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Thread: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

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    Strategist and Storyteller Senior Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II



    Getting started with Rome II

    So you got Rome II, installed it, patched it and are ready to seek glory in the ancient world! But you're stumped - everything is different! What is going on? You haven't played since Rome 1, or Medieval 2. Or maybe you played a lot of Shogun 2 but the changes to the food system don't make sense to you. Then read up and feel free to experiment (and contribute) to this mini guide.

    For the purposes of this guide I will assume that:

    - You know how to play the game (ie. move on the campaign map, lead battles, recruit units, conduct diplomacy etc.)
    - You have played through the introduction campaign if you are a brand new player

    I will illustrate what and how to do with the Roman faction (because this is Rome II: Total War, and because we must bring glory to the S.P.Q.R.!) but once you get the hang of it, you can easily transfer your knowledge to another faction with minimal adjustments based on their building and tech trees. I'm playing the game on Legendary so if you are playing on an easier difficulty you might find your faction more rich or stable and thus adjust accordingly.

    Note: some of these things might and probably will be changed with subsequent patches. The guide is valid as of patch 1 and will be updated if/when I discover discrepancies with the most current patch.

    So you start with Rome and some other cities, a couple of armies and a nice weak enemy faction to the north of your borders. I won't tell you how to do things step-by-step as I abhor cookie cutter guides. I will tell you WHY to do these things, and you will then decide how to play the game.

    The advantages the Roman faction has (I would go with Junia for the PO and farming bonus):

    - Very disciplined and high morale/high defence units. Your guys will rarely rout unless faced wtih really bad odds or you make a lot of mistakes. Once you get to Pretorians you will really have to work hard to get them to rout on you.
    - Incredibly strong economy: you start in some of the richest provinces (or have early access to them). Italia, Magna Graecia, Africa, Lybia and Aegyptus are some of the top provinces out there. They have 3-4 ports per province, they have lots of grain, olive oil and wine.
    - You will have no public order problems due to the buildings available to your faction.
    - Your central position means you can expand everywhere you like.


    I willl suggest that, for the start of the game, you chose one general from your family. If you don't have a general from your family - recruit one using the raise forces button (recruit him in Rome). if there are none, get an "Other Families" general. Because for the first 10-15 turns you will realistically be able to support only one large army, and it will be getting all the victories. You don't want a rival family getting that glory because you will have no means to counteract that and if your senate support drops you might find yourself in a pickle (unlikely, but possible).

    How to recruit units in a warscape engine TW game

    Move your army ("stack") to the edge of the border of the settlement you plan on conquering (Velathri for starters). Then you recruit (in this case: 3 units of Hastati). Your army can recruit the troops available for that province, regardless of where they are sitting so long as it's within the borders of a settlement belonging to the province. So if Rome is your main production center, you can raise your legionaries in any settlement belonging to the Rome province.

    I suggest disbanding all the Vigiles units in your starting armies - there is no need to pay their upkeep and food, they are useless at this stage (and probably at all other stages as well). If you need more skirmishers, make use of the superior Veites units.

    When/if you recruit a new general make his unit a Triarii unit, as they just do not die to early Etruscan/Carthaginian troops. Same if you've unlocked Legionaires.

    After you recruit your Hastati and have consolidated your forces in a single stack, move in and take the two settlements from the Etruscan league, thus completing the province of Roma. Move on to the isles to your west and finish the Etruscans off. By this time, especially if you're the Junii who get a diplomatic penalty, Carthage will dislike you severely and might have already declared war. That's OK - go and take Karalis if you haven't already, thus completing Corsica et Sardinia as a province.

    As the Romans, early on it makes total sense to run Bread & Games as an edict. Really, you can't go wrong with public order and food. Plus you don't have the necessary infrastructure to warrant boosting it with an edict.

    Technology: what to get and why

    At turn 1 start on Supply reforms. Beeline to Cohort Organisation.

    > > >

    This should take you around 10 turns. Reasoning: this gets you Pretorians/Legionaries with a max level barracks at that tech level. These troops are absolutely sufficient for a good while (and probably for the entire game if you like). Once you can, return your main stack and upgrade your Hastati/Principes to their counterpart legionary units.

    Choose a single unit production center to start with. This has to be a province that will be mainly dedicated to making units only. It will get a negative public order due to the high-end military structures, so you will have little room to add other uses for it. It will also end up consuming food if it's smaller than 3 minor settlements. I highly recommend Roma or Brundisium in such a case, as they centrally located and they are 4 settlement provinces.

    Let's say you choose Roma for your legion recruitment center.

