Aesculapius
04-07-2005, 14:57
Being a treatise by Aesculapius, one of the lesser Gods, offered for the edification and judgement of all the Gods, that we all may more wisely deal with the mortals of Mare Nostrum.
There are many who believe that Rome: Total War is some kind of strategy wargame. Well, yes, I guess you could play it like that; but on another level, it resembles no other computer game so much as ‘The Sims’. It is full of characters who can be shaped, develop personalities (lovable, despicable, or even complex), have lives marked by joy, suffering, boredom and glory. With a little bit of attention to detail, you can shape those lives. And even if you’re one of those ‘strategy wargamers’, it can have payoffs for you…..!
Throughout this treatise, for simplicity’s sake I will use the generic term ‘character’ to refer to any male family member who has ‘come of age’. Some may take on a general’s role; some may become governors; many may flit between the two; and a few may fit neither purpose.
This treatise will discuss a few ideas for developing your characters into upright and powerful men, and using them to their best effect. I will concentrate on how to give them the best chance to acquire good traits and avoid bad traits; briefly discuss how to attract and manage a retinue; and touch on effective use of your own characters and how to undermine those of opposing factions. I do not pretend to be among the omniscient Gods, and I would welcome any corrections or additions to this treatise – I wish to learn more than I wish to teach.
On the Acquisition of Characters
The more characters at your disposal, the better. Characters are foci for accumulating beneficial traits and retinue; many provide instant pacification to, and revenue from, a newly conquered settlement; and if nothing else, they provide a cheap and early source of heavy cavalry. Characters may be acquired in the following ways:
Assigned at the start of the game: these characters are almost always particularly talented – indeed, some of them will have trait levels that can never be acquired elsewhere in the game (such as ‘Intelligent’, ‘Mathematician’ or ‘Strong as Stone’). While they are important to your early military expansion, they are also the founding fathers of your dynasty. To lose one of these early in the game is to lose an entire bloodline of future characters. Furthermore, as many traits are hereditary, it is worth micromanaging at least in the early stages, so that your ‘founding fathers’ develop optimum traits to pass on to their children.
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Adopted: these characters are generated either at random, or when an army captain repeatedly performs well in battle. They are sponsored for adoption by an existing character, and (with Patch 1.2) will appear in the same settlement as that parent. They will usually have a scattering of good military traits (especially the army captains, obviously), and the only negative trait they may have is a tendency to drink (although sobriety is more likely). On the face of it there seems no reason not to accept such a ‘free offer’, and in general adoptions should be accepted: not only are they useful in themselves, but they are breeding stock for future characters. The only downside is that existing sons of the parent may resent the new arrival – they have an aggregate 48% chance of developing at least one negative trait (and about a 13% chance of developing a positive trait) in response to the new arrival. So you may wish to look at your family tree and see how many existing sons, if any, may be put at risk.
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Married: your daughters are good for only two things in RTW: attracting nice young men, and breeding. Every now and then a suitor will ask for the hand of one of your daughters in marriage. Do not be as quick to accept as you might for an adoption – the emphasis should be on ‘nice’ and ‘young’. In other words, look at the headline stats, traits and age of the suitor. Also, look up on your family tree the age of the daughter in question. If she is young, and the suitor is old or a wastrel, turn him down – chances are she’ll get over him and find someone better. On the other hand, if your daughter is getting on a bit, you might as well accept – this could be her last chance (noble spinsters do not marry once past their childbearing years). All the nice girls love a soldier, it seems, and the suitors will often have a few good military traits. They are also less likely to be alcoholics than your adoptees.
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Bribery: take a good look at all the opposing generals and governors you encounter. Be eager to seduce onto your side any who are talented, particularly the young. Not only will you have increased your numbers and diminished the enemy’s; but also you will have enhanced your bloodline and weakened the enemy’s. Bearing in mind that holding too much cash can corrupt your governors (more about this later), this can be an excellent way of getting rid of surplus cash. Remember that an unsuccessful bribe enhances the traits of the enemy leader
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Birth and coming of age: this will be the source of the majority of your characters, as each generation marries and has offspring. Characters with the ‘fertile’ trait will, not surprisingly, have more offspring. Therefore if your faction has a Temple of Fertility available (Isis-Egyptian, Freja-German or Ceres-Julii), it is worth building these as your earliest temples, so that your founding fathers acquire the trait and give you a ‘baby boom’ at the start of the dynasty. Bear in mind that generals out in the field don’t get much sex (not with their wives, anyway). To stand a chance of breeding, your characters must spend some time in settlements, as no self-respecting noble matron will camp out with the boys (even if she was once a Headhunting Maiden).
Fatherhood is generally a good influence: characters have a good chance of becoming more Sober, Sane and Prim each time they have a child, although there is a small chance that fatherhood may actually drive them to Drink and Womanising. Boys come of age at the age of 16, so once the birth is announced, you will have to wait 32 turns until they are of use.
2^Traits that can be inherited||Traits that can be ‘anti-inherited’
“Chance” = chance of inheriting trait if father already has trait||“Chance” = chance of inheriting trait if father has the named anti-trait or para-trait
3^ Trait|Chance|Trait|Chance|Paternal trait
Aesthetic|15%|Austere|15%|Aesthetic
Austere|5%|Aesthetic|20%|Austere
Black Bile|5%|Blood|20%|Black Bile
Blood|5%|Yellow Bile|20%|Blood
Corrupt|15%|Upright|15%|Corrupt
Epicurean|25%|Stoic|10%|Epicurean
Expensive Tastes|25%|Cheapskate|10%|Expensive Tastes
Hates X|25%|Hates X|25%|Fears X
Games Fan|25%|Games Hater|50%|Games Fan
Games Hater|10%|Games Fan|10%|Games Hater
Generous|10%|Miserly|50%|Generous
Miserly|25%|Generous|15%|Miserly
Girls|20%|Bloodthirsty|20%|Haemophobic
* Drink|30%|* Sobriety|50%|Drink
* Handsome|50%|Phlegm|20%|Drink
* Inbred|50%|Yellow Bile|20%|Drink
* Infertile|75%|Black Bile|20%|Drink
* Ugly|50%|
Kind Ruler|50%|Harsh Ruler|50%|Kind Ruler
Natural Military Skill|30%|Kind Ruler|20%|Authoritarian
# Paranoia|20%|NonAuthoritarian|50%|Authoritarian
# Perverted|20%|
Phlegm|5%|Black Bile|20%|Phlegm
# Politics Skill|20%|# Deceiver|5%|Politics Skill
Pragmatic|20%|
Prim|20%|Lewd|10%|Prim
Public Atheism|20%|Feck|10%|Prim
Public Faith|20%|
Races Fan|25%|Races Hater|50%|Races Fan
Rhetoric Skill|20%|Inspiring Speaker|20%|Rhetoric Skill
Slothful|20%|
Smooth Talker|20%|Inspiring Speaker|20%|Smooth Talker
Stoic|20%|Brave|20%|Coward
Strategic Skill|20%|Prim|20%|Cuckold
Superstitious|20%|
Tactical Skill|20%|
Upright|20%|
Xenophilia|20%|
Xenophobia|20%|
Yellow Bile|5%|Phlegm|20%|Yellow Bile
4^=* Chance and degree of inheriting these traits is proportional to degree of paternal trait.
4^=# Inheriting these traits requires the father to have more than just the first degree of trait.
On the Acquisition of Traits
Traits may be acquired in the following manners:
Assigned by chance: this will happen when the character comes of age, is adopted, or marries into the family. Sons born into the family have the widest range of potential traits, though only a small chance of developing any given trait (a few of these traits are specific to certain cultures). Adopted sons or sons-in-law will tend to be assigned good military traits.
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By Inheritance: Natural sons may inherit traits, para-traits or anti-traits from their fathers as above. All classical genetics is Y-linked: no traits are inherited from mothers.
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By Sibling Resentment: as mentioned above, adopting a son may cause traits (mostly bad) in existing sons.
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By Self-Reinforcement: for many traits, once you have them, there is a small chance (4%) each turn of that trait becoming more pronounced. This may be particularly important for traits that have a ‘point of no return’. The majority of self-reinforcing habits are bad. A few traits may arise from other related traits (not detailed here).
2^Good self-reinforcing traits|Balanced self-reinforcing traits|Bad self-reinforcing traits
Austere|Aesthetic|Anger
Authoritarian (Other)|Cheapskate|Apician
Authoritarian (Roman)|Epicurean|Arse
Blood|Generous|Black Bile
Energetic|Miserly|Boring Speaker
Feck|Paranoia|Corrupt
Liar|Prim|Deranged
Phlegm|Stoic|Drink
Poetic Skill|Superstitious|Expensive Tastes
Secretive|Trusting|Gambling
Sobriety||Games Hater
Xenophobia||Girls
||Harsh Ruler
||Hypochondriac
||Ignorance
||Insane
||Lewd
||NonAuthoritarian
||Perverted
||Races Hater
||Slothful
||Talkative
||Touched by the Gods
||Unjust
||Xenophilia
||Yellow Bile
By Performance in Battle: these are detailed below in the discussion on Generals.
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By Building: these are detailed below in the discussion on Governors. Destroying buildings may enhance your reputation as a ‘Despoiler’.
