How to Maintain and Increase Loyalty among Hellenistic Generals?

**Pooploop** · March 19, 2023, 02:47 AM

So Hellenistic Kingdom bros! As the title above queries, how does one go about it generation from generation, old king to new king? We don't have those cumbersome promotion paths those peasant "republics", "democracies", or "federations" have. We can put a 16 year old in charge of whole swathes of provinces or at the head of the army through the noble power of nepotism! So, how do you make sure all those family members of ours stay loyal and become even more worshipful of the royal presence?

**Gurkhal** · March 19, 2023, 07:51 AM

I'd also like to know if there's some good trick for this purpose.

**Shoebopp** · March 19, 2023, 10:31 AM

Each character has a hidden base loyalty that's generated upon character creation (adoption, coming of age, marriage, etc). So some of it is genetic. For events you have control over like adoption and marriages, carefully approve characters with high loyalties. The trait triggers for adoption and marriages are actually influenced by ethnicity. Some factional ethnicities are considered more (or less!) loyal. For example, Aedui have the Volcae ethnicity which pushes the character to be more loyal. Pergamon meanwhile has the Bithynian ethnicity which pushes them to be less loyal. Read the trait descriptions carefully - if the ethnicity is sketchy, and the loyalty reflects that, send that suitor away!

Now that nature is covered, let's move onto nurture. Here are the ways you can influence loyalty

1. Holding court: Put your faction leader in your capital, and all governors will VERY slowly gain loyalty. Put your faction leader in your capital, and have a few characters in that same settlement, and they'll also VERY slowly gain loyalty on top of the prior trigger. Likewise, if your faction leader is out of your capital but you have characters too close (10 tiles?) to the capital, they'll slowly lose loyalty. This is to represent the FL holding court on one hand, and characters growing ambitious in the FL's absence on the other hand.
2. Faction leader capabilities - If a faction leader has more than 5 influence or command, then all characters with less than 5 influence or command slowly gain loyalty. Likewise, if a faction leader has less than 5 influence or command, then all characters with more than 5 influence or command will slowly lose loyalty. So just keep conquering with your FL
3. Supervisor/Warmonger/Brutal - a Supervisor becoming satisfied from governing a City or above settlement will instantly gain like 3 loyalty points. Meanwhile, a Supervisor governing a Large Town or below settlement, or being forced to fight too many land battles, will become unsatisfied and lose around 3 loyalty points. Same goes for Warmonger - fight lots of battles and he'll become Satisfied. Sit in a settlement and he'll become Unsatisfied. Brutal - same. Sack and Enslave and raise taxes, he'll be happy. Occupy and lower taxes, he'll become disillusioned.

**Shoebopp** · March 19, 2023, 10:32 AM

Also, there are trait triggers that decrease loyalty for characters of a large faction. The Seleucids are a prime example. So if you want high loyalty, either expand slowly, or just give away large swaths of territory until you have a smaller, but more manageable and loyal kingdom

**Pooploop** · March 19, 2023, 06:27 PM

So the larger the kingdom, the more imperative it is that the king stays in court. No going off like Alexander conquering far away lands...

**Shoebopp** · March 22, 2023, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by Pooploop

So the larger the kingdom, the more imperative it is that the king stays in court. No going off like Alexander conquering far away lands...

The loyalty gain from the court mechanic is supposedly very minimal

**Pooploop** · March 22, 2023, 10:58 PM

...ohhh man....can it be increased? Gonna have to mod huhh....What are the triggers?

**Sint** · March 23, 2023, 05:33 AM

So the larger the kingdom, the more imperative it is that the king stays in court. No going off like Alexander conquering far away lands...

No a king that wins a lot of battles will have high authority which reduces the chance for generals to rebel.The heir is usually loyal as well even with new kings.So it's better to use them to fight battles.

**Roma_Victrix** · March 23, 2023, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by Shoebopp

Each character has a hidden base loyalty that's generated upon character creation (adoption, coming of age, marriage, etc). So some of it is genetic. For events you have control over like adoption and marriages, carefully approve characters with high loyalties. The trait triggers for adoption and marriages are actually influenced by ethnicity. Some factional ethnicities are considered more (or less!) loyal. For example, Aedui have the Volcae ethnicity which pushes the character to be more loyal. Pergamon meanwhile has the Bithynian ethnicity which pushes them to be less loyal. Read the trait descriptions carefully - if the ethnicity is sketchy, and the loyalty reflects that, send that suitor away!

Now that nature is covered, let's move onto nurture. Here are the ways you can influence loyalty

1. Holding court: Put your faction leader in your capital, and all governors will VERY slowly gain loyalty. Put your faction leader in your capital, and have a few characters in that same settlement, and they'll also VERY slowly gain loyalty on top of the prior trigger. Likewise, if your faction leader is out of your capital but you have characters too close (10 tiles?) to the capital, they'll slowly lose loyalty. This is to represent the FL holding court on one hand, and characters growing ambitious in the FL's absence on the other hand.
2. Faction leader capabilities - If a faction leader has more than 5 influence or command, then all characters with less than 5 influence or command slowly gain loyalty. Likewise, if a faction leader has less than 5 influence or command, then all characters with more than 5 influence or command will slowly lose loyalty. So just keep conquering with your FL
3. Supervisor/Warmonger/Brutal - a Supervisor becoming satisfied from governing a City or above settlement will instantly gain like 3 loyalty points. Meanwhile, a Supervisor governing a Large Town or below settlement, or being forced to fight too many land battles, will become unsatisfied and lose around 3 loyalty points. Same goes for Warmonger - fight lots of battles and he'll become Satisfied. Sit in a settlement and he'll become Unsatisfied. Brutal - same. Sack and Enslave and raise taxes, he'll be happy. Occupy and lower taxes, he'll become disillusioned.

Awesome, thanks for explaining all that, +1 rep to you. I already knew about the holding court thing, but not every detail involved here. That's complex!

Does that coding apply to Koinon Hellenon, though, which is a republican federation of oligarchic/democratic city-states, not a centralized monarchy?

I guess the only monarchy involved was Sparta, but their royal family always had two kings ruling the city-state and overseeing its somewhat democratic boule legislature, so technically it was a constitutional diarchy, not a monarchy.

It's hard for me to notice, but just to be sure, I also leave my faction leader in the capital city when playing as KH. Do they receive the same loyalty benefits as other Hellenistic factions led by a "basileus" king?