Campaing in tatters

[Inuyasha12]

Im having a serius problem playing as scipii. Carthage and thapsus have revolted 2 times(last time i commited massacres).And syracuse is on the brink of revolt. Im building almost nothing but happiness buildings, and nothing seems to work. I wasted tons of money on happines buildings in carthage and thapsus for nothing. Those F-ing africans don't know when to give up, they just wont accept my rule. Again they are almost on revolt, i had to call back my troops from numidia for garrison duty. Damn u, what is wrong with u, youre getting monthly games and races, low taxes and have awsome temples and acueducts. Carthage and thapsus are my most advanced cities and they are near revolt...again. It just seems to me that playing as scipii is the hardest roman campaing.

Also the scipii guide in the rtw guide thread is almost empty.
I don't know what to do!!

[discovery1]

Raise lots of peasants and move them to a remote border town and disband. Also, when a city gets the plague make sure that you transport it to Cathage via infected units and/or agents. Also check for govs that have attribute that may help and send them there.

[Maedhros]

scipii is a hard faction to play.

Given time I've found Thapsus and Carthage calm down.

You might try moving the capital to Carthage. That went a long way toward solving my african problem.

Some govs are also better away from cities and in the field. If that is the case with yours either move him from the cities or replace him with someone new.

When I lost Cirta to a revolt I retook the city and was less than gentle in the doing. Uprisings in Africa have not been a problem since.

[Inuyasha12]

Raise lots of peasants and move them to a remote border town and disband.

How will this help?

[ChaosLord]

That'll lower your population where you build them, so with alot it'd reduce unrest. As for how I manage North Africa in my Scipii campaign on hard/very hard I just act paranoid. All my cities have a garrison of 8 Town Watch at the moment(I like things to look even). I only have one major offensive army, but I control the seas and have a good watchtower network, allows me to respond to invasions easily.

[hoof]

However, if you are willing to commit the unit-building resources of that city to building peasants, why not build a big garrison of cheap-to-maintain units and leave them in the city? I haven't gotten a huge foreign city yet (none of my campaigns have gone that far), so I don't know if the math works on the economics of that. But 20 units of Peasants keeping the peace sure could keep the rabble quiet :)

[camulos]

What are the populations of the cities you're having problems with. I'm about 15 years into my Scipii campaign so am wondering when I can start expecting problems.

[andrewt]

Not all temples are created equal. In my Julii campaign, I built up Ceres temples until I got the last city upgrade, destroyed them and replaced them with Jupiter temples. I also kept at least 4 units of peasants in all of my cities. Carthage had 100% loyalty to me when I finished and had around 32,000 people but still had 1% growth. The problem is a combination of grain imports and high base population growth.

[Magraev]

It's probably a good idea to put the africans to the sword when you first capture the cities. There will be less population to revolt then ...

[desdichado]

I'm not sure what to do either. Thapsus has been fine but Carthage has given me real problems. 19 units of town watch got kicked out and then destroyed by 3 units of Carthaginian elephants that appeared when the city rebelled. Still not sure how they snuck those guys into the city without arousing some suspicion?

Then they smashed my second army that had destroyed every other unit but the elephants when trying to stormm the city. 2000 Romans and a couple of years later and they were kicked out themselves by some Iberian rebels.

I retook the city, killed about 15,000 civilians - loot would not have come close to covering my costs in manpower, repairs and lost income. I still have to maintain a huge garrison and even then with low taxes they have threatened to revolt.

The problem with killing the inhabitants is you can't upgrade the city if you have not finished building everything so then can't improve temples, sanitation etc.

I think Carthage may be the Portugal of MTW - hugely rebellious and you can't solve the problem by moving in huge stacks - 19 unit limit in the city with 1 governor in charge.

My suggestion is to put a governor in there with good management/influence. Swap retinue members around to get the best stat imrpovements. And cross your fingers!

[Akka]

If they revolt, retake and exterminate.
If they revolt again, retake again and exterminate.

Each time you exterminate, the city loose 75 % of its population. Even a huge city becomes quiet when there is only one inhabitant out of sixteen left.

Yes, it will take decades to recover, but I guarantee you that you won't have problem of loyalty for the same amount of time.

[Magraev]

I believe historically the romans totally levelled Carthage. Unfortunately there is no option for that (wouldn't be an all that attractive option anyways unless you could build a roman city instead.

[The_Emperor]

Also make sure there are no Carthaginian temples left when you take it... That temple of Baal can totally ruin your day!

As the Julii I was able to take and hold Carthage after my moment of Genocidal madness... I also trained a lot of troops there later and this helped reduce unrest, (Carthage was very well developed when I took it) they then went overseas to rampage in Gaul.

Build Carthage up and train lots of troops there... This will again help to curb unrest and keep the population down a tad.

[Magraev]

How does temples and shrines affect loyalty in a conquered city? I'd assume that they had a happiness benefit, but maybe meant, that cultural differences would remain, but I can't find it mentioned in the manual

[The_Emperor]

Your goal is Romanisation, so yes cultural differences will have an impact. All other non-temple buildings get upgraded later on anyway as the city expands and over time it will start to look very Roman.

Build your own loyalty inspiring shrines and temples and this will help things, Jupiter and the like.

[Inuyasha12]

How does temples and shrines affect loyalty in a conquered city?

He meant carthaginian temples, temples of another religion, you can't upgrade them and the culture difference willl not change.

Also i beleive its all due to squalor, carthage had mostly problems of large levels of squalor, even after my massacre. First of all, what is squalor? Don't want to sound ignorant but just don't know what it is.

Secondly how do i reduce squalor once i've build up all happinnes/health buildings , some cities(carthage ) still have alot of it left. Im starting another scipii campaing today and im not leaving anything to chance, every conquered city will be put to the sword(the gods love the scipii right? )

[Magraev]

Squalor translates to poor living conditions. Like a slum.

[Drake]

Shipping plague deliberatly to a city just to reduce unrest? How ruthless and immoral. Wish I'd thought of it...

[Sir Moody]

Dont worry Drake even the best of us get caught out sometimes

[Inuyasha12]

I had to massacre carthage a third time, and it seems that they've calmed down. I also movedmy capital to sicily. Now at war with numidia, they too refuse to give up, i've massacred nepte and the're still almost on revolt. I've had better luck in lepcis magna, theyre mostly happy there.

Thapsus has accepted my rule, with only one massacre. And its beggining to look like im going to have to massacre cirta too. Indeed scipii is the hardest faction. Im going to sign a ceasefire with numidia. Just don't want to overextend myself in that large african desert.

Its hell. I have like 20 watchtowers up and still can't see all my territory.

[Spartiate]

I have massacred Massilia 5 times now as the Julii and the b$%£&^ds are getting unruly again.