PCPP Game Guide 2/PCPP_GG2.iso/PCPP/strategy/caesar2.txt

Text File | 1998-06-02 | 23KB | 423 lines

Caesar2 Strategy Guide:

Contents:
1:Introduction
2:A 'Perfect' City
3:Building Your Industry
4:Making A Profit
5:Raising An Army
6:How To Deal With Invaders, Raiders, Tribes, etc.
7:List Of Units And Their Advantages And Disadvantages
8:What To Do When You Receive A Promotion
9:If You Want To Ask Me Something

1:Introduction

Hello!
        This is a strategy guide for Caesar 2.  It includes a comprehensive
'map' of a 'perfect' city and tells you how to manage your first province.
Also, it tells you which province to move to when you get a promotion.  The
English in this guide might not be correct, but it is still a guide after
all.  I hope you like it because I spent about 120 minutes typing out this
guide.  This is a very comprehensive guide.  If you can, try to print this
file out and read it on paper instead of scrolling through it on your com-
puter.

Mr. Boboli

2:A 'Perfect' City

If you haven't downloaded my text file in the gamers' forum about how to
start a city, I recommend now for you to download it now.  This is because
the map below is related to that file.  The file name is 'caesar2.txt.'  The
keyword is 'caesar2.'  The file is in the strategy section of the library.

In order to earn a lot of money, you cannot randomly build your buildings
everywhere.  The main thing here is to build a prosperous city.  Below is a
map of a perfect city.  Since the game is displayed in a 27' angle, my map
will not resemble the map in Caesar2.  Rotate my map clockwise so that it is
slanted at a 27' angle.  The city below is the map of the 'starting' city I
described in the file 'caesar2.txt.'

Legend
Every text block or blank space is one unit of land in Caesar2.  For
instance, a market is 4 units squared.  So, there will be four M's grouped
together like this-MM
                   MM
H-House
P-Plaza
F-Fountain
T-Theater
F-Aventine Forum
B-Bath
S-Shrine
U-Praefacture
G-Grammaticus
W-Reservoir
M-Market
R-River
Blank spaces are just normal land or terrain

Pause the game before you build anything.
______________________________________________________________________________

                                 RRR
                   RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUP
                 RRRW S  S  S  S  WP
               RRRUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
            RRRR   GGPHHPHHPHHPHHP  P    *1 (never mind about this number)
          RRR      GGPHFPSHPSHPSHPFSP
          R          PHSPHHPSHPSHPS P
         R           PHHPHSPHHPHHP  PPPP
         R           PFFPBBPTTPFFPGGP    *1 (never mind about this number)
         R           PFFPBBPTTPFFPGGP
         R           PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
         RR           MM       MMP
          R           MM       MM
          R
          RRR
            R         Lots of room to do what you want here...
            R         Rhector, Arena, Circus... you name it!
            RRRR
               RRRR
                  RR
                   RRRRR
                       RRRRRRRRRRRRRR
                                    RRRR
                                       RR
                                        R
                                        R

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes about the above map:
1-The *1's in the map will be described in the 'Industry section.'
2-The markets are not near the houses because it is separated by forums and
baths.
3-The praefactures are at least 3 squares away from houses.
4-Most importantly, there are no roads in the city.  All the roads are
replaced by plazas!  Plazas raise adjacent (one unit NW, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW,
W from the plaza) land values by 2 points.
5-Shrines are strategically placed to raise land values of units that are
adjacent to the shrines.
6-Any forum, bath, entertainment buildings, schools, libraries, hospitals and
amenities raise land values.
7-Barracks and praefactures limit buildings that are 2 (or 3... sorry...
can you check?) units away from the praefactures (including NW, NE, SE, SW)
and barracks.  They raise land values, but they only raise it to that limit.
8-The same as number 7 except this refers to industries and I'm sure they
limit buildings that are 3 or 4 squares away.  The closer the house is to the
industry, the more it limits the house's growth.
When a house is adjacent, it is limited to only an average house.
9-The same as number 8 except to a higher limit.  For instance, I think it
limits the houses to an average insula.
10-There is plenty of water for everybody!
11-The security is very tight.
12-There is market access for everybody!
13-Anyone has at least an entertainment level of 1.
14-Anyone has grammaticus access.
15-If you want to store your gold, build a temple for every 10,000 crowns
(is that what money is called?) you have left so that thieves don't steal it.
Also, make sure the temple has internal security!
Set the game speed to 10 and watch your city grow to about 1000.  When the
small domus wants external security, build walls to encircle (remember, river
are considered as walls too) the city leaving lots (and I mean about 6-10
squares away from the city) of space for the city to grow.

