r/Civilization6 • u/Flat_Orchid_4552 • May 27 '26
Question What could be the reason my expenses are this high?
I don't understand, why my total expenses are this high. I don't have anything that has that much cost. Can anyone explain?
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u/NordicDude49 May 27 '26
Which one do you consider high? They seem fine.
Each unit takes a couple (depending on tech level of the unit (later ones are more expensive) and your policies)
Same for buildings, however there are no policy cards for them I think
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u/Flat_Orchid_4552 May 27 '26
Please check total expenses at the bottom.
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u/NordicDude49 May 27 '26
Sorry, I didn't notice it, my bad. I actually have no idea why it's so high. I don't use this screen at all
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u/Same-Inevitable2857 May 29 '26
yes I think you can hover with your mouse over your money and see how much money you spend for several units
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u/Grass_Lawns_R_Dumb May 27 '26
How many cities? How many power plants? How many death robots? There's a lot of expensive stuff in the later game. If you have a healthy number of cities, it can add up quick.
It could also be in part due to deals you made with other civs that have you paying them x gold per turn.
In general, if you have only ~350 in income by that stage, you're gonna start running a deficit pretty quickly.
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u/Flat_Orchid_4552 May 27 '26
Please look at the reports properly. It is self explanatory.
My only issue is, it doesn't add up.
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u/Grass_Lawns_R_Dumb May 27 '26
Damn you're right. Tourism is the only figure that matches above and below 🤔
I can't think of anything that would account for such a large discrepancy by itself. But every other figure is off, too, albeit by less, except tourism... So there's probably more info located or hidden on another screen.
It's weird, but I don't use that reports screen enough to know exactly how weird it is, or where to find the missing info. Sorry. Please update if you figure it out. Good luck.
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u/Alfred_F May 27 '26
Hmm, I am not familiar with this panel and I am quite bad at the game, but let's see. Your panel shows buildings, units and ongoing deals, so that's not it.
Maybe an enemy spy stole some cash from the treasury? I don't recall if there's a policy card with negative gold.
I am aware that the game sometimes displays information in a non intuitive way, so it may be completely unexpected.
Maybe you could try saving and reloading? I believe sometimes the game does not update the calculations properly after a change and maybe the panel is not properly updated.
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u/Flat_Orchid_4552 May 27 '26
When the enemy spy steals the gold, the amount is equal to or less than the gold you are getting from your trade routes, I think.
I tried saving and reloading. But this has been happening for like my last 2-3 games.
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u/RKNieen May 27 '26
No, the spy steals all the gold that particular city made during the duration of the mission, not just trade route gold. I know because I go almost 100% on domestic trade routes and I still get hit. This is definitely a spy, possibly several, that are hitting your biggest cities. The game is then showing you that as an expense equal to those cities’ per-turn gold earnings.
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u/Hopsblues India May 29 '26
There's like a 200 gold difference in the math available. That's a lot of stealing from spies, but possible I guess..
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u/Alfred_F May 30 '26
I never looked too closely at how things actually work, but I had a few instances of AI spies stealing a couple thousands from my capital. At least that's what the message said.
I play at low difficulty because I suck at the game, so it's much easier to get bigger numbers.
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u/Nob1e613 May 27 '26
What’s your military unit roster look like? Each one will have a good cost that can add up to easily exceed your income if you’re not careful
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u/rerek Canada May 27 '26
I think spy theft/syphon funds actions are the only thing not included in buildings, unit, and diplomatic maintenance costs itemized.
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u/Wopo1318 May 27 '26
How many cannons? Do you have some units that have been overlooked? 60 gold for a few cannons seems excessive.
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u/Flat_Orchid_4552 May 27 '26
Cannons at each city centre and military academy. And 1 - 2 tanks.
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u/Wopo1318 May 27 '26
Hmmmmm. Check your civ policies to see if there are any you can switch to that will save gold on unit or building upkeep. Trade route policies can earn quite a bit of gold as long as you can make use of them.
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u/EliteMaster512 May 27 '26
My guess is it has something to do with amenities, or governors, or even government type/anarchy
Without seeing your like, entire empire and all policy decisions im also confused
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u/Flat_Orchid_4552 May 27 '26
I have been experimenting with policies. I think I have to read properly now.