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By Getting Married, or Having Children: marriage has great power to make drunkards ‘Sober’ and womanisers ‘Prim’, although rarely the opposite effect may occur. It also has a small chance of relieving insanity (no sniggers from the back, please). The same effects are seen each time the character becomes a father. The wife may be ‘Well-connected’, ‘Faithful’, or unfaithful (‘Cuckold’). There is a 4% chance each of the marriage being either particularly ‘Fertile’ or particularly ‘Unfertile’.
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By Acts of Leadership: several actions may enhance traits of the Faction Leader. Completing a senate mission improves your chances of being recognised as having ‘Plain Roman Virtue’. Destroying an enemy faction enhances your status as a ‘Victor’ by a whole two levels. Frequent orders of Assassination (‘Assassin Master’, ‘Deceiver’), Spying (‘Spy Master’, ‘Deceiver’), Sabotage (‘Despoiler’, ‘Deceiver’), Bribery (‘Political Skill’, ‘Deceiver’ and ‘Plain Roman Virtue’(!)), and Diplomacy (‘Political Skill’) gradually build the traits of a crafty leader.
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By Suffering Misfortune: these generally breed bad traits, with a few exceptions. Misfortunes include:
Suffering an Assassination Attempt: although this improves your ‘Personal Security’ from future attempts, it also has a significant chance of driving you to ‘Drink’, ‘Gambling’, womanising (‘Girls’), ‘Paranoia’ and eventual ‘Insanity’ or ‘Derangement’. For this reason it is worth sending assassins against enemy characters as often as you can: even if they stand no chance of success, the repeated attempts will eventually degrade that leader’s traits, and very possibly those of his future children. This is a powerful and underused tactic, particularly in multiplayer games. Surviving assassination has a small chance of affecting your character’s religious outlook, more likely for the worse (‘Pious’, ‘Religious Mania’, ‘Sacrilege’ or ‘Public Atheism’).
Exposure by Senate: this has a 20% chance of revealing previously unsuspected ‘Girls’, ‘Lewdness’, ‘Perversion’, ‘Sacrilege’, or homosexuality (‘Arse’).
Quaestorial Investigation: this has a 50% chance of revealing previously unsuspected ‘Corruption’, the degree of which will depend on the extent of the investigation. I am not sure whether Quaestorial Investigation or Senate Exposure affects only the Faction Leader, or potentially any character.
Hit by Disaster: this has a miniscule chance of affecting your character’s religious outlook (slightly more likely for the better). I’m not sure what qualifies as a Disaster: presumably volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or storms are included, but I don’t know about ‘family tragedies’ such as the death of a wife.
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By Sitting Around Doing Nothing: this is detailed further in the section on Governors.
On the Raising of Good Generals
The raising of good generals may be achieved by the following ten simple rules:
Win battles.
Win lots of them.
Win by crushing margins.
Win against the odds (or at least, without having the odds heavily in your favour – wins where you outmatched the enemy by more than 2:1 accomplish little for your general).
These four rules offer a variety of chances to develop good traits, depending on the circumstances of the battle and the magnitude of the achievement. Any victory at all will add one point to your ‘Victor’ trait (although it takes 5 points to move up to the next ‘Victor’ level). Any victory at all gives you a 4% chance of becoming an ‘Inspiring Speaker’. Any victory at odds of less than 2.25:1 adds a point to your ‘Good Commander’ trait – levels on this trait are gained against an exponential scale, so your first few victories will rapidly advance you to being a ‘Good…’ or ‘Superior Commander’, though higher levels will require many more victories. Any ‘clear or better’ victory at odds of less than 1.5:1 will advance you on the ‘Good Attacker’ or ‘Good Defender’ scale – the more decisive the victory, and the higher the odds against you, the further it will advance you in these traits. Crushing victories also give you a small chance of acquiring ‘Tactical Skill’. Strangely, although the traits of ‘Good Siege Attacker’, ‘Good Siege Defender’ and their ‘Bad’ equivalents exist, there is no way to acquire them in battle – you’re either born with them or you’re not.
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Avoid defeats.
While narrow defeats have no trait consequences, more decisive defeats (even by overwhelming opposition) run the risk of giving your general traits such as ‘Bad Attacker’, ‘Bad Defender’ or ‘Bad Commander’. Interestingly, the chances of acquiring a ‘bad’ trait from a given defeat are less than the chances of acquiring a ‘good’ trait from a corresponding victory – so over time the odds are weighted in your favour. A ‘crushing’ defeat when the odds were better than 1.5:1 in your favour will cause you to ‘Fear’ that culture evermore. However, a ‘crushing’ defeat at odds of 0.5 – 1.5:1 will inspire a ‘Hatred’ of that culture that will benefit you in future battles against them.
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Capture settlements and Wonders.
These give you further points on the ‘Victor’ trait – in particular, capturing a wonder adds 5 to your ‘Victor’ trait, enough to move up a level by itself.
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Enslave and exterminate.
Extermination will guarantee your reputation as a ‘Genocide’. Surprisingly, this is a good thing, as it increases the amount harvested in future lootings. Extermination may also make you more ‘Bloodthirsty’, while enslaving may make you a ‘Despoiler’. Of course, other factors than your general’s development may influence your management of a new conquest.
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Aim to personally kill at least 6 to 8 enemy soldiers in a battle.
This will enhance your chances of gaining the ‘Brave’ and ‘Roman Hero’ traits. If in the process you suffer injury to the extent of >30% of your hit points, so much the better – this further increases your chances of becoming ‘Brave’, a ‘Roman Hero’, ‘Berserker’, or ‘Battle-scarred’. It is possible that routing soldiers do not contribute to your tally.
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Commit to battle.
If battle is offered and you withdraw, you run a high risk of developing the ‘Indecisive Attacker’ trait, especially if you were the one to offer battle, or the odds were not against you. If you end a turn in the enemy’s zone of control and do not attack, you may (10%) also develop this trait. If the general routs, he runs the risk (25%) of being branded a coward – all the more so if he never even fought.
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Specialist command
Victories while commanding forces consisting of over >50% cavalry, or >80% infantry, will give you the traits of ‘Good Cavalry Commander’ or ‘Good Infantry Commander’ respectively – and vice versa for defeats.
Time spent ‘in the field’ (not on the march) has a very small chance of enhancing beneficial traits such as ‘Logistic Skill’, ‘Scout’, ‘Hale and Hearty’, and ‘Feck’; although if the said field lies in barbarian lands this may be offset by negative traits such as ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Cuckold’. Of course, time spent in the field is breeding time wasted: on balance, an idle general is better off returning to town for some marital nookie. Certain temples encourage military traits – see the section on Governors for more details. Other military traits may be acquired at random when the character comes of age, is adopted or marries into the family; or may be inherited (see above). Few if any military traits are self-reinforcing (see above).
The appearance of small groups of marauding rebels in your lands is a great boon. If you are able to recruit assassins, you can spend several turns training a few assassins to a high level of skill by assassinating successive rebel captains (though you will likely lose one or two assassins on the way). Thereafter, you could either send a diplomat to bribe the rebels (if they have usable military units or you need to get rid of cash); or you can send a small force for your general to gain valuable experience against apparently adverse odds. This is particularly true of rebel bands consisting solely of light infantry and missile footmen: in this situation the computer grossly undervalues the importance of cavalry mobility in determining odds. It can be quite easy for your general alone to triumph against apparently ‘overwhelming’ odds, and rapidly advance his military traits.
On the Raising of Good Governors
Developing good governors, unlike developing good generals, is a complex matter. It is a skill more easily acquired by those who enjoy micromanagement. General principles include
Select Good Temples
What the building information scroll doesn’t tell you about temples is their effect on governors. With the exception of Neptune-Scipii, every temple can influence your governors’ traits, for good or ill. The probabilities range from 2% - 15% per turn, which can of course really mount up over the years. The probability is only applied if the governor remains in the settlement for the entire turn without moving. In theory, then, you can avoid the effects of ‘bad’ temples by moving your governor out of and back into the settlement each turn; in practice, this will become tedious for all except the most dedicated micromanager.
Several temples provide a mix of good and bad traits, and are not detailed here. Temples that are undoubtedly good for governors (or in some cases, generals) include:
2^Type|Examples (Culture)|Traits (Chance per turn)
Battle|Ares (Thrace), Hebeleysis (Dacia)|Tactical Skill (6%), Berserker (15%)
Battleforge|Vahagan (Armenia), Toutatis (Gaul and Spain)|Brave (15%)
Farming|Tanit (Carthage and Numidia), Bendis (Dacia), Demeter (Macedon)|Good Farmer (10%)
Fertility|Freja (Germany), Ceres (Julii)|Fertile (10%)
Forge|Zalmoxis (Dacia), Hephaestus (Seleucia), Vulcan (Scipii)|Good Engineer (10%), Good Miner (10%)
Justice|Baal (Carthage and Numidia), Essus (Gaul and Spain), Set (Egypt)|Justice (10%), Harsh Justice (10%)
Law|Horus (Egypt), Saturn (Scipii), Papay (Scythia)|Austere (6%), Sober (15%), Harsh Justice (6%)
Leadership|Aramzd (Armenia), Athene (Greece), Jupiter (Julii)|Strategic Skill (10%), Trusting (10%)
One God|Zoroastra (Parthia)|Pious (10%), Good Administrator (10%)
Victory|Andrasta (Britain), Nike (Greece)|Pragmatic (10%), Good Risky Attacker (10%), Warlord (10%)
There is one group of temples that is irredeemably bad for governors: the Temples of Fun, namely Anahit-Armenia, Osiris-Egypt, Bacchus-Julii, and Dionysus-Thrace/Seleucia). These all have a 10% chance per turn of encouraging ‘Drink’ or ‘Gambling’; a 5% chance per turn of encouraging ‘Perversion’ or ‘Girls’, and a 2% chance per turn of encouraging homosexuality (‘Arse’). These corrupting effects can easily outweigh the beneficial effects they have on public order. I would go so far as to recommend never building or keeping these temples, except in two circumstances: firstly, in settlements in which you never intend to have a governor for any length of time; or secondly, as a short-term measure in a newly-conquered settlement that is difficult to control – once the post-conquest unrest has settled, you can knock down the Temple of Fun and build something more, shall we say, respectable.
