Total Bean Counter

[Henry707]

Morning All,

I love Empire but has anyone else noticed how it can turn you from a war monger machine into a beancounting accountant?

I was just about to start a wild & frenzied attack on the Ottoman Empire from my newly united India as the Marantha's & suddenly I hear a little voice inside saying 'what about the trade? They are your biggest partner? How will it impact on the GB? Exports to the UK market are vital?" etc

Weighed down by economic concerns I decided to manage taxes & develop some more farms...the whinging merchants had got their way...

What is happening to us? Has 'war' gone from the agenda? Are we to be turned into peaceful traders?

I am currently disbanding some units to enable me to launch a giant fiscal stimulus plan in the new financial year, along with some quantitative easing

Henri

[The_Dude]

yeah, there you have it, economical "crisis" affects all of us, even the pixels on your screen

[Lord Justin]

You can take that route or you can pull a me and say...

"Well, if I attack the Dutch in the Caribbean then I will lose Britain as a trade partner and then Sweden will be surrounded by hostile nations, and all I'll get is the huge supplies of gold in Dutch Guyana. Maybe I shouldn't attack the Dutch"

...and then attack the Dutch and start killing everyone in sight, and rake in the gold. See my philosophy is, if there is something I want and somebody else owns it, they can either serve under me or die under me. It's kind of Viking politics.

Unless they are a loyal friend like the Marathas, to whom I gave Estonia because they asked real nice.

[DeaDBolT]

I was in a similar situation yesterday.

I was playing sweden and after taking Norway, Denmark, Iceland and West Prussia i was thinking about conquering Hanover.

but then i started to think:

Trade was vital to my economy, making up over half my income.
But if i where to attack Hanover, Bavaria would ally with them, which would also make Wurtemburg hostile, which could upset the Dutch, which could in turn affect the Brittish, whom where both my niggest trade partners.
So i digressed from this plan and built some more palatial estates and water powered mills to increase growth, prestige and income

So i looked to India, who where also my trade partners.
I could conquer them and take all that trade to myself, however, they where allied to the Dutch and they would probably not approve of me taking their trade for myself, which could lead to war with them, the Brittish, etcetera, so i disgressed...and built some more trade ports

After that i just decided to take Brandenburg and destroy Prussia, since everyone hated Prussia.

So there you have it, i turned from a medieval, violent warmonger into a peacefull, profitable, well calculating economist head of state, the credit crisis affects us all..

What has become of us?

Anyway, happy to share my story.

Cheers,

[Anbar]

"Well, if I attack the Dutch in the Caribbean then I will lose Britain as a trade partner and then Sweden will be surrounded by hostile nations, and all I'll get is the huge supplies of gold in Dutch Guyana. Maybe I shouldn't attack the Dutch"

...and then attack the Dutch and start killing everyone in sight, and rake in the gold. See my philosophy is, if there is something I want and somebody else owns it, they can either serve under me or die under me. It's kind of Viking politics.

except you dont rake in gold - you only ever get the tax percentage of the provincial wealth - so thinking that fixed provincial resources will earn you even a tenth of trade is, essentially, well, just plain wrong.

[iamtehsuck]

except you dont rake in gold - you only ever get the tax percentage of the provincial wealth - so thinking that fixed provincial resources will earn you even a tenth of trade is, essentially, well, just plain wrong.

which is silly because historically trade generated revenue for governments because governments could tax the economic activity...not because governments were hoarding all the trade goods and selling them to other countries as ETW's system seems to suggest

[Leesin]

I found the best way to overcome this is to create huge armies, so you can attack all of the trading ports that trade with you at once, that way you keep all the trade anyway and gain more if anything.

[akinkhoo]

I found the best way to overcome this is to create huge armies, so you can attack all of the trading ports that trade with you at once, that way you keep all the trade anyway and gain more if anything.

what?

[githo]

So true, war destroys your economy. I usually go to war for a couple of years, then sign a peace treaty, work on my economy and trade for a couple of years and then declare war again

In medieval and rome however, I was constantly conquering and waging war. Those years of peace (more peace then war tbh) are new in empire, atleast with me.

[Mikelus Trento]

I'm 50 years into a Russian campaign, and when my economy began to be a bit low, I simply invaded Persia for a bailout. hmmmm

[18Zulukiller]

Morning All,

I love Empire but has anyone else noticed how it can turn you from a war monger machine into a beancounting accountant?

I was just about to start a wild & frenzied attack on the Ottoman Empire from my newly united India as the Marantha's & suddenly I hear a little voice inside saying 'what about the trade? They are your biggest partner? How will it impact on the GB? Exports to the UK market are vital?" etc

Weighed down by economic concerns I decided to manage taxes & develop some more farms...the whinging merchants had got their way...

What is happening to us? Has 'war' gone from the agenda? Are we to be turned into peaceful traders?

I am currently disbanding some units to enable me to launch a giant fiscal stimulus plan in the new financial year, along with some quantitative easing

Henri

I get were you're coming from as i've been in similar situations. If i was you though i'd sail of to Europe and conquer Morocco & the Barbary coast as no one ever likes them (that should give you a second front onto the ottomans for when you do attack). Or even just sail of to the Americas and take out the two pirate islands there to give you a footholds in the new world.

