Principate Total War

[luke_liddle]

Principate Total War


AD 10- AD 192
Europe/North Africa/Middle East

The Roman Principate has existed for nearly 40 years, carefully centralizing power whist retaining a republican facade. The 73 year old Princeps Augustus, adopted son of Gaius Julius Caesar is nearing the end of his life. Roman territory encompassed Italy, Gaul, Africa, Egypt, Greece, Iberia and Asia Minor. But the invinciblity has been shattered. Just one year ago, three legions under Varus were slaughtered at Teutoburg Forest by the German Arminius. The conquest of Germania has been brought rapidly to a halt and now other states bordering on Roman lands think of war.
To the East, Pontus and Armenia are poised to attack Asia Minor, and retake their old homelands. The Parthian Empire has been subdued temporarily by a peace treaty, but they are as changeable as the wind and will strike at any time.
North of Gaul, across the sea lays Brittania. Not much is known about this land, except that it is rich with metals and inhabited by vicious barbarians.
Take control of Rome and expand your already huge borders or play as the British and break out of your island home. Play as the German Tribes and continue to decimate the legions who dare to invade your land. Play as Parthia and conquer the Judeans who ally themselves with Rome before taking the Roman lands themselves.

Faction List.
Julii- Roman Principate
Brutii-?
Scipii- ?
Britons- British Tribes
Germania- Germanic Tribes (Frisians, Cherusci, Teutons, Chatti)
Gaul- ?
Spain-?
Numidia- the Kingdom of Nabatea
Dacia- the Kingdom of Dacia
Seleucids- the Kingdom of Osroene
Egypt- the Tetrarchy of Judea
Carthage-the Kingdom of Mauretiania
Scythia-?
Thrace- the Kingdom of Thracia
Parthia- the Parthian Empire
Armenia- the Kingdom of Armenia
Pontus- the Kingdom of Pontus
Macedon the Bosporan Kingdom
Slaves- Independent States
Greeks-?
Senate-?


Ideas-

The Roman Principate Family tree will be split in two.

One half is the Imperial Family, descended from Augustus

The other half are the politicians, dividided into various sub-families

Faction Leader (deceased) is Julius Caesar, succeeded by his adoptive son, and also by the politicians.
In my opinion this would be be the best way to simulate the reality of the period.



Questions-

Would it be possible to recruit generals with native features?

For example, the Romans recruit a general in Judea, with the name Herod and Judean traits. I think the traits part could be done through ethnic traits


Help Needed-

To forward the mod and accellerated the speed that it is finished, I will need help. If anyone can volunteer to create a new map or model units that would be amazing. I also need help with research, especially for the non-Roman factions.

Thanks for reading this!

[SubRosa]

I like the idea. I think it would be one way to do a second Rome TW game. The real question is how do you make it challenging for the Roman player? They start out as the biggest kid on the block, and would probably be able to easily steam-roll little countries like Mauretiania and Nabataea, as they did in real life.

[luke_liddle]

Good question. What I need to do is to make incentives to not bulldoze these nations. One idea is for the Tetrarchy of Judea to provide regular tribute which makes you want to stay allied to it. For the African nations i debated making the legions much less effective in desert terrain, but historically they could fight nearly anywhere, so I think the makeup the the troops will help with that. If anyone has any ideas as to how i can make the Romans harder to play as, just give me a shout and il take them into account. :)

[SubRosa]

All I can think is to make use of a Culture system like XGM does, using the 3 religions from BI. You could have a Roman, a Barbarian, and an Eastern culture. That would slow down Roman expansion by adding to public disorder in the provinces they capture. You also might make their units cost a lot more to recruit and maintain.

[luke_liddle]

Thats a good idea. Also i have an idea to implement a similar feature, with Roman Citizenship (as a building). All cities in Italy would have this at the start and they will be the only ones able to recruit a legionary cohort (as legionaries had to be citizens of Rome). I might make citizenship createable in provinces but at a high price.

[SubRosa]

XGM, EB, and other mods do something similar with Colony buildings. Building the colony building at each tier increases culture conversion rates, and allows you to recruit your better units.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

U guys do realise that u can have NINE of these religious slots in RTW:BI right?

[luke_liddle]

U guys do realise that u can have NINE of these religious slots in RTW:BI right?

Thats quite a lot. The ones i need really are Roman, Germanic, Celtic, Eastern and african.

[SubRosa]

U guys do realise that u can have NINE of these religious slots in RTW:BI right?

Really? I had no idea.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Yeah. Ive heard it posted around these forums cant remember where though.

