Hi all,
Not played DeI since early-2017, pre-Power & Politics. I loaded it back up a few weeks ago but was overwhelmed by the multi-layered systems. I decided to persevere and after watching Jackie Fish's Beginner's Guide to DeI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZBhKv2SGA), Stephen Silverbeard's overview of the Power & Politics update (DeI 1.2.2) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcXtK7jyILs), some of his Let's Plays (1-3 eps of his 2019 Rome, and current Armenia campaigns), and reading lots of Reddit & forum posts about how Rome II's economy works... I could still use some advice, please.
I'm playing 1.2.5, Normal/Normal, with the Gens Julia, HD Cities and Rome: Total War music submods. It's almost the end of Turn 8 and I'm in a good position with Italy secured, Epirus peaced-out, and trade/positive relations with almost everyone (Syracuse is trading, but hates me because I hate Epirus, and like/trade with Carthage who is currently at war with them. Epirus hates me because I just kicked them out of Italy, killed Phyrros, and am liked by & trading with Carthage).
I've done a screen dump of where my campaign is up to. Hopefully the screenshots will help illustrate the questions I have below, and also allow you to spot other things to advise me on.
Political Intrigue / Betrayal
So I've found wives for all the faction leaders to improve their loyalty, and as I saw Stephen Silverbeard do, I've sent the wives off on a couple of diplomatic missions because it seems to be the cheapest way to rank them up, but 2/3rd of the time they've come back with a negative consequence (Betrayal!), which appear to have no expiration on them? They're pretty dire effects, and I have no idea how to get rid of them:
- -10% morale for all units
- -20% research rate
- -20% wealth from all commerce
Help! How do I reverse these? Technologies are taking 1-2 turns longer to research than advertised.
Inept Leader
Whilst taking the screenshots, I saw this trait which looks awful, and I have no idea where it's coming from because it's not a trait my Faction Leader actually has? He's a sociopath which gives some negative effects, but nothing like what this icon says.
Where has it come from, and how do I get rid of them?
Trade / Income / Commerce / Province Management
It must have been 2016 when I last played Vanilla R2TW. I didn't know a lot then (despite encircling the Meditarrenian with the Romans, and auto-resolving my way into Egypt when it started to get boring). I was earning mega-money but A.) Had only just cottoned on to the theme that higher tier buildings will cost you in food production and/or public order, B.) Still wasn't sure why certain buildings appeared in some regions and not others, C.) Thought economical boost buildings worked on an isolated region-level, rather than a provincial level
I've read quite a lot of threads/steam/reddit posts over the past couple of days to wrap my head around it and I understand that regions with a trade resource will have an associated capital building, and usually an associated industry building (mines, fisheries, olive gardens etc.), and that unless explicitly stated otherwise, bonuses from buildings are applied provincially, rather than regionally.
But I am still absolutely lost on how a province should be constructed to maximise the economic output. I understand Latium has absolute gold potential, and I've taken advice to deploy my governor, and garrison my Faction Leader (alone) and build him with managerial traits to capitalise on this, as well as using the Tax Harvesting edict. The province has Salt, Fish, and Wine. I've read Wine is the most profitable, and I've read I should focus on one resource type, but I can't get my head around 'base wealth' (e.g. +300 wealth from industry), '+% wealth' (e.g. +5% wealth from farming), in so much as which is better, how to combine them for maximum effect etc. I also don't understand how economics are grouped, i.e. industry = mining & manufacturing? farming = livestock & agriculture? I've ended up building the corresponding resource building in each region.
I've included some screenshots of my provincial overviews, and details tabs for both Latium & Italia, but here's my economic breakdown of Latium just to help you to help me understand what it all means:
ROMA:
Subsistence - Wealth 507 - Bonuses +20% - Total 608
Maritime Commerce - Wealth 100 - Bonuses +15% - Total 115
Entertainment (Culture) - Wealth 75 - Bonuses +40% - Total 105
Manufacturing (Industry) - Wealth 150 - Bonuses +32% - Total 195
SUM 1026 (But then next to Roma it shows 1576? Why the difference?)
ARRETIUM:
Farming (Agriculture) - Wealth 404 - Bonuses +54% - Total 622
SUM 622 (Next to Arretium it says 622)
ARIMINUM:
Maritime Commerce - Wealth 213 - Bonuses -15.5% - Total 180
Manufacturing (Industry) - Wealth 180 - Bonuses +20% - Total 216
SUM 396 (Next to Ariminum it says 396)
ASCULUM:
Local Commerce - Wealth 90 - Bonuses +5% - Total 95
Maritime Commerce - Wealth 418 - Bonuses -16.5% - Total 349
SUM 444 (Next to Asculum it says 444)
So I guess I get that +% bonuses give +/- effects to the total of the wealth, but where is -16.5% and -15.5% for Maritime Commerce coming from for Asculum and Ariminum, and why is there a 1% difference despite it being in the same sea territory and only up the road from one another?
I'm guessing the crazy +54% to Farming in Arretium comes from a +20ish% bonus from the region (can't see because of the 6/6 province effects icon limit), and +30% because it's currently Autumn?
Just seems so mad and changeable every turn that it's impossible to 'plan' an economy with any degree of certainty?
Lastly, AoR + Auxiliaries
Are the images in the DeI guide out of date, because the unit names don't appear to correspond with what I can see available in the building browser?
As a decade+ player of M2TW's "Stainless Steel" mod, I understand the concept of AoR (why would you be able to recruit a whole roman legion in the middle of the Saudi desert?), and I want to capitalise on the benefit of having numerous troop varieties available to me. Ideally I want Latium to be a Legion-factory, and Italia to be an Alae-factory (I want to field 1 Roman + 1 Alae army together), but looking at the guide maps, it looks like I should:
AoR:
Build a Barracks in Latium or Beneventum (9)
Build a Barracks in Taras (44)
Build a Barracks in Cosentia (10)
Auxiliary:
Build an Auxiliary Barracks anywhere in Italy (I + 6)
Build an Auxiliary Barracks in Syracuse (A)
Build an Auxiliary Barracks in Panormos or Akragas (D)
That seems like a lot of barracks to me. I know the answer is 'that's why you gotta choose', but am I at least understanding the maps right, or as I say, are they outdated?
Anyway, I think I've asked quite enough there - and this is only 8 turns in! I'm hoping your insight will help me to understand these concepts, and spur me on to actually finish a campaign for once - or rather, get beyond some crushing defeat less than 20 turns in and repeatedly start over (I've saved just after peacing-out Epirus, so I don't have to do all that again!) or just give up - which sums up my experience of the Total War franchise since 2005...
Thanks in advance for any/all help.