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Total War: Warhammer Game Guide by gamepressure.com

Total War: Warhammer Game Guide

Table of Contents

Developing settlements and provinces TW: Warhammer Guide

Last update: 15 June 2016

Each faction (aside from the Warriors of Chaos, although the Horde system works in a similar manner) start with only a single city, which becomes the capital of your entire kingdom. This city will most probably be the first one to be fully developed (and you should do that). More settlements and provinces will quickly be under your control, but limited amount of gold and population surplus points won't allow you to develop all of them at the same time. In this chapter you will learn how settlements and provinces work, and how you can develop them.

What is needed to develop a province

Population surplus can be checked by hovering your mouse over the marked on the province screen. - Developing settlements and provinces - Tips for a good start - Total War: Warhammer Game Guide
Population surplus can be checked by hovering your mouse over the marked on the province screen.

You need two things in order to develop a province - gold and population surplus. The first resource doesn't need an explanation - you will use it to recruit units, construct buildings, in diplomacy, or (in some cases) to research new technologies.

The second "resource", Population Surplus is used to upgrade main buildings of settlements and capitals (and to a number of other things when it comes to Warriors of Chaos, but you can read it in the chapter about that faction). Population Surplus is produced each turn for each province in which you have settlements - after a certain amount of turns have passed you will be given a Population Surplus point. Those points can accumulate up to 5 (more for Warriors of Chaos). You can check the amount of points available for a province, as well as the time needed for the next one to be ready on the province screen.

Every higher level of the main building will require more Population Surplus points - 3rd level requires 2, 4th requires 4 and the 5th requires 5 points.

The time needed for a Population Surplus point to be created can be influenced by a number of factors, such as:

  • Abilities of Lords and Heroes that are located in the province.
  • Research.
  • Commandment in a province - available only when you have the whole province under your control.
  • Buildings constructed in settlements of a province.
  • Random events - those can increase or decrease the time needed for a population surplus point to be complete.

As it was mentioned earlier, Population Surplus points are used to upgrade main buildings in settlements and in capital cities of provinces. Upgrading them will give you a number of benefits, such as:

  • Access to new and higher-level buildings.
  • Bonus to public order.
  • Increased income.
  • Increased income in the province and in the whole kingdom - available only to the main building of the first province you start with.
  • Bigger garrison - army protecting the settlement / capital city.
  • Unlocking additional buildings slots.

What is more, Population Surplus points are shared between all of the settlements in a province - aside from those that are controlled by the enemy. It means, that you won't be able to upgrade main buildings of all of the settlements in a province at the same time, as generating those points requires time. Fortunately, surplus points aren't shared between provinces - each province generates its own surplus points.

Differences between settlements and capitals

The main difference between a settlement and a capital city is the maximum level of the main building. - Developing settlements and provinces - Tips for a good start - Total War: Warhammer Game Guide
The main difference between a settlement and a capital city is the maximum level of the main building.

Each province consists of a varying number of settlements. The amount of settlements in a province ranges from 2 to 4. You can check it by clicking on any settlement in a given province - a window showing all of the settlements available in it will appear on the screen, together with the ones that are controlled by you, by enemy, or the ones that you haven't yet discovered.

Settlements are divided into two groups - capital city, the one located on the left side of the province screen and normal settlements. There is a number of differences between them:

  • The capital city can be upgraded up to the 5th level, allowing you to construct any building inside of it, and to upgrade it to the maximum level. Additionally, each capital city has up to 5 buildings slots (6 with the main building), allowing you to construct 5 different buildings. What is more, a capital city is surrounded by walls and defended by a large garrison - one will need siege equipment to conquer it.
  • Settlements can be upgraded up to the 3rd level, making some of the buildings unavailable, and some of them can't be upgraded to their maximum level. Additionally, "normal" settlements are defended by a small garrison and aren't surrounded by walls - you can change that by constructing walls there.

Because of the above and the fact that the amount of Population Surplus is quite limited in time, you should plan development of your provinces in advance. This will allow you to avoid a scenario in which you have a huge amount of gold in your treasury, but you won't be able to use it because none of your settlements have free construction slots available.

How to develop provinces

You can open the Building Browser to have a better view of the available buildings. - Developing settlements and provinces - Tips for a good start - Total War: Warhammer Game Guide
You can open the Building Browser to have a better view of the available buildings.

