A few questions from a new player

**yanner39** · January 25, 2015, 11:53 AM

Hey all,

Just bought the game a week ago and having a blast. Watched a few YouTube videos but I still have a few questions I wasn't able to find.

Diplomacy. I'm playing as Rome and no one will sign trade agreements. I've tried getting them to sign non-aggression pacts first, but nothing works. Most of them are unfriendly but even the neutral ones won't sign. Is that because I am using Rome?

War. I'm trying to master the non-war aspect of the game first, so when I war I auto-resolve. How does sieging work in auto-resolve? Do I just siege and wait for a turn or two before attacking the settlement/city? Can the enemy do anything to stop the siege? Should I build ladders and engines. I guess I am not clear on the mechanics during auto resolve.

Resources. As Rome, it seems I only have olive oil and wine. Is there any technologies I can research to reveal more resources? I know this isn't Civ, but lack of resources is probably one of the reasons not one will trade with me.

Thanks in advance.

**GussieFinkNottle** · January 28, 2015, 09:30 PM

Diplomacy: you answer your own question lower down, people don't want to trade with you because it's not prprofitable. You are correct that the dislike of your faction is thanks to your playing as Rome, since nobody identifies with you culturally. Almost all other factions have a wide range of well-disposed neighbours of the same culture to make friends with. Rome is not a great faction for diplomacy, but it is the best for war.

Nonetheless, it seems you have overcome this to make some friends through moderate diplomacy. Factions that like you but won't trade are generally waiting for you to gain resources and wealth (provided they CAN trade - they need to share a border with a road to your capital, or have a port in an uninterrupted body of sea that you have one in too.)
Resources: these can only be acquired by conquering new land, or trading with someone who owns land with that resource. You cannot squeeze new resources not already there out of land you own, though you can increase the production of those resources two-fold or more by upgrading the settlement building in the town with the resource.
Alongside new resources it may be wise to build trading ports, traders, market towns and city centre markets to capitalise on trade/commerce income and help make it worthwhile.

War: if your besieging army is superior to the defenders, I'd resolve straightaway without waiting, since the enemy might send an army to attack you and relieve the town, and if the defences are yours then you have an advantage. Always choose the autoresolve option with the lowest casualties. If it's looking to be an even fight or slightly in their favour, wait a few turns to wear their numbers down through attrition and build siege equipment to give you the edge. Until you're confident enough to fight the battles yourself.

**Hempknight79** · February 04, 2015, 08:18 PM

Trade can be a royal pain in the ass to get in some campaigns. One thing to note is how your status is to other factions. If you are classed as untrustworthy they wont trade so work on maintaining a reliable trait (this is shown in green, yellow or red writing above your leaders avatar on the bottom left of your screen). You need to also look carefully at what the faction likes/dislikes. If you can then see that a faction has allies or client states try to work diplomacy with them as well as it will improve all the factions status with you. Key thing with trade though is as Gussie above mentioned, trade resources. If you have no resources to trade you wont get many trade agreements, so focus on taking settlements that have trade resources and try again. there is always the option to offer a faction some money for trade as well, but only do this if the faction is reliable. It may cost you a few 100 talents but you earn that back easily from the trade.

As for your question regarding war. If its a guaranteed win and the losses will be low just auto resolve. But if the balance of power (especially in defensive fights) is in favor of the enemy then fight the battle out. You will be surprised how well you can do sometimes, and even if you lose you will likely do more damage to the enemy force than an auto resolve will do, making taking the settlement back an easier task for near by forces. Always remember though that an auto resolve can sometimes kill off more troops than you would lose by fighting the battle yourself. Its not too much of an issue but it could be the difference between 1 turn of recovery against 10 turns. In a fast pace campaign where losing as little troops as possible is important you really need to be doing the battles.

Fell free to add me to steam or send me a message if you need help with anything else with your game play

You could also check out my youtube page for some of the lets plays that I do (shameless pun I know

)

**yanner39** · February 19, 2015, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by Hempknight79

Trade can be a royal pain in the ass to get in some campaigns. One thing to note is how your status is to other factions. If you are classed as untrustworthy they wont trade so work on maintaining a reliable trait (this is shown in green, yellow or red writing above your leaders avatar on the bottom left of your screen). You need to also look carefully at what the faction likes/dislikes. If you can then see that a faction has allies or client states try to work diplomacy with them as well as it will improve all the factions status with you. Key thing with trade though is as Gussie above mentioned, trade resources. If you have no resources to trade you wont get many trade agreements, so focus on taking settlements that have trade resources and try again. there is always the option to offer a faction some money for trade as well, but only do this if the faction is reliable. It may cost you a few 100 talents but you earn that back easily from the trade.

