[Guide] Empire Management

[Falconiano]

I made this guide for those who want a plan for managing R2 provinces properly without resorting to borderline cheat mods that dumb down Public Order/Food/Upkeep systems - absolutely no need to, you just need a plan.
I borrowed Civ5 icons for easier reading.

The goal is:
- Swimming in Denarii
- Never have Public Order issues (and rebellions) without wasting any armies to guard
- Quick Growth and Conversion
- Max Food bonus
- Increased Research speed
- And in general, having max full stacks of prestigious units roam freely without worrying of internal issues or money.

Couple rules to keep in mind:
- In the earlygame you must prioritize food buildings like Fields and Delicatessen before other stuff or you will face famines if you pump out the cash-makers first.
Try to never go below a certain total amount of food (shown in the bottom-right of the UI), make sure it's always +20 or so.
- You must never enslave for this to work. The order malus is way too big and army-limiting to manage, compared to the money slaves make.
Free them or kill them, your call.


Here is the build scheme for 90% of your Provinces.


- Provincial Capital -
Capital is mostly used to pump out and for all region, in order to produce wealth and safety for the whole province.

Colonia

+1 +500 +5 -5 +20% wealthall

Circus

+24 (28 if bread and games) -10 160

Delicatessen

+5 50

Latrines

+4 +2 +1

Brick Klin

+300 -4

Trading Port

+240 +120

Total: +24 +9 +2 +16 +1370 -10 +20%wealthall

- Towns -

Village

+3 -2 +200 +10% wealthall

Grove of Nymphs

+8 -8 +3 +2% tax

Latifundium

15 +90 -10

Total: -2 +3 +5 +3 +290 +10%wealtall +2% tax


In the remaining 10% you should focus Food and Research.

Focus food in those risky seaside cities like Brindisium where you always keep a "just in case" army; instead of Trading Port build:
Fishmongers


In 2-3 other cities instead of Delicatessen, increase your research speed with:
Libraries



Soon you should have something like this:
While having max amount of upgraded full stacks pillaging dem enemies and impregnating their wives, without needing to waste time beating up slaves/rebels.


Hope this helps.

[Takizama]

Awesome, now how do i recruit units?

[CTD_or_Bust]

I suppose instead of farms you would build barracks.

[doonz]

Awesome, now how do i recruit units?

mass gladiators

i just used this tactic as rome on legendary and am doing pretty good so far

[2gutter67]

It's just sad that those Civ 5 icons actually make a lot of sense in this Total War guide. I never thought I'd see the day.

[Profound]

I've found that it's best to build a library in every province capital and work on the civil research chain for public order, as that gives you 9 public order, which is more than a grove of nymphs!

Also, what's the point of having a growth building in a fully fledged out province?

[ocman1]

I've found that it's best to build a library in every province capital and work on the civil research chain for public order, as that gives you 9 public order, which is more than a grove of nymphs!

Also, what's the point of having a growth building in a fully fledged out province?

I was wondering this point myself. As in, does this provided any added benefit or when it is capped, it is capped?

[fws2468]

Trying to calculate net order is too tedious for me. I just make it a point to always construct another building in the same province at the same time that counters the negative effects of the new building. The only thing to look out for is when it's obvious the negative effect far outweighs the countering benefit.

[McCarronXLD]

I'd like to see the development plan for a military/recruitment provice.

[fws2468]

I'd like to see the development plan for a military/recruitment provice.

Smaller provinces of only 2 or 3 settlements don't make good long term recruitment centers as there are fewer towns available to build happiness buildings needed to counter unhappiness from multiple military buildings. I usually make only large provinces of 4 settlements military centers and even then have to watch unhappiness levels as I upgrade the settlements.

But generally, an amphitheater would greatly help to counter unhappiness from military buildings. I also build Mars and Vulcan temples to get the recruitment slot and cost bonuses with bread and games edicts. And these also support happiness by complementing the amphitheater.

