The Tarraco mission in Caesar III recreates the beginnings of Roman colonisation of modern day Spain. This map is the first that is geographically challenging, with all of the farmland located across a river. There will be frequent requests from Caesar to dispatch food to the empire.

Once again, I want you to found a new city. But the criteria for success are a little different this time.

The Roman Empire is in crisis. Whether because of Ceres' anger, or due to human incompetence, famine stalks the Empire. You have governed long enough, now, to understand the dire results of a lack of food.

Thus, I am speeding up our colonisation of the new province of Hispania. Imperial surveyors report finding a valley with ample farmland and good river access for seaborne trade. Build a farming colony there, and be prepared to ship food back to Italia.

As always I will rate your performance, and this time I have modest expectations for you. Although your city need not house as many people as the last one you built, it should be more prosperous, and should achieve better culture. To reflect my increased reliance on you, I expect you to earn more favour with me as well. I will require frequent shipments of food, and will look favourably upon you if you fulfil these requests in a timely fashion.

Many lives depend on your success at opening this new food source for the empire. There is no military threat in Tarraco. You need only manage your city well to end the famine and restore people's confidence in their government.

Objectives:

Population: 2500
Prosperity: 25
Favor: 70
Culture: 45
Peace: 30

Trade:

Capua Sells - Timber Buys - Fruit, Wheat

Tarnetum Sells - Furniture Buys - Marble, Pottery

Farms:

Fruit
Pigs
Wheat

Raw Materials:

Clay
Marble

Caesar's Requests:

Apr 269BC - 10 Pottery
Sep 297BC - 10 Fruit
May 263BC - 15 Fruit
Sep 261BC - 15 Pottery

Map

The map to the Tarraco mission in Caesar III is split in to 4 main land masses by two rivers. The river to the North is not the trade river, and separates the central island from the farming areas on the two islands across the river. Much of the marble resource is on that central island. The river to the South of this island is the main trade river. There are further marble deposits on the islands and land to the West of this map - but you will not need them.

Walkthrough

In our playthrough of the Tarraco mission we started off by building a 7x7 residential block near a logical crossing point over to the farmland. Then we have constructed a bridge and a small farming cluster of farms over the river. We have also built our first marble quarry to the right of the residential zone, as well as a warehouse to hold marble and a dock to trade it from.

Before long the settlement is thriving, supported by the addition of health, education and entertainment facilities. A pottery industry has also been built adjacent to the dock, along with a dedicated warehouse to store it.

A few years into this map and earthquake begins - if you keep your farming settlement small in the early years, this will cause no damage.

The earthquake always takes the following path (so far as we have seen).

After the earthquake we begin to expand the farming settlement - though at this point it begins to outstrip its ability to source labor from the original settlement. By this point we have expanded the number of marble quarries to 4.

As we are also running out of labor, we have constructed a 5x 5 residential area to the East of the existing granary. This will allow for the expansion north of industry and food production.

We next added additional pottery and marble industries to the north - as we quickly ran out of labour we have placed a second 5 x 5 residential area immediately adjacent to the area we had just built.

We next build a bridge across the the existing farmland, and construct addition farms that can source labor from the new residential zones we have just added.

We next add additional pottery capacity to the South of these areas to utilise the extra labor capacity that emerged as these residential units upgraded, and to ensure that we can trade our available pottery quotient.

We next expand our fruit production using a second bridge over to an area of the farming zone compartmented by fault lines that opened up during the earthquake.

In an attempt to conclude the mission we build a residential area South of the original granary.

It is not successful though - our city is still a few hundred short of the 2500 population needed to conclude the mission, though all other deliverables are met. We construct a final 5x5 residential block to the north centre of the map.

This area fills up quickly as it is positioned both near to where immigrants arrive, and to existing services. Within a few moments, our mission is complete.