The Mystery of Influence

**Chris P. Bacon** · January 17, 2015, 11:36 PM

Hey guys, just wondering after playing some Macedon campaign, I noticed that while my families generals are conquering Italy and winning glorious battle after glorious battle, my influence is actually going down.

I've been promoting all of my generals and given the other families guys backwater patrol or garrisoning duties yet they seem to be gaining influence quite quickly, any ideas about how to get my influence back up?

**Krixux** · January 18, 2015, 12:43 AM

- when you promote an General from your "party" try getting "political animal" to max.
- promote your Generals (such as "tribune" etc) - not sure how it works for Macedon though.
- look for those "opposing parties" members with high ambition "2" or "3" and send them alone (!!!) to attack your enemy.
So kill them in battle. best have them cavalry unit, (if possible) then dismount them on the battle field so they surely die.
- Replace all (some ) other parties generals with some from your own (if you have them)
- "Mary" all possible opposing Generals (if possible) so some of their power will shift to you.

That's about it...that I can think of...
hope it helps...

**Chris P. Bacon** · January 18, 2015, 01:06 AM

Originally Posted by Krixux

- when you promote an General from your "party" try getting "political animal" to max.
- promote your Generals (such as "tribune" etc) - not sure how it works for Macedon though.
- look for those "opposing parties" members with high ambition "2" or "3" and send them alone (!!!) to attack your enemy.
So kill them in battle. best have them cavalry unit, (if possible) then dismount them on the battle field so they surely die.
- Replace all (some ) other parties generals with some from your own (if you have them)
- "Mary" all possible opposing Generals (if possible) so some of their power will shift to you.

That's about it...that I can think of...
hope it helps...

Thank you for the advice, but I thought as the stronger faction marrying the less powerful faction's generals hurts my influence.

**Krixux** · January 18, 2015, 02:44 AM

Originally Posted by Chris P. Bacon

Thank you for the advice, but I thought as the stronger faction marrying the less powerful faction's generals hurts my influence.

the plus influence goes for the less powerful (iirc) ...not sure though

**Alu10** · January 19, 2015, 07:28 AM

Originally Posted by Krixux

- when you promote an General from your "party" try getting "political animal" to max.
- promote your Generals (such as "tribune" etc) - not sure how it works for Macedon though.
- look for those "opposing parties" members with high ambition "2" or "3" and send them alone (!!!) to attack your enemy.
So kill them in battle. best have them cavalry unit, (if possible) then dismount them on the battle field so they surely die.
- Replace all (some ) other parties generals with some from your own (if you have them)
- "Mary" all possible opposing Generals (if possible) so some of their power will shift to you.

That's about it...that I can think of...
hope it helps...

suicide missions are so cheap, thought you were some super pro

**Krixux** · January 20, 2015, 01:54 AM

Originally Posted by Alu10

suicide missions are so cheap, thought you were some super pro

LOL

It was an answer to the OP , just ideas to help him either way lol....

I used suicide attacks, only three time iirc just out of deep "hate" for Cursor (always him) and the reason was because 50 turns out of 60 (something) turns, my leader was endlessly "recovering" from failed assassination at the hand of that "Looser"
In my games "Cursor" is the master in all negative traits , major minus in everything from PO to taxation.

Otherwise " spread rumors " , marry , Adopt, let Adoption happening, Readopt again are the real "master" moves :p
But not for Cursor, not for that sob !!!!

**Linke** · January 18, 2015, 03:13 AM

Yes it does. Make sure to also give the other families generals traits that dont give gravitas.

**geala** · January 19, 2015, 07:25 AM

Nevertheless I don't understand the influence mechanic. I have 6 generals on the field from my family and some others are statesmen, most with big gravitas and all with the highest rang possible and there are just three guys from the other families, an admiral and a general and a statesman (I'm an empire, so no "Roman family system"), all with low gravitas and I'm still just at about 60% influence and it doesn't grow. Fortunately I'm using a less-civil-war mod.

**Ritterlichvon86** · January 19, 2015, 08:00 AM

Afaik, it is totally trivial:

x= Sum up the gravitas your family has, y= sum up the gravitas the other family has.

a = x/ (x+y) *100
Percentage of your family's targetted influence = a

b = (100-a)*100
Percentage of the hostile family's targetted influence = b

I don't know about ambition, but I suspect the family's sum being a multiplicator of to the family's sum of gravitas (which would be x or y), and maybe even to the chance of civil war if it is not = 0. But who knows about it?

Actions cost senators / court influence, so if you kill a guy, yep, it will first lower your influence. If you are a kingdom and get yourself a pool of enough generals, then adopt and kill off the remaining opposition, your influence should rise steadily towards 100%. This however gets held off often by political incidents, which you can research philosophical technologies against, so they occur less often.

P.S.
Game hint: For Macedon, recruit 7-8 Generals as soon as you can, if you want a Navy, aim for 9-10, steadily adopt all into your family, and as the last action kill off Kosmas (leader of the opposing faction). Make sure to not adopt all at once, or you'll be left with PO problems due to a very low influence in the following turns.