Few quick questions

[Gunzak]

If you make a captured settlement a type 4 and then destroy the building and make it a type 1 after you have your new general does he still lose stats or is this an easy way to recruit more generals?

How many settlements do you need for your first level of Roman reforms? I captured most of Carthages territories and a ton of rebel towns and had a general go back to Rome for his procession after multiple victories but still no reforms.

How do you lower cultural penalties? When capturing a city I usually destroy all the cultural buildings unless they give bonuses my faction can't produce and even after years and tons of happiness buildings the penalty never goes away. I even imported a ton of soldiers, disbanded them and then raised the town to a city and still the bonus remains.

[QuintusSertorius]

Assuming he's a client ruler, he becomes an "Impostor" if you destroy the type IV. If he's just a regular recruited general, no problem. If you want recruitable generals, wait until you've built a level 5 regional barracks before destroying the type IV government.

You need to have taken Segesta and Bononia, along with two of Lilibeo, Messana and Syrakousai. And be after 242BC. That'll trigger the Polybian reform. It's in the FAQ, though.

It's generally not worth destroying anything but barracks, the culture penalty you remove tends to be offset by the happiness/law bonus the building was providing already. Better off building over them over time. Furthermore, the first few turns of a new settlement get a special "transition" order penalty, which goes away after a while.

Fast growth causes squalor, which causes unhappiness and can't be removed. Disbanding loads of troops to raise the city level in a short period of time will probably cause more harm than good.

[Gunzak]

Ok so making type 4 settlements, building up happiness buildings and then changing to a type 1 or 2 is not the way to go. By doing this I was able to rapidly expand, since I didn't have to leave a general behind to raise happiness, and by using the same general he got several positive traits. The one general took 5 cities and won several battles against rebels as well as Epiros and the Gauls. I was about to take two more Gaul cities, already captured one, then launch an assault against Epiros and a few rebel territories on the Greek coast when I got a CTD :(

Hey why does the help section for Rome say to attack Segestica and Rhegion first and leave Epiros city in southern Italy alone? I always conquer the Taras immediately and then send an emmissary to broker a cease fire. This leaves me with nothing but rebel territories in Italy and they can be quickly conquered.

[Rodrico Stak]

I don't know. That's what I do too, except I don't make a ceasefire. I just stay at war with them and then invade when I'm strong enough after taking Sicily and the 2 rebel settlements in north Italy.