I’m on my 4th only viable build now, just under 500 people but just keep getting totally wiped out by the Invading Army as I’ve never managed to get enough gold to meet their high demands at one time… I simply cannot get it, and the visiting traders never have enough cash to buy much of my stuff. I’m really struggling for gold, there is zero on the map, have spent ages on this build and really regretting picking the raider option (probably without thinking about it) to include the invading army.
The first raid was 160 armoured troops impervious to arrows and covered ram raiders… they literally demolished almost everything I built and took me down to only 130 pop… it becomes a nonsense when it’s so overbalanced. I never have enough gold to buy weapons, I have only one iron mine on the map, and after being wiped now 3 times think I will give up on this build… I think we should at least be allowed to change the options for raiders in-game… and drop down to a lower setting at least till we have the faintest chance… towers do nothing, walls are like balsa wood and one guy can delete a half dozen buildings on his own… they are just way OP… makes all the hours of game effort pointless …they keep on turning up and either draining all the gold or laying waste to all… no way to fight back as it takes to rebuild then they are straight back again …
I’ve now had them 4 times in as many days of play… and no way to pay them…never enough gold to buy weapons as too busy trying to survive low resources and constant food shortage… then today they turn up just after a raider attack so double jeopardy !!
I agree that it should be possible to change the settings (so you can recover after such a wipe out).
But the tier 4 upgrade on the city center is the one you want to avoid until your economy is rolling. Armies with rams start coming once you upgraded so you must have prepared for it before-hand. Suddenly, you get platted armor enemies and rams, your towers can’t deal with it on their own, you need an army of your own (in vanguard, you probably even want to pay the merchant for the heavy weapons and plate armor rather than build them yourself quickly after the upgrade to tier 4).
Have upgraded markets, have upgraded parks, statues, etc … they increase the desirability … and your gold income
After my first play in the plains (full of resources), im now in the arid highlands (hardest) and i find it impossible to not have gold in-game or be unsuccesful on any map.
Even though you have a lack of one resource or another, its never going to be lacking everything at all. The game doenst have that level of difficulty yet. So, think about it: what lacks you, you can probably trade in for another resource that you have most. Thats the point when making money at the trading post. Consider trading always manufactured goods and buy raw resources to your town (Linen clothes, planks, beer etc are commonly very wanted by the merchants and frequently they buy it at high prices).
Also, your incomes from markets, properties and pubs is what backs you up when you get to hard times when traders dont buy what you have, or when you simply buy too much and sell too little.
Another thing is to ALWAYS keep the minimum amount of gold in your general storage. The invader army will charge you considering THAT amount of gold when they come. So a good tip is to frequently transfer most of it to your trading post. Thats probably a bug for now that devs will probably work on the future, so enjoy while you can. Another thing really interesting is that the more gold you have and the higher the charge is, the most well prepared they come to invade. Its absurd how tanky they get. So, keep it low!
Consider paying them to avoid the invasion the more you can! Even with 3 barracks (72 heavy armed soldiers), towers, walls…its never enough and they will make their way in everytime and you gonna loose tens of people in the process and demolished buildings.