How to manage my economy?

[UberB]

Hi, I'd like to start off by informing everyone that I'm pretty new to TW games but not to strategy games (very avid player of SC and WC3). I played a bit of RTW vanilla on H/H and found it pretty easy. Recently I installed M2TW but I haven't tried playing the vanilla game, I just jumped into TATW and I'm very impressed by the amount of support these mods get, however there doesn't seem to be many guides on how to manage economy so I have absolutely no idea on how to manage my settlements. I tried reading the TATW Strategy Guide but it's not very in-depth and some of the information contrasts directly to other strategy guides (e.g. the Stainless Steel one in terms of how to manage your bases)

So, I'd be very appreciated if anyone could give some general tips on how to manage settlements, e.g.

Tax rates?
How important are general and general traits?
What buildings to build first?
How often should I be recruiting units?
What units to build? (This might be a bit much seeing how there are a lot of factions but I'd appreciate any information no matter how little)

I am using TATW 1.4 with the latest RR/RC

[Dava2710]

lower taxes -> bigger population grow -> more money later + better building roaster

good general in your army (more stars = better) is a big boost for your soldiers morale

build roads, markets, crop fields and ports first. Only use 1 or 2 castles (cities) in which you should build barracks (etc) and from which you should recruit your soldiers

how often? Everytime you need. Depends on how many enemies you fight and how powerful they are. Don't recruit too much cause you wouldn't be able to pay the unkeep.

what units? Well if you have an army with no archers, train some archers. If you have 5 archers and 3 infantry, build some more infantry. It really depends on what enemy you fight against.

[Bloodzen]

I'm pretty sure that Jan has a guide on managing your economy.

Anyway I'll give you a quick run through,

When you begin set all taxes so as your settlement population is growing, this way you will get more money in the late game. If you set taxes to high at the start you will begin to lose money later on since your population will probably decrease.

You should always have at least one general per army to give morale boosts, just make sure you don't use a general that gives negative morale. If you have a general that helps population growth in settlements or increases money earned from taxes than keep him in one of your settlements. Any other generals that aren't very good can be used as an extra unit in your armies.

At first build in order roads,farms,mines if available and only the first market tier. Try and only have 1-2 settlements for producing troops but always develop a settlements economy first.

Just build enough troops so as your still getting a nice income, at the beginning try to get 1000-3000 income per turn.

And just build whichever units you think are necessary to defeat your enemys.

[Baron Samedi]

I'm pretty sure that Jan has a guide on managing your economy.

Yup.

[Dava2710]

well it's pretty much the same as I said, which is good cause it shows that I am not crazy

[Smaug]

I disagree about setting taxes to very low in the beginning. I set them on very high during the first 15-20 turns to get a jump start and to be able to construct every turn in each settlement. By turn 15-20 I'm getting already 4k-6k and can now start lowering taxes gradually so that by turn 20 they are almost all on very low except in such cities that are close to the next city upgrade but are still very undeveloped.

I go always roads-->crops-->ports-->markets-->other economy buildings.

just make sure you don't use a general that gives negative morale.

Is that even possible?

Cheers

[Bloodzen]

I disagree about setting taxes to very low in the beginning. I set them on very high during the first 15-20 turns to get a jump start and to be able to construct every turn in each settlement. By turn 15-20 I'm getting already 4k-6k and can now start lowering taxes gradually so that by turn 20 they are almost all on very low except in such cities that are close to the next city upgrade but are still very undeveloped.

I go always roads-->crops-->ports-->markets-->other economy buildings.



Is that even possible?

Cheers

Yes it is.

[MAMO72]

Hi, I'd like to start off by informing everyone that I'm pretty new to TW games but not to strategy games (very avid player of SC and WC3). I played a bit of RTW vanilla on H/H and found it pretty easy. Recently I installed M2TW but I haven't tried playing the vanilla game, I just jumped into TATW and I'm very impressed by the amount of support these mods get, however there doesn't seem to be many guides on how to manage economy so I have absolutely no idea on how to manage my settlements. I tried reading the TATW Strategy Guide but it's not very in-depth and some of the information contrasts directly to other strategy guides (e.g. the Stainless Steel one in terms of how to manage your bases)

So, I'd be very appreciated if anyone could give some general tips on how to manage settlements, e.g.

