like in real life) when a faction get's powerfull surronding factions tend to attack at once. The Pope also dosent' like one powerful faction. It makes the game more challenging and helps to stop you wining before America's discovered. It's also good that this wasn't included in RTW because the barbarians weren't at all good at working with each other - divide and conquer. But in the post Charlemange day's, backstabbing and alliances aren't just in the senate...

[Wizzerdrix]

I love this new part of Medieval II. It isn't always that obvious, but (like in real life) when a faction get's powerfull surronding factions tend to attack at once. The Pope also dosent' like one powerful faction. It makes the game more challenging and helps to stop you wining before America's discovered. It's also good that this wasn't included in RTW because the barbarians weren't at all good at working with each other - divide and conquer. But in the post Charlemange day's, backstabbing and alliances aren't just in the senate...

Well said, I once did a school project on divide and conquer, now after having read your post i understand why I become so unpopular when I get more powerful. It used to annoy me so much that I started over with a new campaign.

[Orgath]

lol thanks for the tips but i already solved my money problems. i was getting mad and frusterated when i posted here but im cool now. right now im playing the byzantine campaign and i own rome, jerusalem, and all the land inbetween. my coffers are pretty much bottomless pits of money. i think i will try russia on SS next. WOO!

[ArmoredSandwich]

Thanks for the awesome crash course MTW2! I have a couple of questions though. I guess I'll leave my pillaging days behind. But I still have a couple of questions, what's there to do about rebelling cities and generals? Whenever I send an army out with or without an heir they betray me. Even cities I own from day 1 riot now and then. No reason given of course.

I can live with generals that betray me, sure they're generals. But faction heirs? I rush my youngest family member all the way across Europe to guide the king's army. The king was dieing of old age you see. So he got there, he took this army of veterans with AWESOME equipment that had been pillaging cities (20k per city, awesome) for halve a century now and the next turn he betrays me? Things like that are what takes the fun away for me, just like random appearing rebels for example, I mean come on. Rebels aren't just rebels, they're freaking elite warrior with top notch equipment? Where did they get those? My army needs that kind of stuff!

[Xamt]

Since the economic problems seem to be solved i will try to answer the rebelling problems sandwich posted

1) Rebelling cities:
a. make sure you build buildings that boost happiness (tavern, church) and order (barracks).
b. check the governor of the city and read through his traits to make sure he has an overall possitive effect to the city's order/happyness
c. have a priest/imam stationed in each of ur cities (even castles) and a spy in problematic cities/castles. (unrest can be caused by enemy spies entering ur settlements... having one of your own spies inside helps u catch and kill enemy spies)
d. make sure there are no rebel armies or foreign armies and no heretics in the region (they cause increased unrest)
e. always have the maximum number (see the wall of the city for what that number is) of free upkeep units garrisoned inside a city. castles dont support free upkeep units but very rarely rebel
f. make sure u have the most uppgraded city wall available to the city (since squalor causes unhappiness)
g. check the taxes, the higher they are, the more unhappy citizens get (can u blame them??). if u dont want to bother with taxes have the ai automanage them

2) Rebelling generals: i havent had a lot (if any) of my generals rebelling, and the only 2 reasons i can think of is really low loyalty (loyalty gets lower if they sit around in 1 place for too long and do nothing) and bribery/beeing charmed by a foreign princess (cant do much about these two, but pray )

hope this helps

[ArmoredSandwich]

Thanks! I'll apply that! Spamming priests also seems to work sometimes

[Viking Prince]

Rebelling generals are the result of:

1) combination of distance from capital, religion in territory, loyalty, and whether it is a rebel province. I do not know why on the rebel province part - just seems to work that way for me.

2) bribes made by AI

3) characteristics on the general -- read them and take the traits seriously, but not too cautiously

4) moving up to a stack that can wipe the floor with the general and his army

5) see number 1,2,3,4 -- and do not move the general. Adage of a moving stone gathers no moss is appropriate here.