Advice?

[César Victor]

Hey, I'm looking for some advice from all the veterans of this game. I'm currently playing my first ever campaign as the Julli and things aren't looking too hot. My empire is pretty much torn down the middle. Here's how things look:



As you can see, my empire is pretty messed up at the moment. I've lost Lemonum, Massila and Osca to rebels and the Britons are relentless on my northern east cities. Not to mention the powerful Brutii who command most of the east; they will be on my ass soon with the civil wars. I'm facing a lot of rebellion in Spain; no matter what I do I cannot raise public order. My "home states" (northern Italy) population has stopped and in some I have to put taxes to low just to get people making babies again!

My key generals are in the following places; Secundus the Brave (Faction Leader) is in western Spain, Secundus the Honest (Faction Heir) is keeping Nobus Martius happy (if he leaves, there's a riot), Publius Julius is in my Capitol, Asinius Julius is in my most north-eastern province and 73 year old Augustus the Great is in Alesia. I also have father and son Galerius and Spirius trying to keep my Gallic provinces happy (roaming Governors).

I've been reading guides and found that at this point in the game I should be way ahead (202BC). Any advice will be appreciated.

[Poulp']

from what I can see in the map,
take the whole of spain, even if it means losing northern gaul.
If you think you'll lose a province to the Britons, then tear down any military buildings inside and leave. (or fight to the last man so they don't take the town without losses)

unite your empire into a single block, (with spain in it) then march north and retake what you lost.
at the same time send a powerful navy from spain to clear the channel and north sea of enemy fleets.

stop your conquest on the continent when you find an easily defendable spot (river and bridge are great for that)

if you don't have enough generals to do the job, send captain at the head of your armies and hope for a "man of the hour"

[César Victor]

Thanks for that.

What's the best way to keep a province in order? Honestly, I can't take my faction leader away from Baetica without a riot starting. I need him to take over Spain.

[Poulp']

change your capital, and put it at the centre of your empire.

if that's not enough, then put the taxes to max, draw out your army, let it revolt and exterminate the population when you take the city back.

Now as the julii you have access to good temple to keep public order.
build temple of bacchus in the cities where you know you'll never leave a governor in.
build temple of jupiter in the cities where you can build mines to reduce corruption., and in every city where you don't know what temple to build.

[Andres]

-Build buildings that help control public unrest like temples, amphitheatre and the such.
- move your capital to the centre of your empire
- Exterminate newly conquerend provinces, it will make it easier to control them later on.
- Destroy any religious building of another faction.
- Don't build the farm upgrades, it will make population grow too fast: the more population in your settlements, the more difficult to control them.
- garrison you cities: use cheap units for this purpose, for garrisoning it's the quantity of the troops, not the quality that will increase public order
- Conquer the whole of Spain and make sure you have ports in every one of these settlements, they will give your income a nice boost.
- get Massilia back
- if necessary give up on your northern provinces, just make sure you destroy every single building in it. Leave them, with a bit of luck there will be rebels in them, forcing the Britons to siege those cities and lose some troops by conquering them - afterwards retake them and exterminate the population.

You have a big empire, you won't lose in a few turns, there's still plenty of time to recover. Besides, the most intresting and joyfull campaigns are the difficult ones

Good luck

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi,
The best way of controlling a city is not controlling it at all. If it is rioting leave the settlement to revolt. Then get a powerful army back to the town to retake it. Once you are there exterminate the populace. That should keep them "happy" (or should I say terrified) for at least ten turns. Good luck and cheers!

[César Victor]

I'll try exterminating new provinces then. I've been enslaving them up until this point. Does making a city Capitol come with any benefits? I haven't changed it yet so I aint sure.

Thanks fellas.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

I'll try exterminating new provinces then. I've been enslaving them up until this point. Does making a city Capitol come with any benefits? I haven't changed it yet so I aint sure.

Thanks fellas.

Hi again,
I think that it reduces corruption and removes the negatives caused by having the capital far away. Cheers!

[SSJVegetaTrunks]

Cities that are closer to your capital have higher public order, so it is most effective to keep your capital in the center of your empire.

Chances are if your Italian cities aren't raising their population anymore, they don't NEED anymore population. You don't need a million people in each of your cities.