Tax rates?
How important are general and general traits?
What buildings to build first?
How often should I be recruiting units?
What units to build? (This might be a bit much seeing how there are a lot of factions but I'd appreciate any information no matter how little)

I am using TATW 1.4 with the latest RR/RC

I think taht it depends on which faction you are playing with;

personally, I always play VH/VH level with no cheats or sub-mods so I don't know how the is the economic management at the lower levels; aniway these are my suggestions:

- I always set the tax rates at the highest level in all settlements until the growth rate is positive (0,5% minimum), obviusly that's not the best strategy for all the factions especially for the weakest, but if you'll start to play with HE, SE or Gondor you can easily manage your empire thanks to the highest quality of the earliest units these factions have; youìll have your strongest unit later in the game but i.e. I'm right now playing my Gondor campaign and till now (turn 30/35) no matter by using only militians against Mordor orcs.

- well, great Generals with 6 or more stars will play a great difference in battle in terms of morale and resistance even against trolls if you play with good factions; if you have one general with good economic traits, put him in your best city to earn much more money.

- in my experience playing good factions (SE, HE, Rohan and Gondor) you always start with a very weak economy, but generally roads, farming improvement, markets and ports works good to increase your revenues, aniway, which starts first it depends by the faction you are using (i.e. as HE or Gondor it would be good to build ports as soon as possible); last trade rights with all good factions if you play good one.

- concerning the recruitment it depends on how many enemies you have at the same time; the best is obviously, one at time but if you play Gondor or especially Rohan it couldn't be possible (Gondor starts the campaign at war with both Mordor and Harad; Rohan will face front to an Invasion usually in the first 40 turns so you'll be at war against all evil factions). Usually, the free upkeep units are sufficient to garrison the settlements far from enemies' lines, I mean, if you play Gondor you probably wouldn't need a full stack in Dol-Amroth the free upkeep units will be sufficient; surely you have to develop some buidings for troops away from the battle-front to replenish your stacks without any risk to lose one of the only two or three settlements that allow you to build good troops.

- as I said it depends on which faction you are playing with; as SE, in the early stage of the campaign, sentinels archers are one of my favourite units very effective, after with most advanced barracks any SE unit is very powerful; as HE archers and swordsmen militians are sufficient to manage against all enemies, usually OOMM and Isengard even Mountain Trolls, with advanced barracks same as the SE; with Rohan you can easily recruit good infantry troops early in the game but your most powerful troops are obviously cavalry, manage to have the possibilty to recruit them as soon as possible (3 or 4 cavalry unit in a stack will allow you to easily win pretty every battles); as Gondor, I said, militians are very good when you will be able to have spears, swan knights, fountain guards at good rate you will be probably unstoppable; well all these mess if you are a good General

good luck and enjoy

[Muffer Nl]

You ARE crazy. It only proves you are not, stupid...
I like crazy

And on your economy: Make 1 or two city's your recruitment centers. Make all the buildings needed for recruitment here. In other city's build the lowest level barracks. In city's that are on the front line make a good garrison. In city's far from harm place the strongest free-upkeep army you can. Build your economical buildings first in city's with high population and place general with high chivalry here. Keep taxes around normal at the start of the game to make sure you do not go bankrupt, do not get bad traits for your generals and ensure a steady population increase. Build economical buildings in this order: Farms -> Mines if possible -> Roads -> Markets.

Try to make your recruitment city's your largest city's and give these city's the lowest possible tax. This ensures you will have stronger units early on.

Generals are very important. A general with high command and chivalry will boost your army's morale making them harder to rout. High dread will make the enemy lose morale and has them rout sooner. An army led by a general won't go rebel or defect as fast as an army led by a captain as well. Generals bodyguard units are also very strong and they re-spawn after every battle as long as the general is still alive.

