Inter-gens fighting as Roma

[bigmilt16]

Given that there are so many gens and "families" as Roma, I was curious as to how folks here play out their "family feuds" as Roma...

what do you guys think...

[SwissBarbar]

For civil wars I divide the faction into two halfs and then fight the hostile half ^^ Of course you have to choose one side. Inter gens fightig though is more complicated, don't know if you can switch your FM to another faction. But you can roleplay of course their fighting and dying.

[Macilrille]

The inter-faction fighting was a feature of vanilla, it is not in that way authentic. All factions had inter-faction competetion, but the RTW Engine is not yet able to portray such, perhaps in RTW 16a... but as it could only be portrayed by a civil war, and thus inadequately, EB is IMO better off without it.

[Fixiwee]

Roleplay it.
When my Scipions became corrupt a smart plebian Caecilius went to court and sued him. He was exiled to a "fort" (in this case a villa) on the French coast.
Gentes can fight for provinces too. Just decide that the wealthier gentes might send more FM to the rich east, and the rest might have to go to the not so lucrative west.
If two gentes oppose each other you could RP a long feud that leads to civil war, etc etc.

Creativity knows no boundries, RTW actually does. So it has to play all in your head.

[SwissBarbar]

That's a cool idea with the villa. I use forts to create more "villages", where my veteran soldiers live and can be called to duty again, when the "rookies" get beaten up by some insane Ptolemaioi-Fullstack

[Fixiwee]

I also use the forts for villas around Rome where old FM retire or stick around if they don't like the noise and smell of the city.

[Grimsay]

For civil wars I divide the faction into two halfs and then fight the hostile half ^^ Of course you have to choose one side. Inter gens fightig though is more complicated, don't know if you can switch your FM to another faction. But you can roleplay of course their fighting and dying.

Hi,

This sounds like exactly what I've been trying to do.

How do you do this? Is it possible? I've been trying to find a way to recreate the civil wars in EB using the custom battles but I'm not very adept in modding the multiplayer .edu and have been mostly unsuccesful so far. If it was possible to have a civil war in the campaign game that would be amazing!

Any advice would be great.

Thanks,
Iain

[SwissBarbar]

With Rome it's a bit more difficult. With the Arverni f.e. you can wipe out the Aedui (except for one settlement) and then give them the half of your settlements, rename the faction (or roleplay it) and giving them another colour, and stuff. Since they have a similar culture and units, it's like a civil war.

[bigmilt16]

The villa idea sounds great! Something else I would like to try in my next campaign is play each gen as a "mini faction" with each based in one Italian city. With the different personality traits of each gen, and some help from the temples and structures, each gen could virtually act as its own faction (at least in the polybian era). It creates more of a "federalist" system that places more emphasis on the individual Italian states than on Rome itself.

-Each gen would have its capital in an Italian city (ex. the game begins with only the cornelii and the aurelii; each would be based in one city based on influence; naturally, the more influential family gets the bigger wealthier city to call home)

-Allows you to roleplay real politics between gens (politics is money):

1. POLITICAL RULE 1: Economic priorities go to Rome first, then the remainder goes to the gens with highest overall influence (If you only have 1000 mnai and the aurelii and cornelii cities both want it to build that new sewer, the cornelii most likely get first dibs to the senate money)
2. POLITICAL RULE 2: Military politics! Only a gens who is consul/praetor may raise one full stack from Roma to benefit their gens! This is important because it adds real political incentive for gens to raise good FM's and get them elected consul so that they can raise a national army to aid their individual city-state's troops fo military conquest. (ex. a city full of julii has been at war constantly with gauls to the north. they can only raise local troops from within their own city to wage this war; suddenly, a julii gets elected consul; the julii consul may now raise a stack of troops from Roma to pummel the gauls, get rich, and seize lands for other julii FM's)
3. POLITICAL RULE 3: Loyalty matters!

4. POLITICAL RULE 4: Property matters! property conquered by a gens is property of the gens regardless of whether one is in there at the time or not.

a gens who adopts a FM of another gens who is DISLOYAL or has the "disowned his father" trait is at odds with the political establishment (or other ruling gens) in the city and must leave to a fort. (ex. City full of Valerii adopt a disloyal cornelii; the Valerii hate this guy and want him out of their city at all costs; the Cornelii is forced out of town; the Cornelii has no other city with Cornelii so he has no political home; this ousted FM must reside in a fort until he can gain a settlement of his own or another cornelii gains a city.
A LOYAL adoptee is a different story entirely (ex. City full of fat, lazy Octavian adopts a "go-getter" Cornelii who is loyal and has not disowned his father; Since the cornelii adoptee is welcomed due to his loyalty, he is not ousted like in the Valerii example; the Cornelii gains great traits, works hard and eventually ascends to governor of the Octavian city-state; the Cornelii may now invite other cornelii into the city and banish the Octavian family entirely to a fort or another Octavian city.) THE CORNELII HAVE NOW TAKEN A CITY RIGHT FROM UNDER ANOTHER FAMILY


-As new gens enter the game they get their own city as well (julii, octavian, etc.)

-Each family, or "mini-faction" can only raise its own army from their own base city and be lead by their own family members; this makes their ability to run their home capital important (building infrastructure, raising a bountiful population, and raising good sons.

-this also adds great variety to the game because most mini-factions, as they evolve, should not be interested in starting wars at all if you roleplay with the temples and structures properly: some cities may be lead by a family full of corrupt and greedy bureaucrats, opulent pigs, party animals who live at the circus, farming geniuses, politicians who seek nothing more than to join the senate, or scholars who bore with rhetoric all day

-it forces you to slow down as Rome: you can't go to war unless the mini-faction (1) has enough FM's to do it, and (2) they have the resources within their Italian city to raise an army.

[Tiberius Claudius Marcellus]

Wow, that's a ton of RP

That's almost too much for my liking. That would be excellent for a PBM though!

When I RP civil wars I take whatever units will be involved and set up armies in the multiplayer battle system and let the computer control both sides. I let them actually fight it out, not just auto-calc.

This has the unfortunate effect of stupid AI making mistakes and sometimes unrealistic events happening in battle, but at least I don't get to slaughter whatever side I'm playing against simply because I'm a human with good decision making capabilities.

Very rarely, if a computer makes decisions that are completely and ridiculously against a general's traits then i will re-fight the battle to make it more realistic, but for the most part I abide by what the computer determined and then kill off whatever units died on the campaign map and go from there.