Administration cost!

[DeliCiousTZM]

I have this problem that keep emerging to bother me. It is a shackle that weighs me down escpially in Head to Head. What is it? Administration cost! as i keep expanding and i sure love to do so quite fast.

The problem is that not all provinces are worth capturing anymore, and it can actually be bad for your economy to keep expanding.

Now the way administration cost works is that it takes a percentage of your income based upon how many provinces you have. The more provinces you get, the higher the administration cost becomes.
In FOTS this is less noticeable because of technologies and better economical structures, but for Shogun2 this is a huge problem.

So on 15 provinces you get 41% administration cost. And developing your infrastructure takes longer and longer, while your wars multiply. Grinding through a long Ikko ikki campaign on Legendary for example will put everything into perspective. With no metsuke to put into your very fertile provinces you start starving... Big time.

But my problem lies in the multiplayers component really. There are many strategies to overcome this obstacle when you have no opponent but the AI. When you expand in multiplayer you typically look towards the high value provinces. in Shogun2 they are Hizen,tsukushi,higo,Iwami,Kii,Omi,Kaga,Owari,Izu and Sado. What do these provinces have in common? They are all very fertile farms or have a goldmine. Kii and Omi are the most profitable provinces in the game, with their smuggling network they generate the most cash. The gold provinces would be up top if they weren't barren or meager.

In the 2nd wave we have the average ones, and they are the fertile ones mostly. Aki,Inaba,Yamato,Ise,Echizen,Hitatchi,Fukishima,Miyagi,Uzen,Ugo,Iwate.

The rest of the provinces in Shogun2 are pretty much garbage economically here and there you have some special resource you need. The problem is that caputing anything but these provinces mentioned above just serve as agent holders, and provinces you need to walk through. And Kawachi has no justification to exist. Some people are under the impression that one should just develop markets, and you should. But upgrading them cost food! so you cant go around maxing the markets out. It would be nice if there was a mod tailored for Multiplayer campaign that i could just dictator like force upon people.

[Basileos Leandros I]

Build temples in garbage provinces, that way you up your chi research rate and it enables you to research technologies that lower the administration cost.

[CptAustus]

Markets in every province and tier 4 farms in every province (unless I need something specific), works fine for me.

[Cruzz]

Markets in every province and tier 4 farms in every province (unless I need something specific), works fine for me.

Yes, I hear spending 50 turns building up before doing anything works fine.

[DeliCiousTZM]

Build temples in garbage provinces, that way you up your chi research rate and it enables you to research technologies that lower the administration cost.

If you need temples for a monk agent heavy build that is all right, for say Ikko ikki. And Shogun2 doesn't have administration cost lowering technologies that is for ROTS/FOTS. Where administration cost is less of a problem.

Markets in every province and tier 4 farms in every province (unless I need something specific), works fine for me.

Maybe you should head into a 1v1 campaign and try it out. Before you say it works for you. vs me and most people i know you would be slaughtered.

[O'Hea]

Or you could, you know, just vassalize the worthless provinces so that you gain military and victory count benefits from them without having to administer them.

[DeliCiousTZM]

Or you could, you know, just vassalize the worthless provinces so that you gain military and victory count benefits from them without having to administer them.

Yes, In FOTS Takeyama(Hida) always gets vassalized. Kawachi in Shogun2 cannot be vassalized however. and some provinces you need to walk past reliable. Having to many vassals can actually hurt you. When you are at the point where one betrays you and if you call on your vassals you cant always be sure if they will all join in.

[Zwirbaum]

But this "penalty" also applies to your opponent - what's the problem with it? You both struggle with increasing administration costs, and any option to reduce it's effect is to get +tax% bonus. In long term unupgraded markets help with increasing town wealth and their koku cost/koku return seems best (800/ for +200 If I remember correctly while Rice Market costs extra 1600 for merely 300 increase and also eats 1 food, which lowers potential town growth in ALL provinces by 1).

[Cruzz]

But this "penalty" also applies to your opponent - what's the problem with it? You both struggle with increasing administration costs, and any option to reduce it's effect is to get +tax% bonus. In long term unupgraded markets help with increasing town wealth and their koku cost/koku return seems best (800/ for +200 If I remember correctly while Rice Market costs extra 1600 for merely 300 increase and also eats 1 food, which lowers potential town growth in ALL provinces by 1).

The point of rice exchanges (and higher market buildings too) is that they FOCUS wealth and growth into specific provinces, where you then want to place metsuke to increase the tax rate. Having 10 growth and an extra 300 wealth in a province with a 50% tax rate is better than having 1 extra growth in 20 provinces that only have a 25% tax rate, especially if you consider how easily higher tax rates (which you will be using a lot in multiplayer) burn away small wealth growth numbers.

As for the penalty of admin costs, the clans are vastly differing in their ability to reach the richer provinces.

[Zwirbaum]

I don't negate building higher level market chains in wealthier provinces for as you mentioned consolidating wealth gain. I question building them in "poor" provinces, also OP mentioned something about the Ikko-Ikki who lack metsuke. And to the Kawachi province - maybe incite rebel there, and then leave it?

[DeliCiousTZM]

I don't negate building higher level market chains in wealthier provinces for as you mentioned consolidating wealth gain. I question building them in "poor" provinces, also OP mentioned something about the Ikko-Ikki who lack metsuke. And to the Kawachi province - maybe incite rebel there, and then leave it?

There are too many provinces that sucks to leave them all.