As you get richer in the later game and unhappiness rises in the recruitment center, you may consider converting low happiness yield temples like Vulcan into Nymph shrine (high happiness yield) as you're already swimming in money and don't need the recruitment cost bonus. You can even convert the Mars temple as well especially if you choose republic and so already have the extra recruitment slots by default.

About military building type, I dedicate any large province to building strong melee infantry with max armor. And a nearby province will specialize in siege equipment. Generally, building a max of 2 military buildings in one province is optimal to keep order in check assuming you carefully upgrade other buildings that raise squalor.

[McCarronXLD]

Interesting, thanks

[Stellarnight]

Oh when do you build National College and then beeline "Education"? Just focus on Science and get riflemen and crush those legionaires! Oh wait wrong game

Anyway this is pretty informative. Unlike Civ V, i don't have an idea what to build. Every building looks roughly the same with a few differences here and there. Good Guide

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

[Guide] Empire Management : Very Informative, thank you for sharing....






+Rep

[Leonidas]

Where can I find the corresponding names/icons for other factions? Is the deli an Inn for example?

[n3007]

Great guide!

But how to build best barbarian money provinces? I have hard time figuring out which buildings give best bang for buck..

[RazAlgul]

I was wondering this point myself. As in, does this provided any added benefit or when it is capped, it is capped?

Well, once you I reach a pop cap in any province..I demolish all pop+ buildings and replace with money makers and public order. I focused on building 2 provinces with an army building setup. Barracks, soldier training, archer training, defense training buildings. Next to it is a province with Siege Works,Blacksmith and Shieldmaker...so the army going north will just stop..upgrade and march on to conquer the Barbarians. Although due to civil war being eminent...I have started setting up a second Army building province in aquitania. Keepin auxila barracks in each Province Capital (Carthage,Qatar Hadas-or how its called in Iberia).

But I do agree with the Author of this thread....focusing on Food and Public Order from the start can take you a long way...its a slower start, but after a few turns, you will be happy about it. Never had food shortage, never had public unrest and I do push the taxation now and then for quick 25-40k income per turn...usually at lowest level I get 20k now....but I pay over 35k in army/navy upkeep....but trade for 20k +/- too haha.

Sacking is a perfect way to get easy and quick money. I use Dresdens Sack/Liberation/Satrapy mode....no confederation for all, that broke my last game with Macedon, where I got too big and in 1 turn confederated my empire to double its size with no money involved. With the Helenic factions its quite dangerous.

[Used2BRoz]

This needs to passed on to the AI factions.

They think they can have small settlements with barracks and not bother food or temples

More seriously the only time I've seen the AI demolish and rebuild is when they capture a settlement of a different culture.
The campaign map even shows them flattening areas of the town.

More seriously the building trees need to be reworked with the AI in mind so that they all start with bonuses that are maintained throughout the tree at higher levels.

From what I've observed the AI doesn't demolish buildings once it has started with its own culture.
It seems to prioritise public order and then food.
But unlike the balancing humans can work out - building 2 buildings at the same time so the negatives cancel out,
I suspect the AI only looks at oner building at a time - and if it needs food and its public order is stable - perfectly balanced -
it won't build a food building which penalises public order and so it runs out of food.

It would help if all provinces started out with a civic building and food and public order one.
The AI could then upgrade those as necessary.

[Falconiano]

Awesome, now how do i recruit units?

Very simple.
With the growth you get you quickly make space for 1 military building per city/settlement, totaling 3 per province (infantry, archers, stables/siege).
When growth is capped you replace the blue buildings with more military building.

[Tusk]

I have streamlined my campaign to max money and food whilst keeping everyone happy. I have three provinces which have military buildings. Once the battle front moves on I take down the military buildings and turn them into temples/farms/commercial buildings. I have not built any industrial buildings as I am Pontus and get a 10% bonus on commercial.