Start to finish: 'It has to come down to the last reserve' (9) in Citadelum

In this mission of Citadelum, the focus will be on your city building skills. You will need to discover at least 1 city on the region map which is buying swords. 

Story

Aracillum, 25 BC. The Cantabrian tribes have retreated before the passage of the Roman legions and have prepared to resist in a fortified camp at the top of a mountain range. Emperor Caesar Augustus knows that victory is within his reach, and orders you to build a settlement nearby, at the foot of the mountains, from which to contain the enemies until reinforcements arrive by sea from Aquitaine. 

Objectives

• Upgrade 10 plebeians' houses to level 6
• Send 25.000 Denarii to Rome
• Build 1 Circus Maximum
• Sell 400 Gladius through trade route

In short

• Difficulty: Hard
• Region map: Big
• Trading routes: 13
• Initial resources
  • 15.000 Denarii
  • 1400 wood
  • 1100 stone
  • 200 wooden planks
  • 200 stone bricks
• Enemy presence: 13 armies
• Battles required: No (even though the description says yes)

Walkthrough

You will need to develop your city to reach both the 10 plebeians' houses at level 6 and the Circus Maximus. That means you will need to develop your city to at least Prestige Level 7, at which the Circus Maximus unlocks. 

From the start, you will have access to Victoriacum as a trading partner. They only buy wood, but with 250 wood at 3 Denarii it's still a 750 Denarii daily income you can give yourself. Not bad, considering the starting capital is only 15.000 Denarii. 

One of your objectives is to produce and sell 400 gladii (plural of gladius is gladii, just as the plural of Denarius is Denarii). That will cost a pretty substantial amount of iron ore. It will require a production of 64 iron ore per day. Assign 4 workers to the iron mines: 2 for the swords, 2 for decorations to be able to reach higher level housing.

Prestige level 4, 5 & 6

Once you have attracted enough patricians to get a positive economic balance, build 2 swordsmiths. Assign the maximum amount of workers to start producing 64 swords per day.

Don't forget to build an armoury close by your 2 swordsmiths, as a gladius isn't stored in a warehouse but in the armoury.

While you're there, you can also build a bow workshop, a guard training building and a recruits' barracks. You might want some protection against enemy invaders. Even though you don't need to explore the region map and encounter enemy armies, your city's increasing Prestige Level could still attract raids.

That being said: you can always chance it. Even if you do suffer a raid at the hands of some barbarians, they will set fire to some buildings and run off again. Nothing you can't rebuild.

Of course, if you are the adventurous kind, you can add exploring and raising a legion to the game. But for this level, you really don't need to. Even the chance of a raid due to Prestige Level remains at a mere 20%, so you might not even want to train guards. The choice is yours!

Prestige Level 7 (and 8 and 9 if you want)

Build entertainment and enough temples. Remember, Gods demand 1 temple up to Prestige Level 6. From Prestige Level 7 through to level 9, Gods demand 2 temples.

For entertainment, keep an eye on your actors. Having 2 actors is technically enough, but training them after each play takes a lot of time. Maybe invest in 2 extra actors to be able to host multiple plays back to back.

The Circus Maximus unlocks at Prestige Level 7. Build both the Arena and the Circus Maximum ✅, train Gladiators and Chariots and keep organising events to keep your patricians happy. 

Keep up with the demands of your citizens. Especially when plebeians start to consume melons/cabbages at level 3 and milk/eggs at level 4, you might be surprised by the sudden increase of consumption. Build an extra field or up the amount of workers.

The same is true for grapes and pork chops when patricians reach level 4 and wine at level 5. Allow for extra production of both, so that you can continue training guards and provide wine in the tavern.

To sustain your growing population, you will need at least:

• 3 wineries, fully staffed
• 3 bakeries, fully staffed
• 3 butcheries, at least 2 fully staffed

You could technically break even with 2 butcheries. But then you won't have enough production to train extra guards, should you need them. 

At the final stretch, if you've got 16 plebeians' and 16 patricians' houses, your citizens will need 240 clothing per day. To achieve this, you will need to build at least 4 weavers and set them to 4 workers each. To supply them with enough flax, you need at least 3 flax fields with 9 workers on them.

You don't need to set up a furniture production chain. You only need to get the Plebeians to level 6 ✅, not keep them there. Of course, if you want to be the nice leader, provide them with furniture.

Finding a trading city to sell swords

Once your swordsmiths have produced the 400 gladii required to sell by the objective, it is time to visit the region map. You will need a trading partner for the swords, which there are multiple of:

• Berreaga, buying 200 swords at 9 Denarii
• Forua, buying 210 swords at 9 Denarii
• Arrastaria, buying 180 swords 11 Denarii
• Vicus Aunigainum, buying 220 swords at 8 Denarii

Financially, Arrastaria is the better option. And as Arrastaria happens to be the closest trading partner for swords, why not pick this city!

To discover Arrestaria, move your explorer south > west > west > south from your city. Set up the trade route to sell 180 swords per day. It will take 3 days to ship 400 swords. ✅

With the extra financial impuls of selling swords and the taxes you're collecting from your Patricians, getting to a positive balance of 25.000 Denarii shouldn't be really hard. Once you have a bit of a buffer, send the money to Rome to finish the last objective. ✅

There you go! That should do the trick. One more to go!

Continue after finishing the objectives

This choice is yours. If you want to expand your empire, here are some pointers:

• There are 13 enemy legions on this map. You don't need to fight them all, but you will run into some while discovering cities.
• The cities of Portus Veseiasueca (north) and Flaviobriga (north-east) are guarded by an army. That leaves Victoriacum andArrastaria your only trading partners without having to defeat a legion.
• Further afield are some more cities, armies and relics to discover.

Region map

This is the full region map of mission 9, It has come down to the last reserve, in Citadelum.

Full region map for Citadelum mission 9, It has come down to the last reserve.