Problem with turns... NO TIME FOR ANYTHING!

[Strategist]

I don't get it. I played this game lots of times and most played 1.0-1.2 versions not sure exactly. Now i am playing 1.5. And i have a good memory that it was hard to get enough population in the cities. But now i find it pretty easy with Julii. I've always played with him first. My point is i give very high tax rates to the primary two cities Arretium and Aruminum and still the population grows way too fast to be able to build the buildings i need...I always used capture settlement option when beating the army in enemy city. Even i managed to get like +7% pop growth which is a lot when the pop is like 12k+ ...
How much is normally to progress in normal difficulty settings in 250 BC i mean 40 turns after starting with Julii?
Is it ok if i just press end turn like it's nothing for faster building and units making or the enemies will get huge armies, because i didn't noticed them doing so except maybe for the gauls but the other factions seems still weak to me.
My main problem is that i cannot find time building - farming, military structures, bonus structures like temples, trade, ports and armory and blacksmith. If i make it in every settlement like this i will bankrupt... And how to find money for army?
I've made a strategy even because of the lack of time because i need to build so much stuff it seems useless! I don't made walls in all the provinces at all... i use one city for infanty, one for cavalry and one for missile units but it's still very hard to make blacksmith and armory in every settlement so i need to transport my army. Also i am making only peasents for garrison because they are best.
Did you noticed any difference if there are town watch or peasants in garrisons if they are same in numbers? Also the peasants are 240 and t.w. are like 180 as far as i can recall. Or it is about groups not the numbers?
Currently i've beaten the gauls in the campaign(at last) and something very dumb happened. I was given a mission from the senate to assasinate some Alexander who is located in the most eastern city in Seleucid faction territories... I am Julii in the far west and how the hell i am supposed to send a fleet with assasin there for 10 turns having in mind how far the sea is from the city. I need like 10 turns only walking on the land...
Anyway if i produce only from 3 cities units it is hard to move the army to west in gaul territories even if using waypoints.
How much time you need to get Arretium Aruminum and Patavium up to 12k pop and actually Patavium grows pretty fast. Some gaul cities have double the pop growth just after i captured them very strange! Should i use exterminate on my own cities after they are captured by rebellions like every 5-10 years i wonder?
I guess i shouldn't be doing any po growth and public loyalty at all, but just making more peasents there which will also reduce the pop. Or maybe the trick is in very large pop transfering so every city has good income/trade/buildings. It's a shame there isn't any option in the management to speed up the build or training processes. After all why 1000 people build with the speed that 20000 people can build? Any logic at all? Or like offering double denarii for faster building.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

I see a massive post of words. It would be much better the reader's sake if you would seperate your questions with a blank line between each. As to your problem, that is just something you have to get used to. I found 1.5 very fast to start off with, and it was only by my third try that I managed to really get the campaign running well. - Don't always just occupy the settlement after capture, go enslave or exterminate.
- Balance your population around by recruiting peasants in one city, then moving them to another and disbanding them there.
- If you get a silly Senate mission, then don't do it. You'll have to turn on the Senate in the end anyway
- Town watch are better for garrisons than peasants, even though peasants have more men
- Always exterminate after recapturing a rebelled city
- Build economic buildings for money, and secure trade rights with many nations as you can. If that fails, and all hope of money is lost, use the add_money cheat.

[Entropy Judge]

How much is normally to progress in normal difficulty settings in 250 BC i mean 40 turns after starting with Julii?

That depends on how quickly you expand. I tend to go slowly (IMO), so I've maybe got twenty settlements. On the other hand, if you're very economical with military units, I can see having 40+.

Is it ok if i just press end turn like it's nothing for faster building and units making or the enemies will get huge armies, because i didn't noticed them doing so except maybe for the gauls but the other factions seems still weak to me.

You should always be doing *something* each turn, even if you're just making sure that the army you told to march across the continent is still going to do that.

My main problem is that i cannot find time building - farming, military structures, bonus structures like temples, trade, ports and armory and blacksmith. If i make it in every settlement like this i will bankrupt... And how to find money for army?

This goes along with the previous tip. Make sure you're doing something *useful*. So you have a city that can build an Awesome Temple to Jupiter - does it need it? Will it need it in the forseeable future? If not, then don't build it. Also, most people will advise you not to build more than the first level of farm upgrades - it hurts more than it helps once your cities start getting bigger. You also don't need to upgrade every barracks and/or armory - are you going to be filling your armies with Triarii? Some people find it more helpful to specialize cities - for example, the three cities in Sicily? Have one build Archery Range units, another Stable units, and the third build Infantry units.

