Games PC CAESAR III User Manual

4.5 (4)

Credits

Designer

QA Manager

David Lester

Jon Payne

Programming

Lead Tester

Simon Bradbury

Greg Sheppard

Producer

Quality assurance (UK)

Eric Ouellette

Neal Sumsion

Art Director (US)

Niall Callaghan

Austin Parsons

Darrin Horbal

Quality assurance (US)

Artists (US)

Brian Coons

Ron Alpert

Frank Lavoie

Adam Carriuolo

Tony Leier

Bob Curtis

Wayne McCaul

Mike Malone

Tom Rogers

Heidi Mann

Map & assignment

Andrea Muzeroll

Dennis Rose

Doug Gonya

Artists (UK)

Designers

Eric Ouellette

Gary Bendilow

Ken Parker

Michael Best

Greg Sheppard

Martin Povey

 

Daniel Shutt

Special Thanks to Chris Beatrice and Doug

Manual & Research

Gonya.

David Lester

 

Ken Parker

 

Wayne McCaul

 

Sound Effects

 

Edward Saltzman

 

Music

 

Credits

3

Rob Euvino

Table of Contents

Welcome to the Roman Empire . . . . . . . . . . . .9

In-Game Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Installing Caesar III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Starting the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Your Career . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

City Construction Kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Losing the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

For Players of Caesar II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Roman Cities, and How to Build Them . . . . .23

How to Build a Roman City . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Recommended Order of Priorities . . . . . . . . .28

Game Ratings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Prosperity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Favor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Housing and Desirability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

Desirability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Gardens and Plazas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

Statues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

People, Employment and Migration . . . . . . . .49

Migration: Attracting People to Your City . .49

Population Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

Plebeians, Patricians, & the Workforce . . . . .53

Employment & Labor Allocation . . . . . . . . .54

People Walking Along Roads . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Mood and Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Mood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

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Riots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Prefectures & fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66

Engineering and Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

Paths & Roads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70

Bridges & Water Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72

Dock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

Shipyard & Wharf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

School, Academy & Library . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

The Gods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

Temples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85

The Oracle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89

Venues & Performer Schools . . . . . . . . . . . .89

Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

Amphitheater and Colosseum . . . . . . . . . . . .91

Hippodrome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

Festival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Health and Sanitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Sanitation: Bath-house & Barber . . . . . . . . .95

Doctor's Clinic & Hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96

Government, Administration and Money . . . .99

The Senate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99

Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100

Triumphal arch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102

Costs and Controlling Them . . . . . . . . . . . . .103

Taxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104

Tribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

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Your Rank & Salary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106

Governor's Residence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107

Food, Farming and Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111

Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111

Farming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113

Storage & Distribution: Granary,

Warehouse & Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116

Special Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118

Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121

Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122

Clay Pit, Iron Mine & Timber Yard . . . . . . .124

Marble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124

Workshops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125

Oil, Pottery & Furniture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125

Wine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126

Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127

Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129

Water Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135

Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135

Fountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136

Reservoir & Aqueduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136

Military Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141

Walls & Towers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142

Gatehouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143

Fort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144

Barracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146

Military Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147

Commanding Roman legions . . . . . . . . . . . .148

What to Expect in Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151

Battles in Your Province . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151

Fighting for the Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153

Enemies of Rome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155

Native Tribes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155

Mission Posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155

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Other Enemies of Rome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156

Information, Tools and Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159

Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159

Overlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160

Advisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167

Game Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .183

Other Game Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185

Answers to Common Question . . . . . . . . . . .186

Hints and Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .190

Designer’s Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197

Building Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200

Welcome to the Roman Empire

Congratulations, citizen! Caesar has approved your application to enter the Empire's government. The

Emperor is eager to expand his settlements and reward citizens who can implement his will. The Roman Empire is so vast, and growing so rapidly, that even our divine Caesar cannot hope to rule it alone. He needs capable provincial governors, and that is where you come in.

Caesar appointed me, Pius Perplexus, to teach you the skills of governing. Your scribe, Clarus Lucidus, will add notes as we go along. My main interest is in teaching you what you should do, and why you should do it. When Clarus thinks you need information about how to do whatever I am discussing at the time, he adds his comments in obvious sections called “Scribe's Notes.”

Your goal is to build a thriving Roman city. Caesar III has two “styles” of play: The Career Game and the City Construction Kit. In a Career, Caesar rewards success with promotions and more challenging assignments. All new governors begin their careers with the same sequence of two assignments. After you complete them, Caesar lets you choose between accepting a “peaceful” or a “dangerous” new assignment each time you earn a promotion. As long as you continue to meet Caesar's ever escalating expectations, you win by becoming Rome's next Emperor.

If the second style of play, the City Construction Kit, is more to your liking, you can ignore the Emperor and set your own goals. There is no “winning” in the Construction Kit, beyond satisfying whatever objectives you set for yourself.

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You can lose either type of game if you fall very much out of Caesar's favor. The Favor rating, which measures Caesar's current opinion of you, is affected by your performance especially your handling of your province's funds. Don't worry, though – Caesar may be a tough master, but he is fair, and will give you the chance to recover if you do fall far out of favor. Use the considerable information within the game to avoid this unfortunate outcome.

