How do you make the years fly by?

[Tyrfingr]

This is perhaps most relevant for all those who play as Romani and is waiting for both Polybian, Marian and the Augustus reforms:

How do you make the years fly by?

I often get bored with my Romani-campaigns due to the long time before any of the exciting reforms take place, and I wonder how you other Romani-players deal with it? Do you micromanage every turn from year 272BC to the reforms or do you just make the most important decisions (building here, killing attacking enemies and independents there) before hitting the "End Turn"-button?

[QuintusSertorius]

I use diplomats and spies to tinker with AI factions and try to keep them all weak and divided.

[Horst Nordfink]

I wouldn't say I get bored when playing Romani, but I often have to reign myself in and try not to steamroll over the Eleutheroi et al.

I try to only let Praetors and Consuls lead armies or governor any provinces I conquer. Things like these usually keep me busy enough to keep the years flying by.

[thelord]

When you take over a new settlement, destroy everything you can there, it makes you have to expand a lot slower and makes the game last till the end date.

[Dhampir]

I edited the script so the reforms occur every 10 years (40 turns). That way I get them fairly quickly yet I still get the experience of each reform. I don't worry about historical reality--the point of the game is to defy history.

[alatar]

You won't have time to do much, and you will run out of money.

In 40 turns you can only recruit 240 polbian units and 180 camillian.

And you will not keep up expanding.

[Dhampir]

You won't have time to do much, and you will run out of money.

In 40 turns you can only recruit 240 polbian units and 180 camillian.

And you will not keep up expanding.

If I edit the script to cheat to get reforms, do you think I ever need to worry about money? I play for fun. My real life is difficult enough, I don't need to be foiled by a video game on top of it.

[konny]

I do a lot of roleplaying with my FMs and try to simulate conflicts of certain factions within the Senate and the rise and fall of the great families and their leading characters. That also lead to several years of non-expansions from time to time.

[CaesarAugustus]

I micromanage every turn, trying to make money and roleplay raising the "standard of living" of my Roman citizens in Italy with low taxes, arena games, better farming, roads,temples etc. which takes a lot of time and money to complete while I am waiting for reforms. I also try to pay attention to all of my family members and make them as talented as possible, sending them to the academy in Rome and rotating their command of the legions to give them all battle experience. And securing the borders of the Republic is a never-ending and often quite exciting task, so I'm in no real rush to reach new reforms. Just enjoy the game and watch your empire evolve, and before you know it you'll be in a position to have reforms.

[alatar]

In the 250's I must have a prateor of consul with my armies. Also I have 2 armyies and to very high taxes, so money is tight.

[Gothic]

In my 1.0 Romani campaign I played for six months before I finally got the Marian reforms (and that was by changing the unconditional reforms to make it easier!). The way I cope with it is I take a break from the Roman campaign for a while and play something completely different. Then I pick it up again after a while when I feel the urge to Romanize the world a little more. I could never keep going if I didn't change the reform requirements though. It really helps to have something to look forward to. :)

I micromanage every turn and I take care of my cities and family members as well as I can. I tend to expand fairly slowly; not because I want to follow history but because I like to have built up my border cities somewhat before I continue. Oh and I also prefer to always have a family member leading my expansion.. so if there are no FMs "free" - the expansion will simply have to wait.

[bovi]

I'm playing Saka, so there's not all that much to do, but I still get the turns to go faster by letting the AI choose what buildings to construct (once I've gotten migration and the way of life down pat). Recruitment is my own decision every time, but I tend to keep my precious army of horse archers for pretty long so don't need to do this very often. With one defending stack and one roaming one for raiding, there are only so many decisions to make in one turn.

So yeah, allow the AI to control taxes and construction.