Honestly when in doubt theres always a minor nation somewhere in the world that no one likes that you can pick on.

[Hero164]

I get were you're coming from as i've been in similar situations. If i was you though i'd sail of to Europe and conquer Morocco & the Barbary coast as no one ever likes them (that should give you a second front onto the ottomans for when you do attack). Or even just sail of to the Americas and take out the two pirate islands there to give you a footholds in the new world.

Honestly when in doubt theres always a minor nation somewhere in the world that no one likes that you can pick on.

Except of course Barbary states are an ottoma protectarate!!

[18Zulukiller]

Except of course Barbary states are an ottoma protectarate!!

Just get you're relations up really high with ottomans then by giving them pressis. As i've managed to take the barbery states as GB and not had the ottomans go ape over it and lose my trade with them.

Although i have noticed somthing while playing a short campaign the barbery states flag changed from a yellow background to a red/orange background as time progressed. So maybe there a protectorate in the long campaign and not the short and thats how i got away with it.

Aww well what ever he can still go to the americas and take the pirates out, Or maybe even take out one of the emerging factions like the crimean khanate, mexico or quebec. If he gets them as soon as they emerge they might not have enough time to form aliances.

[NovaColonel]

Same for me... I was really happy when my Monarch died and UP, GB and .. uhm, who was it again ... Württemberg declared war. I would never have been able to attack them myself, since the trade was so important. But the solution was to simply start a fiscal offensive by offering mortgage loans, and then selling the receivables on to other guys, who repacked them to something called credit default swaps and sold them to me again and then... no, wait, wrong scenario.

Seriously, I think the main reason that conquering is someqhat less attractive now are the missing looting options (sack/raid/occupy), giving you an instant reward for taking a region. Those were really helpful in earlier titles. Now, if you're short on money, you can't even repair the public order buildings and have to exempt the region from tax altogether, making war more costly than ever before...

[Heinz Guderian]

Same for me... I was really happy when my Monarch died and UP, GB and .. uhm, who was it again ... Württemberg declared war. I would never have been able to attack them myself, since the trade was so important. But the solution was to simply start a fiscal offensive by offering mortgage loans, and then selling the receivables on to other guys, who repacked them to something called credit default swaps and sold them to me again and then... no, wait, wrong scenario.

.

lol. thats pretty funny.

[Evilbunz]

I played as Prussia on hard mode, i had Russia, Sweden, Poland, Austria and some minor countries after me... i had to make an army. Right now i own all of Poland forced Austria to sign a treaty and took their technologies, Beat Russia made them sign a treaty, took Denmark from Sweden (they took it from Denmark). Then i took United Provinces and France is now after me... i just forced France to sign a treaty.

My navy is basically 0, my enlightenment and industry + economics is slightly above average since i got so much land. But yeah most of my ports are blocked... can't trade all i can do is go fight wars and my army right now is the best i even got the Prussian Jaegers are too good. I have so much money at this point that i don't have anything to spend it on since i am so far behind in agriculture, industry, textile, philosophy.. like 87000 gold.

[Naked Emperor]

I played as Prussia on hard mode, i had Russia, Sweden, Poland, Austria and some minor countries after me... i had to make an army. Right now i own all of Poland forced Austria to sign a treaty and took their technologies, Beat Russia made them sign a treaty, took Denmark from Sweden (they took it from Denmark). Then i took United Provinces and France is now after me... i just forced France to sign a treaty.

My navy is basically 0, my enlightenment and industry + economics is slightly above average since i got so much land. But yeah most of my ports are blocked... can't trade all i can do is go fight wars and my army right now is the best i even got the Prussian Jaegers are too good. I have so much money at this point that i don't have anything to spend it on since i am so far behind in agriculture, industry, textile, philosophy.. like 87000 gold.

with 87000 gold you can buy technology!!!!! You can often buy a tech for as low as 5000 gold but the running price is 10-15 k

[OberonDark]

"Convince" GB* to create some toxic assets for the benefits of their economy. Ally with them, support their banking system, and then when the world declares war on them, you can appeal to the U.N that you're only defending your ally when you crush the entire world.

*GB and United States of America are interchangeable.

Objective #1. Establish firm alliances with everyone that matters.

Objective #2. Send spies to destroy the armies and gentlemen of minor nations.

Objective #3. Position armies and navies right outside enemy territory/fleets.

Objective #4. Declare war and coup d'État all minor nations.

Objective $5. Buy your way to victory and crush them when they're weak. Rinse and repeat.

[ShooterSix]

You guys are being too cautious and thinking too critical here. As it stands now, the AI is retarded, and the major power GB can't even do anything since it can't leave its own island.

Simply declare war, march and move on, you will win sooner or later, no doubt about it.

Has anyone here ever lost a campaign?

If I was roleplaying this game, then yes, I would care about my trade routes etc with the Ottomans.

[Monglor]

When push comes to shove the Ottomans in my experience will always let the Barbary nations go if pressed. They are not so much a protectorate as two nations that hang out together cos they have the same religion, they're not really friends though.