advantage / disadvantage

hello everyone,

im still relatively new to the game and im still trying to learn..
anyway, what i want to know is whether its good to have a positive income in your towns or is it alright to have a negative one?

i mean, i didn't mind having a negative income when i started since i didn't have to pay for any upkeep..however, now that i have a little army on my capital and colony...my problem would be the upkeep.

maxing out the workers on the lux/mill would put a huge negative income on my towns...added to that is the high upkeep of my standing army.

can any explain to me what should be the best method to maintain a good standing army but still have a reasonable economy?

You should improve your capital and colony's town hall level. Try getting more people to your colony to increase income and productivity. Try building taverns and museum's to improve happiness in your colony and capital. These are the basic things so that you could improve your income without any complications. It is also normal to have a negative income ratio when you are starting a colony. Also try to make a governors residence with the same level as your palace to lessen the corruption in your colony.

i've done those...what im trying to know is if its still ok to have a negative income even if you are already supporting an army.

Yup as long as you have some extra cash. you can still support and in a matter of hours as long as citizens are comming you will have a positive income in no time. Please refrain from having a negative income if you dont have any extra cash. you might end up losing citizens like the guy i know.(no yet sure if its a bug or not but try to refrain from having negative income if you dant have any spare gold.)

ok cool...so having a negative income is acceptable as long as citizens come in hourly...but what if population growth is low? lets say less than 1 citizen per hour? (i had a pop growth of 0.31 couple of days ago)

try to increase your population growth. sooner or later some citizens are going to leave your town. I have 20 phalanx 30 swords man 5 doctors 3 chefs 10 archers and 10 slingers and i still have a +2.5 pop growth and a positive income.

wow. that is a lot og tax you pay. whats your income. ?? mine is 4k an hour, but that is because i dont really have much of an army right now. =D

1000 per colony and thats 4 so about 4k an hour. i dont really know if i should make more units or expand.

I have a negative income per hour.

-3k per hour.

I got a main city with 3 expansions, but my main $$$ is not coming from income per hour, nor selling resources.

I get my $$$ mainly on PILLAGE.

There is a town near me that gives out 8k per pillage. I pillage him 6x, will give me 48k a day.

So here goes: If you think you can support an army and live and die with pillaging, do so. It is all worth it.

But if not, then you will have to rely on income per hour and buy/sell of resources which takes longer.

Pillage is the key.

may be your right but its not the key for most people because not all the towns that are near you gives 6-8k per pillage so i think regular income would be better. I WANT WAR!!!!!!!!!!!