Tidbits on Fiefal Management

Money comes and should only be sought after when your fief is at 20% tax and 9 loyalty. Until that time one should work to get the fief in the best condition possible, that being loyalty 9 and 20% tax rate.

French - should maintain high expenditures in soldiers and keeps until keeps are 20+ (though they are still vulnerable at this time) and then after that make sure they are always in the maintain mode. Though peace times one can decrease them, this is the time to build them strong for the next invasion. As we have seen, keeps can have a maximum 25% loss of keep level if an army storms it. Thus a 20 level keep can be dropped to 15 level in one storm. As you can see high keeps are in need. (NOTO BENE: This is but one player's strategy. There are others equally or even more effective)

English - We recommend 50% level of defensive expenses - the channel is a good barrier, but if the French manage to get to England, low keeps will fall quickly. And high keeps are over kill due to having a good channel barrier. Thus keeps should grow but don't need to grow at maximum speed. But then again - this depends on the owner and how much money they wish and how secure they want to be. Fiefs in northern England also have to be concerned about an invasion by the Scots. NOTA BENE: This is but one player's strategy. One this author happens to agree with)

Peacetime is a good time to sharpen those fiefal management skills, very little combat takes place and France, in particular, always needs a lot of work.

Money in the treasury , putting money in the treasury, is used mainly for increasing Keep levels, infrastructure and Loyalty. Once you get the fief running the money really is not needed any more.

Also for those fiefs with high population and low GDP, you can set the tax rate up above 20%. the risk of rebellion increases when there is a high surplus. But if it takes 24% to maintain max spending and you get little surplus, the chance of rebellion is not as high. If you get more than 10% surplus of the amount received from your taxes, 20% of 4000 is 800 Kds you would receive and if your surplus is greater than 80 Kds, then your fief has a greater chance of rebellion.

Note on Leaving Cash in the Treasury: In peace time, the above advice holds. In war time you are just inviting someone to take your money. In one campaign, the English made ON AVERAGE about 500-1000 Kd/season for EACH active army in this way, and sometimes would hit the jackpot with a couple of 1000 Kd treasuries. Remember these are swings of that much money (1000 less for you and more for him) so really harmful.

In a "war zone" you can't afford to do this.

One other thing the Money in the treasury is good for; If you have a bailiff who is showing negative extra expenses in your fief, I.E. cutting the cost of the fief, you can really push the growth of the GDP if you cut the tax level. No one likes to work harder only to have the Tax Man take it all away, then or now. However, the game will not let you drop taxes lower than the total of your expenses even if you have a bailiff that can knock hundreds of Kducats off those expenses. What you can do is stick some money in the Treasury. If your bailiff reduces expenses by -200 Kducats, put 200 Kducats in your treasury and reduce taxes until they barely bring in enough to cover the remainder. The game will look at the total of Officials, Garrison, Infrastructure and Keep, compare them to the total coming in Taxes plus the money in the treasury and see that they match and allow the tax rate. Because the Bailiff reduces the expenses the money in the Treasury is never spent.

There have been fiefs with this extremely lowered Tax rate showing growth in GDP of 50 Kducats/season each season for years. It's a nice way to slowly increase the GDP of a fief. When war comes and you increase the Tax rate to 20% again that extra income is worth the initial sacrifice.