IMPORTANT:The most valuable source of information comes from the buildings
themselves.  Right click on them to see what they think!  Also, walkers
are very valuable too.  See what they have to say.

3:Building Your Industry

The *1's on the map tells you to build two different types of industry to
earn a profit when your city grows to about 800.  Remember to supply the
industries with raw material.  Build the mines/farms on suitable land
near the city on the province level!  Connect the mines/farms to a roman
town and a border town.  Build a trading post and a warehouse so that it
touches the border town.  The road can pass through trading posts,
warehouses, mines, workcamps, shipyards, ports, etc.  It cannot pass through
farms though (I think it can't anyway... try it...).  When your city grows
large enough to support another industry (i.e. when you check the census
and see that employment is down to about 60%), build another different type
of industry.

4:Making A Profit

Remember, when you build anything, they don't cost you anything to maintain
it.  The expenses are only the plebs (of course, they have to maintain the
roads, plazas, water buildings... reservoirs, etc.), the tribute to the
Emperor, your army (if you have one) and that is about it (I think).

Your main source of income is from your industries.  Later on, when you city
has a population of about 2,500, you will notice that population or land
tax will be more profitable of the two taxes.  Large palaces gross out about
150-200 denarii (yes, not crowns) each year!  Wow!

Tip:When the houses grow to the largest vista, try to make space for a
palace by destroying the surrounding buildings or plazas.  Make sure that it
doesn't hurt the largest vista's land value!  Try setting the speed to 1
before doing that.

Of course, the largest expenditure is your army...  50 Auxilaries will cost
you about 100 denarii each year.

5:Raising An Army

Only raise an army when the 2nd year pass on normal level or 3rd year on
easy or novice level.  Only include heavy infantry.  Auxilaries are only
needed when an 'invasion' occurs.  There are about three types of attacks-
The biggest one is an invasion.  Then comes the uprisings or the raiders.
Build one fort and raise only one cohort.  You don't need two.  Slowly raise
your army to about 600-700 legionaires (heavy infantry...).  If the expenses
is too high, raise about 300 legionaires only.  Recruit auxilaries when
an invasion occurs.  Then, fire the auxilaries when the invasion is
stopped.  When you have 700 legionaires, you could pratically destroy
anything that moves!

6:How To Deal With Invaders, Raiders, Tribes, etc.

When you have about 250 legionaires, try capturing a local or a weak tribe.
Try to capture all the tribes in your province.  Later, they will attack
your city...   So... why not attack them now?  When you have 500 legionaires,
try capturing a strong or powerful tribe.  In Macedonia or Greece, increase
the above numbers to 350 and 650 respectively.  This is because the
Macedonians and the Greeks are pikemen (mostly).  They are formidable foes!

7:List Of Units And Their Advantages And Disadvantages

Here is a list of some of the units you can hire and units (from best to
worst)that are commanded by attakers or barbarians.

Horsebowmen-They can move at least 3 times faster than light or heavy foot
soldiers (or just foot soldiers or pikemen, etc.).  When supported by
heavy infantry, they shoot raining hell... (get what I mean?).  These are
auxilaries and are expensive!  You can hire this type of unit near present
day France and present day Austria (somwhere near there anyway).

