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unmerged(162405)

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Sep 4, 2009
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Hello!
Could you help me please.
I am in the year of 1650 and I control the following ports: London, Cannaries, St. Helen, Ifafty, Zanzibar, Cochin, Vizagapatan and Aceh. I have 13 Warships and 17 Transports. The problem is shortage of money. In december I spend everything and then in January I have around -250.000. Then I hardly wait for my ships from India to cover this shortage.
On the other hand I keep reading about guys having 2 or 3 millions of cash. :eek:
What am I doing wrong?
 
Alerob said:
Hello!
Could you help me please.
I am in the year of 1650 and I control the following ports: London, Cannaries, St. Helen, Ifafty, Zanzibar, Cochin, Vizagapatan and Aceh. I have 13 Warships and 17 Transports. The problem is shortage of money. In december I spend everything and then in January I have around -250.000. Then I hardly wait for my ships from India to cover this shortage.
On the other hand I keep reading about guys having 2 or 3 millions of cash. :eek:
What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...

You're having too many ports not producing profitable goods costing you a lot of upkeep. That is what drained all your cash. You have no need for the Canaries, St. Helen or Ifafty.

What sort of buildings do you have in your ports? Which type and what level?

Delra has made an excellent guide to this game in the strategy thread just below this.
 
also start with smaller ships, dont go for the bigger ships till u can afford them..Keep in mind the crew that it takes to man them aswell (like a brig takes 140 men for only 80 tons,a frig is the same way but 450 men n 80 tons), and they wont break u loading them.Only take over ports that produce a MTI, keep upgrades down to a min cept trading post, and garrison unless u have a real need for it.
 
Owning Ports in EIC is different from most other games I have played. Usually, the more cities/ports/provinces/etc that you own, the better you are. In EIC, you pay a hefty yearly tax for each port, which is compounded by the building upgrades in each port.

Personally, I usually take one MTI port (usually a spice since it is the highest profit margin). Upgrade the Garrison to level 2, shipyard to level 1 (so your fleets can repair), and take Trading Post up to 4 (slowly!). That's all you need.

Go for as long as you can without taking another port. Wait until you are around a million pounds in reserve cash until you take another. Your definition of Reserve Cash may be different from mine. For me, it is when I have all of my fleets loaded with an MTI and traveling back to my home port. Whatever is left is my "Reserve".

The next port I usually take is Cape Town or Natal. The reason for one of these ports is different than an Indian one. Every fleet from every company, regardless of their route, has to pass by the tip of Africa, and so I can park an Attack Fleet outside of the port (make sure it has Shipyard 1), and attack whomever I like, bouncing back into the port to repair and to sell captured ships.

Speaking of captured ships, if they captured cargo contains MTI's, I'll make a new fleet from the captured ships and sail it back to my Home Port for sale, since you make more money in your home port for an MTI. This is a very good source of income: a) the goods captured, b) the captured ships can be sold or can be added to your fleets so that you don't have to pay for new ones. Plus it keeps the other companies in check.

After 1650, you will need to start capturing a port for each MTI. But, again, go very slow on the building upgrades. You might not want to upgrade anything at all for a while, just to see how the addition of the ports effects your bottom line for a few years.
 
rasmus40 said:
You're having too many ports not producing profitable goods costing you a lot of upkeep. That is what drained all your cash. You have no need for the Canaries, St. Helen or Ifafty.

What sort of buildings do you have in your ports? Which type and what level?

Delra has made an excellent guide to this game in the strategy thread just below this.
Click to expand...

Hello again, I was off-line over weekend :rolleyes: Thanks for your answers
I conquered Canaries, ST. Hellen and Ifafty only because of supply lines. I didn't want my ships to spend ages sailing between Europe and India.

In India I have Trading posts:3,4,2; Shipyards 3,0,1; Forts 2,1,1; Garrisons 3,4,2. In Africa I have Trading posts 1,2,1,1; Shipyards 1,1,1,0; Forts 3,0,0,0; Garrisons 2,2,1,1.

Where coud I find that guide you are mentioning? :confused:
 
There are three things that can bankrupt you in this game:

- Sell Cannaries and St. Helen to AI for 800k pounds each. That should solve your problems. Get more ports in India instead. 2x Tea, 2x Spices.
- Don't upgrade Forts beyond level 1. It's cheaper to have a fleet of Frigates ready to retake a port that's been conquered than having a level 4 Fort built. I have a thread somewhere down this forum where I prove Fort level 1 and Garrison level 4 is the most efficient combination.
- Make sure your India convoys aren't running on Cautious mode. Yes they avoid combat this way but it also slows them down so much it can drive you bankrupt waiting for their arrival. I learned that the hard way. :)
 
If you were to negotiate with a company that owns a few ports on the road to India, would it be worth it to ask to include a pact, or would that greatly reduce the money you make?

How often do the other companies buy up all the ports leading from Europe to India? Is that ever a concern? No one has mentioned this in their guides, so I'm curious. I get the impression in the demo those ports can get snatched up quickly.
 
I _always_ bribe all AIs I'm not at war with to grant me access to their ports. It costs around 100k each early in the game, gets cheaper as you grow in strength and eventually they will pay you for having a Pact with you (1670s and later). They sometimes break the Pact with me but I can usually bribe them into signing a new one right away. Pacts can last many decades so it's a great way of saving a ton of money on upkeeps in Africa. So yeah, get Pacts with everyone.
 
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