Settling?

[Wh!plash]

So I chose the Visigoths as my first crack at campaign and for my first attempt at migrating. Not for the start difficulty so much as I don't particularly care for cavalry or navy factions, which seemed to eliminate the Vandals and Alans/Huns (though I will play huns eventually) and the ostrogoths didn't appeal to me because of the "roman units" aspect (I'm out to end Rome)

Well the migration has gone well...but I can't seem to find a good time/location to settle. I did a test run and picked a newly fertile but previously razed region. The financial and economic penalites of settling were mind blowing! The people still hated me for my religous differences and 2 full stack armies dropped my income into the negatives and there was now no food, so I was instanlty fighting an uphill battle so to speak.

Is there a certain trick to this? Grabbing more than one region at a time? Should I just conquer and occupy, or is it more beneficial to take a long since razed region? Is the harsh transition just part of the design?

[381]

sack and move on to settle in. I migritated to italy and setttle in rome. You need a lot money and strong army to end your imigration because you will need build farms asap and regulate your public order. You can always change your religion when other religion is dominant.. Remmbr to raid and sack before you end your migration

[Wh!plash]

So it is better to sack a city, leave the populace intact, and then settle? I figured razing it and allowing the region to replenish before taking over was better for stability. Razing provided less provincial instability than sacking if I remember correctly...

[LeadStarDude]

As the Visigoths it is best to head for the coast & double time sale all the way to the island of Caralis in the middle of the western Mediterranean sea. Loot & Occupy Caralis as your capital & change your religion to Latin Christian to help with happiness. Now capture the other 2 islands of the province that Caralis is the main city of & start building up your economy. All 3 islands have very fertile soil & of course 3 ports as well. No one will attack you here.

Now once you have a good enough economy start invading Spain & take all of it from the Romans as you can. The more you attack the Romans the more friendly all the other factions will become to you. That will allow you to make several allies & trade partners. After all of Spain is yours & you build it up to make you plenty of money the rest of the game should be easy.

You should have all of these provinces to make planty of money off of their resources.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=399531170

[Wh!plash]

Well....I have pretty much decimated spain already...rome has like 3 cities left...
Most of the western European tribes already like me or have allied accordingly, the ones that haven't keep begging to be my friends. I have a decent area to start with and expand to easily once I get some traction, just not sure how much money is recommended for the initial settling phase and whether a freshly beaten city or a razed one (that has regrown) is better for the first region.
Freshly conquered cities always seem to suffer significant public order penalties in addition to needing to convert buildings with negative income and negative food.
A razed city with a regrown fertility also seems to struggle from public order, but perhaps less due to conquest and more about squalor/famine? It also has to have the ruins demolished and rebuilt...so that in a way counts as conversion I suppose...

So I guess my question is, Conquer or Resettle?

[LeadStarDude]

Originally posted by Baluga:

Well....I have pretty much decimated spain already...rome has like 3 cities left...
Most of the western European tribes already like me or have allied accordingly, the ones that haven't keep begging to be my friends. I have a decent area to start with and expand to easily once I get some traction, just not sure how much money is recommended for the initial settling phase and whether a freshly beaten city or a razed one (that has regrown) is better for the first region.
Freshly conquered cities always seem to suffer significant public order penalties in addition to needing to convert buildings with negative income and negative food.
A razed city with a regrown fertility also seems to struggle from public order, but perhaps less due to conquest and more about squalor/famine? It also has to have the ruins demolished and rebuilt...so that in a way counts as conversion I suppose...

So I guess my question is, Conquer or Resettle?

Loot & occupy then destroy the buildings instead of converting them. Once they are all destroyed rebuild what you want. That is cheaper, it still gains you money from looting, & the happiness won't be as low as it would if you razed the settlement first. The only thing you should convert is the actual town itself.