At first, let me assure you that I have browsed through the entire forum here, but could not find anyone having the same problem, so that is why I just feel the need to start a new thread. Let me also tell you how much I love Caesar III, as it contains my most beloved time and civilization of human history and although it is simple enough and quite easy to learn, it still has plenty of complexity to keep you busy all the time. I was happy when I have completed the third mission (Capua) with not too many problems so far. All the things that happened, like problems with food supply in the beginning, as well as burning or collapsing buildings, were only my mistakes, so I have learned from these mistakes, while going on with the game. This is how, in my opinion, a good strategy game should truly be, although I still am unable to figure out how I was able to trade with Capua in the second mission, while my third assignment was to build Capua up and all I have found in the beginning were woods, rivers and grassland. How I was able to trade with an empty countryside, just a mission ago?

Yet, now great Caesar himself (who else?) has given me a fourth assignment, after he promoted me to the rank of architect: Go to Tarraco (Hispania) and build up a nice farming city, as famine stalks through the Roman Empire. As you can see, I am playing the peaceful campaign, as this is my first playthrough, and I do not feel competent yet, to command Rome’s mighty legions to glory, although I know that all you can do with them is defending your own city, but that would be enough for me. Yet, yesterday night, when I was starting the fourth mission and have built up my city, suddenly, maybe 45-60 minutes after starting the game, an earthquake came to visit me! I better tell you that the vast crop field, where you can build your farms, is on the other side of the river, so you connect this field with a bridge and construct your town on the other side with the grassland, at least that was my strategy, being the first time ever on mission four. Although I have had plenty of farms and even some unemployment about 4-7%, some farms did not receive any workers at all, probably because it is indeed true that living quarters must be nearby, so I have decided to place a few houses on the crop field. I did not even care if these people will forever live in tents, as long as they work on the farms, although I miss the ability in the game to buy and sell slaves, as this was something for which the original Roman Empire always stood for and helped it to grow so big, like it or not.

Unfortunately, that earthquake went right through my huge crop field, destroying around 70-80% of my farms, plus the prefects and engineers, as if the farms would not already had been enough. It was a burning Hell and to make it worse, after the earthquake was over I was not allowed to construct anything on the huge rift that this catastrophe has left right on the crop field for me. As I already had trouble to keep my people well fed, I just gave up right after that, totally frustrated, and went to bed. I still got the save file though, so I could still start over from the very beginning of the mission, yet I am kind of afraid that the same thing happens to me again. I guess that I also should tell you that I did NOT anger any of the gods and there was no message that this earthquake was the wrath of Mars, Ceres or whoever of the big five. I was convinced from the very first second when it all started, that this was a random event and not the wrath of any god.

So, my question is if any Caesar III veteran can help me out how to prevent an earthquake or how to cope with the gigantic rift that it leaves to you and on which you cannot construct anything, as I guess, for the rest of the mission? Being a fan of ancient Greece, old Egypt and old China as well and having played through the Zeus tutorial, where I also have been introduced to earthquakes one time, it gave me the feeling that the entire series that I have once bought (Caesar III, Pharaoh, Zeus and Emperor) will plague me with this disaster forever.

By the way (I just have to write this down here too), as Simon Bradbury was the guy who did all the programming on Caesar III, according to the manual and the in-game credits, I, being a Stronghold veteran (Stronghold 1 up to Crusader Extreme), was not surprised about this horrible decision of hitting me with something unpreventable like that. Have you ever played the short economic campaign of Stronghold 1? If yes, then you may remember how in one month thieves stole almost all of the food you have stocked in your granary, continued by a plague just the month after, followed by a BSE cow disease in the third month, then went on with your crop just dying off in the fourth month and of course gave you a thug invasion in the fifth month, killing any kind of fairness and fun to actually play the game. I do not consider myself of being a hateful person, but I start to hate Simon Bradbury for all of this, as he now seems to kill Caesar III for me too, which came out about three years before the first Stronghold. What is just wrong with this guy?

Simon, Simon, give me back my crop field!!!

I just played this map -- third mission, the "peaceful" option. The first time I did so, the earthquake caught me completely off guard and basically destroyed my city. I got in debt, and my favour fell to ~1 before Caesar sent a nice blue pair of legions to come, destroy everything, and take my head. Not good!

The second time around, the earthquake started in the sameish place, but propagated slightly differently. I was prepared for it, and built "enough" farmland there to keep things going but only expanded really once it had come to pass. Caesar really hates debt. I don't think the Gods will let you get out earthquake free, but it's possible to still colonise all that farm land, just with three bridges.

Grow slowly, start small, trade a *ton* of marble, and always have an excess of both food and cash. I found it very helpful to put some "slums" near the farms on that island -- even just four houses with a well suddenly makes lots of workers able to go to and populate it. The second time around I won the mission with excellent "marks" and life was good. I definitely think a smaller population, limited by available housing, with maximum happiness is the way forward.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for your answer! As you might have seen, I am still new to this game and unfortunately have found out in the internet that the earthquake is set in stone, which means it will ALWAYS occur at a certain time being in the game and there is no way to shut it down. I also had to learn that the roads are really important and not having too many intersections, something that they tell you right in the briefing before your first assignment, which I have ignored, is indeed very important, because these citizens in brown shirts, that appear from the buildings, have to walk alongside houses to get new workers from the farms and industry buildings they came from and if there are too many intersections they maybe never get to the housing, but walk up and down in your industrial/farm area. Getting in debt with Caesar happened to me too as well, but setting the difficulty on very easy gives you more cash on the beginning of an assignment and I believe that this really helps for new players like myself. Since that, I never had troubles with cash, as long as trade was fluent and the houses evolved, so that they pay more taxes.

I plan for my next try of the fourth assignment to build a few farms on the eastern crop field at first and connect them with just one simple road, so that the citizens will be able to approach my housing on the mainland. Then I will wait for the earthquake on the big crop field in the north, before I construct farms on it. I have also seen in the internet that you can still construct bridges across the gaps created by the earthquake, so I guess that may help out as well. Yet, as you have just mentioned, on the first playthrough they just get you fully by surprise, especially because the first few assignments were so much fun and quite easy and then suddenly in the fourth assignment *boom* and you are back to the reality that the game looks easy and simple enough, yet on a deeper look it is very complicated and not easy at all, yet still fun. I have tried a few things on some of the city construction kit maps and this sandbox kind of play seems to have helped me to learn a few more tricks. Now I just have to make it through the fourth assignment next time.

May mother Vesta be with both of us!