Insane corruption on Emperor Edition

[GussieFinkNottle]

On Emperor Edition has anyone else found the campaign is programmed to have simply ludicrous levels of corruption, 90% plus? The corruption cost for expanding territory means, absurdly, that with every new territory taken, the amount taken in tax goes down. Yes, new lands actually increase corruption faction-wide and deprive you of your income. With such crippling corruption in the provinces, you receive barely any of their income. Philosophy tech tree upgrades scarcely make a difference. Here are a few screenshots from a blitz Octavian campaign I've been playing (no mods) which started out with over 9000 income per turn thanks to extensive trade agreements and has dwindled to next to nothing. Have a close look at the corruption, and province incomes on the right. One town worth over 300 gives me 8 denarii per turn. Even when I pay for expensive economic buildings I make literally 10s of denarii from them. I even had one province with towns worth several hundred each give me 0 denarii per turn with tax turned on. It just became a public order penalty with no income.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This has got to be patched, because it's game-breaking on two levels. It counter-intuitively makes it more costly to have an empire than to be a small nation, disincentivising conquest and expansion, the point of the game. New provinces confer no short-term economic benefit. And it is simply not plausible on any level that an empire could or should lose in excess of 90%, or even 100% of revenue from an arbitrary factor not even included in expenditure. Who else has found this annoying/game hampering or thinks it should be fixed? Even if you can get round it in hundreds of turns of construction to make a sizeable amount of money eventually (i.e. a really boring unnecessary campaign fix to get round some stupid programming), penalties this high seem not only unfair but ridiculous.

[Slaists]

Since EE edition, you have to balance taxes against corruption. As you expand, corruption will spike.

However, if you have kept up with civil research you'll be able to counter the corruption by raising taxes to high and very high (civil research also reduces corruption outright; the combined effect of the tree is: lower corruption, higher tax rates [at each taxation level], higher public order, higher culture conversion). In late campaign, I typically have close to 100% corruption and close to 100% extra tax rate (at very high taxes). So the extra tax rate and corruption cancel each other out leaving me with the net worth of the province as income (plus anything coming from slaves).

However, if the civil (philosophy) research has not kept up with your expansion you won't be able to get sufficient extra taxes to counter corruption. Also, you won't be able to raise your taxation to very high as your public order will be low and culture conversion slow.

Here is a screen from my late-game-Baktrian legendary campaign. In this campaign, I have expanded a lot through allies so my corruption is not as high (only 70%) outweighed by 100+% taxes in Antioch. As you can see, my overall income is more than sufficient.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The screen was made very close to winning an economic victory.

Oh, I just read that you were playing a blitz campaign. Blitzing can be crippling to your economy now since the balancing act calls for a slower expansion.

p.s. Also, don't forget the power of slaves. They can make a difference when congregated in the right places.

[Basileos Leandros I]

Insane corruption will always happen if you expand quickly - civil research is essentially the key here, because very high tax rates can really push things over the limit in newly conquered provinces. (and in other unstable home provinces)

Avoid corruption by having lots of allies, that way you can still win without losing almost your entire income.

[eXistenZ]

Insane corruption will always happen if you expand quickly - civil research is essentially the key here, because very high tax rates can really push things over the limit in newly conquered provinces. (and in other unstable home provinces)

Avoid corruption by having lots of allies, that way you can still win without losing almost your entire income.

Unfortuantly that is not true for barbarian factions (or at least not all of them).

I havent got far yet in the IA campaign, but I have finished campaign as galatia and getae, who both only can win by holding provinces themself. My corruption was also pretty high, 60 and 75%.

That said, I play with a mod that gives more traits and ancillaries, and one of those a possible trait to reduce corruption slightly. But a lot of philosophy research will help, along with specializing provinces so that they give a maximum amount of income.

[Basileos Leandros I]

Unfortuantly that is not true for barbarian factions (or at least not all of them).

I havent got far yet in the IA campaign, but I have finished campaign as galatia and getae, who both only can win by holding provinces themself. My corruption was also pretty high, 60 and 75%.

That said, I play with a mod that gives more traits and ancillaries, and one of those a possible trait to reduce corruption slightly. But a lot of philosophy research will help, along with specializing provinces so that they give a maximum amount of income.

I had no idea about that. I only played with "developed" factions (Rome, Carthage, Macedon, Athens...) and I used a combination of military alliances and client states to achieve my goal, because capturing and holding 90 provinces is really hard, especially on VH/Legendary.

[GussieFinkNottle]

Thanks for the responses, I guess it came as a surprise after steamrolling the map was much easier on earlier versions of the game. Never been much of one for turtling, I suppose. I've always liked to see just how quickly I can paint the map my colour, on all TW games. It just comes at an enormous cost now. Ah well, on the field of battle the legions are unstoppable, whether the economy crashes around their ears or not. On I roll...

[GussieFinkNottle]

Thanks guys, a few turns on and I've completely turned my economic situation around, tax balances out the corruption and it's improving every turn. I think I've got the hang of EE economics

[Slaists]

There you go, thumbs up!

p.s. want to get that food surplus up at least 5 notches maxes out your growth, happiness and troop regeneration (from food) at +20.