How to trigger civil wars?

[Jackal2233]

This has been bugging me but no matter what I do, I can't seem to trigger a civil war. Can someone please explain its mechanics?

[nrthee2]

You must be the most powerful or the weakest family in your faction in order to errupt civil war.

[Jackal2233]

Well, I have 80% influence, and in another game I had 25% influence and other families had 75... still doesn't trigger. Do I need to be at a certain imperium level and such?

[Korburss]

Save up some coin and go on a murder spree of anyone who remotely looks like another family.

[epimitheus]

I think it's random. Having too high or too low influence on the senate should help but not by much, and it may get more probable as time passes, but if you get civil world and you reload the autosave, it will probably not happen.

On my first (abandoned) playthrough I kept my influence in the senate below 45%, even by killing my own generals (in battles) but it happened in the early mid-game (~200BC).

On my current playthrough I completely ignored the senate and my influence were at times as high as 90% or as low as 15%, but nothing happened. Finally it erupted in the late game (~150BC, I control half the world), when my influence at the senate was at a modest 53%.

[Jackal2233]

Argh, I'm already at late game, still no civil war. Hell I must be really (lucky) unlucky.

[Khadroth]

Not sure why you'd want to trigger one other than just to see what it's like, because it will wreck your game for at least 20 turns. Avoiding it is pretty simple. Keep yourself roughly balanced with the rest of the political parties (between 40-60%) by recruiting from both parties, and if someone in another party has too much ambition assassinate them. I saw a guy with 13 ambition (not sure if bug) in one of my campaigns, made sure he was dead next turn. Other than that I haven't seen anyone over 3 ambition, while most characters sit at 1. Lastly, don't allow adoptions or blackmail if you can help it. You generally already take a political hit just to recruit these guys, letting the other party steal them is only going to hurt you in the long run.

[Tacitursa]

What happens after the civil war, does the process start again or will there be no more civil wars after?

[epimitheus]

No, it happens once and it's over.

I liked the mechanic, it is a pretty good scare. Especially when playing as Rome you get a taste of your own medicine by facing stacks of praetorians, which is really scary on the battlefield.

But it needs to be polished, currently the civil war changes absolutely nothing. After it's over you can't even tell that it has ever happened, the senate is still there and it works just the same.

[Tacitursa]

I've been preventing it thinking it would just happen again and again. I guess i'll start new campaigns, wasted so much gold and hired crappy generals when i would have been better off just letting it happen meh.

[Khadroth]

Not really, the difference in generals is typically 1 stat point. Nothing game-changing and, in many cases, the other faction has the better choices anyways. As for the money you really shouldn't be wasting much. Maybe 20,000-30,000 over the course of the entire campaign? Which is chump change tbh, especially when you consider the economic and militaristic 20-turn disaster you're avoiding.

Again though if you want the challenge go for it. Personally, by the time I could possibly trigger a Civil War anyways I wouldn't want to deal with it because I'm already marching towards a long and monotonous victory that I don't wish to postpone even 1 turn.

[Naja]

I thought there was also a mechanic where the republican factions (Rome and Carthage) could choose to become monarchies after the player wins the civil war.

How does that work?

[epimitheus]

When you kill the other faction you get a dialog asking you to start between Empire and Republic (when playing as Rome). As far as I know nothing changes, no matter what you choose.

I'm curious what happens if you play as Sparta. You can create the Spartan Republic? It doesn't feel right on too many levels.

[Jackal2233]

Whao... my first civil war erupts, in the middle of a war against Gaul, and Macedon... forces all scattered around the map. They took one of my generals, set up base in Iberia, with 20 FREAKING STACKS of both armies and navies.

Immediately bought peace with everyone except Macedon who is being stubborn... meh they are almost dead anyway, had Legio I Italica full of Praetorians expecting a civil war in Rome itself but instead they pop up in Iberia where I only have one army there. Got that army outta there with force march to Gaul to meet up with 3 other armies.

