I'm doing my maiden campaign on the Fantasia scenario, as Eire. Things are proceeding apace, albeit slowly. This seems to be a good scenario to start with because you aren't thrown into the middle of things too quickly and you are forced to think (and do) something about economic development. Right now my game is in 1549, and The Irish isle are all city level provinces. The British Isle is under my control, with the middle provinces having been raised to city level and the Scottish Highlands and lower England being built up from trading posts to larger colonies. Simultaneously, Bretagne has been made a core province, and the provinces comprising Brittany have been brought under my control. I spotted the red border lines of what must be Cataluyna expansion, and am racing through France to contain the Cats. I even did a rather expensive (in terms of attrition) amphibious landing in Arusia(sp?)(next to Galicia)in order to beat the Cats to the Portuguese provinces.
Every city level province of mine has had a tax collector installed, and I'm earning about 7.x ducats a month. Inflation seems out of control at 25%+, but the archive indicates the other nations are at the same levels. I am investing in infrastructure at the rate of over 5.xD in order to be able to build factories as early as possible, followed by trade at 1.xD, and then land and naval tech at .5 and .6 respectively, which is keeping me competitive in those areas. The first factory I'll be able to build is a refinery. I guess a brewery falls into the same category although the manual is not clear (manual=sucks). Is there any benefit to building a brewery in a province that produces grain? It would seem logical but the manual indicates that refineries should only be built in areas that produce sugar or wine (which is a big bummer for us North Atlantic nations!)
On an unrelated (to economics) note, the archive indicates that I am an unchallenged giant in land strength. I've got 53K spread out in Eire, and 120K spread out in the UK, with another 60k or so on the continent. This did not seem an unreasonable amount but according to the graph, all my opponents must be marching around with 1k armies, or only keep one army and the rest of their provinces empty. Considering the amount of resistance I've had taking empty provinces, I find 10k is a minimum necessary, and 20k is better if agressiveness is high (due to attrition while a TP is set up). What's up with that?
FYI, I have found that loans are almost never worthwhile for use in economic development, because of the inflation and repayment costs they involve. I do not recommend them except in case of emergency (like, your'e being invaded).
He who defends everything, defends nothing.
Every city level province of mine has had a tax collector installed, and I'm earning about 7.x ducats a month. Inflation seems out of control at 25%+, but the archive indicates the other nations are at the same levels. I am investing in infrastructure at the rate of over 5.xD in order to be able to build factories as early as possible, followed by trade at 1.xD, and then land and naval tech at .5 and .6 respectively, which is keeping me competitive in those areas. The first factory I'll be able to build is a refinery. I guess a brewery falls into the same category although the manual is not clear (manual=sucks). Is there any benefit to building a brewery in a province that produces grain? It would seem logical but the manual indicates that refineries should only be built in areas that produce sugar or wine (which is a big bummer for us North Atlantic nations!)
On an unrelated (to economics) note, the archive indicates that I am an unchallenged giant in land strength. I've got 53K spread out in Eire, and 120K spread out in the UK, with another 60k or so on the continent. This did not seem an unreasonable amount but according to the graph, all my opponents must be marching around with 1k armies, or only keep one army and the rest of their provinces empty. Considering the amount of resistance I've had taking empty provinces, I find 10k is a minimum necessary, and 20k is better if agressiveness is high (due to attrition while a TP is set up). What's up with that?
FYI, I have found that loans are almost never worthwhile for use in economic development, because of the inflation and repayment costs they involve. I do not recommend them except in case of emergency (like, your'e being invaded).
He who defends everything, defends nothing.
