Rome 2 Tips and un-/under-documented features

[Slaists]

A little tip if it's not well known already - culture researches give a massive income boost. 20% in wealth from culture can ramp up income considerably.

That's if you have a plenty of regions and culture buildings. At that point though, any tech giving any bonus to any wealth [or reducing corruption] will ramp up income considerably.

[edyzmedieval]

That's if you have a plenty of regions and culture buildings. At that point though, any tech giving any bonus to any wealth [or reducing corruption] will ramp up income considerably.

True, but focusing a bit on culture will definitely give a handy boost in the short term once you pass the halfway mark in your campaign.

[Slaists]

It's not clear to me whether +20% from culture applies to only culture type wealth (libraries, etc.) or to the aggregate wealth. Hmm, have to re-test this.

Naval commerce and boosts to it from techs and temples is what usually turns out to be the biggest cash cow in my campaigns. Sometimes even a 3-region, 2 port province (with stacked temple effects) can generate in excess of 10K income per turn especially after the civil war when one can reduce global corruption via the empire government decision.

One trick with naval commerce is that one has to control all the ports that are located in the sea-zone(s) of the commerce province. Even an ally controlled port causes a significant reduction in the naval commerce income. An enemy controlled port (or enemy stacks present in the sea-zone) will have a dramatic impact.

[Sp4]

So that is actually still in the game?

I didn't realise. Over all their streamlining, they've made the whole income thing really really complicated, with percentages heaped upon more percentages and modifiers. I kind of miss the settlement scroll that told you this settlement is making X amount of money because of Y, Z and S. (Yes, I know there exists a window that tells you that but seriously... has anyone ever bothered to sit down with a calculator or a spreadsheet or something to try and figure out the best possible way to build a settlement? Actually, no, don't answer that, I am sure someone does do that sort of thing but it is not very 'streamlined' or anything. If I can't be bothered with it, there must be thousands of players who can't be bothered and just take a new province and go... Farm Farm Farm Farm Farm Culture Conversion Temple, forget about region for the rest of the game)

[Slaists]

Yeah, it is still in the game (stacking and naval commerce effects).

Hover your mouse over a sea-zone where you have presence. A tool-tip will show up telling you exactly what affects your naval commerce income. This is separate from trade, by the way. I have seen huge jumps in income as I clear sea zones or obtain full control of a zone.

As to econ stacking: as Rome try taking Africa (the province) early and spam trade ports + Neptune temples + temples of Mercury + a slave market + max city centers there (you'll need food surplus from somewhere else to do this). Once done, stick in a dignitary [for extra tax]. The province is a cash cow with its 4 ports. Mauritania is very good too.

Factions have different stacking schemes though since the bonuses of temples and econ buildings vary. Also, combinations of maxed out city centers with resource production + edicts can have interesting stacking benefits.

On top of that, diplo considerations can lead to different solutions. Playing as Carthage, for example, Tarraconensis turned out to be my cash province (it has only 2 ports and 3 regions) while I left Africa under Lybian control and Mauritania under Nova Carthago.

Trade is also an interesting beast. There are buildings that boosts trade income. What the building description does not tell you is that the boost applies to your global trade, not just the trade from the province you build the building in. So, as you grow, spamming trade buildings can become a very viable option.

All in all, I personally like RTW 2 income system better than any previous TW games. There are many ways to develop. I agree it all is poorly explained though.

@edyzmedieval, I did some checking on the culture bonus mentioned earlier. It seems, it applies only to the part of the wealth generated by culture buildings, nothing else. Take a look at this pic of Rome. The tooltip shows breakdown of wealth for Rome itself.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In this case, the base wealth for Rome is shown as 700 coming from subsistence (the city center). There is a 32% bonus applied to it to result in total wealth for Rome of 924. This bonus comes entirely from the city center buildings (20% from Rome itself and 12% from one of the minor town centers; 20% + 12% = 32%). There is no extra +20% bonus from culture even though I have the tech.

In another province where I had a library, there was a 20% bonus applied to the wealth from the library (not to the wealth coming from other sources).

So, in order for one to see a substantial increase from the culture tech, the empire needs a heavy emphasis on culture producing buildings. By the way, temples in most cases do not provide culture wealth. At least, the Roman ones don't.

[edyzmedieval]

Since my only very advanced campaign is with Carthage, the temples of Baal-Hammon offer a culture bonus, which means that the 20% culture boost applied in pretty much every one of my provinces.

[Slaists]

Since my only very advanced campaign is with Carthage, the temples of Baal-Hammon offer a culture bonus, which means that the 20% culture boost applied in pretty much every one of my provinces.

There you go, that explains it :)

My example was for Rome. I think only one Roman temple gives culture income and it is not the most popular to use.