Ok, any advice? My garrisons in Iberia are ready for battle, but not in Gaul which was just recently conquered. Was steamrolling around with legionaries until this happened. Finally! Now what to do? Try not to panic?

[douglaslife]

i was playing with Iceni in the Normal Mode on my first campaign ever, and i reached the Imperium with 9 armies and 8 fleets, and suddenly a cutscene appears with two lions fighting, then one of my capitals in France(probably Paris) was taken by the Rebel Iceni Council with 6 armies with 12 units each, it was terrible to me because i was fighting against the Gatae on the Black Sea, but for my incredible luck i also was fighting against the Celtiberian Confederation in Terrasco(Barcelona) so i just used my 4 armies with 20 full units with Elite Nobles and just kill all in few turns, and then another cutscene appears with one of the lions winning the battle and end of story. My conclusion: stop conquer for protect yourself was very tense and frustrating because is a waste of time, and i had luck that the rebels appears close of my armies(and good garrisons help a lot too). Well that was my experience with Civil War in Rome 2, I hope I have helped someone with my story(and sorry for my English, i came from Brazil, sue me !!

[Jackal2233]

You're lucky, 6 armies... I'm facing 20+ stacks of legionaries and I only have 9 stacks scattered across the map. I'm using STIM though, not vanilla

[♠ Thomas Cochrane ♠]

Hang on, so does the civil war only happen once? regardless of if you say remain republican? Surely if this option was clicked, you'd just start the process again! I mean Rome had loads of civil wars. Only one (Octavian) led to the empire.

Surely the smartest way of implementing Civil Wars is if ANY party gains too much gravitas, the Senate asks you to crush them (could be via assassination of their generals at first - this would be a cool mission to get), then they would become separatist and civil war would start. The reverse would happen if it were you in the top spot.

Then the way to resist civil war would be to have the other families in some remote and harmless corner of the empire so they aren't as much of a hastle at first.

Is this not how Civil Wars are at present? Haven't got one myself

[Jackal2233]

Hang on, so does the civil war only happen once? regardless of if you say remain republican? Surely if this option was clicked, you'd just start the process again! I mean Rome had loads of civil wars. Only one (Octavian) led to the empire.

Surely the smartest way of implementing Civil Wars is if ANY party gains too much gravitas, the Senate asks you to crush them (could be via assassination of their generals at first - this would be a cool mission to get), then they would become separatist and civil war would start. The reverse would happen if it were you in the top spot.

Then the way to resist civil war would be to have the other families in some remote and harmless corner of the empire so they aren't as much of a hastle at first.

Is this not how Civil Wars are at present? Haven't got one myself

Mine triggered at level 4 imperium, it took one of my generals, and spawned 20 stacks of armies and navies in Spain. However I reloaded and then it spawned in Pella instead - my frontline. It kicked my legion out that I had stationed there, but I simply just 'walked back in' heh. Then I had that one legion killing 10+ stacks thanks to the stupidity of siege AI throwing itself against my walls. The rest were cut down in ambushes by my other armies coming in from Thrace, Illyria, and Pontus. Was rather funny really, but time-consuming.

[wulfgar610]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaRLfHdTV1Y

Well that's a handy guide!

[Mahatma Gandhi]

I've had 2 CW now. One mid-game the second now has spawned at about 3/4ths of the way of Imperium. The 1st one was lost after a game crash immediately that turn when I attacked a smaller settlement the same turn it spawned in Carthage. By lost I mean, the game crashed after I attacked a settlement and when I re-loaded they were gone and never spawned again until this new Imperium CW spawning. But, here again, I happened to be attacking a small settlement again, that had been taken from me the turn before and abandoned, and POOF game crash again.

Im going to assume that they will once again be gone when I re-load the game in the morning. I guess to add to the "possible" triggers discussion I should say. I have lost 3 minor cities w/in 10 turns, however, all 3 were re-captured w/in 2 turns. I don't do anything w/the "family tree" "gravitas" screens at all, so cant comment on that aspect of it. The spawning of the huge CW armies/navies though is rather discouraging when so close to closing out a campaign I will say.