II. Strategic Map:
- General Features
- Agents & Retinues
- Military
- Diplomacy
- Family Members
- Sea Regions
- Buildings
- Cheap Exploits
A. General Features & Strategy:
Battle Square – The battle square consists of the Red Zone tiles and the Center tile. There are 8 red zone tiles and 1 center tile. In all situations, the defender is always situated in the center tile while the attacker and any reinforcements – from either side – are taken from the 8 red zone tiles surrounding the center (see Reinforcements and Enemy Trap).
The Battle Square:
C = Center Tile (defender). RZN = Red Zone Tiles 1-8 (attacker and reinforcement tiles for both defender and attacker).
Movement – Movement range aren’t equal for each units. For example, horse units move farther than infantry while ballistae move slower. Therefore, be mindful of your army composition when traversing the map since the whole army moves at the speed of its slowest unit. Building roads increases your movement rate (Roads & Highways).
Be careful parking in the enemy’s red zone (around the unit) for this automatically cancels your movement ability even with much movement points (and your army is stuck; a bug).
Whenever moving to a block area by overtaking one of your army, your unit will look for a much longer pathway avoiding your blocking friendly troops, thus try to merge units instead.
There seemed to be a bug affecting movement speeds in some Cavalry (Eg. Roman Cavalry). Clicking the unit card gives them extra movement range as opposed to clicking the unit itself.
Watchtowers – (Cost: 200 denari Upkeep: None)( Action: left-click General > Construction > Fort > check button). Only generals can order Watchtower constructions (limited to within your territory thus agents as scouts are required in foreign lands). They can be used as your eye in tracking enemy movements and bandits, rebels or brigands that disrupt your trade routes (see Economics>Rebels/Bandits/Brigands).
They have an eleven (11) tile range, thus space them out evenly. They cannot determine enemy army composition, see AI spies or assasins, nor see across mountains. You must complement them with agents (see Agents).
Forts – (Cost: 500 denari Upkeep: None Garrison: Yes) ( Action: left-click General > Construction > Fort > check button). Only generals may order Fort constructions. They may be used as a temporary land blockade against your enemies (in bottlenecks such as narrow passes).
In able to remain standing, a garrison must be present (any number of soldiers or agents will do) or else it will disappear the next turn.
Overuse of forts can be viewed as an exploit against the weak AI, but they have legitimate uses, such as the one outlined above.
Roads & Highways – Roads not only increase the flow of trade by a large margin but also benefit the speed of your troop and agent movements. Likewise, your enemies are equally free to use your roads to their end and purpose. (see Economics>Roads).
Be wary of enemy units sitting on top of Roads, for they lower your land trade by as much as 67% (see Economics>Rebels/Bandits/Brigands).
Sea Transports – Soldiers and agents likewise may be loaded unto fleets. Regardless of fleet size, it can carry up to 20 units. To get the most out of sea transports, load your soldiers/agent(s) to the ship/fleet. Click on the ship/fleet, then click on the unit card(s) of the ship and receive the movement points for the ship.
Manage All Settlements – press Escape > click Game Option > check Manage all Settlements. With this feature, you can control all unit and building production to your specification, efficiency and efficacy.
Garrisons – Garrisons are effective in increasing happiness in newly conquered cities. They act as a stopgap while you build happiness buildings. They gradually lose effectiveness as your population increases.
Whenever invading or conquering, always have a complement supply of Peasant garrison tailing your army. This enables your troops to move in and out quickly without spending too much time appeasing the newly occupied cities. Gradually disband your Peasant garrisons as your public order increases over time (see Introduction>Settlement Details>Public Order) and (see Riots)
Plague – Quarantine cities with the plague to prevent it from spreading. Build Public Health Buildings if you haven’t already done so. Reduce the tax rate to offset the public order penalty of the plague. Plagues are primarily caused by high squalor (which is the function of overpopulation). This is the same reason why you must train troops from your over-populous cities. With a PHBs, the plague only last a short number of turns.
Infected units that contracted it from other cities can be quarantined at sea using a depleted ship to prevent it from spreading to other towns. Before you assault a plague-cured enemy settlement, make sure the enemy governor and soldiers are also clean or else you will contract it when you occupy the city. (see Public Health Buildings for more info on plague).
