2 Turns Per calendar?

[dfeal]

Why not 4? Why is the limit to only 2 when there are four seasons? How is the two turns working with the seasons?

[Draewn]

Same way it does in any other 2TPY mod - they alternate through the full list. As for why 2TPY - I'd imagine it's so we have even the slightest chance in hell of actually getting to the historical reforms, and having our empires take a remotely historical time-frame to build. I mean honestly on those grounds I'm generally a 1TPY man, hang seasons. If you look at, for example, DEI, all their reforms are bracketed not in the slightest for the historical time-frames, but for being at about the right space in the campaign - IE: 100-odd turns in. Which is fine for gameplay, but combined with a 4TPY system means you have the Romans going from Camillan to Marian in a generation or so (~100 turns = ~25 years). Given that CAC is committed to having the historical time-frame for their reforms, having 4TPY with the standard total war gameplay pace is just not feasible, because any campaign will be done long before you reach half the historical events. The only two options you have at that point are to try and slow the gameplay down dramatically, which has problems, or to have less turns per year. Though to be honest, you probably need to do both, and I think CAC does a fair shot at both.

[dfeal]

All good points. And I will try to raise some myself... The first is that none of my games, playing as Rome, follow the history of Rome exactly therefore the exact date of a reform is very fluid indeed. To be honest, even the event should not be a guarantee. Certain reforms happened because of circumstances, events and characters all falling into place. They were not inevitable nor set in stone like some mystical prophecy. Therefore using reform dates to justify 2TPY isn't valid in my opinion. As a trivial example; my Rome hasn't fought any campaigns in Spain nor expanded so quickly as to need the pool of men the Marius reforms delivered.

Other points against 1TPY or 2TPY I would raise are travel times. It would take a legion a year or more to cross Italy. Characters would die of old age in 20-30 turns only. Most sieges would last several years. Even the siege of Syracuse, with some of the most formidable defences in that region and time only lasted 2 years. Whereas with 1/2TPY even surrounding a barbarian small town with no walls or port would take 4-8 years or even longer.

I could go on and I'm sure you could list several other reasons with 4TPY isn't a good idea either. The point I am try to make is that neither case is watertight or perfect. This is only a game and we should each play it however we wish in order to get most fun out of it. In my case, a very slow and lengthy campaign with at least 4TPY. I expand slowly and role play but do not follow Rome's historical path. The AI is easy to beat as Rome so this makes it fun for me.

Anyway, the option would be nice and understanding the consequences too. I simply edit my saved game and change the calendar to 4 and increase army units from 20 to 80. Add in very slow battles and slow kill rates and I have a game I rather like a lot. =o)

[Wintermist]

dfeal, you make damn good points. I prefer 12 tPY myself, but I'd play 4 as well. 2 feel a bit... I dunno, I never liked it.