How can I be so poor?

[AchillesXX]

Looking for advice,

I am currently playing a Saba campaign on VH/VH. I control southern Africa and all of Arabia. I am trying to make incursions into the middle east. However, I simply do not understand how I am so poor. I have only the most basic garisson troops, zero navy, and only 2 offensive/defensive stacks. I always build up infrastructure way in advance of military buildings. In fact, I only have one city with a teir 3 barracks. My stacks are composed as follows (one stack isn't even full):

Stack A: 4 Camel Archers, 5 Desert Infantry (Arabian low lever mercs - forgot their name), 6 Arabian jav cav (It is tough to beat advanced Seleucids with this!)

Stack B: 4 Saba Heavy Spears, 3 Saba light cav, 4 Saba heavy cav, 2 chariots, and 4 Saba archers

I control about 14 provinces, and I am poorer than I have ever been in any other campaign. I will be brought down by poverty, not the massive Seleucid Empire! Advice please!

[DimeBagHo]

VH for the campaign level is not a good idea. All you get for that is less money, higher costs, and inferior diplomacy.

Otherwise the usual cause of poverty in XGM is too many stacks. One stack of city level units will cost you around 10,000 per turn, so one stack too many can make all the difference.

[AchillesXX]

Does very hard increase your upkeep, building costs, and recruitment costs? I thought it just made the enemies receive extra money each turn? Oh, I have bonuses off, so the Seleucids can afford only like, oh, 15 stacks and not their usual 50.

[DimeBagHo]

Costs are not directly increased but settlement populations will be less happy, which means less tax, and higher garrison costs to keep them in line.

[silvathegod]

Stop spending all your money on hookers!

[Scutarii]

A good strategy is to only spend some of your money on the hookers. Save some for the bank, and military upkeep and stuff.

[Zarax]

An even better strategy is to use the enslave option on captured settlements so you can get free ones and increase population in your core settlements at the same time.

[Dog Fart]

That is good for the start of the campaign, but in the mid and late campaign that would be a good way to start a mass revolt from over population. Alot of cities across the map baby boom during that time. But alot of this may come from constant blitzing instead of city and financial development. You don't have to own half the map by 245 bc. Try starting a campaing where you only have 2 or three citites developed for recruitment and the rest are just financial and cultural hubs. Defend for a while if you have to and don't be afraid of a hordes of ai stacks. Just remember the ai is dumb. Recruit absolute minimal stacks to your income is always positive. Watch how you use your resources during the beginning of the campaign. It's best to build a money saving program throughout the entire early stages of the game. Once you've developed a small empire you can start being a little more frivolous. Be careful though.

[Zarax]

The trick here is governor management.
Keep governors only in the cities you want to grow and you can reap the full benefits.