Roman City Layout

[Chef]

So, I've play as the huns and the saxons and the persians and such and now ive finally decided to take on the arduous task of playing as the Western Roman Empire. I've actually managed to not lose a single centimeter of land and the year is 400. The problem is public order has decayed to the brink of disaster so I need help in setting up the perfect roman city layout. A layout for both Capitols and settlements that provides a healthy balance of public order, food, sanitation, JESUS, money, etc. with a slight emphasis on public order, sanitation and food.

[Mephiston87]

CITY:
-Govenors house(start off with statue if your low on food then convert)
-Latin chapel
-Resevoir
-Food market(or fishing jetty)
-Economy building(Or resource slot)

TOWNS:
-Fishing jetty
-Cow farm
-Guard house(Usually one of the town will need it) or Tanner

thats how i do it. food is a biggy in WRE especially mid/lategame but keep in mind basically all food resources come with economic boosts. im at year 420(Attila arrived a few turns ago) and im +100 public order everywhere and 1000+ food and have full armies with 10K+ economy per turn.

oh and be certain to raise your tax just a notch at the start... immigration gets impossible to handle.

[Happy]

I dont build my cities past 3 then at 445 i took them all down to level 2 to have food. my cities are the reservior, church, goven house, statue, fish or food market

[Mephiston87]

Originally posted by Happy:

I dont build my cities past 3 then at 445 i took them all down to level 2 to have food. my cities are the reservior, church, goven house, statue, fish or food market

my buildings are all 2 and most of my cities/towns are tier 1. i only upgrade the ones that are likely to be attacked.

[wm.j.olson]

There is no magic formula for which buildings. There is a strategy for buidling.

The trick is balance based on town/city type plus region/special resource plus threat level.

There are four basic resources--not counting things like gold, jewels, marble, lead, etc:

Money
Food
Public order
Troop types/numbers

One serious liability:

Squalor (which affects disease rates and public order)

Four random factors:

Religion (affects public order)
Loyalty (governors and generals)
Family (affecting power and ability to secure support)
Climate change

Choosing what to build and where depends on finding a balance that will allow for improvement through the game to adjust to the level of threat, whether foreign invasion or internal revolt. I've played WRE twice and ERE twice and won each. In my current game as WRE I have 340,000 credits in the bank, earning 10,000+ per turn, averaging around 600 food per turn, hold 70+ settlements, with all my provinces in the green for public order. It's 432. I have no squalor deficits. I have max armies and navies. Six governors. Most of my developed tiles are at three, some at four, a few still at two, depending on local circumstances and empire needs. I'm playing on easy--which in other games would qualify as the normal setting--because I'm still learning the ins and outs of how the game mechanic works--which is not easy in itself. Attila has more variables.

The two most important resources--not having them have the worst consequences--are money and food. You need to choose buildings--and their chains--that will ensure you have enough coming in every turn to avoid bankruptcy and starvation. [There also appears to be some random element, perhaps a bug, that will suddenly drop your healthy positive income to zero or worse, or turn a positive food balance to dust without warning or clear reason.] Some settlements are better at producing high volumes of food or money; some will do both. Some have special resources that give bonuses, such as letting you build certain other types of buildings, increase loyalty(religion), or generate money and public order (positive or negative). You need to think in terms of both the individual settlement building options and how this affects the province level. Say you own a province with three settlements, each with four possible building sites, that gives you a total of 12 slots (they may not all be available at once, needing to be improved, or in the case of desolated areas, rebuilt over time). Some will allow for food production, some not. Some for public order, or not. Some offering a mix. Choices as to available buildings will vary, but all with have some consequences for generating income, food, public order, or troops. Make choices that will leave you in the green overall.

Many bulding types affect squalor and public order. Some increase squalor and decrease public order; some, like baths,etc, decrease squalor and/or improve public order. Some allow you to build agents. What you want is a positive balance for each, that is having buildings that decrease squalor more for every building that increases it. Same for public order. You need to pay attention at the province level (and some at each settlement level) to ensure that whatever you decide to build is balanced out. Thus, for example, you can't just build to increase your income if in the process you increase squalor and decrease public order. Each building type/chain alerts you as to their affect on the future. Research will play here as well.

Military buildings/types:

If you get your house in order as above, you need to pay attention to defense and offense--garrisons and field armies--which have their own building chains. Each town/city starts with a basic garrison tile, usually four units, that can be upgraded. In addition, depending on the number of available building slots, there will be options for additional buildings to increase the types of units you can create, the number of troops in the garrision, or the number of units you can raise. Various buildings--not all just military--will do this. You have to look through the various ones to find them that best suit your style and the level, types of threats you face. Border areas need more/better garrisons, for example. Many of these choices cost in terms of squalor or public order. So choices here need to be balanced with building types to counter the negatives. As a general rule, you'll have to learn by doing, in towns that allow you to build the garrison option--increases the towns basic garrison--you should do it. Same for coastal towns that offer the option of buildings that increase the garrison fleet.

I generally keep one or two tiles undeveloped in a province to deal with the unexpected--such as a sudden drop in food production. This seems to happen more often playing ERE than WRE.

The general rule of thumb: whatever you decide to build keep in mind that it's part of a system the parts of which interact. Choose how to manage the interaction to produce a balance.