Best European Capital?

[Jammer]

If your plan is to control most of the map, what is the best city to choose as your capital?

Considering the law & order benefits of having a central city as capital...

And considering the trade boost that capitals seem to get...

Would you choose a coastal city like Venice, Genoa, Marseilles, etc?

Or pick a land-locked dead-center-in-the-map city like Vienna?

This might be a newbish question, just wanted the expertise of the locals.

[Kobal2fr]

Some considerations to keep in mind :

1) order and corruption are wholy dependant on distance to capital. The closer, the better
2) Trade is also wholy dependant on that, especially for Merchants. The further, the better
3) The two very obviously don't mix . Order penalties being less important than they were back in RTW, and capped earlier, you'll want a slightly off-center capital.
4) Still on the subject of merchants, the money they make when sitting on resources also hinges on the capital's trade buildings. Thus, coastal provinces make better capitals because they have two more building lines that upgrade their trade.
5) Trade resource global values depend on their proximity to capital, too. I'm not sure exactly how to put it in clear words, so I'll give an example : Arhus province has amber, which is one of the most expensive resources. But that means that if you set your capital there, then the value of amber all across the world will drop sharply for you faction. By opposition, if your capital was, say, Cordoba, then the closest patch of Amber to it would be Sicily, half a map away. Making Amber all across the world a very profitable trade.
This is why Venice is not really a good capital : there's Zagreb's gold mine really close, meaning it will decrease the value of the Timbuktu gold patches.

On the whole, I'd go with Flanders myself to control Western Europe, and hmm...probably Iasi or Caffa or Kiev (or maybe Corinth ?) for the whole map, switching back to Flanders for the New World.

[Zarky]

If theres not Americas yet and i would own the whole map. Constantinopole would be ideal place but as said, it would drop silk prices in Baghdad
Rome is quite ideal capital, enough far away from gold and silk, amber may be little too close but silk and gold make enough cash. France, Spain and Britannia might have too huge distance to capital- if the capital would be further east than Greece.

[Eng]

I'd go for Rome
gold ivory and silk and also that is the center of the map so distance to capital will not have a huge effect on the corners of your empire.

[Jammer]

If Rome is good, then how about Naples?

I'm doing a bit of roleplay and want to be the good catholic as Venice. I consolidated north Italy and plan on making Sicily the next victim.

Marsailles seems good too. Not any gold, spices, or amber close by, right?

Any thoughts on Thessalonica?

I appreciate all the advice.

[Kobal2fr]

Naples is no good : it's way too close to Sicily, which has both Amber and Sugar (or is it Spices ? One or the other of the Levant's high priced goods anyway).

Marseilles is decent, with the added bonus of having one of the highest fertility ratings in Europe (which is weird if you ask me, cause it's all scorched, rocky hills down there).

Thessalonica is so-so, I'd say. It's very close to Constantinople's silks (and silk is good : very expensive, and very rare too meaning it can be exported everywhere, no matter the war/peace state of the world), and not far enough from Zagreb either. It's too central, to tell the truth. Corinth is a better bet : a tad further off center, and absolutely no resources there so no sharp pricedropping at all. But it may still be too close to Zagreb. Zagreb is a really cool merchant spot

[rebel8303]

Jusy a thought.. when you are going to take over the world why do you think of trade? I mean you will have much money from the conquest and after that you will ahve all the money of the world

[HoreTore]

I'd say antioch actually. For some reason that I simply cannot understand, it always gives me very low distance penalty.

This is obviously only if you attempt to control your empire from the east, Ie. you are turks, byzantines, egypt, som italian faction or hungary. It also gives good prices for silk, as well as terrific prices for amber, textiles, gold, silver, slaves and ivory.

[andrewt]

If you're conquering the world, central location is best for order purposes. When I played Moors, my capital at the end was Marseilles. When I put merchants in all the spots in Timbuktu and Arguin, I was earning around 6k at the most. That's just the same as one rich province. You're better off taking the location that reduces corruption and order penalties the most.

[Kobal2fr]

Jusy a thought.. when you are going to take over the world why do you think of trade? I mean you will have much money from the conquest and after that you will ahve all the money of the world

Because if something's worth doing, it's worth doing right, young man !

(Sorry, I just always wanted to say that, instead of being told all the time. Carry on !)

[Rebellious Waffle]

And you can keep getting all the money in the world. Over and over again.

(There's nothing quite so satisfying as swimming in your treasury a la Scrooge McDuck.)

