I can't bring myself to play Rome.

[darkace77450]

I've always wanted to play Rome, but I just can't bring myself to do so. They've got several things working against them.

First, Domination is my least preferred victory condition. Sure, I roll with a war-leaning Civ and conquer the world from time to time, but I prefer building my own empire up over tearing others down. I suppose it's my Sim City roots that have me inclined towards peaceful playthroughs.

Second, since I got into the game four years after release, Rome's UA looks very dated at this point. Next to Civs like Polynesia, Brazil, and the like To the Glory of Rome just looks bland by comparison. A production bonus in non-capital cities is useful, no doubt, but it's not very exciting.

All that being said, I'm trying to talk myself into a Roman Cultural Victory playthrough. To the Glory of Rome would help build cultural buildings faster, that's the extent of the benefit playing Rome culturally affords. It's not much, so I'm on the fence. If any of you have tried such an approach to Rome, I'd love to get your feedback on the subject. Thanks.

 

[danaphanous]

Rome's ability gets more powerful the more cities you make. If you want something different, try to get a religion with a building and go for a piety/liberty mix and sacred sites with them to help your early tourism. Then use the UA to build things in your 8-10 cities much faster. You don't have to use them for war. Keep your capital big and use the legions to build roads and forts. You can even save money to buy stuff like the workshop and university as soon as you get the techs in the capital so all your cities get an immediate discount. The hammer savings in huge.

Rome is an excellent wide civ as their ability directly combats slow build times across the large empire. They play even better on huge maps. That ability doesn't seem so bland when you have 7-8 cities to build in. For a tall 3-4 city empire? Yeah not nearly as useful since all the cities keep up with each other, but it still helps.

 

[darkace77450]

Rome's ability gets more powerful the more cities you make. If you want something different, try to get a religion with a building and go for a piety/liberty mix and sacred sites with them to help your early tourism. Then use the UA to build things in your 8-10 cities much faster. You don't have to use them for war. Keep your capital big and use the legions to build roads and forts. You can even save money to buy stuff like the workshop and university as soon as you get the techs in the capital so all your cities get an immediate discount. The hammer savings in huge.

Rome is an excellent wide civ as their ability directly combats slow build times across the large empire. They play even better on huge maps. That ability doesn't seem so bland when you have 7-8 cities to build in. For a tall 3-4 city empire? Yeah not nearly as useful since all the cities keep up with each other, but it still helps.

Thanks for the reply. It's much appreciated. Everything you said about them being great wide is spot on. But for whatever reason, I can't force myself to play wide. Even when playing Civs that truly shine wide (Polynesia, Russia, Egypt, etc) I still wind up going tall. I don't know why, but I do.

 

[danaphanous]

Probably because it takes a lot of early growth/time to settle all the cities. Many players feel like the game will go badly so they stop. It works well though with practice, and Rome's early military edge is great for holding back AI settlements and attacks because they get jealous if you build this many cities. I find it more exciting, so try it if you get the urge sometime!

To play them tall I'd recommend saving enough money to buy the important buildings immediately in the capital. with a tall empire your cities build stuff too fast so on things you want to start building immediately in most cities you only get the bonus if you buy the building in the capital right away. Stuff like university and research labs are a good expample. Tall with 4 cities your effective benefit is only 75% per building instead of 200% like a wide game, but that's still almost 2 for 1 every time you buy in the capital! It's like you get a freebie building every time.

 

[Primacide]

Honestly, Rome is fun. It's a good middle-difficulty civ (not OP like Poland, not crappy like Iroquois.). You will get a kick out of building roads with your legions (letting your workers spam farms instead. The UA for faster builds is great even with four city tradition.

Come to think of it, I've never really done a Dom Vic with Rome. I just enjoyed the peripheral benefits. And let's face it, it's just fun to role play as the Roman Empire.

 

[Redaxe]

They got nerfed a bit with the BNW removing most of the gold from tiles and making unhappiness more punishing.
Thus its very hard to afford lots of roads and buildings which their intended for.

 

[ShakaKhan]

The civs that are fun to play are the civs that can take more advantage out of favorable map conditions. Rome is the opposite of this: they are less hindered by unfavorable conditions. Maps that require extra terraforming are easier for Rome since Legions can do some of the worker's work, and maps that have weaker production in satellite cities are offset by their UA.

Also, the 4UC mod gives not one but two things that are very complementary the the Roman unique ability: two unique buildings.

 

[psparky]

I like wide play, so Rome looks an interesting civ to play. However last time I tried it, it's UA didn't help anywhere near as much as I expected in the early game. The problem was that Rome couldn't build several buildings; it had no access to stoneworks, circus, stable or forge. I ended up with a mostly coastal empire but Rome itself wasn't on the coast, so no cut-price lighthouses (which would really have helped). It was on a river, but there were few rivers around (I think I only got one cut-price watermill).

I will try them again, but I will certainly look carefully at the starting location with the above in mind.

 

[ToborajniN]

If you want to practise playing wide I would agree with danaphanous advice about going for Piety (Sacred Sites) into Culture Victory. It's a lot of fun.

In case you are unfamiliar with how the strat works i'll explain it very briefly: You go for piety for the reformation belief Sacred Sites (Tourism from all buildings purchased with faith) and for Liberty to help with the infrastructure due to your many expands.

When you get a pantheon, you try to get one that generates as much faith as possible and when you go found the religion you try to get as many buildings as you can (Mosque and Pagoda being the best).

In terms of settling cities, it's quite easy. You settle cities within 4 tiles of eachother unless you HAVE TO settle it a few more tiles further away due to luxes. As soon as you have enough happiness you pump out a settler. Try to aim for around 10-12 cities. You'll be surprised how fast a cultural victory can actually be won. (A lot easier with Byza than with Rome, but Rome can still pull it off)

 

[Sclb]

You also want to delay entering a new era as faith buildings cost more in next era. Of course you would still need to get your gold running since it's one of the problem with wide play.