tu_79
Deity
(Updated for 2018-08-18)
Tired of being in the red the 20th of every month? Your job isn't good enough? Here's a revolutionary new bussiness not suitable for the fainted hearted. Follow up...
Ok, ok, if you are reading this, probably you are in late Ancient, or early Classical, and you can't pay for your units anymore, isn't it? In this game there is plenty of gold, but you need to know where to look.
EXPLORE
1. Scouting gives knowledge of the world map. You can easily spot where to settle to earn more gold, maybe next to El Dorado.
2. Searching goody huts sometimes gives gold.
3. Being the first to meet a mercantily City State grants influence and a little gold gift.
4. By meeting your neighbors you can trade your resources for gold.
5. By knowing more cities, you have more options for your trade routes.
CUT EXPENSES
1. Free buildings. Monuments, shrines and councils cost no gold, so you have no excuses for not building them.
2. Wonders. You may think that you won't be able to build that wonder in time, and probably it's true. But if you make it, several Wonders come with a free building.
3. Don't rush roads. You need a 7 pop city connected by a 3 tiles road to start making profit, it is even worse if you forward settle. Early game, if you need to move faster, just chop some trees in the way. When your cities grow, you'll earn some gold from connections, but don't expect it to be much.
4. Gift units. If you produced more units than you can pay for, consider gifting some unexperienced warriors or archers to a city state. If you increase your influence to friendly or allied status, you might receive some goodies back. Mercantile city states give gold to their friends. Otherwise, disband the extra units in owned territory so you get some gold back. In any case, your units must be full health to gift/disband them.
5. Sell buildings. If you are really losing gold and don't dare to get rid of your military units, you can get a little sum of gold and, more importantly, pay less for maintenance by selling buildings. Just don't sell buildings that pay for themselves, like the market.
USE YOUR WORKER
1. Check the resources you can yet improve in Civilopedia. A resouce gives natural yields, improved yields (by improving the tile with the suitable improvement), enhanced yields (by having its related building in the city), and monopoly bonuses (by controlling more than 50%). If any of those yields grant gold, go for it.
2. Connect strategic resources. Even if you can't make use of extra horses, other civs may pay well for them. Try to look who will pay more for your resources before making a deal.
3. Chopp trees on flat terrain in the way to other cities. It can ease the way for caravans. Caravans work in both senses, you send trade routes to your neighbor and your neighbor sends trade routes to you, granting extra income. Note: trees are useful in places with low production.
4. Farms increase your cities population. Cities that are connected to capital get some gold from population (a 7 pop city pays for a 3 tile road). More population is also more workers available to work on anything that might yield gold. Indirectly, more population also increases the chance of receiving foreign trade routes, which grant gold for both cities. Farms are better with fresh water and when placed in clusters to benefit from the adjacency bonuses.
5. In general, a well developed territory will produce more gold. Extra production helps getting gold buildings built faster. Extra science helps getting gold boosting technologies earlier. Extra culture does the same for policies. Extra faith help with whatever you chose your religion to be useful with, and in return, it will help gold production.
6. Villages are a major source of gold. Villages are boosted by being placed on a road/railroad that is connecting cities, and also by having a caravan passing by.
USE TRADE ROUTES
1. Trade routes get more gold the longer the voyage, and a city can only receive one trader from each civilization, so check carefully in the trading screen where you can make more profit.
2. Land based trade routes get less gold than water based ones, but they can improve villages on the way.
3. You can get additional trade routes by building Petra (requires desert) and the Colossus (requires coastal) wonders.
4. Granaries allow internal food routes. Stone works and workshops allow internal production routes.
5. Markets and caravanseries increase the value of any trade route with this city.
USE YOUR ARMY
If going Tradition or Progress, you need a self-defense army, not too big or it will drain your budget. Going Authority, there's enough gold to keep units near the limit supply (the policy that yields gold comes sooner), and this bigger army can return gold in several ways.
1. Bully city states. Approach a city state with some units, and ask them for tribute. If you are strong enough, they will yield some gold. They won't give you missions and hate you for a while, but it will pass.
2. Chase barbarian encampments. It's only 20 gold, but your traders will move safer, and some City States may be grateful if those barbs were bothering them.
3. Protect city states. Sometimes a city state is invaded by a horde. Every barb you kill (you need to make the last hit, mind you) grants +15 influence, so you can befriend the city state easily. Trading with an allied City State yields more gold.
