Newbie Q re: Ermor AE and income

[AMF]

Ah, yes, I forgot about alchemy...I just find that I never really have enough money, nonetheless, to build temples etc...oh well, I just have to accept the tradeoff, eh?

Thanks!

Alarik

[Saber Cherry]

Fire and Earth are crucial for an Ashen pretender, and Nature is nice. I try to make Fever Fetishes (ideally, with a Hammer) and convert the rest to gold.

I'm not sure if pillaging is good, though - normally I set taxes to 200% and patrol until everyone is dead, but I haven't solved an integral or anything specific to determine which is better.

[shovah]

my advice is alchemize alot, set all taxes to 200% and pillage any province that hasnt been under your dominion too long

[Ironhawk]

As far as I understand it, the trick is to never buy living troops which have upkeep. Summon all your mages and troops via gems. Pillage all your provinces to 0 pop for thier money. Find the provs with Gold/Silver Mines and wipe out thier pop and set them to 200% taxes for the income.

Also, I noticed that you didnt mention your luck scale? I think you shoudl take Luck-3 for the money events since you are taking turmoil-3.

[shovah]

go for: sloth, turmoil, death, cold, luck and possibly magic 3. take dominion 10 and take the cheaper castle and then splash out of a pretender (i suggest either a strong indy soloer such as the guardian of the gates or perhaps a lich queen with mega magic)

[Agrajag]

First of all, Turmoil-3,Sloth-3,Death-3,Cold-3,Luck-3,Magic-3 is pretty much a must with AE.
Especially early on, they have quite bad research, so you need magic to compensate, and since you take Turmoil-3, you might as well capitalize on it with Luck-3, the lucky +Gold events are much more valuable to AE since you have and need much less money.
You should also take a very high dominion score, since your priests can Preach, and its harder to get temples going because of money problems. Also, your Reanimations and freespawns are affected by dominion, so increasing dominion will also help your military strength.
And since dominion is important, you are going to have trouble finding provinces that aren't drained completely because of your dominion, I usually don't even bother with pillaging and taxation because there's hardly anyone left to tax or pillage by the time I get a province. Though obviously if you get a chance, do it.
What I usually do (this is only good for SP) is get some earth on my pretender, atleast 5, though 6 is much better, and then I use this earth to get the earth-gem-giving global. With this global active you can easily afford a Forge of The Ancients in a few turns, and then you can both use your Dusk Elder's randoms well, as well as forge that alchemy stone for maximum benefits from alchemizing all that earth into gold to fund your temples and fortifications.
And just a small tip, remember that what kind of freespawns you get is influenced by temples and fortifications.

[shovah]

which is why i suggest the cheaper castle. with a castle you get tougher units and those great knights of the unholy sepulcher. the earth blood deep well is good and so is the forge but unfortunately both are quite easily despelled. if you were going for pure cash the ever burning pyre would be a good choice (would give you 300 extra gold per turn)

the best advice i can give you is kill any free militia/flagelants asap because they drain your cash