what can cause a sudden drop in food supply?

[Pak0tac]

So ive been expanding west, throwing a lot of money of different industries but always keeping an eye on my food supply.
After a short while i had like 20 food surplus so i keept on expanding and even recruited a brand new, VERY expancive army. But then suddenly my food went from 20 to -7

is it possible that a full stack + rapid expansion took all my food in just 1 turn?

[Rognomli]

If I'm not mistaken from my time away from the game, the amount of armies you have doesn't affect food surplus in vanilla game. Only events/technologies/buildings and generals/agents do. If you are at war with many factions it's possible you have hidden enemy agents in your territory stealing food or you have forgotten Slums in some cities. Food is pretty straight forward so I'd check your cities first.

[Dahoota]

Sometimes the game will throw an event at you, like plague in a major food producing province, that might do that.

But honestly, usually when this happens to me it's because I've constructed buildings that have finished where I didn't notice or forgot to counter the huge food cost attached to that building. Especially late game where the top tier buildings are expensive and I'm managing several provinces.

[Pak0tac]

Originally posted by Dahoota:

Sometimes the game will throw an event at you, like plague in a major food producing province, that might do that.

But honestly, usually when this happens to me it's because I've constructed buildings that have finished where I didn't notice or forgot to counter the huge food cost attached to that building. Especially late game where the top tier buildings are expensive and I'm managing several provinces.

ah, yes this may explain it
my conquest was followed by a lot of expancive construction projects in the occupied cities.

While at it, i could use some tips on how to become an empire (switching from a republic)

[OT Bop]

Originally posted by Sgt.Summer:

So ive been expanding west, throwing a lot of money of different industries but always keeping an eye on my food supply.
After a short while i had like 20 food surplus so i keept on expanding and even recruited a brand new, VERY expancive army. But then suddenly my food went from 20 to -7

is it possible that a full stack + rapid expansion took all my food in just 1 turn?

Try the Provinces viewer. It's just above the minimap on the campaign, one of the four tabs. It allows you to see which provinces are gaining/losing food, money and public order. Really easy way to see which of your provinces is an issue.

[akuarmoton]

To become an empire you need imperium level 5, positive loyalty for all parties, some gold, and there might have been some other factors too along with those I mentioned. You should be able to see them in politics screen.

[Pak0tac]

Originally posted by akuarmoton:

To become an empire you need imperium level 5, positive loyalty for all parties, some gold, and there might have been some other factors too along with those I mentioned. You should be able to see them in politics screen.

yes i know the "requierments"
but for example, what is "positive loyalty"? is there even a thing such as negative loyalty?
and how do i enshure that?

[akuarmoton]

Originally posted by Sgt.Summer:

Originally posted by akuarmoton:

To become an empire you need imperium level 5, positive loyalty for all parties, some gold, and there might have been some other factors too along with those I mentioned. You should be able to see them in politics screen.

yes i know the "requierments"
but for example, what is "positive loyalty"? is there even a thing such as negative loyalty?
and how do i enshure that?

Political actions like sending diplomats will lower loyalty of all parties, as will promoting your own party members. To counter that you can use other parties members as generals and win battles with them, and also promoting them when possible.
Sorry if my explanations are hard to understand, but English isn't my first language.

[Ragnar]

This happens a lot when you start to unlock tier 4 buildings, the jump from -4 food to -8 food is quite big and across a few buildings can easily put you into deficit. Its why the province system is so good as it means that by late game you have to do more to plan your provinces to enable the building you need/want.

The other way you can go deficit is if you conquer a province that they AI was running at a deficit because they had food surplus elsewhere (or maybe they get bonus food) so you now need to supply that new area.

[Canadian Ninja]

Negative loyalty is very easy to acquire on harder difficulties, which from reading your questions I'm going on the assumption that you're playing on one of the easier difficulties so it would be less of an issue for you.

On the politics screen of the faction menu there will be an icon with a number beside it in the boxes of each rival party. Positive loyalty means that number is in the positive, ie it will say 6. If the party has negative loyalty it will say -6 instead as an example. To become an empire all other parties must be at least 1 loyalty (or zero, I'm not sure).

To raise loyalty, winning battles with generals of other families, giving promotions, or assigning them to political missions, which are on the bottom right of the menu.