Caesar III is not a war game, although you might sometimes have to defend your city against Rome's enemies. It's not a historical reference or educational program, either. It is about building cities where people can live productive, happy lives, and having fun in the process. Caesar III gives you a strong feeling of what life might have been like in ancient Rome, but the game does sometimes depart from history. In some places, strict historical accuracy would have made the game complicated or restrictive. Wherever they faced such choices, Caesar III's designers emphasized simplicity and fun.

In-game information

Caesar III has lots of information built right into the game. When you are in doubt about anything, click on it with your mouse's right button (“right-click”).

Almost everything displays a small panel showing important information when you right-click on it.

For more detailed help, click on the button in the panel's lower left corner. These detail

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panels often include a few words in red type. Click on red words to read related help entries. You can also choose Help from the menu bar at the top of your game screen to view the Table of Contents for in-game Help.

Getting started

Installing Caesar III

With Windows running on your computer, put the Caesar III CD into the CD-ROM drive. After a

moment, Windows' AutoPlay feature displays a screen with four buttons marked Play, Install, Uninstall and Quit. Click Install to begin.

If AutoPlay doesn't work on your computer, put the Caesar III CD into the CD-ROM drive. Click twice quickly (“double-click”) on the “My Computer” icon on your Windows desktop. In the window that opens, find the icon representing your CD-ROM drive. Click that icon with your right mouse button (“rightclick”). Now click the word “Open” at the top of the menu that appeared when you rightclicked. Double-click the item called “Setup.exe.”

The Install program performs a brief system test. Click the “Yes” button if you hear sound. Read the Welcome screen that appears next, then click the “Next” button. You are now prompted to choose an Install path for Caesar III. To change the game's location on your hard drive, click the Browse button and find the folder to which you'd like the game installed. Click Next when your choice is displayed, or to accept the path Install chose. If you're unsure where you should install the game, just use the location chosen by the Install program.

Caesar III's installation can take up to 10 minutes. When it finishes, you see a box describing the additions Caesar III made to your Start menu. Click “OK”, then tell Install whether or not to add bookmarks to your Internet browser.

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Install now asks whether you would like to view the game's “Readme” file. Click “Yes” if you'd like to read it now. This manual went to print several weeks before the game was finished, and late changes or additions are documented in Readme. Wherever Readme and this manual conflict, Readme is correct. (Readme doesn't display until the Install is complete).

Click the Finish button. Install checks some system components, and updates them if necessary. It might then restart your computer.

Use the Sierra AutoUpdate feature accessible from your Start button to check for any free enhancements or upgrades to the game.

Starting the game

The Install program placed a shortcut on your Windows desktop. Doubleclick on that icon to start the game.

Or, insert the game CD and, when AutoPlay begins, click the Play button. Or, click the Start button on your Windows task bar and launch the game from the location to which you installed it.

You must have the Caesar III CD in your

CD-ROM drive while playing.

After the game loads, a short movie depicting the rise of Rome plays, followed by credits and the Caesar III title screen. Click on it to proceed to the game set-up panel. Here, you choose whether to begin a new Career Game, load a previously saved game, play a City Construction Kit game or exit the program.

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Your Career

The first two assignments are the same for all new governors. Each assignment in the Career Game has clear

goals that you must achieve to earn a promotion and move on to the next province. At first, the Roman Empire is small, and your choices of cities to govern are slim. As the game goes on and the Empire grows (thanks, in part, to your own success), Caesar lets you choose among provinces to rule next. He usually lets you choose between a “peaceful” or a “dangerous” province.

When you have such a choice, you'll see a map of the Empire showing the cities available. Click on each city for a brief description of its characteristics. When you've made your decision, click the “OK” button.

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Some cities might need you to focus on trade, others on industry; most blend the two. Some assignments might require you to rescue an existing city from a crisis. Some provinces are in dangerous areas. Every assignment is different. Remember, though, that Caesar wants you to succeed. He always makes his expectations clear, and gives you the resources you need to accomplish the task at hand.

You begin your career as a Citizen. As you successfully complete assignments, Caesar will promote you through the following ranks:

Clerk Engineer Architect Decurion Apparitor Magistrate Quaestor Procurator Aedile Praetor Proconsul Consul Senator Caesar

City construction kit

Click this button if you'd rather forget about the Emperor and his assignments, and just build a city. All options from the Career Game are open to you, except for the career itself. There is no “winning” a Construction Kit game, apart from satisfying whatever goals you set yourself, but you can lose if you keep running out of money. Caesar is a reasonable ruler who

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will give you every opportunity to succeed, but his patience has limits. When he has to find more money for your city, Caesar lowers your Favor rating (see page 36).

After choosing the Construction Kit, you see a map of the Roman Empire showing all its major cities. Click on any city for a description of its unique challenges and resources. When you decide which province to govern, click the “OK” button.

Losing the Game

Caesar III is simple to learn and play, but difficult to master. It is nevertheless possible to lose the game. Should

you fall far out of favor with the Emperor, he will send an army to come and reclaim your city from you. Continual poor management of city funds could lead to just such a problem, so be careful! This applies to both individual assignments within your Career, and to the City Construction Kit.

For players of Caesar II

if you have played Caesar II, enough has changed in Caesar III that your old playing styles will need to change. While you will find much that is familiar, you should know about some of the more significant areas that have changed before you plunge

right into the game:

The “province level” and the “city level” have been combined into one larger map (though early assignments within the career are on fairly small maps). Should you encounter any barbarians or invaders, you will find that all combat now takes place on

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this same map, placing your city in considerable danger should your defenses fail.