As for your question regarding war. If its a guaranteed win and the losses will be low just auto resolve. But if the balance of power (especially in defensive fights) is in favor of the enemy then fight the battle out. You will be surprised how well you can do sometimes, and even if you lose you will likely do more damage to the enemy force than an auto resolve will do, making taking the settlement back an easier task for near by forces. Always remember though that an auto resolve can sometimes kill off more troops than you would lose by fighting the battle yourself. Its not too much of an issue but it could be the difference between 1 turn of recovery against 10 turns. In a fast pace campaign where losing as little troops as possible is important you really need to be doing the battles.

Fell free to add me to steam or send me a message if you need help with anything else with your game play

You could also check out my youtube page for some of the lets plays that I do (shameless pun I know

)

I was watching your Attila video. Very informative and you explain things very well. I guess my biggest issue is how to deploy my troops on the battle field. I win my wars but I seem to be losing a lot of troops. Any tips?

**Slaists** · February 19, 2015, 03:25 PM

Originally Posted by yanner39

I was watching your Attila video. Very informative and you explain things very well. I guess my biggest issue is how to deploy my troops on the battle field. I win my wars but I seem to be losing a lot of troops. Any tips?

Check out this guy's video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMWT...chm_hKmPolrCtw

He shows how to absolutely destroy the AI (on legendary difficulty) with minimal losses.

**CaptainVideo40** · March 26, 2015, 01:48 AM

Personally, I only autoresolve if it is a cakewalk and I am in a hurry. It really depends on how good you are at tactical battles. I have won a naval battle with just one ship, the Admiral against 12 transports. I stay just ahead of the mob, and my ship will burn theirs, I just need to keep away from archers. But again that is me, I have also lost a battle where I out number them but they had reinforcements that came in behind me. Do some practice battles to get a feel for the tactical battle.

**yanner39** · February 15, 2015, 11:40 AM

More questions.

I think I know the answer, but if I get a workshop and want to upgrade my weapons and armour, I believe I need iron correct? Getting a workshop alone doesn't allow my forces to upgrade their weapons.

Growth. I seem to having issues here. As Rome, in Roma, I need 5 to expand but it seems to be taking forever whereas in the other provinces growth is not a problem. Any tips? I consistently have over 20 food for my entire empire. But my growth required for pop surplus is 132. Can I lower this? I guess I am not clear on the growth mechanics. I try and build growth buildings. Anything else?

**eXistenZ** · February 16, 2015, 05:26 AM

A workshop in itself wont upgrade your weapons, i just allows artillery recruitment. you need to have a village that produces Iron, and build up that building chain. And then you can just move the troops in that region and upgrade the weapons (so you dont need to disband and recruit again). Unfortunatly, the resources map in the encyclopedia is broken. I think the closest place where there is Iron is in Raetia and Noricum.

As for growth, it is a bit of a snowballing effect: you start off slow, but will have all the villages maxed out almost when you are halfway. More food cant hurt, and you might build a sanitation building for some extra growth

**yanner39** · February 16, 2015, 12:46 PM

Thanks to all for the help.

This is next one, I'm just not sure where to post it. I attacked an army in the open that I believed was fortified. My army was a lot stronger and could have easily won by auto-resolve but decided to fight.

I killed off all the units, included the general, except for 2 Celtic slinger units. I capture the middle. The battle wouldnt end. The slingers kept retreating and pounding my chasing army. I could kill them off. They kept coming back and killing my units. As a result I lost a lot more of my army than I should. Is this a bug? It's happened to me a couple of times as well.

In most battles, they end when clearly there are still units around. This is the second time it's happened.

**Slaists** · February 16, 2015, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by yanner39

Thanks to all for the help.

This is next one, I'm just not sure where to post it. I attacked an army in the open that I believed was fortified. My army was a lot stronger and could have easily won by auto-resolve but decided to fight.

I killed off all the units, included the general, except for 2 Celtic slinger units. I capture the middle. The battle wouldnt end. The slingers kept retreating and pounding my chasing army. I could kill them off. They kept coming back and killing my units. As a result I lost a lot more of my army than I should. Is this a bug? It's happened to me a couple of times as well.

In most battles, they end when clearly there are still units around. This is the second time it's happened.

For one, autoresolve is, in most cases, much more generous than the outcome you get fighting the battle out. Autoresolve does not account for wall defenses (at least not correctly). Autoresolve does not account for friendly fire casualties either. The only thing that an autoresolve does more painfully is assigning extreme losses to cavalry and other "under-size" units such as chariots, elephants and dogs.

As to fortified stance battles. The battle does not end when you capture the fort. You have to destroy the enemy's army.