How do you git gud at this game?

[Eqqsquizitine Buble-Schwinslow]

There are no guides for Citizen of Rome yet, so I figured we could all try to gather some tips and tricks, and then one of us (hopefully someone who's better at the game than me, but I'll step up if need be) can compile them into a guide so we don't have to sell off all our property and loose that hard earned cash and societal standing.

I've never managed to get to the top tier of citizenship, so I don't really have much to contribute with, other than trying to make more money than you spend, and not overspending on education for your kids.

[Sherman]

I've been cheating this entire time. Even with cheats the game is difficult.

[CitizenOfRome]

Originally posted by Hulkninja:

There are no guides for Citizen of Rome yet, so I figured we could all try to gather some tips and tricks, and then one of us (hopefully someone who's better at the game than me, but I'll step up if need be) can compile them into a guide so we don't have to sell off all our property and loose that hard earned cash and societal standing.

I've never managed to get to the top tier of citizenship, so I don't really have much to contribute with, other than trying to make more money than you spend, and not overspending on education for your kids.

I was thinking we should finally have an official Wiki, please let me know if you have any recommendations.

I'd say do spend well on educating your primary heir even if you run up debts for a bit (of course not to the point of complete bankruptcy), because that's a great way out of poverty with higher skills, well paying jobs and better spouses.
Another thing is to try and build around high intelligence and aim for high stewardship spouses (~20 each) even if it takes a few years to find a good spouse, and then use your increased stewardship limit to max out high RoI properties like Donkeys, Fishing Boats and Vineyards before going for others.
You can then also make the most of the property specific boosts from the annual festivals.
Also if you have a decent combat skill, definitely go for Ludi despite the risk of injury, you can potentially win big there

Hope this helps!

Originally posted by Sherman:

I've been cheating this entire time. Even with cheats the game is difficult.

Do you mean the "Easy Mode"?

[Sherman]

Nah I was using cheat engine :/

Even throwing a bunch of gold at myself eventually sees my family go into financial ruin after a while.

[Errapel]

I've wanted to create a guide for the game, but chronic health has meant I just haven't had the energy. But if there's really some demand for one, maybe I'll give it a shot.

In the mean time, since I've managed to get to the heady realms of Consolship for my family (followed two generations later with dept slavery because luck sucks sometimes....), here's a few tips I've picked up in no particular order:

1. Selective breeding is your friend. When picking a spouse for your son, choose someone with high stats. Take your time, ignore their job unless you're desperate for money right now. Ideally you want someone with high intelligence and stewardship. Look out for spouses with good traits like 'strong' or 'genius', because these are hereditary. Your goal is the breed for the smartest, strongest, prettiest kids you can get.

2. Education is your friend. Every level of education comes with greater gains to stats, and better paying jobs. It's ok to have to sell off some stuff, but try not to go bankrupt. I've found it helpful to check what my income is, how much ready cash I have, and try to pick an education option that I can just about manage. So if my income is 30 gold, and the education is 50, if I have plenty of farms and animals, I'll just go for it and tank the expense.

3. Get familiar with the events/festivals. Some of them will give you significant boosts to your income, so even if it's costly, it's often worth investing in going to a festival.

4. Buy a range of property and animals. Some events require you to have one or more of a particular thing, you'll miss the gains if you don't have one. I haven't found a perfect strategy for investing. Sometimes I'll spend all my money in animals, others I'll try for land. Generally I try to build up till I have the max I can manage for each thing. I can recommend investing in fishing and trade boats. They seem to give the best return on investment for me.

5. Play favourites. The devs have suggested that sibling rivalry may increase in future, but right now they don't know or care if you gave your eldest son the finest education, and the rest went to the closest ludos and became figure sculptors. It's a risk funneling your resources into one, promising son, but it can pay off. Try to do the best you can for everyone, but if money is tight, prioritise the person you've picked for heir.

6. Early on you'll make most of your income from jobs, so education is particularly important (as higher levels unlock higher tiers of jobs). You may also get lucky and get your son married to a very well educated woman. I had a philosopher wife generations before I could afford to send my kids to Greece. Later on you'll want to invest heavily in land as once you have enough of it you'll earn way more that way.

7. Get your daughters married off fast if you're struggling to keep your head above water. Unless your daughter is particularly brilliant or you invested heavily in education, it's unlikely she'll be able to earn more at a job than you'll be paying for her upkeep. At high levels it can be worth heavily educating daughters and keeping them at home because their high stewardship means you manage a larger estate. Either way, remember if they're unmarried at 18, you'll start getting fined once a year. If you're wealthy you can absorb that because they're so valuable at home. If you're poor, you want them married off fast. (Though bare in mind if you marry them off too young there's a good chance they'll die in childbirth...) Also worth remembering is that a better educated daughter with a better job, will give a much better inheritance later on.

8. Don't get too worried about selling off stuff. This game very much comes in cycles. When your kids are young, you'll be selling off animals and farms. When they're older, married and working, you'll be raking in money. Think of it as an investment.

9. Everything can be recovered from. You go into debt slavery? Well you'll come out again, then be free to start climbing the ladder again. Lost a tone of money to some crooks at the bathhouse? Maybe you'll get lucky at the Ludi and make it all back. The last male member of your family dead? Well they'll adopt a random young man and you'll start from them. This game is difficult to win, but impossible to truly lose. Take advantage of that.