Temples of Love (Api-Scythia, and Aphrodite-Greece/Pontus), and Temples of Trade (Hermes-Greece, Mercury-Brutii, Britannia-Britain, and Milqart-Carthage/Numidia) encourage several bad traits. These are: ‘Expensive Tastes’, ‘Gambling’ and ‘Girls’, partly offset by the more balanced ‘Epicurean’ and ‘Aesthetic’ traits. However, these effects only apply when the temple is 'awesome' or greater (and are hence academic for Api-Scythia and Britannia-Britain, which cannot build temples beyond 'large'). Below this level, the Temples of Love do nothing at all to traits; while the Temples of Trade encourage the 'Good Trader', 'Deceiver' (both desirable), 'Cheapskate' (part good, part bad) and 'Embezzler' (undoubtedly bad) traits. I would treat Temples of Love and of Trade with caution for your governors’ sake.
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Build Wisely
Completing any building at all gives your governor a 20% chance of becoming a ‘Good Builder’, and an 8% chance of developing ‘Architect Skill’. In particular, completing buildings while your tax level is ‘very high’ gives you a chance of becoming a ‘Good Administrator’, and (if your ‘face’ is blue) a ‘Good Taxman’. Conversely, NOT building (when you have cash to do so) gives you a 3% chance per turn of becoming a ‘Bad Builder’. Also, completing a building when your tax rate is unnecessarily low gives you a 15% chance of moving up the 'Bad Taxman' scale.
The order you build in can be important - and complicated. For example, each time you complete a building that is NOT one of the 'farm' series, you have an 8% chance of becoming a 'Bad Farmer'. This is easily dealt with: as soon as you complete a building that IS from the 'farm' series, you have a 100% chance of gaining a point as a 'Good Farmer', which will cancel out your 'Bad Farmer' point. Beware, though: once your governor reaches the point that he 'Loathes Farmers', there's no going back. So as soon as he's a 'Poor Farmer' or 'Dislikes Farmers', get him to build a farm somewhere if you want to stop him reaching the Point of No Return!
In fact, the whole structure of the 'Farming' traits is quite interesting. It seems a lot easier to become a 'Bad Farmer' than a 'Good Farmer', despite the fact that building a 'non-farm' has only an 8% chance of ill effect compared to the 100% chance of good effect from building a farm. This is because it takes only one point of being a 'Bad Farmer' to move you up to the next level of 'Bad Farmer', whereas it takes at least six points of being a 'Good Farmer' to move up to the next good level. So 'Good Farmer' points are good for cancelling out 'Bad Farmer' traits, but not so good at actually making you a 'Good Farmer'. Indeed, short of touring from town to town building nothing but farms, the only effective way for your governor to become a good farmer is to worship at a Temple of Farming (Tanit-Carthage/Numidia, Bendis-Dacia, or Demeter-Macedon).
A similar position applies to the 'Bad Trader'-'Good Trader' traits. Completing any building that is not from the 'trader/market' series gives you a 1% chance of moving up the 'Bad Trader' scale. "Only 1%?", you say, "Not too bad". Well, yes, but the bad news is that you only have to reach the second level, 'Inferior Trader' (3 points) to be past rehabilitation as a trader. The good news is that you can get 'Good Trader' points by completing buildings from not only the 'trader/market' series, but also the 'road' and 'port' series. In fact, the 'road' and 'port' series actually give you a better chance (80%) of wiping out your 'Bad Trader' status that the 'trader/market' series (50%). It takes no less than 24 'Good Trader' points to reach the first 'Good Trader' level (and 48 to reach 'Superior Trader', the point of no return). So again you are unlikely to become a 'Good Trader' unless you worship at a Temple of Trade - but see the caution about Trade temples above.
The situation with mines is a little different. Firstly, you only get 'Bad Miner' points if you built something other than mines (or mines+1) against the advice of Victoria - although your chance is 100% if you were indeed so stubborn. Secondly, it takes 8 'Bad Miner' points to actually become an 'Indifferent Miner', and 16 to reach the Point of No Return, 'Poor Miner' - so you'd have to ignore Victoria for a heck of a long time to actually become a 'Bad Miner'. Conversely, it only takes 2 'Good Miner' points to become a 'Good Miner', and completing a mine guarantees you a 'Good Miner' point. So simply completing mines and mines+1 as soon as they are available (or at least as soon as they are recommended) will guarantee you this trait. However, to progress to 'Superior Miner' (the positive Point of No Return) will require you either to move to another settlement where you can build more mines; or (if you have the time and the money) to destroy your mines and build them again!
Building an Amphitheatre and a Colosseum (or two Amphitheatres, or two Colossea, if you move settlements) will guarantee that you become a 'Games Fan'. The only exception is if you are already a 'Games Hater', a trait that cannot be lost. Being a ‘Games Fan’ is a good thing on balance. Likewise, building any two of Hippodrome and Circus Maximus will make you into a ‘Races Fan’, (which is not necessarily such a good thing), unless you are already a ‘Race Hater’.
Certain buildings are intrinsically corrupting, and it is probably wise to avoid building these for as long as possible, if not indefinitely. These buildings are the Theatre, City Plumbing (yes, City Plumbing!), the Silk Road, and the Tavern. The first three all give (per turn) a 5% chance of becoming ‘Aesthetic’, ‘Epicurean’ or having ‘Expensive Tastes’, and a 3% chance of developing a liking for ‘Gambling’ or ‘Girls’. In the case of the Silk Road, the chances are applied twice per turn. The Tavern gives a 5% chance per turn of becoming addicted to ‘Drink’ or ‘Gambling’. As with Temples, these corrupting influences may be prevented by the tedious expedient of ‘going for a walk’ every turn.
Each time you train a unit, when your tax level is ‘very high’, you have a 3% chance of enhancing your ‘Good Administrator’ skill.
(My thanks to sunsmountain, who put me right on several errors in this section of my original post - now corrected.)
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… and Destroy Wisely
Destroying a building is a remarkably life-enhancing thing for a governor with military ambitions to do. It gives him a 10% chance of becoming known as a ‘Despoiler’, which improves his looting abilities in future conquests. Clearly it will benefit any governor to destroy corrupting temples and buildings, as outlined above. It is worth destroying temples of other cultures, as you can seldom enlarge them with your own temples, and replacing the religions of the colonies reduces cultural differences. You may consider destroying other ‘foreign’ buildings as a rapid means of establishing cultural dominance.
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Avoid Financial Temptation
Once your treasury stands at more than 50 000 denarii, your governors – indeed, any character that ends the turn in a settlement - will be tempted to dip their sticky paws into it. Each turn, each of your characters will stand a 3% chance of developing each of the ‘Aesthetic’, ‘Bad Administrator’, ‘Corrupt’, ‘Epicurean’, ‘Expensive Tastes’ and (in the case of the Romans) ‘Apician’ traits. Once your treasury passes 100 000, the 3% chance is applied twice per turn; and over 150 000 it is applied three times per turn. The chance is applied to anyone ending in a settlement, whether or not they have moved during that turn. That stacks up to a lot of corruption, very fast, across all your characters.
There are several ways to control your treasury:
Each time you approach a ‘corruption threshold’, go on a building spree.
Each time you approach a ‘corruption threshold’, go bribe an enemy.
Keep recruiting more and more military to balance your expenditure against your income. This should be done carefully - steady income is what counts. Expanding to spend a sudden windfall might throw you into a spiralling negative balance a few turns later, forcing you to disband your new units wastefully.
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The Benefits of Untaxed Unrest
Amazing though it may seem, riots and rebellion are good for your governors. These events force them to get tough and develop generally good traits such as ‘Authoritarian’, ‘Disciplinarian’, ‘Rabble-rousing’ and ‘Harsh Justice’. However, if such unrest is brought about by lazy tax policies – in other words if it happens when tax is anything other than ‘Low’ – the governor will certainly become known as a ‘Bad Administrator’.
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Keep a Pet Spy On Hand
Each time you capture an enemy spy, you gain on the ‘Counterspy’ scale; each time you capture an assassin, you become a better ‘Assassin Catcher’. Effectively then, these traits are self-reinforcing. To get your foot on the ladder, keep a spy in your city for counterespionage.
On the Acquisition of Retinue
A good retinue can significantly enhance a character’s abilities, either as general or governor. Indeed, with micromanagement a retinue can be even more valuable than good traits: traits die with you, whereas a retinue can be passed from one character to another. A detailed analysis of the acquisition and effects of individual ancillaries is beyond the scope of this treatise, but here follow some general points.
