Plague

**bibs** · February 16, 2017, 10:19 AM

I've had a couple of game-ruining experiences with the plague:

1) I was playing as Takasashila, I had just gotten the elephant bodyguard for my general (800 upkeep) and was going to invade a neighboring province. I made a small mistake pathing through the desert and I lost 4 elephants out of 17 due to that. The maximum possible replenishment was 1 per turn. So I waited 4 turns to replenish my 4 lost elephants. After 4 turns guess what happens: a plague comes and I have to wait another 4 turns until it passes and I can leave my home province. After waiting 8 turns, guess what happens: ANOTHER PLAGUE. Another 4 turns. So I basically wasted 3 years to replenish a dozen of elephants.

2) playing as Mamlakatin Saba I invaded a region with my strongest army. I lost about half strength, but I couldn't replenish because there were no regional supplies - the original owner still had a weak army in the region and some ships and was raiding from two sides. I guess that was the reason for another two consecutive plagues which meant game over for me again.
I've played a few campaigns before but I've never had such issues with plague/disease. What is the mechanics behind it, how can it be avoided?

**Augustusng** · February 16, 2017, 11:47 AM

It can spread from armies to regions, and from regions to other regions or armies again. Not much you can do about it. You just have to wait for it to run its course. Of course it's annoying when one plague finishes and another starts immediately, but that shouldn't happen very often in a campaign.

I think plague chances are completely random, but it's a pretty low chance. It's not like Attila. Attila actually has plague chance mechanics based on the level of sanitation/squalor in the province, and there are things you can do to combat it.

**Hoplitus** · February 16, 2017, 11:51 AM

For quite some time I didn't experience plagues anymore. I thought their occurrence has been reduced quite severely if not removed completely. So, are you sure that it was really plagues causing the issue? Maybe it was just a lack of local supplies

making your army starve.

Other than that you can avoid plagues in your cities by building sanitation buildings.

**Augustusng** · February 16, 2017, 11:53 AM

I don't think sanitation buildings actually do anything to stop plagues in Rome 2 (as opposed to Attila). If they do, it's not something the game actually tells you.

Also plagues in Rome 2 seem to happen generally towards the beginning of a campaign. I don't think I've ever run into one in the late-game.

**FlashHeart07** · February 16, 2017, 11:54 AM

True. Starvation due to low supply will pop up as a plague. I believe its because we cannot really add or change that so you would need to read the actual text of the pop up to be sure that it is indeed a plague.
Though you might ofc have done that, either way it doesnt really change the outcome of your initial problem.

**Hoplitus** · February 16, 2017, 11:57 AM

I don't think sanitation buildings actually do anything to stop plagues in Rome 2 (as opposed to Attila). If they do, it's not something the game actually tells you.

I always thought they do

Maybe I am mistaken but I think I remember reading something like that... but it was long time ago and I can't remember the source.

**bibs** · February 16, 2017, 02:00 PM

I started another campaign as Takasashila, and the same plagues happen at about the same time. I think in this case they are hard coded to happen. It might happen more frequently in arabian/desert factions because they are typically not fertile so the supplies/storage is low, and any raiding/multiple armies in the same region will cause starvation/disease etc.

**Augustusng** · February 16, 2017, 02:33 PM

Yeah, I think Rome 2 might have some plagues that are scripted to happen in certain areas at some range of turn numbers.

**Dresden** · February 16, 2017, 02:43 PM

Its technically random I think, I can check into the dilemma triggers. But I think its a core issue in the game itself in that their random assignments aren't random. For example, remember when Ariminum used to always get hit by earthquakes every game at a certain time? That event is actually assigned as a random event with a TON of regions it could hit. But, the game always hit that region. We removed that and can easily change/remove others, but I like to keep some random events because its good for gameplay and making campaigns feel different.

**Hoplitus** · February 16, 2017, 02:47 PM

Oh yeah, Ariminum earthquakes and Syracuse plagues, I can remember that very well

**Kolaris8472** · February 16, 2017, 02:53 PM

Ohhhh, earthquakes. I've seen settlements have all their buildings damaged but I had no idea what the cause was. I must have missed the event message.