
In terms of World Map diplomacy: you can raid your opponents (and allies!) for resources, or request/demand them, or send gifts to make them like you more. You also get Culture (Sciences for Atlantis) which works like entertainment in Pharaoh: build a school, build destination building, a walker will then do circles around district and your houses will evolve.

Housing requirements were streamlined so that less resources are needed for their 'evolution': food, fleece and olive for commoners, those 3 plus armor, wine and horses for elites. Heroes can be summoned when necessary to deal with an invading Monster or a God's request. Different temples also allow you for different actions for example Apollo's Temple has an Oracle, which allows you to 'see into future', basically letting you know of upcoming request/attack/something else earlier than scripted, and Ares' Temple gives you two squads of Spartan warriors that are hoplites on steroids (and you can ask Ares to accompany you on conquests too!). Once you build one, its associated god starts walking around your city dispensing blessings to buildings.

Temples and Monuments are now one thing - grandiose temples that consume lots of marble, timber, sculptures and money to be constructed. Common Houses are always 2x2 Elite Houses are always 4x4. Elite Houses also provide your Hoplites and Horsemen once evolved high enough (without Elite Houses, you only have 'Rabble', drawn from Common Housing, and Triremes, built at wharfs). This also affects worker access: Zeus goes away from 'must-be-near-houses', the building just needs to stand adjacent to a road.Ĭommon housing and Elite housing is now split Elite Houses start with 200 units of food, 100 fleece and olive, which lasts them about a year or two before they need bazaar supply. Zeus adds more intelligent roadblocks destination walkers will easily pass through these, so you no longer need to fiddle about with Gates, for example. You don't build new cities every mission like in Pharaoh/Caesar in Zeus, you have your Parent City in which you stay for almost whole campaign, except one-time episodes in Colonies. when you're done with Adventures from base game (and the Expansion), literally hundreds more await you!

Also, easier-to-use Editor allows more people to make Adventures, so. Adventures are 'campaigns' in Zeus, but unlike super-long slogs like in Caesar or Pharaoh with 20+ missions, most Zeus campaigns usually have 3 to 8 'episodes' (10 episodes + 4 colonies make 14, maximum per campaign).