Almost all ancillaries have good effects, although a few are offset by bad effects. The only thoroughly bad ancillaries are the Evil Mother-in-Law, the Drunken Uncle, the Floozy, the Slubberdegullion, and the Idiot. Bad ancillaries with redeeming features include the Senatorial Horse, the Inflatable Sheep, the Tax Farmer, the Overseer, the Problem Mother, the Elderly Spinster Aunt and the Overprotective Nanny,
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Most ancillaries are acquired by spending a full turn (without moving) in a well-developed settlement. A variety of buildings serve as sources for ancillaries, usually in predictable fashion: clearly a Temple of Mars will generate Priests of Mars; a foundry will produce Armourers; a theatre will produce Actors etc. Some ancillaries are additionally dependent on their master holding certain traits.
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The ‘Academy’ buildings generate a relatively small proportion of the 190 different ancillaries: the Chirurgeon, the Doctor, the Geographer, the Historian, the Librarian, the Mathematician, the Philosopher, the Scribe, and (conditionally on other buildings) the two Freeman Clerks, the Geomancer, the Geometer, the Military Engineer, and the Mining Engineer. In addition, the academies educate the 42 unique ‘named’ ancillaries (such as Archimedes, Livy, Ariston of Cyrene), who can only appear in your retinue during the years of their historical lifetime. Contrary to belief in some circles, the Academies have no influence on traits at all.
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Some ancillaries are acquired in battle. The Haruspex and the Soothsayer may be acquired after a defeat. The following may be acquired after a victory, usually with certain conditions: the Decorated Hero, the Veteran Centurion, the Veteran Warrior, the Heroic Saviour, the Famous Warrior, the Military Tribune, the Galloper, the Runner, the Scout, the Shieldbearer, the Swordbearer and the Floozy.
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Certain ancillaries may be acquired on Coming of Age, dependent on the father’s traits. These are the Mentor, the Tutor, the Aged Retainer, the Overprotective Nanny, and the Problem Mother. On marrying, a character who is fond of ‘Girls’, ‘Gambling’ and ‘Drink’ is likely to acquire an Evil Mother-in-Law. A few other miscellaneous activities may generate ancillaries, such as surviving assassination attempts, ordering an assassination, enslaving a settlement, completing a building, hiring mercenaries, or simply wandering around the countryside.
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Ancillaries may be passed from one character to another (and thereby live indefinitely). However, if the character dies, any ancillaries in his retinue at the time disappear into retirement. Hence the idea of the Regional Convocation of Governors, the Slave Market or the 50th Birthday Party. This is a micromanagement strategy that involves getting all the characters in a region together once in a while and trading ancillaries. Ancillaries that provide military benefits can be concentrated in the retinues of generals, while those that provide managerial benefits can be given to governors. A good military retinue, passed on from an elderly general, can convert a bland newcomer into an instant command talent.
Some have suggested that it is cruel to strip an elderly family member of his faithful servants, but think of it rather like this: the elder statesman, recognising his advancing years, is preparing for death by assigning his assets – nay, his friends – to younger members of his family. This philosophical view of approaching death is perhaps particularly appropriate to the Roman world view. An alternative method of achieving the same end is the Travelling Salesman - see the section on 'Useless Characters' below.
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In order to trade ancillaries, characters need to be present in the same place. Open one character’s scroll; with the left mouse button, click and drag the ancillary from the scroll onto the unit card of the receiving character. Just imagine: you can give away your Evil Mother-in-Law! (All right, you can snigger this time). Certain ancillaries will refuse to serve in the same retinue as certain others (for example, a Crooked Judge will never travel with an Honest Man, and Pet Lions and Pet Hunting Dogs will no more get along than a Problem Mother with an Evil Mother-in-Law).
2^Top 21 ancillaries for governors|Top 21 ancillaries for generals|Top 21 ancillaries overall|Worst 21 ancillaries
Priest of Britannia (2)|Orator|Orator|Idiot
Priest of Hermes|Famous Warrior|Priest of Bacchus|Evil mother-in-law
Priest of Mercury|Military engineer|Priest of Dionysius|Slubberdegullion
Priest of Milqart|Siege engineer|Elder senator|Drunken Uncle
Scribe ancillary|Oracle|Oracle|Overseer
Priest of Vulcan|Praetorian guardsman|Praetorian guardsman|Tax farmer
Priest of Zalmoxis|Priest of Jupiter|Priest of Britannia (2)|Problem mother
Priest of Haphaestus|Priest of Zoroaster|Priest of Hermes|Over-protective nanny
Priest of Bacchus|Pontifex|Priest of Jupiter|Inflatable sheep
Priest of Dionysus|Priest of Armazd|Priest of Mercury|Elderly spinster aunt
Equestrian|Priest of Ares|Priest of Milqart|Senatorial horse
Merchant|Priest of Donar|Priest of Zoroaster|Floozy
Mining engineer|Priest of Hebelysis|Scribe ancillary|Trusty steed
Numismatist|Priest of Hercules|Priest of Vulcan|Astrologer
Silk merchant|Priest of Mars|Priest of Zalmoxis|Shield-bearer
Spice merchant|Priest of Andrasta|Priest of Hephaestus|Food-taster
Surveyor|Mercenary captain|Editor|Cook
Goldsmith|Druid Type 2|Herald|Sword-bearer
Jeweller|Master embalmer (!)|Magician|Heroic Saviour
Priest of Saturn|Priest of Asklepios|Pontifex|Gladiator
Brilliant Inventor|Priest of Bendis|Satirist|Witch
This table is based on a modified version of the spreadsheet of Winnie the Pooh at www.geraldtan.com/rtw, wherein may be found much more useful information on Ancillaries. This table does not include the unique 'named' Ancillaries.
On ‘Useless’ Characters
Occasionally, the alea of genetics or the curse of the Gods will give you a son so useless, so corrupt, so depraved or so insane as to be a downright liability. What can you do with such a man? Here are some options.
If they are truly beyond redemption (and many bad traits have ‘points of no return’), the best option is constructive suicide. Load him up with any undesirable ancillaries you wish to get rid of, and send him into hopeless battle. Such a battle may be single-handed (the difficulty here may be preventing survival by routing), and if the Gods should lift their curse and allow him to win, he may become a useful though eccentric commander.
Alternatively, you may use him as cheap cavalry in a larger battle to sacrificially tie up or disrupt an enemy unit.
A third option is to abandon him in the country-side to provide line-of-sight, guard a strategic passage or ambush passing enemies.
You can send him travelling around all your settlements and generals in the field, siphoning off any 'bad' ancillaries you've collected - i.e. make him into a "garbage collector". You could take it a step further: if a governor has an ancillary that's of more use to a general (or vice versa), let the family member in question 'collect' that ancillary and deliver it to where it'll be of more use - the "travelling salesman".
Lastly, if you wish to salvage such an unfortunate, keep him in a settlement with a more experienced governor (so his bad traits are not the ones that influence the town). Hope for him to find some girl foolish enough to marry him (I don’t think there is anything you can do to hasten this process). Marriage often improves a man. If possible, keep him in a settlement with a Temple of Fertility. This will encourage him to father many children, which also has an improving effect. Bear in mind that his male children may inherit some of his flaws. Occasional ‘minority raids’ against marauding rebels (see the end of the section on Generals) may allow him to develop valuable military skills. Be wary of adopting brothers to such a man – this may undo any good work you may have achieved; although the brother may be more useful than the man himself.
On the Importance of Senate Offices
The leaders of the Roman world are at a particular advantage in having the Offices of Senate. These are re-assigned every four years. The basis for assigning the offices is not known to me, but presumably depends on a combination of Senate Popularity and Electability. Early in the game most offices are held by leaders of the Senatus PopulusQue Romanus (SPQR).
|… Electability|… Senate Popularity
Traits that Reduce…|Races Fan, Talkative|Games Fan, Victor (Roman), Feck
Traits that Enhance…|Deceiver, Plain Roman Virtue, Political Skill, Rhetoric Skill, Well-connected Wife, Secretive|Deceiver, Plain Roman Virtue, Political Skill, Rhetoric Skill, Well-connected Wife, Authoritarian (Roman), Games Hater
The importance of the Senate Offices lies not only in the benefits held by the Office itself; but (perhaps more importantly) in the fact that benefits still accrue to former holders of offices. For this reason it is valuable to accumulate as many offices as early on as possible: not only are you accumulating current and future benefits to your own characters, but you are also denying them to your rivals. Many of the above traits you will have no control over; but is worthwhile to fulfil as many Senate missions and order as much spying, bribery, diplomacy, assassination and sabotage as you can early on, in order to achieve ‘Deceit’, ‘Plain Roman Virtue’ and ‘Political Skill’.
Another benefit of prior office is that you cannot hold an office without having previously held the next lower-ranking office: in order to be elected Praetor, you must previously have served as Aedile, which means you must have been an ex-Questor etc.
2^Senate Office|Benefits to Holder|Benefits to Ex-holder
Quaestor|Management+1|None
Aedile|Management+1, Law+1|Law+1
Praetor|Management+1, Law+2|Influence+1, Law+1
Consul|Command+2, Influence+2|Command+1
Censor|Management+2, Influence+3|Influence+2
Pontifex Maximus|Influence+5|Influence+3
Herein is all that I, Aesculapius, know of the shaping of the lives of men. May Minerva, wisest among the Gods, expand my learning and grant insight to all who read it.
