The RTW II Economy - Research, Tips and Strategies

[mbrasher1]

One other helpful tip is to closely look at your faction's available temples. Since each province has a high likelihood of having alot -- probably more than anything other building type -- you should know their bonuses, and especially, know which temples give you buffs for no squalor or p.o. The Hellenistic temples that have the food are way better than Roman Neptune temples, IMO.

[Bramborough]

I can see how to make a province making 4000/turn by focusing on cultural buildings and commerce, but I haven't seen the benefit of an industrial focused income province. There simply are too few industrial buildings, and having the bonus-giving buildings does not make sense when the base industrial income is so low. The ag bonus buildings rarely give much extra income (usually because base ag wealth is fairly low) and I don't build the farms for the cash but for the food.

Can anyone give advice on the slave trader city center buildings?

The Roman amphora factory is pretty potent, as it boosts both agriculture and commercial.

Have never built a slave-line city center so can't comment on that, as generally I avoid having any slaves in my economy at all. I just don't think they're worth the public order headache.

[Myth]

The Amphora factory is worth it if you build it in a large (3-4) settlement province with at least 3 docks in it and if you have 12 PO to spare. For example, if you end up building a Circus Maximus in Africa, you'll have more PO than you can use up, so slapping that Amphora Factory there makes sense.

The Brickworks line gives huge (600 raw) income from industry - more than what the barbs get for sure! It's useful to build that in a small, land-locked province. For example, a province with 2 settlements (1 capital, 1 minor) which will not be able to use up even the basic PO you can sustain in the main city. 600 raw income is nothing to sneeze at if you have PO to spare.

I haven't tried the culture for money approach, though it was in the back of my mind for when I get to play Athens (for historical and RP reasons). I've always felt partial to Athens.

[mbrasher1]

I haven't tried the culture for money approach, though it was in the back of my mind for when I get to play Athens (for historical and RP reasons). I've always felt partial to Athens.[/QUOTE]

Yep, the Greek/successor states get some great 100% culture income bonuses that quickly make buildings cash cows.

[andrewt]

I haven't tried the culture for money approach, though it was in the back of my mind for when I get to play Athens (for historical and RP reasons). I've always felt partial to Athens.

Yep, the Greek/successor states get some great 100% culture income bonuses that quickly make buildings cash cows.[/QUOTE]

Yup! For Carthage, the Melqart line gives culture income and a huge percentage increase to maritime commerce income. I combine that with the Tanit line that gives public order and a huge bonus to culture income. I haven't done the math but I suspect I can replace the Amphorae Factory or either of the wine/grain market lines and/or then replace the Odeon with the Melqart line. Might come out on top in terms of income.

[mbrasher1]

To get great wealth in Rome 2, you need a good base income on top of which you should apply strong modifiers.

For example, in a 4 city prov, Egypt can produce 4 royal tombs giving 200 cultural wealth for the level 3 buildings and 400 for the level 4. That can equal a base of 1000 cultural wealth, which benefits from generous bonuses in the tech tree and from other city center buildings. Tech can give a further 40%, the wine trader line 100%, and your base city building usually increase it another 30-100%.

Likewise, a good 4 city coastal prov like Africa can get to 1800 from commerce (600 from local and 1200 from maritime commerce). Three Roman L3 Neptune temples and a single L4 Neptune will yield a bonus of 100% to the maritime commerce. The base city building is good for another 30-100%. The Carthaginian Melgart temple will give even higher bonuses (up to 145% of the base maritime commerce). You would have to deal with the food loss from the high level ports and Neptune buildings.

Ag wealth is less dramatic, as the base ag income is lower. Take Aegyptus, one of the best ag provinces in the game. With 3 L4 farms and a bread and games edict, you can gross 60 food. You need at least 2 Serapis temples (giving +8 po for -4 food). The farms and the cities give you about 400 in ag wealth. You can get bonuses of 120% from two Isis temples. But even with the best ag provinces, with the best ag temple line, and with the use of an edict, the wealth total is still small. A lot of city center buildings give ag bonuses, but the base is just too small to run up real numbers. Even so, I am not building farm or ag provinces for the wealth, but for the food.


