Don't be greedy

[Mariano Moreno]

I want to share a little trick I have noticed after some games. In most other civ games it was a wise move to let money grow and grow, so it was available at times of need, and if for X or Y reason the income turned negative, if it was high enough it could be endured until things turned back to the positive balance. And for that, when things were quiet, it was a good idea not to spend money right away, and for example let units and buildings be builded in their time rather than hurry their production.

Things have changed now. Money is not generated by turn as a result of a sum of things that generate and substract money, but only as a result of the action of selling goods. Deficit does never appear in the game. Money goes down only by buying things or units, or when the king demands to have his ring kissed.

All this you surely know. The thing I noticed is that when the kings demands money, he demands more or less half of the current money available. The advise then is clear: never keep money around, spend it right away. If you can hire soldiers or specialists but there is no more room in the ship or you earned it in the map (such as in ruines or exchanging things with other players), hire them anyway and let them wait until you can lift them. If you have the money for that new ship, don't wait the old ship to arrive to Europe to do all things at the same time, buy it now.

If you have 6000 in cash, the king will request 3000, too much money lost and never to come back in any way, but if you have 200 he will request 100. Big difference, isn't it?

 

[nacc]

Actually there's no reason to kiss his ring at all. The penalty for refusing cash requests is negligible. You should just refuse all cash requests, but accept all tax raises.

Add it to the list of broken mechanics, which includes:

- REF increase
- warehouse sales
- Price change
- Tax increase
- Rebel sentiment
- Education
- Immigration
- Hurry building
- Can't think of anything

I guess most of these aren't broken per se. Just not too well balanced, that's all. There's no official patch ATM. There are a few mods that address said issues.

 

[5cats]

Yes, some patching is in order for Colo...
As for money demands, it's mostly based on your cash, but I've seen him demand 790 off 1000, and also 160 off 1800. Some randomness there, but yeah mostly it's between 40-50% on Conq level.

 

[Mariano Moreno]

Wasn't it that if I refuse to give money the king gets mad with me and raises taxes more often?

 

[nacc]

The amount of trade you can do on normal speed is about 220 units initially. When you reach this threshold, you are viable for a tax increase. From then on, every turn there's a 20% chance for a random 1-5% increase. If the tax increases, you're set back to 0, no matter how much you actually traded.

If yo refuse to kiss his ring he gets mad, meaning -1 towards you. I'm not exactly sure but I think this reduces the threshold by 3-4 units. It's inconsequential. You should just hoard your goods, then sell them all at the same time and buy whatever you need before tax actually increases. Even if the effect was more substantial it would still make very little difference. Whether the threshold is 220 or 210 or 400 or 5 for that matter, the effect is the same.

 

[5cats]

^^^^
Oooh! That explains a LOT! Thanks nacc!
Also, there seems to be a 5 turn minimum between raises, 10 for the Dutch, eh?

Some strange Ring Kissing requests I've gotten lately:
90 from 1000 cash
790 from 980 (grrr!)
1150 from 1400 (I worked hard to save up! He pops in before my ship got to Europe)
10 from 100 on like turn 4, sheesh!
My all-time favorite: 70 from 89 cash. Go ahead, you greedy... Monarch!

 

[Oerdin]

Wasn't it that if I refuse to give money the king gets mad with me and raises taxes more often?

Exactly. Make him made and he raises taxes more often as well as adds to the REF. Thus you should pay the cheap ring kisses and only refuse the expensive ring kisses.

 

[HermannLombard]

Making him mad doesn't add to the REF, only cumulative LB production does that.

BTW, Hi Oerdin! Long time no see!