Get those walls up! {Settlement Building tips}

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

to to


What's so special about getting walls built? In a nutshell. You get the walls, you get the units....Bam!!!!....actualy...Bam Slam!!!!


These responses will go in Stainless Steel Standards, so if you've got something good, hook or crook {honest or cheating} let's hear it and help out your fellow Stainless Steel players...


I'll start things off with a bit of a Crusade exploit, so if your a purist or goody goody, don't peek...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. If a crusade if called join it. Doesn't matter if you never leave the barcha lounger, you can always quit the Crusade.

2. Upon joining the crusade generals receive one Chivalry globe and sometimes martyr traits. {very good for building btw.

3. Now same turn, quit the crusade and join back up, sometimes triggers more chivalry globes. Next turn try again, same process.

4. Hint: you may start calling Crusades on turn three with 8 crosses on the Popes favor board.

5. after a Crusade ends you got ten turns before you can call another one. rinse and repeat.

Aging exploit: you've got a 7 chivalry globe general who dies...Too Bad. No worries though, at the begging of the next turn reload that turn's "End turn save". Bingo...It's easter and your building savior is risen ...again.

[Caesar Clivus]

The most obvious ones:

Chivalry: Chivalry increases population growth. Apparently having a chivalrous governor makes people want to bump uglies. High chivalry gives one of the best boosts to growth possible. Especially useful for developing castles, seeing as you dont have a lot of buildings to increase growth.

Health buildings: Decreases squalor (increasing growth) and has the bonus of keeping people happy.

[sbroadbent]

Taxes on Low which gives a boost to population (people like to live where it's cheap plus the side benefit of triggering chivalry trait increases in generals (which as has been said boosts population).

Suggestion: Have a list of all the various traits and retinues that offer chivalry bonuses.

Also perhaps have a list of all the various buildings which offer population boosts (or work to reduce squalor) and the values of each.

I understand you can also get a Population boost for trade related reasons. Not sure the specific triggers for that though.

[Remonster6x]

It always feels like cheating: When at war with someone or planning a war with someone (especially invading the British Isles) I'll send a 6-12 unit armies with a catapult on ships outside the enemies castles and major towns that have a low garrison. When all is in place, attack (auto calc if it is a castle you won't get through with 1 catapult) and receive a lot of new territory in 1 turn before the pope asks you to cease hostilities. I just tell myself it's their fault for not keeping a garrison. I'm sure this is not new to anyone but it seems cheep. The pope makes me do it.

[axnsan]

Well there's the base farming bonus that differs from region to region
Then there's the farming upgrades bonus
For every 10% happiness due to "buildings of entertainment, fun, culture and the maintenance of good order", you also get 0.5% pop increase
There's also a trade bonus, I think for every x trade_income_bonus (building attributes in edb) you get a 0.5% increase to pop growth,or perhaps for every x$ gained through trade.
Then there's the governor's chivalry (0.5%/head, max of 4%)
Also low taxes give +0.5%
And every 5% health gives +0.5% growth.

Factors that decrease growth are squalor, plagues, and high taxes (-1% high, -1,5% very high)

Also for the crusade exploit, abandoing+rejoining the crusade about 15 times (can also be all in the same turn) should give your general the max of chivalry he can gain through this, AND fill your pope-o-meter.
You know you've reached the max when your general becomes "x the Saint", which gives him +5 chivalry, more if he had the opposing dread trait

It always feels like cheating: When at war with someone or planning a war with someone (especially invading the British Isles) I'll send a 6-12 unit armies with a catapult on ships outside the enemies castles and major towns that have a low garrison. When all is in place, attack (auto calc if it is a castle you won't get through with 1 catapult) and receive a lot of new territory in 1 turn before the pope asks you to cease hostilities. I just tell myself it's their fault for not keeping a garrison. I'm sure this is not new to anyone but it seems cheep. The pope makes me do it.

The question asked is how to get the walls UP, not DOWN.

[adecoy95]

this one is probably obvious, but i figured i would mention it.

in most cases, or at least untill the enemy has his better late game units, you can defend any city fairly easily.

take a group of 3-5 units (make shure they have a bonus against cavalry, or this wont work since they will get stomped) depending on how good they are defense wise, and place at least two in a V shape in front of the door, before you start the battle take a look at their forces for were the ladders/seige towers are and place the units there accordingly.

if you dont have enough to keep the V and fight off the seige towers and ladders, then put them on the walls, cause them to route off the wall, and then run your units back down to defend the door asap

this is especially effective if you have boiling oil, but its just as good otherwise.

watch the carnage

[cuo]

No offence, but isn't this the normal strategy for defending?

