How to overcome early defict?

[Skathi Moon]

I'm having a problem with the eary game, and I don't know exactly what I am doing wrong.

By around the classical era, my economy crashes and I start to have budget deficit. How to avoid this?

Generally, my build maintenance start to grow, even if no new tile improvements, should I make my workers stop to build? Or am I missing something?

So, after turns with negative income, my economy goes zero and I can't reach new researches.

About the caravans, I'm using "caravans build roads", so if I send a caravan somewhere, these roads counts as tile improvements and the income from the trade don't pay itself. (so I wait better economy before sending caravans, or AI build the road by caravans before me). But even without this mod, it's not solved.

Is it natural to have these early gold problems, or what tips do you have to avoid this?

 

[andersw]

"caravans build roads"
Sounds extremely expensive, you ONLY want roads where you need it, try play without this and compare.
And don't invest in roads until you need it for happiness or wars, every road tile is 1 gpt.
Yes I overbuild roads near my enemies so I can manoeuvre my units in war and that can be a bit costly but that's for a very good reason.

While a lot of players value gold very low it is important early on so you can afford the basic stuff.
You need to consider things in the early game like:

What policy's do you take and in what order?
How much do you expand?
How many units and workers are you sitting with?
What tech paths?
What religious choices?
Do you trade your lux?

It's vital to improve lux and sell.
If I don't have a gold generating faith (ex open sky gives a surprising amount on pastures, god of nature = gold for mountains, god of the sun = gold from granaries) then I have to prio markets (feels bad) a LOT earlier and often also work merchants (which also sucks) but its better than going bankrupt.
Sometimes I can get a bit extra from city state quests or tribute, sometimes I get more barb camps but neither are guaranteed.
Sometimes I can cut workers a bit more, sometimes I can sell more lux.

I tend to have have issues after my first expansion phase when I'm at 5-6 cities.
Usually Circus Maximus is a game changer for me, Authority - Discipline also helps.
If you go upper path and other policy tree you need to find other options.

Villages are good but around that time is when you're gold crisis should mostly be fixed already.

 

[Alpharius]

Generally, my build maintenance start to grow, even if no new tile improvements, should I make my workers stop to build? Or am I missing something?

About the caravans, I'm using "caravans build roads", so if I send a caravan somewhere, these roads counts as tile improvements and the income from the trade don't pay itself. (so I wait better economy before sending caravans, or AI build the road by caravans before me). But even without this mod, it's not solved.

Is it natural to have these early gold problems, or what tips do you have to avoid this?

Tile improvements (except roads) don't have maintenance costs.

Can you give more details or a screenshot on a specific game you're talking about? Policies, beliefs, and terrain are usually the biggest factors after trade deals/routes when managing your income.

Personally I only settle in areas with a few sources of gold during the early game because of the same problem. Sheep, bison, iron, and coastal tiles are good early source of gold aside from luxuries.

Also pay attention to building upkeep as those stack up pretty quickly.

 

[stii]

Generally the best source of early game gold is selling lux to the AI. So try and connect every lux you can quickly and then sell as many as you can without becoming unhappy. Early on you don't need any at all, which will generate money to let you connect even more with rush bought workers/title buys.