Money 'Issues' Leading to Corruption and other Negative Traits

[ReluctantSamurai]

Pretty impressive to blitz the map in 54 years 0^0 Completely the opposite to my play-style...although I do blitz in stages after I've consolidated gains....

are you able to see the whole map? Do you have a trick to turn off the fog-of-war?

First, I should explain that I always play with FoW off. I've played every faction numerous times, and I've modded the game extensively, so there's not much new I'm going to learn. I rarely ever finish a campaign...take 50 provinces...I just play until I get bored and then start another game. I began playing with the FoW off in order to see how the AI functions with the changes I made to the game, and how the AI handles AI vs AI conflicts. It's been quite an education to watch.....

Edit the preferences.txt file in the Rome Total War directory. 9th line down...change Fog_Of_War:True to Fog_Of_War:False

I have never gotten my head around all the triggers for bad traits, and I usually don't bother trying to figure it out.

There is already so much micro-managing regarding cities/loyalty/squalor etc., that I could never bring myself to add one more item to the list. It always seemed that no matter what I did, my city governors always acquired bad traits. This happened irregardless of temple choice, keeping monies below 50k, or occasionally moving the family member out of the city. So I just gave up the attempt. It can be done...I've seen folks manage generals to get maximum traits, but it takes far more work than I'm willing to put in. I personally feel that the whole traits aspect is grossly overdone...but that's just my opinion.

Perhaps I shoudl look into this, as there is probably one simple thing I am doing "wrong" that is killing their management skills.

I don't have any set way to develop my family members...I just work with what the AI gives me. If a member comes with good field generalship qualities, that's where I put him. He will never see the inside of cities much until he reaches the age of 50. Field generals, if successful, tend to acuumulate a lot of influence as well as command stars. This makes for an excellent governor in high population cities, or cities with heavy cultural penalties. In the above screenies, my Athens governor is a good example of this. What do I care if he's lost all his management skills and command stars, the only thing the good "Roman" citizens of Athens respond to is his 10 laurates of influence. So Athens is happy, profitable, and is at ZPG.

If a member is more suited to city stewardship, that's where I put him. Load him up with whatever ancillaries he needs, and put him in a city with a temple that grants + traits (for the Brutii the Temple of Juno rocks!). I occasionally will have a good governor do a short tour-of-duty to clean up rebel stacks or fight an invading faction. I've never done any statistical analysis, but I believe this keeps him from acquiring too many bad traits. That's what I do with my members, at any rate.

Oh, and as far as the rebels holding a lot of provinces, most of those in the Middle and Far East are my doing, as well as those north of Macedonia. One of my staples to stay away from multiple-front wars is to create a swath of nasty rebel-held provinces between me and potential enemies. To get them into the "nasty" category, I will hold a city until it gains enough population to require the next level of governors building. I then burn everything to the ground and high-tail it as far away as I can get.

Hehehe.....the Julii have wasted three entire armies trying to grab Porrolisum in the above campaign. They sent a wimpy half-stack the first time and got trounced in their siege attempt, sent a bigger stack the next time...took the city but got tossed out the following turn with heavy losses. The third time the AI sent a stack led by a general, but command stars don't mean squat when the population is in rebellion waiting for the next level of governmental building to get finished. So they got tossed again and the general got killled [Bastarnae can be quite nasty with a bunch of exp chevrons and gold armor] So having the FoW off can be quite entertaining..............

I did a similar thing to the Parthians in the Middle East. Won't have to bother with them ever again.....