News Archives – December 2006

Happy New Year

Happy New Year city builders!

If you were lucky enough to get Caesar IV for Christmas, these links can help you get started:

Ask your strategy questions in the game help forum.
Get help with technical issues in the technical forum.
Use the walkthroughs to avoid disasters while you are learning the ropes.
Meet other city builders in the Town Square.

Gladiators: Heroes of the Roman Amphitheatre

All you ever wanted to know about gladiator combat, and more. The BBC history website has an article, Gladiators: Heroes of the Roman Amphitheatre, by Professor Kathleen Coleman. Did you know that not all gladiators were slaves? Did you know that a murmillo wore a helmet with a fish crest on it? Read the article here. Then why not spend a few minutes trying this, Gladiator: Dressed to Kill.

Another Poll about Gifts

We have another poll about gifts this week. Do you ever donate personal savings to the city? From the results of last week’s poll, it seems likely that most players spend their personal savings on gifts to Caesar instead! The results of last week’s poll:

Do you use gifts to raise your favour rating?

Yes, quite often (32)
Sometimes, if I can’t meet the demands (31)
Yes, if I’m bored with the scenario and don’t want to wait for further requests (26)
Never (except for Carthago) (6)
Total: 95


The results of all previous polls can be found here.

Custom Scenario – Betriacum

Anaxamenes has submitted a new scenario to the downloads section. It looks like Narona, but it certainly doesn’t play like Narona. You can find it here.

Try it over the holidays, but make sure you watch out for the ‘PPFB’!

Poll Update Again

We’ve gone festive and decided to ask about gifts this week. Do you use gifts to raise your favour rating?

The results of last weeks poll show that not many are playing on the hard level (only 13%). The majority of us (54%) seem to be playing on the normal level, which probably means the game difficulty is about right for most of us.

Empire Update

There is news from Caesar IV Online:

Another batch of scenarios have been unlocked for The Empire! These include Carthago, Londinium, Viminacium and Argos.


The current leader in the Empire is BRE III with a popultion of over 200,000 in 11 cities.

Colonia Agrippina

Forumer irvdon (aka Grumpus) has submitted Colonia Agrippina to the completed cities section of the downloads. This is the final military scenario of the Empire campaign, completed before the first invasion.

If you’d like to do battle, this might be for you. You have 4 Cavalry and 5 Heavy Infantry Cohorts to deal with 2 impending invasions and more to come.


You can find it here.

Roman Glassware

Have you ever placed a sand collecting camp and wondered what sort of glassware the Romans produced? The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a wealth of information here. It’s easy to see why the patricians wanted glassware; just look at this gold-banded glassware or this mold-blown glass.

Results of Caesar’s Challenge VI

So, it has been two weeks, and Season VI of Caesar’s Challenge has ended. BRE III and Razonasez both claimed first place for two events each, while Alea and Mitret were winners for the other two sections respectively. Notably, there is actually a tie for first position between three players in Londinium (Time Trial).

Congrats to everyone and have fun in Season VII!

Three New Walkthroughs

We now have three more walkthroughs on our site, thanks to Kach and mouse for their work on Carthago, Alexandria and Lugdunum. They include specific dates for events such as requests and invasions, as well as their approach towards these assignments. If you are unsure of how to play these missions or simply want to take a look at how others have done it, check them out!

Poll Updated

In this week’s poll, tell us which difficulty level you are playing at. While the default is Normal, there may be some of you who aren’t coping well with it and are thus playing on Easy, while others would like a challenge and therefore try the game on Hard. Head over to the polling booth and make your vote.

In our previous poll, we asked if you have used the editor:

Yes, I’ve created and edited maps with it (3)
Meddled around with it before (2)
Nope, it’s too difficult to use (20)
Not yet, but I will give it a try soon (16)

Wow, very few people seem to have succeeded in working with the editor alright! Looks like it might take some time for fan-created scenarios to become more popular…

Previous poll results can be viewed here, by the way. Have an enjoyable weekend, and we hope that Christmas preparations are going well so far!

Military Scenarios

For anyone wondering how to plan a city in the military scenarios, have a look in the Completed Cities section of the Downloads. Forumer bathing1 has uploaded several completed cities. The latest is Moguntiacum, an attractive city with a very efficient looking defence.

Two More Reviews

7.7 from WorthPlaying.

If you’re looking for a city-building simulation with a Roman pretense, which are in surprisingly high supply at the moment, then Caesar IV is a good choice. The overall design presents a good economic-based, city-building simulation with pleasing accompanying visuals. It will most likely prove more entertaining than CivCity: Rome or Glory of the Roman Empire, and as long as you don’t expect epic Roman warfare, Caesar IV will bring you numerous hours of rewarding and enjoyable gameplay.