Tip:When all your foot soldiers are dead, move the horsebowmen away from the
enemies and when you're about 20 squares away from them, shoot at them!
When they come close, move away!  It is this simple.  Don't try this unless
there are very few enemies.  For instance, if you have 50 horsebowmen and
the enemy has 100 foot soldiers, try the strategy.  If there are 3X more
enemies than your horesbowmen, try it anyway.  However, you're going to die
because they will surround you with their numbers and crush your horse-
bowmen's puny backs.  Do not let these bowmen engage in a melee combat. They
are very bad at it.

Heavy Pikemen-These foot soldiers can really kick butt.  They wield dangerous
pikes and can reduce heavy or light infantries to ashes.  If you have about
300 heavy infantry and 230 pikemen, the pikemen will win.  You can hire these
units, but the Greeks and the Macedonians attack in large numbers with these
elite forces.  Fortunately, they are from Macedonia and Greek and they only
attack adjacent provinces.  Hmm...  Is Illycrum near Macedonia and Greece?
Oops, guess it is.  Well, it is a challenge after all and it is Caesar2!
You can hire this type of unit near Illycrum.

Heavy infantry-These are your grunts.  They are cheap.  They are fodder.
They fight well.  They come in nice uniforms.  Enough said.  Only you can
hire these henchmen.

Light Pikemen-These foot soldiers are just like heavy pikemen except they
are light because they wear very little armor.  Basically, arrows really
can rip them apart (if you have archers...).  These pikemen move faster than
the heavy pikemen.  Also, the heavy infantry is just a bit better than this
type of unit because of the added armor.  You cannot hire this type of unit,
though.  Shucks...  Anyway...

Swordsmen-Well, these are just like the Heavy Infantry except that this type
of unit are auxilaries and therefore, cost more to maintain them.  Your
enemies have them too.  Mainly, they attack provinces near present day
France and Austria.  They are not common near Illycrum or present day Serbia,
etc.  You can hire them in present day France of present day Austria.

Bowmen-They are just like the Horsebowmen except that they move as fast as
light infantry only.  These also can rain hell into your enemies.  These
bowmen are very very bad at melee combat.  You can hire these auxilaries, but
the enemies has these dudes too!  You will meet this type of unit anywhere in
the empire.

Heavy Spearmen-They are just like the heavy infantries except that they suck
a bit more than the infatntries.  Only your enemies have this type of unit.
These barbarians appear in Illycrum, present day France, and present day
Austria.  I think they live in Britain too.  Hmm..., just about anyway I
think except Greece and the provinces nearby.

Light Spearmen-They are just like the Heavy Spearmen except they move faster
and they wear less armor.  You cannot hire this type of unit.  They live
with the Heavy Spearmen.

Light Infantry-These are conscription you get from your capital city.  Don't
conscript your population.  They hate it.  Anyway, this type of unit WILL
drop like flies.  This type of unit don't do anything.  They don't rout your
enemies because the fighting terrain or land is too crowded anyway.  Only
you can conscript this type of unit.

Slingers-These just suck.  The projectiles they fire have a very limited
range and they don't do real damage like the bowmen and the horesebowmen
does.  They are expensive too.  They are more expensive than heavy infantry
and less expensive than auxilaries.  Also, they are plebs.  How good can a
pleb throw stones anyway?  How much denarii do you have to spend to support
a pleb slinger army?  If you spend 3 denarii, you raise about 5 plebs.  That
ratio is not very inviting.  Just don't train the plebs to be slingers.

That is about it for the units.  If you encounter any new units like units
from present day turkey, the northern provinces (i.e., the 8 hard ones on the
hard level) and North Africa, please send me a message in the gamers' forum
or via mail.  My Id# is indicated at the end of this guide.

