City/Economy Management

Are there any gameplay guides on managing your cities and economy?

I've noticed a few posts on the forum recently asking questions about various aspects like building schools, destroying buildings etc. These questions have provided a good insight for a new guy like me but have left me feeling that I'm missing out on a good part of the game at present. I can deal with the basic premise of the game, build an army, wander off capture some places etc etc but after destroying the government buildings and building my own the whole city management just becomes a random selection of what seems a good idea or if the description of the building seems interesting :inquisitive:

Most of the gameplay guides focus on strategic approaches for different factions and these have provided good reading and great insight but I'd like to get a greater insight into the detail of city management. Is there such a guide or do I just have to do it the hard way be becoming a seasoned campaigner and learning from mistakes?

Apart from reading the guides, which you have, the only advice I can give is to start with an easy faction, such as the Romani. Their economy is reasonably good from the outset and only gets better, allowing you to experiment.

Focus on trade, roads and ports. Mines wherever they are available. (Apparently, the Senate forbade mining in Italy, so for roleplay reasons, I often avoid building mines in Rhegion, when playing the Romani.) Look at your army composition. How many of the more expensive units do you really need?

Do you need to encroach on that neighbour with whom you have traderights? Ask how much a war, and thereby loss of trade, will cost you. Can you afford it?

It is a learning experience, because there aren't too many fixed answers. It depends alot on your style of play.

Have high tax where possible, not only is the extra income pretty sweet but my govenors seem to gain management levels much faster

I find 'very high tax' less and less viable as the distance to Capital increases...I guess that's part of the management.

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I find 'very high tax' less and less viable as the distance to Capital increases...I guess that's part of the management.

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I agree.

There are exceptional though, some cities far from capital are happy enough to allow very high tax .....

If you built enough happiness and law buildings then it can be compensation to the very high tax...

It's like Taedius said how you build your economy depends a lot on your style of play. I prefer (like in all games were this tactic works) to invest all money I can get to build my economy up first. I often fight only with levies or medium troops because I build nearly no barracks in the first time of a campaign. I really hate it when I don't have the money to build in all cities without a break.
If you play with huge units like me the growth of your cities is really important. I usually build drainages and healers at first often followed by farming "buildings". Every health bonus will increase pop. growth with 0,5% and public order with 5% and a farming bonus will increase pop. growth with 0,5% and provide some more farming income. That's because I prefer health bonus in cities with lower public order.
As trade is a really important part of your income you should build trade ports and paved roads as fast as possible. There are some provinces where trade income is low and you may prefer to build other things first. To test the effect of a building open the city details and then click on the building, that's the best way to see how much it will benefit you.
As your empire grows the corruption will become a proplem since it increases with the distance of a city to the capital. That's why buildings (especially temples) with law bonus become more important because the law bonus lowers corruption. I prefer to build the temples with the best happiness and law bonus in nearly all provinces.
Mines provide a good income especially in provinces with 2 or 3 gold/silver veins, if you have the money and time to build them, do it.

I hope this will help you a little bit.

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Originally Posted by Rahl

I hope this will help you a little bit.

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It helps an awful lot, thank you very much. Just the type of insight I was looking for, really appreciate it.

Thanks :balloon3:

Recently I've found myself RP'ing building so that it doesn't necessarily come down to what I would want in that province to help gameplay wise but rather what would be built first by my faction. For example, playing as Epiros right now, in Italy I would build garrisons quickly to help control Italic populaces. In barbaric provinces like Illyria I build the structures which introduce Epirotes to the provinces in return for border protection. Once the province is pacified I can upgrade barracks to build a local garrison, and then economic buildings such as roads, ports, markets etc.