[Slug For A Butt]

Kobal2fr, I've got to ask. Were you schooled in England? Born in England? Spent a LOT of time in England? Have an English parent? Or are you just a smart arse? Your understanding of the English (wait for the Scots to start bitching...) sense of humour as much as your English diction suggests that you aren't a native snail/garlic muncher.
You are self deprecating about your Frechiness in an English kind of way, kind of tongue in cheek.
Not trying to offend you, I've just wondered for a long time.

EDIT: Oops, back on topic.

[Jammer]

Good pointers, thanks!

Seems like we have two camps, Trade and Order.

Nice that we can switch our capital easily and then check the results.

Gotta admit that I have only won once *cough*I don't play that often *cough* as the Scots and used London as the capital throughout. That game, money wasn't an issue as I sat in Fortess Britanicca for a while and built a nestegg.

I like the idea of focusing on merchant income and economic warfare, especially as Venice, so I must remember to copy the resource list from the strategy faq.

@HoreTore, You like Antioch as a Christian, Muslim, Orthodox? Or does it matter?

The religious consideration (ala roleplay) could make a difference, eh? Constantinople seems like the gimme for Orthodox, but what about the Muslims and Christians?

@Kobal2fr, Corinth is a neat idea. Would it be best then to switch it to a city? Or does that matter?

[Kobal2fr]

Kobal2fr, I've got to ask. Were you schooled in England? Born in England? Spent a LOT of time in England? Have an English parent? Or are you just a smart arse? Your understanding of the English (wait for the Scots to start bitching...) sense of humour as much as your English diction suggests that you aren't a native snail/garlic muncher.
You are self deprecating about your Frechiness in an English kind of way, kind of tongue in cheek.
Not trying to offend you, I've just wondered for a long time.

EDIT: Oops, back on topic.

Lived all my life in Paris, I'm afraid, with the occasional fortnight abroad in the holidays. But I'm an English-to-French translator .
Well, technically I'll finally be if I passed my May exams, and bloody Cambridge is sitting on the results at the moment. But you know, conceptually, I'm a translator

And part of that includes studying English litt. (for some reason, Pratchett reads a *lot* better than Jane Austen ), watching a lot of US and UK TV etc... so it kind of rubs off I guess.

But I am a born smartarse, too. No question there.

@Kobal2fr, Corinth is a neat idea. Would it be best then to switch it to a city? Or does that matter?

Well yes, so that you can build markets, banks etc..., since your capital's trade bonus influences what money your Merchants make.

Plus, frankly, I've never understood the point of having a castle there - it's out of the way of any and all invasion routes (no defensive value), the port is far from the castle so it takes longer to prepare naval invasions from there, and it can't supply many towns with quality troops either...The only thing it does is provide Byzantium with a shield against Venice attacking from Heraklion I suppose, and Rhodes is a better option for that.

[Jammer]

Plus, frankly, I've never understood the point of having a castle there (Corinth)- it's out of the way of any and all invasion routes (no defensive value), the port is far from the castle so it takes longer to prepare naval invasions from there, and it can't supply many towns with quality troops either...The only thing it does is provide Byzantium with a shield against Venice attacking from Heraklion I suppose, and Rhodes is a better option for that.

Good point. That makes me wish I hadn't upgraded it to fortress. doh!

Off the wall idea here - Ajaccio as capital of Christian Europe! Island protection, central but not too much, and only 1 wine resource nearby!

Tunis as capital of Muslim World - gotta be good for trade.

[Dracula(Romanian Vlad Tepes)]

Off the wall idea here - Ajaccio as capital of Christian Europe! I

You wanna say catholic Europe,no?

[HoreTore]

Plus, frankly, I've never understood the point of having a castle there - it's out of the way of any and all invasion routes (no defensive value), the port is far from the castle so it takes longer to prepare naval invasions from there, and it can't supply many towns with quality troops either...The only thing it does is provide Byzantium with a shield against Venice attacking from Heraklion I suppose, and Rhodes is a better option for that.

For the Byzantines, it's not really useful if you have Sofia, but it can be quite handy for additional troops. Besides, it doesn't create that much income anyway.

However, for just about any other faction, it becomes THE province for attacks on both the balkans and asia minor. As egypt for example, it turns into a superb staging point for a jihad against constantinople, as well as attacking the turks from two points. For the turks, it's good for a two-point attack on the Byzantines(or hungary if they've taken over). For any western faction it's a wonderful staging point for attacks anywhere in the east.

Yes, Rhodes could be used for some of that, but if you lose your navy, you're screwed. From corinth, you can still go by land. And the mountains there are much easier to defend.

[andrewt]

It's also the most useless trade province in that region. I usually turn the ones without trade goods into castles or the ones with the worst trade.