Culture Guide

[Myth]

You can't really wait with foreign temples, unless their bonuses you can't get from anywhere else. PO problems are the main reason why a Rome campaign was so tedious in the later stages. @ReluctantSamurai has a ZPG guide somewhere whcih can achieve blue faces in all cities on the map, but I don't think it can be achieved with every faction.

[ReluctantSamurai]

You'll find that ZPG discussion here:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...-game%21%21%21

The ZPG part doesn't begin until about 10 or 12 posts in so just scroll down a bit.

I don't think it can be achieved with every faction.

I've been able to do it with every faction I've played (though not in every single city). Even with barbarian factions like Germania, Dacia, and Gaul. It's been a very long time since I've played Parthia or Thrace, and those two factions have the worst temple selections of any faction...in fact, Parthia gets only one temple and not a very good one at that. So ZPG might be a tough nut to crack for those two.....

Some temples I leave in place, mainly the ones that give upgrades to weapons/armor, or that increase trade

Quite so. If you play Armenia, for instance, and come across an Egyptian Temple of Horus at pantheon level, keep it! Even though Armenia has it's own "forge" type of temple (Vahagan), even at max level and combined with a forge, you can't get gold missile status for your Cataphract Archers. The Horus temple will.

Another example is the Gallic Temple of Epona. If you find it at max level (3), keep it! Romans can, for some strange reason, continue to upgrade it to a pantheon in the form of one of their own temples and then you can recruit troops with two silver exp. chevrons

Another suggestion with temples is to not be afraid of using the fun/growth temples. You can always tear them down later and replace them with something else. Germania is a good example. At the start of a Germanian campaign, you have three of your five starting cities with pitiful population levels (<1000, IIRC). So it's Temple of Freyja all around until you reach 6k. Then remove them and replace with one of your "war" temples.

[Vincent Butler]

According to the description, a lot of Roman cavalry units adopted Epona as a patron deity. If you are polytheistic anyway, why not? Also, don't necessarily destroy the foreign temple. Check your building browser, as some foreign temples can be upgraded to one of yours, ie, Milquart/Mercury/Hermes are all compatible. If you capture a town with a shrine to Milquart, for example, and you are Greece, you can upgrade it to a temple of Hermes. I don't know all the compatibilities, would be worth investigating, sometime. If you are Brutii/Julii, and you capture a Scipii town with an Awesome Temple/Pantheon of Neptune, you can train the naval units those temples give you. Have had it happen with Awesome Temple, I was Brutii, took Capua, was able to build Corvus Quinquireme. As to the fun temples, if you take Corduba, build your best public order temple immediately. Temple of Bacchus works great. From my Brutii and Macedonian campaigns, Corduba is about the worst city in the game for public order, rivaled only by Dimmidi. The only campaigns I had where Corduba was not much of a problem was Julii and Britannia. Britannia has Corduba close enough to capital (I guess, or more similar cultures), and with the Julii, I built a temple to Bacchus. Problem solved.

[ReluctantSamurai]

with the Julii, I built a temple to Bacchus.

If you use Bacchus, you probably shouldn't have a governor due to the acquisition of the progressively worsening drinking traits. If you can get a city to ZPG, then you don't need a governor. So whatever works.....

[Vincent Butler]

I usually don't have them that far out, at least not later. I may have one to begin with, but usually I just leave an extra unit of heavy cav there (or anywhere) to act as a general. What is ZPG? And while I am asking that, what is an AAR?

[ReluctantSamurai]

ZPG means Zero Population Growth. I gave a link to one of the main discussions about it above.

Basically, if you can get a city to stop growing, you solve the whole issue with population loyalty and revolts...period. Rather than rehash the subject in detail, check out the topic.

An AAR is an After Action Report, where you relive a particular battle with a text-based description, screen-shots, or both.