So you've captured a new town.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Though I give diplomats diplomatic immunity

Never Even diplomat's belonging to an ally are fair game, unless they take care of their business and move along. I simply detest diplomat confab's next to my cities...

I don't like relying on a governor for public order, because eventually he will die or be killed in a riot. Also, if he is a good commander, I like to have him in the field instead of using his influence to keep public order high

Clarification: I only use a family member to keep public order when he reaches 60 and has passed the torch to a young and upcoming general (nothing worse than having your Legendary Everything die just before a big battle). Veteran former field commanders are excellent for this because they usually have accumulated a pile of influence laureates. The faction leader has a built-in security retinue that can detect spies and kick them out of a city. When a city reaches ZPG, it doesn't need a governor of any kind...

I believe a +1 is 10%

[Vincent Butler]

Never Even diplomat's belonging to an ally are fair game, unless they take care of their business and move along. I simply detest diplomat confab's next to my cities...

When a city reaches ZPG, it doesn't need a governor of any kind...

I believe a +1 is 10%

Diplomats are annoying, but rarely are they a problem. The most problem I have had with bribes is with Briton diplomats, of all things. Now, it is not uncommon for an enemy diplomat to bribe one of my diplomats, and then I try to assassinate both. I also will bribe enemy diplomats myself (though I don't know why, I don't use them that often other than to seek trade rights and map info, and that is mainly early in the campaign). I like to make contact with every faction before they are wiped out, though sometimes Seleucia gets wiped out before I get there.

Something I am doing more of, in a town that is happy, I turn taxes up. I never used to pay attention to that unless they were unhappy. This has the added benefit of slowing population growth down, as well as bringing in more money. Now, if I need that town to grow, I keep taxes at low or normal levels. In some of the Greek towns, especially if playing as a Greek or Roman faction, your happiness will many times be above 140%, so it is perfectly fine to turn the taxes up. I like to put my capital in Greece (unless playing as Rome), so that there is a fairly even distance to capital all the way around. The problem is, Roman towns especially grow quickly. Patavium is especially bad, and even worse is it seems to have a built-in public order problem (correct me if I am wrong, I think it has an automatic 15% unrest factor).

[weejonnie]

Diplomats are annoying, but rarely are they a problem. The most problem I have had with bribes is with Briton diplomats, of all things. Now, it is not uncommon for an enemy diplomat to bribe one of my diplomats, and then I try to assassinate both. I also will bribe enemy diplomats myself (though I don't know why, I don't use them that often other than to seek trade rights and map info, and that is mainly early in the campaign). I like to make contact with every faction before they are wiped out, though sometimes Seleucia gets wiped out before I get there.

Something I am doing more of, in a town that is happy, I turn taxes up. I never used to pay attention to that unless they were unhappy. This has the added benefit of slowing population growth down, as well as bringing in more money. Now, if I need that town to grow, I keep taxes at low or normal levels. In some of the Greek towns, especially if playing as a Greek or Roman faction, your happiness will many times be above 140%, so it is perfectly fine to turn the taxes up. I like to put my capital in Greece (unless playing as Rome), so that there is a fairly even distance to capital all the way around. The problem is, Roman towns especially grow quickly. Patavium is especially bad, and even worse is it seems to have a built-in public order problem (correct me if I am wrong, I think it has an automatic 15% unrest factor).

You can assume, I think, that any diplomat discussing something that you don't hear about is trying to bribe a general/ diplomat/ town/ city away from you.

What is annoying is that the game is programmed to give the Brutii massive amounts of money in the pre-marius era. I've had their income showing as +20000 denarii when they only had one city left.

