Death Stalks the Land - how to get rid of the plague

[Longasc]

I have a little problem - the plague broke out in Rome and Capua, right after conquest.

Now two of my Generals/Governors are affected:

An over 70 aged Financial Specialist (Governor of Rome because of that) and a new, promising General who just took Capua.

What can I do to:

-> Stop the Plague in Rome and Capua ?

-> How can I save my infected faction members?

-> What must I do - must I not do - to prevent the plague from spreading to other leaders - cities?

[Beelzebub]

Wait it out. It usually only lasts 3-5 turns in cities from my experience, in characters it can last over 10 turns. At the end, they'll either die or be cured (from my limited experience with it, they seem to have a better chance of living) . Don't move them anywhere or you'll help spread it, it can spread naturally by itself to nearby cities, but moving characters around magnifies the chances.

[Quietus]

Do as I do. My solution was to put my infected soldiers in a ship and leave them at sea

Those crazy numidians sold me a plague infested town (Lepcis Magna) I thought I had a bargain for 1730 denari since I was giving them trade rights too. I was kicked out in one turn and the Senate doesn't want me treading on foreign land since I don't have military access I'm not taking it back to Thapsus or Carthage so, I dropped the poor garrison unit in a ship.

My ships were being hunted down by stacks of AI ships from Spain, Gaul and Carthage, eventually it was lost. So, you might want to place it in an inaccesible area far away. Soldiers weren't dying anyway.

[Tamur]

I put all my disease-ridden army units (including family members) on a forced march to Gaul (as the Brutii, a good long hike in 220 BC) and simply smashed the Gauls in a series of battles. I didn't beseige any cities, simply went for the loose armies and wiped up.

The Julii were quite happy, my plague-ridden army eventually got completely destroyed due to disease and battle losses, and the plague burned out of my cities by the time their campaign was done (which was eight years, not two or three --- it may burn out in three but not for me!)

[Soulflame]

Like other people said, the plague dies off in the city faster then on your faction members. If you want to have control of the town, simply move your infected members in the wilderness once the city is cured. Then bring in other governers without the plague.

In my experience, normal soldiers never carry the plague. They either die at the beginning of a turn or survive and don't carry the plague. So you can move the units out of the city and put them under the command of a general and go bashing with them.
It's odd, but that's my experience.

You can cure the city faster if you have health buildings, and I think you can heal faction members faster if you have an high end academy (so they can pick up a doctor or something).

Warning: if you have a plague in your capital, you MUST move out all your members there and put them into the wilderness, otherwise they may affect new members coming of age and guys married into your family and can prolong the plague extremely.

[ToranagaSama]

Are you serious? My faction leader has the Plague!!! Ughh.

[Shadow_Wolf33]

I've had a regular captain infected with the plague, I was pissed

[Soulflame]

Are you serious? My faction leader has the Plague!!! Ughh.

There is a possibility that he heals, so you could put him in a city with lots of health buildings... You'd be trading the life of thousands of peasants with that of your faction leader . But whatever you do, get him out of your capital (if he's there). My faction leader infected 3 of my family members on the "coming of age" announcement. 2 Died shortly after... ick.

[Spuddicus]

Or ...
You can use it to your advantage.
In my Brutii campaign I came across a tactic accidentally - Bio-warfare.
For most of the campaign I've been running plague-ridden spies into my enemies, neighbor's and allies cities.
It has been extremely effective.
Unfortunately it's a bit tedious micro-managing to make sure I don't accidentally infect myself or leave a sick spy idle and at this point, 220BC, my faction is unstoppable. The Egyptians posed somewhat of a threat but I've reduced their population by 30% in just a few years time. So there is no faction anywhere near even posing a nuisance at this stage, much less a threat.
Might get a bit boring.

[Oaty]

I've found it better to leave the infected in the city. I've had quite a few infected units that held the plague for years but as soon as I moved them back in the city they reinfected it but were cured. From my observations the plague can be healed within 2 years and the plagiuebearer loses the plague icon 1 turn after the city is cured

[DisruptorX]

The plague is nothing but a good thing. It keeps your rabbit-like population in check.

[afrit]

I got the plague once in my second campaign. It burned out in about 4 turns. THe interesting thing is that I tried to save some of the garrison by moving them out and putting them in a neighboring fort. It didn't work. In fact the soldiers that stayed in the infected city did not lose any men in the next turn, whereas those that I moved out lost men for 3 more turns.

Moral of the story: do NOT move people in or out of infected towns, unless you are moving out a character.

BTW, if my capital got infected, I would just switch capital. Much easier than moving characters.