The Crossroad

[icyvoid]

Hey all,

Due to the fact the readme is gone I am forced to ask a few ?'s on this forum in hopes that someone has the answers.

First I would like to say the mod is very difficult, I am 3 turns away from the Marius Reform and all I have managed to do so far was defend myself from constant invasion attempts. I took an internal defense stance and let the AI build up massive armies, and germania has expanded as far to scythia and parts of macedon.

Gaul and Germania are proving the biggest problem, to curve the threat I managed to ally with macedon and scythia (full military access as well), bringing a ceasfire with greeks and carthage. Leaving me at war with simply Gaul and Germania.

After being under constant assault, I finally managed to launch a counter attack in the north of Italy. Here is where my dilemna arises.

I currently have 3 settlements I am besieging. A roman rebel settlement to south that was previously held by carthage will prove no problem, as the populace is already roman.

It's the barbarian settlements to the north that pose the problem. I remember in the readme it strongly suggested to exterminate and destroy anything not roman. If I follow its advice I will be unable to retrain my troops unless I send them back south and send north a temporary defense garrison. This poses a problem.

With SPQR can I get away with enslaving the populace and still be able to mantain control? That way I will be able to retrain and continue moving? If I continue to move through lands and exterminate the people not only will I be a tyrant, but I will effectively hamper my campaign in the north.

Please tell me this mod does not require me to destroy/kill everyone in order to hold a settlement. Rebuilding costs gold, which can be used for war... not to mention the problem that arises of replacement troops.

[jegui]

It's the barbarian settlements to the north that pose the problem. I remember in the readme it strongly suggested to exterminate and destroy anything not roman..

The readme is right u should destroy all non roman building after taking a settlement 'cause some buildings have negative effects which cause unrest regardless of the size of ur garrison. The more foreign buildings u have in ur province the more unhappy people u get... after all u want to romanize ur territories and therefore u need to rebuild temples,offices, etc... from scratch

If I follow its advice I will be unable to retrain my troops unless I send them back south and send north a temporary defense garrison. This poses a problem. With SPQR can I get away with enslaving the populace and still be able to mantain control? That way I will be able to retrain and continue moving? If I continue to move through lands and exterminate the people not only will I be a tyrant, but I will effectively hamper my campaign in the north.

The beauty and difficulty of SPQR is that u actually need to plan every single conquest on foreign lands. Before starting an offensive u need to guarantee a line of supply to ur forces otherwise they will get drained by the overwhelming numbers of ur enemy. Invade with at least 2 fighting legions and one auxilia which will garrison the conquered city(ies) and fill the gaps of ur main legions.

Try always to enslave cities with legion shields next to them... They will yield ur named legions and they'll be the basis for ur empire expansion later in the campaign. The secret here is to mantain a good family member and a fair sized garrison until u have built temples, roads and basic buildings that keep unrest away... I normally use my leader/heir or high management family for governors and generals to command legions

As for barbarian cities with no shields they will only deter ur campaign advancement and I would advise u to exterminate the plebe as a sign of Roman power to the local barbarian populace However you should enslave and develop distant capitals to be able to produce auxilia troops later in the game... they will supply ur far-fledged legions with replacement troops and also garrison border towns/forts

Please tell me this mod does not require me to destroy/kill everyone in order to hold a settlement. Rebuilding costs gold, which can be used for war... not to mention the problem that arises of replacement troops.

As I said above u don't need to kill everybody if u take a slow methodical approach to expanding ur empire. Focus on small campaigns, ie. northern Italy, Gaul, Spain, etc... and build up enough legions and reserve troops to take ur objectives... then stop the expansion and build up ur newly conquered cities before expanding further more

This strategy will allow u to keep a good line of supply throughout ur empire whilst u take ur legions to foreign lands... the secret however is SLOW advancement and securement of key border points and towns before carrying on ur campaign forward

hope it helps

[Tiberius Graecus]

I was just wondering what u do economically when u conquer a settlement.

Because I just conquered North Africa and all the settlements are at negative incomes, so is it just capturing the right territories to establish trade or what?

[Atticus]

Because I just conquered North Africa and all the settlements are at negative incomes,...

only occupy cities with harbours or coastal cities: they can do oversea trade, have more fertile lands, closer to eachother => more income

if you conquered moe inland, i suggest you exterminate the population, destroy ALL buildings (some extra coin), set tax income on very high and then leave the settlement to rebel or to be reconquered by their previous owners.

this way you create a barrier between your cities and those of your enemy. he has to start from scratch, which will cost lots of money, and has to wait untill he has enough men to become soldiers, which will take time.

that's how i secure my borders, and when you pillage and destroy your enemy's bordertowns every once and awhile (between 2 other campaigns), you are garantueed to have a reasonable peace at your borders, without many soldiers dying and without destroying your neighbouring enemy (who can be usefull later, who knows)

[Garnier]

I always try to hold onto any cities I take, because I dont want to fight another scripted garrison for no reason. I always keep an auxiliary legion nearby after the legionaries invade, and when they take the city, the aux's move in and occupy until the border moves foward. I play with a mod of my own that makes the game a TON harder. I made it so the legionaries and auxilia have only 1 pilum instead of 2. It makes me lose a lot of men in battles, and Ive even lost quite a few battles when outnumbered 2 to 1.

[Konig]

icyvoid, if you just conquered a settlement, first check the buildings it has by right-clicking on them. you'll see a window pop up showing the buildings' details. only delete those that show negative effects on population, usualy any religious buildings. Secret police HQ for carthaginian cities, Amphitheaters for Greek cities, taverns for barbarian, etc. im not sure ALL barbarian buildings have a negative effect however. i never destroy barbarian barracks and i do fine. ive conquered all of spain and sicily, and a few gallic cities.


P.S. Atticus' strategy is a very good one btw. it allows for temporary short-term money boost, that'll help you with building/retraining armies and to build buildings, and it'll incapacitate the cities you just raided, since without their military buildings all their military capacity will be crippled, and their population will be to low to recruit anyways (if you exterminated the populace first, that is). one other thing to do when raiding a city is to build a shrine. that way, when you enemies recapture the settlement, they'll get the same unrest you get when you find religious buildings from another faction in one of your settlements.

[Atticus]

one other thing to do when raiding a city is to build a shrine. that way, when you enemies recapture the settlement, they'll get the same unrest you get when you find religious buildings from another faction in one of your settlements.

forgot to mention that, i too build one, the ai never (or at least very rarely) destroyes buildings which will cause revolts you're enemy has to deal with.