    In Neapolis get as high a Barracks as possible and get as high an Auxiliary Garrison as possibe. In Rome itself get a Temple to Mars and upgrade it as high as you can. Once you get to the Training Camp, add two to Rome as minor settlements can't build this line of strutures. The bonuses from different training camps stack, so yu can have an armidoctor and another one to taste.Workshop can be added as well to another minor settlement once you have the neccessary tech, and then a second one (one weapons focus, one armour focused). The other minor cities should be dedicated to the usual food+trade. As you add more military buildings in Neapolis, add more Public Order buildings in Rome proper to counteract their negative effects. A later goal would be to dedicate your legionnaire producing province to full time war production, meaning that you will distribute your buildings as follows:

    Rome: Tier 4 temple to Mars, Colosseum, 2 x tier 4 training fields
    Minor settlement 1: Tier 4 barracks, Tier 3 temple to Mars
    Minor settlement 2: Tier 4 weapons smith, Tier 3 temple to Mars
    Minor settlement 3: Tier 4 armour smith, Tier 3 temple to Mars

    The bonuses from the temples stack when they are built in different settlements of the same province. This setup will consume an ungodly amount of food and thus you should aim for it only later in the game when you have vast food surplases and lots of towns with the grain resource upgraded to tier 3/4. The benefits will be 5 experience levels for the leginoaires (6 if you count the faction bonus for Rome), maxed out weapon/armour/ bonuses and around 50% morale bonus (not counting the morale boost from experience). This will trn your legionnaires into supermen.

    Also, the unique advantage to Rome is the availability of Auxillary troops. Building an axillary barracks on Crete for example (where the minor faction of Knossos resides), would provide Cretan Archers at tier 4. Building one in select provinces in Africa would give you elephants and so on. Explore the options as you play.

    Once you get your army tech down, get these in this order:

    Land Management > Tax Labour > Water Sluicing

    > >

    Reason: 3 growth per city for free is great. It's essentially free food for cities, and it's very easy to get this tech.

    From here on, research tech as you need it. Improve your buildings. I highly recommend Concrete so you can get a Gladiator School as it's a very advantageous building to have for province development and it's unique to the Romans (others have similar buildings but none have such a high bonus to PO!). From here on, get the tech to upgrade your minor settlements, farms and sewage systems as needed.

    Attacking Cartage, adding more legions:

    You should be able to steamroll Carthage, your units are vastly superior and the AI minor faction in Africa actually weakens Carthage quite a bit by the time you get to them. Consolidate the African provinces to the best of your ability and trade with as many factions as you can (but that won't be too many at this stage). I advise against picking a fight wit Syracuse as their armies are actually better than what Carthage or Egypt will field. Attack them after you can dedicate two legions to the fight.

    Province development:

    As Rome (and indeed any mediterranean faciton) you get acces to the Trading Port line of buildings. The barbarians don't have that. Threfore, it is folly not to use the increased trading income from those! Everyone can get fish, but only some can get a vast naval trade network.

    I'll talk about minor settlements first as their development is easier. Go for level II Farms, Level II livestock and a level II trading port in all of them.

    Only upgrade settlements that produce a resource, prioritizing those that produce grain and fish as they add food instead of consuming it (mouse over your settlement icon to see what it says. If it says Roman Hamlet (Grain) or (Olives) etc. upgrade it. If it says (Market) DO NOT UPGRADE IT. Not at first anyway. Later on, once you have a firm grasp on the food supply and demand of your empire, you may choose to upgrade choice settlements to get better income and roads.)

    Why I advise you get trading ports everywhere you can and not fishing ports: early on growth is not that important and you can't eat all your food because you can't keep recruiting units and refurbishing conquered settlements with buildings of your own culture. Because your legions get very experienced very fast with fighting and champion training, and because with a tier 3 barracks and the appropriate tech you are vastly outclassing your enemies, you will be very effective even with just two legions at this stage.

    Thus the extra food only brings growth, but you can't make use of that growth unless you have the money to get the extra buildings. Later on, if you start running into food issues and subsequently, you already get a lot of gold per turn, feel free to convert your trading ports to fishing ones.

    How to add extra buildings and where

    At the start it's more beneficial to have more slots in your minor settlements as they are cheaper. Adding +1 to three settlements is cheaper than adding the fifth slot in the capital. And the minor settlements are what gives you food and money at this stage.

    Growth works like this: every province has a growth pool. It's supplied by global food surplus combined with the local factors such as how upgraded the settlements are. There is no point in making your main settlement in the capital province bigger if you have resource producing minor settlements which you will have to upgrade anyway, since they will not only add to your economy but also share their extra growth points with the entire province!

    You start adding extra slots to the provincial capital and getting the high tech buildings there once your minor settlements can support them with food and money.

    OK here is the tricky part - all the minor settlements are producing food from the farms and livestock and money from the trading ports. Those which are making resources you have upgraded to tier 2 or 3 as technology permits (thus increasing the produced grain, fish, leather, olives, glassware and so on. More produced resources = more trade, thus more money.)

    But what to get in the provincial capital? Well the city center line is only available in capitals for one, and most temples are not worth it to be built in minor cities (excluding military provinces and hellenistic factions who have the Temple to Poseidon). Training Camp buildings can also only be built in capitals.

    The first thing to understand is that provincial capitals are good for two things: public order (happiness) and extra stuff. For gold and food, you have minor settlements While technically you can specialize a provincial capital for monetary income (Industry buildings, Town Center line for income, income temple etc.) it doesn't really make sense. You get gold from increasing your total number of owned settlements, not dedicating a provincial capital to pure gold income and thus losing out on extra stuff and eating food for it. Gold will come as you expand, and since the armies are capped (and they are your main expenditure), this the value of gold is diminished the bigger you become. However the value of global bonuses, food and good units is universal.

