Economic Strategy For HRE?

[Sir Winston Churchill]

Playing Vanilla version Med II, what is a good economic strategy for the Holy Roman Empire? I always like playing as them but I always find myself bankrupting or being on the verge of it (you know, only getting about 800-1200 a turn?). I found trying to take Florence early in the game kinda helps, but is there anything else you would suggest so that I don't go under?

[Legio]

The area around the Ruhr has some nice mineral deposits. First, send a few merchants over to grab the trade resources. Develop some mines in the settlement near it. I can't for the life of me remember what the settlement's name is. But once you establish yourself there it is easy to make cash.

[Sir Winston Churchill]

Rebel, so is it a good idea to only have minimal defense-purpose units in my cities unless I go to war?

[Silent Assassin]

Rebel, so is it a good idea to only have minimal defense-purpose units in my cities unless I go to war?

Yes you need to place your armies where you will need them, a bit the same way you would choose if X region be better as a city or a castle. Always think strategic. You definatly should read the guides that are in the Great Thread they will help you

[Silent Assassin]

Here is what I've posted in the Great Informative Thread (click on my Signature for more information and guides)

Posted by Rebel6666

Thanks for you noble comments NOBLE LORD (playing with words here), The best way I could suggest you is to follow Forlope's Economy Guide that is included in this thread.

Now the thing is War means that it will cost you more money, having multiple stacks can be a bankroll breaker believe me. The army upkeep is a fact that can destroy your Empire. My 2nd suggestion to you would be to try to make your stacks with diverse units, a good mixt of low upkeep spear militia for example combine with cheap light missle cavaly mixing some elite archers with peasants archers and this with all your stacks, this will cut your expentures from close to half comepared with a full stack of Elite units.

IMO in history the great Empires like Rome didn't have all elite units in there armies and they still won big battles, the cost of Elite units were too big to have only thoses in their armies. The same goes with this game. When you lose money have a look at your Financial overview window, pay close attention to it maybe you will be able to find where you are loosing money. Usually you loose money with:

- Too much Upkeep from your army
- Your enemies are blocading your ports that makes you loose half of thoses cities income
- Having Rebel armies on your lands cost you also some money, the bigger the rebel army the bigger the effect, they also play a role on your city level of order.
- Having too much squalor/corruption also play a role it's minimal but with the other points it still doesn't help
- Being at war with all your neibours means that you don't have trade rights with them which cuts off your income, now you will say but I'am trading between my cities?? Yes but your trade is minimal compared to what you would make with another faction, now that is why I try to have vassals intead of killing everyone.
- Having good merchants would also help you if you don't recruit them, plus by making trade with your merchants you are offered a chance to have the Merchant guild build in your cities and if you are good enough have the HQ guild, this gives you real bonuses from trading, having the Monopole of a ressources brings in alot of cash.


OK so hope this helps

[Ascarona]

*sigh* Just build up your economy like any other faction, first 20-40 turns focus on economic building such as roads, markets, farms (especially farms!) and keep taxes down. Take all garrisons and combine them into one army and conquer things, keep one unit in every town because that will sufice for a garrison for now. After you think you conquered enough, focus some more turns on building economic structures while you expand the garrisons.
And by now you should be prepared for war and have a decent/very good economy (depending on how much you managed to build). From here on you can conquer rich areas such as: Hanze areas (Antwerp to Riga), Holy lands (Alexandria to Antioch), Italy (Milan to Sicily etc.) to be absolutely certain that you won't get any cash problems.

But really had you looked up on Nazgul's and Rebel's huge and perfectly written guides then you would have found this out yourself...

[Jianadaren]

Remember, your "profits" aren't actually profits but instead it is your cash flow. For some bizarre reason, the game considers new buildings to be expenses, when really they are assets.

If you are building nothing and your profits are really low you're in trouble, but if you're building lots of things then you're fine.

Anyways, the best ways to stay economically healthy are really the same with every faction. Don't fight protracted wars, be sure to have trade agreements with all neighbouring settlements' factions, build lots of proper infrastructure (roads, ports, markets), keep your army as small as possible (only free garrison in cities and tiny garrisons in non-threatened castles), don't go crazy with agents (merchants excepted), and keep castle to city ratio as low as possible (this is hard as the HRE, because you have threats on all sides).

Another tip which I don't think has ever been mentioned on these forums ever is : use your spies to lower your garrison costs. It's a simple fact that improved information allows for leaner and more efficient inventories. In this case, better information about your foes allows you to keep smaller armies. Let your settlements stay relatively unguarded, but have your spies keep a sharp eye on your foes. If something seems threatening, then ramp-up production of military units everywhere and place them where you need them. If these threats are frequent then you should keep these units as a garrison, but if they are infrequent (>5 turns between threats) then it would be cheaper to disband the units when you don't need them and then rebuild them when you are in trouble.

Just build up your economy like any other faction, first 20-40 turns focus on economic building such as roads, markets, farms (especially farms!) and keep taxes down.

I disagree with keeping taxes down. Some (like Ascarona) feel that low taxes -> higher population growth -> higher tax base later -> more money later. And they are right.

However, 500 florins now is often worth more than 1000 florins later. If you raise taxes, you get more money now, which you can invest in buildings which results in ->better trade and better tax-independent population growth and better tax-independent public order and better religious conversion rates and stronger recruitment possibilities. To boot, if your taxes start very high, you have the flexibility to lower them if things get hairy (like you gets excommunicated or heresy breaks out). If you get into PO problems when your taxes are high then you can just lower your taxes, but you can't do that when your taxes are already low. Low taxes also exacerabate the squalor problem (lots of people and no money to build upgrades)

So, in conclusion, I believe that having very high taxes is the best way to prosperity (to paraphrase CNBC)

Edit: wow, this thread only had one reply to it when I started writing.

[Viking Prince]

Do take a look at all of your mine potential. The HRE is the mining faction. These areas also trade the minerals, so remenber to build up the markets as well. Metz is a castle, but there is some rationale for using this as a city due to the mineral deposits.

All of the prior posts are great to think about as well!