Quote Originally Posted by Monthar View Post
Thanks for the reply.

After starting over a few more times I finally managed to get the finances under control. It seems to work better with Julia instead of Junia, because it's easier to get trade routes with a lot more civs.

I have a few more questions.
1) Do ya'll try to complete all the objectives for each chapter mission for the bonus cash from them?
2) Is it better to ignore the most of the bonus objectives and just complete the main chapter mission? In other words, will I make more money from just conquering my way across the globe taking the provinces I want and expanding my armies as I go instead of trying to complete all the objectives first?
3)After reading some other threads I've started just razing every settlement after taking out the Etruscan League (I occupied theirs because they already had roman buildings). Do ya'll do this too, or are there times where it's better to occupy? Is there ever a good reason to loot a settlement since it just damages all the buildings, but doesn't give enough cash to pay for the repairs/conversions, has the highest unrest from the initial, overtime and all the added slaves?
4) Is there really any point to having fleets with more than just the admiral and maybe a unit or two set to patrol?
- No, I very rarely complete all objectives for a given chapter. In fact, I only remember doing that once, and it was a pretty early milestone. For that matter, I don't really try to complete the main chapter objective either...it'll come eventually. I do, however, often look at the secondary objectives just to see what's easily attainable (say, building a few more ships that I probably would've eventually built anyway).

- I almost always occupy. Less of a P.O. hit than raze. And costs less money to dismantle/rebuild intact buildings than it does to repair/dismantle/rebuild damaged ones. And I strictly avoid looting...slave population is just more trouble than it's worth.

- I build several full-size fleets, but usually later in the game. Early on, yep, I just have the starting fleet (if the faction has one...most do) for exploration purposes. I sell superfluous units, leaving only the admiral flagship plus one extra. Then I send it cruising through the Med and Atlantic to discover factions (i.e., trade partners). The reason for the extra ship is that when the admiral dies, the fleet stays in being and you can just replace the admiral instead of having to build a new fleet at home. Pretty handy when the little fleet is up near Ireland or in the Baltic.

Later on, I find fleets very helpful. AI armies tend to go to sea a lot whether it really makes sense for them to do so or not. Having a few fleets helps to round 'em up and eliminate. In addition, fleets are quite capable of capturing coastal minor settlements on their own, without land army support.