Save your Money!

[Grand_Armee]

No, I'm not gonna tell you to avoid buying this game...I love it! This is just a couple of economic tips for those who haven't learned to save their national incomes by dispersion.

Maintaining units at high readiness is costly. I set them to 50% in peace time and 80% when at war.

Depots don't seem to cost anything to set up, but because they are there, your guys will feed from them...and that gets expensive. I don't use them unless I'm at war, or if I have a corps from a protectorate that won't let me take units from it.

Disperse your guys into each province. I've found that 3 units can forage successfully all of the time. Four units run into trouble when the weather gets bad. Places like Algeria can't even feed the three...I had to decide whether that country meant enough to me to feed them.

At 80% readiness, supplying your whole army can suck away your money very quickly...so you want to avoid long wars.

POW's need tons to eat once you get alot of them. I had many sitting in Pommerania...far away from any depots I had near the front. I let them starve. Not the nicest thing to do, but definitely cheaper. I tried to move them into Austria, but the Kaiserliks kicked em' out.

[ericlaval32]

Hi,

With the POW's, I put them in a fleet and let them starve.

I have a question? What advantage a player have to take care of the pow's? If we have no advantages to keep them alive that's a big problem. I think that a lost of glory for that, will be more historic (maybe is't already the case, i don't know!).

Eric

[Grand_Armee]

The only advantage that you get from POW's is a labor increase. But, I don't think that is worth what feeding them costs. In a game against a human opponent, though I imagine your enemy would be unhappy with you if you let his guys starve to death.

Historically, I know many POW's passed into the next life after being locked up in prison hulks with miserable conditions. I've also read that of the French POW's captured in Russia 70,000 skeletons returned home eventually. The Germans could sometimes join the Russo-German legion...that would be an interesting way to get the use of some of them.

[eMonticello]

A few more tips.

1. If you don't plan to be in a war anytime soon or find your navy useless, lend your Navy to an ally. I generally create a fleet that I call a "frigate squadron" that I use to chase enemy privateers (in case I do find myself at war). The great thing about lending your fleet is that you don't pay for the upkeep. Of course, only applicable to the minor powers.

2. Does having huge wads of cash burn a hole in your pocket? Lend your spare cash to your allies. It's like a Certificate of Deposit with a huge interest rate.

3. Do you want to earn extra cash from your neighbor but feel he's too powerful to take on directly? Once he is in a war, subsidize his enemy and prolong his war. When his forces are depleted, declare war yourself, take over his capital, and force him to pay war reparations that exceed the total subsidy that you gave to his enemy (a % of income for several years works great)!

[Naomi]

ORIGINAL: Grand_Armee

No, I'm not gonna tell you to avoid buying this game...I love it! This is just a couple of economic tips for those who haven't learned to save their national incomes by dispersion.

Maintaining units at high readiness is costly. I set them to 50% in peace time and 80% when at war.

Depots don't seem to cost anything to set up, but because they are there, your guys will feed from them...and that gets expensive. I don't use them unless I'm at war, or if I have a corps from a protectorate that won't let me take units from it.

Disperse your guys into each province. I've found that 3 units can forage successfully all of the time. Four units run into trouble when the weather gets bad. Places like Algeria can't even feed the three...I had to decide whether that country meant enough to me to feed them.

At 80% readiness, supplying your whole army can suck away your money very quickly...so you want to avoid long wars.

POW's need tons to eat once you get alot of them. I had many sitting in Pommerania...far away from any depots I had near the front. I let them starve. Not the nicest thing to do, but definitely cheaper. I tried to move them into Austria, but the Kaiserliks kicked em' out.

Don't forget it costs gold to keep depots even when they are not supplying troops.
I haven't tried to set military readiness back to as low as 50%, as I fretted it would take quite a while for the units to be fully ready again. I didn't seriously play cash-strapped majors so I seldom bothered myself with such less significant ways of saving.

[vonkohlmann]

The real money maker IMHO are trades, especially wool. You should make what trades you want manually, every turn, but it's worth it. And shop around for the best deal. Countries that really like you can offer significantly more for your goods than neutral/hostile nations. Also, trade stops with countries you are at war with (naturally), so dealing with friendlies and minors really pays off .

[Ralegh]

ORIGINAL: vonkohlmann

The real money maker IMHO are trades, especially wool. You should make what trades you want manually, every turn, but it's worth it. And shop around for the best deal. Countries that really like you can offer significantly more for your goods than neutral/hostile nations. Also, trade stops with countries you are at war with (naturally), so dealing with friendlies and minors really pays off .

I agree. Note also that different countries pay different amounts for things - in my last game, France would pay 7 gold per iron to me, while other countries only offered 1! I don't know if this changes during the course of the game or something, but I sure jumped on that!

[Uncle_Joe]

I agree. Note also that different countries pay different amounts for things - in my last game, France would pay 7 gold per iron to me, while other countries only offered 1! I don't know if this changes during the course of the game or something, but I sure jumped on that!

Is the AI reacting to true demand or does it just offer 'x' amount for 'y' resource when it has 'z' relationship etc? I ask because I can routinely get trade agreements with nations for things I cant imagine they'll use. I rarely seem to need Iron or Wood (unless playing England/Spain). The same goes for Cotton or Wool. I never seem to run out regardless of which nation I'm playing. The bottlenecks are Labor, Textiles, and occasionally Cash. Since those are so much harder to come by, they basically render the rest obsolete IMO. Why would an AI nation want to trade out Textiles under almost any circumstances?

So, when it comes to trading, I feel like I am 'pulling one over' on the AIs if I am trading many of the resources. I havent played a human vs human game yet, but I would wager that human players wouldnt possible want have of the stuff that players are offering the AIs.

[ian77]

ORIGINAL: Uncle_Joe

Why would an AI nation want to trade out Textiles under almost any circumstances?

With waste for textiles so high, it may seem better to trade away the excess rather than just see them vanish as waste?