Decadence is ruining this game for me...

[Bombax]

I've spent quite a few hours already on this game, but for me the decadence/culture rating is just ruining the game.
Do the developers have any plans to either (a) change the mechanism, or (b) make it little easier on the, uh, 'Easy' setting?
If not I can save myself wasting more time and just uninstall the d*mn thing now.

[Ragu777]

i hope they will not change this (maybe MORE easy for easy..)
but this concept is the biggest new thing in grand strategies

also i don't understand how others can't win in easy... my first try was in experienced, but it was so easy and now i play only suicidal

[Bombax]

also i don't understand how others can't win in easy... my first try was in experienced, but it was so easy and now i play only suicidal

I can only bow down before your superior skill...

[Altipueri]

I agree with you Bombax.

I'm sick of losing the Epirus short scenario in four or five turns and that's on Easy.

Easy or very east if there were such a thing should give you a draw even if you do nothing.

But the "Hard men" like to show how brilliant their minds are......

[Ragu777]

what are you problems with decadence?
do you never build culture buildings? or have low loyality and build so much commerce building with +decadence?

also if you decadent nation with 5 aging tokens - you don't lose, you just get civil war- it's pretty nice anti-blob mechanic

[Demetrios_of_Messene]

Yes, it would be good to be more specific if you are having problems. Is it early game or late game? What faction are you playing with? Are you using FoG2 to resolve some battles or no? Do you try to conquer the objectives?

[goodwoodrw]

A couple of hints early in the game don't build structures that cause decadence, but build ones that give you culture and decadence reduction such as Odeons and Courthouses, move your citizens around to increase your culture, and finally don't expand too quickly. Chose a good beginner nation, I find Carthage or Maurya good ones. Even the Briton tribes are a good start. Patience is absolute.

[devoncop]

I agree with you Bombax.

I'm sick of losing the Epirus short scenario in four or five turns and that's on Easy.

Easy or very east if there were such a thing should give you a draw even if you do nothing.

But the "Hard men" like to show how brilliant their minds are......

The Epirus scenario is in no way an "easy" scenario and the designers do make this clear....

If you do the walkthrough as Rome which is laid out towards the back of the manual turn by turn for the first half dozen turns you will find things much easier to understand.

[Blathergut]

I kept dying from decadence the first few games as Iberia. I think mostly because I was expanding rapidly, taking a region a turn or two a turn. When I changed to just nabbing one or two regions and working on culture buildings that improved loyalty, things stabilized. I figured there was no particular rush to expand.

As Lusitania, once I HAD conquered the entire peninsula, around maybe turn 150?, I just stopped. I was at the top of both CDR and Legacy. Most cities were around 15 pop.

So take your time. Nab a couple regions (hopefully to form a province). Build up your cities, including some culture buildings.

[Bombax]

I'm playing Dacia - and have done a few times. The gameplay notes for Dacia suggest conquering the neighbouring regions, which are held by independent Celtic tribes. Which is fine, and not difficult to accomplish. At the same time, I'm trying to focus on the ones which are set as objectives. I'm constructing a range of different buildings, and transfering workers to culture production. But the need to carry out the conquests is (presumably) what's driving the fast ramping up of my decadence levels, and this means that I'm on a downward curve once I've carried out a few conquests. That curve doesn't seem to be one I can correct, especially once neighbouring countries start to attack.

TBH I fundamentally object to a game which is so complex that even on 'Easy' level you have to process all of the minutiae of the manual and constantly seek advice on a forum in order to even survive long enough to enjoy the game. I think it's absurd. For me - and I do recognise this is probably a minority view on the forum - it just turns it all into a chore.

[Bombax]

I agree with you Bombax.

I'm sick of losing the Epirus short scenario in four or five turns and that's on Easy.

Easy or very east if there were such a thing should give you a draw even if you do nothing.

But the "Hard men" like to show how brilliant their minds are......

Thanks my friend, it's good to know someone else out there shares my pain

As for 'Hard Men' - yeah, gaming always seems to attract a certain number of people who need to prove how much smarter they are than everyone else

[Ragu777]

I'm playing Dacia - and have done a few times. The gameplay notes for Dacia suggest conquering the neighbouring regions, which are held by independent Celtic tribes. Which is fine, and not difficult to accomplish. At the same time, I'm trying to focus on the ones which are set as objectives. I'm constructing a range of different buildings, and transfering workers to culture production. But the need to carry out the conquests is (presumably) what's driving the fast ramping up of my decadence levels, and this means that I'm on a downward curve once I've carried out a few conquests. That curve doesn't seem to be one I can correct, especially once neighbouring countries start to attack.

TBH I fundamentally object to a game which is so complex that even on 'Easy' level you have to process all of the minutiae of the manual and constantly seek advice on a forum in order to even survive long enough to enjoy the game. I think it's absurd. For me - and I do recognise this is probably a minority view on the forum - it just turns it all into a chore.

you need not just culture production - you also need high loyality in this regions (and you need to plan this ahead - because you don't get all culture into CDR immediatly like decadence). also don't conquest regions where already high decadence (from big AI like macedonia)
and if you go to glorios stage - you gain more decadence than before (much more)

about manual - it's problem that there is no ingame tutorial scenario, so you need read manual, especially because game have new mechanics (like decadence)
i think new player in TW also can easily lose even on easiest difficulty if he doesn't play tutorial

[Batman6794]

The culture decadence mechanic is why I bought the game. I don’t want it to go away, but I do think it could be toned down, or provide a few more paths to get out feom under it if you fall behind.