    To better illustrate how province capital and minor settlement interact, imagine a scale where the provincial capital is on the left, and with it: how happy the people are and what extra bonuses you can get (such as: global bonuses, research bonuses or unit recruitment). On the right of the scale are the minor settlements that bring with them food and money, and eventually - squalor which is negative public order/happiness.

    Take a look at your province as a whole. How you develop it is based on how many minor settlements you have in that province. There is no point in pumping up high tech buildings in the capital if there are only one or two minor settlements to pay for them. The scale will tip to the left and thus other minor settlements elsewhere in your empire will have to help fund them.

    So, the most valuable provinces are the largest ones (naturally). In the smaller ones, only add buildings that grant global bonuses such as the Cloaca Maxima or Circus Maximus and Pantheon and nothing else. I'll get to this later.

    In big provinces wtih 3-4 minor settlements, you can decide what to get in that province. However, you must and should plan according to your faction's specific buildings. Let's look at what Rome gets as advantages over the rest. The first thing that is apparent is that Rome has a whopping 4 tier 5 buildings (other factions have only one, usually a temple). You can't build more than one of these buildings, but their Tier 4 variants are all great as well! Rome has a distinct advantage as far as building infrastructure and public order goes.

    Circus Maximus

    Requires Wine
    Improved Bread & Games edict which is already improved once because you are Roman - a great bonus.
    Global 5% to cavalry morale - awesome bonus
    160 wealth from culture (not bad)
    and 30 public order per turn at NO food cost!!! this is a MASSIVE improvement over the tier 4 building which costs 10 food to give lower bonuses to public order. Absolutely one of the best buildings in the game.

    Where to build it: a rich province with 3 minor settlements and at least two resources. Ideally I would suggest Aegyptus as it has resources in all of its minor settlements and you can use the public order bonus.

    Pantheon

    Requires the Marble resource
    Further improved Bread & Games edict - great!
    +10 to security vs. agent actions (good)
    +14 to latin culture spread (good later on when you can quickly get it and stabilize the whole newly conquered province)
    + 2 global public order (nice)
    + 20 public order at the cost of 10 food.

    So this building grants (among other bonuses) a net of 22 public order for that province in return for 10 food. You see that it can easily counteract some farm/trade port squalor issues and is a prime candidate for building. If stacked with the Circus Maximus you can safely develop a rich province to max resources/food/trade production and have happiness to spare.

    Cloaca Maxima

    The level 5 pooping man (the image in the library is for the level 4 building) e is also a unique Roman advantage building and has some very good bonuses:

    Requires the Lead resource
    Moderate boosts to tax harvesting edict and spread of Latin culture (ok-ish)
    + 12 growth for that province (basically there is no reason to ever upgrade province capital cities if you only need the growth and not the garrisons and money increase, since 12 growth per turn from this baby is more than enough)
    + 3 global growth per turn
    It can be built in a province not dedicated to troop production or sea trade. As a side note, Africa is a great province for ship building as it has 4 ports. Consider making military tier ports there. If not, 4 temples to Poseidon and trading ports will make it a great income province.

    So how do you balance all these. Well, at first you will have level 2 buildings in your minor cities which only produce and don't cost anything in return. At some point you will build a Gladiator School in, let's say Carthage. That gives you 12 public order and drains 4 food. For that 12 public order you can upgrade Lepcus to a Roman Small Town (Grain) as well as get two farms up to Irrigation Ditch level. That will give you 25 food, and when we count the cost of sustaining a Gladiator School, we get a net profit of 21 food which is then distributed across your empire.

    Trading ports, after patch 2, now cost food instead of public order, so most of the times you will keep them at level 2. They are a great source of income however.

    Also, in provinces such as Africa, where you have 4 ports, and where you will have a Circus or other such a high PO boosting building, a port to Neptune will be beneficial as it doesn't consume food and it provices port income boosts. An Amphora Factory must also be considered in such provinces if you have the free slot.

    In smaller regions that don't have ports (let's say a capital and 1 minor settlement) you will probably have excess public order and a tier 2-3 brickworks will be a good investment.

    On the other hand, it doesn't make sense to add the Pantheon in a province that will not be able to make use of the public order it provides when counting in that it will have a Circus Maximus. Also, one slot in your minor settlements (excluding military production centers) should be dedicated to farms. The other slot can be livestock but it can also be a temple that boosts sea trade or industry, depending on how you want to shape the province.

    You should experiment and find the best balance for your empire and don't be squeamish to demolish and rearrange the buildings in newly conquered settlements.

    Also, consider the library class buildings which boost research, as they cost you a slot in the capital an some food, but their tier 3 and 4 variants are great to further your research, and later on can be converted to income oriented city center buildings.

    After conquering Carthage

    You should now be rich enough and strong enough to continue with your conquests. Egypt is a great candidate because of the grain resources there. Greece with it's squabbling nation-states is also a good direction to head to. Remember to always march your legions shoulder to shoulder - two legions on the campaign map are virtually unbeatable most of the time and you can autoresolve all but the most important battles thus you get to streamline your rulership.

