Conquest vs tribute

[gwalc]

Recently bought Rome Gold and I am discovering the game.
First game as Carthage, and with the help of barbarians who just shown up in our first war (over Massilia) and destroyed the colony in Bononia, mauled the roman army, and made their own country in Umbria (I made them tributary to me), I am in position of conquering Rome (their only province is Rome itself after three wars).
I think you can upgrade the civilization level in your capital by receiving tribute from a country whose capital city has a better civilization level, but you can do the same if you conquer this capital and trade with your own capital (and you can trade with other of your provinces too)

My question is: It's prefferable to make Rome (90 civ) a rump state who pay tribute to Carthage (even allying with them to protect them from other countries) and build up the civilization level in Carthague (70 civ) or it's better to conquer it and build up the civ level via trade?

I think, trading, you gain 0.01 (per month?) for every 10 points in civ of difference, but don't know how much you can gain with the tribute. Also Rome has 3 slots of trade, what I can use to spread civ to 3 provinces and help colonization.

What must I do?

Thanks and sorry for my english

 

[Cheexsta]

Vassalise them, then break the tribute and conquer them once you're happy with your civ level Might not be easy to do as a republic (it seems to be really hard to convince the senate to allow you to cancel tribute), but IMHO it has a better long-term benefits.

Advantages of conquest:
- More tax
- More trade
- Allows you to set up trade with multiple provinces to improve civ values

Advantages of tribute:
- Lower stability costs
- Lower tech costs (and you'll get almost no research points from the province since all of its citizens will be turned into slaves/freedmen)
- Fewer provinces to administer/suppress revolts
- Can greatly improve the civ value of your capital, which will "bleed" out to surrounding provinces

 

[gwalc]

Thanks Cheexsta, I will do your way.
Do you know how much civ can be spread from Rome (90 civ) to Carthage (70 civ)?
The values in the tooltip are monthly?

 

[gwalc]

Well... I've done as you said with the next results:
I conquered Rome, but not annexed, and I demanded tribute of 0.46 talents (I supose this is the currency of the game... the word Ducats not feeling proper in the timeframe)
This spread civ value to Carthage around 0.08 monthly (a bit less as Umbria was a tributary barbarian state with 73 civ, who spread 0.00 monthly)
After about 4 years Umbria declared war on Rome, I decided to save Rome and annexed Umbria, as Carthage was around 74 civ then
Around 8 years more and Rome can't pay the tribute, breaking the relationship and giving me a free Casus Belli.
Now Rome is annexed and the 11 inhabitants of Carthage (I colonised a bit much) are enjoying the roman wine to continue spreading civ level

 

[Cheexsta]

Hmm, unusual that Rome couldn't afford to pay the tribute (but then, Rome by itself has very few slaves and so has a very low income!). If it were possible, I'd have demanded the lowest amount of tribute possible and then guaranteed them. No matter, you can just vassalise a Greek minor with 85%+ civ instead