Always going broke

Joined
May 22, 2003
Messages
775
Location
Louisiana
I seem to be having a little difficulty on the Monarch Level. I use a strategy of continous war until I own the whole continent I'm on. Now my question is right about the time I hit the middle of the Middle Ages I go start losing gold. Slowly at first then it gets faster and faster till I'm losing 50+ gpt. My science slider is at 0% and I fall behind drastcially tech wise. Having improvements isn't the problem cause I have almost none, (mostly just temples, libraries and marketplaces, and banks if discovered) and units isn't either due to Monarchy government and an extremely large empire 40+ cities. (Only 10-15 are mine, all the rest are conquered). Anyhow my economy usually starts recovering about the time I hit discover banks, but getting to that point is EXTREMELY hard due to the fact that I'm losing money, and have to rely on my treasury to purchase techs. But even though it recovers, why does this happen to me??????????????????????
 
How big are your cities? You only get a unit support depending on the size of the city. The few improvements (temples, libraries, marketplaces, and banks), if built in all of your cities, can rack a big deficit. I once did a scenario where you started with a few cities and you had all improvemets, you would lose 70+ gpt. That was why I decided to make all improvements have to upkeep cost.
 
Originally posted by DS_Legionary
But even though it recovers, why does this happen to me??????????????????????

Take a look at your Domestic Advisor (F1 screen). In the upper left corner your empire's total income and total expense is listed, and your expenses are itemized among several different spending accounts: corruption, maintenance (city improvement upkeep), unit costs (units over the allowed amount in your government), etc. This should hopefully give you a pretty good indication of where your income is going and might help identify where you can "cut some fat" from your budget.
 
My best guess is that corruption is killing you and so are building upkeep costs. Those peripheral cities which are terminally corrupt only produce one commerce. With a temple (1 gpt), library (2 gpt), marketplace (1 gpt?), you're losing 3 gpt from each of these cities.

No mention of FP or of courthouses for semi-corrupt cities and I think I may see your problem.

Catt's advice to check the Domestic Advisor is a good place to start, too. And don't simply assume that 40+ towns/cities is covering all your military costs. In Monarchy, that's only 90 or so free units and you can easily have a bunch more than that if you've been on a conquering spree.

Final question to ask -- do you have enough workers? Is every square being worked in relatively low-corruption areas roaded? If not, you're losing tons of gold that way, too.

HTH,
Arathorn
 
I am having the exact same problem! I build up over 1000 gold by building the GL early, and setting science to 0% until feudalism. But then, i go Broke SO fast. What are the best ways to cut down on corruption?

Do temples have their effect forever? Or should I sell them after a certain point? Same with other cultural improvements -- I like the points, but if I get into trouble, how exactly do I trim fat from the f1 screen?

Wiz
 
How to trim the fat depends on what the fat is....

If building expenses are too high, considering selling libraries in hopelessly corrupt cities. They do essentially no good. Actually, unless you're researching fairly heavily, they do very little good in ANY city, so they could/should be sold.

If corruption is a killer, check your courthouses/FP location/etc. See if you can fix it.

Is the base number too low? You need more roads. And/or your cities/towns aren't growing fast enough, so that your total population is too low.

Are unit upkeeps killing you? Disband some military or go bonk some more heads.

Do you have specialists? You can often make more gold by actually turning up the luxury slider. Are you using it efficiently?

A save file is always the ultimate in getting good advise, but even a picture of your F1 screen can be illuminating (F11 is also a good place to look). There are a number of possibilities, but it's hard to evaluate which is true from so little information.

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Temples have their effect (increasing total culture, 1 happy face) forever, yes. Their culture output even doubles after 1000 years. Even in totally corrupt outlying cities, they're probably worth keeping.

Libraries increase science and produce culture for their entire life, too, but unless you're getting actual commerce benefit from them (e.g. you're running reasonable science and the city isn't terminally corrupt), they're probably not worth keeping. If you're currently running low science but plan to crank it back up again at some point, libraries are worth keeping in core cities.

Colosseums are rarely worth building. Cathedrals depends on the happiness need of your civ, which depends on how many luxes you've been able to accrue. Sometimes they're worth it and sometimes not. IMO, one of the beautiful things about Civ3 is that hard-and-fast rules are rarely correct. You have to adapt to the circumstances of the individual game.

Arathorn
 
Can we make a sticky of Arathorn's last two sentences and post them permanently somewhere where everyone will look at them every day? So many posts are looking for, or explaining the author's opinion of the one right way to do something. Well, mostly, there isn't. At best there are guides, not rules.

"One of the beautiful things about Civ3 is that hard-and-fast rules are rarely correct. YOU HAVE TO ADAPT to the circumstances of the individual game." (emphasis added)

There are no perfect plans. There is no one best strategy. Flexibility wins.

And it doesn't hurt to start with the Persians (Industrious and Scientific and they get the 4-2-1 immortal as their early UU instead of swordsmen at 3-2-1) However this is not a perfect plan, I can lose with any civilization, and often have. I just feel more confident when my words are backed with immortals.
 
Try switching to republic or democracy (if available). The extra commerce from every square, not to mention reduced corruption, should give you enough money to easily afford the unit support and boost your revenue by quite a bit.
 
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