Caesar in Gaul DLC

[Mhantra]

Oh so basically that is to stop you from undermining the culture of an entire province by spamming temples in one town?

I think that is exactly it, yes. In fact, I used to just build 2-3 temples, crank the culture to 100, then just destroy them all and go with whatever else I needed, military, order, food etc. So yeah, made culture kind of a non-factor.

Some interesting points for anyone else reading:

If there are 4 settlements in a province, it makes some sense that just getting one wouldn't allow you to completely eliminate the native or competing cultures. In fact, the cultural resistance and pushback would be strong. So taking the full province will help with a lot of this.

The much disrespected Dignitary is now much more important, almost to the point of bringing them along behind your conquering armies.

Also more important are research paths that add faction-wide cultural conversion and also any traits on generals or other agents. In fact, it changes a lot of the game's factions' power because some of them have a natural cultural conversion. The +4 cultural conversion literally eliminates the static native tradition cultural pushback of the conquered settlement.

[easytarget]

Anyone had any luck forming confederations? I've tried repeatedly and gotten no takers, made no difference if we were on friendly terms, not friendly terms, I'm about to wipe you off the planet, we're equal militarily, not equal militarily, etc etc etc. At this point I've tried under just about every possible circumstances you can cook up, nothing.

Is this a last stage then beyond military alliance and therefore just about so hard to attain there's no point? Yet I see these being formed by the AI frequently.

W/O the ability to get some diplomacy cooperation I've fallen back to plan B, which all of these barbarians in my midst appear to understand well enough, which is a spear through the eye socket.

[Hooahguy]

In the main game or in the DLC?

In the main game I managed to form one once, when I was toying around with my Suebi campaign post-AAR. The Aestii were attacking the Lugii, who really needed help since they were on the verge of losing their last settlement. I offered it first to the Aestii, they declined. Then I offered it to the Lugii who accepted, probably because if they didnt, they would be killed off by the Aestii.

[Myth]

Anyone had any luck forming confederations? I've tried repeatedly and gotten no takers, made no difference if we were on friendly terms, not friendly terms, I'm about to wipe you off the planet, we're equal militarily, not equal militarily, etc etc etc. At this point I've tried under just about every possible circumstances you can cook up, nothing.

Is this a last stage then beyond military alliance and therefore just about so hard to attain there's no point? Yet I see these being formed by the AI frequently.

W/O the ability to get some diplomacy cooperation I've fallen back to plan B, which all of these barbarians in my midst appear to understand well enough, which is a spear through the eye socket.

Try wiping out one of their stacks (if they have more than one) and laying siege to their last city. They should be happy to accept then.

[easytarget]

This is in the DLC. Ok, I'll give pushing them to the very brink a try. I was sort of hoping this campaign option would be, I don't know, perhaps a bit more rational. If I destroy your stacks and encircle your last city, that would be the point where frankly I don't care if you want to confederate or not, I can simply wipe you off the face of the map and be done with you.

The way this should work imho is either, we're the best of friends, to the point of years of having a military alliance together, proving in both our minds we're on the same page and pursuing the same agenda, in which case a confederation is an obvious option, or, I've just destroyed the only army you have, you are under attack from the opposite flank, and therefore your only hope in surviving in this cold cruel world is a confederation with me that keeps you alive.

The tragic part in my eyes about both of the suggestions I've made above is they can be coded to be checked for by the AI, one looks for military alliance and number of years the threshold is set to (make it a variable so it's not predictable) and the latter checks army count status, generals and number of parties you are at war with (again, set this threshold wherever you feel is a good game balance).

Right now this option is to me is as useful as satrapy which robs you of the ability to complete provinces and issue edicts.

[Myth]

It is still prefferrable if they have more than one stack and you destroyed one and besieged their city. You'd get their remaining troops for free. That's how I did it anyway.

[Kamakazi]

do we know if they will put the dlc on the steam sale? or am I holding out for no reason?

[Hooahguy]

We dont know, I would wait until the last day of the sale if it doesnt go further on sale in the coming weeks.

[The Stranger]

This is in the DLC. Ok, I'll give pushing them to the very brink a try. I was sort of hoping this campaign option would be, I don't know, perhaps a bit more rational. If I destroy your stacks and encircle your last city, that would be the point where frankly I don't care if you want to confederate or not, I can simply wipe you off the face of the map and be done with you.

The way this should work imho is either, we're the best of friends, to the point of years of having a military alliance together, proving in both our minds we're on the same page and pursuing the same agenda, in which case a confederation is an obvious option, or, I've just destroyed the only army you have, you are under attack from the opposite flank, and therefore your only hope in surviving in this cold cruel world is a confederation with me that keeps you alive.

The tragic part in my eyes about both of the suggestions I've made above is they can be coded to be checked for by the AI, one looks for military alliance and number of years the threshold is set to (make it a variable so it's not predictable) and the latter checks army count status, generals and number of parties you are at war with (again, set this threshold wherever you feel is a good game balance).

Right now this option is to me is as useful as satrapy which robs you of the ability to complete provinces and issue edicts.

in the campaign a few patches back i formed 2 confederations pretty early on, i did so by forming alliances first and giving some money to pump up the love between us, then accepted to go to war on their behalf, let them take a little battering and then offered to form an confederation. They happily accepted. I didnt get all their stacks tho i think, more like half.