Getting influence for my family

**PunchDrunk** · January 25, 2014, 11:38 AM

I'm currently playing the Julia and I'm on turn 42. I have 11 influence, Junia and Cornelia has as much as I have. The "other families" has a whopping 60% influence... and the weird thing is, they have no general or statesman representing them.

In order to gain generals and influence for my family I recruited opposing generals and suicide them by sending them by their self to attack a settlement. I kept doing this about nine times and finally a Julia general popped up to recruit. I now have 3 Julia generals this way... but the problem is my influence didn't go up AT ALL.

I know that you can bribe and even assassinate, but don't those lose you standing with the senators?

I need some advice on what to do here. How can I steal the influence from the "other families" and gain some influence for my family?

**BigHairyMelon** · January 25, 2014, 12:30 PM

When you are at peace, replace all your generals with other family generals. Your generals will then become statesmen and increase your political power. When you go to war put your generals in the army so they get points from victories. Then promote your generals to increase their gavitas and once they hit a decent amount you can leave them as statesmen to generate power. Marriage will give you some points if you arrange a marriage with someone from another family which has more influence than yours. There is also some household retainers which help political power. I also recommend getting Hellbents Traits, Talents and Toadies mod. It overhauls the general skills/traits and household retainers. There are a few good ones in there which will also help your families political power.

as an aside: to replace your generals go onto the general tab of an army and hit replace.

**PunchDrunk** · January 25, 2014, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by BigHairyMelon

When you are at peace, replace all your generals with other family generals. Your generals will then become statesmen and increase your political power. When you go to war put your generals in the army so they get points from victories. Then promote your generals to increase their gavitas and once they hit a decent amount you can leave them as statesmen to generate power. Marriage will give you some points if you arrange a marriage with someone from another family which has more influence than yours. There is also some household retainers which help political power. I also recommend getting Hellbents Traits, Talents and Toadies mod. It overhauls the general skills/traits and household retainers. There are a few good ones in there which will also help your families political power.

as an aside: to replace your generals go onto the general tab of an army and hit replace.

But doesn't promoting generals decrease your standing with the Senate? That's a bad thing isn't it?

And how do you put your general as a statesman?

**PhillySouljah** · January 25, 2014, 04:52 PM

Replace your family general from the army he commands. After a turn, you will see him in the politics screen with a toga or some other civilian clothing on instead of armor. He is now a statesman and will generate influence for you.

**BigHairyMelon** · January 25, 2014, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by PunchDrunk

But doesn't promoting generals decrease your standing with the Senate? That's a bad thing isn't it?

And how do you put your general as a statesman?

It does but it usually is minimal. The hard thing for you in this case is that your influence is already really low. To make a general a statesmen just replace him with another general then wait a turn and go onto your politics screen and it should say he is a statesman. Usually one way of doing it is to win a few battles which might gain you some influence and level the general up a bit and then promote him a few times to raise his gravitas and then make him a statesman and your influence should increase.