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unmerged(6192)

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Oct 27, 2001
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Hello all

I am new to EU and to this forum. I have read loads of posts already and Stefan's FAQ until my eyes have bled:D But I have a few questions I would appreciate being answered.

1) My budgeting strategy is to keep monthly income to 0.0 to prevent inflation and this way I only spend yearly income - which is all but spent by the end of january. Is this a good idea? Should I fear inflation as much as I do?

2) During wartime should I be burning trading posts like a crazed pyromaniac even if i dont have the means to put my own tp up in it's place?

3) Does sending merchants to far off CoTs make financial sense? and do allies get annoyed if you flood their CoTs with merchants and force monopolies?

4) Is it worth raising a trading post's level? In what instances would this be advisable?

5) I rarely have the opportunity to build anything - like manufactories, refineries and even forts usually because I dont have the money. Should I be saving up for these? I see the pesky AI building them all the time!!:mad:

6) Attrition is my nemesis:( in particular during winters. I am unsure what the values that appear mean ie. +#unit size, -#province, -#leader, +#min attrition, +#winter. Do I need to add all these values to calculate attrition. Sometimes it doesnt add up right or is that just my bad arthimetic :eek: ?
 
Hey! Here's some answers to your questions...

1) I usually have income at or very close to 0 the whole game. The way I see it putting it higher hurts you two-fold. Number one, there's a smaller percentage invested toward technology advances, and number two, it raises inflation, which makes everything more expensive (including technology advances).

2) If you can't have them, neither should they! I say keep burning those TPs. Of course, this should be done as a second priority to taking European land, or you'll never win the war. I don't think you get any victory stars for TPs.

3) When those far off CoTs are worth close to or over 1000d, they're totaly worth it. There's also less competition because of the cost. So, your merchants will tend to last longer. If the CoT is full, I find that sending merchants in pairs helps. One to compete away a foreign merchant and the other to set up shop.

4) Myself, I never raise a TP over 1. I use level 1 TPs a lot because they're a cheap and quick way to claim land, and they give some Trade value (which is only good for you if you dominate the local CoT). But, if I want to build up a province, colony is the only way to go. A level 7 colony will give you double the trade value of a level one TP, plus taxes and production (which do go directly to you), plus allow you to build improvements and troops. No contest.

5) Yep you should be saving :D Manufactories are really nice to have, but walls are essential. It's hard at first, but if you build up your economy (by promoting officials in all your provinces), nurture your infrastructure and trade techs, establish a good presence in valuable CoTs (which mainly goes towards raising tech) and keep your stability at +3 always, you'll find that soon your income will really grow. It's a juggling act though :D

6) Just make sure your army size is smaller than the supply level of the province, and you should be okay. Things to keep in mind are, you'll always loose men to attrition if your army is moving when the month changes, and some atrition is unavoidable when you're in hostile territory (because supply levels there are much lower than at home) but you can greatly minimize it by keeping your supply lines intact. That is, make sure that all the provinces between your army and your home provinces are either controlled by you or being covered or seiged by you, and free of hostile forces.
 
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Here is more advice...

1) 0 monthly income still gives some inflation, though less for sure.
It depends on who I am playing, as Portugal, Venice or Sweden, I might take a hit for six to twelve months to get cash for colony upgrade or fort upgrade. Perhaps that extra cash to build a factory. Playing countries with a lower income sometimes requires doing this until you can get income up later in the game.

2) I usually burn tps, even if I don't have a colonist to send.
My exception, if in the war I have a chance to get the tp in the peace settlement (tps don't contribute to the victory stars.)

3) If the CoT is rich, I'll send traders. If the CoT has only traders from the host nation they (your traders) may get "bumped" out quickly by the host. If this happens, it may cost you more than you get - you might wait for more competition. Allies (or any other nation) don't care for trade wars - there is a slight reduction in your relations for each of their traders you bump from any CoT.

4) I sometimes build tps above level 1 if: they have rich produce (spice, chinaware etc.) or if I want to eventually build a colony and the location has negative population growth (this will help buffer population attrition while you build colony to 1000 population thereby getting to even or positive population growth.)

5) I usually save for factories with yearly income. They are worth every penny spent.
 
3) I advise you not to send merchants to highly competitive CoT's, especially not as a minor country, cuz it might get costly. Avoid Paris, and maybe Venice & Genoa as well. Although Venice earns decent money. Go for the far away CoT's ASAP. I advise Novgorod at start, not that fierce competition. As soon as you find Delhi, send merchants there too. Later go for Chinese CoT's. Also, leave colonial CoT's owned by other nations alone, the owner always tries to monopolize the CoT and will send all his traders there, it's not worth it to spend money on.
 
Thanks for the advice, I shall be putting into action next time I play;)

With regards inflation, is it worth getting gold mines? I have avoided them, thinking inflation would skyrocket. Have I been overly cautious again?
 
TAKE THEM TAKE THEM TAKE THEM :D
Seriously, the income you gain from there compensates for the inflation that might occur. MIGHT, cuz if you have a steady economy, you will have no trouble with inflation. And as soon as governors kick in, you can promote some to suppress the inflation
 
inflation

I think there is too much advice about keeping inflation low on the board. A key thing to remember is that everyone else's inflation is tied to yours. So, yes, it makes everything more expensive, but it makes everything more expensive for the AI too. In my opinion there are two concerns about inflation
1) keeping it high reduces your research, and in the long run research helps
2) if you are behind in things you have to pay for (research, infrastructure, even army size) high inflation means it will cost more to catch up, which you definitely don't want. On the other hand, if you're ahead on most of these things, then high inflation makes it easier to stay ahead, and can be a big plus.
I think most newbies should ignore inflation and worry about the other details you need to understand.
 
Originally posted by TheIncomparable
With regards inflation, is it worth getting gold mines? I have avoided them, thinking inflation would skyrocket. Have I been overly cautious again?
Click to expand...

Yes-it is worth getting them. Gold inflation starts hitting you when it gets above twenty-five percent of your yearly income, so if it does start bothering you, go conquer a few rest-of-the-world city provinces to compensate. Reasonable play ought to ensure that your governors can keep inflation under control.

As an aside, even as a newbie, I don't think I let inflation get above twenty percent once..............so it is possible to learn the game the "low-inflation" way!:D
 
Originally posted by Habsburg
Yes it does. If your treasury slider is set to 0.0 monthly income you still get an increase in inflation.
Click to expand...

Only if you or your neighbours have a gold problem. Otherwise you can stay at zero inflation, as I did once for a century or so after a -33% event as an experiment.

Still, I normally leave my slider at 0.1 as a fair compromise.:)
 
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