Roman 1.2 Building Setup for Italian peninsula

[Fredz]

Hi all,

Started a new campaign as Rome and wondered about people's building set ups for their Italy.

Specifically where did you base your military centre?

[Dardo21]

I usually place my aux barracks in the upper right city (the one near the Veneti), and focus northern Italy on commerce for the rest, I focus Magna Graecia as well as sicily on agriculture, maybe with an aux barracks if I want the ranged aux units.

[motaboy]

Rome is always my military center. I build as much military buildings in this region as possible and use the other regions for food production. Aux barracks are a nice in regions where you can recruit soldiers that improve the roman army, like cavalry or archers.

Another question from my side: Where do you build your supply center? It says "it supplies 3 regions wide", I still don't know how's that with water surrounding a region like southern Italy or Sicily.

[Garbad]

Sicily is always my military center. Italy is just a wealth generator.

[Fredz]

Yeah I toyed with this idea but I'm caught between two places - Rome is very lucrative yet it comes with an inbuilt free barracks and an extra province which may allow for a hybrid military/economic build OR I build somewhere with low profit like Cisalpina or Sicily/Sardinia.

What do you guys think? Also where do you think the best Auxilaries are?

[Dardo21]

There's plenty of good auxiliaries tbh, I personally always try to get to Germany asap to get their heavy cav and cathapracts. You could build an aux barracks in Cisalpina, but that's a pretty good province for industry too.

[Fredz]

Germans have cataphracts?? Whats the name of the province?

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[Dardo21]

You can chose out of 3 provinces I believe, Germania Magna, Germania Minor and Suebi.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...es-and-FAQ#R05 go to the Area of Recruitment section of the page and look at the 2nd picture, it shows all the Roman AUX

[Fredz]

Holy crap - Ala Batavorum, going for those!

[Dardo21]

They have cataphracts too, don't see them on the list though, but all the german cavalry has a very low cap though so keep that in mind.

[PietrolEremita]

To answer your original question, Magna Graecia (southern Italy) no doubt. Better AOR troops and auxilia and a 4 region province is wasted for troop recruitment.

For Italia (Rome's province) go for money. Upgrade all towns as high as you can, gladiator school and wine mkt in Rome, trade harbours, their commerce-soecific resource buildings and industry in the minor towns.

Magna Graecia gets an auxiliary barrack, a siege weapons workshop, a gladiator school, a temple (nimphaeus is best) and the rest is food (including the yellow food building in Taras). Ports are fish with the exception of Taras that gets a a military port.

Keep in mind that Italia will be heavily in negatives for food so upgrade only as you upgrade your food buildings in Magna Graecia and, as you expand, the rest of your empire.

Later you can build a legionary barrack in Magna Graecia as well, but note that Rome has a built-in basic barrack. Until the mid game that will do, I usually recruit my Frontline troops in​ Rome, then walk south and get auxilia, cavalry and missiles. Once I expand and get 4+ provinces I build a legionary barrack in Magna Graecia and at that point my Empire wide recruitment involves various generals collecting key auxiliary troops across the empire and meeting in Magna Graecia to get the heavy infantry frontline.

Another thing: there is little downside in speccing every single province capital in your empire as a trade city. You might need a fortified city if you want to harden the border sometimes but in general I go for all trade cities across my empire. Especially Rome!

[Fredz]

Awesome post!

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[PietrolEremita]

Glad it was helpful!

Don't forget to park a spare dignitary in Italia (and other money-making provinces as you expand, like Africa). It can boost tax revenues considerably!

[Fredz]

Yeah im all over the dignitaries

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[hoho96]

I don't know why some people are saying Sicily is a low profit province. Syracusa has some incredible trade bonuses, and the two other port towns are pretty good for industry.
I always build all trade port and forum buildings in Syracusa, the industrial port thing on the other 2 towns. By the time I beat Carthage from Sicily and the western mediterranean islands, Sicily is by far my second most profitable province after Latium.

[PietrolEremita]

Yes, Sicily is a profitable province but far from the likes of Mauretania, hispania., Italia, Africa, thrace, egypt, Asia or Greece. The number of regions in the province is a HUGE factor (almost all 4 region provinces will be better than 3 region ones) with number of ports close second. Certain resources are also plainly better than others (gold, salt, dyes...)

Sicily is pretty good

[Corka]

Sicily I think actually makes a pretty good spot for recruitment. An auxiliary barracks in Syracuse will get you Cretan archers as well as ephesian pikes which I found to be a god send early on in the campaign before you have your reforms. Putting down a second auxiliary barracks on one of the two smaller towns will widen your recruitment to include units from Africa, including some elephants at tier 3 I'm pretty sure. You can additionally put down a regular barracks for roman troops and a workshop for siege equipment, although making an army that is entirely (aside from the general) comprised of foreigners is quite nice when venturing out to conquer an entirely new province as you can get replenishment much earlier than an elite roman army would.

[hoho96]

Sicily I think actually makes a pretty good spot for recruitment. An auxiliary barracks in Syracuse will get you Cretan archers as well as ephesian pikes which I found to be a god send early on in the campaign before you have your reforms.

Agree. I always have one auxiliary barracks in Sicily pretty much just for the Cretan archers. They're so amazing that once I get them I basically almost stop bother with slingers altogether
They're so good in taking out those damn wooden towers in town battles, which makes my soldier's' life that bit better

[Malchron]

Where is sicily? I see sikelia, italia, latium.. also no magna graecia anymore.

[PietrolEremita]

Magna graecia=Italia - that was the name in the old map
Sikelia=Sicily