I can't sustain economy!

[Eridu]

Ok, so I was playing Genghis, and aimed to Conquer The World when I should have probably opted for Alpha Centauri because I found lots of Civilization Advances early.

So I got pretty far but lost to the Aztecs. My problem is, I don't know how to maintain economy. I had lots of cities (most captured) and I tend to build marketplace first,
and also irrigate all around, but still, at some point, probably because the cities are
full of Improvements, the Coins status just keeps decreasing, even at Despotism and with maximum taxes, and then I can only sell Improvements, rebuild them, sell them again.

What is the best strategy to get loads of Coins and make sure the money rates
go high? I don't use Caravans much because I find them annoying. I don't use
Luxury Rate too much either, so to optimize science, but I wonder if I'm missing something about people getting more luxury becoming more productive.

I just know that Settlers irrigating and making roads are annoying because it takes long to do these jobs and I don't see any increasement.


Thanks.

 

[Eridu]

I replayed as the Aztec and economy was going very well thanks to improved Terrain and the use of Caravans. But I only had 5 or 6 cities, and was aiming for Alpha Centauri.

The economy problem is when conquering the world. You get many cities very fast but can't sustain them. At least I can't. I have only succeeded conquering the world when it's early and Rivals have not found too much cities.


Eridu

 

[Verrucosus]

I think the problem comes from your reluctance to build roads and from using Despotism. Aside from special terrain and those nice river squares that provide a resource, roads are the only way to get both trade and resources from a square. If you don't build them, your trade income will be low to begin with and, under Despotism, most of it will be lost to corruption in cities away from the capital (you're bound to have lots of those when conquering the world).

The corruption losses under Monarchy and Communism are not as bad, but you have to make lots of terrain improvements to make up for the increased support costs by better city growth and mining output. Another strategy is to postpone world conquest, and build an economically strong empire of medium size (10 - 12 cities), switch to Republic and race up the technology tree till you get Industrialism. Build Women's Suffrage and then start taking over the world. This only works when you refuse to see foreign envoys, which is rather ungentlemanly, but if you are Genghis Khan, you may not care. You get a trade bonus and corruption that is not too bad.

If you stick with Despotism (which is an excellent government for conquerors), it's best to avoid building too many city improvements in cities away from the capital. If trade income is low to begin with (because of corruption) the bigger tax and science multiplying buildings (banks and universities) are inefficient.

Best of luck!

 

[jerdnar]

the best way is the cheter CIVED - it is possible to get 30 000 very easy

 

[vojtus]

At the beginning build 5-6 cities. Then lots of chariots. Use them to take over the continent and build how many cities you like. Then build railroads between cities, change government to democracy and have few 2-movement units ready to defense the nation. Things without which i don't think you can win are roads (railroads are much better and are worth spending time to make them), democracy/communism, irrigation, mining.

 

[gwidon]

You can always cheat

 

[KikaSmile]

Please do not yell/scream/ban me if I should have read something somewhere that would tell me why. I looked around, this forum is named "site newbies", and maybe the title of this post will stand out to other newbies.

I cant see any pictures when I go to View Gals. I looked at the source and see a bunch of anchor tags but no images. What gives?

As an aside, the View Guys also does not work but I rather prefer this piece of functionality.

 

[timtofly]

What is the best strategy to get loads of Coins and make sure the money rates
go high? I don't use Caravans much because I find them annoying. I don't use
Luxury Rate too much either, so to optimize science, but I wonder if I'm missing something about people getting more luxury becoming more productive.


Thanks.

That annoyance is the best way to sustain your economy and get extra coins.

Luxury is used to make your people happy. Along with happiness and changing governments, you get more production out of your workers.

 

[Bratticuss]

How do you place your cities? This is very critical. Place them far enough apart so they aren't competing with each other. If conquering cities from computer opponents, destroy them instead. Computer players love placing several cities in the same neighborhood.

Make sure each city has a market place and bank. Both are needed. They produce bonuses to taxes.

Late in game when you have accomplished a bunch of tasks ie wonders, techs, space ship. You can get away with selling off the factories and mfg plants. You can even sell off universities as well when you reach future techs.

Most importantly when you get banks, switch to a republic early. This will produce more money for you from taxes. Also balancing luxury rates with tax an science. Luxury rates

Caravan units are awesome units. Allow for quick building of Wonders, trade money and more arrows. Quick building of Wonders can be used to build other improvements. City walls are great way to produce income too. I know late in game you can produce these with high production city in 1-3 turns.

Bratticuss

 

[Walt]

OK, I understand your problem and agree with the fix of building roads so your coins go up, BUT, if you didn't want to do that then try this (A favorite strategy of mine when being a really nasty conqueror!): Capture an enemy city, and then treat it as a 'slave' city for production of coins only. Change EVERY citizen in that city to an 'accountant' (producing 2 coins per accountant per turn), and sell off one city improvement per turn. Soon the city will starve to death but you will have maximized coins from it. One beauty of this strategy is that it minimizes the need to defend newly captured cities.
Another option I do all the time is to build barracks and sell them as soon as they are built. This allows me to have 100% science and still get coins enough to support the economy.

 

[ignatius]

If you only want to conquer, you don't need an economy in the first place as the only buildings you ever build are barracks and those are free before gunpowder (and the game will usually not last that long). For infrastructure, you build military roads and that's it - no irrigation as you don't want your cities to ever require more than one or two garrisons. The roads are essential, as they speed up your war effort and reduce the number of chariots in transit to the front by at least 2/3 (5/6 when crossing forests, hills etc.) and thus help to save or completely avoid upkeep.

As for science, BrozeWorking (garrisons), TheWheel (your one and only attack unit), Writing (to sabotage city walls and incite revolts) and later Navigation (to raid other continents) is all you ever need. Afterwards it's 100% tax. Sell off all science buildings in captured cities and let them starve to a managable size. Use the proceeds to buy enemy cities outright (esp. those with city walls and/or on riot). Leather, rinse, repeat. If you don't have too much sailing to do, the world should be yours well before 1 AD.

 

[Walt]

I concur! This can be a really satisfying game because of all the little 'wins' coming close together. Longer CIV games that are mostly management have a different kind of 'fun'.

 

[player1 fanatic]

In order to sustain your enemy you need to be smart and build only buildings that pay off.

For example, you earn 3 coins from city, market would add another one (3*1.5, rounded down), so it doesn't pay off.

Consider that Cathedrals and Colosseum barely pay off if you are not in republic or democracy (since single new citizen can earn you 1 extra trade at best case). Build them if gain in population increase would give good shield boost (instead of getting bunch of 2-3 food/1trade tiles), otherwise try keeping city at lower size.

At higher difficulties, if playing 474.3 version of later, barracks get steep maintenance cost. If so, build them only in cities that you build units regularly. If city is actually massive shield producer, it may even pay off to sell barracks, when not building troops.

And finally, a good trick is to convert shields to money: Build object, and then sell it. That way you get shield value in coins.