Riots – Riots give very palpable happiness hit. Unless you have a governor, the best measure is to lower taxes or garrison (if the population is low). Keep building and upgrading until you get enough happiness-structures to even things out.
A fixed percentage of troop garrisons die during riots. It is NOT dependent on garrison size itself. (formula pending research). Thus, do not use your precious professional and veteran troops to garrison, but utilize peasants instead.
If the public order is too low (~ < 50%), your troops, no matter numerous, will be removed from the city the next turn, and the city reverts back to its former owners or to the rebels that forced you out. This means you have to take the city again. More reason to always pay attention to your provinces’ happiness ratings.
During riots, repairing or construction of buildings is halted (pending more research).
Revolts – Revolts are riots where your army is kicked out of the settlement. The revolting army will be trained up to the level of military building contained in the city. Thus, if you destroy the military buildings beforehand, then they can only train peasants at best.
Devastation – When army units park in an another faction’s region for at least two turns, this results in farming devastation. Your army can devastate the AI lands, and so can they to you.
Devastation is the sum of all the devastated lands (tiles) you have. Each devastated tile is equivalent to 1/10th or 10% of your farming income. Thus, the equation is:
Devastation (after Trigger) = (Base Devastation Value) x (Severity of Devastation)
Devastation (after Trigger) = (10%Farm Income) x (Number of Tiles Devastated)
Where,
Trigger = Base number of turn before a tile is devastated = 2 turns.
Base Devastation Value = 10% of Farm Income.
Severity of Devastation = Number of Tiles Devastated.
Duration before Devastation fade = (pending research)
Combining Fleets – Left click the weaker fleet with no command stars and and right-click-combine with the target fleet. Note that ships with a command star cannot be absorbed by another fleet with a command star.
Macro-Expansion – Due to the effects of corruption, plan your expansion in reference to your capital. Either move the capital or expand close to it. However, put your Capital close to the sea where there are much trade, hence more income. If the capital is deep in-land then those high income province at the coasts will be heavily penalized.
Trade Rights – Use a depleted ship (see Depleted Ships) to transport your Diplomat and seek trade rights in regions that:
- you have no possibility of attacking/encountering in the immediate future.
- have swaths of coast
- are not in closely danger of being absorbed by another faction.
Trade Rights doubles sea exports (see
Economics>Sea Exports).
Depleted Troops – Use depleted troops to garrison happy provinces, instead of a full unit. You will save denari and won’t be completely caught unaware by slithering enemies that attack by surprise, especially when there aren’t enough Family Members to go about.
Senate Missions – (Roman Factions Only). When doing minor senate mission, if possible, wait for until the last turn in accomplishing the task. Therefore, you lessen the amount of missions you do over a period of time.
Famous Battles – Famous battle sites are marked by a crossed sword icon. Here are some observed factors:
- Odds of winning the battles.
- Your number of troops in the battlefield compared to your total armies (from CA).
- How well you did in battles (the kill-ratio, as indicated by colored bar under the battlefield mini-map).
There are limited number of slots for these markers, thus as you notch up new famous battles, you also lose the older ones. Placing your cursor over the cross gives description of the battle that took place. (look for ceiling).
Senate Mission Failure – (Roman Factions Only) Failures will lose your popularity with the People. Always do the Senate missions or else you will never get support of the Peoples of Rome.
Your Senate clout also suffers. Check the Senate floor tab to check your standing. Once you hit the lowest grade, you will be outlawed by the Senate and Civil War will commence.
Civil War –The Roman civil war can be caused by:
- Aggressiveness against the other Roman Factions ( via Assassins or Military action).
- Losing all your popularity in the Senate Floor (see the Senate Floor)
- Failure to commit suicide when ordered by the Senate.
- Cancelling Trade rights or Military access with the Senate. (thx to katank).
Trade Disruption – Trade disruptions are caused primarily by Rebels and Enemy units situated along your province and trade routes. (see Economics>Rebels/Brigands/Bandits). Try to remove them by military force as quickly as possible (highly escalated bribery costs after Patch 1.2 makes bribery option no longer practical).
Another possible trade disruption is damage to your trade buildings. Buildings can be damaged during riots (see Riots). And damaged buildings lose their effects. Check your buildings every time there is a riot event.