    As far as general and agent traits - always take bonuses to campaign movement range first. These are your #1 priority - the further you can go in one turn, the more value that army has. I'd prefer 12% movement bonus to 20% damage any day!

    Use your diplomacy wisely and set up trading partners as all those resources you churn out will make you rich. Also, look at the campaign map and target provinces with resources you might covet.

    Good luck and Roma Victor!
    Last edited by Myth; 12-14-2013 at 11:02. Reason: spelling mistakes
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
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  2. #2

    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Superb, especially in the discussion of economy and building lines. I'm at 50 BC-ish, so roughly 220 turns in, and I see I've been approaching much of this sub-optimally.

    I'll second the comment about barracks & troop levels. As Rome, I don't see a need to go beyond Level III Barracks...actually, maybe even Level II Barracks. I've got most of the map now, about half of it under my direct rule, and another 20-25% of it under client states and allies. So all the "hard" fighting is behind me, it's just a matter of my 15-stack steamroller taking the turns necessary to mop up remaining factions. Throughout the game, I've never needed troops of higher quality than Legionaries & Veteran Legionaries. First Cohorts are basically same as Veteran Legionaries, only some very slight variations in capabilities and cost. Praetorians are better, but not so much better as to justify their increased cost. I've never even bothered to build the Level IV Barracks and haven't even tried the troops recruited from it.

    I do think it's a good idea to build an Auxiliary Barracks in your troop-producing province. First, it gives you the capability to recruit some good spear infantry (which the Roman barracks doesn't provide), useful for flanks and defending siege artillery from meddlesome cavalry. Second, the Italian aux cavalry (I think it's called Socii Equites Extraordinarii?) is MUCH better than the Roman-recruited Equites during the early & middle portions of a battle in flank attacks and breaking lines.

    Fully agree with all comments regarding Circus Maximus and Pantheon. Regarding Cloaca Maxima, I agree that its benefits are also very good. By the time one gets high enough tech to research and build it, however, I'm not sure the growth bonus is all that useful. One's older "core" provinces have probably already maxed out on growth anyway, and the empire is large & rich enough by now that it's really not all that important for newly-conquered provinces to grow at the fastest possible rate. Such new provinces, moreover, have also been developing themselves the entire campaign, and probably don't need the growth. The AI may have built on them stupidly, but the slots are usually all available. This could all be different if one beelines to Cloaca Maxima right after the military line described, and therefore obtain the building much earlier in the campaign...but I'm not so sure this would really be the best tech prioritization.

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  3. #3
    Strategist and Storyteller Senior Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    You may be right about the Cloaca Maxima, however there is nothing much else to build really. If you are expanding in all directions you will end up seeing provinces that have not grown. Also, the AI has food management issues so I speculate that some areas might be underdeveloped.

    About the Auilia Barracks I agree - players should consider it after putting down a training field. I figured that with a barracks, temple to Mars and a training field, and a workshop close by, they'd be far ahead so from then on they're free to do as they deem fit.

    I have to disagree with you on the barracks. First of all, you only need one barracks to start and thus upgrading it isn't a big expense. Also, you can get it after you get your military tech and from then on you start investing similar amounts of money and food in ports and civic buildings. Thus it's not a big amount that you save from not getting it. However I find that the Urbans actually perform better than legionaires. Also, come patch 3, the AI will be a lot more competent and thus I suspect the players will need the edge the urbans provide.

    Now a tier 4 barracks and maxed military techs is a completely different matter, and probably won't do much of a difference when they come up.
    Last edited by Myth; 09-18-2013 at 19:06.
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
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  4. #4

    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Quote Originally Posted by Myth View Post
    I have to disagree with you on the barracks. First of all, you only need one barracks to start and thus upgrading it isn't a big expense. Also, you can get it after you get your military tech and from then on you start investing similar amounts of money and food in ports and civic buildings. Thus it's not a big amount that you save from not getting it. However I find that the Urbans actually perform better than legionaires. Also, come patch 3, the AI will be a lot more competent and thus I suspect the players will need the edge the urbans provide.
    I'll meet you in the middle. While I maintain that there's no real need to progress beyond Veteran Legionaries (in the game's current state), there's also no particularly compelling reason not to max out barracks development either, as it's easily affordable. I will also concede that future AI improvement could well change my opinion on this.

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  5. #5
    Praeparet bellum Member Quillan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    I don't know if my games is bugged, but I don't think it is. I can only build one each of the level 5 buildings. It will not allow me to build a Circus Maximus when one already exists. I built the Colosseum in Rome. I could not build a Circus Maximus there because it only allowed one amphitheater-line building in the city, so I built in Carthago instead. When I completed the Circus, the only upgrade option there was the Circus Maximus, not another Colosseum. Since it finished, I cannot go beyond the Circus in Alexandria. I highly suspect the same will be true of any level V building.
    Age and treachery will defeat youth and skill every time.