There are many who believe that Rome: Total War is some kind of strategy wargame. Well, yes, I guess you could play it like that; but on another level, it resembles no other computer game so much as ‘The Sims’. It is full of characters who can be shaped, develop personalities (lovable, despicable, or even complex), have lives marked by joy, suffering, boredom and glory. With a little bit of attention to detail, you can shape those lives. And even if you’re one of those ‘strategy wargamers’, it can have payoffs for you…..!
Throughout this treatise, for simplicity’s sake I will use the generic term ‘character’ to refer to any male family member who has ‘come of age’. Some may take on a general’s role; some may become governors; many may flit between the two; and a few may fit neither purpose.
This treatise will discuss a few ideas for developing your characters into upright and powerful men, and using them to their best effect. I will concentrate on how to give them the best chance to acquire good traits and avoid bad traits; briefly discuss how to attract and manage a retinue; and touch on effective use of your own characters and how to undermine those of opposing factions. I do not pretend to be among the omniscient Gods, and I would welcome any corrections or additions to this treatise – I wish to learn more than I wish to teach.
On the Acquisition of Characters
The more characters at your disposal, the better. Characters are foci for accumulating beneficial traits and retinue; many provide instant pacification to, and revenue from, a newly conquered settlement; and if nothing else, they provide a cheap and early source of heavy cavalry. Characters may be acquired in the following ways:
Assigned at the start of the game: these characters are almost always particularly talented – indeed, some of them will have trait levels that can never be acquired elsewhere in the game (such as ‘Intelligent’, ‘Mathematician’ or ‘Strong as Stone’). While they are important to your early military expansion, they are also the founding fathers of your dynasty. To lose one of these early in the game is to lose an entire bloodline of future characters. Furthermore, as many traits are hereditary, it is worth micromanaging at least in the early stages, so that your ‘founding fathers’ develop optimum traits to pass on to their children.
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Adopted: these characters are generated either at random, or when an army captain repeatedly performs well in battle. They are sponsored for adoption by an existing character, and (with Patch 1.2) will appear in the same settlement as that parent. They will usually have a scattering of good military traits (especially the army captains, obviously), and the only negative trait they may have is a tendency to drink (although sobriety is more likely). On the face of it there seems no reason not to accept such a ‘free offer’, and in general adoptions should be accepted: not only are they useful in themselves, but they are breeding stock for future characters. The only downside is that existing sons of the parent may resent the new arrival – they have an aggregate 48% chance of developing at least one negative trait (and about a 13% chance of developing a positive trait) in response to the new arrival. So you may wish to look at your family tree and see how many existing sons, if any, may be put at risk.
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Married: your daughters are good for only two things in RTW: attracting nice young men, and breeding. Every now and then a suitor will ask for the hand of one of your daughters in marriage. Do not be as quick to accept as you might for an adoption – the emphasis should be on ‘nice’ and ‘young’. In other words, look at the headline stats, traits and age of the suitor. Also, look up on your family tree the age of the daughter in question. If she is young, and the suitor is old or a wastrel, turn him down – chances are she’ll get over him and find someone better. On the other hand, if your daughter is getting on a bit, you might as well accept – this could be her last chance (noble spinsters do not marry once past their childbearing years). All the nice girls love a soldier, it seems, and the suitors will often have a few good military traits. They are also less likely to be alcoholics than your adoptees.
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Bribery: take a good look at all the opposing generals and governors you encounter. Be eager to seduce onto your side any who are talented, particularly the young. Not only will you have increased your numbers and diminished the enemy’s; but also you will have enhanced your bloodline and weakened the enemy’s. Bearing in mind that holding too much cash can corrupt your governors (more about this later), this can be an excellent way of getting rid of surplus cash. Remember that an unsuccessful bribe enhances the traits of the enemy leader
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Birth and coming of age: this will be the source of the majority of your characters, as each generation marries and has offspring. Characters with the ‘fertile’ trait will, not surprisingly, have more offspring. Therefore if your faction has a Temple of Fertility available (Isis-Egyptian, Freja-German or Ceres-Julii), it is worth building these as your earliest temples, so that your founding fathers acquire the trait and give you a ‘baby boom’ at the start of the dynasty. Bear in mind that generals out in the field don’t get much sex (not with their wives, anyway). To stand a chance of breeding, your characters must spend some time in settlements, as no self-respecting noble matron will camp out with the boys (even if she was once a Headhunting Maiden).
Fatherhood is generally a good influence: characters have a good chance of becoming more Sober, Sane and Prim each time they have a child, although there is a small chance that fatherhood may actually drive them to Drink and Womanising. Boys come of age at the age of 16, so once the birth is announced, you will have to wait 32 turns until they are of use.
2^Traits that can be inherited||Traits that can be ‘anti-inherited’
“Chance” = chance of inheriting trait if father already has trait||“Chance” = chance of inheriting trait if father has the named anti-trait or para-trait
3^ Trait|Chance|Trait|Chance|Paternal trait
Aesthetic|15%|Austere|15%|Aesthetic
Austere|5%|Aesthetic|20%|Austere
Black Bile|5%|Blood|20%|Black Bile
Blood|5%|Yellow Bile|20%|Blood
Corrupt|15%|Upright|15%|Corrupt
Epicurean|25%|Stoic|10%|Epicurean
Expensive Tastes|25%|Cheapskate|10%|Expensive Tastes
Hates X|25%|Hates X|25%|Fears X
Games Fan|25%|Games Hater|50%|Games Fan
Games Hater|10%|Games Fan|10%|Games Hater
Generous|10%|Miserly|50%|Generous
Miserly|25%|Generous|15%|Miserly
Girls|20%|Bloodthirsty|20%|Haemophobic
* Drink|30%|* Sobriety|50%|Drink
* Handsome|50%|Phlegm|20%|Drink
* Inbred|50%|Yellow Bile|20%|Drink
* Infertile|75%|Black Bile|20%|Drink
* Ugly|50%|
Kind Ruler|50%|Harsh Ruler|50%|Kind Ruler
Natural Military Skill|30%|Kind Ruler|20%|Authoritarian
# Paranoia|20%|NonAuthoritarian|50%|Authoritarian
# Perverted|20%|
Phlegm|5%|Black Bile|20%|Phlegm
# Politics Skill|20%|# Deceiver|5%|Politics Skill
Pragmatic|20%|
Prim|20%|Lewd|10%|Prim
Public Atheism|20%|Feck|10%|Prim
Public Faith|20%|
Races Fan|25%|Races Hater|50%|Races Fan
Rhetoric Skill|20%|Inspiring Speaker|20%|Rhetoric Skill
Slothful|20%|
Smooth Talker|20%|Inspiring Speaker|20%|Smooth Talker
Stoic|20%|Brave|20%|Coward
Strategic Skill|20%|Prim|20%|Cuckold
Superstitious|20%|
Tactical Skill|20%|
Upright|20%|
Xenophilia|20%|
Xenophobia|20%|
Yellow Bile|5%|Phlegm|20%|Yellow Bile
4^=* Chance and degree of inheriting these traits is proportional to degree of paternal trait.
4^=# Inheriting these traits requires the father to have more than just the first degree of trait.
On the Acquisition of Traits
Traits may be acquired in the following manners:
Assigned by chance: this will happen when the character comes of age, is adopted, or marries into the family. Sons born into the family have the widest range of potential traits, though only a small chance of developing any given trait (a few of these traits are specific to certain cultures). Adopted sons or sons-in-law will tend to be assigned good military traits.
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By Inheritance: Natural sons may inherit traits, para-traits or anti-traits from their fathers as above. All classical genetics is Y-linked: no traits are inherited from mothers.
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By Sibling Resentment: as mentioned above, adopting a son may cause traits (mostly bad) in existing sons.
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By Self-Reinforcement: for many traits, once you have them, there is a small chance (4%) each turn of that trait becoming more pronounced. This may be particularly important for traits that have a ‘point of no return’. The majority of self-reinforcing habits are bad. A few traits may arise from other related traits (not detailed here).
2^Good self-reinforcing traits|Balanced self-reinforcing traits|Bad self-reinforcing traits
Austere|Aesthetic|Anger
Authoritarian (Other)|Cheapskate|Apician
Authoritarian (Roman)|Epicurean|Arse
Blood|Generous|Black Bile
Energetic|Miserly|Boring Speaker
Feck|Paranoia|Corrupt
Liar|Prim|Deranged
Phlegm|Stoic|Drink
Poetic Skill|Superstitious|Expensive Tastes
Secretive|Trusting|Gambling
Sobriety||Games Hater
Xenophobia||Girls
||Harsh Ruler
||Hypochondriac
||Ignorance
||Insane
||Lewd
||NonAuthoritarian
||Perverted
||Races Hater
||Slothful
||Talkative
||Touched by the Gods
||Unjust
||Xenophilia
||Yellow Bile
By Performance in Battle: these are detailed below in the discussion on Generals.
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By Building: these are detailed below in the discussion on Governors. Destroying buildings may enhance your reputation as a ‘Despoiler’.
