Economic Difficulties

[Warmongers]

Everything was going smoothing as i was playing as HRE. In the beginning of my VH/VH campaign it was very Rough, Four Settlements taken mostly by rebels, but i got the back and i start looking for who i would need to conquer to improve my economy seeing that i had quite A few castles, and i was strongest military. But lets get to the point here. So After taking Milan. I didnt want to go into another war. Even though the milanese wars were a bit expensive and small i didnt want to have another war for some time, Till well, the pope asked me to take this Polish Fortress. I was kinda Nervous if i took that fortress i knew Poland was gonna give me everything they had and i might incure some alliance infractions, But since it was the Pope i did it so i made two big stacks and took it. This was not a good idea becuase hungary Helped poland and some of my weakest settlements were on there borders. So i had a diplomat there and told them to make peace and to my suprise they did, The problem it cost me a arm and leg, 30k Florins. But it was worth it. Only problem was I had to destroy poland, They had a pretty strong army to have only a weak rating, but when i did that i noticed they had quite of few Castles then towns this made my Town/castle ratio screw up. I started only averaging 5k a turn, Then another war broke out right afteri took care of poland, The Prince of Denmark wanted me to kill the king, Me not thinking to just use an assassin just took a stack and attacked and killed him on the battlefield, then i got a ******** message saying they dont need me killing the king of denmark anymore . Then before you know it it was a full scale war. Denmark was fighting me and Scottland there ally helped.........................

Heh,............................................................Scottland. *Tries to recall last time he saw them in a war lol*

But My economy was in ruins but i was still highest military, The problem im in i took denmark over i had alot of castles, matter of fact I had Castles = to number of towns. And another things i havent gotten around to killing the scotts they are blockading alot of my trade ports and im huring.


Yeah..........so sorry for long article

[Lusted]

My suggestion would be the mass conversion of unneeded castles to cities to give you an economic boost.

[Warmongers]

Well should i have one castle which military protection for a numbers of regions or towns?

[Silent Assassin]

Like Lusted said and also try to disband some units here and there to lower your army upkeep and maybe try to do cease fire with others taht you are at war with.

Castle should always be close to your borders I in my campaigns always have 1 castle for like 5 or 6 cities. Also try to work with your merchants they can help you alot and they are free of upkeep... Costs you 550 to recruit but after doesn`t caost you nothing

[Jopo]

You only really need two castles, three tops if you want to specialize. So I agree, swap castles for cities.

[dutch81]

I have to disagree with the statement of keeping the castles on the border sure it is great for defense but I prefer to keep my castles centralized, also I like to have a castle on every front.

For example as Denmark I have 3 castles one in England for my western front one in Norway for my central front and one in Finland for my eastern front ... now in your case as your empire is not so drawn out across the whole map you can probably due with one or two.

Also keep the well developed castles that is why I suggest not keeping the border castles as you probably have captured them recently and they might not be as developed ... however if you capture a castle more developed then your own which might become the case if you have no money then you might be better off with your newly captured ones.

Also remember that port cities can become very wealthy in time as you develop them and have more stuff you can build for them economically so keep them cities if at all possible. Again for me as Denmark it was not possible as I do not have enough interior provinces yet.

Good luck ... hope this helps!

[Real]

1. Place a General near a resource and build a fortress.
2. Train 20 merchants.
3. stuff them all in the fortress (you don't need the general there after this)
4. Repeat to many resources, as long as they get you 15 or more florins per turn.

That's what I do when Im in trouble.

[Foreign Fruitcake]

Yeah I tend to agree with Dutch81. The number of castles is really dependant on the size of your territory and your proximity to super powers that may turn on you. I am around 1245 AD and I have a couple of Fortresses and maybe 3 Citadels to churn out uber units if I need them (I have several cities in the Holy Lands that I need to keep under control). I offset the cost of these expensive installations by making extensive use of Merchants (I make around 12,000 a turn from Merchant trade alone).