The trait system is really beginning to grate on my nerves!

[econ21]

Yes, I was playing a game recently and ended up shunting out my generals from towns, they had become so atrocious.

From what I've gathered, setting taxes high can be best for traits and also not having more than 50,000 in gold. I suspect keeping them in the field rather than governing also reduces the risk of bad traits. But I tend to have one or two that are field generals and just hope for the best with the rest.

[Excalibur Bane]

I wish someone would just make a mod to strip out all the bad traits. It'd be so much more pleasant to play. Sadly, I have about 100,000 denarii or so I think. I just haven't had much to spend it on.

[Severous]

Govenors should move out of their city each turn and back in again. Provided they have spent some movement points they wont trigger some of the bad trait checks the computer does each turn.

Exception is in the turn the city is going to complete a building. Now you want the governor to remain stilll and have a very high tax rate. This will gnerate various positive trait checks. I will allow my city to riot (removing most troops to avoid damage) in order to achieve the high tax element of a building completion turn.

Spend that money. Who is fighting an enemy of yours ? Do they need any money ? Gift it to them, buy maps from them. Or use the money to bribe enemies that your field armies cannot deal with easily.

(these are RTW V1.5 tips...think they apply to other versions)

Good luck

[Papewaio]

Ships/Troops are a good way to use money or you can use diplomats and give money away.

[Celt Centurion]

I wish someone would just make a mod to strip out all the bad traits. It'd be so much more pleasant to play. Sadly, I have about 100,000 denarii or so I think. I just haven't had much to spend it on.

Yeah, and the riots too. I've taken Artaxarta 3 times just tonight, and the people are rioting so badly that they kill more of my soldiers than they have got people! So there I am with an Army of just under 1700, and the next turn each infantry unit is reduced by about 15 men, and cavalry by about 8. What I wound up doing is destroyed all of the buildings, and withdrew my Army to Kotais to retrain them.

I've noticed that on average, I lose a lot more soldiers to rioting than I do to combat. Same with buildings. The idiots rioting damage more than any besieging army.

I put forth an idea about a year ago, for these riots that go nonstop for 3-4 turns, be able to go into "Battle Map" mode, cruise around the city, and where we find the rioters, "kill them all." Surely this would save a lot of buildings being damaged, and would prevent revolts by getting rid of the people committing them.

One thing I could not understand was in the last revolt I had in Artaxarta. The town population was only 420 just before I was thrown out. They then had an army of 1300 or so when I re-besieged it. When I took it back, they had 520 citizens, 120 of which I exterminated. The place is more trouble than it's worth. I'll probably continue to besiege and exterminate it until I win, although it's hardly worth the effort. I'd expected it to revolt and have the light blue Sassanid color, but thus far, it has been coming up as ERE Rebels.

Somehow, all of my enemies except the Rebels and ERE Rebels have achieved a Neutral status with me, but I don't remember accepting any cease fire.

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

[x-dANGEr]

Get a high influence general around, along with an enough garrison to take the full bonus, make sure it is under Sass' religion, and make temples your first priority with taxes set to low.