1.01K Rome campaign starts with -food and -money? Some questions

**TTocsxic** · June 21, 2018, 07:52 PM

Hola todos!

So, first of all: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! THOUSAND TIMES!

I've been tracking and following this mod faithfully ever since the early days, what can I say: the biggest surprise for me coming home from a 4-months backpack trip was the release of Ancient Empires.
Thank you, to the whole team!

Now, I do have some questions about this mod, especially in its current state.
I've just started my third campaign as Rome today, seeing the mod constantly gets updated and I want to see what changes.
Then again, I've never come really far --> my first and second campaign ended in bankruptcy and famine and this comes from a veteran Total War and Rome Surrectum II player.

So, can someone please explain to me:

I win with Scipio from Hannibal every time, BIG TIME. Should I lose more units or something? Can I even afford that army?
So, I read in another thread the Granaries and food storing do not work in the current state of the mod anymore. So... Is that true? How do I get through winter then?
Should I only build farms and independent cities in the beginning or something? And with only I mean ONLY?? Because in my first 2 plays, I build one lvl2 granary in every province, a farm in every city and balance them with forums, aqueducts and theaters. But I always go bankrupt or have famine...
Any other general tips from people? I just want to get to the marian reforms and get the Legions back from Roma Surrectum II like the good old days.
The soundtrack from Rome 1 (which I LOVE btw! the nostalgia!) does cut out, this is a known issue right?

Much appreciated everyone! Once again, love the mod, INSANE JOB!

**thelastdodobird** · June 21, 2018, 09:24 PM

Hey there! Glad to hear you've had as much fun as I have with this mod. I'm not a part of the team but I figured I'd take a crack at answering your questions.

1. Rome should win the battle of Zama vs Hannibal pretty easily. I've found you can win as Carthage when a human is controlling them, but it is much tougher than winning with Rome. You should be able to afford that army, but I personally have found that it's best to sack or raze Carthage and then send Scipio elsewhere to put down rebellions and whatnot initially.

2. I'm not sure what they have in store for the granary mechanic going forward, but as is they don't store food. I've found them to be pretty useless, but they do massively increase the amount of food you get with the "import food" edict, which can be helpful in provinces where you don't want to build farms. Farms are a good source of income and don't create squalor though so usually it just makes sense to build farms. Be sure to plan around lower fertility in the winter so your people aren't starving.

3. Independent cities are really important early, as they are so good for dealing with the "native discontent" penalties. I think the tier two of independent cities also gives a 50% reduced "maintenance costs" which can really help with early income.

4. Early game focus on consolidating your empire, stabilizing food, squalor, and public order. Once you get these sorted out and don't have to deal with revolts, you can make tons of $$$ and start to expand. Keep an eye on how much native discontent you are getting in new conquests, and try to determine if you need independent cities or not. You can convert cities once more people convert to your culture.

5. I think we all get sounds bugs from this, but it seems well worth it.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask more questions if you'd like. There is a good guide in the sticky too for the forum.

**Zom** · June 21, 2018, 09:55 PM

What the dodo said. (Not such a dodo.)

Plus: governors, bread and circuses, and wells. Forget granaries, build farms and fishing. Feed the people first; nobody is pleasant when they are starving. Oh, and build a circus to go along with your edicts.