8:What To Do When You Receive A Promotion

When you receive a promotion, don't take it unless you have about 10,000
denarii stored up in your personal treasury.  If you don't have the funds,
just review in another 10 years.  Start increasing your income so that the
expenses and the revenue (or taxes) are equal to each other.  When you do
have the funds, just move to the province east of Illycrum (in the file,
casear2.txt, I recommended the province, Illycrum to start your city) and
so on and so on until you win the game.

9:If You Want To Ask Me Something

If you have any suggestions, questions or comments, send me a message in the
gamers' forum or send me a mail message.  I go to the gamers' forum daily.
Usually, I go to the forum at about 9-10:00 p.m. Pacific time everyday.  My
Id# is 75277,3173.  My name is Mr. Boboli (nickname, though).  If you have
questions about any RPG game like Thunderscape, Star Trail, Blade Of Destiny,
Star Trail, TES:Arena, Lands Of Lore, Darksun, Ultima VII part 1 and 2,
Menzoberrazan, Dragonlore, Might And Magic:Darkside Of Xeen, Magic
Candle III, Bloodstone, Ravenloft:Strahd's Possesion and Ultima VIII, just
ask me.  I think I have played many other games, but I forgot their names.
Just ask me and chances are, I have played the game.  Also, if you want, ask
me about any 'money' simulation game or construction sim.  I love those
games and chances are (again), I have played them.  Also, games that involve
empire building like Civilization is known to me.  Again, don't hesitate to
ask.  I'll answer your messages or mail promptly.  I'm Mr. Boboli in the
gamers' forum and James Wang just about anywhere else outside that forum.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this guide.  For one thing, I know I have
enjoyed writing this guide.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments on the Strategy Guide by Sorin Cristescu ([e-mail])

I was very pleased to see someone posted a guide to Caesar 2 and enjoyed
reading it. However, after conquering about 13 provinces (beginner : 4 and
normal : 9) I found I disagree with you on many topics.

[...]
>2:A 'Perfect' City

First of all, I don't think there is a "perfect city". Anyway, I hope it isn't.
I found there was a way to build a very thriving city and win easily within
about 20 years most of the time on normal level. Then, as the difficulty
increased, "culture" rating was getting more and more difficult to match and I
was beginning to alter my first vue of an ideal city so as to reduce housing
and fit more and more entertainment and religion. However, this is expensive
and I can afford it only because I spared from previuos levels. So what I mean
is noone should bother to build the "perfect city" on every level. If you build
always the same city, the game gets REALLY boring. Actually I was happy to find
there was more challenge as the throne came closer. I cannot succeed anymore
with the old city schema.
First of all, when playing, I also wnat to get a grip of the atmosphere, to
feel like living in that epoch. What I mean is I won't build a city where all
roads are replaced by plazzas. It's unrealistic, it's like playing the game in
a contest and trying to get the most out of everything at any price. This
"most" isn't needed at normal level. I feel doing this (replacing all roads by
plazzas) is like using the settlers cheat in Civ. And yes, I got 64 land value
when I wanted it, by building normally, with roads, no with plazzas (I put
plazzas only at crossings). Then use to build a lot more temples and to put
only as many fountains as are needed (a fountain has a 6 squares radius).
Markets and praefectures limit land value only two squares away so on the third
square I put housing since building them too far away has a major drawback :
they aren't as effective, less people benefit from market access and security
respectively. I agree a high security level is good (I build internal security
only, I heven't needed more yet, I've only built walls once in order to see
what palaces look like. But you can still earn lots of money without palaces.
I agree industries are a problem since they limit land value 4 squares from
them. On the other hand, workers (little walker factories produce) recruit
other workers in the next land square and they have a limited life span. If you
put housing too far away, your industry won't get enough workers to run at full
capacity. So I accepted "low value" zones, popular zones near industries, where
workers live. These zones are also near praefectures since rebellion level
tends to be higher. I mention though that I never had a single rebellion while
playing on normal level. I only had rebellions while playing on beginner,
because of lack of skill (mine). The clue to not having rebellions : 0%
conscription, 4%land tax and high security, generally good city services (even
the poorest housing in my towns have water, baths, grammaticus and entert.
level >=1).
I never (almost) build barracks. If you have no walls (I don't build them
either, they are useless; I only build them when I want everything to be nice,
for my aesthetic need), barracks are as good as praefectures, only more
expensive and more difficult to place since they require more place and badly
affect more land.

