How to Start Civil War Early?

[Es Arkajae]

It used to be that one could just send an assassin after a rival House and his success or failure would get you outlawed and kick off the Civil War, but that doesn't seem to be possible anymore.

Its a real shame too, as because of the silly new Marius Reforms requirments where I have to dick around for ages not conquering anything because otherwise I'd do it all whilst I still just had Hastatis. The problem of course is that if you're not conquering swathes of territory, the other Roman Factions are and starting off the civil war early enables one to fix that problem and then turtle down and wait for Marius.

So does anyone here know a way other than just conquering 30 provinces?

[Marcus Scaurus]

Isn't it possible to get outlawed before you conquered 30 provinces? Just don't obey the Senate. About the assassinations, you have to try it many times. Failure/success/death doesn't mean the Senate faction detected your assassin.

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

I still use assassination?

You caould always just go and blockade the senate's ports, that always works.

[Milteades]

Keep hitting high level officials, youll lose the assasins, but after few tries theyll get ****** and youll be able to force the civil war.

Just be sure you have enough troops to handle the Praetorians.

[Pent uP Rage]

heh, I had a campaign where the Senate never officially declared war. They just broke their alliance with me. All the Roman factions did the same and they all ended up neutral. I sent emmisaries to the Brutii and Scipii asking for alliances. The Scipii accepted and Brutii sided with the Senate. So the civil war that ensued was me(Julii) and Scipii vs SPQR andd Brutii. The Brutii nearly wiped out Scipio near Messina as I was taking Rome. But, they held out long enough for me to wipe out the Senate in two glorious battles, take Rome, and move two full legionary stacks down the boot to Tarentum to start hacking away at the Brutii.
I've since finished the campaign and through the whole of the time I spent conquering post-civil war, the Scipii not once threatened, attacked, or once so much as ever sent a single unit across my borders. I gave them Sicily and they resided there until the end of the game occasionally lending naval support.

But I never got a message saying that I would be outlawed. It just kind of happened. I had Imperial Palaces built and it was about 15-20 turns post-Marius when all of a sudden, BAM, I had no friends whatsoever.

I had another campaign as Julii where the Brutii got outlawed and everyone was to kill off the Brutii.

That's why I love this game and love playing the Roman factions most of all.

[John I Tzimisces]

heh, I had a campaign where the Senate never officially declared war. They just broke their alliance with me. All the Roman factions did the same and they all ended up neutral. I sent emmisaries to the Brutii and Scipii asking for alliances. The Scipii accepted and Brutii sided with the Senate. So the civil war that ensued was me(Julii) and Scipii vs SPQR andd Brutii. The Brutii nearly wiped out Scipio near Messina as I was taking Rome. But, they held out long enough for me to wipe out the Senate in two glorious battles, take Rome, and move two full legionary stacks down the boot to Tarentum to start hacking away at the Brutii.
I've since finished the campaign and through the whole of the time I spent conquering post-civil war, the Scipii not once threatened, attacked, or once so much as ever sent a single unit across my borders. I gave them Sicily and they resided there until the end of the game occasionally lending naval support.

But I never got a message saying that I would be outlawed. It just kind of happened. I had Imperial Palaces built and it was about 15-20 turns post-Marius when all of a sudden, BAM, I had no friends whatsoever.

I had another campaign as Julii where the Brutii got outlawed and everyone was to kill off the Brutii.

That's why I love this game and love playing the Roman factions most of all.

Are you playing a regular game? Because even in TFT games, when I get outlawed, or someone else gets outlawed, so does EVERYONE. Its rather annoying...

[Pent uP Rage]

Are you playing a regular game? Because even in TFT games, when I get outlawed, or someone else gets outlawed, so does EVERYONE. Its rather annoying...

Yep. Vanilla actually. Although I do know what you're talking about in TFT. I had kinda the same thing happen. Although the Senate re-allied with me and we went to war against the Brutii and Scipii.

[edcope]

This problem is easily solved by modding the desc strat file. Since the patch, there's now a line near the beginning of each faction's information that defines another faction as its "superfaction." Remove this line, and the game will operate as it did before; a failed assassination attempt will ruin the alliance and give you your civil war. I would also think that adding this line to different factions could allow you to create lord/vassal relationships, but I haven't fiddled with that yet.

I should note, however, that doing this causes a few behavioral changes among the other Romans; I've noticed a total lack of respect for the alliance, so you may end up with a civil war on your hands before you would like. Also, the game crashes when you enter the Senate...

If anyone knows a better way, I'd love to hear it.

[Chuffy]

I should note, however, that doing this causes a few behavioral changes among the other Romans; I've noticed a total lack of respect for the alliance, so you may end up with a civil war on your hands before you would like. Also, the game crashes when you enter the Senate...

Does that mean when you try and play the senate it crashes or when you are assigned a senate office it crashes?

Anyway the superfaction idea sounds interesting, as does your theory about whether it could create, as you said, some lord/vassal relationships.

[Es Arkajae]

Eh?, so Assassins still work if you keep trying?

I've tried attacking the other Houses and blockading their ports but I get the "not enough support yet" message.

[removeduser_4563362]

So you have to conquer thirty settlements and then and only then can you start civil war?

[Vladimir Lenin]

I've had the problem where my public support is'nt high enough and the senate tell me to do something or I will be out-lawed, but everytime I load the game and start it, it crashes, why?

[dre123]

try to assassinate SPQR characters until they are dead or you get caught in the act

[LeonidasOfSparta]

I tried that and nothing

Leonidas

[Govalon]

Has anyone solved this problem yet? I wan't to start civil war early.

[Govalon]

Woohoo! I solved this problem

You have to go to data folder and find descr_senate.txt

Scroll down and you will find list of senate missions.

This mission is for blocking port:

"Blockade_Port
Duration 5
-3 E p3
-2 E p2
-1 E p1
0 E r1
1 E r1
2 E r2
3 E r3
End"

change that piece of text to this:

"Blockade_Port
Duration 5
-3 E Outlaw
-2 E Outlaw
-1 E Outlaw
0 E Outlaw
1 E Outlaw
2 E Outlaw
3 E Outlaw
End"

Now just wait till you get mission to block a port and your if you fail in that mission, you will be outlawed and civil war starts.

You can do this for every other mission too by just changing all those r1, p3 and such to Outlaw. I did this and my first mission was to conquer rebel city. There was no punishment for not doing that mission but the second mission I got was to conquer another rebel city and penalty for not doing it was getting outlawed so this really works.

Also, you should make backup from descr_senate.txt so you can change everything back to normal if you wish.

[Aaronbaron]

Lol necromancer

[Govalon]

Lol necromancer

This is just really important for me. Not being able to start civil war early is killing all the fun for me so I just don't wan't to play anymore until this problem is solved. All these years and still nobody has found a solution :/

I hate the late game because I can't fight against anyone else but other roman families because every other faction is dead. I would love to kill them off my self so I need to get rid of other families early before they ruin the whole game.

[Stingray970]

Not necessarily, in about half the campaigns I play some other faction becomes a super power greater than even the romans. Common factions are Pontus, Egypt ( never seen, only heard others complain about it ) Britain, and sometimes Carthage.

I hate it how late game there's only ever one or two super powers owning the entire map, it'd be fun to face some of the minor factions that have insane late game units. But sadly the computer is a tyrannical fiend.

[Aaronbaron]

wait im confused do you want to kill the romans yourself early or do you just want them gone?
cause you could just give the julii all of the citys in italy and delete the other roman factions from the game
Then there wont be any annoying families or senate