Desc: This is the first time I liked a building
approach so much that I used it on two consecutive levels, with different fountain radius
no less. This level introduces some new pressures on the players in terms of Caesar's
demands and *much* stronger invading forces. But on the governing side, once I was able to
start rebuilding the level away from the pathetic little starting city, I never looked
back. It did cost me a fair bit of my personal savings to rebulid the city though (maybe I
just tried to do too much too quickly). The
combination of strategies I've learned from earlier levels, made the governing aspect a
total cakewalk. The only really new point of note is how far away I've built the iron
mines which are servicing the export industry, and also the long distance from olive farm
to oil workshops. It seems that cartpushers from these buildings can walk about 40 tiles
away, deliver their goods, and still get back in time to deliver the next load without
putting a stop on production. This has a lot of pressure from earlier levels where my
production has always been close to housing.
Just to reiterate the key points:
1. the "double-ringed road" housing block which
keeps most walkers on a short leash, but forces other walkers to cover greater distances
intentionally.
2. the gatehouses keeping market traders from wandering
off, and for sectioning roads where prefect and engineer -coverage are only needed on
short sections of the road.
3. one warehouse per item, wherever space allows.
4. separate villa/palace area from plebian houses, which
controls what the market buyers can/cannot get at.
5. service export trade separately to domestic industry, as
much as possible. Land trade routes usually put a spanner in the works, but sea trade can
usually be done very neatly.
6. minimise the amount of space required to build lots of
houses. This allows more of the population to be built closer to food/pottery/furniture
supplies, which allows production and distribution to both be as efficient as possible
BTW, a constant in all these games is the fact that I don't
force myself to use granaries as intersections all the time. Yes I have read the Forum
entries on this topic, but I just find that I only build them as intersections if it fits
conveniently, and most times it just doesn't fit well with other buildings, that way. By
having enough prefectures/engineers positioned on the ends of roads, and minimising roads
wherever possible, I don't have much trouble due to people going into the granary all the
time, anyway.
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