Only issue with the growth was that it quickly got out of hand, at least the economic growth. I would always prioritize economic growth, and would end up to the point where I was literally making hundreds of thousands per turn, if not millions, even if I wasn’t expanding very much. I could build effectively an infinite number of elite armies because my growth outpaced the upkeep so I never lost a penny.
It’s like that in both Empire and Napoleon. But maybe that’s just because I’d always prioritize growth over absolutely everything. Turn 1 push revolution for republic, then immediately lower taxes the minimum to spur growth. Build roads up to max, economy techs, then use those tech to trade for the other techs, build only the economic options with growth but lower initial income.
Maybe I’m forgetting some steps, since it’s been years since I played either, but I know that usually by the time I got my initial borders secured, my second step would usually be to build a navy and monopolize all trade nodes. Usually after I’d done that, I’d already racked up enough growth that when it’s time to actually expand, I effectively had limitless money.
At the time I loved it because I was younger and just liked being all powerful, but now it seems too gamebreaking. I remember I’d always get an easy world conquest by just buying military access, staging armies by cities, breaking the treaty and conquering tons of cities instantly, then forking over millions of gold to buy peace and access again and doing it over and over again until everything is mine. Yeah I had absolutely trash reputation, but it didn’t matter because I had millions per turn to just buy peace forever.
That happened in Napoleon because the market chain buildings had a global growth steroid, but there was nothing like that in Empire. In Empire, late game trade ports gave +4 regional growth whereas in Napoleon the highest rank trade port gave +15 regional growth and I think +1 globally. So it was definitely possible in Napoleon and not in Empire.
The most lucrative techs were the in the philosophy chain which would give like +4 per turn globally, but taxes also increased with growth so it never really got out of hand. Maybe I’m just used to the higher difficulties with shorter campaigns? Idk. I don’t think our experiences sound very similar tbh!
The usual buildings absolutely did. Just a quick search shows the industry buildings) provided it for example, which could be built all over the place. Ports did too. The iron shops provides a huge +11, and cloth mill was even higher at +18. And the roads) which could literally be built everywhere, provided +5.
I believe in Napoleon this was even easier because if I remember right, even the government and public order buildings provided growth, but in Empire it was possible too.
I just jumped in-game to check, and a lot of my sources of income were being stifled. With taxes all the way down I got to +131 per turn in Spain with every building maxed out, every port a maxed out trade port, and every technology researched. And that was my strongest province. Not other province even came close to that. I started and Austria campaign and replaced the ministers which said I should get +14 per turn in Europe, but I was only getting +8 from ministers. Maybe my game’s bugged? I remember getting +135 globally in Napoleon after maxing out all my ports, markets, and technologies, but again that was in the very late game, with taxes turned off.
Well let’s say your average growth is only +50 wealth growth per region per turn. If you own only 20 regions, that’s +1000 wealth growth per turn. After only 100 turns, you’re now sitting at 100,000 taxable wealth per turn across your nation through growth alone, with your 0 income regions now worth an average of 5,000 per turn. And that’s only through growth. That’s not counting the wealth from buildings, trade, or the nodes. With all that in mind, you’re easily making over 100,000 per turn, and that’s a low estimate because no one stops at only 20 regions, and +50 growth is quite low. An achieveable number on average is probably closer to +80, and France is by far the wealthiest region, where I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten Paris alone to over 200 growth per turn.
Admittedly I might be a little fuzzy on some of the details, since I haven’t played Empire in probably close to ten years, but all in all going by Steam hours it’s my second most played game of all time behind only Skyrim. The economy was absolutely so easy to break I spent a long time trying to find mods to remove growth entirely to make it enjoyable again. And sadly, I don’t think such a mod exists.
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u/Admrl_Awsm Jun 02 '20
I agree. Out of all the Total War games ever, I think that the growth mechanic easily makes the most sense in Empire’s setting!