Beginner

[JzzTrump22]

Hey everyone, I just picked this game up last week after getting hooked on the trial version. So i'm having a little bit of a problem with my money. I keep losing 4 or 5 gold every turn and i don't know how to reverse it. I was making 4 or 5 but now i'm losing it. I'm at over 700 gold (only 4 hours into the game).
What i don't understand is that i'm building lots of things for the cities like temples, the great wall, the oracle, forbiden palace. Plus things that they need like the aquaduct, granery, barracks. I don't know what to do, please help. Oh, i'm the persians by the way.

 

[DogmaDog]

Most of the improvements you build cost money each turn (like 1 gpt for upkeep/maintenance). Additionally, you may have to spend money to maintain your military. Under despotism, for e.g., you can support 4 times as many units as you have cities, for free. If you have more units than that, each extra one costs 1 gpt.

So have a look at the F1 screen (domestic advisor). In the upper left corner, you'll see a green box with all your income listed (x from taxes, y from interest, z from other civs). In the red box next to it, you'll see where the money goes (x to science, y to units, z to luxuries, etc).

Figure out where you can cut back on your spending, and do it...disband some units, don't build improvements you don't need, cut back on science spending.

Also, make sure you are improving the land around your cities--roads increase commerce in most or all tiles, which means roads are GOLD. Marketplaces increase your gold production, AND increase the effectiveness of luxuries, which allows you to keep more citizens working, which increases your gold even more!

Also note that setting research to zero or minimum, and really raking in the cash, is a viable strategy in many instances--you can trade luxuries or gold for technologies the AI gets, (and then sell them to other AIs to recover most of what you paid).

Good luck, and welcome to the game,

DogmaDog

 

[Vizurok]

You can control the income with a slider. Press F1 than decrease the percentage of research or entertainment. You can check it in the right bottom of the screen when you are playing. For example: Persian Monarchy 5.5.0. The first is science, the second is luxury and the third is the treasury.
To increase your wealth you can build Marketplaces and Banks.
Hope it helps...

Posted at the same time!

 

[JzzTrump22]

Ok, thanks for the help. But do you think it would help if i built more cities?

 

[Vizurok]

Yes, it helps... but not forever. As you build cities at further locations, the corruption will grow higher, especially if you are in Despotism.
What level are you playing? On Chieftain money isn't very important, nothing happens when you get to zero. But do not get used to let money flow away!

 

[JzzTrump22]

So what type of government works best? I would think monarchy would work best if i'm playing more of a combat style.

 

[Dell19]

Monarchy is best if you are planning to fighting large scale wars most of the time but if you are going to have short wars occasionally then republic or democracy is probably better...

 

[Vizurok]

Yes, I prefer Monarchy than Republic, but Democracy rules! Communism is a good gov for war (the best), but it kills teh economy.

 

[Dell19]

Communism works for extremely large empires as it kills the corruption and allows a huge amount of units.

 

[Garbarsardar.jr]

The best advice that I was ever given was to go to : http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3academy.shtml
and read extensively
You can even do it between turns if you have a slow PC (as I)
enjoy!

 

[dgfred]

The more cities you have the better, no matter about corruption . Each
thing you build usually has upkeep cost, thats why adam smith's is important.
. Republic is usually the best for making money until later in the game
and Monarchy is best if you are occaisionally at war, but remember that to
rush in Monarchy it will cost $. If you read up in the forums and follow a
couple of SGs you will soon be of a mighty empire .