[axnsan]

Not to mention this thread isn't about battlefield strategy anyways

[adecoy95]

Not to mention this thread isn't about battlefield strategy anyways

well, it was about walls lol

[Caesar Clivus]

well, it was about walls lol

Yes but it's about getting walls up, not keeping them up

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Yes but it's about getting walls up, not keeping them up

How about we change to title to "Get those walls up! And then pray someone else don't tear them down"...

If you build walls at turn 19 and the AI don't til turn 32, your ahead in the technology game. In my games I'm always ahead of the AI in terms of building walls. That's something I'd like to share and build upon, to hear other people's views about settlement building.

Example: I put forth a minor exploit, then axnsan comes along and turns it into a monster exploit.

[Kaledon]

One thing I'd like to mention are the GoodBuilder set of traits which reduce squalor. These have a chance of being gained by a governor when the settlement they are governing completes a building. As well, certain buildings have a higher chance of gaining these, such as baths, roads and settlement size upgrades. There are other traits, such as KindRuler that also reduce squalor. However, I wouldn't worry about them too much. KindRuler is a trait determined at birth, although it has a chance of occurring if characters have the trusting or nonauthoritarian traits. Seeing as these are both birth traits... Still not any useful ways to develop them other than bloodline type stuff.

There's also the ancillaries that reduce squalor such as Architect and Peter the Hermit. Peter and the others like him have a chance to be gained as an ancillary when a general joins a crusade, assuming they have a free ancillary slot of course. The architect occurs in the same manner as the GoodBuilder traits. The Architect is wonderful, as it is a transferable ancillary.

[Klironomos ton Romaion]

Something worth mentioning is keeping rebels away from you by both land and sea. I believe the devastation that land based rebels leave behind directly correlates to a reduction in population growth rate. Having your trade routes/roads blocked by pirates and rebels reduces trade, and therefore population growth rate as well.

Health based buildings not only give you a population growth bonus, but they also help prevent diseases from striking your cities.

Also, when building up your capital city early on, sometimes it's good to transfer all your ancillaries to your best administrative general and stick him there, as this can sometimes, depending on the ancillaries you have, lead to a very rapid buildup.

[Remonster6x]

Do rebels who are not located on a road effect the city? Lets say they are busy blocking an off road watchtower that you don't need.

[Ichon]

Rebels affect the city wherever they are but if they are standing on a road or port they have a larger effect. The effect of rebels I believe is also based on the size of the army- anyone else know for sure? I frequently ignore 4-5 unit bands of rebels for many turns and only see -100 income but a large rebel army can quickly take -300 or more per turn which adds up pretty fast.

[Klironomos ton Romaion]

@ Ichon:
It's not the size but the upkeep cost of each rebel army that affects the reduction in income caused by devastation, from what I remember in Rome. Not that devastation has a huge impact on income anyways. Regardless, the devestation caused by any Rebel army will have an impact on population growth, so it's worth getting rid of them.

@Remonster6x: Yes, they cause devastation (the black patches), which in turn impacts pop. growth and income. It's always good to kill them for that reason, and because they are good for training generals (often a single general can take out a small rebel army). It's obviously particularly important to get rid of them when they blockade your ports by standing on them or attacking them by sea, and when they block your roads. I've even had rebel armies besiege my settlements (back when I didn't understand exactly what they did and ignored them).

[axnsan]

Devastation doesn't directly affect pop growth...


Here's my best city builder (and oldest general) until now.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Sir Walter]

What do "Survivor" and "Deceptive" mean?

[Kaledon]

I assume you're talking about the survivor trait? It's from the AssassinCatcher line of traits, first in line. It is gained automatically if a general executes an assassin that tried to kill him. Gives Chivalry and Personal Security, quite nice. The Deceptive trait is the second in the DeceiverVirtue line of traits. It gives authority and a penalty to loyalty. It is a birth trait, and also has a chance of being gained by your faction leader when you attempt to bribe. It can also be gained when you use spies and assassins. It has a higher chance of being gained if they fail.

[axnsan]

has a chance of being gained by your faction leader when you attempt to bribe

Guilty
.

It can also be gained when you use spies

Guilty

and assassins

Guilty

. It has a higher chance of being gained if they fail.

Not guilty