How to not go bankrupt?

[Creative Poster]

I seem to be having this problem on the campaign map, and that is not going bankrupt. I am currently doing very well as Egypt right now, but that's only because I'm playing on Easy. On medium and above, I always go bankrupt. Always. I try and build roads and stuff, but then end up going bankrupt building them.

Also, it seems to be very difficult to actually make an army. If I want to attack city X controlled by another faction, then how am I supposed to build up a sizable army? It's very difficult to do so for some reason.

[Silent Assassin]

Click on my signature( The Great Informative Thread and have a look at the Economic guide

[townie33]

If your playing as Egypt one of your main problem is that it takes forever to get trade rights from anybody. Trade helps out in the beginning of the game when you don't have an economy set up. Also, as said above, don't build units like crazy in the beginning, consolidate your starting forces and use those until you are finished kicking rebel butt or they are all killed. As for building this is what I normally do: churches, roads, farms, markets, ports. This way your town is making well into the thousands when your done. And if your having major cash troubles just sack the cities you take. The cities like Jerusalem and Antioch are close to Egypt and can give huge cash pay outs when sacked.

[Nazgûl Killer]

I seem to be having this problem on the campaign map, and that is not going bankrupt. I am currently doing very well as Egypt right now, but that's only because I'm playing on Easy. On medium and above, I always go bankrupt. Always. I try and build roads and stuff, but then end up going bankrupt building them.

Also, it seems to be very difficult to actually make an army. If I want to attack city X controlled by another faction, then how am I supposed to build up a sizable army? It's very difficult to do so for some reason.

A very common mistake amongst many people is that "BUILD ARMY QUICK! SLAY EVERYTHING!"
It is the worst perception possible.
What you should do, early on, is build roads, markets and farms first, and continue with the rest later, in addition to that, DO NOT build new units! Gather all your armies, leave 1 unit in every city so you have your army's strength at maximum, and start slaying rebels.
(Don't get full stacks, that's a waste, get half a stack or so per city, it should be enough this early on)

Also, before farms, build ports and try to take as many coastal cities as possible as they bring you the most trading income.

Also, if you can, get merchants, no matter on what resource, just get merchants and place them on resources you deem worthy.

Hope this helped!

(For more help, see my guide and Rebel's guide, the links are in our signatures)

[Imperator Romani]

CLick on their sigs. Don't tell them which one you picked though...

[Generaal Van Heutsz]

lower taxes, so you get faster population growth, get governors with good traits and more importantly high chivalry to boost the population growth; don't exterminate settlements unless you really have to and build all lower level economic buildings before you move on to a higher lever as the gain is most for lower level buildings and be sure trade routes are not blocked (look at the trafic: the little ships and wagons)

[Creative Poster]

Thanks a lot for everybody's help!

BTW I'm not a begginer to TW I've played this game for over a year now.

[Ascarona]

BTW I'm not a begginer to TW I've played this game for over a year now.

then why are you playing easy? If you've played it for over a year then you should know how to maintain a decent economy

[Banana Jelly]

I get bnkrupt in RTW more then M2TW i think the medieval 2 money system is great. Just build trade agreements

[Legio]

No personal references.

[Amry]

Just stating things from my perspective, but this is my method of financial success:

1. Standing armies are expensive. The upkeep tends to be the part that takes a big bite out of your revenue. To make it more managable, this is what I do:

a) for each castle, the first thing I build is the building that allows me to recruit the lowest-grade militia. Then that city will be garrisoned by x + 1 number of militia units, where x is the maximum number of militia units the city can support for free. Of course, if the people are rioting, I'd deploy more, but for my "core" cities this formula usually works well enough.

b) I divide my empire into imaginary "regions" for the purpose of creating an anti-bandit army. Each region will have the following:
1 x Spy (to find out the composition of rebel armies)
1 x Assassin (because I don't remember letting all those diplomats / Princesses travel across my land)
1 x Anti-Bandit Batallation (ABB), which consists of 4 Heavy Cavalry, 2 Heavy Infantry and 2 Archer units.

The rationale for the ABB is this: Cavalry, with their mobility, can often mop up 80% of all bandits / rebels. Occassionally however, I might need to "pin down" the stronger pointy stick-based units, which is where the Heavy Infantry comes in. And of course, it'll be nice to have the opportunity to demoralize the enemy without them coming in contact with my units, hence the archers.

I believe the composition of my ABB manages to strike the balance between "strong enough" and "cheap enough". Oh, and remember to either park your strike force in your cities, or otherwise have it lead by a member of your family; you don't want them to turn rebel on you, right?


c) If, unfortunately, war breaks out, I will create an "army group", with one Amry Group per front. A "front" is defined by how many land corridors are available for the enemy to attack my cities. Using England as example, if my conquest is based on Caean, there are three possible fronts; West (the Danes), South (the French) and East (usually Portugal).

As much as possible, I try to minimize the number of opened fronts; this is to reduce the number of HUEG troop stacks that I have to pay for, and of course because it's easier if you can concentrate on disemboweling your enemies one at a time. This objective can be achieved either with diplomacy, or otherwise by planning your advances and ensuring that as much as possible, your territories are adjacent to your (good, trustworthy) allies.

Because of the huge size and cost of an amry group (after all, it is staffed by the finest soldiers of the land), I never had more than three out in the field at any time.


2. Build priority is important!
This is my build queue:
a. Roads - the most important aspect. Roads = trade, and more importantly, mobility. I didn't build a huge, thriving trading city only to be snatched away because my troops can't rescue it in time.

b. Farms - farms = more people = more taxes. Also, more people = higher-level buildings = more income (after an initial investment)

c. Mines. Expensive, but it's a steady income

d. Trade buildings

But of course, that's not the complete picture. I also perform cost-benefits analysis before deciding what to build.

For example, if I have a farm that costs 2400 florins, Grain Merchant for 600 and Mine for 3200, I will build the GM first. Only if the prices of all the three buildings are roughly on par with each other will I follow the algorithm as I stated above (except for roads - roads always get highest priority from me).

Hope this helps.

[Jianadaren]

Don't fight protracted wars. All you're doing is paying too much for your army, trading too little, and ruining your reputation. If you must attack, do it swiftly and decisively.

Another thing that is usually misunderstood is trade. Trade is done between settlements, not between factions. You can trade with yourself. Every settlement will trade with every other settlement IF A) they share a land border OR B) they both have ports and a dotted-line connecting the ports.

However, no settlements will trade with any other settlements that are at war with each other (so by declaring war, you greatly reduce your income, especially if you share a big border).

Also, if two settlement are of the same faction or of two different factions who have trading rights with each other, then trade will be maximized. If there is no trade agreement, trade will be lower.

Markets, ports, roads, warehouses, etc. increase all trade in and out of a settlement, so by building roads in London, you can increase the income in London AND the income in Nottingham. Exploit this network effect to great riches.

Some people say that you need to leave factions alive so you can trade with them. This is not true. If you conquer that land then you will trade with yourself, generating the income as the exporter (seller of the goods) and as the importer (buyer and presumed value-adder).