Matrix Games Forums

Is this thing (the Emergency Tax Strategem) working as intended? I spent a bunch of time over the last few games learning how to develop an economy that is, if not self-sufficient, at least manageable so that I'm not losing a lot of money every turn. I'd played with the Patriotic Collection strategem, which is similar in purpose, and it seemed reasonable if powerful. You can pull large but not obscene amounts of cash from from decent cities and has a requirement of 60 in the relevant profile (Meritocracy).

This game I decided to try Emergency Tax instead. It has a lower requirement (40 rather than 60 in its profile). And now I feel like kind of an idiot for bothering to learn to manage the economy or whatever... I can easily bring in 40-50k(!) with one of these cards. I played two of them in one turn and got 75k. The two cities aren't tiny villages but they aren't giant megalopolis either, with total (pop+workers) pops of 150k to 175k.

That level of return on these cards does not seem reasonable to me? The amount of money they bring in dwarfs anything else to such a degree that it renders it meaningless? Did a zero get dropped or added somewhere? Bringing in 3-5k would still be huge. It's not like losing 10 loyalty is particularly meaningful; it goes back up to 100 in a few turns unless you're doing something weird.

I feel like a dummy for bothering with taxes and tariffs and private economy and stuff when I could play these cards and laugh all the way to the bank.

Enforcement is somewhat weak compared to midgame Commerce and especially weak compared to late game Government, but I agree Emergency Tax is too strong and should be nerfed to have a stronger penalty than Patriotic collection, and maybe cost more PP.

Autocracy/Enforcement need powerful cards, to make up for their lack of good passive bonuses. It seems balanced to me if it's stronger than the equivalent card from the Meritocracy tree, since Meritocracy has very powerful passive bonuses and other great cards.

ORIGINAL: Lovenought

Autocracy/Enforcement need powerful cards, to make up for their lack of good passive bonuses. It seems balanced to me if it's stronger than the equivalent card from the Meritocracy tree, since Meritocracy has very powerful passive bonuses and other great cards.

Indeed.
There are 3 ways a Profile can be good: Passive Bonuses, Unit Feats, Cards.
Autocracy is the poster child for being strong in the cards only:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4832915

ORIGINAL: Lovenought

Autocracy/Enforcement need powerful cards, to make up for their lack of good passive bonuses. It seems balanced to me if it's stronger than the equivalent card from the Meritocracy tree, since Meritocracy has very powerful passive bonuses and other great cards.

This

ORIGINAL: zgrssd

ORIGINAL: Lovenought

Autocracy/Enforcement need powerful cards, to make up for their lack of good passive bonuses. It seems balanced to me if it's stronger than the equivalent card from the Meritocracy tree, since Meritocracy has very powerful passive bonuses and other great cards.

Indeed.
There are 3 ways a Profile can be good: Passive Bonuses, Unit Feats, Cards.
Autocracy is the poster child for being strong in the cards only:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4832915

& This

ORIGINAL: zgrssd
Indeed.
There are 3 ways a Profile can be good: Passive Bonuses, Unit Feats, Cards.
Autocracy is the poster child for being strong in the cards only:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4832915

Autocracy/Call to Power is awful, though. 50PP to neutralize up to 2k recruits is terrible.

Emergency tax seems strange though. Sometimes I get ridiculous money, but later with a 198 critical success roll (loyalty 100, over 100k citizens) I get 4k. Totally confused on how this works.

ORIGINAL: Mercutio

Emergency tax seems strange though. Sometimes I get ridiculous money, but later with a 198 critical success roll (loyalty 100, over 100k citizens) I get 4k. Totally confused on how this works.

You’re seizing money out of the private economy so it takes time to build back up. You can see how much private investment has built up on one of the zone info tabs. I was looking at this last night I’m using it rotating through my zones to keep my war effort going with the other major superpower on the planet.

Thanks!

Autocracy now actually grew a passive bonus. 1.08.03 beta version:
- fear had a massive buff to its downsides - basically it now causes happiness reduction comparable to unrest itself
- however, Autocracy allows you to ignore those buffs to fear
- fear was a tool to supress unrest for everyone
- now only Autocracies get to keep using fear as tool - everyone else better stay clear off it

nerfing this for next open beta subversion