In My current game (Parthia) I have taken Athens and the Brutii are sending stack after stack to try and retake it. I have killed at least 5 nearly full ones and there are at least 5 more lining up to attack. Fortunately I have two full stacks of Persian Archers next to each other (with a dummy force up front - the Brutii attack my small force and while I run and hide, the AI - with 2:1+ strength proceeds to walk all over them - it is like watching Carrhae over and over again. The AI plays much better than on auto-resolve.) I have just got Elite Stables in Athens so I can now retrain my Cataphracts. Basically Roman armies (pre marius at least) are too weak in terms of missiles and cavalry to do anything effective.

(Interesting note - the Scipii in the game took out the cities in southern Greece (Athens, Sparta, Corinth) and Rhodes/ Helicarnassus/ Crete). Only now are they sending troops to Africa - where the ships run afoul of my navy as they try and land. Not sure how the Brutii are producing all these stacks, but my aim in the medium turn is to take out their Italian cities and Byzantium. The Scipii suffered a massive blow when 2 armies got bribed away and two more were on weak ships that were sunk)) (I have not met the Julii yet - I assume they are working their way through Gaul, but to me they are the weakest of the three Roman factions - the only problem is that their last two cities are so close to Rome that SPQR are at hand. Who knows - I might just leave Northern Italy alone and sack Rome Directly.

With regards to peasants - I used the technique of transfer to get a town (Bozra?) large enough to build a port in the Red Sea - trade there can be very profitable. At the moment the Middle East (Tarsus/ Jerusalem/ Sidon/ Alexandria) is providing my armies and the rest is concentrating on trade.

Regarding taxes/ crowd control: Even if the indicator turns red (75?) you are usually safe as long as your garrison is reasonable. I have usually found that building up temples/ law/ happiness buildings can usually be done steadily enough to keep people happy. I have had carthage at 30000+ under the Greek campaign with no real problems. Obviously you aim for 24001 (if only to get the foundry), which for some towns is impossible - you just cannot get food production high enough. Barbarian factions (those that only have 3 levels) have much more serious problems with order as they can't produce temples/ buildings with massive happiness - Playing those factions you DO have to keep agriculture down to Land Clearance in many areas, but for those with 5 levels there seems to be no problem investing in better levels.

The major problem with Parthia, is to ensure you have some units that can sap - your infantry is too weak (unless you get good mercenaries) to attack any wall - unless it only has archers on it. Two full units is enough in my experience - although you need at least 8 other full cavalry ones to make up the numbers.

(My experience with Egypt is that the commanders have a built-in air of superiority and look down on all other factions. They NEVER keep an agreement. In the current game they offered 1700 denarii and a ceasefire if I became a protectorate - whilst besieging a town. Naturally I accepted and then ignored it.)

[Vincent Butler]

What is annoying is that the game is programmed to give the Brutii massive amounts of money in the pre-marius era.

I'll believe it. Now you can see when they are hurting for money, you see a lot of Town Watch.

Regarding taxes/ crowd control: Even if the indicator turns red (75?) you are usually safe as long as your garrison is reasonable. I have usually found that building up temples/ law/ happiness buildings can usually be done steadily enough to keep people happy. I have had carthage at 30000+ under the Greek campaign with no real problems. Obviously you aim for 24001 (if only to get the foundry), which for some towns is impossible - you just cannot get food production high enough. Barbarian factions (those that only have 3 levels) have much more serious problems with order as they can't produce temples/ buildings with massive happiness

I have seen cities over 43,000. I don't remember which ones they were. It seems the 30,000 number is fine if it stays there, if it gets over 35,000 is when you really start to have problems. Of course, location has a lot to do with that, cities in Greece tend to be happy, especially if you move your capital close by. There will be no riots if public order stays above 65%. Now, a riot may kill enough citizens to put you up to 70%, and then you are fine if it stays there.

My experience with Egypt is that the commanders have a built-in air of superiority and look down on all other factions. They NEVER keep an agreement.

Not my experience, I find that Egypt is pretty good for keeping alliances. Now, I usually am not close to them when I am allied, and I used to play on E/E. They are less trustworthy on M/M, and since you are close by with Parthia, yeah, "An alliance with the powerful is never to be trusted."