Early game money

[Belsameth]

I might be a moron, but I can't get a village off the ground. Started over a few times, but no matter what I do, my economy tanks after I build a church. This means I've got no money for bread production and am effectively stuck. Any tips?

[ToxicFacts]

Originally posted by Helios:

You need 100 gold for wheat farm, 200 gold for mill and 300 gold for bakery, so 600 at total. It doesn't matter at all what you build first 300+200+100 is same like 100+200+300 rofl.

you dont seem to get it, when i placed the bakerys first its because i had money, when i placed the wheat farm first.... my money would take a hit for a perpetual amount of time before it amounted to 300 to afford the bakery most the time it would get to 250ish then all my costs would hit and take me into the negative... so if i placed the bakery first in anticipation of this happening in early game waiting for my 100 gold was not an issue if i already had the bakery and mill placed and my moneys dropped to negatives....

[Bergmeister_1981]

Build a Lords manor ASAP, get tax collectors build as many treasury towers as you can... watch money roll in.

[Helios]

Good idea, but tax collecting isn't implemented in game yet, so it gives you nothing. :D

[firesofhades1]

the early game economy just isn't balanced very well, which is probably also why upkeep seems to be nerfed when you are in debt.

income should be good before you build your church. like others have said trade is a valid strat early game, polished stone, planks (perhaps berries if you are good on them).
what i would like to add is buy 20 bread during this time, open the 2nd trade route before building your church. this way you can sell wool after you build your church and unlock the sheep farm, this helps me afford the weaver, mill and bakery (of course stop trading wool away when you do get your clothes production going). depending on your pop you could even sell some clothes once you make them, since you can't trade a lot of them away you might still have enough for your viligers, while also getting a 100 gold per week bump from the trade. its true selling to villagers is best in most cases, but trading it away is better than just having it collect dust in storage.

after buying the 20 bread just keep buying up to 5, the mission for 5 bread is actually the cheapest of them with a cost of 50 (unless you go for early fisherman huts while not selling fish to your people yet)

its also possible to build a "lords manor" out of just a treasury and a door, which means its cheap but does allow you to stock up some more gold before building the church. the maintenance is still a thing though, so building too much treasuries makes it hard to fill your coffers up again. i'm still experimenting with this myself.

btw, guys... the topic is early game money. once you have clothes and bread going you have entered mid-game imho. money shouldn't be an issue at that point anymore anyway. big lords manors, tax offices and all that stuff really isn't early game, and if early game is done well there is absolutely no reason to wait with building your church until you have higher pops. this question/topic is basically about surviving the churches maintenance cost and how to easily get into bread/clothes quickly after you build the church

edit------
might be worth mentioning building maintenance is per day, while upkeep and income in the budget window are per week. if you want to work out if you can support the churches maintenance you need to keep in mind that you need to multiply the maintenance by 7 to know by how much it will increase your upkeep cost. i.e: if the church you are about to build has a maintenance cost of 35 your income should be at least a stable 245.

[Hooch]

Originally posted by CTrain:

I found the absolute best way to grow your income/economy in the early game -- even with a forester built -- was to set up a trade route and buy bread to sell in your market. Took me a while to figure this out, but I would buy 50 bread for 500 gold (10g per bread buy price) and sell it almost instantly for 600 gold (12g per bread sale price). Nice and quick 100g profit! Wash & rinse a couple times and presto! Money in the bank.

Cool tip, thanks!

[EMAPhil]

Be good if you could see the sell price of goods in your stalls to determine if a trade for bread / fish is good. I know bread is now because someone told me but in game its not obvious.

[firesofhades1]

if you open the market window it will show how much stuff was sold for how much gold, just divide the gold by the number of stuffs

[firesofhades1]

i would like to mention though that early game (before building the church), people only need one food to be happy, so they will buy either berries or bread, not both. gathering a berry and selling it nets you 8 gold, buying bread and selling it nets you 2 gold, there for berries are still the best choice at that point, after you build the church and have some commoners, but no bread production yet, is the only point in time where trading and selling bread is profitable. be sure to put your 2 food stalls in one market and put berries in slot 1 and bread in slot 2. that way the serfs will keep buying the berries. if serfs start buying bread they are basicly costing you 6 gold in oppertunity cost, since that bread made you 2 gold, but if they bought a berry you would have made 8

[Femboy Appreciator]

For what it's worth, I too find the early economy punishing. The upkeep on these structures seems way too high. A stand for foraging seems like it should take more upkeep than a well, which once built can pretty much be left alone for hundreds of years and still work.

[Inardesco]

Wait with building a church until after you've got a sawmill and stonemason hut up and runnign. These will provide your early game trade-income.