Building and selling improvements to raise cash

[Alexander's Horse]

Anyone else do this? When I need cash boosts I select a stable city and get it to built an improvement which I immediately sell and then repeat the process over and over. Its very powerful if you can afford to have several cities doing it.

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Founder, Dear Leader and Great Helmsman of PROT -the People's Republic of Topics www.delphi.com/prot1
[This message has been edited by Alexander's Horse (edited April 30, 2001).]

[Bereta_Eder]

Why don't you just capitalize?

[Mixam]

Yes I usually do it with barracks because i almost never build them so I know which cities I am doing it in. I do this b4 capitalization. Basically works same as capitalization if you don't have any waste of sheilds building the improvement. I don't do it as often anymore. I usually just build caravans now but I used to do it alot.

[Scouse Gits]

The window is quite narrow - after Trade it is normally most cost effective to build caravans - about the only use for cash as cash is to bribe something. But before Trade, ofttimes there is this window where the 'poor man's capitalization' of building and selling barracks pays off quite well ...

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Scouse Git[1] -- git1@scousers.net

"Staring at your screen in horror and disbelief when you open a saved game is one of the fun things of a succession game " - Hueij
"The Great Library has been built!"
"A short cut has to be challenging,
were it not so it would be 'the way'." - Paul Craven

[Mixam]

Yes SG you are right. Actually I basically only did the 'poor mans capitalization' when I didn't know what I was doing. I used to do it any time b4 capitalization because my city was done building everything I wanted. This was also b4 I focused on a trade orriented strat. I never realized how important trade was till I came to Apolyton. I recently saw a thread on Delente sunt or some such. Basically defeating the Rome scenario in under 100 years.

Well anyways I used to find the Rome scenario hard (on emporer) and sometimes didn't even finish. After seeing this thread I decided to try again with some new knowlege. Within a few turns of starting I was getting one and two year advances and a lot of money by sending caravans from (oh I play as Roman) my cities to the collossis city. It being the best city to trade with as it has high trade and is on another continent. Anyways haven't beat it in 100 years yet but I know I can now.

Hmmm... Kinda on topic for the first 2 lines

[Ming]

Yeah... early in the game I will sometimes build barracks to make a little extra cash. Usually it's in a city where I already have a defender, I'm waiting for the food to get back up to build a settler and food is slow to recover because I just put a cranked out a settler. Rare, but I will do it if there is nothing better to build.

[Marquis de Sodaq]

Before capitalization, trade is clearly the best source of gold. But I have done what Horse asks when I know I won't be able to deliver caravans in time to rush build a wonder that is being contested. It's basically useful only in certain unusual circumstances.

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"There is no fortress impregnable to an ass laden with gold."
-Philip of Macedon

[Blaupanzer]

Pre-capitalization, I do it with courthouses when I am rush-buying or bribing and strain the cash flow. Caravans can work, but it can be a bear to deliver in a timely fashion. Long-term, caravans are a better bet. However, I don't rehome, so highly productive interior cities can occasionally be used to raise money building saleable improvements when needed. The advantage of courthouses is that they can be kept if the need for the money passes. They are useful in Monarchy and Democracy, the two governments I tend to use.
[This message has been edited by Blaupanzer (edited May 08, 2001).]