[Makanyane]

You can definitely have more than three religions,
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=54858
but bear in mind only the first three cause dissent, and the ai isn't very good at handling them, eg. if last owner of a settlement built a building that gives wrong religion, they'll never blow it up

[luke_liddle]

Thanks for the heads up guys. A minor note - the Castra Praetoria will be simulated by a fort outside Rome. Nothing huge or special, but just a little idea. The reason its a fort is because 1- it holds the Praetorian Guard and 2- It had solid walls which could probably serve as a fortress.

A quick question - would it be possible to utilize the loyalty system and tie it to one man (faction leader)? This could work well if 2 leaders were different ie- Nero Drusus is loyal to Augustus because he is is stepson. But he is disloyal to the next FL Tiberius because Tiberius was picked as heir instead of Drusus' own son Germanicus.

Mabey it would need to be linked with traits...

[luke_liddle]

Just a small update guys, the family trees for the House of Herod (Judeans) and the Mauretanians

[SubRosa]

You really are going to a lot of work on the historical side. Impressive.

I am guessing that Cleopatra was a popular name back then, rather than all those Cleo's being the famous one.

[luke_liddle]

[QUOTE=SubRosa;2137658
I am guessing that Cleopatra was a popular name back then, rather than all those Cleo's being the famous one. [/QUOTE]


Cleopatra Selene (wife of Juba) was actually the daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. In fact in the game, the Mauretanians and the Roman Imperial family are sort of related (role play resons really) as Cleopatra Selene's sister Antonia is married to Nero Drusus and she is the mother of Germanicus and the future Emperor Claudius. Im still mainly researching the armies and royal history of the factions, but finding actual 'units' is harder than I thought because most battle accounts just refer to them as '30,000 infantry' or '7000 cavalry'.

[luke_liddle]

Small Update regarding units.

Roman Principate-

Strong Legionaries and elite Evocati, but little variety in factional troops.
Auxiliaries available in many provinces including Barbarian cavalry and archers.

British Tribes-

Light, Fast, High morale troops in large numbers have no armour. Skirmish troops armed with slings and javelins.
Chariot generals and spear warband among heavier troops.

Parthians-

Heavy Cataphracts, two varieties, one armed with a lance and the other with a heavy mace.
Speedy horse archers, including a camel mounted version - slower but cheaper and more effective in desert areas.
Little infantry.


Dacians

Small amount of mounted troops. Mounted javelin troops. Rhoxolani Cavalry.
Dacian archers. Bastenae Falxmen.
Captured Civilized Ballistae and Catapults.


Just a small insight into some of the troops in the game

[luke_liddle]

The Judean Tetrarchy



comments on this and the troop ideas above please

[SubRosa]

Will the Judeans start out as a client kingdom of Rome?

[luke_liddle]

Will the Judeans start out as a client kingdom of Rome?

Yes, either as an ally or protectorate

[luke_liddle]

ROMAN TROOP ROSTER

Level 1 -
Vigiles (Watchmen of the City)
Gallic Tribesmen (Barbarian Auxiliaries) - AOR GAUL
Roman Auxiliaries (Light Spearmen)
Scythian Archers (Barbarian Steppe Auxiliaries) - AOR SCYTHIA


Level 2 -
Equites Maurorum (Mauretanian Cavalry Auxiliaries) - AOR MAURETANIA
Equites Hispanorum (Iberian Cavalry Auxilaries) - AOR IBERIA
Equites Thracium (Thracian Cavalry Auxiliaries) - AOR THRACE
Eastern Archers (Archers from the Eastern Provinces) - AOR SYRIA and JUDEA

Level 3 -
Equites Singulares (Hand Picked Generals Bodyguard)
Equites Gallorum (Allied Gallic Medium Cavalry) - AOR GAUL
Equites Germanorum (Allied German Medium Cavalry) AOR GERMANIA
Legionary Cohort (Roman Legionary Cohort) - AOR ITALY/PROVINCES GRANTED CITIZENSHIP
Ballistae (Arrow Firing Artillery)
Scorpions (Bolt Firing Artillery)

Level 4 -
Evocati (Re-enlisted Legionarh Cohort) - AOR PROVINCES/ ROME
Praetorian Cohort (Imperial Guardsmen) - AOR ROME
Equites Praetoriani (Mounted Imperial Guardsmen) AOR ROME
Onagers (Stone Throwing Seige Equiptment)
Polybolos (Automatic Bolt Firing Artillery)
Carroballistea (Carriage Mounted Arrow Firing Artillery)

Level 5 -
Evocati Augusti (Re-enlisted Imperial Guardsmen)
Equites Evocati Augusti (Re-enlisted Imperial Guard Horsemen)

[luke_liddle]

DACIAN ROSTER (Not very historically accurate - wip)

Level 1-
Dacian Javelin Skirmishers
Dacian Spear Militia

Level 2 -
Mounted Javelin Skirmishers
Dacian Archers
Falxmen

Level 3 -
Basternae Falxmen (Elite Falxmen)
Sarmatian Elite Horsemen

Level 4 -
?