As it currently stands, you can get into a situation in which the only reason you’re interested in food, money, or infrastructure is to to convert them to something that’ll help you get more culture and loyalty.

Its awesome to add those factors as a concren, but its bot a balanced experience when it consumrs all other concerns to the point that the game becomes “Culture Tucoon.”

[loki100]

I'm playing Dacia - and have done a few times. The gameplay notes for Dacia suggest conquering the neighbouring regions, which are held by independent Celtic tribes. Which is fine, and not difficult to accomplish. At the same time, I'm trying to focus on the ones which are set as objectives. I'm constructing a range of different buildings, and transfering workers to culture production. But the need to carry out the conquests is (presumably) what's driving the fast ramping up of my decadence levels, and this means that I'm on a downward curve once I've carried out a few conquests. That curve doesn't seem to be one I can correct, especially once neighbouring countries start to attack.

TBH I fundamentally object to a game which is so complex that even on 'Easy' level you have to process all of the minutiae of the manual and constantly seek advice on a forum in order to even survive long enough to enjoy the game. I think it's absurd. For me - and I do recognise this is probably a minority view on the forum - it just turns it all into a chore.

overall this is a rare game where you can come back from a bad defeat, I have sometimes been wiped out (one Armenia test still gives me the shakes) but in general you can lose a lot and recover from it, in the same way that over-expansion is often a cause of major problems. So its worth hanging in - I say this having played a Belgae game that featured 80 years as old/decadent before I managed to stabiiise things.

as to the manual, its set up so you can read Ch3, 17 and maybe 18. That won't give you all the info you need but it will give you an idea what you should be looking out for. Ch 19 is also a good overview as to the major game mechanics.

[budd]

I'm playing Dacia - and have done a few times. The gameplay notes for Dacia suggest conquering the neighboring regions, which are held by independent Celtic tribes. Which is fine, and not difficult to accomplish. At the same time, I'm trying to focus on the ones which are set as objectives. I'm constructing a range of different buildings, and transferring workers to culture production. But the need to carry out the conquests is (presumably) what's driving the fast ramping up of my decadence levels, and this means that I'm on a downward curve once I've carried out a few conquests. That curve doesn't seem to be one I can correct, especially once neighboring countries start to attack.

TBH I fundamentally object to a game which is so complex that even on 'Easy' level you have to process all of the minutiae of the manual and constantly seek advice on a forum in order to even survive long enough to enjoy the game. I think it's absurd. For me - and I do recognise this is probably a minority view on the forum - it just turns it all into a chore.

I've played Dacia twice, currently still alive in my second play through but on the way out as Macedonia is on almost all my borders and is the leading dog in the game. It's turn 180 and has been quite a fun ride. I maxed out at two provinces once upon a time and was about to expand to the coast when the trouble started. I've risen and fallen, I've gained and lost aging tokens, earned progress tokens and sit at a glorious chiefdom, i think its called. On my first play through i just did too much to fast and my decadence got out of hand. i grabbed as many objectives as i could, quickly, and down i went. Long term planning and balance seem to be the order of the day. I currently sit at 15 on legacy and top tier in CDR, which i guess isn't to bad. More important is, it has been a fun ride. I look forward to the expansion of the diplomacy system and adding more uniqueness to the nations. The decadence and legacy system is a nice check/balance on the game.

[LDiCesare]

Dacia's difficulty rating is 3. The lower difficulty rating is, I think, 2, for instance for Ptolemaic Egypt.
The game tells a lot about decadence and how it's a new concept.
I think you just have to learn what it means. I played 2 games as Rome and got torn apart by civil wars due to low loyalty until I learnt that, ok, I needed to grow slowly and work on +loyalty buildings. Once you've learnt that, it's quite easy unless you pick a really hard nation like the Antigonids who start at war with everyone and at the bottom of the CDR ladder.

[Bombax]

also i don't understand how others can't win in easy... my first try was in experienced, but it was so easy and now i play only suicidal

Honey, I live my LIFE on suicidal level. OTOH, when I play games I like to RELAX...

[Ragu777]

also i don't understand how others can't win in easy... my first try was in experienced, but it was so easy and now i play only suicidal

Honey, I live my LIFE on suicidal level. OTOH, when I play games I like to RELAX...

but strategy games not for relax, you need actions/arcade games for it

also ageod is known as developers of hardcore games

[Bombax]

but strategy games not for relax, you need actions/arcade games for it

Oh right. Okay. Thanks for explaining...

[julianbarker]

I have found the game quite easy to get into once I realised the Epirus scenario isn't the introductory scenario it looks like it is meant to be.

My only real issues are around the diplomacy system where some sensible options are just not available.