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By Getting Married, or Having Children: marriage has great power to make drunkards ‘Sober’ and womanisers ‘Prim’, although rarely the opposite effect may occur. It also has a small chance of relieving insanity (no sniggers from the back, please). The same effects are seen each time the character becomes a father. The wife may be ‘Well-connected’, ‘Faithful’, or unfaithful (‘Cuckold’). There is a 4% chance each of the marriage being either particularly ‘Fertile’ or particularly ‘Unfertile’.
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By Acts of Leadership: several actions may enhance traits of the Faction Leader. Completing a senate mission improves your chances of being recognised as having ‘Plain Roman Virtue’. Destroying an enemy faction enhances your status as a ‘Victor’ by a whole two levels. Frequent orders of Assassination (‘Assassin Master’, ‘Deceiver’), Spying (‘Spy Master’, ‘Deceiver’), Sabotage (‘Despoiler’, ‘Deceiver’), Bribery (‘Political Skill’, ‘Deceiver’ and ‘Plain Roman Virtue’(!)), and Diplomacy (‘Political Skill’) gradually build the traits of a crafty leader.
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By Suffering Misfortune: these generally breed bad traits, with a few exceptions. Misfortunes include:
Suffering an Assassination Attempt: although this improves your ‘Personal Security’ from future attempts, it also has a significant chance of driving you to ‘Drink’, ‘Gambling’, womanising (‘Girls’), ‘Paranoia’ and eventual ‘Insanity’ or ‘Derangement’. For this reason it is worth sending assassins against enemy characters as often as you can: even if they stand no chance of success, the repeated attempts will eventually degrade that leader’s traits, and very possibly those of his future children. This is a powerful and underused tactic, particularly in multiplayer games. Surviving assassination has a small chance of affecting your character’s religious outlook, more likely for the worse (‘Pious’, ‘Religious Mania’, ‘Sacrilege’ or ‘Public Atheism’).
Exposure by Senate: this has a 20% chance of revealing previously unsuspected ‘Girls’, ‘Lewdness’, ‘Perversion’, ‘Sacrilege’, or homosexuality (‘Arse’).
Quaestorial Investigation: this has a 50% chance of revealing previously unsuspected ‘Corruption’, the degree of which will depend on the extent of the investigation. I am not sure whether Quaestorial Investigation or Senate Exposure affects only the Faction Leader, or potentially any character.
Hit by Disaster: this has a miniscule chance of affecting your character’s religious outlook (slightly more likely for the better). I’m not sure what qualifies as a Disaster: presumably volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or storms are included, but I don’t know about ‘family tragedies’ such as the death of a wife.
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By Sitting Around Doing Nothing: this is detailed further in the section on Governors.
On the Raising of Good Generals
The raising of good generals may be achieved by the following ten simple rules:
Win battles.
Win lots of them.
Win by crushing margins.
Win against the odds (or at least, without having the odds heavily in your favour – wins where you outmatched the enemy by more than 2:1 accomplish little for your general).
These four rules offer a variety of chances to develop good traits, depending on the circumstances of the battle and the magnitude of the achievement. Any victory at all will add one point to your ‘Victor’ trait (although it takes 5 points to move up to the next ‘Victor’ level). Any victory at all gives you a 4% chance of becoming an ‘Inspiring Speaker’. Any victory at odds of less than 2.25:1 adds a point to your ‘Good Commander’ trait – levels on this trait are gained against an exponential scale, so your first few victories will rapidly advance you to being a ‘Good…’ or ‘Superior Commander’, though higher levels will require many more victories. Any ‘clear or better’ victory at odds of less than 1.5:1 will advance you on the ‘Good Attacker’ or ‘Good Defender’ scale – the more decisive the victory, and the higher the odds against you, the further it will advance you in these traits. Crushing victories also give you a small chance of acquiring ‘Tactical Skill’. Strangely, although the traits of ‘Good Siege Attacker’, ‘Good Siege Defender’ and their ‘Bad’ equivalents exist, there is no way to acquire them in battle – you’re either born with them or you’re not.
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Avoid defeats.
While narrow defeats have no trait consequences, more decisive defeats (even by overwhelming opposition) run the risk of giving your general traits such as ‘Bad Attacker’, ‘Bad Defender’ or ‘Bad Commander’. Interestingly, the chances of acquiring a ‘bad’ trait from a given defeat are less than the chances of acquiring a ‘good’ trait from a corresponding victory – so over time the odds are weighted in your favour. A ‘crushing’ defeat when the odds were better than 1.5:1 in your favour will cause you to ‘Fear’ that culture evermore. However, a ‘crushing’ defeat at odds of 0.5 – 1.5:1 will inspire a ‘Hatred’ of that culture that will benefit you in future battles against them.
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Capture settlements and Wonders.
These give you further points on the ‘Victor’ trait – in particular, capturing a wonder adds 5 to your ‘Victor’ trait, enough to move up a level by itself.
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Enslave and exterminate.
Extermination will guarantee your reputation as a ‘Genocide’. Surprisingly, this is a good thing, as it increases the amount harvested in future lootings. Extermination may also make you more ‘Bloodthirsty’, while enslaving may make you a ‘Despoiler’. Of course, other factors than your general’s development may influence your management of a new conquest.
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Aim to personally kill at least 6 to 8 enemy soldiers in a battle.
This will enhance your chances of gaining the ‘Brave’ and ‘Roman Hero’ traits. If in the process you suffer injury to the extent of >30% of your hit points, so much the better – this further increases your chances of becoming ‘Brave’, a ‘Roman Hero’, ‘Berserker’, or ‘Battle-scarred’. It is possible that routing soldiers do not contribute to your tally.
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Commit to battle.
If battle is offered and you withdraw, you run a high risk of developing the ‘Indecisive Attacker’ trait, especially if you were the one to offer battle, or the odds were not against you. If you end a turn in the enemy’s zone of control and do not attack, you may (10%) also develop this trait. If the general routs, he runs the risk (25%) of being branded a coward – all the more so if he never even fought.
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Specialist command
Victories while commanding forces consisting of over >50% cavalry, or >80% infantry, will give you the traits of ‘Good Cavalry Commander’ or ‘Good Infantry Commander’ respectively – and vice versa for defeats.
Time spent ‘in the field’ (not on the march) has a very small chance of enhancing beneficial traits such as ‘Logistic Skill’, ‘Scout’, ‘Hale and Hearty’, and ‘Feck’; although if the said field lies in barbarian lands this may be offset by negative traits such as ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Cuckold’. Of course, time spent in the field is breeding time wasted: on balance, an idle general is better off returning to town for some marital nookie. Certain temples encourage military traits – see the section on Governors for more details. Other military traits may be acquired at random when the character comes of age, is adopted or marries into the family; or may be inherited (see above). Few if any military traits are self-reinforcing (see above).
The appearance of small groups of marauding rebels in your lands is a great boon. If you are able to recruit assassins, you can spend several turns training a few assassins to a high level of skill by assassinating successive rebel captains (though you will likely lose one or two assassins on the way). Thereafter, you could either send a diplomat to bribe the rebels (if they have usable military units or you need to get rid of cash); or you can send a small force for your general to gain valuable experience against apparently adverse odds. This is particularly true of rebel bands consisting solely of light infantry and missile footmen: in this situation the computer grossly undervalues the importance of cavalry mobility in determining odds. It can be quite easy for your general alone to triumph against apparently ‘overwhelming’ odds, and rapidly advance his military traits.
On the Raising of Good Governors
Developing good governors, unlike developing good generals, is a complex matter. It is a skill more easily acquired by those who enjoy micromanagement. General principles include
Select Good Temples
What the building information scroll doesn’t tell you about temples is their effect on governors. With the exception of Neptune-Scipii, every temple can influence your governors’ traits, for good or ill. The probabilities range from 2% - 15% per turn, which can of course really mount up over the years. The probability is only applied if the governor remains in the settlement for the entire turn without moving. In theory, then, you can avoid the effects of ‘bad’ temples by moving your governor out of and back into the settlement each turn; in practice, this will become tedious for all except the most dedicated micromanager.
Several temples provide a mix of good and bad traits, and are not detailed here. Temples that are undoubtedly good for governors (or in some cases, generals) include:
2^Type|Examples (Culture)|Traits (Chance per turn)
Battle|Ares (Thrace), Hebeleysis (Dacia)|Tactical Skill (6%), Berserker (15%)
Battleforge|Vahagan (Armenia), Toutatis (Gaul and Spain)|Brave (15%)
Farming|Tanit (Carthage and Numidia), Bendis (Dacia), Demeter (Macedon)|Good Farmer (10%)
Fertility|Freja (Germany), Ceres (Julii)|Fertile (10%)
Forge|Zalmoxis (Dacia), Hephaestus (Seleucia), Vulcan (Scipii)|Good Engineer (10%), Good Miner (10%)
Justice|Baal (Carthage and Numidia), Essus (Gaul and Spain), Set (Egypt)|Justice (10%), Harsh Justice (10%)
Law|Horus (Egypt), Saturn (Scipii), Papay (Scythia)|Austere (6%), Sober (15%), Harsh Justice (6%)
Leadership|Aramzd (Armenia), Athene (Greece), Jupiter (Julii)|Strategic Skill (10%), Trusting (10%)
One God|Zoroastra (Parthia)|Pious (10%), Good Administrator (10%)
Victory|Andrasta (Britain), Nike (Greece)|Pragmatic (10%), Good Risky Attacker (10%), Warlord (10%)
There is one group of temples that is irredeemably bad for governors: the Temples of Fun, namely Anahit-Armenia, Osiris-Egypt, Bacchus-Julii, and Dionysus-Thrace/Seleucia). These all have a 10% chance per turn of encouraging ‘Drink’ or ‘Gambling’; a 5% chance per turn of encouraging ‘Perversion’ or ‘Girls’, and a 2% chance per turn of encouraging homosexuality (‘Arse’). These corrupting effects can easily outweigh the beneficial effects they have on public order. I would go so far as to recommend never building or keeping these temples, except in two circumstances: firstly, in settlements in which you never intend to have a governor for any length of time; or secondly, as a short-term measure in a newly-conquered settlement that is difficult to control – once the post-conquest unrest has settled, you can knock down the Temple of Fun and build something more, shall we say, respectable.
