Does Byzantium affect your popularity?

[Tabuu]

If you take the city of Byzantium, I've heard that your popularity with the people skyrockets, almost enough to march on the city of Rome itself. What I'm asking is: how much does popularity really rise?

[Shieldmaiden]

In vanilla Rome and Barbarian Invasion?

To the best of my knowledge, Byzantium has no unique bonus at all.

[Tabuu]

no in the regular game rome: total war. I took Byzantium and the people favor goes super high.

[Myth]

It's not Byzantium in itself, more along the lines of a grand conquest. When i take Sparta in the early turns the Senate and People always love me for it. Sometimes the Senate just gives me a reward for being so proactive. Do you take rebel Byzantium or is it owned by a faction?

[Tabuu]

Rebel Byzantium

[IceWolf]

In my experience Byzantium is one of the more unruly provinces. I conquer them anyway but they have a tendency towards unrest, I don't see the positives. Of course I didn't bother checking all my other provinces for popularity so this may well be true, I just know it's a minor pain in the a$$ to govern.

Icewolf

[Lord Reid of Britannica]

I've always found byzantium a very safe province to own moneywise and positionwise, as long as you have a foothold in asia minor and have eradicated thrace. I haven't seen a direct impact on public happiness but i've never really had trouble in the area of rebellion with the province

[Tabuu]

Weird, because every time I take Byzantium a couple turns later it's revolting. I even took out all the surrounding nations. (excluding Pontus and the Seleucids)

[Shieldmaiden]

In my experience Byzantium is one of the more unruly provinces.

Interesting thread about provinces and unrest: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...rder-Penalties

I concur with Lord Reid, I've never noticed it being unruly and going by the thread I linkied it doesn't have permanent unrest

[Guyus Germanicus]

no in the regular game rome: total war. I took Byzantium and the people favor goes super high.

Does that happen every time you play with a Roman faction when you take that city? Or has it only happened once?

My guess is, your sudden surge in popularity with the people was just coincidental, and that there were other circumstances that caused the surge. As far as I know, there is no special game logic feeding your popularity when this city falls to your armies.

I have seen some patterns in popularity surges in RTW when playing with the Roman factions. But usually it has to do with the number of city/regions you have conquered. I would say, once you take 30-35 regions or thereabouts, you can be sure that your popularity with the people will become such that the game offers you 'A Chance for Power.'

Another recurring scenario, if you play the game this way and forego the 'Chance for Power' opportunity, is the Roman Senate will loath and distrust you so much they will actually send a Senatorial order to you insisting that your faction leader commit suicide. This can happen if you're still staying loyal to Rome but have conquered some 45+ regions.

[Tabuu]

Does that happen every time you play with a Roman faction when you take that city? Or has it only happened once?

My guess is, your sudden surge in popularity with the people was just coincidental, and that there were other circumstances that caused the surge. As far as I know, there is no special game logic feeding your popularity when this city falls to your armies.

I have seen some patterns in popularity surges in RTW when playing with the Roman factions. But usually it has to do with the number of city/regions you have conquered. I would say, once you take 30-35 regions or thereabouts, you can be sure that your popularity with the people will become such that the game offers you 'A Chance for Power.'

Another recurring scenario, if you play the game this way and forego the 'Chance for Power' opportunity, is the Roman Senate will loath and distrust you so much they will actually send a Senatorial order to you insisting that your faction leader commit suicide. This can happen if you're still staying loyal to Rome but have conquered some 45+ regions.

Yes I was playing as the Brutii and I was about to get a foothold on Greece. I thought maybe if I went around Macedon (who I was at war with) and survived to take Byzantium, that would make a two-pronged attack. Once I take it, I knew there was a mission and clicked "Senate Floor" instead of "Senate Missions" and there I saw the people favor 2 spots away from the top. This was the very beginning when I take Apollonia and Thermon.

[Myth]

As i said, early "grand conquests" probably will grant you such favor. Next time sail and take Alexandria, it should prove a similar effect if we are right.

[Guyus Germanicus]

I guess I'll have to experiment and check this out. I have never noticed an effect on popularity before by taking Byzantium. It has nothing particular to recommend it like Alexandria which contains the Pharos Lighthouse Wonder.

It is not unknown for one to have high popularity with the people at an earlier stage of the game than what I described in my earlier post, just unusual.

I have also received special plaudits from the Senate upon occasion after accomplishing some minnor conquests. I have never associated those rewards with the capture of a specific city. My take on them is that you're being proactive and you've conquered a couple cities, or whatever, and the Senate rewards you for that. I have imagined, at times, that the Senate was pleased with my taking Carthage, which historically was a great adversary. But I don't think I've seen consistent rewards when I do it.