Unlike Caesar II, in Caesar III you designate areas for housing, rather than build housing directly. You must make your city attractive to immigrants if you expect people to move in, and every growing city needs plenty of new immigrants. Once people move in, they upgrade their housing of their own accord, should you provide a suitable environment.

In most assignments (and almost always in the City Construction Kit) you need to provide food for your citizens. This should always be your top priority, since it is very hard to attract new immigrants into a city without food, and hunger can quickly turn your population to crime.

Engineers are now needed to maintain your city's buildings. Build engineering posts to send out engineers on patrol. Buildings are

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liable to collapse if they don't receive regular maintenance.

You will quickly see a large variety of people walking through your city. These all perform valuable tasks for your city, and you should think carefully about how and where you build roads. Whenever a road junction is reached, these little people must make a choice about which way to take; the fewer intersections you create, therefore, the more control you have over the routes your people will take.

Most services needed by houses are not “provided” simply if a building is nearby, as was the case with Caesar II. Instead, most buildings generate people, who need to walk past a house in order to offer that service to the house.

Most buildings which employ people must have road access to reasonably close housing. If housing is too far away from a structure which seeks employees, even though there is road access and unemployment in the city, the building will not find any workers.

The old “Empire rating” is gone, replaced by a Favor rating, which indicates Caesar's current opinion of you. Favor is important, since you will lose the game if it falls too low.

Terrain has become an important consideration in city design, with higher land and waterside plots being more desirable. You will come across islands, and need to bridge water at times to achieve your objectives. And different types of land hold different resources, from fertile land to areas rich in clay or iron ore.

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Religion plays a larger role in citizens' lives. There are five gods to keep happy; ignore them at your peril.

Entertainment, too, has changed: building a theater or amphitheater is not enough to please your people, as it did before. Build actor colonies, gladiator schools and more to provide performers for these otherwise– pretty (but dull) venues.

Caesar is a more “hands-on” Emperor than he was in the old game, and will interact with you more often. He is worth looking after whenever you can.

Finally, you won't hear the phrase “Plebs are needed!” any more. The computer automatically allocates your workforce to jobs. This is all that you need most of the time. When there is a shortage of employees, you can assign priorities to categories of workers, ensuring that whichever tasks matter most to your city get first claim on the available plebes.

Getting started

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Roman Cities, and How to Build Them

Roman cities differed from modern cities in obvious ways: No skyscrapers, no motor vehicles, no subways,

no electric lighting, and so on. But they were remarkably similar in some ways, too: Many Roman cities were large, busy places where hundreds of thousands of people lived (historians estimate that Rome itself housed one million residents). Cities used road networks, and had buildings several stories high.

People in ancient times had the same basic needs that we have today: food, water, clothing and other goods; a job to provide income to pay the bills; entertainment, education, religion and other services and diversions. For a Roman city, just as for a modern one, the wide variety in kinds of people and buildings, the hustle and bustle, the noise and dust all gave a city its character.

The center of a Roman city should be full of fine buildings. The Senate, the center of government for a Roman city, should be the center point around which other buildings are located. It will probably be surrounded by lavish plazas, a governor's palace, and some of the wealthiest villas imaginable. There will be numerous large, grand temples, and perhaps an oracle, providing religious service for the rich and powerful who live in and around the city center.

The bath house, of course, will be close by. This is where the wealthy come to wash away the dirt, and also to see and be seen, to talk and to plot. And after a bath, rich Romans enjoy a stroll in one of the many gardens that are usually to be found in this part of the city, perhaps bordered by statues

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marking various triumphs of Rome's glorious expansion.

Other grand structures, too, will be close by: academies, schools, and libraries, where the young are educated in the ways of Rome. Theaters are there, and actor colonies to train the actors who perform the drama so popular with the wealthy of Rome.

Not far away from that, though hidden away so as not to upset the desirability of the very center, will be the bases for the essential services needed: barbers and doctors, police stations, markets and engineering stations; a reservoir and fountains to provide the enormous volumes of water needed by such a thriving metropolis; a granary to allow the market traders easy access to food stores.

Beyond the tidy central core of the city are the productive areas, where most of the work gets done, and where those who perform that work live. Here you'll find farming districts, mines and workshops, a thriving port, and warehouses close to the main road out of the province. These outer areas of a Roman city also house more popular, if noisier and dirtier, entertainment venues like amphitheaters, where gladiators fight to the death to the delight of cheering crowds, and the colosseum, where lions are brought to battle each other and the better gladiators. The finest cities of all have a hippodrome, like Rome's Circus Maximus – one of the largest buildings I've ever seen; the fiercely competitive chariot races held there are surely the finest entertainment anywhere in the Empire.

Some cities, it is true, also have areas they are less proud of. Dirty and dangerous, full of

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tents, hovels and shacks, these slums can house an amazing number of citizens. You would be well advised not to venture there alone. As you create your own city, keep a watchful eye on any such districts. They are often the source of crime, occasionally even riots! It's often not even worthwhile sending tax collectors round, since the people there are so poor there's precious little tax to collect.