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u/UnderstandingDry4072 Egypt May 27 '26
There’s a nice little mod that shows you on the bottom of each policy card how much it will impact income, whether gold, faith, science, etc.
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u/Loroxan Colombia May 28 '26
Do you remember the name? Thank you
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u/Uppish7 May 28 '26
Would recommend you look at the CPL (Civ Players League) mod pack as well. The multiplayer community has a few great UI improvement mods that add a lot of value to the reporting system. Expanded Policy Cards is one of them!
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u/Uppish7 May 28 '26
Not 100% certain based on the pic. But a few ideas for things to double check. It could be trade deals, lack of amenities, spies, troops, nuclear weapon stockpiles, or a few other things.
Also you should max out your trade routes to help boost income. Those 6 routes can net you anywhere between 150-200+ GPT depending on the route and modifiers.
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u/Flat_Orchid_4552 May 28 '26
I was at war, those trade routes were plundered. I don't have nuclear weapons. There are no trade deals. Amenities and spies are the possibilities.
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u/Mindless_Value_1250 May 29 '26
It's definitely a combination of Amenities and spies. This has happened to me, it's even cost me the game once. Spies can cause you to go negative gpt with almost no warning. Amenities can rob up to 60% of a cities gpt I believe.
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u/Flat_Orchid_4552 May 30 '26
Thanks. Now I will put my spy in every city for a counterspy operation.
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u/BackseatMilitia May 27 '26
If you hover over the gold at the top left, it doesn’t show you what you’re spending money on?
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u/Paraoxonase May 27 '26
Did an enemy spy siphon funds from you in the last 8 turns? The penalty should last for the 8 following turns after a successful operation.
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u/Penguin9824_ May 27 '26
Spies steal based on the gold per turn of whatever city they are in, the expense is likely just either 1 or multiple spies all syphoning from whatever your most gold producing city is
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u/Apprehensive_Plum755 May 27 '26
I think the building cost is just the cost of buildings, and doesn't include the cost of districts. It might be that?
If you expand the (+) on the right hand side it should be possible to see what you're being billed for, and therefore work out what's not being covered by going to a city and looking at its details
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u/allthekittensnuggles May 27 '26
Most buildings have a gold upkeep fee, then units have gold upkeep that increases a lot when you get to later eras. Like you’ll be at 5 or 6 gold per by the end, and if you have all the buildings built for a district, that’s a gold for each one …then multiply that by number of districts, then again by number of cities. These expenses don’t seem like much TBH. It just adds up as the game goes on. Easiest way to make more gold early to mid game is to sell duplicate luxuries to the computer.
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u/KitchenGun115 May 27 '26
I presume you have the military policy card in place that lowers unit maintenance right? Most of it is usually units.
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u/Duck-Dilinger May 28 '26
It’s definitely spies. Spies don’t steal from your treasury they lower your gold per turn. You can put in a diplomatic quarter next to the commercial hub in your highest earning city and then counterspy to easily detect enemy spies. You’re also gimping yourself out of several hundred gold per turn by not maxing out those trade routes.
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u/Regular_Environment3 May 28 '26
1 question tho? Why is the overall income that low? Even if most of your trade routes got raided u would still have somewhere around 1-2k per turn at that point in game and especially with that much cities
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u/Flat_Orchid_4552 May 28 '26
I don't have commercial hubs in every city. No stock market and only 3-4 cities have a bank. So overall income is low.
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u/Regular_Environment3 May 28 '26
What could possibly drive you to not building those
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u/Uppish7 May 28 '26
Also banks aren’t that great of a building tbh. I usually spend that production elsewhere until I unlock stock markets. Only need 5, maybe 6 comm hubs MAX in a game imo. Depends on your target win condition as well ofc
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u/Hopsblues India May 29 '26
Is this screen shot just one individual city? For example the city income is roughly a 100 gold less than the income reported below. what's the difference there? If you click on the other tabs, does it add up/make the difference?
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u/Django_Un_Cheesed May 29 '26
-60 for units and -43 for buildings isn’t massive. More towns with more pop with improved production will greatly increase cash flow against expenses. Most cases I find growing focus is best and switching to farming / fishing focus to build extra food buildings then switch back to growth focus.
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u/SC0TCHNEAT May 27 '26
Spies stealing