Corruption – It is evident by investigating trends that corruption is caused mainly by your settlement’s distance from your capital. The farther your capital’s radius emits to your cities, the higher the corruption you should expect. The corruption will present itself progressively as you move further out from your capital. If feasible, you can move your capital to a very central location. Another source of corruption is your governor’s gained Vices. A definitive test by therother have shown that the Corruption/Gross Income ratio increases linearly with distance-to- capital (see Economics>Corruption).
Squalor – Squalor is caused by overpopulation and inadequate Public Health Buildings. If you let your population explode unchecked, your Squalor levels will fly like a runaway chariot.
A reason being is compound rate:
A 24000+ person town with a 1% growth will gain 240 new individuals the next 6 months.
A 24240+ person town with a 1% growth will gain 242 new individuals the next 6 months.
Using “huge units” is ideal since you train more civilians, thereby reducing squalor. It is essential to cull your troops from your most populous cities with the object of attenuating squalor. (see Farm Upgrades and Troop Production). Whenever you conquer a new settlement, the first to build are Public Health Structures.
B. Agents and Retinues: Agents are special units in the Campaign map, each having special functions. Like your regular armies and characters, they can move around the map, ride ships, contract the plague and even die.
Spies – Spies are your eyes. They can gather and reveal information about cities, armies and even agents.
Whenever inside a town, they have an ability to open gates during sieges. The higher the Spy’s rank, the higher is his probability of opening the gates. (The siege scroll will show if the Spy has opened the gate). Use them along with a diplomat or assassin to scout ahead of your armies to reveal valuable reconnaissance. They also must enter before a siege. One warning: they can be killed in the line of duty.
Assassin – Assassins are used to kill enemy agents, generals or faction leaders. Normally, newly recruited ones they aren’t effective in assassinating family members. However, you can train them and hone their skills using easy target practices (thx to
lar573 for the suggestion).
General order of assassination difficulty by lars:
- other assassins < green spies < rebel captains < experienced spies < green diplomats < captains from other factions < experienced diplomats < green family members < experienced family members < faction heirs < faction leaders.
You can also use them to sabotage enemy structures and building. This is useful against towns you are planning to attack. Assassins need to know the buildings first before it can act, thus a spy is necessary for this endeavor. Sabotage the buildings that train the tough AI units. Like Spies, they can die during missions.
Lastly, before building an army of assassins, you must consider their upkeep of 200 denari per turn. If a player is to train five (5) or more, you can easily fund a mini-stack of military units with the same amount and take out the enemy in the field and even take settlements by force. Thus, you must have specific purposes for assassins before training them en-masse.
Diplomats – In able to inititiate negotiations, you need a diplomat. Just like a regular army, they can move around. Right-clicking an Army, Agent or Settlement will enter you into the negotiation screen for that particular faction.
Make sure you have enough to go around. The higher your Diplomat’s influence, the higher his powers of persuasion is.Thus, use your most adept Diplomats during important negotiations (see Diplomacy). However, when bribing units, influence doesn't appear to factor (see Bribery).
Retinues – A family member can hold up to eight (8) retinues or ancillaries. Ancillaries confer different bonuses to a family member.
You can switch retinues around to match your Generals and Governors. The retinues must be at the same stack for the exchange to take place. (Action: Left-click source family member to open the scroll. Left-click (hold) and drag the retinue of the source to the unit card of the family member you wish assign it.
You may take good retinues from older governors and generals and give them to the younger ones. Give worthless retinues to dying generals/governors. For example: Bonus command against Carthage is useless when the faction is already eliminated. However, there are certain retinues that does not mix with each other, thus cannot be combined together (thx to Captain Fishpants of CA). In addition, you may only have one (1) retinue of the same kind per family member.
Family members can pick up retinues even if not the governor of a city, so long as a Learning center or temples are present. The types of retinues you receive depend on the type of Temples or Learning Centers you build. (see Sinner’s Temple Guide).
C. Military & Strategies:
Reinforcement –All the troops along the red square will be treated as reinforcement. The center of reinforcement square is always the defender. A player has an option to let the AI control reinforcement in the battlefield. Uncheck the box to control all the units. If the total units exceed the maximum of twenty (20), the reinforcement will arrive only when replacing a withdrawn or routed units.
Besieged armies cannot be part of reinforcements.