No portrayal of Roman cities is complete without mentioning their lifeblood: The people. How can I describe the feeling of abundant, thriving life that I get just from watching the city center as all manner of people go about their busy lives? Of course, you expect to see the many plebes, priests, prefects and market traders, and maybe the cart pushers as well. But would you imagine gladiators, lion tamers, merchants from distant lands, engineers, barbers and doctors, too? It is quite a sight to behold.

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How to Build a Roman City

There are a few basic concepts you would be well advised to get straight before embarking too far on your journey to become the finest Governor in the

Empire.

Housing: Designate an area for housing, after which people will move in and set up their own homes, which they will upgrade if you provide them with the facilities they seek. If there's not enough empty housing, no one can move into your city, however much they may wish to. You can find out more about housing on page 41.

Roads: Citizens can walk only on roads. Most buildings employ people, and need to be both adjacent to road and reasonably close to housing so that citizens can reach the building to start work. For more on roads, please turn to page 56.

Food: Not unreasonably, your citizens need to eat food. People who live in tents, the simplest housing, expect to forage for their own food, but everyone else expects you, as their governor, to provide it for them. Failure to do so could lead to unhappiness and possibly severe crime, as well as preventing immigration. You can read about food on page 111.

Unemployment: Providing jobs is nearly as important for luring immigrants as providing food. Unemployment quickly makes people unhappy, and unhappy people are likely to leave your city, talk other people into not moving in, or, worse still, turn to

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crime. Beware very high unemployment. There's more information about employment on page 49.

Desirability: In addition to needing goods and services, housing often requires its surrounding area to be made more pleasant before it evolves to higher values. This means prettying it up with gardens, plazas, statues and temples, or removing some of the more antisocial buildings nearby, such as workshops or military buildings. You can read up on desirability on page 43.

Water access: Water is critical to all life, even that found in the slums of Rome's cities. Poorer areas expect to either get their own water directly from a river or lake, or to draw it up from deep wells. But better citizens want a nearby source of clean water, and they'll soon demand a fountain before they upgrade their housing. Of course, fountains won't please anyone unless they actually distribute water, for which they need access

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to a reservoir. Learn more about the city's water supply on page 135.

Security: Prefectures help to suppress crime, and they guard against fires in the city. Engineers inspect your buildings for structural flaws and keep them in top repair. If you skimp on prefectures and engineer's posts, your city will not last for very long. Read more on page 66.

Recommended order of priorities

Many governors feel slightly overwhelmed when facing the stark emptiness of a new province, and don't know quite how to begin. It is tempting

to rush in to a new city and build some of the finer structures first. Sadly, this can make citizens unhappy. They much prefer their governors to build carefully, starting with basic needs. In addition to some areas of housing, I recommend the following order of priorities as the key to solid, long-lasting cities:

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Always make sure there is plenty of food around. Check how full your granaries are regularly; if they look empty, you are probably eating more than you are growing, which suggests that you should build more farms or import some more food. It is easy to forget about food once your city starts to take shape and grow rapidly, but your people won't let you forget it for long.

Security: Build plenty of prefectures as you expand; cities face all sorts of pressures with rapid growth, and most governors I know sleep much better knowing that there are plenty of prefects around to put out fires and take care of any signs of crime before they get out of hand.

Unemployment: Try not to let the unemployment rate rise much above 15 percent, and then only for a short time. In the early months of a new city, just a few workers can represent a large percentage of the workforce; if unemployment is high, add a new farm, and kill two birds with one stone.

Water: Since reservoirs and fountains do not need road access to their labor, it is easy to forget that they need workers to function. Think ahead about the routes your aqueducts will need to follow to carry water from its natural source (a river, or lake, say) to the expensive residential areas that will need it.

Religion: Try to keep the gods happy. Happy gods can be of help to you, while angry gods can do you more damage than you care to know about. Beware their wrath!

Money: Don't worry about how much money you're spending until your population

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30

nears 1,000. By then, your city should be stable enough for you to consider raising taxes, making sure everyone is paying their taxes (use the tax Overlay to help you do this). And then you should start to consider setting up some trade to provide more income.

Defense: In some of the more dangerous provinces, defense is an important consideration. You don't need to think about it much before you get the basics up and running, and in many provinces you won't need to worry about it at all. But in those dangerous provinces, scan the map first of all to see where you may want to build some defensive walls, or place some forts, taking into account where your farmland, water sources and other important locations are.

The Rest: there are many other structures to build and issues to consider, but it is hard to go far wrong if you get the basics right first.

Scribe's NOTE:

Remember, if in doubt, right-click. If you right-click on the people wandering around, they'll usually give you valuable information about what they think the city needs, or what they're up to. If there are problems, you can be sure they'll let you know! Right-clicking on housing always tells you what that house needs if it is to evolve, while right-clicking on other buildings tells you if, and how well, they are operating.

Your Chief Advisor is a good fellow, too; he'll always tell you the truth about the state of your city. Check in with him regularly, too.

Roman Cities, and How to Build Them

31

Game Ratings

There are several measures of your city's progress in Caesar III, which I call ratings. These are Peace,

Prosperity, Culture and Favor. Caesar is not an arbitrary ruler. With every new assignment that you take, Caesar sets specific targets for you to reach for each of these ratings. You win a promotion to a new assignment when you achieve these goals (this does not apply to the City Construction Kit).

