Gold has a major role in Ultimatum. In order to gain gold, you must have a positive income. Your base income is 8 gold, and you gain as much income you have per turn. You receive your gold at the start of your turn. You also do not gain income in your first turn.

To increase your income, you have to capture villages. To capture villages, you must move your unit onto a village. (See the Movement section for more information) For every basic village you capture, your income will increase by 2 gold. Only one player can have control over a village, so your village can be taken at any time if a unit is not residing in it.

Upkeep is how much gold you have to pay per turn. Your upkeep increases as the number of units and siege implements you have increases. Generally, one unit will cost as much gold as their level each turn. Therefore, a level 3 unit will have 3 gold as an upkeep, while a level 1 unit will only cost 1 gold to maintain. Some units with the loyal unit trait cost no income. For example, your leader has a loyal trait, and costs no gold to maintain.

Your net income follows a simple formula of your income - upkeep. This is how much gold you will gain at the start of your turn. If you have a negative net income, you will lose gold every turn. Beware, if your gold reaches less than 0, you will become in debt.

If you are in debt, you will not be able to use any skills. Units, however, will attack when they are defending themselves against enemy units. Units will also be able to move if you are in debt. In order start gaining a positive net income, you must dismiss as many units as you need. Dismissing units will reduce your upkeep, and increase your net income. Be careful when you are in debt. In some game modes, you can lose the game by going in debt for a certain amount of turns.