I've made a strategy even because of the lack of time because i need to build so much stuff it seems useless! I don't made walls in all the provinces at all... i use one city for infanty, one for cavalry and one for missile units but it's still very hard to make blacksmith and armory in every settlement so i need to transport my army. Also i am making only peasents for garrison because they are best.

Just build the Smithy buildings near the front, so that your units will pass through the city on the way to the enemy. Or, just don't build them - as a Roman faction, you should be able to survive with basic Hastati/Principes. I rarely build Walls myself, and if something seems useless to you, don't build it! Keep multiple saves in case you realize later that something actually is important and you've unintentionally crippled yourself by not building it.

Did you noticed any difference if there are town watch or peasants in garrisons if they are same in numbers? Also the peasants are 240 and t.w. are like 180 as far as i can recall. Or it is about groups not the numbers?

Peasants have more men, which is more important for PO, but they're all but useless as fighters, which Town Watch are better at. Again, most people will say to build Peasants as PO garrisons instead of Watchmen ... if it's a border region and you expect to fight, though, use a real garrison.

Currently i've beaten the gauls in the campaign(at last) and something very dumb happened. I was given a mission from the senate to assasinate some Alexander who is located in the most eastern city in Seleucid faction territories... I am Julii in the far west and how the hell i am supposed to send a fleet with assasin there for 10 turns having in mind how far the sea is from the city. I need like 10 turns only walking on the land...

Ignore it. Eventually the Senate will give you near-impossible tasks like that (I got one once, and my assassin just missed the deadline - because some neutral Egyptian ships got in the way ). A good rule of thumb is: if the reward is really worth it, the reward is money (in the early game), or if you were planning on doing it anyway: go for it. If it's something you don't care about: ignore it.

How much time you need to get Arretium Aruminum and Patavium up to 12k pop and actually Patavium grows pretty fast. Some gaul cities have double the pop growth just after i captured them very strange! Should i use exterminate on my own cities after they are captured by rebellions like every 5-10 years i wonder?

Exterminating cities is a double-edged sword: yes, you get rid of large amounts of people (especially useful if there's a big culture penalty or some other PO problem) and you get a lot of money immediately, but the city isn't giving you as much money in the long term. For the Gallic cities, do they have a higher level farm than you do? Also, what's the terrain like? Is it very fertile land?

I guess i shouldn't be doing any po growth and public loyalty at all, but just making more peasents there which will also reduce the pop. Or maybe the trick is in very large pop transfering so every city has good income/trade/buildings.

The way I do it is the way I outlined earlier - if I see that I'll be needing it soon, I build it when I can. If it's not likely that I'll need it (most PO buildings, and nearly all the Pop-Growth and Health buildings), I'll leave it until the lack starts to hurt me. Population transferral via peasants is a great way to manage population levels, especially if you have a low-growth city that's stalled out just a few hundred people from the next size.

[NobleNick]

WELCOME to the forums, Strategist!!

Whoa, so many questions crammed into such a short space....

...My point is i give very high tax rates to the primary two cities Arretium and Aruminum and still the population grows way too fast to be able to build the buildings i need...

No, they don't. I play RTW 1.5 vanilla; and I cut my teeth (like most others here) on the Julii. You just need to rethink what you need, and build economic buildings first. These will, in very short order, give you the money you need to continue building all you need.

...I always used capture settlement option when beating the army in enemy city. Even i managed to get like +7% pop growth which is a lot when the pop is like 12k+ ...

For big captured cities, you typically need to exterminate.

How much is normally to progress in normal difficulty settings in 250 BC i mean 40 turns after starting with Julii?...

If (the number of turns you have played) divided by (the number of new settlements you have captured) is less than 5 then you are doing fine: That will win the game for you in about 180 turns. I play on VH/VH, and like to win in 90 or so turns, which is about one city captured every 3 turns. I can point you to some examples of folks winning the game in 40 turns or less on VH/VH; but they are in it for the challenge of doing just that: seeing how fast they can win.

Is it ok if i just press end turn like it's nothing for faster building and units making or the enemies will get huge armies, because i didn't noticed them doing so except maybe for the gauls but the other factions seems still weak to me...

Just clicking on the 'end of turn' button multiple times to advance the game is not a good idea. Yes, your opponents are squeezing good things (good for them = bad for you) out of every turn. You should be doing the same.

...My main problem is that i cannot find time building - farming, military structures, bonus structures like temples, trade, ports and armory and blacksmith. If i make it in every settlement like this i will bankrupt... And how to find money for army?...

