Cheating in Caesar II

So you’re gonna cheat, eh?

This page deals with the topic of how to cheat in the game. It includes information on how to cheat, when it’s a good time to cheat and the problems that cheating can bring.

Note: The cheating methods described edit the quantity of money that you have. If you find a way to edit other things (Number of trained soldiers and their morale could be a good one), then let me know about it please.

A word about cheat codes: Everything I’ve heard and read seems to indicate that there are no cheat codes in the game. (I’ve seen some information out there about cheat codes. But the results seem to be a mixed-bag at best.)

How To Cheat

There are essentially two ways to cheat:

By using a money editor such as Csrbucks for Windows 3.1 or the Caesar II Denarii Editor for Windows 95 by Robert Pippen.
By directly editing the Save Game files using a Hex Edit Utility.

Both methods have different problems & advantages, but both will basically give the same thing: More money.

Money Hack Utilities Versus Hex Editing

Money Hack Utilities can be faster than Hex Editing – No need to look for offsets or Decimal-Hexadecimal conversions: Editing is automatic. But… Hex Editors offer the user more control on what parts of a file are edited.
Money Hack Utilities have a more convenient, easy to use, friendlier, and generally simpler interface than Hex Editors. But… Hex Editors provide a more deep, informative, and manipulative interface than Hack Utilities that advanced users may like.
Money Hack Utilities are smaller simpler programs. But… Hex Editors offer more features such as file comparing and multiple file manipulation. You can say that they have more "Bang for the byte".

Also consider that Hex Editing is often more reliable than using Hack Utilities. When you let a program do the work there’s always a chance that a hack utility will change the wrong byte. That doesn’t mean, though that Hex Editing is 100% reliable. There’s always a chance that something will go wrong no matter what you do. So always back up the file before you try and edit it.

Instructions on How to Hex Edit Save Game Files

If you don’t already have a Hex Editor, than you need HexEdit (for win95).

First, find offset 35FC0 and 329E0. The money amount that you currently have could be in one of those locations, or both. If it’s in both, then modify both offsets when you’re going to hack in the amount you want. Here’s where to look in the offsets mentioned above. The column where the amount is written is the same for both locations:
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 AMOU NT00

Note: The display may vary from one Hex Edit Utility to the next.
The amount that you currently have is mirrored (ex: 37F8 would be written as F837 in the save file.)
Type in the amount you want (in hex) in "AMOUNT". If you don’t have a Hex/Dec calculator, than here is a Hexadecimal/Decimal Calculator. Don’t forget to type in the mirrored amount (ex2: 10,000dn (2710 Hex) should be typed in as 1027).
Save the file, and run Caesar II.
Load the Save Game file, and you should have the amount that you hacked in previously.

Other Hex Editing Possibilities

You can set your own personal wealth by editing offsets 35FE8 and 35FE9 (eg 50,135dn =D7 C3) Great for big gifts to Emperor. You can reduce any current year construction costs to Zero by editing offsets 32C24 and 32C25 to 00 00. Great for turning an annual profit. – Thanks to Mark Devine for this great tip!

Comments (11)

11 Comments »

I found that if you use the time-speed control to slow things to a crawl when an enemy attacks, you can then quickly build a wall in a full circle around their army. Then, as they work on that, start training new cohorts. Once that’s underway, build a few more obstacles. It usually took three or four walls to get a decent army raised, one that would numerically crush the invaders.

In this way you can save money by not spending it on maintaining high troop levels.

Comment by Aaron — May 8, 2008 @ 3:22 pm
Aaron, that is an interesting approach. I am assuming that you are talking about the Caesar II game speed and not something in DOSBox? It would seem that a few layers of wall should cost much less than paying for unused troops all the time.

Comment by Administrator — May 8, 2008 @ 3:29 pm
do you know of any cheats for ceaser 3 – I am stuck at on lever and need to increase my rating (housing) and just can not get it done.

Ila

Comment by ila — December 12, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
There is an incredibly effective delaying tactic that can be employed on levels where there is a mountain or some sort of barrier that the invaders have to walk around to reach your city. You can do it without one as well but it ceases to be cost effective.

Basically, wall off your city and leave a small opening on one side. When the invaders come close to it, close the opening with a wall and destroy a wall segment on the other side. This will cause the invading army to march all the way to the other opening instead of breaching the wall. Repeat this as many times as you need to to get your army up to fighting strength.

Comment by Philip — December 25, 2008 @ 9:35 am
Hmm. Maybe I’ll toy around with the hex editor. My main goal is to reduce the happiness penalty of conscription to nothing, if possible. That would mean I can set the conscription rate to 100% if I wanted to, and this would allow me a very large, and very cheap, army without having riots.

Thus far, without cheating, I’ve been able to set it as high as 35% (you have to lower the tax rate, though) without problems.

Comment by Moses — June 21, 2009 @ 12:27 pm
Just set the wages of cohort to 500dn and you can get army of up to 10,000 people!

Comment by Unknown user — July 27, 2009 @ 8:42 pm
Does somebody know if it’s possible to play Caesar II full screen ? Recently it is possible to do so with Caesar III :
https://www.moddb.com/mods/caesar-3-full-hd

Also, is there an editable file in C2 to change some parameters of the game ? such as the expanding the building’s service from the road to more than 3 tiles, increasing the service radius of the bath house, etc… ?

Comment by waarzawa — November 4, 2018 @ 11:33 pm
wow.. this forum is still available.. great game, a legend

Comment by mike — June 21, 2019 @ 11:27 am
waarzawa, that would be really good if there was one. I’d like to edit the map size/river to optimize space usage.

Comment by SimpsonsFana — August 21, 2019 @ 4:10 am
There is a game feature (i.e., bug) that I saw somewhere once and haven’t found since. You can build a wheat farm in grassland, without a meadow. Choose the Farm from the industry menu. Left-click on the desired location. The farm image will display, while the cursor will show a crossed out hammer, saying that the industry can’t be built there. While holding the left-click, right-click. The Farm description pops up. Click away from the description and the farm has been built anyway.

Place this wheat farm touching an existing farm or mine, and it will share that industry’s road access to the city.

Comment by Meticulon — March 26, 2020 @ 12:21 am
I found a way to edit the land values. But oh boy… the game crashes on a new province.

Comment by BilboBags — April 25, 2022 @ 1:31 am

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