Ideas for house rules for Romans?

[CatoTheYounger]

Wondering what some of you use as house rules when playing the Romans. Going to start a new campaigh on H/H and i have some general ideas for emersion but wonder if some have thought of ideas that i haven't.

For me...

1) All elected Consuls get a shot at taking over an army. Can stay in charge until another character elected Consul or replaced do to subpar results. Exception Spain and oversea where imperium can be respected for instance the Scipio family. This means your armies won't always be led by experienced or the best leaders. Just like happened historicaly. (send the best oversea away from the Senates eyes)

2) Accepting peace treaties means an official end to the war in question. Being that Rome would not accept a treaty usualy at a dissadvantage the player should not either unless extrreme emergency. This causes multi front stress the Romans didn't back down from. Creates a challenge.

3) Romans should attempt to simultaneously deal with all their fronts the best they can. This means maintaining the garrisons in Greece and at Emporia above Spain. Romans would never back down and show weakness.

4) No restarts,reloads or battle do agains unless caused by a ctd. Deal with the consequences.

5) Each Consul should have a full army if possible at all times.

6) Keep specific family bloodlines ruling the same settlements. Roman nobles can be famous for each their own area. I try to wait until i get the Brutus, Cicero and Cato lines and give them physicians and a settlement. Hopefully they will have bred the historic leaders down the line.

7) Attempt to follow the historic route with who you annex and who becomes allied/Client states.

8) Stay with historical army builds. This way the Romans should usualy be infantry heavy and outnumbered in Cav. Forces them to adapt different tactics for different oponents and not just change army composition as a way to deal with a unique foe with extreme strengths.


Interested to hear any ideas i might not have thought of that will help with emersion.

[tungri_centurio]

i have only 4 when playing roma

1.keep within the borders they set.in the west rhine/danuba border and in britannia roughly where hadrians wall shoud be
in the east no further than dura and no coastal regions on the caspian see.

2.keep factions alive and only have short term peace with them

3.no restarts,reloads

4.always play 0turn

and when i have the named legions i try to use only the comander the haves the named ancillies in the correct legion
gonna try your nr1,6 and 7 to
about rule 8,so how looks your roman army then?1gen,9legionaries,4auxillia,4cav,2archer/slingers.... or is that to mutch cav for you?

[Agrippa19]

Some of these may not be historical but I play by them none the less, playing m/m, 1-turn

1) If my polybian cohorts reach 7/8 experience (gold standard) they get disbanded once the front they are fighting on is won. Trying to simulate the way these troops were disbanded after each campaign and would have rarely gained such experience fighting together.

2) Only Roma, Arretium, Capua and either Cannae or Ariminium are allowed recruit Polybian legions, the rest supply auxilia or local troops,cavalry/artillery troops. (Until after the reforms obviously)

3) No standing republican armies stationed outside Italia. I usually have 1 or 2 however in Italia as on 1 turn its hard to raise such armies quickly. However certain provinces are allowed recruit 'Allied Cohorts' to mark the beginning of roman militarisation of the conquered areas. The rest again only allowed to recruit local troops. Polybian legions have to be sent overseas by the senate incase of emergency or when conquest is the order of the day.

4) As you already mentioned, designate certain families to provinces, however be sure to play by the traits and influence of 'the character head', (the oldest or whoever seems to be in that position). If they are greedy with little influence raise taxes to the highest in their provinces and leave public order decline until a more suited character takes control.

5) No islands are allowed to build past the first level barracks. They are intended to become trade hubs, all money goes toward building ports, trade, mines if necessary, lots of tax. They are allowed to build foundaries however and are intended also build the fleets of the Republic.

6) I make a huge point in my campaigns of controling population growth. I try to restrict huge cities from being built more than once in every 4-5 cities. 80% of cities will not be given given the funds nor the permission to expand past what the senate perceives as a possible threat. Roma, Carthage, Syracuse the usual will be huge along with a few exceptions.

7) Barbarians are to be enslaved or exterminated, no mercy.

8) 7 does not include hellenic cultures, or eastern states necessarily.

9) And finally Rome is the eternal city, centre of the world. She gets the majority share of the spoils of war, the first pick. Money will flood her streets and transform her into the marble metroplis she was before anywhere else gets a glance, even if this causes discontent among the lowly conquered.

[CatoTheYounger]

I like your rule 5. I wil adopt that with the exception of Lilybaum in Sicily. This is a fortified city and troop producer for me usualy. Takes a while anyhow.

My Republic army as usual 1 gen,10 cohorts, 3 Triarii, 3 equites, 2-3 Velites and possibly 2nd general.
Full consular army is 2 such armies but one is Polybian and the other Allied.

[mr mojo risin]

turn the battle map radar off using F5 key before the battle starts and restrict the camera,

now this option had no real bearing in vanila rome total war{because battle maps were open and generaly flat} ,but in rs2 {with its thick forests and rolling hills and meadow clearings} makes battles really immersive and more difficult,
especially in a 3v3 stack up,
playing blind and having to scout around the battlefield in i have actualy been ambushed because i never had the cheat of seeing where the enemy general and his army was all the time,
it adds a lot of tension and realism when your looking for the enemy but you dont know where he is and the exact shape off all armys on the battlefield.
a real test for tactical players
this is my number one house rule

[tungri_centurio]

never knew that was possible.gonna try that.thanks mister mojo

[mr mojo risin]

never knew that was possible.gonna try that.thanks mister mojo

it is and it makes scouting units viable , roleplaying totaly immersive and makes the player more vulnerable

[CatoTheYounger]

I love it Mojo. I just started and i'll do that. Will suck when dealing with routing units but other then that....

[High Fist]

Yeah turning off the map is really immersive. I enjoy it.

Another thing is, when choosing a general among your governors, pick the one whom the senate approves of more. I had a cripple conquer Greece and he's marching on Macedon now.

My army comp is pretty standard too: 1 Gen, 2 Velites, 8 Cohorts, 2 Triarii, 2 Equites, 2 Archers, leaving three slots. Usually for two auxiliaries/extra cohorts and a siege engine.

[CatoTheYounger]

For whatever reason f5 doesn't work for me. Really wanted to try it.

[mr mojo risin]

For whatever reason f5 doesn't work for me. Really wanted to try it.

you using win 7 or 8?

[CatoTheYounger]

you using win 7 or 8?

Windows 7 Ultimate

[mr mojo risin]

Windows 7 Ultimate

set the ui to minimal and try it then.

[High Fist]

For whatever reason f5 doesn't work for me. Really wanted to try it.

Check your controls from the main menu and make sure it's set to F5. Minimal UI is also necessary, as mojo said.

[Love Mountain]

I only have two House Rules.


1. Role Play
2. Have Fun

[CatoTheYounger]

Ahhh. Big difference. Thanks man!

[CatoTheYounger]

One last crucial house rule for Roman campaigns. Only the city of Rome gets Republican Polybian troops. Every other city in italy and the empire gets Allied/Client state status and troops until the reforms. Once the Marian reforms hits citizenship can be given and all Italian cities can join as one with Rome. This is actualy helpfull in getting troops produced in allied citys anyhow.In the second punic war Rome fielded half the troops with allied city's fielding the other half. During the early mid republic it should stay this way.

Once the reforms hit they become annexed but by then Legionary cohorts start showing up instead of Maniples.