Why are my big cities loosing money?

[Calco98]

The game is great until later on in the campain when my big cities loose a lot of money. When i raise taxes to make a positive profit my people are unhappy and riot. Sometimes even rebell! I'm just wondering what I'm doing wrong.

[Bluetomato]

are there ports and roads in those cities?

[Calco98]

Yes

[Bluetomato]

then its probably your military if you have mercinaries or other units with a huge upkeep in those cities then they tend to lose money

[Calco98]

Ok thanks for the help

[Bluetomato]

its best to disband units with huge upkeep or keep them on the front

[Calco98]

Ok thanks again

[Monteizo]

Do note that your total upkeep costs will be divided among all your cities with your larger cities paying a larger part regardless of the size of their garrison. So it will look like they are losing money while smaller cities will display a positive income even if the actual income of the smaller city is lower and the garrison is larger (and more expensive).

So don't worry overly much as long as you have a decent income, since the appearent losses most often have to more to do with the quirks of the interface then the actual income of the city.

When it comes to garrisons, keep them as small as possible and cheap is better (when it comes to keeping order, for border cities fighting abilities obviously does matter to some degree depending on how threatened the city is), best is peasants (huge size-very low upkeep) although I personally prefer town watch/other militias as they can (barely) fight if things become desperate (and it feels better using them).

edit: as an example as to how the given income can be misleading I just checked Antioch, my largest city in my current game with the Seleucids. Given income -546. Mostly because it pays 2411 of my upkeep (which is 12854 total), however the garrison is one unit of militia hoplites and one unit of archers, total upkeep 270, so while the game say i lose money, Antioch still makes a tidy profit.

[Calco98]

Thanks

[tez3me]

one other thing i don't think was covered..make sure to keep killing any rebel armies that pop up in ur regions or they will block trade

[No Big D For Me]

Don't forgetabout buildings that raise public order. If people are happy you can be much more flexible with your taxe raising and such.

[Cubevision]

Farms also produce a ton of negative public order from squalor. They may make money, but they force you to keep taxes lower in order to prevent huge cities from rebelling.

As for the original post, your costs are split up amongst your cities based on their population. Bigger cities with high populations will get a proportionately larger amount of costs to cover than cities with smaller populations (you can see this in action when a city has the plague; the population will drop by 7.5-10% per turn and that city will then show an increase in total earnings because it is now shouldering a smaller percentage of total costs).

[Mashsmouth]

It's stupid, I always ignore it. Why should I care how much a city covers in my expenditures? How does that even matter? I just ignore it.

[76561198152100948]

RTW pro at your service, you need help?

[Calco98]

yes

[Magic Rince (SIMS4=WIFE)]

Another thing you can do is make them riot and send a veteran army outide the city, an when they rebel just exterminate or loot and you wont have any trouble with the city in like ever