And exterminating towns isn't the best way, it's just the easiest. Besides, barbarian cities usually don't have very high population compared to others, so occupation should be fine. However, it's your call. Just don't enslave anymore, I'm sure your Italian cities have enough slaves.

Remember the main things that effect public order!
1. Squalor (the more people you have in a city, the lower the public order).
2. Culture Penalty (you get a public order penalty for each building you own in a city that was built by the barbarians).
3. Distance from Capital (the further away your cities are from your capital, the lower the public order).
4. Garrisons (load your bigger cities with peasants, it will improve public order).
5. Religious Buildings (get the temple that improves public order the most in your bigger cities).
6. Other buildings (things like enemy taverns and your own arenas improve public order).

Good luck, and remember: It's not over until either ever member of your family dies or you lose your last city! Even if all you have is some 18 year old 0 command, 0 management, 0 influence general in the city on Ireland, you still have a chance to come back!

Keep us updated on your campaign. I want to see how you do.

[César Victor]

Thanks for that, I will do.

I never really thought of removing old Barbarian buildings. I usually just remove the temples and build new ones but I leave the production buildings to keep a flow of soldiers on the front lines. One of my biggest non-Roman cities is Narbo Martius, currently occupied by my heir. Public order and pop growth is terrible there, pretty much on the edge of a full blown riot. I bet it's those Barbarian buildings that are the problem. Bah.

I'm gonna go demolish the buildings in my three big non-Roman cities and hopefully I can take off from here.

[César Victor]

Thanks for that, I will do.

I never really thought of removing old Barbarian buildings. I usually just remove the temples and build new ones but I leave the production buildings to keep a flow of soldiers on the front lines. One of my biggest non-Roman cities is Narbo Martius, currently occupied by my heir. Public order and pop growth is terrible there, pretty much on the edge of a full blown riot. I bet it's those Barbarian buildings that are the problem. Bah.

I'm gonna go demolish the buildings in my three big non-Roman cities and hopefully I can take off from here.

[César Victor]

Thanks for that, I will do.

I never really thought of removing old Barbarian buildings. I usually just remove the temples and build new ones but I leave the production buildings to keep a flow of soldiers on the front lines. One of my biggest non-Roman cities is Narbo Martius, currently occupied by my heir. Public order and pop growth is terrible there, pretty much on the edge of a full blown riot. I bet it's those Barbarian buildings that are the problem. Bah.

I'm gonna go demolish the buildings in my three big non-Roman cities and hopefully I can take off from here.

[César Victor]

Thanks for that, I will do.

I never really thought of removing old Barbarian buildings. I usually just remove the temples and build new ones but I leave the production buildings to keep a flow of soldiers on the front lines. One of my biggest non-Roman cities is Narbo Martius, currently occupied by my heir. Public order and pop growth is terrible there, pretty much on the edge of a full blown riot. I bet it's those Barbarian buildings that are the problem. Bah.

I'm gonna go demolish the buildings in my three big non-Roman cities and hopefully I can take off from here.

[César Victor]

Thanks for that, I will do.

I never really thought of removing old Barbarian buildings. I usually just remove the temples and build new ones but I leave the production buildings to keep a flow of soldiers on the front lines. One of my biggest non-Roman cities is Narbo Martius, currently occupied by my heir. Public order and pop growth is terrible there, pretty much on the edge of a full blown riot. I bet it's those Barbarian buildings that are the problem. Bah.

I'm gonna go demolish the buildings in my three big non-Roman cities and hopefully I can take off from here.

[César Victor]

Thanks for that, I will do.

I never really thought of removing old Barbarian buildings. I usually just remove the temples and build new ones but I leave the production buildings to keep a flow of soldiers on the front lines. One of my biggest non-Roman cities is Narbo Martius, currently occupied by my heir. Public order and pop growth is terrible there, pretty much on the edge of a full blown riot. I bet it's those Barbarian buildings that are the problem. Bah.

I'm gonna go demolish the buildings in my three big non-Roman cities and hopefully I can take off from here.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

You are welcome to any advise. No need to thank me at least

[Roman_Man#3]

if you posted that many times on purpose, then you are breaking the rules. If that was an accident, please say so, so a mod can delete the extras.

[César Victor]

Oops, sorry about that, not quite sure how I did it though I did post those by accident, yeah.

I just "cleansed" my Gallic and Spanish cities (I took Massila and Lugdunum back btw, woo!) of most Barbarian and Carthage buildings, leaving some temporarily to keep the population happy.

