Roman: Julii

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Thanks for the advice wumpus, I'm assuming assassins are better used against routed enemy generals then.

Odds against killing a faction leader or heir are slim -- but can be as high as 1 in 10 (with less than 50/50 of the 8+ assassin ending up dead). Family members of real value are about 4-1 against and "family" cavalry type guys are about 50/50.

The key to assassination of family members is to train up the assassin to eight plus and then take a shot at them, but do not take repeated shots as the first couple of misses leaves them with security conscious traits and ancillaries and they get VERY hard to kill and very likely to kill your murderer.

But don't be afraid to kill your assassins. They're a weapon just as much as a unit of Triarii. You wouldn't hesitate to send them into a breach to take an enemy capital would you? Don't be afraid of a dead assassin or 6 -- omelettes and eggs my friend.

[wumpus]

Ave, Seamus Fermanagh! Megathanx for the figures and stats you posted for Shogun. Great to know the chances of my agents' survival. In the past, I just went ahead to send my agents to their missions if their "eye"-marks exceed the target's stars (or target's "eye"-marks, as the case may be).
And yes--I learned from past failures that if I send an assassin, and he fails to make the kill, the target gets more resistant to the next attempts. Same goes for failed bribery jobs: the target becomes more resistant to future bribe attempts.
Hawooh.

[Paradox]

Ah, I see. Thanks, now I don't have to send assassins to kill leaders when the percentage is 2%.

[wumpus]

ave to all.
building spies and assassins is cheaper than building emissaries. so i don't have that many diplomats afield. however, i lose a lot of spies and assassins during their sorties, so i don't have many of them either. but, as Seamus Fermanagh said, sending spies and killers is like sending your combat batallions--you suffer casualties when they hit the enemy. that's war. anyway, the great challenge here is how you try to outwit the enemy--no tactic works 100% of the time. sometimes you lose; sometimes you win a Phyrric victory (as in my tarentum of late); sometimes you win with the computer shouting at you, "GLORIOUS VICTORY!!!" in all, the enjoyment a player gets is how s/he uses his/her brain in this game (these games, actually, for i also play MTW and M2TW).
hail puklo, for joining our train.
hawooh.

[Paradox]

Finally! I did exactly what Seamus told me, and it worked! I prepared ships on the borders of the penninsula to disembark troops, and I conquered Rome right after they declared me to be an outlaw. I have all of Europe, North Africa, and pretty much all the west. I started by buying a city from the Brutii, which gave me a message regarding that I should return it, I also refused all those other requests where my faction leader is supposed to commit suicide, etc.

The only factions left are the Brutii (now isolated in the east edge of the map with the capital alone, which I am beseiging now) and Egypt (Turkey, Arabian penninsula, at war with them).

I did the same things with Egypt (Buying Jerusalem, Damascus, Thebes and the place where the pyramids are located, which, broke my alliance between them) and this cost a hell of a lot of money. Despite all of this popularity, I still get over 6 riots EVERY turn with Civil riots that are starting to occur more often. Plus, I'm getting plagues in France and the islands where Caralis and Palma are located in.

Thank you all for your help, it is greatly appreciated.

[Quintus.JC]

Last time tried a really strange strategy with the Julii. since the Gauls have poor lands I decided to expand in all directions, playing in hard/Vhard
here is what i did.


i'm only recording military movements
turn 1
took Sejesta
Non-stop military recruitment in Arretium and Arimium(requires stables)
turn 2
all forces gathered and headed for carthage (led by faction leader)
turn 5
arrived at Carthage (along with a couple of mercenaries I picked up), city besieged. opposition garrison: Hasdruba and 2 town watch,
turn 6
reinforcement arrive from Sicily, both army defeated by me, my archers rout opposition elephants (population exterminated)
turn 8
Lilybaeum (spelling?) besieged, I tried to get there before the Scipii.
Gaul besiege Sejesta.
Turn 9
Lilybaeum taken, population exterminated (my force won’t stay here for long).
Aulus taking freshly trained forces to left Sejesta siege, the Gauls run
Turn 10
Thapsus besieged
Turn 11
Thapsus taken
Turn 12
Faction leader and forces head for Sparta, making stops at Italy(in case of pirates)
Aulus and his army besiege Patavium.
Turn 13
Gallic reinforcement utterly destroyed, Patavium taken(enslave).
Turn 15
Medialuam besieged.
Turn 16
Faction leader arrive outside Sparta, city besieged.
Turn 17
Medialuam taken, Sparta reinforcements beaten, Greek phalanx rout by a combination of frontal infantry assults plus cavalry charges at the rear. Spartan hoplites hit hard by missile weapons and later surrounded.
Sparta conquered.

