How to actually start your campaign?

[Granolaboi69]

Hey I'm a pretty new player. Started a campaign last year sometime and loved it and stopped playing. I am now getting back into the game again, but early game seems impossible for me to manage. Food shortages happen incredibly quick, my building options aren't very diverse so I can't really even build things that produce food, and slums happen all the time. How should the first few turns of gameplay be done to set yourself up? Do you just not build up military AT ALL until you reach a certain point? I have tried that but the other surrounding forces build up their armies pretty quick and with little trouble, and catching up is impossible. Not really sure what I am doing wrong. Only playing on standard difficulty. I don't want to give up, so any tips would be great!

[Welsh Dragon]

Originally posted by The Bearded Gentleman:

Hey I'm a pretty new player. Started a campaign last year sometime and loved it and stopped playing. I am now getting back into the game again, but early game seems impossible for me to manage. Food shortages happen incredibly quick, my building options aren't very diverse so I can't really even build things that produce food, and slums happen all the time. How should the first few turns of gameplay be done to set yourself up? Do you just not build up military AT ALL until you reach a certain point? I have tried that but the other surrounding forces build up their armies pretty quick and with little trouble, and catching up is impossible. Not really sure what I am doing wrong. Only playing on standard difficulty. I don't want to give up, so any tips would be great!

Hey, welcome to the game.

Couple of quick pointers.

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Food:

Food is a global resource, meaning you don't actually have to have the food in a specific province to feed them, you only need to have it somewhere in your empire. You can take advantage of this to build specialised food provinces to feed your empire.

The main sources of food are farms (green background buildings,) fishing ports and the Grain Trade goods, though you can get some from other sources like traits and edicts.

Food shortages usually mean you either haven't built enough sources of food, or you've upgraded your buildings too quickly (as the higher levels of buildings generally cause a penalty to food, public order or both,) or slums (see below.)

To avoid them, try to plan ahead. You generally want to be building or upgrading your food infrastructure as you develop your other buildings. You also want to have excess food if possible. Not only will it give you a bit of a buffer to deal with sudden changes (like taking new settlements or losing some of yours,) but it also adds a buff to growth and unit replenishment.

*

Slums:

Slums happen when an empty building slot is left for too long without a building in it. The cause of this is usually either you unlocked/opened the slot without having the money to build something, or you razed the settlement when you captured it (which destroys all buildings except the main settlement and port if present,) and didn't build something in the razed slots.

To avoid the first, only unlock a new building slot when you intend to build something in that slot that turn and have the money to do so. There's no penalty to not unlocking a building slot till you're ready.

To avoid the second, consider occupying some settlements instead of razing. Even if the buildings are from another culture, you can pay to convert them to your culture if they have an equivalent (and you have the tech for the equivalent.)

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Armies:

With most small or medium sized factions you start off with two armies. I generally try to combine them into one (by having the two armies meet and then transferring all of the units except the general to one army,) which gives you a good initial fighting force expand your territory with. You can expand it if you have the money, but keep an eye on upkeep costs. Sometimes it's better to add several cheap units than one expensive one, because it gives you more bodies in the fight.

Try to pick off weak factions, while avoiding conflict with stronger ones (at least initially) by signing treaties with them. And don't pick too many fights at once. You don't have to fight the whole world all at once.

*

Those are just a few tips, but if you give more details of what campaign you're playing then people might be able to give more specific advice.

Hope that helps.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Plaak]

Leaving construction sites empty cause slums to appear the next turn (if public order is low) or two turns after (if public order is high). Slums consume an insane amount of food, and together with redundant military buildings, it's no wonder why you run out of food. Early game you can either not build any barracks at all and go full stacks of tier 0 spearmen, or building a single one in one (and one only) province, where you do all the recruitment. Having farms in every single minor settlment combined with a public order building is always a good idea if you're not sure what you're doing.

[BRAN MAC BORN]

I hit the start button. And pray.

[MANWHATADONGA]

Originally posted by BRAN MAC BORN:

I hit the start button. And pray.

Bugger i was going to write that 10 hours before you.Great minds think a like.

[Alwyn]

The advice above about food, slums, armies, buildings and diplomacy is good.

Originally posted by The Bearded Gentleman:

How should the first few turns of gameplay be done to set yourself up?

It depends. Which faction are you playing, in which campaign?

[Granolaboi69]

Awesome, thanks for the advice! I'll try to keep all that in mind, going to start a new campaign tonight so I'm hoping to make some progress!

[Granolaboi69]

Originally posted by Alwyn:

The advice above about food, slums, armies, buildings and diplomacy is good.

Originally posted by The Bearded Gentleman:

How should the first few turns of gameplay be done to set yourself up?

It depends. Which faction are you playing, in which campaign?

I am playing the first one with Rome

[Granolaboi69]

Originally posted by BRAN MAC BORN:

I hit the start button. And pray.

Best advice haha

[Alwyn]

Originally posted by Sir Squibbles:

Originally posted by Alwyn:

The advice above about food, slums, armies, buildings and diplomacy is good.



It depends. Which faction are you playing, in which campaign?

I am playing the first one with Rome

By the "first one", do you mean the tutorial campaign? The game has been changed a lot (with 20 patches/updates) since it was launched and I don't think the tutorial campaign works very well anymore.

If you're playing the tutorial campaign, I suggest starting the Grand Campaign instead, as Rome or as a faction which starts near the edge of the map, such as the Iceni or Bactria.