Financial Viability

[smoesville]

I was wondering what peoples views were on how many settlements a faction needs to start with in order to be financially viable? 3-4?

[Argaladir]

Depends on the level and placement of the settlement, but having a mix of towns and large towns i would say 2-3. (As HE i think you could start out with only Imladris as L.Town and the rest as towns/villages, and still be able to get an easy campaign)
You should be able to work your way up with only one settlement (large town) too, but it will take a lot of time and turns in order to expand your empire. It all depends on which faction your playing and where you start out.

[smoesville]

It is more a case of whether the ai could survive with 3 or four towns. In particular i want to divide eriador into the shire, breeland and the dunedain. In the case of the shire they could do fine but buckland could also be added and archet could be added for bree in the eves of the wood to the north. This is all just so i can be the rangers not all of eriador.

[Argaladir]

Aha, I see.
From my point of view the AI seems always to do well, nomather how many settlements they tend to have at the beginning of the campaign. I would recommend that they have at least 2 or maybe 3 though.

[Bloodly]

Depends a lot on how many people are in the towns, what buildings are there for income, and how big an army the AI has. This is disregarding the boosts the AI gets in this, which screws everything up.