User Guide

Caesar
15
GAME mANUAL
14
Ambient Sounds
Now that a forum has been built, you may (if you own a soundcard) hear the
sounds of crowds gathered at the forum. Different buildings can be heard from
time to time, to give you a sense of the life flowing through your city. These are
different from certain warning sounds, like fires breaking out and buildings
falling down. If you hear these, look for a warning message to appear, telling you
whats gone wrong.
Building Roads
Next, you will want to prepare for the placement of housing in your city. Your
citizens demand, more than almost anything, that they have access to the forum
through the citys road system. So now well build those roads.
Youll notice that the infrastructure toolbar is still displayed. Two icons on the
left look like roads heading into the distance; left-click on the smaller one, the
Build Roads command. (Make sure you switched to command mode first.) Now,
prepare to build roads all around the forum; point to the space just to the left of
the top-left corner of the forum. Then, click and hold the left mouse button; a
small section of road should appear there. Slowly drag the mouse down the side
of the forum, then along the bottom, then up the other side, and finally along the
top of the forum to where you started. The road should bend around the
curves, and connect with itself at the top-left corner. If you did not make any
mistakes, release the button; the road will be built and the costs deducted.
Otherwise, press the right button while still holding down the left, then release
both  the road will disappear, and you can try again.
Having done this, you can connect other roads to this one, to provide space for
houses; remember that citizens like road access to the forum. However, dont
build too many roads, or you may find them starting to decay due to lack of
maintenance (avoiding road decay is explained later). People will eventually
appear, and begin to walk along your roads. These are a good sign of your citys
development. (The manual discusses other, more important people that will
appear later.) When youre done, return to command mode by right-clicking.
Correcting Mistakes
If you find, after youve confirmed the action, that youve built some roads in the
wrong place, you can use the Clear Area command to remove them. This com-
the Battle Panel. Instructions on operating it can be found in the manual, in the
chapter called Battle Panel. Finally, instructions for using the other Cohort
commands are also available in the manual, in the chapter titled Provincial
Level.
Surveying the City Level
Now, lets return to the city level. First, right-click the mouse to return to com-
mand mode; then, click on the arrow icon on the left end of the toolbar to return
to City level. Next, well take a look at the entire city level at once, to see whats
the best place to start your capital city. Click on the maps panel icon  its the
fourth icon on the left, with a drawing of a graph on it.
The screen will be replaced by a map display and several options; each option
shows a map available on the display. Currently, the map has no options selected,
but shows the land shape of the entire City Level. Look for a good location to
start your city; it should be a large open space, with access to water sources.
When you have chosen one, right-click the mouse to return to City level.
Building a Forum
Each city must have at least one forum; the forum will be the citys administrative
center, keeping the peace and collecting taxes over a large area. At the start of
the game, it should be at the physical center of the city as well. Click on the icon
with a hammer and a letter I in it; this is the infrastructure icon. A new tool-
bar should appear; the buildings and structures available from it will form the
foundation of your city. The last icon on the right, with a letter F and a ham-
mer in it, is the Build Forum command; click on it and a panel with eight names
will appear. These names represent eight grades of fora (the plural of forum); for
now, choose the smallest one, the Aventine.
The panel will disappear, and you will be in scroll mode again. The mouse point-
er has turned into the shape of the Forum you have chosen; its cost is displayed
in the corner of the pointer. Scroll your view to where you want the forum to be
built, and left-click the mouse to put it there. Note how the available funds display,
which starts at 10,000 Denarii, has been reduced by the cost of construction.
Finally, right-click the mouse to return to command mode; after building, right-
clicking always brings you back to command mode.