Steed123
11-24-2011, 08:59 PM
Use the prologue to get a feel for the basic game play and control, then jump into a proper campaign. I'd recommend playing the red Romans to start (Julii I think) as they have the 'easiest' starting position, expending against peasant armies. Also, try and complete your senate missions where ever possible - normally results in free money and units, and are often things you'd want to do anyway.
Regarding economy, this is something you get a feel for after playing a while. Generally roads and ports are best built early on, to improve trade (and troop movement!) followed by markets. The other key to making money/not going bankrupt is watch your army sizes. Large armies drink money like no bodies business. Try to keep a minimal garrison (just enough to keep the population in check) in your safe towns, those behind your frontier. If you feel some towns are unsafe, keep a medium army in the area that can move out to tackle an invading army or deal with a siege. Once you have some experience, defending a town while heavily out numbered is second nature.
My other advice as you are learning the game is not to be afraid of restarting. Often you will get stuck in an unwinnable position, where your economy is weak, you lack settlements and have small armies, and your enemies are only getting stronger. It's better to take that experience and use it to start another game that get bogged down in a futile campaign.
Final tip for the economy - capture settlements! The only way to thrive is to be taking settlements whenever and where ever possible! Don't massacre the population for no reason either. It's almost always better to peacefully occupy or loot a settlement. Only massacre big cities which you won't be able to control.
Regarding city happiness, town guard and peasants are the cheapest way to keep the peasants down, and stronger units offer more oppression (at least I think they do, after many years of play :D). As the Romans build sewers asap, they will keep the population happy, and improve condition for the people = population grows faster.
When a town becomes too large, and the population can't be kept in line (normally around the 20k population level), drop the tax right down and build a full army (of good troops) in the settlement and hold on until it pops the final 'upgrade' for population and build the governors mega palace. As soon as that finishes, put tax to max and move your entire army outside the walls - wait for the settlement to rebel, then recapture it and massacre the population. You get a crap load of money, the population will be happy and you have access to the highest tiers of buildings. You also have a huge army to go stomping about with :D
A more advanced trick to try, which is fairly hard and stressful to pull off is, when playing as a Roman faction, to expand insanely quickly into the territories your allies would normally take. As the Julii (still my preferred faction) try and get Sicily the top of Africa before Blue, and the coast east of Italy (Bosnia, Albania etc) and if possible some of Greece. Not only will this (Greece especially) help boost your economy, it stifles the other Roman factions making them easier to pick off once the empire turns sour.
Main tip though, restart when you're screwed! There's no point playing 50 turns two or three settlements, you won't get anywhere. Notch the campaign up as experience and jump into a fresh game!
Oh, a strong navy can also be a very, very good thing. Some form of navy, to keep your ports clear is always recommended, but once you've got Europe under control it's time to sail out east in search of plunder - a kick ♥♥♥♥ fleet sailing around controlling the seas means your trade is safe, and you'll never lose that huge army to pirates!
Aah, and put your Hastati on fire at will! Especially when defending, their pilum annihilate enemy units :D. Often wise to fight even small battles yourself, and you'll generally come out with a better victory than the computer would give you.
Generals! Marvellous generals! Train them up by slaughtering routing units until they're super hard mega bastards (with get bonuses, like stronger moral for your army, increased movement speed etc) and then get them fighting. Be sure to save before major conflicts, nothing like winning a huge battle buy losing your best general just before the end.
Finally finally, build watch towers at the edge of your lands - it's only 200 gold and they're bloody useful.
P.S
After a while put the game on 'manage all cities'. You still have the option to put a city into auto managed mode, for those little backwater settlements that aren't really good for anything while letting you take control of an ungoverned city. Controlling ungoverned cities is incredible useful, as the AI often builds crap and likes to waste money :D (you can set the AI spend/save policy in one of the management tabs!)
I like to have every settlement building something every turn, from the start to the end but that probably wont work for everyone (at least when you're starting out!)
Most of all, have fun :D
Regarding economy, this is something you get a feel for after playing a while. Generally roads and ports are best built early on, to improve trade (and troop movement!) followed by markets. The other key to making money/not going bankrupt is watch your army sizes. Large armies drink money like no bodies business. Try to keep a minimal garrison (just enough to keep the population in check) in your safe towns, those behind your frontier. If you feel some towns are unsafe, keep a medium army in the area that can move out to tackle an invading army or deal with a siege. Once you have some experience, defending a town while heavily out numbered is second nature.
My other advice as you are learning the game is not to be afraid of restarting. Often you will get stuck in an unwinnable position, where your economy is weak, you lack settlements and have small armies, and your enemies are only getting stronger. It's better to take that experience and use it to start another game that get bogged down in a futile campaign.
Final tip for the economy - capture settlements! The only way to thrive is to be taking settlements whenever and where ever possible! Don't massacre the population for no reason either. It's almost always better to peacefully occupy or loot a settlement. Only massacre big cities which you won't be able to control.
Regarding city happiness, town guard and peasants are the cheapest way to keep the peasants down, and stronger units offer more oppression (at least I think they do, after many years of play :D). As the Romans build sewers asap, they will keep the population happy, and improve condition for the people = population grows faster.
When a town becomes too large, and the population can't be kept in line (normally around the 20k population level), drop the tax right down and build a full army (of good troops) in the settlement and hold on until it pops the final 'upgrade' for population and build the governors mega palace. As soon as that finishes, put tax to max and move your entire army outside the walls - wait for the settlement to rebel, then recapture it and massacre the population. You get a crap load of money, the population will be happy and you have access to the highest tiers of buildings. You also have a huge army to go stomping about with :D
A more advanced trick to try, which is fairly hard and stressful to pull off is, when playing as a Roman faction, to expand insanely quickly into the territories your allies would normally take. As the Julii (still my preferred faction) try and get Sicily the top of Africa before Blue, and the coast east of Italy (Bosnia, Albania etc) and if possible some of Greece. Not only will this (Greece especially) help boost your economy, it stifles the other Roman factions making them easier to pick off once the empire turns sour.
Main tip though, restart when you're screwed! There's no point playing 50 turns two or three settlements, you won't get anywhere. Notch the campaign up as experience and jump into a fresh game!
Oh, a strong navy can also be a very, very good thing. Some form of navy, to keep your ports clear is always recommended, but once you've got Europe under control it's time to sail out east in search of plunder - a kick ♥♥♥♥ fleet sailing around controlling the seas means your trade is safe, and you'll never lose that huge army to pirates!
Aah, and put your Hastati on fire at will! Especially when defending, their pilum annihilate enemy units :D. Often wise to fight even small battles yourself, and you'll generally come out with a better victory than the computer would give you.
Generals! Marvellous generals! Train them up by slaughtering routing units until they're super hard mega bastards (with get bonuses, like stronger moral for your army, increased movement speed etc) and then get them fighting. Be sure to save before major conflicts, nothing like winning a huge battle buy losing your best general just before the end.
Finally finally, build watch towers at the edge of your lands - it's only 200 gold and they're bloody useful.
P.S
After a while put the game on 'manage all cities'. You still have the option to put a city into auto managed mode, for those little backwater settlements that aren't really good for anything while letting you take control of an ungoverned city. Controlling ungoverned cities is incredible useful, as the AI often builds crap and likes to waste money :D (you can set the AI spend/save policy in one of the management tabs!)
I like to have every settlement building something every turn, from the start to the end but that probably wont work for everyone (at least when you're starting out!)
Most of all, have fun :D