4. Pillage other civs. Pillaging their improvements yield just a few coins, but pillaging a trader is worth 100 gold. Also, slaved workers save you the cost of producing them.
5. Capture cites. This early you probably can't take on capitals, but a newly founded city has lower defenses, and it gives some gold upon capturing.
INVEST WISELY
When you have some spare coin, you can rush a unit, upgrade a unit or invest in a building. Usually, investing in a building is more efficient. Investing halves the cost of the building, so in cities with low production more turns can be gained. But sometimes you just need an extra unit right now, in order to survive (who cares about money when you are going to die?). Or you may want an extra worker in a newly founded city far away from capital, so you can save some turns of travel and start improving the terrain of that city ASAP. Upgrading units is really costly and should only be done for really experienced units.
Also, both science and culture indirectly help. By having extra science you get faster to the technologies that grant more gold. By having extra culture you get faster to the policies that do the same. Even faith is helpful if your pantheon/religion grants gold, science or culture.
RESEARCH WISELY
When deciding what tech to research next, always question yourself 'Do I have enough gold?' If the answer is 'barely', check for:
1 Trade. Markets are free maintenance buildings, it doesn't hurt even if you can't place a specialist. Caravans are useful for many things.
2 Check your available resources, if any of them yields gold when connected, look for the technology that unlocks the improvement. Even if they don't yield gold, you might sell them to other civs.
3 Sailing, if your cities are coastal with a few sea resources, for the lighthouses, and the extra trader.
4 Currency, villages are the major source of gold for wide civs, especially when boosted by trade routes and roads.
PANTHEONS
Don't delay shrines too much (they are free to maintain after all), and you'll get to pick a pantheon. Building Stonehenge grants enough faith to start a pantheon. Your pathfinder/scout may find a goody hut with faith. So you have to choose a pantheon and you are low on gold, consider this:
-Goddess of Commerce is especially useful for wide play and it's better if you already have a source of gold or are able to connect your cities easily.
-God of the Open Sky gives 3 gold to every pasture, which can be massive with sheep in hilly locations, paradoxically.
-Goddess of Festivals gives 3 gold for every accesible luxury (can be obtained by trade).
-Any pantheon can improve your gold income indirectly, just see if you can maximize the other yields.
Tired of being in the red the 20th of every month? Your job isn't good enough? Here's a revolutionary new bussiness not suitable for the fainted hearted. Follow up...
Ok, ok, if you are reading this, probably you are in late Ancient, or early Classical, and you can't pay for your units anymore, isn't it? In this game there is plenty of gold, but you need to know where to look.
EXPLORE
1. Scouting gives knowledge of the world map. You can easily spot where to settle to earn more gold, maybe next to El Dorado.
2. Searching goody huts sometimes gives gold.
3. Being the first to meet a mercantily City State grants influence and a little gold gift.
4. By meeting your neighbors you can trade your resources for gold.
5. By knowing more cities, you have more options for your trade routes.
CUT EXPENSES
1. Free buildings. Monuments, shrines and councils cost no gold, so you have no excuses for not building them.
2. Wonders. You may think that you won't be able to build that wonder in time, and probably it's true. But if you make it, several Wonders come with a free building.
3. Don't rush roads. You need a 7 pop city connected by a 3 tiles road to start making profit, it is even worse if you forward settle. Early game, if you need to move faster, just chop some trees in the way. When your cities grow, you'll earn some gold from connections, but don't expect it to be much.
4. Gift units. If you produced more units than you can pay for, consider gifting some unexperienced warriors or archers to a city state. If you increase your influence to friendly or allied status, you might receive some goodies back. Mercantile city states give gold to their friends. Otherwise, disband the extra units in owned territory so you get some gold back. In any case, your units must be full health to gift/disband them.
5. Sell buildings. If you are really losing gold and don't dare to get rid of your military units, you can get a little sum of gold and, more importantly, pay less for maintenance by selling buildings. Just don't sell buildings that pay for themselves, like the market.
USE YOUR WORKER
1. Check the resources you can yet improve in Civilopedia. A resouce gives natural yields, improved yields (by improving the tile with the suitable improvement), enhanced yields (by having its related building in the city), and monopoly bonuses (by controlling more than 50%). If any of those yields grant gold, go for it.
2. Connect strategic resources. Even if you can't make use of extra horses, other civs may pay well for them. Try to look who will pay more for your resources before making a deal.