The largest expedinture ISN'T my army. I submit local tribes early on and
afterwards I reduce military spending to about 10 (first provinces)- 25 Dn per
month whilst I can spend up to 80-100 Dn per month in plebe and up to 250 Dn
per month on myself ...:-). I use mostly heavy infantry, with a slinger
centuria (60 people). This slingers aren't really indispensable but I think
they add a little to my force : they lower a bit other's moral. And besides, as
they can be trained really fast, I don't pay them full time : If I have say 90
plebe working on the province level (say a farm, a mine, a career) one month
before the combat i let 30 working and train 60 as slingers. They return to
their work afterwards. As i always have large stocks of supplies from my
province industries, this "intermezzo" doesn't affect me.
What are your favourite combat tactics ? What are your proudest wins ?
After trying a few tactics, I saw the defensive one worked best for me : I put
my men on one side of the map (the furthest possible from jet-arms unit of
enemy), organised as turtles, turtles forming a triangle (you need at least
three turtles) and with a line or column of slingers inside the triangle,
protected by the infantry. Then I wait. Every enemy I encountered ends up by
attacking my turtles in melee combat (I feared that archers would stop at a
distance and start "raining hell" on my footmen, but they stupidly charged !
This was the first time. Since then, every jet-arm unit I encountered did the
same !). Using this tactic I have nearly three times less casualties than my
ennemy when starting with approximatively the same force. While not trying to
establish a record, I was able to beat 600 greeks with only 500 men (you must
know greeks aren't a weak ennemy) and I won a battle with 240 men against 420
(these were from Galia- present day France, if I remember well) !

>5:Raising An Army
>
>Only raise an army when the 2nd year pass on normal level or 3rd year on
>easy or novice level.

I raise an army on the first year. I can testimony it does no harm (it isn't a
big army, though) - normal level.

>Build one fort and raise only one cohort.  You don't need two.

I generally agree with this, but when you have enough money and you can afford
it, in the last two or three missions before becoming an emperor and if the
terrain is difficult (like Britannia - present day England+Wales) - you may
build two forts to avoid pillage of your province when you cannot be in time
where it is needed.

>Slowly raise
>your army to about 600-700 legionaires (heavy infantry...).

One rarely needs that many soldiers (normal level, again). Most of the time
210-240 heavy inf would do. Supplement with 60-120 slingers trained at the last
moment and taken from the province level. With this army, if you start with
weak tribes and build up your morale (most important !) you can pacify all your
tribes (add some auxiliares for strong and prosperous tribes).

>When you receive a promotion, don't take it unless you have about 10,000
>denarii stored up in your personal treasury.

I don't agree with this either. I want to get promoted as quickly as possible,
in order to experience more provinces the same evening of play :-). You
definitely that much money the first 6 or 7 promotions, 2000-4000 will do the
job. Later on you can control your promotion time very accurately by looking at
the oracle. I simply build up every rating and let culture as the last one, a
few percents under the required threshold and when I consider I accumulated
enough money I just pile up a few more temples or circuses, etc. Ten years is a
lot of minutes even on speed 10

>have the funds, just move to the province east of Illycrum (in the file,
>casear2.txt, I recommended the province, Illycrum to start your city) and
>so on and so on until you win the game.

I think you meant Illyria. It's a good province to start, east to it is
Macedonia, I think. Haven't tried it yet. I found Sardinia is an easy province,
too.

Do you think of assembling an FAQ for this game ?