You should recruit enough units to ensure you can defeat what the enemy can throw at you and when you are a bit loose on money train some more. Capturing settlements is always better then sticking with the ones you got. Be sure to hold these settlements! Also whenever you capture enemy units ransom them. Good money

The units to build: Well this depends on your playing style. It's good to have a strong mix of units but it depends on who you are fighting. If you are fighting Mordor which has not trolls yet make many archers and a few units of infantry to hold the line. When Harad is attacking you make many spear units and some cavalry. Having at least one or two units of cavalry in a large army is always a good idea. You can use them to round up fleeing units and flank enemy archers. Be sure to always counter units with the right units. Archers defeat infantry, AP infantry defeats heavy infantry, heavy infantry defeats spears, spears defeat cavalry, cavalry defeats archers.

[UberB]

Very helpful replies from you all, thanks very much!

So from what I can garner about taxes, you want to set them as low as you can get away with in the early game without being swept away by the other factions. So I guess factions like Rhun/Harad could probably get away with low taxes from the start while Gondor/Rohan/etc have to survive first?

[Stario]

Very helpful replies from you all, thanks very much!

So from what I can garner about taxes, you want to set them as low as you can get away with in the early game without being swept away by the other factions. So I guess factions like Rhun/Harad could probably get away with low taxes from the start while Gondor/Rohan/etc have to survive first?

1. Set taxes on low and your Generals are prone to getting bad traits such as "bad taxman" etc. Bad traits have a tendency to get worse (over a period of time) as some bad traits are prerequisites for other bad traits etc.

2. The trick is to set taxes on low on every turn except the turn a building is to be constructed (as this is when traits are gained in that particular settlement) during this turn set taxes on "very high". Then on the next turn (once the building is constructed) go back to low taxes and repeat. This way you get the best of both worlds; high income due to population growth while avoiding bad traits.

3. Focus on things like roads, farms, markets etc. Just as importantly focus on buildings in the city hall line, schools, heroes shrines etc. as they also indirectly improve your economy through increases in law, culture, happiness etc.

4. Avoid buildings in the "brothel" & "Inn" line of buildings and destroy them in newly conquered settlements or any settlement that already happens to have them. Corruption, and traits like alcoholic generals or generals "that like to embrace men" type traits can generally mean bad news for both economy and battle prowess.

[Outlawstar15a2]

Host a girls gone wild concert. J/K

One way to do it is get rid of units you don't need and build your city defenders from your cheaper tier 1 units. No use in keeping units that are doing nothing, upkeep is the #1 expense in this game. Use real world tactics, downsize your army and navy in peace time only ramping up when war hits or is looming towards you...

[Dava2710]

as gondor I just made two 3/4 stack armies, one on the osgiliath bridge
(doesn't matter whether have E.Osgiliath or not, if you do just keep 1 unit to defend it and try to destroy every mordor army as soon as they leave mordor with your ,,bridge guardians")
and one in the Barwhatsitsname (the city south of the southern river fords).

use that forts around the Minas Tirith for free unkeep (2 units each) and train max number of free unkeeped units in every city and castle you have (bigger Military power = I guess your diplomats can make a deal more easily)

you should have some money, don't waste it on unnecessary soldiers and buidings. Focun on the roads, markets etc.

[Dava2710]

Kungfool: but I need some spies, how bout keeping some Brothels in cities with no governor?

[Stario]

Kungfool: but I need some spies, how bout keeping some Brothels in cities with no governor?

You could. However, Governors give nice bonuses especially the ones with maximum chivalry. So expect to loose such bonuses in cities without Governors. I just find that spies and spying in general does very little in TATW; apart from the spy each faction starts with, I don't generally bother with them.

[Muffer Nl]

Build one city, preferably one with low income, and give this city as primary goal to train spies and assassins.

[Dava2710]

yea that's 1 spy... I need more
I use them very often, like when I'm raiding enemy cities I send 2 spies in and hope that 79% will work. Then I rape men, kill women and enslave children and destroy all buildings - then sell it back to the enemy

[Seleukos_I.]

With every building in the brothel line you get one extra spy.

[Dava2710]

really?
I tried it with diplomats and that doesn't work, but I'll try it with spies

[Dava2710]

but sometimes you can capture a city with just a small force and plunder it
then sell it back to the enemy
especialy when you don't wanna push that way

somtimes you just can't afford to wait 1 turn until your ram is finnished