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  6. #6

    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Just a small point. You specifically say to build a barracks building in rome, and this is a mistake. Building slots in the provincial capitol are gold dust and the barracks (and auxiliary barracks) can be anywhere in the province and still get all the bonuses. The TEMPLE wants to be in the capitol because it can go to level 5 there, as does the gladiator school ect for those troops, but core barracks buildings, workshop level buildings ect should always be in minor settlements to leave you slots free for public order boosts and training buildings, they are capitol only.
    I was trying to find some help in the ancient military journals of General Tacticus, who's intelligent campaigning had been so successful that he'd lent his very name to the detailed prosecution of martial endeavour, and had actually found a section headed "What To Do If One Army Occupies A Well-Fortified And Superior Ground And The Other Does Not", but since the first sentence read "Endeavour to be the one inside" I'd rather lost heart.

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  7. #7

    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Holy crap. I started reworking a few of my provinces along Myth's recommendations. Not even close to done yet, but already shocked at how much both my food and income are increasing.

    Has become very clear to me that:

    1. I was over-emphasizing public order, specifically by building far too many temples.
    2. I waited WAY too long to research the tech which allows Level IV settlements. I hadn't realized just how high a percentage of income comes from those.

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  8. #8
    Stranger in a strange land Moderator Hooahguy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Reading all of this, Im prompted to rework my provinces as well, Im only making ~850 a turn, pitiful from what I used to be making, which was about ~2k a turn. Somehow it plunged, not sure how though...
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  9. #9
    Praeparet bellum Member Quillan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Quote Originally Posted by Hooahguy View Post
    Reading all of this, Im prompted to rework my provinces as well, Im only making ~850 a turn, pitiful from what I used to be making, which was about ~2k a turn. Somehow it plunged, not sure how though...
    One word: corruption. I made the same mistake early on. I had reached a point where I was making about 8000 per turn, and over ~50 years of peace with no military expansions that shrunk to under 5000 a turn. So then I went to reading and researching, then rebuilding the provinces. After some Philosophy techs (some of them reduce corruption, and the side benefit of completing each trio of techs in a tier is further corruption reduction) that went back up to 8000 per turn. Then when the buildings kicked in it climbed to ~13000 per turn. Now, at 60 regions owned, I'm making nearly 40,000 per turn, with 12 full stack armies and 7 fleets maintained. The Empire bonus corruption reduction has a huge impact, too.
    Age and treachery will defeat youth and skill every time.

  10. #10
    Strategist and Storyteller Senior Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Quote Originally Posted by Quillan View Post
    I don't know if my games is bugged, but I don't think it is. I can only build one each of the level 5 buildings. It will not allow me to build a Circus Maximus when one already exists. I built the Colosseum in Rome. I could not build a Circus Maximus there because it only allowed one amphitheater-line building in the city, so I built in Carthago instead. When I completed the Circus, the only upgrade option there was the Circus Maximus, not another Colosseum. Since it finished, I cannot go beyond the Circus in Alexandria. I highly suspect the same will be true of any level V building.
    Hi and thanks for your feedback. It is possible that level 5 buildings are restricted to 1 total. I haven't gotten that far yet, as I haven't had the time to play beyond 30-40 turns. The guide I did after my initial experience + some planning based on the encyclopedia, where it's not stated that level 5 buildings are restricted. However, even if they are, the principle stays the same.

    Can someone else confirm that level 5 buildings are restricted to one total? It makes little sense to get the technology for those if they are. Also, this might have been changed in Patch 2 (they mentioned high-tier buildings rebalancing)

    Quote Originally Posted by Sociopsychoactive View Post
    Just a small point. You specifically say to build a barracks building in rome, and this is a mistake. Building slots in the provincial capitol are gold dust and the barracks (and auxiliary barracks) can be anywhere in the province and still get all the bonuses. The TEMPLE wants to be in the capitol because it can go to level 5 there, as does the gladiator school ect for those troops, but core barracks buildings, workshop level buildings ect should always be in minor settlements to leave you slots free for public order boosts and training buildings, they are capitol only.
    Except if you want a Tier 4 barracks which I assume most people will, even if they don't NEED it at the moment. Minor settlements being capped to level 3 buildings means you should not invest a barracks there IMO.

    This will work for Rome if you decide that Tier 3 barracks is sufficient, but not for other factions.
    Last edited by Myth; 09-19-2013 at 08:21.
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
    Like totalwar.org on Facebook!

  11. #11

    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Level four barracks in neoplolis of both types.
    I was trying to find some help in the ancient military journals of General Tacticus, who's intelligent campaigning had been so successful that he'd lent his very name to the detailed prosecution of martial endeavour, and had actually found a section headed "What To Do If One Army Occupies A Well-Fortified And Superior Ground And The Other Does Not", but since the first sentence read "Endeavour to be the one inside" I'd rather lost heart.

  12. #12
    Strategist and Storyteller Senior Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Quote Originally Posted by Sociopsychoactive View Post
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Level four barracks in neoplolis of both types.
    Wow, you are right. Barracks are indeed available in minor cities. So, only the temple should be in the captol. Can you confirm if levle 5 buildngs are capped in number? Circus Maximus/Colloseum/Cloaca Maxima and the Pantheon?

