Welcome to Caesar IV Heaven shamba.

Fires are always a problem in desert scenarios. Type 'fire' in the search box at the bottom of the forum screen and you will see what I mean.

Too many prefects just make things worse. I finished with about 20 prefects in Tingis (pop 10,000). With too many the game AI gets confused.

Try turning down the visual effects, that might help. And another tip, try setting the game speed to slow during sandstorms. It seems to help the prefects get to the fires.

It depends on the number of buildings in an area, I think. I usually have one prefecture for every 20 buildings or so. This doesn't include the extra offices I keep to fight off invaders. I un-mothball these only during battles.

I used to think it would help to have a prefecture near filled warehouses, granaries and the like but learned that it doesn't work that way. The prefects are out patrolling and it seems to me to be just a matter of luck sometimes. Anyhow, I got through Tingis by saving my game every 3 months. Just loading a previous save seems to ward off fires, sometimes. Or is it just my imagination?

Whew! Quite long for my first post on this forum. But fires are my pet-peeve and Tingis is my favorite scenario.

Related question: Is the fire risk overlay effective? Fires in my cities never quite synch with these risks.

Many thanks to Kach and Gradstudent for their prompt responses.

I managed to solve my own problem in the end and discovered that I had accidentally left a vital fountain in the middle of dense housing outside the range of a reservoir. I assume that the prefects need a fountain for water to douse a fire and once I rectified the problem thay fought the flames and put them out before any major damage was done.

As a supplementary question - where can I find examples of ideal layouts for the various types of housing? I assume that there are tightly packed layouts for confined spaces and more luxurious layouts where fire is a major risk or where space is not a problem but desireability and culture are priorities.

Any guidance on this would be appreciated.

PS. This forum is most helpful and I appreciate the willingness of individuals from all over the world to help each other with this splendid game, all the versions of which I have enjoyed greatly despite now being pretty long in the tooth!

Regards,

Shamba

Kach is right.
If you have too many prefects and/or the game speed is high then the CPU doesn't control the prefects effectively. So don't have too many and run the game on slow if you get a lot of fires.
The overlay will help to show where fires are likely.

Prefects do not need a fountain for water.

(However in Glory of the Roman Empire and Civ City Rome they do require wells which is fun to watch ... unless your city burns
It's easy to get cross-game interference so perhaps that what you were thinking of)

Hi gradstudent! A belated welcome to Caesar IV Heaven. (I've been away for the past week.)

I expect there is some luck with fires. I have generally found that the fire overlay matches what is happening in the city, but it doesn't update dynamically. You have to toggle the space bar to get the overlay to refresh.

@ shamba:

That is interesting about the fountain. I hadn't realized that that might be an issue.

As for layouts, have a look at this thread. There are pictures and some discussion about building placement.

Also, download NorWiking's planner. This spreadsheet contains a lot of really useful stuff and also has quite a few variants of my favourite housing blocks.

If you want even more information, try using the search feature. Search for 'layout' or 'block' and you should find some more threads.

Edit: Thanks Herod0tus - you may be right about the fountains.

[This message has been edited by kach (edited 07-30-2011 @ 06:17 AM).]

I've just done some testing. I loaded my Tingis save (here) and mothballed 9 prefectures in the residential are. I placed a few more farms to soak up some of the unemployment.

The first building destroyed by fire was in September 170. This was the same whether on slow or fast speed. At this point I mothballed the extra farms and un-mothballed the prefects.

The prefects never caught up. On slow speed the city was still functioning in Mar 171 but the prefects were definitely losing the fight. On fast speed the prefects had already lost.

So it seems to me that by the time the first building burns to the ground, it is probably too late. Reload a saved game.