Level 5 -
?



Comments on this and the roman roster please?

[Emperor of Graal]

Your really going in there for Historical gameplay
Keep it up!
Your map is going great.

[luke_liddle]

Italia and Mauretania -






Ive had an idea for a simple Roman government system.

Level 1 is a province - a basic type that provides a small happiness and trade bonus.
It is then upgraded to 1 of 2 level 2 buildings

Level 2

Imperial Province - Larger Happiness Bonus and Troop Morale Bonus

Senatorial Bonus - Taxation Bonus and Law Bonus

Also, there is an option to give a province 'Roman Citizenship'. This is expensive and can only be done at the highest tier, but provides taxation and happiness bonuses, as well as the ability to train Legionarys there.

Would this be possible?

The two available types are an Imperial Province and a Senatorial Province (some provinces IE Italy have none).

Imperial Provinces are suited to border regions, important for stratregy. Imperial Provinces get a

[SubRosa]

I like your idea of the provinces. I am not sure how you would implement the code for that, but if it works it would be ideal.

[luke_liddle]

I might implement scripts, but only if I learn scripting or get a scripter on board.
I like the idea of having client rulers. Especially if they can have foreign names (ie an Egyptian client King would be Ptolemy, if you decided to set up a client kingdom there).

Im getting some really annoying CTD's however when playing as the Julii, reading the FAQ's its to do with rebel factions. Do you have to delete an unused rebel tribe/kingdom (ie Etruscans)?

[SubRosa]

Can you be more specific? If you have removed a territory, then yes I would remove the rebels that belonged to it in descr_rebel_factions.txt. Assuming those rebels were not represented in another, still existing territory.

[luke_liddle]

Can you be more specific? If you have removed a territory, then yes I would remove the rebels that belonged to it in descr_rebel_factions.txt. Assuming those rebels were not represented in another, still existing territory.

The CTD is strange, in that it only affects the Julii. Before it happened, I had successfully completed editing Gaul, basically by condensing Armorica, Central Gaul and Lugdensis into 1 large province. This worked fine. When I merged Venetia, Liguria and Cisalpine Gaul together though, I got CTD's. I experiemented a little, any removed it from Julii control. Still the game CTD'ed at the end of the loading bar. I gave Cisalpine Gaul to the Germans. It loaded for the Germans but still failed on the Julii. To see if Italia/Umbria were causing the problems, I removed them, and all other provinces bar Gallia Narboensis and gave Italia to the Scipii. The same problems ensued, in that the Scipii loaded without a hitch and the Julii failed.
Il mess around deleting rebels but if all else fails, Il load a backup which means I will have to re-do parts of Gaul, but the work only took several hours in the first place.

On a lighter note, im thinking of adding some 'sightseeing' traits to [Roman] Factions. Ie, if a governor spends a turn or two in Achaea, he gains a 'Visited Athens' trait, which adds a management point (due to Athens being a famously well run city). He can gain command points by being inspired by the Ancient Egyptian Pyramids. Just a little idea to add a little extra flavour to the mod.


Also, does anyone have any idea/requests/recomendations for Barbarian (specifically British and German) tribes, ie Brigantes, Icenii, and Frisians. Or would you prefer, a united hegemony of tribes like in vanilla.

[luke_liddle]

Ok, so ive figured out whats wrong. For some strange reason, whenever I edit or delete 'Liguria', I get CTD's so for now, I've changed the name that appears and moved Liguria to Britannia to create a new Iceni province. Il get some screenshots up soon.

[luke_liddle]

Gaul -



Britain -

[luke_liddle]

Here is the Revised Faction List - Still open to suggestion though - Not complete

* Cherusci if if people do not want an allied German Faction.

S.P.Q.R (Julii)
Belgae/Trinovantes/Iceni (Brutii)
Belgae/Trinovantes/Iceni (Scipii)
Brigantes (Britain)
Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (Senate)
Confederation of German Tribes/Cherusci * (Germania)
???Marcomanii (Gaul)
??? Germanic Tribe? (Spain)
Kingdom of Parthia (Parthia)
[Roman Client] Kingdom of Mauretania (Numidia)
Kingdom of Armenia (Armenia)
[Roman Client] Kingdom of Pontus (Pontus)
Sarmatians (Scythia)
Kingdom of Dacia (Dacia)
[Roman Client] Tetrarchy of Judea (Egypt)
Kingdom of Thrace (Thrace)
Independent States (Slaves)
??? Northern European Tribe ie Cimbri, Frisians (Greek Cities)
Kingdom of Nabatea (Carthage)
(Seleucids)
(Macedon)


Thoughts?


Does anyone have any information on the armies of the Bosporan Kingdom and the Germanic Tribes (specifics) at this time? Any help would be much appreciated.