    I think the issue might be because they seem to requre/consume resources upon further inspection. Circus Maximus wants wine, the Pantheon wants marble and the Cloaca Maxima wants lead.

    Do the just want you to have them or do they also consume units of the resource?
    Last edited by Myth; 09-19-2013 at 13:17.
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
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  13. #13
    Member Member Oleander Ardens's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Nice guide indeed.

    I think it is important to visualize 3 key economic pools when playing:

    1. Wealth

    2. Food

    3. Public order

    The first two are global and the third is regional and then provincial. Quite often you have to make big trade-offs between them, especially when adjusting the taxes and choosing your buildings. It is not a trivial thing and I'm greatly enjoying the campaign game. Obviously there are also growth, wealth and characters which are all intertwined. Regional ressources and wonders also play a big role.

    I like the way regional/provincial growth and income is related to public order. The higher your public order the bigger the growth and the bigger the income, while a very unhappy province is full of people avoiding work and evading taxes. This great modifier means that the return on investment for level III and IV buildings is often even worse then I first calculated. You have to careful where do you built what to not drain that precious ressource public order. BTW the patch gives you the trend even after hitting 100, which is great. For example Macedonia has a PO of 100 (4) without stationed troops meaning that I can for a bit more disorder to fully skim off that PO growth
    "Silent enim leges inter arma - For among arms, the laws fall mute"
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  14. #14

    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Neapolis



    The guide has some merit, but Neapolis can not have 3 Military buildings. The most you can have is 2 because there is a port there. You can't turn a port into a military building, unless there's a bug I'm unaware of.
    Last edited by Bad213Boy; 09-20-2013 at 01:38.

  15. #15

    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    No, Neapolis (or any other minor settlement) cannot have 3 military bldgs, but it doesn't have to. The workshop can be in a different town of the same province.

  16. #16
    Strategist and Storyteller Senior Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    You are right. This was an edit after the guide was done based on previous feedback and I got overzelous with the buiding icons. It will be fixed.
    Last edited by Myth; 09-23-2013 at 09:23.
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
    Like totalwar.org on Facebook!

  17. #17

    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    I'm interested in thoughts about +tech buildings (and character traits, for that matter). Anybody out there building lots of libraries, +research temples, etc?

    Reworking my province building slots IAW Myth's thoughts zoomed my income through the roof. Works great. (A factor may have been the Patch 2 squalor/food tweaks. It's possible that I had settled on some semi-conscious "building rules" which made sense before Patch 2, and then I didn't adjust afterwards until reading this guide).

    One constant, however, before/after Patch 2, and before/after reading through the OP here, has been that I haven't built any library-line buildings at all, and very few research temples. I just always felt that there were more compelling uses for building slots. As a result, 240ish turns into the campaign, my overall research rate is in the 120's. I haven't finished out the third tier in any of the six research trees. Each of the remaining tier-three techs are requiring 16-18 turns to research, and I've got enough of them left that it would take something like 150 more turns to completely finish out the entire tech tree.

    Is this consistent with others' experiences deep into a campaign, or have I just totally gooned it somehow? Has anyone had success in creating a specialized "research province" or two?

  18. #18
    Strategist and Storyteller Senior Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Quote Originally Posted by Bramborough View Post
    I'm interested in thoughts about +tech buildings (and character traits, for that matter). Anybody out there building lots of libraries, +research temples, etc?

    Reworking my province building slots IAW Myth's thoughts zoomed my income through the roof. Works great. (A factor may have been the Patch 2 squalor/food tweaks. It's possible that I had settled on some semi-conscious "building rules" which made sense before Patch 2, and then I didn't adjust afterwards until reading this guide).

    One constant, however, before/after Patch 2, and before/after reading through the OP here, has been that I haven't built any library-line buildings at all, and very few research temples. I just always felt that there were more compelling uses for building slots. As a result, 240ish turns into the campaign, my overall research rate is in the 120's. I haven't finished out the third tier in any of the six research trees. Each of the remaining tier-three techs are requiring 16-18 turns to research, and I've got enough of them left that it would take something like 150 more turns to completely finish out the entire tech tree.

    Is this consistent with others' experiences deep into a campaign, or have I just totally gooned it somehow? Has anyone had success in creating a specialized "research province" or two?
    I wrote the guide when I had played Patch 1 for one afternoon basically. Glad it's helping people! As I play more R2 I will write a detailed guide similar to frogbeastegg's guide to Shogun 2.

    I make the odd Library here and there if I have a free slot, I think 1 per 4 provinces is a good ratio. I placed a suggestion in my constructive feedback thread that we need an agent that deals with research, be it speeding it or stealing it from other factions.
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
    Like totalwar.org on Facebook!

  19. #19

    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Quote Originally Posted by Myth View Post
    I placed a suggestion in my constructive feedback thread that we need an agent that deals with research, be it speeding it or stealing it from other factions.
    I think there's a dignitary trait line that offers some +research. But like the building slots, I've usually had much better options to choose.

    I agree that an agent like the NTW Gentleman would be useful here. Maybe a "Philosopher".

  20. #20
    Member Member Sp4's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    I think you can only have 1 Pantheon.