Aside from the Warriors of Chaos, developing provinces looks exactly the same for all of the factions - the only difference are the available buildings. The rule is the same - you must accumulate enough gold to construct a building, and have free construction slots to do so. You should aim to fully upgrade all of the settlements in provinces and fill them with buildings upgraded to the maximum, but you should follow a set of rules so that you won't be forced to demolish buildings later on and replace them with other ones.

We will start with the development of capital cities of provinces, settlements that can be upgraded up to the 5th level. You should make full use of that fact - there's no point in constructing buildings that can be built in "normal" settlements. In the capital city you should focus on constructing:

  • Buildings from the military recruitment tab. Some of them are available from the 3rd level, and some will require the 5th level of the main building to offer all of their services. If you want to have a military recruitment building, but it requires up to the 3rd level of the main building, construct it in a normal settlement so that you won't waste precious place in the capital.
  • Building from the military support tab. They won't give you access to new units on their own, but those are often required to recruit units that were unlocked by the military recruitment buildings. Additionally, those buildings often require 4th or even 5th level of the main building.
  • Buildings allowing you to increase / decrease the level of corruption in a province. Those buildings are also available in normal settlements, but their full potential is unlocked only after upgrading them to the 4th and especially to the 5th level.
  • Unique infrastructure buildings. Those can be ports, mines, or other buildings that offer huge increase to the income (often more than 1000 gold each turn). Those buildings are available to only a few capital cities, but you should always check for them and construct them wherever they are available.

Taking all the above points into consideration, remember to refrain from doubling those buildings (aside from unique buildings and those that reduce / increase corruption). If you have access to all of your cavalry units in a specific province, there's no point in constructing the same buildings in another province, as you won't benefit from that. You should adapt a province around certain type of units - you can later get back here and recruit troops, or use the global recruitment method to do so.

As far as the "normal" settlements go, you should focus on constructing:

  • Buildings from the infrastructure tab. Buildings from this group allow you to increase income, public order, growth (reducing the amount of time required to produce a Population Surplus point), as well as produce resources that can be used to trade with other factions. If you can't decide which buildings you want to construct (you can have multiple of the same type), stick to this rule: at least one buildings increasing public order, at least one increasing growth and at least one giving you a resource for trade. The rest of the slots can be used to increase income.
  • Buildings from the military support tab. You can construct buildings from this group in settlements, but it's worth only for those that doesn't require the main building to be above level 3.
  • Buildings allowing you to reduce / increase corruption in a province. Even though those buildings can be upgraded to offer the full extent of their services, the first level of them will still give you some corruption reduction / increase points.
  • Unique infrastructure buildings. Similarly to capital cities, settlements also offer various unique buildings that can be constructed there. It can be a Cattle Ranch that will be available instead of a Farm (giving a larger boost to growth and casualty replenishment rate), or, for instance, a gold mine, giving you a huge boost to income.
  • Unique buildings from the military support tab. Some settlements give you access to unique buildings from this group. It can be, for instance, Master Swordsmith's Forge available in the Wissenland province, giving you bonuses to certain units and reducing their recruitment costs.
  • Buildings from the Defense tab. There's only a single buildings available here, Wall, but it's extremely crucial for the settlement's defenses. Constructing it will increase the garrison located in the settlement, and advancing it to the second level will increase it even further and surround the settlement with walls. Enemies attacking such a settlement will need to use siege equipment -otherwise they won't be able to attack it.

Remember, that a building that was constructed can by demolished and replaced with another one. It won't give you all of the invested gold back, but it will allow you to construct a different buildings here. You can use it in a multitude of ways - if you don't need income, you can use construction slots for growth-increasing buildings. Thanks to that you will be able to accumulate population surplus points faster, allowing you to upgrade main buildings of settlements. After finishing upgrades you can simply demolish them and construct something else in their place.

The last thing you must remember about is the fact, that military recruitment buildings aren't connected between different provinces. It means, for instance, that constructing 3rd level of Barracks in one province and Armory in another one won't allow you to recruit Greatswords - both of those buildings must be constructed in the same province (but they don't have to be placed in the same settlement). You should develop provinces around recruiting certain types of units - you can then use global recruitment to recruit all of them from anywhere on the map.

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