Rome II revisited

[douglas]

After not playing the game for a few years I decided to do a basic campaign (Julii) and see if I can get anywhere.

Things went swimingly for quite some time, as they had in the past. Italia, Cisalpine Gaul, Gaul, Narbonensis then into Hispania. Had one faction rebel which I was able to quickly resolve.

Next goal is Western North Africa, and moving that way. Problem is that when I finished taking Hispania I was suddenly reminded why I haven't played the game in such a long while. I am spending more money and time trying to keep one, with another a slight bit behind them, from rebelling and me having to scramble to get them out of the way before the barbarians I am at war with 'chin up' and move in.

I can replace a couple of generals with folks in my faction, but the bulk of available generals in with the opposing factions. If they have an army/fleet then it will have to be defeated. While looking at this situation I had a memory flash back to the last time I went through this. It took over twenty turns to get everything resolved, including the loss of regions to the barbarians.

Frankly, I've put the game on hold while debating with myself whether or not to continue. I don't play with Mods but I m seriously considering whether or not to try and find one to install that stops this nonsense.

Rant over.

[Hoplite of Ilis]

If you doubt, drop it and go where you do not doubt....

Rome 2 without mods is super easy, but the internal rebellion mechanic is just frustrating. CA knows they can't level up the battle quality - or even bring it back to what it used to be - , so they turned elsewhere.

I haven't played Rome 2 in a loooong time now, and I don't miss it. Even with mods like DEI.

[Gyrosmeister]

Well Rome is easily the easiest faction in the game, try your luck with some other factions if you are looking for a bigger challenge. And there are mods that increase loyalty for political parties, if you want to focus more on the actual campaign rather than political strife.

This one here https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=1316022491 is what I use when I don't want to bother about political strife that much, and judging from the statistics, a lot of other players do the same

[Jurand of Cracow]

Rome faction gets interesting if you play it with DeI and it gets difficult if you play it with PIGS submod.
If you're bored with the vanilla, download DeI, learn a bit about supply and population systems, and try to win.

[Alwyn]

I can replace a couple of generals with folks in my faction, but the bulk of available generals in with the opposing factions. If they have an army/fleet then it will have to be defeated. While looking at this situation I had a memory flash back to the last time I went through this. It took over twenty turns to get everything resolved, including the loss of regions to the barbarians.

By 'opposing factions', do you mean rival parties? Why would their army/fleet 'have to be defeated' (and defeated by who - the enemy, or forces loyal to your ruling party if there's a secession or civil war?)

If so, do you see it as a bad thing to appoint commanders from rival parties? I see this as useful. If you appoint rival party members as generals, you get bonuses to their party loyalty for winning battles with them and promoting them. If you attach a dignitary to the general's army and give the dignitary the Advisor skill, you get en extra bonus to loyalty.

Each of these bonuses to loyalty is small - just as bonuses to unit statistics from research, better weapons and equipment, experience chevrons and army traditions are small individually, but when these bonuses are combined they can make a big difference.

Combine this with a loyalty edict in a province controlled by the rival party, a political marriage and the occasional diplomatic mission, and the rival party stays loyal in my experience, most of the time. The loyalty of rival party drops as you expand - however, when playing as Rome, you can chnage government from Republic (with a penalty to party loyalty) to Empire (with a bonus to party loyalty).

If you'd prefer to have more generals available from your ruling party, there are ways of expanding your family tree more quickly. For example, you can hire a noble who supports your ruling party and then use a high-authority character in your ruling party to adopt them. Promote the adopted noble, give them a spouse, and give them any available ancillaries which increase their chance of having children. When they have children, if you educate them this seems to reduce their chance of dying in childhood (as well as improving one trait when they grow up).