Distance-To-Capital

[Tamur]

I play a lot slower than most around here, and so I'm just getting to the point where my Brutii empire has made contact with the Egyptians after taking Tarsus (to the east), and I've just made contact with the Spanish after taking Lugdunum and Narbo Martius (west).

Since my capital is Tarentum, I'm getting a whopping distance-to-capital negative on the fringes now. The Scipii have taken over what used to be Carthage, so I can't expand south. I've got the Brits, the Germans and the Dacians in a nice solid alliance with Military Access to the north.

The Senate have named Spain as the ones-who-will-be-privileged by a three-way alliance (Julii, Scipii, Senate). I'm currently neutral to them, with trade rights.

I could attempt to expand east against Egypt, but the culture and distance to capital penalties out there will be tremendous, or west and get on the Senate's black-list.

Suggestions? Is the late mid-game just a matter of charging headlong on conquests and hoping to gain popularity cum populo?

[Morindin]

For some people its squalor, for me, it's distance to Capital.

My Capital is in Northern Italy, my Empire spreads to Byzantium, Spain, Ireland, and Moscow, and its going to have to keep spreading.

Tara or whatever in Ireland has about 2000 people and 10 units of Militia as its garrison. :)

[Doug-Thompson]

Capture and keep the Grand Pyramid wonders in Egypt. They increase province loyalty, by about 40 percent if I remember correctly. They're in Middle Eqypt, just south of the Nile Delta. You can capture the Alexandria lighthouse wonder on the way. I don't remember what that one does.

Whole lot easier said than done.

[Soulflame]

Capture and keep the Grand Pyramid wonders in Egypt. They increase province loyalty, by about 40 percent if I remember correctly. They're in Middle Eqypt, just south of the Nile Delta. You can capture the Alexandria lighthouse wonder on the way. I don't remember what that one does.

Whole lot easier said than done.

Well then my pyramids were broken, because I got NO EFFECT of them whatsoever. In fact the Egyptian cities I held (finished the Scipii campaign tonight) were the most rebellious of all, even after extermination.
I heard form another thread that the effect of the Pyramids is only temporary. Well, that could explain why it didn't have effect on my Egyptian cities.

As for the distance to capital: it has a lot of effect, Carthage and Thapsus were both having effects even though my capital was Capua. So pretty early I shifted it to Lilabeaum. And it stayed my capital until the end. I tried to expand evenly around my capital (never went to Russia, nor England). So it was okay. Only the Egyptians were problematic. (Which is I think why they made the pyramids to give a bonus to their loyalty, only it doesn't work long enough).

[Dorkus]

pyramids work for me. check the settlement details; i bet there's no culture penalty.

Temple of zeus, on the other hand, is completely broken.

To the OP: move your capital. I moved my capital to syracuse to ensure carthage (my top city) stays in order.

AFAIK, moving it only affects distance penalties. Nothing else. Since normally you're original capital provinces are both well-developed and firmly in your control (no culture penalties), shouldn't be too much of a problem to move.

[Akka]

pyramids work for me. check the settlement details; i bet there's no culture penalty.

Temple of zeus, on the other hand, is completely broken.

Neither are broken. They just are temporary.

Both adds 20 % to the loyalty of the relevant population (Greeks for Zeus, Egyptians for Pyramids). But this effect (that you can check in the settlement sheet where you can see, in the happiness line, a "wonder" effect), are only temporary.

I don't know for Zeus, as I've never got it when not being Greek myself (and as such, there was no culture penalty with Greeks to start with), but at least the Pyramids have the additionnal effect to remove the culture penalty from egyptian cities as well, yes.
I'm not sure if this particular effect is temporary or permanent.

[therother]

AFAIK, moving it only affects distance penalties. Nothing else. Since normally you're original capital provinces are both well-developed and firmly in your control (no culture penalties), shouldn't be too much of a problem to move.

It also affects corruption, where new family members appear, and where the Senate reward units will appear.

IMO corruption is the most important of these effects. Simply put, your capital has no corruption, but corruption starts to increase as you move away from your capital. So if your original regions are your main money making regions, then moving your capital away from the general vicinity will increase your overall corruption, and potentially lose you a fair bit of money. Of course, if your richest provinces are far away from you capital, you will make money!

There doesn't seem to be any tangible penalty for moving your capital, even if you do so many times in the same turn. So you can experiment to discover which settlement is the best balance between unrest/corruption.