Building a new Rome means keeping the gods happy
Nova Roma, Lion Shield's Early Access city-builder on the Epic Games Store, starts you with a brutal premise: Rome is gone, and you're leading survivors to build a new civilization from scratch. Two mechanics will decide whether your colony survives — the religion system, where five Olympian gods directly influence your settlement's fate, and the Technology Tree, which locks every major building upgrade behind a resource called Favor. Master both and your city flourishes. Neglect either and you'll face divine punishment ranging from lightning strikes to floods that erase entire districts.
How does religion work in Nova Roma?
Religion activates the moment you construct a Small Temple, which requires 10x Wood and 20x Stone. After building, you dedicate it to one of five Olympian gods and immediately receive +2 Favor. That Favor is your currency for unlocking technologies, so your first temple is as much an economic choice as a religious one.
Each temple also unlocks Favor of the Gods, a permanent area buff that costs 1x Favor to activate. The buff only affects buildings within the temple's radius, making placement critical. Here's what each god provides:
Most players misplace their first temple. A Ceres temple in the middle of housing does nothing. You need it next to your farm clusters. Neptune temples belong on the waterfront near Fishing Huts. Vulcan temples work best beside Charcoal Makers and Weaponsmiths. Mars temples need Guard Towers in range, and Jupiter temples deliver the most value when surrounded by Hovels and Insulae where happiness actually impacts productivity.
What are Divine Tasks and what happens if you ignore them?
Each god regularly assigns Divine Tasks — specific objectives that reward additional Favor when completed. Jupiter demands population growth and happiness structures. Mars requests Guard Towers and Weaponsmiths. These tasks typically align with what you'd build anyway, but they add pressure to prioritize certain developments.
The complication comes from resource offerings. Gods request specific goods — Ceres asks for Bread, Vulcan wants Stone — and almost every deity eventually demands Gold donations. You need a Tax Office generating income early, or higher-tier Insulae producing tax revenue, before the gods start asking for tribute you can't deliver.
Ignore Divine Tasks too long and the gods punish you. Jupiter strikes your city with lightning, Ceres causes crop failures, and Neptune can flood entire districts. These aren't cosmetic events — a flood hitting your fishing quarter during a growth phase can cripple your economy for multiple seasons.
As you advance, gods will demand Large Temples and Grand Temples dedicated to them. These aren't optional. Large Temples unlock Festivals, which cost Gold, Wine, and Grapes but provide substantial happiness boosts across your population. Grand Temples are the endgame goal, letting you spend Favor to trigger divine interventions:
- Jupiter: Cancels rain, droughts, and floods
- Ceres: Instantly satisfies all citizen hunger and diet needs
- Neptune: Sinks every enemy ship carrying invaders
- Vulcan: Extinguishes all active fires in your city
- Mars: Buffs friendly troops with increased damage and movement speed
How does the technology tree work?
The Favor you earn from temples, dedications, and completed Divine Tasks is what you spend to unlock new buildings and improvements. The Technology Tree is organized into categories arranged clockwise from the upper-left, covering everything from basic housing to advanced trade and military structures.
The tree is wide enough that you can't unlock everything quickly, so choosing the right nodes early determines how smoothly your settlement scales. Here's how to approach each category:
The full tech tree layout
What are the best early tech unlocks in Nova Roma?
After testing multiple build orders, the categories below deliver the most value in the first stretch of a sandbox run.
Agriculture and food
Place Fishing Huts near shoaling fish as early as possible. Pair them with Grape Vines near Farms. Drop Neptune and Ceres temples close to these clusters to activate their bonuses and start earning Favor from Divine Tasks simultaneously.
Housing
Small Insula is the first housing tech worth spending Favor on. It allows more citizens to share a single building, and a Food Counter built into the ground floor adds a happiness bonus on top of the density increase.
Finance
The Tax Office needs to be operational early. Gold is the universal resource gods demand for offerings, and without consistent tax income you'll fall behind on Divine Tasks before your settlement is large enough to handle divine punishment.
Utilities and industry
A Fire Brigade near a well handles most early fire incidents. For industry, Foresters eliminate the need to manually clear trees for Wood, and Stone Quarries do the same for Stone if your territory has multiple deposits. The Claypit and Charcoal Maker combo feeds the Pottery Workshop, which produces goods that keep Insulae residents happy. Charcoal Maker plus Wheat also produces Bread, which satisfies Ceres's offering demands.
Entertainment and religion
Unlock Small Theater first, then Statues. These happiness buildings matter more as your population grows and Jupiter's tasks start scaling up. Push toward Large Temples and Grand Temples as soon as your Favor income allows.
Water and bathhouses
Aqueducts pull water from mountain elevation down to Water Towers in your city. Once that pipeline is established, the Bath Reservoir opens up a full bathing complex that contributes significantly to citizen happiness and health.
Logistics and trade
Start with Small Stockpiles and Small Warehouses. You'll need Transport Carts eventually to move goods between storage buildings — don't skip this or your supply chains stall. For trade, the Dock combined with the Trading Agreements tech automates buying and selling. The Trading Post increases how often Merchant Ships visit. The Shrewd Dealmaking tech applies discounts to bulk resource purchases, which matters once you're importing materials for Grand Temple construction.
Defense
A few Guard Towers handle early raider waves. Unlock the Infantry Barracks when you can so you're not manually recruiting militia every time an attack comes in.
Putting it all together: a practical opening sequence
Here's a reliable opening that keeps Favor flowing without letting the gods get ahead of you:
- Clear land and gather 10x Wood and 20x Stone for your first Small Temple
- Dedicate to Jupiter if you're building dense housing, or Ceres if food is your immediate bottleneck
- Activate Favor of the Gods immediately after dedication
- Build a Tax Office before your first Gold offering demand arrives
- Unlock Small Insula from the Housing branch as your first tech spend
- Place Fishing Huts and Farms, then drop a Neptune or Ceres temple nearby
- Keep completing Divine Tasks to maintain Favor income for the mid-game tree
For more details on religion bonuses and research techs, the Epic Games Store has additional breakdowns of specific building costs and tech prerequisites. For more city-builder strategy content, browse the latest guides on GAMES.GG to find tips across the genre.