Politics Help Please

[TheGreatOne]

Hey everyone,

I wont bore anyone with too many details about myself, However!

I'm a solid total war fanatic and i'm having a few issues trying to work out exactly how the hell I gain senate seats in my Roma GC.

I'm above imperium level 5 and my influence will not go above 60%, i've had two civil wars the second is still currently being fought.

All I need to do is convert to empire government type everyones happy with me i have the money but i don't have the influence, Not since my faction leader got assassinated.

ever since then my influence is on a slow plummet and no matter how many heroic victories my house has.... it just doesn't improve... did i leave it too long to go from a republic?

[Alwyn]

Hey TheGreatOne,

I'm not an expert - apologies in advance, if you already know about everything I suggest.

I'm seeing a similar effect with my Carthage campaign. Initially, my influence was high, now it has dropped to the low 50s. You asked how to improve your influence. I believe that our ruling party's influence comes from the gravitas of our generals. Could you increase the gravitas of the generals belonging to your ruling party by promoting them? Could you hire statesmen who belong to your ruling party (and promote them)? Could you bribe generals belonging to rival families to join your ruling party (so that their gravitas contributes to your party's influence, not theirs?).

Alternatively, if the problem is preventing civil wars, could you either use in-game mechanics (such as the party loyalty edict in a province they control) to prevent them? Alternatively, could you provoke them in a civil war and destroy them? (I have read that new rival parties will spawn after a secession was defeated. However, in my Carthage campaign, I defeated a Hannonid secession a while ago and haven't seen a new party yet - presumably this will happen eventually).

[Welsh Dragon]

I've found this guide to be quite helpful:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...?id=1237207803

Hope that helps.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Alwyn]

Thanks for the link to the helpful guide, Welsh Dragon.

In my Carthage campaign, my ruling party's influence has dropped to the high 40s, despite hiring additional influential people and sending them on 'administrator' and 'feast' missions to boost their gravitas. I have tried bribing promising young generals from a rival party to join my party. However, on the last three occasions that I tried this, the general accepted the bribe but refused to join my party. This means that each time I try to bribe a general, it costs money and loyalty (in the rival party) for no gain. Am I just getting unlucky dice rolls, or is there a secret to successfully bribing influential characters to change party?

[Hev E Metal]

First, thanks for the link Welsh Dragon. After 600+ hrs of play I finally know what ambition trait does! That is a good guide to get the gist of the political side of things.

@Alwyn - yes I have seen the same thing, bribes do not work for me either regardless, whether my faction is rich or poor, weak or powerful. Its always take the money and run. This really stinks when you only have one family member in your faction!

Also, I have noticed that I never get any marriage proposals from anyone (boo hoo nobody loves me ). I'm guessing the AI does not know how to use this mechanic? As Rome and Parthia, my faction leader is always single and never marries.

[sidiust]

In my Carthage campaign, my ruling party's influence has dropped to the high 40s, despite hiring additional influential people and sending them on 'administrator' and 'feast' missions to boost their gravitas.

Hiring politicians/generals of your own party/house results in an immediate loss of influence. The cost in influence is usually higher depending on how much ambition that character has (e.g. a low ambition general might cost the influence of 3 Nobles/5 Senators, while a high ambition general could cost you 8 Nobles/13 Senators). The idea is that you spend influence to get your own crony a presitigious job... but if he proves able, he will repay that by gaining gravitas and influence for you over his/her career. So maybe you're stuck with low influence BECAUSE you're hiring too many politicians of your own house?

On the other hand, hiring a politician from the other houses/parties doesn't cost any up-front influence. I usually hire new characters from the other houses, and then bribe/adopt only the high-ambition guys into my own party. That way I end up with lots of high-ambition generals and the opposition parties end up with stinkers.

This means that each time I try to bribe a general, it costs money and loyalty (in the rival party) for no gain.

From what I've seen, you only lose loyalty if the other guy accepts your bribe offer. You do, however, lose money with each attempt. I've had turns where I spent 900 gold at least a dozen times while trying to bribe a character, before he eventually accepted the offer. I could only afford to do this in the late-game, when I am usually rolling in cash. But by the time you're an empire (which is when you need to bribe people... Kingdoms can just straight up adopt), you should be relatively well-off economically too.

[sidiust]

@Alwyn - yes I have seen the same thing, bribes do not work for me either regardless, whether my faction is rich or poor, weak or powerful. Its always take the money and run. This really stinks when you only have one family member in your faction!

They eventually accept! You just need to have really deep pockets before you start spamming that Bribe button. It's worked for me many times.

[Alwyn]

Hiring politicians/generals of your own party/house results in an immediate loss of influence. The cost in influence is usually higher depending on how much ambition that character has (e.g. a low ambition general might cost the influence of 3 Nobles/5 Senators, while a high ambition general could cost you 8 Nobles/13 Senators). The idea is that you spend influence to get your own crony a presitigious job... but if he proves able, he will repay that by gaining gravitas and influence for you over his/her career. So maybe you're stuck with low influence BECAUSE you're hiring too many politicians of your own house?

On the other hand, hiring a politician from the other houses/parties doesn't cost any up-front influence. I usually hire new characters from the other houses, and then bribe/adopt only the high-ambition guys into my own party. That way I end up with lots of high-ambition generals and the opposition parties end up with stinkers.

From what I've seen, you only lose loyalty if the other guy accepts your bribe offer. You do, however, lose money with each attempt. I've had turns where I spent 900 gold at least a dozen times while trying to bribe a character, before he eventually accepted the offer. I could only afford to do this in the late-game, when I am usually rolling in cash. But by the time you're an empire (which is when you need to bribe people... Kingdoms can just straight up adopt), you should be relatively well-off economically too.

Thanks, of course you're right that hiring leaders from my governing party reduces influence in the short term. I do what I can to increase their gravitas, trying to appoint them to armies which I'm likely to use, promoting leaders in my party, using them for missions which increase gravitas and so on. I am experimenting with giving them ancillaries which seem useful, such as an Aged Retainer for +1 authority, although I don't know whether that improves gravitas to increase my party's influence - does anyone know? Perhaps I should attach Aged Retainers to dignitaries and generals to make them more effective, rather than attaching them to a political leader in the hope that this will improve their gravitas?

Your tactic of hiring plenty of leaders for other parties and then bribing or adopting the high-ambition characters sounds like a good one. I genuinely thought (based on hovering over the rival party's 'loyalty' indicator) that failed bribery attempts cost me loyalty, but I could be wrong. Thanks for the tip about needing deep pockets and repeatedly trying to bribe leaders, that's useful.

You mentioned that Kingdoms can adopt, when I'm playing a Kingdom I'll try that (perhaps it's more reliable than bribery). Of course, given the amount of money it costs to change government type, it probably won't be worth changing from (for example) Republic to Kingdom simply to get the ability to adopt, unless I have treasure-houses stacked full of gold and low influence.