What to do with conquered Temples?

[R3dD0g]

In my first campaign, I trashed the existing temples in every town I conquered. Even in late game when the unrest was horrid, I demolished those suckers. In my second campaign, I left the temples of my former Roman brothers standing, but nuked all others.

In this campaign, I've been kind'a without form and void on a plan.

What is the general consensus about other faction's temples?

[Somebody Else]

Depends... if it gives a decent boost of some sort to unit stats, like the temples of Artemis or Abnoba, I keep them. Otherwise, I demolish them once I've built up the other buildings in a settlement. In some cases, the temples are in the same line as the ones I can build, so I leave them to be upgraded at the next oppurtunity.

[Basileus]

Most of the time i raze them my self but if its a good temple that i can use why not keep it for a while heh

[KiOwA]

I keep it for a little while at least, mostly because I need the happiness/law/health boost to pacify the local population. Tearing it down to reduce culture will not compensate for the loss in happiness, unless it's just a shrine to begin with. Then once public order is under control, bang goes the temple, unless it gives a bonus like +3 to missile weapons or such.

On a side note, how do you guys build temples in your empire? I find myself building mostly one sort throughout my land, and I'm wondering how others build their centres of religion.

[Herakleitos]

I try to balance between al the different temples. But with the Brutii for instance I build Mars in the Troop-centers. I am now playing with the Egyptians and regret that I didn't know earlier on that on the last level 'Imhotop' gives you the +2 experience bonus, otherwise there would have been more temples dedicated to this guy! The first thing I do as a Pharaoh with newly conquered cities is destroy the old temples and build shrines to for instance set or imhotep and then execution squares (I AM THE LAW!) :furious3: I kept the 'awesome temples' to Nike and Artemis though, nice bonuses!

[Nelson]

I keep it for a little while at least, mostly because I need the happiness/law/health boost to pacify the local population. Tearing it down to reduce culture will not compensate for the loss in happiness, unless it's just a shrine to begin with. Then once public order is under control, bang goes the temple, unless it gives a bonus like +3 to missile weapons or such.

On a side note, how do you guys build temples in your empire? I find myself building mostly one sort throughout my land, and I'm wondering how others build their centres of religion.

So far I've played the same way, KiOwA. One temple seems to be better than others for most situations but this may be just a matter of preference regarding play style. As the Scipii I mostly put up Saturns because long term pacification is my biggest issue. I still wanted a Neptune for the ships and a few Vulcans for arms. I only pull down foreign temples when I must in order to maintain order. As you point out, in the short term demolition can be counter-productive. Bonuses that can't be had otherwise are good to keep when possible.

D'oh! I said Julii when I ment Scipii.

[dismal]

Like many here, I keep em for a little while if I need the order points but otherwise knock em down - usually when unrest settles a little.

I like to start shifting the culture ASAP so my culture has taken over before squalor kicks in.

I tend not to worry about unit benefits because for the most part I don't find that level of micro-management necessary once the conquering phase of the campaign has begun.

[CaravanShaker]

I have had great luck destroying every single temple I find and here is why. Late in the game, the cities you take over are fairly developed, but you can't build a larger temple out of another factions temple. I knock it down and lower the taxes in the city to compensate. Even if the public order is in the blue area, you will be fine when you build the shrine to one of your gods. You can almost immediately build the upgrade for the shrine and start eliminating culture penalties at the same time.

I have been able to control cities with over 60% distance to capital penalties. This gives you time to start getting other happiness buildings as the city grows. Try to keep the taxes as high as possible to inhibit population growth and prevent squalor.

As a note, I have recently taken to destroying EVERY building I can when I take over a city on the fringe of my empire. Always exterminate or enslave the city to help things out as well.

[KyodaiSteeleye]

You're a nice guy, did anyone ever tell you that caravanshaker? ~:eek:

[CaravanShaker]

Lol, I guess those tactics are bit mean to say the least. I still won't use the incendiary pigs, though. I feel sorry for the poor little guys...