Temples of Love (Api-Scythia, and Aphrodite-Greece/Pontus), and Temples of Trade (Hermes-Greece, Mercury-Brutii, Britannia-Britain, and Milqart-Carthage/Numidia) encourage several bad traits. These are: ‘Expensive Tastes’, ‘Gambling’ and ‘Girls’, partly offset by the more balanced ‘Epicurean’ and ‘Aesthetic’ traits. However, these effects only apply when the temple is 'awesome' or greater (and are hence academic for Api-Scythia and Britannia-Britain, which cannot build temples beyond 'large'). Below this level, the Temples of Love do nothing at all to traits; while the Temples of Trade encourage the 'Good Trader', 'Deceiver' (both desirable), 'Cheapskate' (part good, part bad) and 'Embezzler' (undoubtedly bad) traits. I would treat Temples of Love and of Trade with caution for your governors’ sake.
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Build Wisely
Completing any building at all gives your governor a 20% chance of becoming a ‘Good Builder’, and an 8% chance of developing ‘Architect Skill’. In particular, completing buildings while your tax level is ‘very high’ gives you a chance of becoming a ‘Good Administrator’, and (if your ‘face’ is blue) a ‘Good Taxman’. Conversely, NOT building (when you have cash to do so) gives you a 3% chance per turn of becoming a ‘Bad Builder’. Also, completing a building when your tax rate is unnecessarily low gives you a 15% chance of moving up the 'Bad Taxman' scale.
The order you build in can be important - and complicated. For example, each time you complete a building that is NOT one of the 'farm' series, you have an 8% chance of becoming a 'Bad Farmer'. This is easily dealt with: as soon as you complete a building that IS from the 'farm' series, you have a 100% chance of gaining a point as a 'Good Farmer', which will cancel out your 'Bad Farmer' point. Beware, though: once your governor reaches the point that he 'Loathes Farmers', there's no going back. So as soon as he's a 'Poor Farmer' or 'Dislikes Farmers', get him to build a farm somewhere if you want to stop him reaching the Point of No Return!
In fact, the whole structure of the 'Farming' traits is quite interesting. It seems a lot easier to become a 'Bad Farmer' than a 'Good Farmer', despite the fact that building a 'non-farm' has only an 8% chance of ill effect compared to the 100% chance of good effect from building a farm. This is because it takes only one point of being a 'Bad Farmer' to move you up to the next level of 'Bad Farmer', whereas it takes at least six points of being a 'Good Farmer' to move up to the next good level. So 'Good Farmer' points are good for cancelling out 'Bad Farmer' traits, but not so good at actually making you a 'Good Farmer'. Indeed, short of touring from town to town building nothing but farms, the only effective way for your governor to become a good farmer is to worship at a Temple of Farming (Tanit-Carthage/Numidia, Bendis-Dacia, or Demeter-Macedon).
A similar position applies to the 'Bad Trader'-'Good Trader' traits. Completing any building that is not from the 'trader/market' series gives you a 1% chance of moving up the 'Bad Trader' scale. "Only 1%?", you say, "Not too bad". Well, yes, but the bad news is that you only have to reach the second level, 'Inferior Trader' (3 points) to be past rehabilitation as a trader. The good news is that you can get 'Good Trader' points by completing buildings from not only the 'trader/market' series, but also the 'road' and 'port' series. In fact, the 'road' and 'port' series actually give you a better chance (80%) of wiping out your 'Bad Trader' status that the 'trader/market' series (50%). It takes no less than 24 'Good Trader' points to reach the first 'Good Trader' level (and 48 to reach 'Superior Trader', the point of no return). So again you are unlikely to become a 'Good Trader' unless you worship at a Temple of Trade - but see the caution about Trade temples above.
The situation with mines is a little different. Firstly, you only get 'Bad Miner' points if you built something other than mines (or mines+1) against the advice of Victoria - although your chance is 100% if you were indeed so stubborn. Secondly, it takes 8 'Bad Miner' points to actually become an 'Indifferent Miner', and 16 to reach the Point of No Return, 'Poor Miner' - so you'd have to ignore Victoria for a heck of a long time to actually become a 'Bad Miner'. Conversely, it only takes 2 'Good Miner' points to become a 'Good Miner', and completing a mine guarantees you a 'Good Miner' point. So simply completing mines and mines+1 as soon as they are available (or at least as soon as they are recommended) will guarantee you this trait. However, to progress to 'Superior Miner' (the positive Point of No Return) will require you either to move to another settlement where you can build more mines; or (if you have the time and the money) to destroy your mines and build them again!
Building an Amphitheatre and a Colosseum (or two Amphitheatres, or two Colossea, if you move settlements) will guarantee that you become a 'Games Fan'. The only exception is if you are already a 'Games Hater', a trait that cannot be lost. Being a ‘Games Fan’ is a good thing on balance. Likewise, building any two of Hippodrome and Circus Maximus will make you into a ‘Races Fan’, (which is not necessarily such a good thing), unless you are already a ‘Race Hater’.
Certain buildings are intrinsically corrupting, and it is probably wise to avoid building these for as long as possible, if not indefinitely. These buildings are the Theatre, City Plumbing (yes, City Plumbing!), the Silk Road, and the Tavern. The first three all give (per turn) a 5% chance of becoming ‘Aesthetic’, ‘Epicurean’ or having ‘Expensive Tastes’, and a 3% chance of developing a liking for ‘Gambling’ or ‘Girls’. In the case of the Silk Road, the chances are applied twice per turn. The Tavern gives a 5% chance per turn of becoming addicted to ‘Drink’ or ‘Gambling’. As with Temples, these corrupting influences may be prevented by the tedious expedient of ‘going for a walk’ every turn.
Each time you train a unit, when your tax level is ‘very high’, you have a 3% chance of enhancing your ‘Good Administrator’ skill.
(My thanks to sunsmountain, who put me right on several errors in this section of my original post - now corrected.)
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… and Destroy Wisely
Destroying a building is a remarkably life-enhancing thing for a governor with military ambitions to do. It gives him a 10% chance of becoming known as a ‘Despoiler’, which improves his looting abilities in future conquests. Clearly it will benefit any governor to destroy corrupting temples and buildings, as outlined above. It is worth destroying temples of other cultures, as you can seldom enlarge them with your own temples, and replacing the religions of the colonies reduces cultural differences. You may consider destroying other ‘foreign’ buildings as a rapid means of establishing cultural dominance.
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Avoid Financial Temptation
Once your treasury stands at more than 50 000 denarii, your governors – indeed, any character that ends the turn in a settlement - will be tempted to dip their sticky paws into it. Each turn, each of your characters will stand a 3% chance of developing each of the ‘Aesthetic’, ‘Bad Administrator’, ‘Corrupt’, ‘Epicurean’, ‘Expensive Tastes’ and (in the case of the Romans) ‘Apician’ traits. Once your treasury passes 100 000, the 3% chance is applied twice per turn; and over 150 000 it is applied three times per turn. The chance is applied to anyone ending in a settlement, whether or not they have moved during that turn. That stacks up to a lot of corruption, very fast, across all your characters.
There are several ways to control your treasury:
Each time you approach a ‘corruption threshold’, go on a building spree.
Each time you approach a ‘corruption threshold’, go bribe an enemy.
Keep recruiting more and more military to balance your expenditure against your income. This should be done carefully - steady income is what counts. Expanding to spend a sudden windfall might throw you into a spiralling negative balance a few turns later, forcing you to disband your new units wastefully.
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The Benefits of Untaxed Unrest
Amazing though it may seem, riots and rebellion are good for your governors. These events force them to get tough and develop generally good traits such as ‘Authoritarian’, ‘Disciplinarian’, ‘Rabble-rousing’ and ‘Harsh Justice’. However, if such unrest is brought about by lazy tax policies – in other words if it happens when tax is anything other than ‘Low’ – the governor will certainly become known as a ‘Bad Administrator’.
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Keep a Pet Spy On Hand
Each time you capture an enemy spy, you gain on the ‘Counterspy’ scale; each time you capture an assassin, you become a better ‘Assassin Catcher’. Effectively then, these traits are self-reinforcing. To get your foot on the ladder, keep a spy in your city for counterespionage.
On the Acquisition of Retinue
A good retinue can significantly enhance a character’s abilities, either as general or governor. Indeed, with micromanagement a retinue can be even more valuable than good traits: traits die with you, whereas a retinue can be passed from one character to another. A detailed analysis of the acquisition and effects of individual ancillaries is beyond the scope of this treatise, but here follow some general points.
