Really need help in the game!!!

[ReluctantSamurai]

While the screen shots illustrate that it can be done, they don't explain the how.

How it's done depends on a lot of things, but there are several ways to manipulate population growth and loyalty.

1. The use of taxes can raise or lower both growth and loyalty. A change of one level of taxes, changes growth by 0.5% and loyalty by 20%. So if you want to encourage growth, lower taxes. Conversely, to slow growth, raise taxes. You may have to add garrison or a high influence governor (influence contributes to population loyalty) to keep loyalty above rebellion if you raise taxes. The Romans get an additional benefit from coliseums to raise happiness, but it does cost 400 denarii to hold monthly games. There is an excellent discussion in the Ludus Magna concerning the effect of garrison.

2. Temple choice plays a part in ZPG, but using a law & order temple (for those factions that have them) isn't always necessary. In the above Brutii campaign, Thermon, Larissa, and Croton all have the Mars Temple, Corinth has the Artemis Temple, and Sparta has the original Nike Temple it had when I captured it. Distance to capital, and culture penalties play a large part in determining which temples to use. The greater the distance-to-capital & culture penalties, the more important it is to use a law & order temple.

3. A general rule-of-thumb that I use is: if the population is <1000, use low taxes, build a fertility temple (if available), and do not train units from that city until a population of 2k is reached. Between 2k and 6k, I like to see the population growing at a 2 or 3% rate. This enables you to have the time to build most of the structures you can build for that city before the next level of governing building is required. Between 6k and 12k, I like to see growth at 1.5-2% for the same reasons just mentioned. At around 20k, some cities will slow to 0.5% growth. If it's a city that I wish to see reach 24k, then I build the highest level of farming available, and add things like sewers and public baths (all of which encourage growth). If I still cannot reach 24k, but am only a few hundred short, I'll ship in peasants from another city and disband them to reach the 24k. Also, this is where a governor with growth traits, or growth ancillaries come in handy.

In any case, there is no 1...2...3... method to it. There are a lot a variables including faction, temple selection, distance-to-capital, culture penalty, garrison, and many others. But you have ways to manipulate things your way. Use every single one of them!

[Morgoth101]

Thanks a lot, ReluctantSamurai! These posts have helped! But one thing: the culture penalty can't be completely removed from the foreign cities you capture, right? I mean, only destroying the existing temple won't work, will it? There's bound to be SOME amount of culture penalty, however low it is. The same for squalor(I'm referring to squalor in big cities only). It's bound to come up sometime, even after building the sanitation buildings.

Oh yes, and another thing I didn't ask: what about ships? Most of them are kinda expensive, so how many ships and how many fleets would normally be enough for controlling the seas? Also, sometimes, in the Julii campaign, even tiremes or quinquiremes aren't enough for me to fight Carthage's ships. In another campaign, for Pontus, I could easily defeat Egyptian or Carthaginian or Seleuicid navies with a 3-4 biremes and a tireme. It was confusing.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Culture penalty is mostly hard-coded. The greater the difference between your culture and the one you're fighting (Romans vs. an Eastern faction, as an example) the greater the penalty. A small amount of that can be alleviated by building temples from your culture, and new buildings and upgrades to existing ones help lessen the difference. But you cannot completely get rid of it. That's why I stress law & order temples when faced with a growing distance-to-capital, and inherent culture penalties. As long as you get to ZPG, you will not have any rebellion problems from even a vastly different culture.

The amount of fleets needed is quite variable. As a barbarian faction, I never build a single boat other than what may be required to shorten troop transport distances. Since fleet battles are auto-resolved, you obviously cannot fight them yourself. Sea battles are another area in RTW where the designers chose to ignore all basic rules-of-engagement that have been used since the Avalon Hill & SSI board games days. It's frustrating to attack a fleet loaded with army, only to have it retreat in the direction it was headed anyways, and right through all ZOC's (Zones of Control).

Winning control of the seas is another reason for building shipyards and dockyards as soon as you can afford them. If your ships are larger, you stand a better chance of winning. Early on, when my enemies fleet sizes are quite large, I attack with multiple fleets from different directions, trying to isolate one fleet at a time. This usually results in victory and a follow-up attack will further reduce the enemy fleet size. Try to surround an isolated enemy fleet. If you can catch one up against a land mass, it won't require as many ships as having to place a ship at all eight points of the compass in the open sea. If you win, the fleet has nowhere to retreat and is destroyed, no matter how many ships are left in it.

Also, if you get an armory in a port city, immediately upgrade the armor rating on all of your ships. This will give you an advantage in battles. The Scipii get two types of quinquireme not available to any other faction...the Corvus, and the coolest-looking, and deadliest quinquireme in the game...the Decere. Playing with those two dreadnoughts is the only reason I ever play the Scipii.

Getting the Corvus requires an awesome Temple of Neptune, and the Decere requires the Neptune temple at pantheon level. Both are worth the expense, as they capable of sinking other ships outright. With gold armor upgrades from the Vulcan temple, and a pile of experience chevrons, they are unstoppable. The Temple of Neptune has the added possibility of giving one of your admirals the Priest of Neptune ancillary which grants 2 command stars. I have, on occasion, gotten the Shipwright, Seamaster, and Priest of Neptune for a new admiral, giving him 5 command stars!

In any case, armor up, and gang up on enemy fleets. Good luck, admiral

[TosaInu]

I sometimes recruit peasants in fast growing cities and migrate them to small cities, there I disband them. This keeps fast growing cities smaller and accelerates development (1st population raise) in the small cities. The downside is that it costs some money.

[Morgoth101]

I usually do that peasant disband thing for cities which grow really slow(or, at least they grow very slow in my game) like Salona or Segestica. This also helps reduce population in overly populated cities like Carthage and Syracuse, from where I get the peasants. I board 20 units of peasants on a fleet, sail around to cities where I need more population, disembark the peasants, and disband them once they are in the city.

Once again, thanks TosaInu, ReluctantSamurai, and Lord Reid of Britannica! I didn't expect the thread to come this far! I think you guys have cleared all my questions in this awesome game!