Questions by a MP Newb

[Soyweiser]

Barb attacks happen a lot more than once every 5 turns. You also don't calculate gold upkeep costs, unrest costs, army hiring costs. Lost turns by having to constantly move armies around, pd costs. The fact that provinces are not equal, and with misf your cap has a high chance of getting hit by unrest events. (your cap is your highest income province, bad events there hit you very hard. And with only 1 province at the start guess where all the bad events go). Having forts locked down for a few turns (or even one).

If we lived in magical fairy land where all provinces are equal and there is only one bad event which are barbarians, and they only destroy population, unrest doesn't exist. You might have a point.

In real games you have unrest, your cap gets hit by bad events first. (And you always get turn 2 or 3 30 unrest events, cutting your gold income by more than 70%). There is no way you are even getting an increase in total gold after 80 turns with such a handicap at the start.

And even without that, a barb attack normally takes away 10 - 20% of the population, gives around 15 points of unrest due to the combat. (So the turn after you take it back is worth only 50% of income). You lose the province for a turn (no gold).

All the little things add up. (Turmoil also unlocks earthquakes, hurricanes, vulcanoes, rebels, lab destruction event). Not taking turmoil is the best way to increase your gold income. It is even better than taking order.