Harad economy tips?

[rogergargantua]

Hello!

Do any of you have some good tips to build up a good economy for Harad? I am at turn 20. Took some rebel settlements up north and west (the settlement which has an island nearby with another settlement on it).

I have trade rights with Rohan, Rhun and Mordor so far. Still looking for other factions but its kinda hard to explore with this diplomat.
My main army consists of only 11 basic units (mostly spearmen and archers)
I put taxes on high (not on very high or else i get minus population growth on most towns).

Thx!

[Pinkie Pie]

Low populaton is always best at the start.

[Granmaa]

Get your population up by lowering taxes. Whilst initially it will seem like you are losing money, as your population rises quickly so does your tax income (and your settlements will upgrade a lot quicker) Also ignore building anything other than farms and most importantly roads. In the first 50 odd turns chances are your battles will be small, so military wise you don't need the top buildings until you can train your top units. And of course taking as many rebel settlements quickly helps, they are usually poorly defended, and by lowering taxes you can leave 1 rubbish unit to garrison whilst keeping the folks there happy, enabling you to move on to the next one.

Hope this helps.

[War&Politics]

I don't know much about Harad, but I think the general economic strategies prevail.
-Build mines, roads and farms whenever you can.
-Ignore buildings you don't need. For example, if you are going to build a blacksmith type building don't build it in every settlement. Designate a central settlement near the front and send your troops there. Likewise you probably don't need to build expensive market buildings or high ranking barracks at every settlement.
-Keep governors in major cities and have them develop good governor traits.
-Use your diplomat to make trade deals with everybody except your enemies.
-Remember most settlements can garrison a certain number of units for free and each unit in the field requires you to pay and upkeep cost so make sure your armies in the field are as small as possible except when you are actually busy using them attacking i.e. don't just pay upkeep make sure your armies *do* something useful. Troops should never be standing around doing nothing.
-Expand, expand, expand. I find the single best economic strategy in Third Age is to conquer settlements.

[rogergargantua]

Thanks for replying and helping guys, +rep to you all! Well I guess I made the first mistake by raising the taxes .

But.....I am at turn 30 and things are progressing quite well now. I took over some settlements and developed some farms yes (I did read the general strategy at this subforum by the way). Now i am slowly taking over Gondor lands. Especially coast cities which make good profit.

So 'expanding' my empire is what basically saved me.

[War&Politics]

Well, it should be a cakewalk from here on in. Gondor's main cities are Minas Tirith, Pelagir and Dol Amroth. If you can take over those the faction will pretty much collapse. The latter two can easily be taken through a naval invasion. By the way, I clicked on your signature. I really liked the photos of that Dutch building. I'm studying Dutch history and I appreciate seeing this kind of thing.

[Nemesis_GR]

Harad imo is the easiest faction to play.You cant go wrong.Victory is just a matter of time...

[rogergargantua]

Well, it should be a cakewalk from here on in. Gondor's main cities are Minas Tirith, Pelagir and Dol Amroth. If you can take over those the faction will pretty much collapse. The latter two can easily be taken through a naval invasion. By the way, I clicked on your signature. I really liked the photos of that Dutch building. I'm studying Dutch history and I appreciate seeing this kind of thing.

Ah, thx for those tips! I will use it to pound some more on Gondor! But I am currently facing two armies. And their army mainly consists of heavy infantry. And its a fact that Gondor is now the largest nation in my current game. Not sure how well developed their other cities are but I guess i have to take ur word for it . Cant wait to attack Minas Tirith though. I have never seen that city in the game yet....I bet my economy will go sky high after I take all these cities.

Thanks! Yeah, it's a very nice Dutch building