Nevertheless, I shall perhaps experiment and see if I can trigger something by taking Byzantium in the early going.

[Myth]

Well the senate won't be overjoyed if you took a couple of piss-poor barbarian settlements on the edge of the map. But taking Sparta, Athens, Byzantium or one of the three large African cities should prove different. The key is to doing it early (when they thought it would be hard or impossible to do).

[Tabuu]

That's what I was thinking. Probably is how early you take the cities not about who owns it. I could be wrong though...

[Guyus Germanicus]

Well the senate won't be overjoyed if you took a couple of piss-poor barbarian settlements on the edge of the map.

Actually the Senate does applaud aggressiveness even if the settlements you take are minor. That I can attest to. And, too, I have taken Sparta, Athens and Corinth many times in games with a Roman faction over the last five years of gaming and not received any kudos in the form of spontaneous awards from the Senate for doing so. I do think there are times that when you take a city that is a bit distant from the rest of your holdings the Senate then issues a gift of money or plans games in your honor for your initiative.

Nevertheless, I shall experiment.

[Myth]

I got a 5000 denarii donation because i took sparta on turn 5 or so last time i played the Brutii (a few months ago). There was no senate mission in place for sure.

[Guyus Germanicus]

Nevertheless, I shall experiment.

I have just completed a test on medium difficulty. I sent Amulius Brutii with 3 hastati, one velite and one cavalry unit to Byzantium immediately upon the start of a game. I had Aulus Brutii take Apollonia. Amulius landed safely by sea just south of Byzantium, and I immediately had him invest the city. Two turns later, with battering rams built, he stormed and took the city. I pushed 'end of turn' to make sure the victory and fall of Byzantium was 'recorded' by the game. Status: 266 BC, my faction, the Brutii, occupy Croton, Tarentum, Apollonia and Byzantium. My popularity with the Senate is unchanged and the same as the other two Roman factions. However, my popularity with the people went down to 2. The Scipii and Julii have a popularity of 3 with the people.

So, my conclusion as I suspected, is that there is no logic trigger in RTW based on a particular city that causes your popularity to soar. My guess is that the game logic is set up to reward aggressiveness and the taking of a succession of cities without necessarily being commanded by the Senate to do so. Without actually being able to scan all the processing logic that drives the game, I cannot confirm my theory. But having played RTW for several years now, I have never seen any evidence that the taking a particular city led to a sudden surge in popularity either with the Senate or the People.

Also, I don't want you to misunderstand something I stated earily about taking Sparta and not receiving any reward for doing so. In the many RTW games I've played with Roman factions over the last five years it is quite likely that I have at some time or another received a spontaneously bestowed reward from the Senate for taking Sparta or Corinth or Athens. I'm simply saying that there is no hard and fast rule in the game logic that automatically triggers a Senatorial award every time a Roman faction takes Sparta or one of those other two cities. I believe the reward that Myth's game faction received for taking Sparta that he shared in his last post was based on his aggressiveness as I mentioned before.

The largess of the award, 5000 denarii, is not unusual. I have occasionally received 10000 denarii awards for accomplishing a Senatorial mission, and sometimes as a spontaneous award. Sometimes the Senate is stingy and simply awards 'games in your honor' or simply says 'thank you.' Their words usually go something like this: "Accept this bounty as a token gift," but no monetary gift or 'games in your honor' award accompanies the message. I just interpret that as 'Thank you.'

Actually, one of the best awards a Roman faction can get is the promise of the Senate to favor your faction in the next elections. Having your faction members elected to city offices is hugely important in their personal development and to your faction's political standing as a whole. It affects your popularity with the people. The holding of offices by your faction members enhances their administrative capabilities and talents. As your faction members increase in influence, they bestow all kinds of side benefits to your faction. You may notice too as you play the game more that the offspring of your prestigious faction members will inherit some of their good traits. (You will also notice that they sometimes inherit the bad traits too, and sometimes they're just spoiled wastrels.) :)

In any case, to answer the original question that was posed as the title of this string - 'Does Byzantium affect your popularity?" - my answer is 'no'.

[The Anarchist]

I was Playing as the Scipio the other Night, and I was constantly creating large Armies and in about 15 turns most of Africa was mine ( Lots of Preparation)
And as I began Invading the Nile, my Popularity with the People and the Senate rose, to about half and half. The People's popularity grew, but the Senates went down.