4 out of 5 from GotNext.

It gets a tad annoying and the economy system isn’t really perfect, but for a sim game that series fans have been waiting eight years for, it’s worth a try. Gaius Julius Caesar may have never played a video game, but faced with a choice between this game and being murdered by your own political peers, this is might be the more attractive way to given ancient Rome.


Plaza Tiles for Everyone

Are you are bored with those Caesar IV plaza tiles? Forumer dustrocks has uploaded four files, each containing three or four different plaza tile designs. You can find them here in the mods section of the downloads. There is something for everyone here – there are sixteen different tile designs to pick from.

Review from Ace Gamez

Ace Gamez have rated Caesar IV as 8 out of 10. The review has a detailed description of the problems faced by up-and-coming governors, which does make the game sound a little too complicated for beginning city builders.

Beyond the flaws, once you’ve grappled with the basics there’s a lot to enjoy in Caesar IV. It lacks the scope and scale of most city builder games and despite the delicate balancing act if forces upon you it’s not that difficult once you’ve figured out how things work. Nevertheless, it’s a pleasing new addition to one of the best city builder franchises around and while it doesn’t quite surpass its predecessors, it’s still an enjoyable and accessible management game with enough challenges to keep fans of the series and the genre building away for weeks to come.


Friday Poll

We have updated the Polling Booth again. This week, we ask you about your experience with the Caesar IV Editor. A show of hands on who has tried it and who hasn’t, please! Also, dustrocks has just submitted a map of Roma in the downloads section here. Do give it a try, and don’t forget to post your comments too.

As for last week’s poll, we asked you about your favourite animation for the entertainment venues in the game. Most people prefer the traditional coliseum fights and chariot races, as well as the occasional treat of watching sea battles at the coliseum. Some are simply undecided!

Fine poetry at the odeum (2)
Epic stories at the theatre (2)
Gladiator bouts at the arena (5)
Boat fights at the coliseum (12)
The gladiator and the lion at the coliseum (8)
Fast horses and deadly chariots at the circus (8)
None of those – my favourite isn’t in the list (1)
I can’t decide – I haven’t been able to build all the entertainment venues yet (9)

You can view our past polls here.

Update to Downloads

There will soon be a change to the downloads section.

You’ll have the choice of opting in or out of receiving email notifications about comments and reviews on your uploaded files. The default is to opt out. If you want to receive these emails you’ll need to go to the “my account” link on the forums, login, then check the “Yes, I wish to receive notifications from the downloads system” option underneath your email address, then save the changes.

If you don’t want to receive any notifications, do nothing.

Season VI Has Started

If you haven’t tried Caesar IV Online yet, now might be the time to get your feet wet. There have only been four entries in each of the time trial contests for the last two seasons, so you could score a medal here.

Season V ended with Alea and Razonasez both gaining two gold medals. Yandain came away with two silver this time, and now has a total of 20 medals.

In the Empire, theking121 is still leading with 12 cities and over 200,000 in population.

Good Work, Governors

FAQ Updated

Our FAQ has just been updated! There are now many more answers to the questions commonly asked by new players – anything from how the ratings work to the fix for the trade route crash problem.

We’re constantly trying to improve on our FAQ, so if you have anything to add, feel free to suggest it on the forums.

City Planning by the Experts

Are you interested in learning how the veteran city builders start their cities?

Do you spend time with pencil and graph paper to design your blocks?
How much of your city do you lay out before unpausing?
How do you decide where you are going to place your city and how you will lay it out?


These questions were put to the experts in this thread, Grumpus Advise Please, on the Tilted Mill forums. Check it out, and the chances are you’ll learn a few things about how to start a scenario with an eye to winning.

More Walkthroughs

Two of our forum old-timers have submitted a couple of new walkthroughs! Mouse has done one on the first economic mission of the Empire campaign, Viminacium; goonsquad did one on Burdigala, and involves a different approach from that used in Pecunia’s walkthrough.

We sure hope that these comprehensive walkthroughs are helpful to you. Stay tuned for more!

Poll Update

Last week we asked about your online experience. We were surprised to find that less that 10% have actually submitted a city. For the 60% who haven’t actually checked it out yet, you don’t need to sign up, you can check it out here.

I haven’t checked it out yet (54)
Technical issues keep me from playing (17)
I just look at the results (1)
I’ve created an account (8)
I’ve uploaded a city (0)
I’ve uploaded several cities (3)
I’ve won a medal in the Challenge (5)

Congratulations to the medal winners!

This week we want to know about your favourite entertainment. If we haven’t listed your favourite, please let us know by posting in the C4 forum.