You can see your current ratings on the city map by looking at the Senate building; its flags represent the four ratings, and they move over time as your ratings change. Mouse help for the building gives you the precise rating numbers. Alternatively, you can consult your Ratings Advisor, who will show you the ratings and offer some advice on how to boost them.

Culture

Your Culture rating is a measure of the “culture” in your city. “Culture” comes from education, religion, and some

entertainment. Culture was very important to ancient Rome; it sought to impose its culture throughout the Empire, which is why so many languages today are based on Latin, the ancient Romans' language.

The Culture rating is calculated by comparing the number of buildings your city has in these categories with the size of your population. As the city grows, it needs more and more buildings to offer the same level of culture to its larger population.

Game Ratings

34

To raise your Culture rating, build additional temples, oracles, schools, libraries, academies or theaters (the only “cultured” entertainment form back then).

Note that all these buildings must be active to count towards the Culture rating – which means that they must all have the employees that they need, and the theater needs actors to perform plays.

Scribe's Note:

Click on your Culture rating, or any other rating for that matter, on the City Progression Panel in the Senate to see brief advice for improving it.

Prosperity

TThe Prosperity rating is a measure of the overall wealth of your city and its people.

Factors which affect Prosperity include:

Unemployment (very low levels boost the rating, high levels reduce it);

City profitability (excluding construction costs, if your city takes in more denarii than it spends, the Prosperity rating will rise, and if it takes in less than it spends, the rating will fall);

If the city needs additional funds from

Rome, its Prosperity rating falls;

Should the city ever fail to pay tribute to

Rome, its Prosperity falls;

Game Ratings

35

Wage rate (paying more than Rome boosts Prosperity, while paying less reduces it);

Housing levels (having quite a few villas in your city boosts Prosperity, while a large proportion of your citizens living in tents and shacks reduces it);

If lots of people eat more than one type of food, Prosperity rises;

The presence of an active hippodrome in a city boosts Prosperity.

The easiest way to boost Prosperity is simply for your treasury to take in more money than it spends, not counting construction costs (which are, after all, enhancing the city).

The Ratings Advisor Panel

Game Ratings

36

Peace

The Peace rating is a measure of how secure your people feel. As time passes without any disturbance of the

peace, the initial concern people naturally have about a brand new area begins to fall, and they feel much safer.

Disturbances of the peace reduce the rating, though. Theft and riots both reduce the Peace rating, as does any destruction of property by barbarians or invaders. The people understand that they live in a dangerous time, where such evils as barbarians and invaders exist, but they expect their governor to protect them from it. Any lapse will have a severe effect on a city's citizens, reducing the Peace rating significantly. Only prolonged periods of security can bring it back up.

Favor

Your Favor rating shows you what Caesar thinks of you.

With every new assignment you begin, your Favor rating starts at 50, which means that Caesar is neither pleased nor displeased with you. If you please him, the rating rises; if you displease him, the rating falls. It is important for you to understand that if you do not come to Caesar's attention at all in any year, the Favor rating falls slightly; out of sight, out of mind, out of Favor.

You can please Caesar in several ways:

Make strong progress towards achieving the overall objectives of the assignment.

Game Ratings

37

Pander to Caesar's every desire. From time to time, you may receive a request from him. This may be for goods, or for cash, or even an army. He will always tell you when he wants this stuff, and getting it to him by then makes him much more pleased with you.

Send him gifts from your own personal savings. You can send a small, medium or large gift from your Emperor's Advisor. Beware excessive use of gifts, since Caesar has a tendency to take them for granted after a while. The first should be in proportion to your own personal wealth at the time.

Sadly, it is all too easy to displease Caesar. Try to avoid the following, which will cause him to think worse of you:

Poor progress towards the assignment objectives; Caesar does not like time to be wasted.

Game Ratings

38

Ignoring a request from him. If you can't meet his deadline, it's still worthwhile to fulfill the request, although less beneficial than fulfilling it on time. However, failure to ever fulfill it is likely to make him very angry toward you.

Poor cash management. This is the single easiest way to anger Caesar. He respects sound use of the funds he has entrusted you with, but also expects you to make your cities contribute as soon as possible. Should he send you any specific instructions regarding your use of Rome's funds, try hard to follow that advice.

If you fall very far (a Favor rating of a meager 10 percent would be far enough, I fear) in Caesar's favor, he will remove you from office. He will send an army to enforce that, ordering the army to stay beside your city for up to one year. If you manage to please him enough in that time to raise Favor to 40, the army will return to Rome. Otherwise, the army will enter your city to claim back for Rome what belongs to her, and to place you under arrest. I would not recommend trying to fight the army, either; Caesar would not be amused.

Game Ratings

39

Games PC CAESAR III User Manual

Housing and Desirability

Housing is probably the single most important type of building in your city. It is the source of labor, and

also of crime. It is also one of the best visual indicators of the progress of your city: as you provide more of the goods and services that your citizens want, they upgrade their homes and enhance the area around them. This is clear right from the start: instead of building houses directly, you select an area and designate it “for sale,” following which immigrants will move in and set up tents. These

tents will hopefully develop into better hous- Tent ing over time.

The house that a citizen lives in determines his or her income: the better the house, the higher the income. Fires spread more rapidly among tents than among more permanent structures, and crime is more likely to occur within poorer areas than in wealthier ones. It is always a good idea, then, to help housing evolve from its initial tents into good quality.