[hoof]

Sending thousands of innocent men, women, and children to the sword is ok, but frying a few pigs is a problem?

:)

I wonder if people would hesitate a little more about the "exterminate" button if they had to watch a battle-sequence where the citizens were rounded up and slaughtered...

Of course, that might also "encourage" some players to exterminate more!

[dismal]

It's a game, you know.

And, frankly, it's a game that rewards clicking that extermination button IMO.

[TheDuck]

Sending thousands of innocent men, women, and children to the sword is ok, but frying a few pigs is a problem?

:)

I wonder if people would hesitate a little more about the "exterminate" button if they had to watch a battle-sequence where the citizens were rounded up and slaughtered...

Of course, that might also "encourage" some players to exterminate more!

Personally, I like the smell of cooking bacon, so lit pigs? FINE BY ME.

And the first few times through the campaign I didn't 'exterminate'.. when I first did it I was surprised at the sounds and pop-up.. kinda evil. But now I do it because its expedient game-wise and solves more problems than it creates (which is counter to reality, but its a game after all).

rjk

[Servius]

"And, frankly, it's a game that rewards clicking that extermination button IMO."

Yeah, this may be something to look at too. First of all, it'd be nice to NOT have to destroy every building to help with Culture. I mean, how much of a cultural impact does a baracks really have? I can understand temples of course, but roads, walls, archery ranges...please, those things should be neutral, they should not generate any kind of culture.

Also, on Extermination, we wouldn't need to do that so much if the Sanitation buildings actually REDUCED Squallor, rather than just provide a compensitory 0.5% Happiness bonus. It would also be nice if those unexplained Unrest penalties that never go away could be fixed. Segestica, for instance, permanently has a 15% Unrest penalty, even when I've owned it for 40 years, it has only Julii buildings in it, and there are no nme agents in the city, nor any nme or rebel armies anywhere in the province.

The strategy I take when taking a new city is to Exterminate everyone, destroy all their buildings, rebuild everything I can EXCEPT any of the buildings that make population increase, set the tax rate high enough that Pop. Growth rate is 0%, and garrison it with however many units are required to keep the pop happy. When the population is small it usually doesn't take a big garrison at all. Those cities make money, don't cause me any trouble, but I can't use them to recruit new troops. That's fine, because I have Patavium, and that place just bleeds surplus citizens.

[Simetrical]

First of all, it'd be nice to NOT have to destroy every building to help with Culture. I mean, how much of a cultural impact does a baracks really have? I can understand temples of course, but roads, walls, archery ranges...please, those things should be neutral, they should not generate any kind of culture.
Culture penalties should really be tied to the population, not the buildings. I'd love to see lots of unique cultures that have their own opinions of all the factions . . . you could have a Judean culture that disliked all the factions, for instance, and got furious if you built foreign temples in their cities; and the barbarians could be divided up into one culture for every province, which would only grudgingly accept its own faction as ruler; and the Greeks could have their city-states, and the mysterious People of Rome could be given voice . . . ah, well.

Also, on Extermination, we wouldn't need to do that so much if the Sanitation buildings actually REDUCED Squallor, rather than just provide a compensitory 0.5% Happiness bonus.
What, precisely, is the difference between reducing squalor by one and increasing health by one?

It would also be nice if those unexplained Unrest penalties that never go away could be fixed.
There's nothing to be "fixed"—they're intentional. There's an explanation of unrest right here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=40420), in the Guild's own Ludus Magna. The upshot: spies cause one unrest per point of subterfuge, cities that change hands have 30% unrest that dissipates at the rate of 5% per turn, and—the important part—some settlements have permanent unrest penalties if you aren't their original owner as specified in descr_strat. Segestica, for instance, has a permanent 15% unrest penalty if you aren't the Greek Cities.

-Simetrical