Money Money Money

[ajcrocks]

After playing a few games, I've gotten a lot better at many aspects of the game. The one that eludes me is how to get a strong income. I've had games where rival civs are sitting on as much as 60k in cash when they build UN and buy a victory which is why I turn off Diplomatic Victory. All the while they maintain 10 allies which shows they are spending as needed. Sure there's a difficulty bonus factor, but I couldn't even dream of bringing in that kind of extra cash.

So the question is, what tips are there to really spur on a high income?

I try to use more trading posts and custom houses. I sell off all my extra resources when possible. I really wish the commerce policy had branches that generated commerce. Obviously I'm building commerce buildings when possible. What am I missing?

 

[Pook]

Don't worry about how much gold the AI civs have. The good news is that other than buying city-states, AI civs don't use their money well. The better news is that when you are beating them at war, they'll sue for peace and often offer thousands in gold for a 10-turn peace treaty.

Some quick thoughts on improving your cash flow:
- Markets and national treasury.
- Don't build roads until your cities get larger. Roughly, the formula works out that you shouldn't build a road to a city x tiles away until the city is x size. Only build the minimum number of road tiles you need.
- Church tithe in your religion.

 

[Crafty Bison]

Generally when I try to improve an aspect of my game I pic a civ with a relevant UA/UB that will force me to get experience doing this.

I'd try games with Arabia or Persia, or possibly Netherlands. If you're like me you'll want to get the most out of their unique stuff, which will mean getting savvy with gold. There are a couple other civs that can do well on a gold focus too. Later you can go back to your original civ and use what you learned as much as you want.

Generally, you're not supposed to generate the gold that the AI does, cos humans use it much better and it wouldn't be fair on the AI. Stop looking at what they're generating as a benchmark, instead view it as something you can take from them (by trade or peace deal), and try to maximise what you can do with yours.

A couple of random tips (other than the standard AI abuses):
Stack RHS of commerce with Big Ben. You'll get 15+25=40% off gold purchases, which is saying 'your gold will get you 67% more'. This works in a 1/(1-x) kind of relationship, which gets pretty tasty for you when stacked. Not to be sniffed at in the slightest.

keep your army small and focused to save on maintenance. Hope you're not trying a domination vc

A lot of your gold comes from trade, so go after lux's but seek other hapiness from religion or mercantile CS's so you can trade your last copy away too. gold and hapiness closely linked.

Get puppets, TP spam. Seems obvious, but is effective

Try to go for MPichu if you can and are going wide (recommended if you want to roll in gold). Colossus can also be useful in situations. Don't have Halicarnassus so can't comment, though it looks like it shouldbe kinda weak.

Make sure rivers have a tip top priority when doing ciy locations. Also lux resources get a higher priority than they would relative to bonus/strategic normally.

Lastly, always be looking to augment what you got with things like the gold religious beliefs etc.

 

[Aramis604]

Settle on/near rivers, and try to improve those tiles first. You'll be surprised how much having a couple farms on river tiles giving you +1 gold really can make a difference.

Build markets, banks, etc, asap. Personally I focus commerce buildings before I build production/happy buildings... generally speaking I can end up buying the other buildings faster than I can produce them (I play marathon also, which is a big factor too). Also, don't ignore the late-game commerce buildings either... you'll need these to maintain your economy which probably isn't getting an influx of new gold tiles to grow.

Be careful not to construct buildings which you don't really need. For example, if you're not focusing on spreading a religion then shrines/temples are probably not worth the upkeep costs to have. Maintenance costs can add up fast and soak up tons of income...

Another item which can cost you alot of gold is unit upkeep. This includes all units; not just military.. great people, workers, scouts. So, make sure that you delete excess units, or maybe gift them to a CS for a little extra favor with them.

However, still on the topic of buildings and units... I find that a wide empire is much more successful in generating a strong economy than a tall empire (kinda like science). So, you may find it more feasible to have alot of extra buildings or units if you go wide.

 

[adsin15]

I go for Manchu Pichu in every game because it's such an awesome bonus (+25% trade route gold) and the mountain restriction keeps the AI from getting it too quickly.

 

[Priah77]

Get the full honor tree and pillage the crap out of everything.