I've been playing for a few months and have finally made it to Prince. I have learned to be much more aggressive in building cities and units and ignoring non-vital improvements until my borders are solid. I have a problem with a negative balance of money. I build a ton of cottages but my money remains in the red. Out of curiosity, I allowed my gold to dwindle down to zero and a negative income in order to keep my science at 70%. But instead of financial ruin, I gained 4 coins in the first turn and 40 coins in the second turn.

Why does this happen?? Does some building, unit, or citizen get sold in order to force a positive balance?

dkgoodson

the tech slider went down automatically
if you look back at it, you will see it now says something like 50%

The thing is it doesn't go up automatically after you gained some cash.

If you fall back to 0% science, 100% gold and are still losing money, units will be disbanded.

70% is high rating.
My first win on emperor this week end, i made it with an average 50% (real need of money for unit improve) - during longest war i felt to 20% for ~40turn.
don't aim tech leading, just be careful before attacking an IA that it wont upgrade its units a few turns after the begining of war.

Try to shoot for Code of Laws pretty quickly. Nowadays I aim for BW, some worker techs, then Alphabet, then CoL. Whilst I'm still researching Alphabet or preferably CoL, I attack an AI and try to take at least three cities, yielding enough money to complete the CoL research before running into the red.

Construct or even chop courthouses everywhere. Now you can expand your empire even farther.

I think even six early cities and a standing army are too much for a startling economy.

Try to shoot for Code of Laws pretty quickly. Nowadays I aim for BW, some worker techs, then Alphabet, then CoL. Whilst I'm still researching Alphabet or preferably CoL, I attack an AI and try to take at least three cities, yielding enough money to complete the CoL research before running into the red.

Construct or even chop courthouses everywhere. Now you can expand your empire even farther.

I think even six early cities and a standing army are too much for a startling economy.

at Prince level, it's manageable
but you still should go early for at least one AI;)

One thing to keep in mind is that it is not how many cottages that you build,
it is how many cottages that are being worked that will generate income.

You might try to micromanage your workers a little more and improve only
the tiles that will be worked according to the population count for each city.

You can improve you efficiency and your cash flow in this manner.

Haha, in my current game I did a massive quechua rush on a large pangea map with 14 opponents, monarch difficulty. I took out my 5 closest neighbors and was in the red at zero% for a few turns, but I was capturing cities fast enough that it was alright. Even with my shrine, cottage spamming, and courthouses I'm still in the red at 50%, but I'm definitely outresearching the AI.

However, I'd probably be behind and struggling to catch up if I hadn't researched alphabet after I got bronze working. It's an excellent way to pick up those early techs through careful trading.

at Prince level, it's manageable
but you still should go early for at least one AI;)

I do this on Emperor all the time. The more land you seize in the beginning the more chance you have to win any type of victory, except from cultural. The catalyst for expanding over four cities is CoL. If you don't have it, you're lost.

Usually I start warring when I have two or three cities, and take the rest from the AI. Upkeep is much, much bigger the on Prince.

Quickly after researching most of the time (or in between conquests of AI cities) CoL I slam into 0% STRIKE, CTRL+clicking a city and then click the gold coin to emphasize commerce will help me against disbanding troops.

To me, 0% STRIKE is running in the red, anything above that isn't stirring me panic.

In my first domination victory (standard size) I reached 30%, and this was only on normal difficulty. Nevertheless, I managed to win before 1000 AD. Money is never a problem until it gets to the point where you can't afford to keep your troops. Always build courthouses in your new cities (chop them if the city has a crappy production rate), and place your Forbidden Palace far away from your capitol city and you should recover.