A peacefull peninsula !!!!

**colonel klinck** · March 05, 2016, 03:19 PM

Hi,
Playing as roman in the great campaign, I'm desperatly trying to follow an historical path. I choose hard/hard for campaign and battle level but I'm in 258BC and no one is at war against me. Carthaginians are good trade fellows and Syracusians (other good trade fellows) are involved in a more than ten years "stale mate war" against Epira.
Due to my historically play I need a casus belli to enter in war but no faction tresspass my borders. Veneti and ligurians are not very polite but this is not sufficient at all. I even didn't have any agent attack/action against my interests at all !!!

In the first turns of the campaign an event triggered about some turmoil in Sicilia but nothing came really to the point between Syracuse and Carthago...
Gaining military access from the first one, my wandering in the eastern part of the island triggered the event that the carthaginians won't be pleased about that but, ten years after, they are not angry at all. They simply go back and forth some troops from Sardinia (Karalis) to Lylibeo without doing anything more...
Of course I could declare war on everyone I want but this is not in the spirit. I need to be involved, at least formerly, as a "victim" of some sort of agression or to have to help some friend faction against an unfair attack...
I'v only a full stack of 20 units (camillan one) to the south and another poor three units army "guarding" my northern boudaries.
Is it normal that even with an increased difficulty level of campaign no faction will threaten mine ?

**Hoplitus** · March 05, 2016, 03:37 PM

Fist off, I like your way of trying to play the game historically. I usually do the same esspecially as Rome and regarding the direction of expansion. But when it comes to casus belli, you can't always have one, sadly. It is still "Total War"

You could try to ally with one of the tribes in the Cisalpine province since they usually fight each other. You would then have a casus belli with the agressor.

To answer your last question: You are playing as Rome so you are a rather strong faction right from the start, thus it wouldn't be smart of a small, one region AI faction to declare war on you, so they don't do it. That's actually pretty normal.

You could try it on very hard difficulty, AI is way more agressive on that level from my experience. Just don't forget to lower battle difficulty in the options menu seperatly after the start of the campaign as battle will be unbalanced on very hard!

Keep in mind normal battle difficulty is still the recommendation for balanced battles.

**Blueinstinct** · March 05, 2016, 04:40 PM

i am not having the details in my mind but iam pretty sure that historical ROME didnt have a such a strong causa belli in their early expansion. Greeks and gauls simply got invaded and karthage was an arch enemy. I think it was just common sense at that time to take what ever you could.

Corretc me if iam wrong,
greetings

**Augustusng** · March 05, 2016, 04:44 PM

The Romans did generally try to justify their wars - defending allies or being the victims of aggression. Even against Carthage, there was always some legal reason for the Romans to declare war, like the Carthaginians breaking some part of their previous peace treaty. Of course, that doesn't mean that the Roman justifications weren't just propaganda in many cases...

**Ivan_Moscavich** · March 05, 2016, 06:47 PM

As long as it looks just.

**Hoplitus** · March 05, 2016, 07:56 PM

Originally Posted by Ivan_Moscavich

As long as it looks just.

Hehe, that's just it. Romans made their wars to look like just, but most of the time they were not!

**JCB206** · March 05, 2016, 08:05 PM

Historically, they "looked" just. Remember how the three wars with Carthage began.

First Punic War - The Romans were asked for aid. They declined. Carthage was then asked for aid and accepted. Carthage installed a garrison. Who wouldn't? Rome then decided they would intercede, thus declaring war on Carthage. The Carthaginian commander even abandoned the city to stop an "international" incident. The war had begun.

Second Punic War - Carthage needing to pay war indemnity, expand into Spain. Once Hamilcar, the undefeated Roman rival, is killed, the Romans negotiate with his diplomatically inclined son-in-law. The SIL makes a treaty to not invade north of the Elbro River. Why? Because he was nowhere near that point and figured treaties might change later, probably after he grew old. Why did Rome think they even had the place to make such a treaty? They had no territories in Iberia just a ally in Massilia. which was very far away as the man marches. Hannibal, son of Hamilcar, is elected leader in Iberia of Barcid forces and decides to attack a city very far south of the Elbro River, because of alleged attacks against his allies. Rome intercedes, either before or during the siege, to command Hannibal to back off their "allies." What? When did this happen? That was in the agreed upon Carthaginian sphere of influence.

Third Punic War - Carthage's economic recovery is going extremely well. Rome asks to buy a very large amount of wheat for the invasion of Greece. Carthage, now the dutiful ally, gives it as a gift and asks to pay even more money to pay of the war indemnity off early, to help Rome, her overlord, with its expenses during the campaign. Negative. We will pay. You will not pay it off early. Huh? Carthage cannot make war on anyone without the express permission of Rome. Rome's ally, Numidia, keeps raiding Carthage's African territories. Slowly taking more and more. Carthage attacks Numidia and loses the battle. Rome punishes its "ally" Carthage for attacking its ally, Numidia in self defense and declares WAR!!!

This third war was against a dutiful subject nation against an unruly ally, which Rome soon went to war with in Jurgatha's War. Rome was rarely the "victim" in my mind once they gained control of the Italian Peninsula.

Just demand money. Commit agent actions. Cancel alliances. march troops trough their territory. Make the enemy, er "ally", strike the "first" blow.

**colonel klinck** · March 06, 2016, 12:24 AM

That's it guys,
Most romans were very superstitous and didn't want to start some great undertaking especially war without god's approbation. So they didn't want to go to war in an apparently unfair way...This of course was largely relayed by manipulating the public opinion of basic roman citizens...

You're fullright JCB206, Rome just needed to look like "victim" of an unwanted attack and find this as (poor) excuse to invade; vanquish, exploit and enslave.
Rome also deported millions of people, dozens of tribes and made some pretty genocides especially in what is actually Spain reducing to nothing in less than two centuries more than half of the "ethnies"/tribes" . Those who were not slaugthered, simply vanished as slaves making hard labour in the copper and gold mines of the peninsula Iberica.
I don't forget some gaul, briton, getae tribes and of course, the jewish one...
I'm even pretty sure that sometimes Roman S.P.Q.R plotted , provoked or made some fake provocations to instigate wars with some of their neighbours who were not so prompt to see the "strong benefits" of pax romana.
Now so, coming back to our DEI Rome 2 games, especially mine, I'll try another great campaign by changing difficulty level (very hard in campaign anfd hard battle) hoping there will be more action...
Thank you all for the advices !

**dahooscarl** · March 06, 2016, 12:08 PM

A classic example of this is Rome allying itself with Saguntum, knowing full well it was in Hannibals path of conquest in Iberia. Once it was sacked, they used it as a pretense for war.

**Takarazuka** · March 06, 2016, 03:04 PM

I'm using this mod http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...lease-Patch-17 to make the CAI quite a bit more aggressive and interesting to deal with. Using the Without Artillery/Without Economy Tweaks/DEI_normal settings. I found that the economy tweaks and hard settings made the AI cheat in a way that was impossible for me to deal with, but was really intense when I tried it. The settings I am currently using are perfect... really makes for a fun game.

**Dresden** · March 06, 2016, 05:50 PM

You can also check out the Hardcore submod.

**♔Greek Strategos♔** · March 09, 2016, 08:06 AM

Originally Posted by Dresden

You can also check out the Hardcore submod.

Hey Dresden
Have you changed anything in Hardcore mod lately ???
Cause I'm using it with latest update (Hard/Hard) with Rome and it seems easier than before and things are pretty much peaceful around...

Cheers