Matrix Games Forums

hi,
i'm a newby on this game and i try to understand his mechanisms.
As a french player in 1805 scenario, i need money so i raise tax to 30%.
When i look on the economic window i see that the more i tax the more i wasted money.
And my profit is low finaly.
how is it working ?
how avoid wasting money ?
thanks^^

upgrade culture and court to avoid wasted

Let them eat cake!

Read Raleigh's guide to starting a game. It gives good advice for economy and development settings.

Warning: I'm brand new too and probably have no idea what I'm talking about, just as my wife, kids and dog.

Waste seems to be constantly with us and only gets worse as you obtain more money.

It is hard to raise your income significantly at the start of the game.

Money saved spends as well as money earned. Find a way to reduce upkeep and supply costs:

1. Consolidate your strengh points into 10,000 strength point formations wherever possible by cannibalizing existing units down to 0 strengh points, at which point the divisions with no troops should automatically eliminate themselves. End of upkeep and supply costs for those divisions.

2. Dump low morale militia garrisons into high morale field units as part of step one, above. This does three things: (a) it will increase the numbers of troops in each field division, allowing you to reduce the number of divisions in the field, (b) it serves to raise the militia morale from 1.70 to 6.00 (neat trick), and (c) you can reduce the militia garrisons to 0 strength points, at which point they should automatically eliminate themselves and the need to pay upkeep for them.

3. Your corps now have 10,000 SP divisions, which mean you need fewer divisions in a corps to field the same numbers. Put the surplus regular divisions into garrison somewhere; their upkeep is only $ 1 and they will forage at no cost to you. You can rotate these divisions forward into the attack as necessary.

4. Form an attack corps of these 10,000 SP divisions. French corps hold 8 divisions. Therefore your attack corps could consist of 4 infantry (40,000 SPs), 2 cavalry (20,000 SPs), and 2 artillery (6,000 SPs) for a total of 66,000 in the corps. Put two such super corps into one grand armee. Dump Napoleon and other generals into this armee (I don't know that the rules prohibit putting more than one general in a corps). You now have a super fighting force of 132,000 SPs, a larger, better led army than Napoleon typically had. Such a force gives you more firepower for the upkeep & supply costs than the original Flanders forces. Fight the war with this truly Grand Armee, with only some allied corps on the flanks (you don't pay upkeep for Bavarians, Dutch and Italians).

You now have one grand armee unit and at least four French corps you don't necessarily need. Put them in the same garrisons you put your extra regular infantry divisions. Their costs will drop by 1/2, i.e. from 5 x $ 15= $75 to 1/2($75) or $37.50 per turn.

Conclusion. It is very difficult to raise your money income at the beginning of the game. Even if you do, waste will reduce that amount. An alternative is to figure out how to field the same sized army for the minimum upkeep and supply costs.

Great idea. Many thanks.

Ahhh
unless there were some changes made that I have forgotten about, don't put Corps or Armies into Garrison, they won't come back out

ORIGINAL: Hard Sarge

Ahhh
unless there were some changes made that I have forgotten about, don't put Corps or Armies into Garrison, they won't come back out

I've not had problems with this at all.

then it may of been part of one of the fixes, I remember early on it was a bug type thing

something about a container, being placed inside of a container

you are correct, I went back in, must of missed that fix , but as I never used it, I didn't notice if it was fixed or not, oh well

I mildly disagree with the idea of *completely* cannibalizing divisions, such that they fall below the 2000 man threshhold and disband. Yes you save a few $ in maintenence a turn, but that division is a container of sorts (ie, it holds up to 10000 men) that likely you spent Money ($50-100+?) to build, at least 20 Labor, probably some horses, a bit of Iron maybe, and possibly many precious Textiles. Not to mention 1-3 Manpower.

It would be better I think when shifting men between divisions like this to keep rump divisions of just over 2000 men...then send them into garrison (ie, in supply) in your home country for max absorbtion of draftee replacements. In a few turns you'll have a full strength division you can then send back to the front. And that'll be one less division you'll feel the need to completely build from scratch.

ORIGINAL: jimwinsor

I mildly disagree with the idea of *completely* cannibalizing divisions, such that they fall below the 2000 man threshhold and disband. Yes you save a few $ in maintenence a turn, but that division is a container of sorts (ie, it holds up to 10000 men) that likely you spent Money ($50-100+?) to build, at least 20 Labor, probably some horses, a bit of Iron maybe, and possibly many precious Textiles. Not to mention 1-3 Manpower.

It would be better I think when shifting men between divisions like this to keep rump divisions of just over 2000 men...then send them into garrison (ie, in supply) in your home country for max absorbtion of draftee replacements. In a few turns you'll have a full strength division you can then send back to the front. And that'll be one less division you'll feel the need to completely build from scratch.

Putting them back into the draft pool is something we're considering for a patch (Ralegh's suggestion, IIRC). Disbanding divisions with low strength is an important game-play mechanism though -- without it it becomes too easy to rebuild your army back up after it takes a severe thrashing.