Starting economy for Gaul

[Ybbon]

I was just curious as I realise most people are probably just waiting for 2.0 now but thought I'd ask.

I was tinkering with 3 factions, Parthia, Samartians and Gauls with 1.6a on BI with h/h. Each of them starts with a large army and quite a bit of money - in Gaul's case 20K. I was just trying what seemed reasonable initial investments of a mine in Alesia to get rid of the -1700 income and in Londoninium, raised all taxes to hard, made a couple of governors to take over from family with the aim of having 3-4 standing armies, 1 in Britain, 1 to take Lemonum, 1 to take Narbus and 1 to defend around Alesia. Added traders and some initial upgrades to get stables/ranges or meeting halls.

Anyway, nothing unreasonable, I had 1 building queued up in each settlement, a few recruitments but again not seemingly excessive, the most expensive being an extra diplomat. First turn and I have -5k! and losing 5K a turn.

So I was curious, for those who play these factions, do you reduce the standing armies (in the Gauls case it costs 15k a turn to keep initially) or do you take the loss and wait for the income from the mines and traders to kick in? It seems most of your settlements start with negative income even with high taxes so how long does it take to turn most of these positive? I can change what I build and who I recruit and stay positive for a few turns with Gaul but overall it seems the initial army is too large or the initial starting economy is not good enough to prevent a slide to debt within a few turns. Parthia is even worse and there doesn't seem to be a way to go without reducing the initial army.

Anyway, was just curious, how quick can you turn a profit as Gaul and what/who do you build/recruit to get that?

[Scarrus]

I do it like this:
Never have armies stand around for nothing, as they cost you money. As soon as you have an army ready, deploy it wherever you think necesarry, but do it and don't just keep it standing around. And as for the Gauls, it will take a long time before you'd have to defend Alessia, in the case where you get overrun by somebody else...

[Kallides]

Have a look at that. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=330270 I have the same settings as you but I play in Alex expansion. Like Scarrus said keep your army busy and take settlements, which brings more income. Kill armies on your land, people get happier and you can sky rocket the taxes. BTW I always put max tax on all settlements from very beggining. I find it easy to keep max taxes with Gaul they dont complain much. Just build sewars, and build everything else before you build governor buildings.

Cheers mate!

[Phillieas_Caesar]

Gual has an economy? When this happen? Who thought the barbarians could count past 21 without removing their shoes and pants? Oh man I gotta warn the legions! lol.

I [on the rare times i play as a barbarian] disband most of my army. Then rebuild them when the economy is better.

[Kallides]

Gual has an economy? When this happen? Who thought the barbarians could count past 21 without removing their shoes and pants?

How dare you!? You hygeen loving fool!!! I ll have your head on a spear in my front yard, and then I will use it as a ball, to put in a basket, for our new game we invented called Ballbasket!! How dare you?!

[Scarrus]

How dare you!? You hygeen loving fool!!! I ll have your head on a spear in my front yard, and then I will use it as a ball, to put in a basket, for our new game we invented called Ballbasket!! How dare you?!

LMFAO

[Tombl]

How dare you!? You hygeen loving fool!!! I ll have your head on a spear in my front yard, and then I will use it as a ball, to put in a basket, for our new game we invented called Ballbasket!! How dare you?!

That's what he means, foolish barbarians..

[Chicken]

How dare you!? You hygeen loving fool!!! I ll have your head on a spear in my front yard, and then I will use it as a ball, to put in a basket, for our new game we invented called Ballbasket!! How dare you?!

well:

anglo saxons---->celts---->vikings---->scots---->kallides

[Kallides]

lol. I have my moments.

[Timefool]

Barbarians were more civilized than they get credit for. They get the name barbarian from the language they speak, and if you want to get technical, it was not the Germanic/Gallic barbarians that received this name, but the people of Persia, whose language to the Greeks sounded like "bar bar bar." The word caught on and was used on anyone who did not speak a language that was not like the one they spoke, and coincidentally those civilizations did not form the large empires that their counterparts were famous for. The Romans adopted more than you think from the barbarians of northern Europe.

[Phillieas_Caesar]

Barbarians were more civilized than they get credit for. They get the name barbarian from the language they speak, and if you want to get technical, it was not the Germanic/Gallic barbarians that received this name, but the people of Persia, whose language to the Greeks sounded like "bar bar bar." The word caught on and was used on anyone who did not speak a language that was not like the one they spoke, and coincidentally those civilizations did not form the large empires that their counterparts were famous for. The Romans adopted more than you think from the barbarians of northern Europe.

Lies. All Lies! lol. Yeah I know.

[Ybbon]

Well I've got to 476 AUC and making a healthy profit for 2 turns now. I've taken Burgdala (?), Narbo Martius and Caerwent so far, the two armies that took Burgdala and Caerwent were just sufficient in the end to do the job but now I can regroup.

Have trade with Free People, Germania, Carthage and Iberia so far, but I think I was about -18k before I turned it around. Now to take the rest of Britain and Ireland, Lemonum and Masillia and get that economy moving on. Profit now is 5-6K a turn.

[Dean Martin]

Hmmmm... i thimk Gaul is god mode faction (lol) with one army i defend and win all 2 battles at once and i was fighting against 7 full stacks of roman army