3. Chopp trees on flat terrain in the way to other cities. It can ease the way for caravans. Caravans work in both senses, you send trade routes to your neighbor and your neighbor sends trade routes to you, granting extra income. Note: trees are useful in places with low production.
4. Farms increase your cities population. Cities that are connected to capital get some gold from population (a 7 pop city pays for a 3 tile road). More population is also more workers available to work on anything that might yield gold. Indirectly, more population also increases the chance of receiving foreign trade routes, which grant gold for both cities. Farms are better with fresh water and when placed in clusters to benefit from the adjacency bonuses.
5. In general, a well developed territory will produce more gold. Extra production helps getting gold buildings built faster. Extra science helps getting gold boosting technologies earlier. Extra culture does the same for policies. Extra faith help with whatever you chose your religion to be useful with, and in return, it will help gold production.
6. Villages are a major source of gold. Villages are boosted by being placed on a road/railroad that is connecting cities, and also by having a caravan passing by.
USE TRADE ROUTES
1. Trade routes get more gold the longer the voyage, and a city can only receive one trader from each civilization, so check carefully in the trading screen where you can make more profit.
2. Land based trade routes get less gold than water based ones, but they can improve villages on the way.
3. You can get additional trade routes by building Petra (requires desert) and the Colossus (requires coastal) wonders.
4. Granaries allow internal food routes. Stone works and workshops allow internal production routes.
5. Markets and caravanseries increase the value of any trade route with this city.
USE YOUR ARMY
If going Tradition or Progress, you need a self-defense army, not too big or it will drain your budget. Going Authority, there's enough gold to keep units near the limit supply (the policy that yields gold comes sooner), and this bigger army can return gold in several ways.
1. Bully city states. Approach a city state with some units, and ask them for tribute. If you are strong enough, they will yield some gold. They won't give you missions and hate you for a while, but it will pass.
2. Chase barbarian encampments. It's only 20 gold, but your traders will move safer, and some City States may be grateful if those barbs were bothering them.
3. Protect city states. Sometimes a city state is invaded by a horde. Every barb you kill (you need to make the last hit, mind you) grants +15 influence, so you can befriend the city state easily. Trading with an allied City State yields more gold.
4. Pillage other civs. Pillaging their improvements yield just a few coins, but pillaging a trader is worth 100 gold. Also, slaved workers save you the cost of producing them.
5. Capture cites. This early you probably can't take on capitals, but a newly founded city has lower defenses, and it gives some gold upon capturing.
INVEST WISELY
When you have some spare coin, you can rush a unit, upgrade a unit or invest in a building. Usually, investing in a building is more efficient. Investing halves the cost of the building, so in cities with low production more turns can be gained. But sometimes you just need an extra unit right now, in order to survive (who cares about money when you are going to die?). Or you may want an extra worker in a newly founded city far away from capital, so you can save some turns of travel and start improving the terrain of that city ASAP. Upgrading units is really costly and should only be done for really experienced units.
Also, both science and culture indirectly help. By having extra science you get faster to the technologies that grant more gold. By having extra culture you get faster to the policies that do the same. Even faith is helpful if your pantheon/religion grants gold, science or culture.
RESEARCH WISELY
When deciding what tech to research next, always question yourself 'Do I have enough gold?' If the answer is 'barely', check for:
1 Trade. Markets are free maintenance buildings, it doesn't hurt even if you can't place a specialist. Caravans are useful for many things.
2 Check your available resources, if any of them yields gold when connected, look for the technology that unlocks the improvement. Even if they don't yield gold, you might sell them to other civs.
3 Sailing, if your cities are coastal with a few sea resources, for the lighthouses, and the extra trader.
4 Currency, villages are the major source of gold for wide civs, especially when boosted by trade routes and roads.
PANTHEONS
Don't delay shrines too much (they are free to maintain after all), and you'll get to pick a pantheon. Building Stonehenge grants enough faith to start a pantheon. Your pathfinder/scout may find a goody hut with faith. So you have to choose a pantheon and you are low on gold, consider this:
-Goddess of Commerce is especially useful for wide play and it's better if you already have a source of gold or are able to connect your cities easily.
-God of the Open Sky gives 3 gold to every pasture, which can be massive with sheep in hilly locations, paradoxically.
-Goddess of Festivals gives 3 gold for every accesible luxury (can be obtained by trade).
-Any pantheon can improve your gold income indirectly, just see if you can maximize the other yields.
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