Money

[Trekkie Spice]

Hi,

How do you folks make money? I always seem to be playing catchup, in fact without Adam Smith's Trading Post, I doubt I could win at all. I have market places, banks and even though they cost 4 maintenance - Stock Exchanges. I have caravans, although I doubt their usefulness, as they only seem to be give a one off payment when they arrive, which on average is about ten. My income is still half a dozen short of my expenditure.

Am I missing something.

 

[Peaster]

I get gold mainly from taxes in most of my games, and I build few improvements, so my ongoing costs are low. Probably less than 20% of my taxes. For example, a bank costs more than it gives back unless your city makes at least 10 arrows or so, with a market. I don't build Adam Smith.

With practice, you can make big profits with caravans. You should aim to make at least 50 gold from each one. Probably more like 200g in the early game. The payoff goes up when the target city is big, overseas, far away, not your own, and when it demands the goods (eg wine) that you provide. I try to make ALL these happen for each van if possible. There are other factors, which you can read about in these forums.

If you have a big army, you can often demand tribute from your neighbors. Every turn! Though eventually they run out and/or declare war.

Also, huts can help. And sell any banks, etc, that are not really helping you.

If all else fails, try Fundamentalism and build the Happy Wonders (HG, JSB, MC). You cannot avoid being rich that way.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

I have caravans, although I doubt their usefulness, as they only seem to be give a one off payment when they arrive, which on average is about ten.

First, caravans will provide an ongoing benefit of extra trade arrows per city. and arrows can become money based on your tax settings. The value of the route is a function of the combined trade in each city, so as your cities grow, so will the ongoing bonus you get from the trade route.

Second, the payout for trade deliveries is based on a number of factors. If you know how to use them you can get payouts MUCH higher than that. One of the biggest factors in the payout is distance. The farther you send a camel, the more it pays. Also, delivering to a different continent than the caravan's home city will increase the payout. Also, the payout to a foreign civ is double that of delivering to a domestic city.It is often worth the cost of the boats needed to send several caravans to faraway civs because it will pay back hundreds of gold (and beakers) instead of 10. Delivering goods to cities where they are demanded will increase the the payout by multiples of at least double and in some cases quadruple what you would get for non-demanded goods. Finally, the payout is a function of the base trade in the two cities. Where possible try to deliver caravans that originate in your bigger, trade producing cities to foreign, offshore, well developed cities that demand your goods. (It's not as hard as it sounds once you get used to what you need to look for).

 

[ElephantU]

Here's a link to the "definitive" description of the multipliers to caravan delivery bonuses:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64729

From your description it sounds like you are delivering caravans from one of your cities to another of your own cities on the same "continent". You are probably also not paying attention to what is "demanded" in the destination city. Early in the game the best delivery bonuses are when a demanded caravan is delivered to an AI city on a different continent not real close to the sending city. To achieve that you need boats and some scouting of neighboring civs.

The other factor to pay attention to is the number of trade arrows in your sending city. Just before delivery, shift all your workers in the city to the terrain tiles that have the highest number of trade arrows (if it's just grass, trees, and ocean, use the ocean), even if you create a food or shield "deficit". Deliver the caravan, then go back to the sending city and shift the workers back to their previous locations. As a rule of thumb, try to deliver to the largest AI city that demands your commodity and is in range.

 

[Trekkie Spice]

Many thanks. I am beginning to get the hang of caravans