Enemy Trap – A player can drop units enemy (the red box outline), then attack with your main forces (with the General). Those units will appear as reinforcements (see Reinforcements). A player can also completely trap the enemy.
The Red zone consists of 8 tiles surrounding the 9th tile (the defender’s position). Blocking each of those tiles precludes the enemy from EVER escaping. If enganged, they will be put in a fight-to-the-death situation. This is signified by the Sword & Skull icon under the enemy army portrait in the battle scroll.
Those tiles can also blocked by other physical objects such as a dense forest or a mountain. Thus, try to trap the enemy and force them to fight (since when the enemy feels it won’t be able to win, they will retreat). Attacking the enemy the second time also precludes them from escaping. But what if you only have enough movement points for a single attack? Then surrounding the enemy is the best option.
The exact combination of troops to use in trapping is up to the player and the combination is only limited by the army composition itself. Cavalry, for example has more range, they are good candidates. Trapping isn’t always useful. Make sure you can actually win with a divided army. Also keep in mind delays in reinforcements when using large armies and if you ever allow the AI to control friendly units (see Introduction>Reinforcement Delays).
Ambuscades – Ambushes occurs when an enemy crosses the red zone of the ambusher. In a complete surprise ambush, a player cannot deploy and are placed in the center of the special battle map while the enemy surrounds them. In a partial ambush, a player can deploy.
Attack Twice – Attack the enemy the second time whenever it retreats. It cannot fall back the again and will be forced to fight.
A Tad Short Attack – – There will be times when your whole stack will come up a tad short when attacking a town. Ctrl-Left- Click all the cavalry and use them to lay siege. Then click the remaining infantry units to combine with the cavalry units.
If the infantry comes up a bit short and the enemy AI sallies, your infantry will be the reinforcement since the defending units are always the center of the battlefield square and the units in the peripheral red zone are the reinforcements
Siege Points – A single full strength unit equal 15 siege points. Thus, the maximum per army is 300 siege points (=20 unit x 15 siege points/unit). Siege points are also based on percentage strength of a unit.
120 peasants (out of possible 240 full strength) = 50%
(15 siege points/100% strength unit) x (50% unit strength) = 7.5 siege points = 8 siege points (rounded up).
If the enemy is relieved from the outside and if they lose, the siege will continue. It is ideal to catch a large army garrisoned before you attack since they AI will sally so long as they have superior numbers and good odds of winning.
Certain retinues give a general's army more than their usual Siege Points (ex. Archimedes).
Siege points are given every turn, thus the longer you siege the more equipment you can build. However, If you are short of siege points, necessary to what you are planning, hiring a mercenary unit instantly gives you +15 more points. If your siege is broken, then the equipment you built will be dismantled.
Quick Siege – Once you have Ballista and Onagers. You won’t need to wait a turn to construct other siege machines and contraptions. Instead, you will be able to storm at once. One balancing downside to this is that they move slower than normal infantry (see Movement). A quick siege is highly effective in sneak attacks in coastal towns.
A spy with high skills can be used since they have a better probability of opening the gates; therefore taking a city is doable in a single turn (see Spies).
Sallying Enemy –A besieged that enemy sallies from within the settlement are in a fight-to-the-death situation (denoted by a sword and skull icon). If they lose, the city is yours.
Bridge battles – Bridges are fine chokepoints. To utilize bridges, one can park their troops right in the middle section. Whenever you are attacked from either side, you will get to defend the bridge. This is most important when you are vastly outnumbered by the enemy. (see Battles Map>Bridge Battles)
Conquest Options – Whenever you militarily vanquish an enemy city, you are given three conquest options:
i)
Occupation –The city will be occupied as is and no buildings will be damaged (recommended).
Pros:
- Faster upgrade possibilities (city level upgrades are tied to population).
- Bigger population mean bigger taxation income.
- Shorter supply lines mean your newly conquered province can supply your basic troops and not have to come from specialized regions.
- Overall, a better long term economic development.
Cons:
- High incidence of riots requires much short-term high-garrisons.
- If Public Order is lower than 50%, the citizens are most likely to revolt (and remove you from the city).
- The farther (from your capital) and more populous the province the harder it is to keep. At this point, you can resort to Enslavement.
ii)
Enslavement – This allows you to enslave half of the population. Slaves will be distributed only among cities that have governors for 20 turns. Some buildings will be destroyed but will earn you denari through lootings.
