[Gameplay Guide] Guide to Temples in Europa Barbarorum

**Ludens** · December 15, 2007, 12:22 PM

Places of Worship in Europa Barbarorum: a Guide

In these uncertain times it is of great importance to pay proper attention to matters of Faith. A man ignores the heavens at his peril, but a leader ignores them at the peril of his Empire. It is therefore vital to create Places of Worship within your cities. However, due to the unfortunate inability of the construction browser to display the higher levels of Temples, it is not clear which godhead will give the most benefit in the long term. There are two ways in which a far-sighted leader can obtain this necessary information. One is to send an envoy to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The Pythoness will then inform your emissary that you should build a Temple to Apollo. A big one. With perfect decorations. And if you don’t worship Apollo, you’d better start doing so quickly. A less naïve leader, however, will simply consult this guide.

With this guide, I hope to provide the information that is unfortunately lacking in the in-game building browser: the bonuses provided by the Temples, particularly the higher levels. Both the format and the idea have been stolen from Sinner and his original R:TW Temple guide. Unlike the entities to which these Temples have been dedicated, I am only mortal, and some errors may have crept in. If you find one, please let me know.

A few notes to explain some of the features of this guide:

I have chosen to use the translated deity names instead of the original ones to increase recognisability.
Next to the deity’s name, the name of the building-line his or her Temples belong to is indicated. This is useful to see which bonuses you will get when you conquer that particular Temple from an opponent. If you conquer an enemy temple, you will receive the same bonuses from it as from a temple of your own from the same building-line. For example the Aedui Temple of Cernunnos and the Averni Temple of Sucellos both belong to the Temple-of-fun building-line, despite neither Godhead being known for his sense of humour. If the Aedui were to conquer a Temple of Sucellos, they would get the same bonuses as they would for a Temple of Cernunnos of equivalent level. As a general rule: if Temples are dedicated to the same deity (i.e. Zeus Olympos and Zeus Dodanna) they belong to the same building line. However, this does not always apply, for example with the Casse and Averni Temples of Sucellos.
There are five levels of every Temple line, but not everyone can build all levels. The Saka, the Sauromatae and the Sweboz can only build the first three levels; the Celtic factions, Lusotanians and Getai the first four. Generally, if a faction cannot build a certain level, it will receive no benefits from it when it conquers a Temple of this level.
Nor can every faction build all Temple lines. For example, the Sauromatae only have access to three: fertility, forge and fun. Again, if a faction conquers a town with a temple from a line they cannot build, they will receive no or only a small benefit from it.
Not all temple bonuses are equally useful. Both happiness and law bonuses improve public order with 5% per point, but law also decreases unrest and corruption. Loyalty appears to do nothing, so one can ignore these entries. Population growth and health bonuses increase population growth by 0,5% and give a +5% public order. Tax points give a measly +1% tax income and are effectively worthless. Trade bonuses are more useful, but don’t except to recoup temple construction costs quickly, especially if the town is small or doesn’t trade a lot. Experience points are straight forward. The effect of troop morale bonuses on the other hand is questioned: some say they affects soldiers defending the town rather than troops produced there.

A tabled version of this guide has been created by Mouzafphaerre. This version offers easier viewing, but is unfortunately not updated to EB 1.1. It can be downloaded in .pdf form here. For a changelog from EB 1.0 to EB 1.1, click the show button below.