I later had war with Macedon and took Corinth and Athens and the rest of the costal cities. Northern Africa was all gradually captured by me. The Scipii lost all expansion opportunities and had to look far away. The richest Balkan area was all picked off my me first before the Brutii, so they had to settle for poorer Dacian lands. After taking the 2 northern Italian settlements I had no wish to continue the war with Gaul, I built forts all over the mountain passes and bridge so any Gallic troops trying to get in was blocked and gave me time to pull up reinforments. By the Marian reformation I was the most powerful Roman faction and civil war started very early. But the Scipii only had 4 settlements while the Brutii was doing slightly better. After becoming Emperor I was quick to destroy Gaul and Spain, and later Egypt and completed the campaign. All under 120 years. But this was not as much fun as just playing normally and obeying Senate requests.

[Quirinus]

This belongs here:

If you play as the Roman: Julii family, send a spy into Gaul territory. Let one of their cities grow to Minor City (level 3). Check if they have a Sacred Circle to Epona, (the horse god). Take the city. Grow to 12000 ASAP.

Wait for a 'your roman people have embraced Epona as their god'. This happens if you leave the temple alone long enough (dont destroy it, repair it if damaged).

You can now build the Awesome temple of Epona and the Pantheon to Epona, giving your legionary cohorts 4 xp (1 silver), or 5 xp (2 silver) as 'raw' recruits!

I did a search and havent found this tip anywhere so here you go. Added to the Julii walkthrough as well. (and on the org)

^ Saw this post from about three years ago. I'm curious, does this actually work, or it is all bull?

[Barbarian]

That sounds interesting. If it works, I will have to wonder why something like this has been added to the game. I mean, most of the players will never find out about that.

[Paradox]

I'm not surprised, it's the same as BI really, you can leave some cities with having a different belief than your own initial faction religion to either give your army an advantage and/or avoid culture penalties.

[Quirinus]

Yeah, but even in BI, you never get a message saying 'your roman people have embraced Epona as their god' [sic], do you? You just.... keep having it. I'm not that sure if I have kept a Sacred Grove of Epona before when I played as Julii-- I've been razing foreign temples the first thing after conquest ever since I found out about the cultural penalty thing, but I've also played a couple of Julii games before that, and I don't much recall seeing such a scenario.

[Paradox]

Why not? You do get "Atheist" and other non-faithful ancillaries for your characters sometimes don't you? So I don't see why it's so unbelievable.

[Quirinus]

I know, but..... it just seems odd, don't you think? Especially that the poster specifies that only the Julii owning the Sacred Grove of Epona can encounter this. Why not the Brutii owning the Temple of Nike? Why not the Spanish owning the Temple of Baal? Why not the Seleucids owning the Temple of Set?

How would it be achieved, code-wise?

[Paradox]

When did the poster specify that only the Julii can do this? And how do you know all of those things aren't possible?

[Quirinus]

Does this 'embracing' work for every god, have you for instance ever seen it happen with Greek gods?

(Goeie tip trouwens! )

Nope, only the Julii (dank je ). This gives them the best temple in the game, for which you need a little help from the AI.

^
Unless I misunderstood it. >.<

It's on page two.

[Paradox]

I would try it out, but I'm not planning on waiting for the slow Gauls to get one of their territories to level three. After finding out that the Julii are the only people who are able to do this, I'm going to have to say it's BS.

[Barbarian]

Hm, I wonder, if you mod this building to be in one of the Julii cities from the very start, and then reach 12 000 population, would this also work?

[Paradox]

It would be a lot easier to try it that way, it would be funny to see Roman factions building temples of Baal.

[Quirinus]

While on the subject of temples for the Julii, does anyone else find it odd that the Julii have no Temple of Venus? Given their boast that they were descended from Venus, the absence of a shrine to their divine ancestor seems odd.

Is there a way to mod it in as a new temple or replace the Temple of Ceres?

[mrdun]

Yes. Open up the _buildings files, if you get stuck come back/ check out the modding forum. Should no give you a problem though!!

[Aemilianus the Younger]

Does anyone know how to give a character with a first name and a last name a specified trait, using the "give_trait [character] [trait] [level number].
I have tried everything from Vibius_Julius, to VibiusJulius, Vibius Julius, but none of them work.
I do not want the character to start out with this trait, becuase, i want to be add some traits to the characters that come of age later in the game aswell. I know how to use the descr_strat file to change the game, but this i just cant figure out.
Is there even a way to give a character with a first name and a last name a specified trait?

