Slitherine

What does increasing commerce do? There are several buildings that do this, but the manual doesn't say what increasing commerce affects.

Just finished my first Thracian campaign (Wot no rhomphaia men?), finally the Thracians are free to fight amongst themselves again without Greek or Persian interference! Wish I could have a DBX Thracian army like that. I had a real cliff-hanger battle against the Persians, if there was an ability to save the video this would have been it, neither side gave up until both were almost anihilated.

It increases the number of resources you can buy/sell per turn.

Now just wait for me to get corrected by Possum

Is that all? Is there no "feel good" factor to commerce like there is in Medieval Total War? Incidentally, I prefer individual battles in Medieval Total War but as a campaign Spartan is better, since a Total War battle might take an hour to complete and there might be five of them in one turn- it doesn't take six months (almost full time) to finish a Spartan campaign!

iainmcneil wrote:It increases the number of resources you can buy/sell per turn.

Now just wait for me to get corrected by Possum

Eeep, sorry, didn't mean to be a smartass about it!

Iain is absolutely correct, it increases the number of units of merchandise you can buy/sell per turn. You know, on that F1 screen?

But it's the implications of this that bear pondering.

It means you can sell surplus production for cash (silver).

As your empire grows, you will begin to have severe food production problems. This is because so many of the cities on the map cannot produce any food, yet are in a position such that you must occupy them.

Commerce lets you sell excess production and buy food. It also allows you to buy what you can't produce; Markets only help so much.

I usually wind up making my capital city my main city for training troops, because the capital building adds that sweet bonus one cannot obtain anywhere else. This then usually leads me to filling the city with buildings that pertain to building troops, and a Foreign Ministry. The Foreign Ministry (and its upgrades) then give me a place to put the population when I'm not using them to train troops.

No problem - nice to know I got one right

vakarr wrote:Is that all? Is there no "feel good" factor to commerce like there is in Medieval Total War? Incidentally, I prefer individual battles in Medieval Total War but as a campaign Spartan is better, since a Total War battle might take an hour to complete and there might be five of them in one turn- it doesn't take six months (almost full time) to finish a Spartan campaign!

Run your mouse over the building and you'll see all kinds of numbers since the markets do all kinds of things, great buildings. They give you a bonus on whatever you are producing in the city. A small increase in a few of the more basic items(may not seem like much from any one market but when you have a market in almost every city you own it can really add up). It also gives you a bit of research as well as an increase in happiness for that population.

Something you might want to try when you have cities where you really want to get every last possible resource from it is build a marketplace and a school. the bonuses you get from those two buildings give you more resources overall than from say the gold or silver mine you would use in one of those slots, and you don't have to waste a slot on a temple since the two of those buildings will keep your population happy for a very long time.

Yes there is a feel good factor

street traders, bazaars and marketplaces increase happiness of the settlement

Unfortunately Thracians conquer the world by getting drunk, singing, and fighting, not by building schools!! (being tribal people they are not allowed any upgrades on universities)

Ancient Greeks are possibly descendants of Thracians or related with them this I've red on 'wiki' 'Paleo-Balkan languages'

vasikr wrote:Ancient Greeks are possibly descendants of Thracians or related with them this I've red on 'wiki' 'Paleo-Balkan languages'

That's correct, there does seem to be a series of migrations from the north into Greece before the Classical era, which would mean that some of those people would have come from through or from Thrace. There's even a book "We, the Thracians" that says that all Europeans are in some way descended from them, including the Romans - this is an extreme view, though, and there is little, if any, support for it - the book is good for a laugh, to see what used to come out of Rumania during the communist era.

Hi I'm new to this forum, but would like to ask if the rhomphia men asked for in the Thracians campaign were not DACIAN and thus would not exist for a Thracian army?

Welcome! The Thracians did have some guys with huge swords so I'm not sure exactly what was being requested

Actually the Dacians used the falx, which had a wooden handle. The Bessi and other mountain/southern Thracians used the rhomphaia, which was an all metal weapon that was longer and straighter than the falx (though still curved). See the Osprey book "The Thracians 700 BC- 46AD" for archaeological evidence and reconstructions.

Something I've always wondered about the game is why all the greeks' "1st-improvement" infantry units are called Thracians.

Probably because many of the peltasts that came from Thrace were not Thracians, but Greeks from the coastal cities of Thrace eg Iphicrates' men who beat up the Spartans are thought to have been Greeks from Thrace.

Dacians are later Thracians who in their turn are later Getae . You can check the wiki for quick reference.I was going through this in 'Are Dacians descendants of Skythians?'thread on TWC history sub-forum . And @possum you didn't answer 'bout Gaul invasion mod ?

The Getae were the most northerly Thracian tribe, inhabiting the area that is now north-east Bulgaria and parts of Rumania - their most eastern extent is subject to argument. Anyway, the Dacians did speak a Thracian language that showed their Getic roots. It is possible that the Dacians moved into the area and took up the Getic culture - I tend to think of the Dacians as a mountain people who moved into the plains areas occupied by the Getae and melded with them, though this may not be correct. You have to be careful what you read about this subject as it is coloured very much by Balkan nationalism and the history written during the communist era in Rumania and Bulgaria was changed to suit the government of the day.