Forts and failing economy

[Maximus]

I've still new but playing pretty consistently. In each of my games though my econ is trash despite building econ buildings etc, dropping maintenance on forts and troops when not at war etc and always being under the maintenance level for military... I've read that it's possible to destroy unneeded forts but how do you remove a fort from the map?

[Bole]

pretty much 90% of forts can and should be destroyed with slight strategy modifications. click on province and on the right side is a button for another layer to open where you can delete buildings on province.

[Maximus]

Awesome, thanks for the help.

[The Uncleanest One]

There are ther ways to improve the economy without having to remove forts. I really like having forts because in certain nations you'll have long terms of peace and that they start with little military tradition, so by having some forts you may be able to increase that. You can get rid of some units in your army, developing your provinces, using merchants to drive currency into your main trade node. If you need help understanding how to manage economies, I would tell you to test Aragon or Genoa and, sometimes Venice. Those are countries with end nodes that have really easy access to high ammounts of money and are really forgiving, and you can with them get arround trade, colonies in some cases, and other things.

[Demien]

Originally posted by jlaform:

I've still new but playing pretty consistently. In each of my games though my econ is trash despite building econ buildings etc, dropping maintenance on forts and troops when not at war etc and always being under the maintenance level for military... I've read that it's possible to destroy unneeded forts but how do you remove a fort from the map?

To be fair, economic buildings give you back the money you spent after a long time. Just do the math. If i receive 0.20 monthly with my tax building, how many months i need to get back the 90-100 i spent?
- Beside that, most people fail the trade. Try different settings until you get more money;
- If you have an army limit that doesn't mean your economy can support it at MAX. Cavalry and artillery cost a lot more than infantry. An example is Austria in the beginning of the game;
- Did you check your navy composition? Heavy ships cost WAY MORE than galley or transport. Also build a lot of light ship to support your trade nodes. This way you get back your maintenance and get free money from the trade;
- If you have Monarch Point to spare, develop your provinces tax and trade. Maybe you have too much manpower and army compared to those value :)
- Advisors. Don't ever get all +3 advisor if you can't support it. I had many games with powerful nation with all +1 and sometimes someone +2. When i was already blobbling i hired +3 but i was big;
- Colonies. Try to colonize the same amount of colonies-colonist. Don't go over unless you can afford it because it is exponential.

[Leah]

Having a good economy in EUIV is all about trade. Watch a bunch of videos on EUIV trade til you get a basic idea of how it works.

[[TFM]bobcat]

well actually its more about development, the more developed the province, the better they will be at providing money through trade, production and taxes.

Also, certain ideas will provide benefits that increase national tax incone or lower the costs of armies, navies and forts

[Leah]

Originally posted by TFMbobcat:

well actually its more about development, the more developed the province, the better they will be at providing money through trade, production and taxes.

Also, certain ideas will provide benefits that increase national tax incone or lower the costs of armies, navies and forts

Development < Knowledge to use it

[[TFM]bobcat]

Originally posted by Leah:

Originally posted by TFMbobcat:

well actually its more about development, the more developed the province, the better they will be at providing money through trade, production and taxes.

Also, certain ideas will provide benefits that increase national tax incone or lower the costs of armies, navies and forts

Development < Knowledge to use it

Can development be used better in some provinces than others? yes. Is more development ever bad? I think not, and no matter where you increase development, it makes you more money, earns you more recruits, gets you more building slots and allows you to build bigger armies and navies. As such, development is never a bad method for trying to increase the value of your economy.

[Demien]

Originally posted by AN:

Regardless of bigger number meaning more and more betterer numbers, the real money is still in strong trade.

Actually not. You almost always get more money with taxes.

[Gerfreckle]

Originally posted by Demien:

Originally posted by AN:

Regardless of bigger number meaning more and more betterer numbers, the real money is still in strong trade.

Actually not. You almost always get more money with taxes.

Not if you're Portugal.

[Demien]

Originally posted by Gerfreckle:

Originally posted by Demien:

Actually not. You almost always get more money with taxes.

Not if you're Portugal.

Did you read "almost"? Compared to all nations, there are only a few that get more money from trade.

[chazla20]

Originally posted by jlaform:

I've still new but playing pretty consistently. In each of my games though my econ is trash despite building econ buildings etc, dropping maintenance on forts and troops when not at war etc and always being under the maintenance level for military... I've read that it's possible to destroy unneeded forts but how do you remove a fort from the map?

There are some good pointers in the thread already. Just use all the information you have in the various screens to determine what you can afford. You need a fully manned fort on a border with a rival. You don't need a fully manned fort in the heart of your country. I persoally don't like keeping army maintenance low because you have a waiting period when a war starts (your ally called you into a war) to bring your forces up to full strength. Also, you counry may only be able to afford 1 or 2 +1 advisors until your economy builds up. Also, when building economic building only build in the provinces that are worth it. Your country may only have 1 good trade province so build a marketplace there. The same holds true for tax and production. Build in the best provinces first then go from there. High autonomy destroys incrome from a province so if you have a lot of territories that are not states your economic benefit from that land is low.

Maybe you should start with a country like France, Castile or Ottomans so you can get a feel of how to handle your economy. These countries have large enough economies to support a full military and have 3 advisors right of the bat.