  21. #21
    Desperately Seeking Tamworth Member Ethelred Unread's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Great guide, looking forward to more.
    "The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials"


  22. #22
    The Philosopher Duke Member Suraknar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Really good! Thanks.

    Personally what I have been doing is, Put a barracks in the Capital and Auxiliary camp in one of the settlements.

    Then Temples go in capital, as well as Aquaducs, Forums etc.

    I have not built any of the Military Training Camps...I lack space. But maybe due to the Barracks.

    I will have to rethink this approach and put barracks in minor settlements (just not Ariminium, that place has had 4 earthquakes within 60 turns my campaign)...really good point.

    The Trading ports this is very good too!

    Also, I did not upgrade to legionaries fast. I played 80 turns with Pre-marian units, pretty good units still, and I like the fact that we can field all three Hastati, Principes and Triarii in comparison to Rome:TW ...so I enjoyed my early campaign greatly with them.



    My Question is in relation to industrial buildings, are these worth it? Especially the Brick Makers, it would seem these only benefit the province so..is it worth it having them?


    Cheers!
    Duke Surak'nar
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  23. #23

    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Quote Originally Posted by Suraknar View Post
    Really good! Thanks.

    Personally what I have been doing is, Put a barracks in the Capital and Auxiliary camp in one of the settlements.

    Then Temples go in capital, as well as Aquaducs, Forums etc.

    I have not built any of the Military Training Camps...I lack space. But maybe due to the Barracks.

    I will have to rethink this approach and put barracks in minor settlements (just not Ariminium, that place has had 4 earthquakes within 60 turns my campaign)...really good point.

    The Trading ports this is very good too!

    Also, I did not upgrade to legionaries fast. I played 80 turns with Pre-marian units, pretty good units still, and I like the fact that we can field all three Hastati, Principes and Triarii in comparison to Rome:TW ...so I enjoyed my early campaign greatly with them.



    My Question is in relation to industrial buildings, are these worth it? Especially the Brick Makers, it would seem these only benefit the province so..is it worth it having them?


    Cheers!
    My approach has been to concentrate military buildings in just one province, to "contain" their economic impact. As Rome, I've been doing this with Magna Grecia, because with 4 settlements, three of which are ports including the capital, there's enough slots to support 4 military buildings, maintain public order, and remain food-self-sufficient (Syracuse being a grain town helps). The downside, of course, is that M.G. income is gimped, I'm negating one of the richest provinces available to Rome in the early-mid game. I've toyed with other options, however, and this seems to me the best way to do it (or at least one of the best).

    The four buildings I build/maintain are:

    - Barracks in capital.
    - Training field in capital. I'm not sure it has to be in the capital, but I believe I read somewhere in these fora that training field has to be co-located in same settlement as barracks to get the bonuses for troops recuited there.
    - Aux barracks in minor settlement. This one's debatable, but it's Rome's only indigenous source of spear infantry, plus I just like Socii Equites Extraordinarii (whether they're actually any good or not is a completely separate question).
    - Workshop in minor settlement. The bonuses from this building, unlike training field, are available to units recruited (or even just located) anywhere in the province. Plus one can recruit field artillery, it's always nice to have a ballista in the legion.

    Being Rome, I develop both the training field and workshop along the melee infantry attack lines, bolstering the legionaries' inherent strengths. The barracks & field I stick in the capital mainly because Brundisium has 6 slots, so I can put 2 military buildings there and still have room for a temple and circus. In addition, it allows development of the core barracks to Level IV later in the game, whereas I see no great benefit to pushing aux barracks or workshop past Level III.

    With several provincial slots taken up by military construction, I build fishing ports instead of commercial ports, to keep M.G. in the positive for food. Later in the campaign when I take over Africa and/or Aegyptus, however, these provinces are capable of gigantic food surpluses, and I can let M.G. go modestly food-negative and shift over to commercial ports.

    I follow a somewhat similar approach with naval recruitment, using Corsica et Sardinia as the "fleet builder". The two port slots are military-wharf and shipwright. The advantage of using CeS vice Italia or M.G. for fleets is that both ports are on the same sea region, allowing a fleet to recruit all ship types anywhere in that sea. Like M.G., CeS' economic output is hit hard, but the province is so small anyway that it isn't ever going to be a huge cash cow regardless of how it's developed.

    With the imperium-constrained army cap and the system requiring a general's presence to recruit, keeping military (or naval) buildings confined to just one province makes sense to me, and has worked well in both my Rome campaigns. A viable alternative, however, might be to spread these across multiple provinces for an "assembly line" approach. For example, barracks/training field in M.G., aux barracks in Italia, and workshop in Cisalpina. Form the legion at Brundisium and recruit the melee infantry there, then move them up to Italia for cavalry/spears, and finally to Cisalpina for a ballista and the equipment bonuses. You get the same "standardized & centralized" benefits, while red-slot economic impacts are spread across multiple provinces. I might try this at some point in a future campaign (or just re-work my slots later in the current one when I have enough money to do so).

