How come i keeo buying a certain resource, yet im still in the red. could some one please give me an idiots guide to the resources buying/ selling process and explain the 1st and last columns please. Also, the province admin table, what idoes the litlle red c mean, what is the little red sword all about, oh yes, and what is the second last column for. thanks p.s ive read the manual etc etc, but im still in the dark.

In the resources table, the leftmost column called "amount" shows what you currently have in stock. The rightmost column called "difference" is the difference between what you produce and what you consume per day. So, for instance if it says "-5000" for lumber, that means your lumber production is smaller than your lumber consumption, and thus 5000 lumber from your stock will be used up every day.

If you buy resources, they will be added to your stock, but of course not to your production. What matters is that at the end of the day, your current stock plus the daily difference (prod - cons) is a positive number, otherwise you have run out of resources (which is not good for your morale etc.).

I hope this helps.

As for the province table:

The little icons with a C indicate that a certain upgrade is being produced in that province. If you are building a harbour, a little harbour icon with a C over it will be shown. Of course, you can also click that province to see all the details at the bottom of the screen.

The red sword indicates that the province has functioning barracks. This means that that province will produce less resources and put out more military units instead. You can deactivate the barracks if you want, the red sword icon will then disappear.

The second last column is just like the third last column, only it show factory productions rather than province upgrades. (It takes two columns because you can simultaneously build a province upgrade and a factory item.)

All in all, the province table is not essential, because all the information can be found at the bottom when selecting a certain province. The table is just a handy overview.

many many thanks maarten, all becomes clear now. as they say its easy when you know how. a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. kindest regards, cromwell.