Military Upkeep Cost? Please Help!

[Barbarossa82]

It's usually best to cut taxes in a city rather than opting for a large garrison. The increased unit upkeep will outweigh the revenue gain and you'll end up making a loss. With taxes lower, your city will grow (despite what everyone tells you, this is a GOOD THING), and revenue will rise. You make more money out of a 30,000-pop city on low taxes than a 15,000-pop city on very high. City pop will eventually peak, then briefly fall, then stabilise.

For the same reasons, build farm upgrades.

Personally I never go above ten units of garrison except in very rare cases of huge cities very far from my capital. Since learning how to manage cities properly, I have never had a revolt except within the first 2-3 years after conquest.

[TitvsJuliusScipio]

Thanks for the advice Barbarossa82. I wonder, do you build arena's , academy's, and temples in all your cities?

[Barbarossa82]

Yes, I build any public order buildings I can. This makes more sense than a high garrison because buildings only have a one-off construction cost, not a turn-by-turn upkeep cost. I'll build the highest level of public order buildings I can in a given settlement. Since I use player1's excellent BugFixer, the academy line of buildings actually confer the bonus they were meant to under 1.5. Where temples are concerned, I always go for the pure public order versions in outlying territories, building the military or trading temples only in cities near my capital.

The culture penalty is very important. I always make sure to bulldoze all foreign culture buildings in a settlement as soon as possible, after completing any necessary retraining, or upgrade them to higher level buildings of my own culture.

[Caius]

The culture penalty is very important. I always make sure to bulldoze all foreign culture buildings in a settlement as soon as possible, after completing any necessary retraining, or upgrade them to higher level buildings of my own culture.

I will add a little thing:

Destroy the enemy Shrine/Temple/Large Temple/ of an enemy faction. Why? Two reasons. One is, as stated by Barbarossa82 before, gives you penalty culture. Also, you can not improve those religion buildings. Second. Bulldoze that building (notice that you receive a few denarii) and start building a shrine of your favourite faction God. You will receive the benefits, and you will be able to upgrade it as the city grows.

Cheers

Garci'