Do NOT build everything. At first, build:

1.) Land clearance
2.) Trading post
3.) Ports
4.) dirt roads
5.) upgrade farms... ONCE! (except for Patavium = no upgrades)
6.) upgrade markets, ports and roads.
7.) build the first level of mines, if the town is not a border town.
8.) upgrade walls
9.) Build town centers and other PO buildings as needed.
10.) NOTICE: There are no specialized military buildings listed above. Build them only if you have excess money (which you will, if you follow this plan, and do not go overboard on armies).

I've made a strategy even because of the lack of time because i need to build so much stuff it seems useless! I don't made walls in all the provinces at all...

You have plenty of time to build the stuff I listed above.

On walls: Acckk!! No!! You need wall upgrades to keep squalor down and to allow you to keep upgrading markets, ports, mines, and roads.

...i use one city for infanty, one for cavalry and one for missile units but it's still very hard to make blacksmith and armory in every settlement so i need to transport my army. Also i am making only peasents for garrison because they are best...

Specialized cities = Excellent plan. Keep the three cities near each other. Build blacksmith and armory for infantry first. Until you can get the same upgrades in your cav city, just march your cav over to the infantry city and retrain them.

....Did you noticed any difference if there are town watch or peasants in garrisons if they are same in numbers? Also the peasants are 240 and t.w. are like 180 as far as i can recall. Or it is about groups not the numbers?...

The numbers of men in each type of unit do differ; and it is about numbers of men (not units) which matters for PO. For RTW 1.5 (Not B.I. expansion) you get a bonus to PO which is linearly proportional to the number of troops in the city. The max PO bonus is 80, for troop count = 12% of the settlement's population. And there is a penalty if there are no troops nor governer. So...

If town poulation is 500 and troop count is 240 (48% of poulation) the PO bonus is +80.
If town poulation is 1000 and troop count is 240 (24% of poulation) the PO bonus is +80.
If town poulation is 2000 and troop count is 240 (12% of poulation) the PO bonus is +80.
If town poulation is 4000 and troop count is 240 (6% of poulation) the PO bonus is +40.
If town poulation is 8000 and troop count is 240 (3% of poulation) the PO bonus is +20.
If town poulation is 16000 and troop count is 1 (0% of poulation) the PO bonus is +0.
If town poulation is 16000 and troop count is 0 (0% of poulation) the PO penalty is -40.

...Currently i've beaten the gauls in the campaign(at last) and something very dumb happened. I was given a mission from the senate to assasinate some Alexander who is located in the most eastern city in Seleucid faction territories...

Congrats on eradicating the Gaul.

Stuff like that happens. Try to do all missions in the early game. As the game goes on, the missions get harder and the rewards more dubious: do the ones you can easily do and do not fret over the rest. The Senate is getting more afraid of you. It is part of the game.

...Anyway if i produce only from 3 cities units it is hard to move the army to west in gaul territories even if using waypoints...

No it is not, it just takes a bit longer. That is the burden of success. Use ships to cut down on ferry times to the farthest reaches of your frontier. You can also build a few more military cities closer to the border, as you can afford it,a nd if you desire. When I played as Julii, I had 5 military cities, and elected to have them all co-located in Northern Italy. Each of the five specialized in two types of units (infantry and cav, infantry and archers, infantry and ships, ships and archers, etc.) Then I shipped (or marched) them out to where they were needed. It worked well.

...How much time you need to get Arretium Aruminum and Patavium up to 12k pop and actually Patavium grows pretty fast. Some gaul cities have double the pop growth just after i captured them very strange! Should i use exterminate on my own cities after they are captured by rebellions like every 5-10 years i wonder?...

The cities you own from the beginning --if you follow the plan I laid out, keep taxes on Very High, and build PO buildings as needed-- should have no problem with rebellion. Exterminate large captured cities. Capture Patavium early in the game, before the Gauls build farms there (Patavium gets a big natural farming bonus. Combined with AI-built farms, this can cause lots of problems later in the game).

...I guess i shouldn't be doing any po growth and public loyalty at all, but just making more peasents there which will also reduce the pop. Or maybe the trick is in very large pop transfering so every city has good income/trade/buildings...

Pop transfer is not the answer: works poorly even on Huge settings. The answer (again) is to NOT build too many farm upgrades. Keep taxes on VERY HIGH, since this slows pop growth, gives you more money now, and provides an early warning of PO problems: If PO gets too low, lower taxes ONE NOTCH, TEMPORARILY while you fix the problem and then put taxes back to very high. Note that low taxes do NOT solve PO problems. I will say that agin,m to make sure you got it: Low taxes do NOT solve PO problems. They only postpone them. If you live on VH taxes, and you get in touble, you can lower taxes while addressing the root of your problem. If you live on low taxes and get in trouble... you're screwed.