Almost all ancillaries have good effects, although a few are offset by bad effects. The only thoroughly bad ancillaries are the Evil Mother-in-Law, the Drunken Uncle, the Floozy, the Slubberdegullion, and the Idiot. Bad ancillaries with redeeming features include the Senatorial Horse, the Inflatable Sheep, the Tax Farmer, the Overseer, the Problem Mother, the Elderly Spinster Aunt and the Overprotective Nanny,
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Most ancillaries are acquired by spending a full turn (without moving) in a well-developed settlement. A variety of buildings serve as sources for ancillaries, usually in predictable fashion: clearly a Temple of Mars will generate Priests of Mars; a foundry will produce Armourers; a theatre will produce Actors etc. Some ancillaries are additionally dependent on their master holding certain traits.
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The ‘Academy’ buildings generate a relatively small proportion of the 190 different ancillaries: the Chirurgeon, the Doctor, the Geographer, the Historian, the Librarian, the Mathematician, the Philosopher, the Scribe, and (conditionally on other buildings) the two Freeman Clerks, the Geomancer, the Geometer, the Military Engineer, and the Mining Engineer. In addition, the academies educate the 42 unique ‘named’ ancillaries (such as Archimedes, Livy, Ariston of Cyrene), who can only appear in your retinue during the years of their historical lifetime. Contrary to belief in some circles, the Academies have no influence on traits at all.
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Some ancillaries are acquired in battle. The Haruspex and the Soothsayer may be acquired after a defeat. The following may be acquired after a victory, usually with certain conditions: the Decorated Hero, the Veteran Centurion, the Veteran Warrior, the Heroic Saviour, the Famous Warrior, the Military Tribune, the Galloper, the Runner, the Scout, the Shieldbearer, the Swordbearer and the Floozy.
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Certain ancillaries may be acquired on Coming of Age, dependent on the father’s traits. These are the Mentor, the Tutor, the Aged Retainer, the Overprotective Nanny, and the Problem Mother. On marrying, a character who is fond of ‘Girls’, ‘Gambling’ and ‘Drink’ is likely to acquire an Evil Mother-in-Law. A few other miscellaneous activities may generate ancillaries, such as surviving assassination attempts, ordering an assassination, enslaving a settlement, completing a building, hiring mercenaries, or simply wandering around the countryside.
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Ancillaries may be passed from one character to another (and thereby live indefinitely). However, if the character dies, any ancillaries in his retinue at the time disappear into retirement. Hence the idea of the Regional Convocation of Governors, the Slave Market or the 50th Birthday Party. This is a micromanagement strategy that involves getting all the characters in a region together once in a while and trading ancillaries. Ancillaries that provide military benefits can be concentrated in the retinues of generals, while those that provide managerial benefits can be given to governors. A good military retinue, passed on from an elderly general, can convert a bland newcomer into an instant command talent.
Some have suggested that it is cruel to strip an elderly family member of his faithful servants, but think of it rather like this: the elder statesman, recognising his advancing years, is preparing for death by assigning his assets – nay, his friends – to younger members of his family. This philosophical view of approaching death is perhaps particularly appropriate to the Roman world view. An alternative method of achieving the same end is the Travelling Salesman - see the section on 'Useless Characters' below.
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In order to trade ancillaries, characters need to be present in the same place. Open one character’s scroll; with the left mouse button, click and drag the ancillary from the scroll onto the unit card of the receiving character. Just imagine: you can give away your Evil Mother-in-Law! (All right, you can snigger this time). Certain ancillaries will refuse to serve in the same retinue as certain others (for example, a Crooked Judge will never travel with an Honest Man, and Pet Lions and Pet Hunting Dogs will no more get along than a Problem Mother with an Evil Mother-in-Law).
2^Top 21 ancillaries for governors|Top 21 ancillaries for generals|Top 21 ancillaries overall|Worst 21 ancillaries
Priest of Britannia (2)|Orator|Orator|Idiot
Priest of Hermes|Famous Warrior|Priest of Bacchus|Evil mother-in-law
Priest of Mercury|Military engineer|Priest of Dionysius|Slubberdegullion
Priest of Milqart|Siege engineer|Elder senator|Drunken Uncle
Scribe ancillary|Oracle|Oracle|Overseer
Priest of Vulcan|Praetorian guardsman|Praetorian guardsman|Tax farmer
Priest of Zalmoxis|Priest of Jupiter|Priest of Britannia (2)|Problem mother
Priest of Haphaestus|Priest of Zoroaster|Priest of Hermes|Over-protective nanny
Priest of Bacchus|Pontifex|Priest of Jupiter|Inflatable sheep
Priest of Dionysus|Priest of Armazd|Priest of Mercury|Elderly spinster aunt
Equestrian|Priest of Ares|Priest of Milqart|Senatorial horse
Merchant|Priest of Donar|Priest of Zoroaster|Floozy
Mining engineer|Priest of Hebelysis|Scribe ancillary|Trusty steed
Numismatist|Priest of Hercules|Priest of Vulcan|Astrologer
Silk merchant|Priest of Mars|Priest of Zalmoxis|Shield-bearer
Spice merchant|Priest of Andrasta|Priest of Hephaestus|Food-taster
Surveyor|Mercenary captain|Editor|Cook
Goldsmith|Druid Type 2|Herald|Sword-bearer
Jeweller|Master embalmer (!)|Magician|Heroic Saviour
Priest of Saturn|Priest of Asklepios|Pontifex|Gladiator
Brilliant Inventor|Priest of Bendis|Satirist|Witch
This table is based on a modified version of the spreadsheet of Winnie the Pooh at www.geraldtan.com/rtw, wherein may be found much more useful information on Ancillaries. This table does not include the unique 'named' Ancillaries.
On ‘Useless’ Characters
Occasionally, the alea of genetics or the curse of the Gods will give you a son so useless, so corrupt, so depraved or so insane as to be a downright liability. What can you do with such a man? Here are some options.
If they are truly beyond redemption (and many bad traits have ‘points of no return’), the best option is constructive suicide. Load him up with any undesirable ancillaries you wish to get rid of, and send him into hopeless battle. Such a battle may be single-handed (the difficulty here may be preventing survival by routing), and if the Gods should lift their curse and allow him to win, he may become a useful though eccentric commander.
Alternatively, you may use him as cheap cavalry in a larger battle to sacrificially tie up or disrupt an enemy unit.
A third option is to abandon him in the country-side to provide line-of-sight, guard a strategic passage or ambush passing enemies.
You can send him travelling around all your settlements and generals in the field, siphoning off any 'bad' ancillaries you've collected - i.e. make him into a "garbage collector". You could take it a step further: if a governor has an ancillary that's of more use to a general (or vice versa), let the family member in question 'collect' that ancillary and deliver it to where it'll be of more use - the "travelling salesman".
Lastly, if you wish to salvage such an unfortunate, keep him in a settlement with a more experienced governor (so his bad traits are not the ones that influence the town). Hope for him to find some girl foolish enough to marry him (I don’t think there is anything you can do to hasten this process). Marriage often improves a man. If possible, keep him in a settlement with a Temple of Fertility. This will encourage him to father many children, which also has an improving effect. Bear in mind that his male children may inherit some of his flaws. Occasional ‘minority raids’ against marauding rebels (see the end of the section on Generals) may allow him to develop valuable military skills. Be wary of adopting brothers to such a man – this may undo any good work you may have achieved; although the brother may be more useful than the man himself.
On the Importance of Senate Offices
The leaders of the Roman world are at a particular advantage in having the Offices of Senate. These are re-assigned every four years. The basis for assigning the offices is not known to me, but presumably depends on a combination of Senate Popularity and Electability. Early in the game most offices are held by leaders of the Senatus PopulusQue Romanus (SPQR).
|… Electability|… Senate Popularity
Traits that Reduce…|Races Fan, Talkative|Games Fan, Victor (Roman), Feck
Traits that Enhance…|Deceiver, Plain Roman Virtue, Political Skill, Rhetoric Skill, Well-connected Wife, Secretive|Deceiver, Plain Roman Virtue, Political Skill, Rhetoric Skill, Well-connected Wife, Authoritarian (Roman), Games Hater
The importance of the Senate Offices lies not only in the benefits held by the Office itself; but (perhaps more importantly) in the fact that benefits still accrue to former holders of offices. For this reason it is valuable to accumulate as many offices as early on as possible: not only are you accumulating current and future benefits to your own characters, but you are also denying them to your rivals. Many of the above traits you will have no control over; but is worthwhile to fulfil as many Senate missions and order as much spying, bribery, diplomacy, assassination and sabotage as you can early on, in order to achieve ‘Deceit’, ‘Plain Roman Virtue’ and ‘Political Skill’.
Another benefit of prior office is that you cannot hold an office without having previously held the next lower-ranking office: in order to be elected Praetor, you must previously have served as Aedile, which means you must have been an ex-Questor etc.
2^Senate Office|Benefits to Holder|Benefits to Ex-holder
Quaestor|Management+1|None
Aedile|Management+1, Law+1|Law+1
Praetor|Management+1, Law+2|Influence+1, Law+1
Consul|Command+2, Influence+2|Command+1
Censor|Management+2, Influence+3|Influence+2
Pontifex Maximus|Influence+5|Influence+3
Herein is all that I, Aesculapius, know of the shaping of the lives of men. May Minerva, wisest among the Gods, expand my learning and grant insight to all who read it.