Industry? Many provs have a base of 100-300 industry in the city center. You can add further to the base with industry buildings, but there are only two and they can only be built in the leading city of a prov. The amphora and brick lines max out at 750 income (600 for the brick and 150 for the amphora). So you could get to a base 1000 income solely from industry. Bonuses of up to 100% can be found at 4 temples of Hephaistos/Vulcan.

It may be possible in the late game to get 4 ports, 2 industry buildings, and 4 temples to benefit each (Roman temples of Vulcan/Neptune) in a province like Africa. The income per turn would be huge. The temples would take care of the squalor but you'd be out alot of food.

[Hooahguy]

Apparently ctrl-m allows you to merge units, just in case people didnt know.

[Slaists]

Do we know if the general/statesmen promotion bonuses apply only when the promoted character is leading an army or also when the character is in the role of a statesman?

[Bramborough]

Do we know if the general/statesmen promotion bonuses apply only when the promoted character is leading an army or also when the character is in the role of a statesman?

Good question. Most of the bonuses would only be useful for a general anyway, but I suppose some of the civic bonuses could potentially apply to the home province when the character is cooling his heels in the capital. I've never thought to look.

I'm pretty sure that any +gravitas bonus does continue to work. I had an other-family general that was getting a bit too high, so I decided to send him home so he'd stop getting victories. Likewise, sometimes I've parked armies on garrison duty because they were commanded by generals whom I didn't want to get any more ranks & gravitas. Neither tactic worked...they kept building gravitas regardless.

[Slaists]

some of those bonuses have faction-wide economic implications. So, would be really nice if they worked in the capital lol.

As to AI's. I feel, the biggest problem the AI has is not what to build in its provinces (which gets done instantly by script anyway), but rather what to do when the AI gains or loses territory. Conquering a high culture, no food region tends to put the AI in the deficit and at that point it seems to starve. I guess, the script does not foresee these situations (and proper building downgrades to solve the deficit). The same problem seems to exits for cases when the AI loses some critical territory (this is especially true for Rome and Carthage; I guess, for Egypt too, but I have never been close enough to observe what happens right before they get wiped).

Once an AI faction is starving, it is a practically dead until another, healthy, AI faction (or the player) comes along. Then, it's an easy win for the newcomer since the starving armies are 1/10th strength. Then, rinse repeat: the winner probably is the starving one now...

Funny, once I saw Sparta starving (after they conquered Apollonia). I took Apollonia from them and a few turns later they came back with healthy armies.

[al Roumi]

...but rather what to do when the AI gains or loses territory."

As I've mostly romped through Spain & Gaul as Rome or Carthage, I've seen the same. I wonder whether it's the AI not haveing the cash to re-purpose buildings, but maybe it's the coding as releasing troops untill only a supportable number are retained is a pretty basic choice and doesn't cost anything.

When a faction looses a bread-basket province through revolt, it is interesting to see the capital and edifice of their state (armies) crumble. I like the food supply mechanic but not the fact that, again, CA have delivered an AI which isn't up to playing the game with the same set of rules and moves at its disposal as the player.

[SwordsMaster]

It could be that the AI tries to 'convert' faction buildings to theirs, but if its tech level hasn't reached the required one for that building level it can't. Or it could be that when it gets a province specialised in temples, for instance, it converts them to its own culture buildings, but does not replace them with buildings from another chain.

[Slaists]

As I've mostly romped through Spain & Gaul as Rome or Carthage, I've seen the same. I wonder whether it's the AI not haveing the cash to re-purpose buildings, but maybe it's the coding as releasing troops untill only a supportable number are retained is a pretty basic choice and doesn't cost anything.

When a faction looses a bread-basket province through revolt, it is interesting to see the capital and edifice of their state (armies) crumble. I like the food supply mechanic but not the fact that, again, CA have delivered an AI which isn't up to playing the game with the same set of rules and moves at its disposal as the player.

At least in the previous versions of TW games, the AI was getting considerable cash bonuses on harder campaign difficulty (my campaign is on VH for example). If that mechanism is continued here, the problem for the AI is not the cash but the food. Also, related to that issue: cash does not seem to be the problem for the AI since when it conquers a province with low level buildings, that province gets instant high level (food consuming) builds the very next turn. So the problem seems with the coding as to how to upgrade/whether it's reasonable to upgrade a conquered province. Also, what to do when a province is lost.