As housing evolves into better structures, the number of people who live in the dwelling changes. Initially, most of the changes are upwards: more and more people can live in

dwellings as they grow in size. This means Shack that when you need more workers in your

city, you will usually have two choices: designate some additional land to be used for housing, or provide the services or goods that some existing houses need in order to grow.

This creates space in the newly evolved houses. People living in cheaper housing elsewhere in the city automatically move to

Housing and Desirability

42

a better home when room becomes available, freeing up space in their former homes. Immigrants usually move into the nowvacant cheaper dwellings, as long as they find your city attractive (for more details on Immigration, see page 49).

Eventually, some houses evolve into villas. This is a significant step. Villa dwellers are much wealthier people, and can have all sorts of positive effects on your city, from a higher Prosperity rating to higher tax income. But note that far fewer people live in a villa,

Large Hovel so whenever a house evolves into a villa, quite a few citizens are made homeless; you will see them dragging their meager belongings behind them as they search for somewhere else in the city to live.

So, how do you foster the growth of a tent village into a neighborhood of expensive villas? The short answer is to right-click on a house, and it will tell you what it needs next in order to evolve.

The things that a house needs fall into two Small Villa categories: goods and services, and the quality of the surrounding area. Goods and services are largely what you would expect: food, water, access to entertainment, education, religion, and so on. The needs change as citizens become wealthier: rich citizens want nicer water, a bath, different types of food, manufactured goods and possibly wine.

They also want access to better education, more entertainment, more religion, and to have doctors and barbers close by.

When I say “access to” I mean that the citizens want these services within easy walking distance. Each of the services to which

Housing and Desirability

43

citizens need access is provided by a building. That building generates a worker, who wanders the streets near his or her place of work, providing services to all the houses he or she passes.

If you right-click on a house and are told that it needs access to a bath-house, for example, place a bath-house nearby on a road that's likely to lead the bather to walk by the house in question. The overlay reports (for more information see page 160) are often an easy way to see precisely which route different workers follow, and hence where you may need to place another building.

Desirability

Desirability is a measure of how nice, aesthetically, the area immediately around a house is.

A neighborhood can provide food, water and manufactured goods, and have good access to a variety of services, yet still suffer a lack of desirability. People simply don't like to live too close to structures that cause noise, dirt, danger or traffic. Let common sense be your guide. Would you rather live next to a garden or a pig farm?

Different buildings have substantially different effects on the desirability of the area surrounding them. As you might expect, the larger the building is, the stronger and farther reaching its effect is likely to be. Industries, military buildings and noisier entertainment structures are all highly undesirable neighbors, as you might expect.

Markets are more unusual: they are bad to be right next to, yet they have a positive

Housing and Desirability

44

effect on houses a little further away. Nobody wants to live right next to a noisy, smelly place which gets going at the crack of dawn every day, yet they do want to live close enough that they can just nip round a corner to pick up some more wheat when they run out. Wells also have a mild negative effect on desirability.

Gardens, temples, oracles, educational institutions, government buildings, governor's residences, baths, statues and similar buildings all improve a neighborhood's character. To some extent, you can offset negative influences on desirability by providing positive ones, but blocks near commercial buildings are unlikely to get much beyond medium values. If a neighborhood stops improving, and its residents complain about its desirability, give them a new garden, plaza or statue. If they still aren't happy, look for unpleasant structures nearby and consider relocating them elsewhere.

Housing and Desirability

45

Oh, I nearly forgot: housing that is high up, and waterfront property are both somewhat more desirable in and of themselves. People like living near lakes, rivers and beaches, and they love the views to be had from higher ground. Bear this in mind as you think about your city's master plan.

Give people good jobs, a varied diet, manufactured goods, access to services and pleasant homes. They will do the rest.

Scribe's Note:

To reach its highest level, housing needs access to a nearby market supplied with four different foods, pottery, oil, furniture and two varieties of wine. Regular visits by workers from a bath-house, a doctor's clinic, a barber's shop, a priest of each god's temple, and representatives of a school, academy, library, theater, amphitheater, colosseum and hippodrome are also required. If you can supply all of these goods, and access to all of these buildings, then reaching the highest values is simply a matter of enhancing desirability. Rightclick on housing to discover why its growth is stagnant. The panel that appears shows what the house lacks, or the nearest negative influence on its desirability.

Plebes will only commute a certain distance to work. They travel farther on straight roads than on winding ones, but will not walk great distances. If you create a farm colony or industrial park far from your urban center, provide cheap, nearby housing for workers.

Gardens and plazas

 

ardens and plazas share a simple

 

purpose: They make their surround-

 

Ging neighborhood nicer. Of all the

 

many things you could live next too, would-

 

n't gardens be a top choice? Gardens don't

Garden

Housing and Desirability

46

 

 

 

need road access, a water supply, laborers or

 

 

 

maintenance. They cannot catch fire or col-

 

 

 

lapse.

 

 

 

You can build gardens by placing them one

 

 

 

at a time, or by clicking and dragging a larg-

 

 

 

 

er area.

 

 

 

Plazas work the same way, except that they

 

 

 

can only be built over paved roads. Even

 

 

 

paved roads are utilitarian, meant purely for

 

 

 

moving traffic as efficiently as possible.