[Paradox]

Does anyone know how to give a character with a first name and a last name a specified trait, using the "give_trait [character] [trait] [level number].
I have tried everything from Vibius_Julius, to VibiusJulius, Vibius Julius, but none of them work.
I do not want the character to start out with this trait, becuase, i want to be add some traits to the characters that come of age later in the game aswell. I know how to use the descr_strat file to change the game, but this i just cant figure out.
Is there even a way to give a character with a first name and a last name a specified trait?

Try this, it always works for me:

give_trait "Vibius Julius" [trait]

[Good Ship Chuckle]

While on the subject of temples for the Julii, does anyone else find it odd that the Julii have no Temple of Venus? Given their boast that they were descended from Venus, the absence of a shrine to their divine ancestor seems odd.

For anyone who doesn't know, the reason the Romans claim that they are descended from Venus is because they are descended from Aeneas, whose mother was Venus. Aeneas founded Rome after the Greeks took Troy from the Trojans (The Trojan horse story). As a refugee he encountered many trials, including having a fling with Dido, queen of Carthage (Scandal!). But eventually founded a city in Latium, where Rome was to soon emerge.
In a historical sense the Romans are Greeks as well. If you want to delve further, look up Virgil's Aeneid. History seems so much alive when its written in the form of epic poetry.

Raise your hands up if you like Dactylic Hexameter!!!

[mrdun]

[Good Ship Chuckle]

What?! Do you not like Dactylic Hexameter?! Hhmm. I sense you may have had a bad experience in the past with it. Well, let me see if I can change your mind. *ahem*

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
I sing of arms and the man, who long since left the land of Troy

Now wasn't that enjoyable? Did it not simply resonate with you? I can tell you can hardly contain yourself, mrdun.
That was the first line by the way, so if I have only tantalized you, don't be in anguish. There are twelve more books cantaining each around 500 lines of non stop pleasure. I encourage you to read further and fully convert your pre-misconcieved beliefs.
Your welcome.

[mrdun]

Actually, if i knew what you was reffering to then maybe. Quite frankly I do no understand.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

Well it seems a very strange thing to criticize that which you do not understand. Never mind then. I cannot help you see, if you refuse to open your eyes.

[Denzil]

The Julii, you seem to be led to playing them with your first campaign. You have the prologue with them and then they are already selected when you are starting an Imperial. Your basic battle skills learnt in the previous titles and the prologue if you are a bit rusty should be enough in this campaign. The Gauls should be your first target as they do not represent much of a threat. Pila/ velites will be your early friend. Pila/ archers will be your late friend although they should be dead and buried by this point. A nice tactic when you start is to take segesta as late as possible. make sure you do not exceed 10 turns. In this time you should block bridges/ mountain passes with forts, put a small garrison in them as the fort bug should keep them safe. Now you have Mediolanium and Patavium isolated. It should be easy to wear them down, attack and let loose missile then retreat. In two/three turns they should surrender. With the Julii you should aim to make the enemy surrender as much as possible, save your soldiers.

Make sure you do not over extend. Keep the war on one front, block the pyrenees passes with more forts to keep Spain away and just focus on going north. Once you have Gaul take spain, mining is wealthy. You need wealth for the Germans and Britons. Just take it easy, expand slowly and you should not have a problem. remember, barbarians hate missile, they are weakly armoured. Hopefully another Roman faction will initiate the civil war, just keep friendly to the Senate and create a few legions to do their bidding. Continue up north until around the place where Dacia ends synthia starts from here You should be in a commanding position, descend the danube and take greece, Asia Minor, Africa, Egypt and finally Italy.

Denny

[Good Ship Chuckle]

I like your ambition. All the way to egypt, eh? In my experience I was very busied with the threats from the north (barbarians) and home (Rome), but once you have your fronts covered, you can expand anywhere.

[Livia]

Hi. Um I realize that this might not be the right thread to post this on, but I am desperate and the site won't let me start my own thread. So sorry. But I am having some issues with the game. It plays fine for every faction but the roman ones, because whenever you click on the senate or a senate mission, the game crashes. It first happened when I unlocked the unlockable factions, but I have since locked them back up again and it was fine, I suspect,--until *gasp* I used the money cheat because my funds were severely lacking. Not only that, but I don't get the movie when you first enter the game and the loading screen is just black, same with the menu screen. I'm not sure if you'll be able to help me, but I am going sort of crazy because it's not working properly. I'd much appreciate any help because I've spent some time trying to figure out what's wrong (I've fiddled with the settings and everything). But I can't uninstall the game because my brother installed it right onto the hard drive and he doesn't have the discs anymore. Once again, sorry for posting this probably on the wrong thread. Thanks.

[Caius]

Hello Livia, please post here your problem. You will be able to create your own thread and explain your problem, there users will try to help you.