    -----------------

    I really haven't "broken the code" either on the value of industrial buildings. Sometimes I'll build one in a slot where I can't really find (or need) anything better. But that's not very often. Brown-slots are definitely not a part of my "core" building strategy. I'm sure there's some sort of synergy possible with these in some cases to significantly boost a province...but I really haven't had inclination to figure it out yet.

    No kidding about Ariminum...earthquake central. In my first Rome campaign, I never had an earthquake or a plague; didn't even know these existed in the game. On my second campaign (begun yesterday), I've had an earthquake and 3 plagues hit in the first 30 turns. WTF? Not in the patch notes, but feels like Patch3 increased the chance of these occurrences (both campaigns same difficulty level).

  24. #24
    Strategist and Storyteller Senior Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Traning camps can only be built in the capital of a province. They do, however, provide their bonuses to the entire province (see my ss below where I show the Pretorians I can recruit now with a tier 3 armidoctor. At tier 4 they will go over 100 morale...)

    Regarding temple choices - if the province has 3 or 4 ports it's better to go for Neptune. The temple doesn't consume food but it boosts sea trade. Plus in big provinces you'll have enough public order due to the circus line of buildings and the B&G edict. A free slot in a 3/4 port province should also go to an Amphora factory if you have excess public order.

    For landlocked provinces you can be much more liberal with temple choices. Resarch is good. Hermes is also good if you plan on getting a tier 4 Brickworks. 600 gold from industry is something the barbarians can dream about. Anyways here are some of my provinces. I'm in the process of switching Jupiter to Neptune here and there and I haven't maxed them out in terms of optimal PO usability (not all of them anyway) but I'm pretty happy with the result for now.

    It's late though, so I'll make some screenshots tomorrow..
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
    Like totalwar.org on Facebook!

  25. #25
    Praeparet bellum Member Quillan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    My final setup in my first Rome campaign had Italia as my main recruiting province. I had the training field in Roma (these are provincial capital only), plus the Colosseum, Pantheon, and a level 4 library. The barracks was in Ariminium, auxiliary barracks was in Neapolis, and level 3 armorer was also in Ariminium. I think the rest was only enough temples to maintain neutral public order and the rest food, with a permanent "Bread and games" edict going. It was my most valuable province, earning nearly 5000 per turn.
    Age and treachery will defeat youth and skill every time.

  26. #26

    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Ah, never noticed the Trg Field can only go in a capital...I guess because I'd never tried to build it anywhere else.

  27. #27
    Strategist and Storyteller Senior Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Updated the guide some. I'll probably do a specialised Avernii guide next (applicable to all barbarian factions of which the Avernii have the toughest start I think)
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
    Like totalwar.org on Facebook!

  28. #28
    Member Member MadKow's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Quote Originally Posted by Myth View Post
    Updated the guide some. I'll probably do a specialised Avernii guide next (applicable to all barbarian factions of which the Avernii have the toughest start I think)
    I look forward to it. I have been starting a few Arverni campaigns and so far have had trouble coming up with a solid opening, both regarding targets for expansion and tech tree progression. All i can say so far is "horses are your friends". But even that could change past the early game.

  29. #29
    Guardian of the Fleet Senior Member Shahed's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Well done Myth!
    If you remember me from M:TW days add me on Steam, do mention your org name.

    http://www.steamcommunity.com/id/__shak

  30. #30
    Strategist and Storyteller Senior Member Myth's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mini Guide: Getting started with Rome II

    Actually in the long-term, Brundisium is better suited to become a dedicated military province by virtue of having less resouces. The more resources in the minor cities, the more of those minor cities you must upgrade to level 4 thereby reducing the available happiness in that province to be allocated to military buildings.

    The best setup for me (I'll confirm once i do it in-game) would be:

    Brundisium: Temple to Mars + 2 x training field + Circus (or the Maxiums), Minors get 2 x barracks, Syracuse gets upgraded to tier 4. To get the PO needed you'd probably have to dedicate slots in minor settlments to temples.

    Rome: 2 x Workshop buildings, the rest goes to the standard. So you recruit in Brudisium, then move north to equip your armies with better weapons and armour and you're good to go.

    Also, as Sparta I noticed just how better other faction's fields are. Even so, as the Greeks you should get one Field level of farm and the second one should be a temple to Poseidon since it is vastly superior ot the Roman Neptune. It provides both PO and food at NO cost. There ls literally no reason not ot fill your minor settlement slots with at least 1 of these per settlement.

    Minor provinces (that is 1 capital + 1 minor settlement) are best outfitted for research IMO. They are too poor anyway to boost for income, but every bit of research percentage helps. This, of course, is much easier to do as Rome since you don't have PO problems with the execllent Circus line of buildings.

    Ironically, playing as the Avernii, your biggest issue will be just how far you have to climb up the tech tree just to get a half-decent way to obtain normal levels of public order. So while theoratically you can rush to Oathsworn and Noble Cavalry, practically it's not feasible to do so as you won't be able to sustain the PO hit you will receive without huge temple spam which in turn will make you starved for food. One hasn't experienced true starvaton for public order unless they've played a less refined faction.
    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
    Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
    Like totalwar.org on Facebook!

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