Pros:
- Slaves can be used to populate your cities supplying the troops.
- Useful when your newly conquered city is too far from the Capital (thus will incur high distance-to-capital public order penalty). Use this only after Occupation is prohibitive (resulting in 0% public order even with garrison and other measures).
- It reduces the required garrison size.
Cons:
- The slave trade presents the likelihood of rebel slaves appearing near your settlement.
- The city Level will drop corresponding to the population drop.
.
iii)
Exterminate – Two thirds of the population will be killed. A player receives the most denari loot value in this option.
Pros:
- Instantly manageable cities with little or no garrison.
Cons:
- Results in a long term economic loss due to loss of population and economic structures. This meant a player will start the growth and upgrade cycle once again. Every city added to your side increases income regardless. Thus, do not exterminate if you notice income signs shown by the settlement is lower (see Economics>Wages & Military Upkeep).
- Loss of recruitment base meant importing soldiers from other settlements.
- Longer supply lines and possible dependency on Mercernaries. This may be useful when taking a very far away province where the distance-to-capital public order penalty is high.
Troop Production –
Two schemes:
- Troop production must occur in your most populous provinces, preferably under governors with troop recruitment discounts. However, make sure to construct (or at least initiate the contruction of) the upgrade level Government buildings first. They are necessary in enabling building-upgrade capabilities.
Reducing the population lowers your squalor levels. Do not overdo this, however and try to spread your military production over a range of cities. All your newly conquered cities must be occupied (unless it is overpopulated, foreign in culture or you little means of immediate garrison, then this exception calls for enslavement). This is setup is very effective whenever you choose “huge units” as your unit size option.
- Alternatively, you can enslave your newly conquered town and use the governor cities are your specialized production cities. These troop production cities can supply your soldiers as their population pool is replenished through the slave trade. Be wary of you population, however, since this can easily lead to high squalor especially once it becomes a Large City (see Squalor).
Regardless where you build, you must have governors that have troop discout retinues (ie. “Decorated Hero” gives a 20% discount). You can erect troop-upgrade buildings (see Troop Upgrade Buildings) as well as temples that give them experience chevrons (ie. Temple of Nike).
When training troops pay attention how they transport to the frontlines. Upgrade the roads to increase their movement rates (see Roads and Highways). You can also use depleted ships to transport troops (see
Transport Ships).
Troop Upgrade Buildings – (pending research).
Combining Units – Combine units with like chevrons. You can drag a unit card with no upgrade to another upgraded unit however, the resulting unit will NOT receive any of the weapon or armor upgrades. But the Chevron upgrades are diluted.
Merging Armies – Armies can be can merged up to the maximum of twenty units, thus it is essential to combine units. Agents can also merge with your army and can be located in the agents tab while the particular army is selected.
However, your army cannot merge with the agent (and can actually block your army by one movement tile if your destination is the same area). Thus plan where you put your agents since they occupy space.
Experience Chevrons – A unit’s experience is denoted by chevron. It can be gained in battles or during their recruitment training (or retraining).
Unit Experience Progression: No experience, Bronze (1-3), Silver (1-3, Gold (1-3).
Depending on the number of healed units after battle, experience gained by survivors can be diluted.
Factor(s) contributing to gaining experience: from observations. (now confirmed).
- Number of kills. (hence, use your general to chase routers to gain experience). There is a 20% chance router-kills count as a kill (thx to Je'Rome Grasdyke). If you consider the high volume of pickings in a mass routs, that number is high!
Increasing Ranks – Increase your General’s military ratings (stars) by winning battles. Do not use overwhelming force all the time and always try for a “crushing” victory.
Do not try to kill all the routing troops at once, instead use your General to chase and kill them for experience chevrons and higher ranking trait bonus. The objective is to rout the enemy first then make your kills afterward.
Mercenaries – Availability is limited to a particular province or region (example: once you cross a bridge or a border, mercenary units may change). They are expensive and their upkeep is a shade high but are very useful in tight situations (just make sure you know what you are looking for in an army supplement/complement and read their descriptions first).
