Income, Taxes and the Collect
Every season you collect in one fixed order. Percentages within a step add together; the steps never multiply into each other.
The Collect formula
For each settlement:
-
Class tax = Σ (pop of each class × its rate). Companies you raised are out of the rolls.
-
Tax modifier (add all of these):
- local Stability: +5% per point above 5, −5% per point below;
- realm Stability: same;
- tax policy (below);
- Treasurer: +5% × rating; a vacant required Treasurer is −10%;
- Mint: +10% to +30% by tier;
- capital Great Mint +10%; Vault palace room +10%; Leader perks.
The total is capped at +100% and floored at −90%. Class tax × (1 + modifier).
-
Unrest band: Restless ×0.9, Unruly ×0.75, Uprising or Revolt ×0. Occupied settlements pay ×0.5.
For the realm:
- Trade = all trade gp (Market, Port, Guildhall, Road, pilgrims, flour) + sales of surplus and luxuries. Trade modifier (add):
- +5% per active trade route (max +25%);
- Master of Trade +10% × rating;
- Surplus and Abundant categories +10% each (max +20%);
- blockade −50%.
- Production gold: farm and fishery gp, Temple tithes, Bank fees.
- Flat: tribute received, council stipends, pact payments, loans taken this season.
- Owed upward: a vassal pays 10% of steps 1–5 to its liege.
Income = steps 1–6 − step 7. Upkeep is paid in the next step of the turn.
Tax policy (free, once per season)
| Policy | Tax | Unrest per season (every settlement) | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light | −20% | −5 | +1 Legitimacy per year held |
| Normal | — | — | — |
| Heavy | +20% | +5 | towns and larger: +5 more without a Lord Justiciar |
| Crushing | +40% | +15 | −1 realm Stability per season, −2 Legitimacy per season |
Upkeep
Pay, in this order: holdings (upkeep ×tier, adjusted by needs bands), armies (seasonal; fielded armies already paid monthly don't pay again), officer wages, research, interest on loans. Anything you can't pay becomes a debt clock (Debt and Distance). An unpaid army deserts or turns its anger on you (War and Peace).
Writs and coin
A Mint lets you print writs once per year: up to 20% of last season's Collect, never more. The season you print costs −2 realm Stability, and each printing permanently lowers the tax modifier by 2% (Coinage Standards tier 3 halves this; the Sound Coin perk removes it).
Worked example
The town of Millfield: 5,230 gp class tax; local Stability 6 (+5%), realm 5 (0), Normal policy, Ordinary Treasurer (+5%), so +10% → 5,753 gp. Calm, so no unrest cut. The realm adds trade 1,000 gp, the two villages' tax (3,480 gp at +5% Treasurer = 3,654 gp) and farm gold 600 gp. Income ≈ 11,000 gp.