Question on Upkeep and profits

[xjlxking]

Okay, so I am now playing as the Romans. I believe I am playing Medium/Medium. I have to say, it is really hard. It took me many turns to finally over take the Greek independent States away from Southern Italy, and just as much effort to get the rebels Italians away as well. However, what I noticed is that in the beginning of the campaign, despite having very little settlements, I was able to have about 2 and 1/2 stack of armies. I was fighting on all sides, and yeah, I was always running out of money, but at least I was able to have 2 more stacks of army.

Now, about 50 or so turns later, my army finally lands in Carthage and the surrounding settlements. I have taken over the first 3 settlements of North Africa from Carthage, but now my north flank is exposed. What happened next? because of such high upkeep, or "low" profits, I am unable to keep another army up. I have about 3 town watch (1st tier units, forgot the name) and one general in the apls. I can barely keep the Gauls away from taking Rome itself. In Africa, I have 3 armies, about 5 different units in total at each city who by the way, are all down to like 50 units or less. They are all fighting for their lives.

So I have to ask, why is it that in the beginning of t he campaign, I can withstand to keep the cost of 2 full stack of units, but later when I have the entire Roman peninsula, and many other minor settlements under my command, I can barely keep the cost of the same units? What is going on. I remember correctly, when I made the decision to attack Africa instead of Greece, I had a 3 stacks of armies, most were full, yet some stacks had maybe 2-3 generals. Why? I don't understand

[Celestial Oblivion]

The upkeep in units in XGM is a lot higher than in Vanilla. Usually half of the cost to train the unit per turn. If you expand your armies too quickly it is easy to find yourself in that predicament. It also makes high end units much more expensive to field. Try to only use militia units to garrison safe cities, and don't build level 4 barracks or above except in recruiting centers as they will reduce your cities profitability.

Another thing that could be causing your problem is corruption. In addition to increasing the farther you get from your capital (as in Vanilla), conquering other empires tends to make it worse in XGM too. If you aren't paying attention its quite easy for this to build up as well. Only way to combat it is to build academies/walls/law temples or anything else that gives a law bonus, such as good generals.

Either way, mobilize what armies you can to go invade someone. Slash and burn expansion (take a city, massacre the population, destroy all the buildings) can devistate a faction and earn you a lot of money even if you don't have the troops to hold province. Any casualties you take (try not to lose whole units, but spread casualties out) will also reduce your unit expenditures which should work to equalize your budget.

[xjlxking]

The thing is, most of my cities, I used very high taxes, I don't use temples, rather martial law, and I try not to keep any garrison, as they seems to be no unrest, or squalor. I checked I only lose about 7k-9k. Is there a way to lower it?
Another thing, even if I don't do nothing, like recruit, build, or even move anything on the map, somehow, I start to lose profit. How is that possible. One turn is puts in the negatives, another in the positives

[Celestial Oblivion]

Okay if you are using martial law, that is your problem. Its only meant to be used if you absolutely cannot hold on to a settlement, such as converting it to your culture. The farming and trade penalties it imposes can cause your city to only make half as much as it might other wise (I never usually build them, just from what I noticed when the AI accidentally builds them).

There is a bit of variability to your income. Farming income always changes depending on the harvest. Trade tends to very a bit also, even without things like sieges and blockades. So its possible to have that kind of variation. Again, either corruption or upkeep (via the martial law perhaps) is killing you. I suppose you could take a screenshot of your end of turn income statement if you think its something else, but those two things are the main difference in this mod from vanilla, and so gives new players a bit of trouble. Once you adjust to it a bit its not hard to make outrageous sums of money I promise you.

[Grimbold]

Martial law is a bad idea, specially when used on several cities. It'll damage your economy...alot.

Plan your campaign carefully. Dont expand too fast if you cant afford it. If you said that your northern border was being pushed by the Gauls, then there's your sign. Limit yourself to naval battles with Carthage and destroy Gaul.
Obviously you do it as you like, but its a matter of who's the most immediate threat, which seems to be Gaul

[xjlxking]

The Gauls were never a threat. They had their own problems. Carthage was the most aggressive one, they kept landing ships with stacks of army right next to Capua and Rome. I had to go and attack them.
As for Martial Law, I never knew they imposed harsh punishments towards trades. I guess I gotta start different. I had a different picture in mind. I had the view to now use any garrison and make all taxes very high. This means the only upkeep I had would be the soldiers that are either fighting, garrison a colony, or retraining. I guess, it's not a smart idea.

[DimeBagHo]

Martial law costs *a lot* to maintain. The penalties are imposed on your entire empire, not just the city where you build it. The penalties were designed to cost about as much as a full stack of city level troops, assuming a mid sized empire. If your empire is large it will cost even more. If your empire is smaller it will cost less, but probably hurt more.

So it's best to avoid using martial law if you can, and you should not use it in more than one or two cities at a time. It's really intended to give you a chance to get order established in newly captured settlements. Once you get the unrest under control you should demolish the martial law building and build a regular temple.