Example: whenever your lightly garrisoned city is besieged without warning: you can take out your other governors, hire mercenaries, split (them from the hiring governors) and quickly drop the all the units beside the besieged settlement. Then, sally forth with your General from inside. Your mercenary units and such will appear as reinforcement. It is expensive but less so than losing a large city to a large enemy contingent.
Another example: if you know your lightly garrisoned province will be attacked, you can take out your general and hire a couple of mercenaries. Return back to town and build a unit for another turn to discourage the enemy from storming while you wait for reinforcement.
Letting the enemy take a city without resistance is far more expensive. As a Roman, You will be given a mission to retake the city with 5000-10000 denari as reward. However good, this mission can also lead to exploitation of a serious game design flaw.
In general, mercenary troops are worthwhile in campaigns. They can complement your army depending on their needs or supplement unforeseen insufficiency in the reinforcement chain (notably after large casualties in a major battle).
Rebels, Bandits & Brigands– Rebels will frequently pop up along your territory and molest your trade routes (see Trade Buildings and Ports). It is crucial to detect their presence quick to avoid trade losses. Bribing rebels are now prohibitively expensive after patch 1.2. Thus, a military solution is the only way. You can use family members that are bad governors (who lower province incomes) to be your specialized rebel hunters. Alternatively, you can use captains and go for the “Man of the Hour” event (see Promotions).
Hidden rebels’ locations can be revealed by their devastation marks. They create dark, splotched, devastated tiles when in the same position for at least two turns.
D. Diplomacy: Diplomacy is practically nil after patch 1.2. Map Selling is curtailed and Bribery cost was increased. However, the protectorate was fixed (research pending).
Map Information – Version 1.2 practically disables map-selling (which was an easy exploit pre-patch1.2). However, you can now exchange maps with the AI. Exchanging maps is important. It helps you plan your expansion.
Bribery – Bribery costs differ from turn to turn. From tests, it is evident that is a function of Income.
Tests support that unit cost and a base value is being factored. The base values change every turn while the factors do not. Thus, the higher the income means the higher the base value and the higher the bribes.
Current equation:
Bribery cost = (
Unit Recruitment Cost/
10) x (
Base Value) x (
Bribery Factors),
where the Base Value is a function of income (whether gross or net is still up in the air). More tests are needed for an exact equation linking Base Value and Income.
Example: Bribery cost for 1 unit of peasant. Where Base Value is 100 and Factor is 1. You can use this equation to find the Bribery Base Value of a particular turn so long as the units are (full strength, devoid of generals and lacking any chevron upgrades; This simply meant it doesn't factor in the equation and technically the units' Factors = 1).
Bribery Cost = (Unit Recruitment Cost/10)(Base Value)(Factors).
Bribery Cost= (150 denari/10)(100)(1)=1500 denari.
A factor simply meant any positive number that is not 1. Unit Recruitment cost is an example of a factor.
Current Bribery factors: More tests are needed to quantify exact impact.
- Unit strength (full strength)
- Unit Experience
- Presence of Generals
Currently NOT a Bribery Factor (from tests):
- Diplomat influence.
- Unit Armor 1 & Weapon 1 upgrades
Finally, bribery of diplomat suggest different factors than of unit bribing but tests show that the base value is being calculated as well! (Supporting data:
Investigation of Bribery Costs).
This is definitely a mechanism put in by CA to curve rampant bribing. Since the base value increase as the income increases, the richer you become the higher the bribes will be.
Taking Regions – This isn’t very ideal unless you have a huge garrison and a Governor with high Management skill nearby, ready to occupy the town. However, if ever you get thrown out of the town, the Senate will give you a mission to retake the town for about 5000-10000 denari reward depending how fast you do it. Don’t try to pay for regions. The AI gives away provinces easily early in the game, under the determination that you will be thrown out of town by rioters anyway.
Alliances – Alliances is a prickly subject when it comes to Roman factions. A good rule is not to form any alliances with non-roman factions since you are mandated to follow Senate policies. You don’t want to get in the crosshairs with the Senate early on. Another rule is: as in STW and MTW, DO NOT form alliances with your neighbor. Form alliances with your neighbor’s neighbor, for two reasons:
- Your Ally will not be able to attack your without moving along your neighbor’s regions. You get a good buffer zone in a possible double cross.
