Expansion

[vidimce]

I start playing with few cities and my research is at 100% and Im getting +2,3 gold. Therefore Im advancing at highest rate in technology with surplus of gold. My treasury is stacking mroe money which then can be used to hurry buildings, units etc.

When I start conquering cities or building new cities I see that Im going in negative. I no more have my +2 gold with 100 % research. Instead its - 2 or -4 in some cases it gets down to 90% research rate and -5 Which means Im not going fastest in technology, other countries are advancing faster then me.

What Im asking is hwo do you know when is the right time to expand and how to economicaly manage a rapid expansion without hurting your research? Is that even possible ? What I want to be able to do is keep my research rate as hgh as possible and expand by conquering enemy cities or building new ones.

Thanx

 

[baboon]

The idea is when you start a new city, you will first lose money on it, but when you start to build cottages, the new city makes more money then it costst. Courthouses also help here.

The best thing to do is focus one city on making gold, for example one with a river, you can build a lot of cottages there.

When you expand, 90% is pretty good, you can't always run at 100%.

 

[oyzar]

lol. I am seldom above 60% in my games. 90% or 100% probably means your expanding way too slow imo. its not what the slider is at that matters. its how much beakers you produce.

 

[Tunguska]

If you put the slider on 0% science, you can stil research new technologies.

Your cities produce 3 things:
-hammers =production.
-beakers= science.
-commerce=
a. 100% gold with both sliders at 0%
b. 100% beakers with science slider to 100%
c. 100% culture with culture slider to 100%
d. a combination with sliders on different %.

Example:
If you run a scientist specialist in your city, then your city will still produce beakers (=research) even if you set the science slider at 0%. All the commerce (=coins) will go towards your treasury.

Sliders are important but it is not needed that you always run at 100%.
On this forum you can read a lot about the SE (specialist economy), in this economy model you run with the science slider at 0%, and still research fast.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

lol. I am seldom above 60% in my games. 90% or 100% probably means your expanding way too slow imo. its not what the slider is at that matters. its how much beakers you produce.

Perfectly put, if you've 15 cities in 1 AD and running 20% science, you're probably in real terms winning by a country mile

 

[vidimce]

Its clearer to me now. Thnx for the responses.

 

[Hero]

I start playing with few cities and my research is at 100% and Im getting +2,3 gold.

Is this possible? I don't think you can run a surplus at 100%

 

[Heffling]

Hero,

It's certainly possible. If your income from shrines and merchants offsets your empire and military upkeep, you will be able to produce excess gold at 100% science. I used to do it alot back when I played Prince level and would found 3+ religions.

 

[Hero]

Hmmm... It just seems to me that if you have excess gold left over, you aren't putting 100% commerce into research.

 

[pigswill]

Its the confusion between commerce and gold. Merchants and shrines produce gold not commerce so you can indeed run a gold surplus regardless of science/cash slider.

 

[manu-fan]

I think the OP is confusing the slider with how much research is actually being done.

Let's say you are generating 100 commerce, and have the slider at 100% science.

That's 100 beakers.

Let's say you are generating 200 commerce, and have the slider at 60% science.

That's 120 beakers.

Just because you are lowering the slider, it doesn't mean that your reserch rate is going down (necessarily).

I expand all the way through the game. I usually make sure I have Currency before I really start hurting economically because I switch cities to produce 'Wealth' when I start to get a lot of cities.

6 cities with 2 producing Wealth giving 100 beakers

>

3 cities giving 80 beakers

So, just keep clicking the Finacial advisor to make sure your research rate is going up, even as you take over more cities and your slider goes down.

BTW: The other advantage of warring is that you can afford to run in the red a bit, because you get money each time you take a city.

Cheers.