 

 

 

When you replace a road with a plaza, you

 

 

 

Plaza

 

 

cover the plain flat paving stones with mosa-

 

 

 

ic tiles, adding beauty and instilling civic

 

 

 

 

 

 

pride in what was, before, nothing but a busy

 

 

 

thoroughfare. Plazas will not actually reduce

 

 

 

traffic or make the former road any less func-

 

 

 

tional. They merely make a statement about

 

 

 

the value of the properties by which they

 

 

 

pass.

 

 

 

Both gardens and plaza are extremely valu-

 

 

 

able tools for governors to make their cities

 

 

 

nicer. Both have valuable desirability effects,

 

 

 

and are all the more useful since they can be

 

 

 

placed as a single small plot, or used to fill a

 

 

 

larger area.

 

 

 

Statues

 

 

 

tatues enhance a neighborhood's desir-

 

 

 

ability. Monuments to prominent citi-

 

 

 

Szens or noteworthy events show resi-

 

 

 

dents that their government cares about their

 

 

 

property values, and provide a pleasing

 

 

 

focus or reference point to a neighborhood.

 

 

 

Statues' effect on desirability increases with

Large Statue

 

 

their size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Housing and Desirability

47

People, Employment and

Migration

While buildings cover most of the physical space of any city, the people who live and work within

these buildings, and who you can see scurrying about the streets, are the life and soul of a city. In a thriving city, you'll see all kinds of different types of people wandering around, from school children to leisurely patricians and busy workers.

When there are no people in a city, it looks dead – and it really is dead. People give life to a city. When you first start to build a new city somewhere, you start by placing some buildings or housing area; it is only when you see people moving in and setting about their lives that you know the city is beginning to work. For this reason, as you construct more buildings, be sure to keep a fresh supply of people coming into your city, to provide workers to operate those new buildings.

Clearly, these people are absolutely crucial to the success of your city. You would do well to look after them. And they love to talk. I humbly suggest that you talk to them regularly (by right-clicking on them); they often have important messages about the state of a city.

Migration: Attracting people to your city

When you first start a new city, it has no population at all. As soon as you designate an area of land to

be used for housing, some carts should start to move into your province and set up their

People, Employment and Migration

50

homes in this area. They know very little about you and your style of governing, but are willing to give you a chance. But after a small initial group of people (probably up to 100 or so) have moved in, you need to attract others by the way you govern.

Word about the mood of people in your city spreads rapidly throughout the region. If your citizens are pleased with you, then more people will be keen to come in; if the existing population is upset, new citizens are likely to stay away, and (if they are really angry) you might even find some of your existing population moving out. See Page 59 for more information about the mood of your population.

Knowing what will make these people happy in your city is fairly easy: they need food, jobs, and a place to live. Note that people living in tents expect to find their own food from the land; if you need more people in your city but don't have enough food for them, create an area of cheap housing, with no facilities, and some immigrants should move in. If a city has unfilled jobs, food to eat and space in housing areas, immigrants will move in unless something else is wrong.

What could be wrong? Understandably, citizens dislike very high tax rates and low wages. If there has been a lot of sickness in the city, that, too, could make people think twice about moving in. Occasionally, you might find that an angry god has frightened others away.

People, Employment and Migration

51

you talk to any of your people, they will be only too happy to tell you what they think of life; be careful, though, since they love to moan, and will usually tell you of any problem at all, even if it is minor, given half a chance. Your Chief Advisor can tell you very reliably what the overall mood of the people is at any time.

When immigrants arrive, they bring carts of their belongings with them, looking for available housing. They will move in to any housing which has space for them. Once they are settled, if space becomes vacant in a better house in the city, they automatically move into it, vacating their old home.

Some of the citzens of your city

Sometimes houses devolve back to a more primitive level than they were before. This can happen if some of their goods or services are cut off for some reason. This often means that fewer citizens can fit into the building, and so some of those who used to live there become homeless. You will see homeless people dragging a sack of their belongings forlornly behind them, trying to find somewhere else to live. If they cannot, they will be forced to leave your city.

Scribe's note:

Just remember to try to keep your people happy, with job vacancies and plenty of food being the two crucial ways of doing this. If

When you see people moving out of your city, right-click on them to find out why. They will not hesitate to voice their grievances.

People, Employment and Migration

52

Population growth

Immigration and emigration make the most dramatic changes in the size of your population, especially early in the life of a city. I should mention, though, that there will be some natural fluctuation in population size due to births and deaths. The number of births is determined by the number of people of child-bearing age in your city. People are more likely to die as they get older, and not many live past the age of 50. Newborn babies must be housed, of course, and sometimes this will make someone else homeless, to make way in his old building for

the new baby.

Your Population Advisor can show you a useful graph with details of how many people of each age there are in your city. Note that immigrants of all ages will move into your city, not simply all young people.

The Population Advisor Panel

People, Employment and Migration

53

The health of your people can also affect the natural changes in population; see Page 52 for more information.

Plebeians, patricians, and

 

the workforce

 

 

 

 

 

T

here are two classes of Roman citi-

 

zens. Plebeians (plebes) are the com-

 

mon people whose daily efforts keep

 

 

 

your city functioning. Patricians are wealthy

 

aristocrats who don't work; instead, they

 

spend their days visiting one another, loung-

 

ing in the baths, attending the theaters and

 

debating politics, philosophy and art.