- Your neighbor will be foolish to attack you with your ally flanking them. If you ever get into a war with your non-ally neighbor, your ally can aid you military, making the conquest easier. It is a win-win strategy.
Trade Rights – Trade rights increases your Sea Exports by 50% to the particular faction (see Economics>Trade Rights). With roaming diplomats, secure all the trade rights you can get for a healthy economy. Do it to all factions for it will benefit you first and foremost.
Whenever war breaks out between the faction and you, Trade Rights are nullified. But, in an event of a ceasefire, always secure trade rights again.
Protectorates – (pending research).
E. Family Members:
Age Limit – The age limit seem to be 128 years. (thx to ArgonautJ of the .COM forums). His faction leader, upon turning 128 years of age, reverted back to 0 year old!!! Thus, the age seemed to be cycled after 128 years! Dutchof CA remarked at the same thread that “is he dead yet?” checks start at the age of 65, thus the faction leader survived 62 years of checks, then was eventually looped back to 0 year old for another 65 years before the series of checks continue.
Governors and Generals – only family members are allowed as Generals and Governors. A Captain is not a family member unless he is promoted.
Promotions – whenever a Captain leads his men and successfully wins an odd-on battle, he can be promoted to General. The easier the battle, the least likely your captain can be “The Man of the Hour”. The more noteworthy the win, the likelier he gets a a promotion. Factors include low strength army ratio vs. the enemy and the manner of the victory itself.
With your approval this worthy Captain becomes a General and an adopted Family Member. Thus, you can increase family members by using Captains to sweep the numerous rebels that pop up along the map.
There is a hard cap on promotions, depending on the current ratio of family members vs. number of settlements you own (thx to Oaty). From tests it should be less than 2/3 ratio. But more tests are needed.
Adoption – you can approve the suitor of a female family member when they come of age. Approve as much, but just be picky enough especially regarding their age: the younger, the better; the older, the worse.
The stats of your family member can be raised via traits, retinues through battlefield or governance experience. Therefore, the primary consideration is age (ideally 16 to early 20s).
You may also receive “A Candidate for Adoption” option. This is similar to “Man of the Hour” but it involves no battles. It seem to be a result of having too little number of male family members.
Heirs – An Heir will be automatically selected; however as the faction leader, you are allowed to pick the most suitable Heir to your liking. Just go to the Family Tree scroll. It is wise to use hone your chosen Heir’s skills by letting him lead in battles. In addition, he will gain valuable Virtues.
Eventually, when he becomes the leader, you can retire him to the capital and with the right retinues build discounted troops and buildings, as well as keep things in order. In addition he can receive good Virtues from upgraded Academies. Repeat the same cycle with the new Heir.
Heirs:
- At least 20 years younger than the current Faction Leader.
- And ideal length of rule is 25 years.
The former heir will receive a Disinherited trait conferring a -1 influence. Thus, avoid changing heirs too often.
Bribed Generals – Bribed Generals will also join your Family. There are certain enemies that cannot be bribed (example: Ex senate family members).
Specialize Family Members – Decide and distinguish early on whether you plan to make a family member a General in the battlefield or a career Governor. This way you specialize their abilities.
- Governors – Preferably very young so they can stay in their position for a long time.
- Generals – After picking the governors, the leftovers will be your pool of Generals. They need not be very young since their stats are easy to raise.
F. Sea Regions:
Ships – Position you ships close to your allies’. In an event of an enemy attack, you get their much needed reinforcement.
At least double the enemy ships to get a high probability of winning.
Sea Movements – (pending research)
Longer Transport –To get the most range out of sea transportation, load your soldiers/agent(s) to the ship/fleet. Left-click on the ship/fleet, then click on the unit card(s) and receive the movement points for the ship.
Transport Ships – Use your ships with depleted soldiers to transport troops. To do this, recombine your sailors until you get a ship with the least sailors. They cost less if on standby.
Military Ships – Use your stacked ships as your strong arm in the sea. In the early stage, a 3 to 4-ship stack is enough to control your sealanes. This does not mean you can’t use them for transport, but their primary function is to drive away enemy ships.
Blockades – Aside from normal port blockades, you can also blockade enemy ships from dropping off enemy troops along the shore. The red areas indicate blockading range of your ships. A neutral fleet can also blockade you if you hit them along the path unaware. Thus, it is ideal to not hug the coast too tightly when traveling.
