Combating Colonial Expenses

[JCMiller23]

hey, guys, this I'm doing great in my game... I recently moved up to Monarch (4 games ago) and this is the first game where I've been able to impose my military will on whoever I wish without fear of losing.

I already took out the other civ on my continent, now the celts declare war on me. I've taken about 8 of their cities, no problem, only thing is the colonial expenses are killing me! I went from having a balanced budget to being -250 a turn.

Is there any way to combat these? I've got a courthouse in every city, but they're still 20-30 a turn per city. If I build the forbidden palace will that do it? I'm running state property, but maybe I don't have the right update because it's not helping either.

HELP! thanks

 

[smackthewise]

This is a bad answer and i don't know if you can do this yet, but I generally cut my losses and liberate them as their own Civilisation at that point. They get two defending units per city to free up your own troops and you use their empire as a base for further attacks.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Liberating to a colony is a last-ditch resort UNLESS you're just accruing UN votes and don't care how crappy that land is used as long as you win after the next war or so.

Colonial maintenance is capped at 2x distance from palace maintenance. In other words, your options to reduce it are:

1. Put a palace or equivalent (Forbidden or versailles) on the continent to drastically cut into colonial maintenance on that continent

or

2. Just run state property

or

3. Turn vassal states off at game start and this feature isn't an issue any more.

Any of those will work, though I kind of like having vassals on, not everyone does or cares.

Generally colonies hurt diplo and suck all game, so have a good reason when using them.

 

[conception]

I find liberating is the best choice because it gets very annoying to deal with the issues of not doing so. I was actually disappointed to find that colonies never really amount to anything though so thats something to consider.

 

[lucashp]

By this time I'd allready be at state property. And when that is hit, its only a loss if you liberate it.

Unfortuntly, You should make sure that one or a few cities are actually productive on that continent/island, get a few workers, maybe defend it more..

After I liberate a colony, Usually its worthless as that Civilization does nothing but trade my techs away and doesn't have the production to defend itself.

 

[JCMiller23]

state property is supposed to negate colonial expenses right? I always run state property, it's the best imo, except for the fact that you can't make corp execs. I save so much money with it!

is that on the original bts or one of the patches that state property gets rid of colonial expenses? must be the patch... every time I try to update to the latest patch I have to reinstall civ because it screws up my game

I figured out a solution!!!

I cheated

I went into the worldbuilder and added rathaus and ziggaraut to the cities so maintenance is now almost nothing. heheheheh I figure it's my damn country, I'm not paying 30 gold a turn for each city and I'm sure as hell not liberating it. too hard fought.

 

[Iranon]

On high levels, colonies get all those yummy AI bonuses. You can tell them what to tech, since it's easy to make them love you they will gift/trade, and you can feed them with obsolescent units that they'll upgrade almost for free...

Monarch bonuses aren't enough to offset their general incompetence though.

 

[LegionSteve]

state property is supposed to negate colonial expenses right? I always run state property, it's the best imo, except for the fact that you can't make corp execs. I save so much money with it!

is that on the original bts or one of the patches that state property gets rid of colonial expenses? must be the patch... every time I try to update to the latest patch I have to reinstall civ because it screws up my game

I figured out a solution!!!

I cheated

I went into the worldbuilder and added rathaus and ziggaraut to the cities so maintenance is now almost nothing. heheheheh I figure it's my damn country, I'm not paying 30 gold a turn for each city and I'm sure as hell not liberating it. too hard fought.

It was a patch. One of the official patches limited colonial expenses so it can't be greater that distance-to-palace maintenance. That means since SP reduces distance-to-palace maintenance to zero, it also reduces colonial expenses to zero.

Well done on your solution though

 

[Tristan_C]

It was a patch. One of the official patches limited colonial expenses so it can't be greater that distance-to-palace maintenance. That means since SP reduces distance-to-palace maintenance to zero, it also reduces colonial expenses to zero.

Well done on your solution though

Bumping this in sheer gratitude.

Playing an island-nations game atm. Running free markets and unpatched. It was completely pointless. There's no way you can take over or settle a new island--it will never be able to pay for itself let alone contribute to your research--unless we do as advised, download the patch, and switch to SP. So thanks for the advice everyone; it worked.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Bumping this in sheer gratitude.

Playing an island-nations game atm. Running free markets and unpatched. It was completely pointless. There's no way you can take over or settle a new island--it will never be able to pay for itself let alone contribute to your research--unless we do as advised, download the patch, and switch to SP. So thanks for the advice everyone; it worked.

Post patch a well-placed forbidden palace will cut the costs quite severely also.

 

[kochman]

I never give up a colony.
Rather, I try to build Versailles in the furthest from my capital, yet strongest production city in my empire, within my original boundaries, using a GE to assist this effort.

When I populate a new land on a new continent, I whip a courthouse ASAP, and then build the Forbidden Palace overseas.

Doesn't matter which comes first... colony or divine right... I always save Versaille for the original continent, and always use the FB on my colonial continent (meaning one of several cities... not just a random island with nothing else).

Also, I generally inhabit the coasts before moving inland on my new continent, and build Lighthouses... that way I can be sure to get commerce from those sea tiles, plus food. Cottage like crazy too, on the workable land, especially if there is no access to a river. On hills, I build Windmills. You do not want to have a tile that isn't bringing in commerce, unless its a mined resource.

 

[Tristan_C]

Post patch a well-placed forbidden palace will cut the costs quite severely also.

This was my initial answer to the problem. I built the kremlin on my mainland, and a forbidden palace was one of the first things I bought. With a smirk, I realized I had built it in Beijing.

But when I heard that the patches made colony expenses more manageable, anyway, I backed up a few turns, loaded the patch, and went SP rather than rush a palace and still face colony expenses. It's pretty much a permanent fix in this game (no environmentalism for me), because this is a huge "1-island-1-civ" map, and SP will manage the cost of very large, distant islands the best.

I never give up a colony.
Rather, I try to build Versailles in the furthest from my capital, yet strongest production city in my empire, within my original boundaries, using a GE to assist this effort.

When I populate a new land on a new continent, I whip a courthouse ASAP, and then build the Forbidden Palace overseas.

Doesn't matter which comes first... colony or divine right... I always save Versaille for the original continent, and always use the FB on my colonial continent (meaning one of several cities... not just a random island with nothing else).

Also, I generally inhabit the coasts before moving inland on my new continent, and build Lighthouses... that way I can be sure to get commerce from those sea tiles, plus food. Cottage like crazy too, on the workable land, especially if there is no access to a river. On hills, I build Windmills. You do not want to have a tile that isn't bringing in commerce, unless its a mined resource.

I'm part of the vast crowd who was disappointed in the performance of liberated colonies. If I could flourish on a higher difficulty than monarch, then perhaps I could be privy to those nice bonuses the emp+ CPUs get. I just don't get enough games in to improve my skill much

As it stands, I think you're foregoing a huge opportunity if you build versailles yourself. Emergency Only. It's sooooo nice to just let an ind neighbor build that for you, while you just build the cannons necessary to seize it. Cannons being a more flexible asset, and all.