New question; what's the best way to deal with a city that's pretty much fallen to pieces? Patavium is currently diseased and rioting with a -2000 income and over 27'000 inhabitants. No idea how it got that bad :S Shall I just demolish what I can and restart or just wait it out?

[Squid]

-2000 income doesn't mean that the city is losing money. In RTW the cost of your empire is split among your cities based on their population, so if a city has 10% of your population it will carry 10% of the expenses. All the -2000 means is that Patavium isn't pulling its share of the expenses, in other words it might still be your biggest money making city, but the amount of money it makes is less than the game says its expending. So don't really pay too much attention to it. As long as your bottom line is black you're ok.

To fix disease in a city, build the sewer line of improvements as this improves public health.

As some have alluded to, any building that is built by a faction that is not of the same culture as you are will give the city the building is in a cultural penalty that effects public order.

[César Victor]

I removed unnessasary buildings in Patavium, using the funds to start an aquaduct and installed a good general as governor. Hopefully that'll clean up the remaining plague within the city and keep the public order high. I'm going to leave my faction leader in Corduba and use his army to recapture Osca (I might do a video of this showing off my primitive, laughable tactics).

Maybe this topic should be put somewhere else as I've pretty much turned it into a blog of my campaign

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Good luck Ceasar!

[bedlam28]

Hiya,

to find the centre point to place your capital use this fantastic calculator:

http://bbb.unknownnet.com/rtw/bestcap.htm

I dont know who made it - to give credit, but its invaluable.

Good Luck.

[x-dANGEr]

Build a couple of armies. Just pillage.. Wherever you want. (I usually conquer Carthagians, then Barbarians (Germania, Dacia, Gaul and Britannia), then Spain, then Numidia..)

Just remember.. Have more armies and be on the offensive. You will have so much money that you will just bribe any attacking forces.. Remember to exterminate and try to keep taxes as high as possible, and always bribe/gift when above 50k

[César Victor]

Things are looking slightly better. Practically everything west of Trier is under my command. My Spanish cities are being slightly less rebellious; I guess I have to treat em a little better to win them completely over ;) I have the Gauls and the Carthaginians holed up in their final cities (Numantia and Palma) and these two shouldn't be too hard to capture. The only thing that is annoying me is the fact my leader is confined to Corduba as,the moment he leaves, the city riots. Not to mention his army is out capturing Numantia. I'm trying to get a new governor over there but my leader is pushing 60 and I want to get some more out of him before he kicks the bucket.

[Severous]

Corduba is a tough city to control.

Your faction leader has many green influence points so that helps him control unrest.

Another governor wont be so good so expect problems ahead.

Good luck

[SSJVegetaTrunks]

Corduba is hard to control when you're Carthage, so I'd imagine it's harder with the culture penalty and possibly more unrest. I suggest getting a large peasant garrison and destroying and rebuilding most of the Carthaginian buildings, unless upgrading them would be faster.

[César Victor]

I demolished most of the foreign buildings. The only ones left are the governers villa (not sure what the Carthage one is called), a Barbarian farmland and Carthage walls.

[fallen851]

Umm... create an army. Pick a fight. Invade a British-held city, and win.

The Britons were by far the easiest nation to fight in vanilla, due to the overall suckage of chariots.

[César Victor]

I just destroyed the Gauls and Carthage in one swift turn. Sveet.

I also have enough governors now to run Spain effectively. Time to solidify my current empire, build an army and beat the hell outa Britain for the next ten years.

[LuckyDog Trojan]

(In addition to all of the excellent suggestions above): May I suggest, while you prepare for your invasion of Britannia, that you blockade as many of the Briton ports as you can. Keep your fleets there and continue in blockade mode for turn after turn. This will soon produce an adverse affect upon their economy.

Also, don't overlook the benefit of using a powerful, 1-2 combo punch of sending a spy & assassin just ahead of your army(s). Assassins are a great way to conduct pre-emptive strike raids by destroying important war-producing buildings in enemy held towns prior to launching a full scale attack. I use them in this manner - and - if more conducive to the situation, I'll have them take out buildings that contribute to happiness (temples) or economy (forums, etc.). Sending a spy in first will show your assassin what buildings are present (in addition to giving you tactical awareness of the enemy composition.)

Good Luck!