A ship inside a blockaded port can escape as long as it is not enclosed by the red borders. In addition, military ground units may also be used to blockade an enemy port. Simply left-click the port using the units within proximity of the port to be blockaded (thx to mfberg).
Storms – On infrequent occasions, your fleet or ship will be caught in a storm. This will result in a loss of crew even death of the admiral of the fleet.
G. Buildings:
Shrines- Shrines not only increase happiness thus public order, but they also confer particular retinues (See
Sinner’s Temple Guide for a complete list). Whenever faced with a foreign shrine, you have the option of destroying them - since they are primarily non-upgradeable or keeping them (along with the bonuses they give). Defacing the shrine effectively wipes out all the happiness bonus they give so be wary of your total public order before doing so.
The shrines’ effects aren’t always positive; they can also give negative traits. (give example).
Public Health Buildings – Health builds increase happiness and reduce likely hood and spreading of plagues. Whenever, you capture a province, you will always inherit in an overpopulated, unsanitary city with high squalor (meaning a high risk for a breakout of the plague). Build a Public Health Building as the first order of the day. In addition build a peasant unit to garrison and reduce population. You do not want the city to get a plague for it will lead to riots.
Farm Upgrades – Delay farm upgrades to avoid untimely, massive population increase and consequently, high squalor. Make it the last structure to build in successive tech levels (military buildings notwithstanding). Once you are done building all useful structures, you are ready for the next tech level. Thus, the increase in farm production will also increase population to help you get to that next city size. This way, you can control city growth, and balance out squalor with happiness effects of the buildings you construct.
In military towns (see Troop Production) it is acceptable to build farms especially when they rake in a lot of profits. The population boosts also help in the unit training pool. As a bonus, it also aid in ushering you to the next tech level population requirement quickly to get access to higher and higher quality troops (see Squalor and Troop Production).
Trade Buildings and Ports – These are your most important economic structures. Coastal towns MUST always have ports quickly. While you wait for ports to become accessible (by meeting population requisites), you can construct shrines, roads, public health building, walls, an academy, a trader and even a farm upgrade. These ports can be upgraded to a corresponding increase in trade.
Rebels, Bandits, Enemy (and possibly Friendly allied units) will disrupt trade when they stay along the roads or trade resources.
Learning Centers – The academy and its upgrades allow Governors favorable ancillaries depending on the Temples.
Amphitheaters – A place where races and gladiatorial games are held to distract the plebians from discontent and increase public order). Races and Games can held yearly, monthly or daily and provide incremental happiness at corresponding increase of costs. Their incremental maintainance cost doesn’t justify their low happiness effect. However, the bigger the upgrades, the higher their base effect.
Wonders – Wonders are special buildings in the strategic map which confer different bonuses. You receive the bonus as long as you own the province where the Wonder is located. However, their effects diminish by time:
Collosus of Rhodes: Initially adds 40% to trade of all owner’s settlements. But in time, the bonus plateaus down to 10%. Eventually, the bonus disappears altogether.
Mausoleum of Hellicarnasus:
Damaged Buildings – Buildings damaged by riots or military action will invariably lose it’s effects.
Examples:
- Damaged trade buildings will lose its trade bonus effects
- Damaged public health buildings will lose its public order bonus.
Currently, any damage above 11% will erase all the building’s effects until it is repaired. More observations are needed to pin the exact cutoff number.
Repair – Buildings and structures can be repaired simultaneously. Just choose a new building first then add all damaged ones. The new building will be constructed the next turn, while the damaged will all be repaired.
Construction Discounts – Use the same governor with building discounts traits/retinue to reduce construction cost. You must have good roads in able to him to travel back and forth within a turn. This is useful whenever you don’t have enough family members.
H. Cheap Exploits: Exploits that needed to be remedied in the Expansion Pack(s)
A Comprehensive Rome: Total War Guide
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Also the spy can scout out good family member targets, look for ones with low or no personal security traits/ retinue members. A good rule of thumb for assassinatiing a family meber is to stay away from one with a chance of sucess lower than 45%. Below that your just going to lose your assassin and give the target a personal security trait and make him that much harder to kill the next time.
Originally Posted by Quietus
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At least there's no cliffhangers like the Fashionable Dacian. 
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