 

In Caesar III, all the people who live in any

 

house which is not a villa (which will often

 

mean everyone in your city) are plebes; only

 

those people living in villas are patricians.

 

Large Villa

 

 

 

Patricians are very rich, and so pay high

 

taxes. Having a reasonable number of them

 

in a city also raises its prosperity. As your

 

city grows wealthier and more cultured, ple-

 

beian apartments eventually begin to evolve

 

into villas. Note that this will decrease your

 

workforce, without any reduction in the

 

number of people you need to feed.

 

You will soon learn to recognize the various

 

different people. All of them have a function,

 

and you can learn about problems the city

 

may have just by watching some of the peo-

 

ple. If you see somebody standing still, for

 

example, when usually he is active, right

 

click on him to find out why he's not moving.

 

Or if you see someone who seems a long

 

People, Employment and Migration

54

way out of his or her normal area, try following that person, which may show you what is wrong.

Your “workforce” consists of approximately two thirds of the number of plebeian citizens between the ages of 22 and 50. Younger people are studying, (in schools if you have provided them, otherwise on their own) while people over the age of 50 are retired.

Employment & Labor Allocation

almost every building in your city needs to employ workers in order to operate. Even if there are lots of unemployed workers in your city, a building cannot employ anyone unless it has “access”

to labor.

When you build a new structure that employs people, it sends a recruiter in plain brown clothing to look for a nearby source of labor. As soon as that recruiter walks past housing (which needs to be within two spaces of the road), he knows that his building has access to labor – in other words, that workers can walk along roads from their

SCRIBE'S NOTE:

You can see how much unemployment you have right on your city map. Any citizens sitting idly on the steps around your Senate building are unemployed. One or two people means that there is some, but not too much, unemployment. Three or more people sitting around is a sign of high unemployment, which you should try to avoid.

People, Employment and Migration

55

The Labour Advisor Panel

homes to reach his building. There is a limit as to how far people are prepared to commute to work, though. Sometimes a building won't achieve access to labor, even though it is on a road connected to some housing, if it is a long way away.

Once a building has access to labor, it asks the Labor Advisor for some workers. If there are enough unemployed workers in the city, they are immediately allocated to that building, and the building will commence operations. If there is a shortage of workers in the city, though, the Labor Advisor decides which buildings should receive labor, and which should not.

You might want to make different decisions about which structures should have the first claim to labor, based upon the particular sit-

People, Employment and Migration

56

uation in the city at that time. You can do this by visiting your Labor Advisor and setting some priorities for him, which he will always follow. If you set fire prevention as your first priority, for example, and food production as your second, he will always allocate all the workers he has initially to fire prevention, and then to food production. Should there be any workers remaining after that, he will allocate them as he thinks best to the other categories.

Scribe's note:

Right-click on any building to find out how many people currently work there, and whether the building has any other needs. Watch the activity at your industries and trade facilities. When you see workers moving at half speed or stopping work altogether . . . full or empty carts standing idle . . . ships moored at your docks with no one loading or unloading them - then you need to define some civic priorities.

There will be many occasions when you have too few workers, especially in the early days of a city. You can either attract new immigrants into your city (see above, Page 49) or set priorities so that only the work you would like to be done is done. You can also instruct your Trade Advisor to temporarily cease activity in any of the industrial or farming operations in your city, which would free up labor.

People walking along roads

Your city will soon have lots of different people wandering along its roads and paths. Citizens deliver their

goods or services while walking the city's streets; understanding how that works is very important.

People, Employment and Migration

57

There are two types of journey. The first is a specific journey from point A to point B. For example, when a wheat farm harvests its crop, it sends a farm hand with a cart full of produce to a granary. The farmer tries to take the most direct route there, and also on his return journey with the empty cart.

The second type of journey is more like a patrol. An engineer's post, for example, sends out an engineer to walk for a certain distance, repairing any damage in the buildings he passes. Eventually, the engineer returns to his post. The next engineer sent out to repair buildings in the area tries to go in a different direction overall than the last patrol. This happens four times, with the first patrol trying to head North, the next East, the next South, and finally the last one West. This way, they try to visit all the buildings in their area.

But note that the more intersections there are along any one of those patrols, the less likely it is that the engineer will cover every building in his area. This means that you may need to provide more buildings to send out patrols in areas with complex road networks, to ensure that all buildings are covered.

Mood and Crime

Mood

Every governor should be concerned with the mood of his citizens. If they are happy, you can take actions that

will benefit the city in the long run, but that might upset a few citizens in the immediate future. But taking the same actions when the population is already in a foul mood could lead to disaster.

Put simply, the mood of a city is a sense of how the average citizen is feeling. The mood of a city is calculated directly from the mood of each individual dwelling in a city. Your Chief Advisor will keep you informed about the overall mood of your citizens. Be warned: it is quite possible to have a few houses with unhappy citizens even when the overall mood is very good.

Mood affects two important mechanisms within Roman cities: migration and crime.

The overall mood of the city is known to people for miles around, and affects immigration. New immigrants will want to move to a city which is pleased with its governor, but they won't move into an unhappy city at all. See Immigration on Page 49 for more details on migration.

Both the overall mood of the city and the mood of each individual dwelling determine crime. As mood gets worse, the likelihood of committing a crime rises.

Crime and migration are very important to a city's success. For a city to thrive, you need to know how to improve the mood of your city

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