AI managed cities better in M2TW

[Philbert]

In RTW, I always chose the option to manage all cities, independant on whether there was a general/governor present or not.
In my current, first M2TW campaign, I intended to do so as well, but apparently misclicked or something, so I am stuck with having the AI do it.

I noticed a number of improvements however in M2TW that make this less stressful than it used to be:

Buildings are now being paid for at the moment construction actually starts
this means that you can set up a long construction queue without paying for all of them. They will be paid for when their construction starts. In fact, you can even select a building as first in your queue that you cannot afford now. It will appear in the red and will not be built this turn, but construction will start next turn, provided that you have enough funds then.
Even when no governor is present, you can switch the order of buildings in your build queue, giving you a large amount of control. If you desperately need funds to build in a strategic settlement, you can move an expensive building elsewhere back in the queue in favour of a cheaper building, and it will refund you the cash for the expensive one, so you can build your building anyway.
The same things apply to the unit queue.


Even though this has become better than it used to be in RTW, next campaign I am definitely going to manage everything myself again, because then I no longer have to run around my governors anymore, which makes me lose a lot of kudos for completed buildings.

[EKKM]

You can't maange the recruitment and construction in M2TW unless you have a governor (or if you can I am going to be pissed).

[Carl]

You can, when you start a new campaign look for a button marked "manage all settelments at the very bottem (just to the left of the start button and above the "show CPU moves button". Click it so it's ticked and away you go.

[ezoons]

Philbert: All these things were in place in MTW. If RTW was different, I don't understand CA's reasoning for scrapping them.

EKKM: yes, you can manage cities w/o governors. Just make sure you choose to "manage all cities" in the game options and after that, uncheck "automanage construction/unit production" in each city without a governor.

[Philbert]

I'm pretty sure that in RTW you pay for buildings on order. Maybe the meddling with the build queue was also possible in RTW, but if you have paid for the buildings already it makes less sense.

I'll experiment with RTW when I get the chance.

[sbroadbent]

I'm pretty sure that in RTW you pay for buildings on order. Maybe the meddling with the build queue was also possible in RTW, but if you have paid for the buildings already it makes less sense.

I'll experiment with RTW when I get the chance.

RTW: Buildings and Units are paid for when put into the build queue.
M2TW: Buildings and Units are paid for when it's their turn in the build queue.

In MTW, the game randomly determines what starts building if you don't have enough cash to cover all training and building costs. I presume it prioritizes unit construction before buildings though. I definately prefer M2TW since you can put whatever you want into the build queue, but it will only pay for what is up next. Also, you can decide if you suddenly need something to build by emptying other queues to "recover" the cash, and then everything else added afterwards gets put on hold.