Income question

[The Vlach]

I have 4 cities as Troy a total of 13 units and im losing money.... i'm not really understanding how you increase your income in this game....

[Klutch]

Some units cost more resources. The Tier V & VI units cost gold.

You should have a surplus in something that you can trade for what you need. To the left of the resources is a little tiny button that shows your income and expenditures, and also helps keep track of trade routes so you can renew them.

[azaris]

Don't use units that cost gold to upkeep early on. Once you have a few regions with gold mines, you can support higher quality armies. Also working the royal court can earn you tons of money every few turns (Embezzle plot).

[NoSoyLeón]

Originally posted by The Vlach:

I have 4 cities as Troy a total of 13 units and im losing money.... i'm not really understanding how you increase your income in this game....

1. Trade deals. Trade deals can cover lost food or give you resources for more trade. 5 - 10 turns each.

2. Lower tier units - t1/2 units add one admin burden, t 3/4 add two, t 4/5 add 3. Also, each tier costs a lot more per turn than the last. Since higher tiers of administration = higher upkeep, you want less administration burden.

3. Development - how early is this game? 4 cities is not enough early on, just enough later on. Try to fully develop city and economy (including trade infrastructure, pt 1) before fielding ANY army if you're having trouble, maybe save a 5 stack for mobile city defense, after beating the initial invaders. Basically save up a huge stack of food and plan to go into deficit when you want to make war

4. Ambush and win battles - army too big? Well, get it into a war zone and it can earn back 2-3k food per turn before being buffed, prolly 1.5k on average with a lucky run.

I made a longer guide on some random post, I'll edit it in. Please give feedback if it doesn't match your point in the game or situation or you find some advice to be bad. It's not meant to be followed to a T but hopefully helps

https://steamcommunity.com/app/2951630/discussions/0/4521136890533890939/

[NoSoyLeón]

For reference, my current campaign as Alashiya I spent several turns conquering Cyprus, then roughly the rest of my first 40 building up my economy and diplomacy with lightly t1/2 stocked troop fortresses, lookout posts for their garrison improvement and ambush chance improvement (on my contested border early on - won offensively w/o leaving my border, essentially) and I got an excellent god tier 2 handed marauder by accident I had to support the whole time.

Fast forward to turn 42. With rank and recruitment slot buffs, into my faction leader with upkeep debuffs, I recruited an army causing a 2.5k food deficit and 25k in the store, meaning a 10 turn viability assuming no extra trade or income.

Then used some favorable NA pacts I had been saving for food trade income or any other resource that would itself be traded for food and bronze.

It was not the most efficient army, I won't lie. All T4, supported by a 6 stack "mosquito" style t1/t2 army to bait ambushes and tag lookouts + forts. Main army was way stronger than needed, even missing some niches that lower tier units could provide like speed + expendability. And I had 2 chariots, which did come in handy for chasing down troops and in limited situations, but kinda forced me to fight every situation by hand to avoid auto resolve wipes. I was almost happy when 30 turns later I finally got my last chariot unit melted by a focus fire of javelins, although it had helped me to bait and win that very fight.

I meant to conquer Kamurra(?) who was the first to declare war on me as I neglected our relations. I got one city on the coast...they had already been begging for peace since my power rating had shot up with the construction of my army. So I took a good food city from them, signed peace with a huge food stipend for my army, and marched north to Ugarit to seize it's gold, had an excruciating 2 turn wait at their border to invade w/o diplomatic penalties as our trade expired, then did what I meant to do.

And I didn't stop. I simply kept flinging my army around with buffs to upkeep and replenishment, and with a majority of the time in red - there were times i was scraping the bottom of the economic barrel, going towards 0 - and with my first, unsustainable army, was able to fund a second big one and occasional small armies to guard borders or quell rebellion. Took that army from turn 42 to turn 102 and multiplied it. Currently considering weather to dump it and re-recruit with armor and morale buffs or shoot for Knossos or Zagros first and replace when I secured one of those for great native units. A mid game quandary I think I know the answer to - just struggling to follow my own advice and delete my army at the moment.

So get your grain up, just as in real life plan to go into a little debt you can afford to get your credit up, and put your army to work. Like, serious work.

Also you can just turn upkeep down, it can really take a lot of pressure off until you feel like playing with the extra difficulty. Difficulty and conditions can add a lot of value, even if it's just pacing, but that value only counts if you can enjoy it in the 1st place. Some of my first campaigns I was forced to turn income down, and it helped me to learn the peripheral features with less stress, and now I really enjoy interacting with a lot of them (not u court systems) so don't feel bad if you find yourself turning yours down or the AI's up until you can get some smooth sailing campaigns

[Kentuckybandit]

This one of those things that makes me love this game more and more each day. In reality a Bronze Age state (or any state outside of the modern era) would struggle to maintain a standing army of any major size outside of the largest of empires. It has taken me to about turn 45 or 50 to be resource stable enough to start fielding more than one higher tier standing field army (and that is mostly because I'm buying copper with gold and have a massive food reserve). I also play with medium AI upkeep increase, that way I'm not dealing with their endless stacks.

[degumuto_berseg]

sell your region,it gives lots of resources

[Seraphiel]

For Pharoah, you need to build armies well outside your income (i.e. -3k to -5k food per turn) but supplement it by constantly fighting and winning battles.

[Many-Named]

warriors refuges = you have to pay the ''free'' units upkeep. The rest is trade and diplo.