...It's a shame there isn't any option in the management to speed up the build or training processes. After all why 1000 people build with the speed that 20000 people can build? Any logic at all? Or like offering double denarii for faster building...

Use the advice I gave in the beginning, and you won't have to ask such questions.

I hope this helps.

[Strategist]

1.PEASANTS Thanks a lot for the various answers you gave to me Entropy Judge and NobleNick =). I will use your strategies in the future. But i've noticed around 30-40% of my income is generated by farming. Too bad the bonus isn't mentioned in statistic in the game only in the list information of the farm buildings. Will it be good to give my huge cities to enemies or rebels and recapturing and exterminating them after that? I've noticed also that by making the first temple for PO also the upgradin ones are automatically for such bonuses which is good for high PO. Also if you fight rebels which are mostly leak peasants it's a great way for experience because they cannot left the city so easily and you can make lots of kills and get experience =).

2.DIPLOMACY I forgot one curious question. How to change the enemy decisions while negotiating with a diplomat? I move huge army near his last free city and besiege all others and give "Become protectorate" even offering map information and denarii and they still don't accept. I even heard they required like 30-100k denarii like it's a joke or something... Also there is a funny situation where you beat somebody and left him with one city and he offers you to become his protectorate even treatens you LOL! LMAO!

3.ARMY TRANSPORT But still it's hard to calculate which is cheaper and faster - transporting army by sea or land? For sea you need to build ships which slowers the army creation process. Also you need big navy to be sure it won't be attacked by pirates. Something that annoyes me is how agressive and brutal the pirates are even in the beginning and they are in large numbers. And there are terrains where you cannot land. Also you usually won't see what is ahead of your towns while sending army by sea the enemy can suprise you by land. But 2-3 watchtowers fix this problem .

4.WALLS Another this is does the walls are really neaded? Somebody said something about preventing dirty in the city but they cost some money. AND if you think a little if an enemy attacks you and you have army closer, he will need turns to make siege equipment in most cases and if you attack he will be smart and waiting you to go outside and losing some soldiers because of the time they are incapable of fighting while moving. And then you will need time to get all the army outside the city. So if you don't have any walls logically he will attack emediatly and you will crush him easily. My point is the walls are an obstruct for yourself, not just the enemy. Also if you wait for him to attack you lose army and it costs a lot to retrain. The siege time also drops your PO which is a problem.

I've just noticed my rank is actually a peasant .I am wondering is there a rank called Shogun? xD ;D

5.EXPERIENCE How you get more experience - when you kill more by having minimal casualties or you need both casualties and kills? I've noticed some units don't gain chevrons by beating triple their unit count but some get by losing half the soldiers and yet not killing so much enemies. Also why some get chevrons when i click end battle or just when the battle report pop-up? But not while in the time of the battle?

6.CONTROLS Also how can i adjust controls especially for speed because the game don't respond well to my clicks - i need to click like 10 times to get from x3 to x1 speed .

7.TRAITS Is there a way to increase a family member's traits like by making huge PO in a city he is present?

[Entropy Judge]

2.DIPLOMACY

Yeah, diplomacy ... doesn't work. Forget trying to get the AI to do anything, because it won't happen.

3.ARMY TRANSPORT

By land is probably going to be cheaper; if you go by Sea, I would maintain a permanent fleet of 3-4 level 2 Warships (Triremes) and upgrade them as you can. As long as you don't engage obviously superior fleets (like the Carthaginian navy when they're all near you), you should be fine. Pirates actually seem to calm down once you're a bit into the game. As for not being able to see what's ahead of you when going by land: Use spies (if you're planning on taking a city) or a diplomat (if you're not) - both can find enemy armies that are attempting to ambush.

4.WALLS

I don't build walls, as I said earlier. Of course, I'm also on the strategic offensive, so I fight my battles in enemy territory. Also, since the AI does tend to build walls, I use those cities as Fortress Cities.

5.EXPERIENCE

Experience is uncontrollable, really. It seems to be a combination of number of battles, number of kills, and strength of enemy fought (Berserkers will give more XP than Peasants, for example). I've had battles where a unit that didn't even fight got a chevron, and others where a unit that fought, killed a lot, and didn't lose anyone *lost* a chevron. The way I treat it: If I have a temple that boosts XP, I'll retrain units there to give them the extra chevrons; other than that, I tend to ignore it. Unless you're going up against 3+ Chevron units, it really doesn't matter much if you've got a Smithy boosting your weapons/armor.

[Double A]

The temple of Ceres, which you get as Julii, has either a pop or farming bonus.

And if you're overcrowding, don't build farms cause they MAKE people.