I'm Strugling with settlement management :(

[SGT-Snail]

I have had to restart my campaign several times now just out of frustration with the settlement management system. I like to play as Scipii, and I usually take Sciccily without too many hiccups. but as the game progresses tiny little empire just crumbles in on itself due to recession and being un able to provide adequate troops and troops types to defeat the carthaginians.

I always massacre each settlement I take over to reduce the cultural difference and curb the squalor down etc. I try to build nearly every turn, I build sewers, baths etc etc however it's only a matter of time untill the squalor sky rockets and most of my cities fall into the recession and I am unable to progress my military efficiently. For me the settlement manage is just ruining the game for me. I find it very frustrating and is ultimately putting me off playing the game completely. What am I doing wrong?

:(

[Darth Feather]

what difficulty setting are you playing on?

I suppose you are referring to the large squalor mostely in Carthage.
In my opinion, sometimes the solution might be: break down the baracks, put tax on very high, evacuate your army, and let the settlement rebel. Then the senate will probably give you the message to take it back in exchage for something like a minor exotic unit and then you can exterminate it again, the squalor is often caused by too large population count.

Hope this helped

[rickinator9]

If you mean low income with your recession, I bet the low income is caused by high troop upkeep. Don't garrison those cities with troops who should be in the field, garrison them with cheap units, in Scipii's case, the town guard and the peasants. The boost caused by a garrison is calculated by numbers, not skill.

I have to say I find the Scipii the most boring of the Roman factions. You will have a nice campaign in the beginning, but once you have taken Carthage(the city), you'll have to walk through the desert for like 20 turns. The remaining Carthaginians will just keep harassing you unless you take the desert provinces.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I always massacre each settlement I take over to reduce the cultural difference and curb the squalor down etc.

Except in a few rare instances, this is a mistake, IMHO. Why, you might ask? More people=more tax income. Yes you get a quick shot of income from looting, but in the long run you hurt yourself by extermination. I've linked to a discussion in another thread about a topic that concerns ZPG (Zero Population Growth). This is what you strive for. If you look at the screenies I provided in that link, you'll see that it's quite possible to achieve ZPG even in Carthage.

Post a screen shot or two and we can go from there......

[ReluctantSamurai]

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...lation-Loyalty

This is the main discussion...the other concerns family members with huge amounts of money in the coffers.

Look in the "I'm having trouble" thread for the other.

[Vincent Butler]

The Scipii are interesting, and I believe the worst of the Romans to play as, a campaign can very quickly bog down, too little settlements and not money-making ones at that. If you take the other towns very quickly there should be no need to exterminate, you can move the screen and see their current happiness level. That is what I use, typically, to determine what I do with a settlement. If it is a town or small town I almost never exterminate. Destroying their temples helps, especially if you exterminate, and then building your own. You might see a temporary shift downward in happiness, but as you improve the temples that should change. I usually only take the coastal towns as the Scipii, leaving Dimmidi and Nepti for later, and I head toward Egypt. Dimmidi riots pretty quickly, and Nepti grows slloooowwwwllllyyyy. I will either use mercenary armies or all-cav armies to deal with the small bands of enemies. Carthage usually boils for a while, then stays in the blue happiness mode. Also, they may have a spy. Many times if a settlement is unhappy I train a spy, and the next turn I kick an enemy spy out of the settlement and they are happy again.