Refuse to use bribes in RTW

[Spartiate]

Is anyone else finding that it is entirely too easy to bribe enemy armies when led by Captains and as a result the campaign is just too damn easy.I have started playing now with a strict rule of no bribery and i am enjoying the game much more as a result.Mind you i have always played this way in STW and MTW as well.In RTW i keep an assassin close by most armies as well and any Emissary who even glances in their direction gets a club on the back of his noggin.

[Doug-Thompson]

You may well have a point here. As I described on a similar thread, I wiped out the Pontus faction using mostly bribes and mercenaries.

Now the reforms of Marius have kicked in, and I've got a room full of dinarii. I'll have to see what civil war is like, but the Brutii looks unstoppable at this point.

On the other hand, I look forward to playing this game with the "poor" factions like the Parthians.

[Red Harvest]

I don't even trust family members. They all get to travel around now with a spy or diplomat in their entourage (usually diplomat since they seem to have longer movement range.) All of my settlements keep spies and/or diplomats in them to avoid losing to bribes.

[NagatsukaShumi]

I'm a serial briber I'm afraid. (Atleast, when it comes to massive armies)

Although, I do find that this tactic isn't viable for every faction. I've only been able to bribe away my problems as the Ptolemy Aegyptians and the Seleucid Empire as they hold some VERY weatlhy provinces (I'm currently in the 200,000's whilst also buying units and buildings every turn as the Seleucids) and maybe it is the cowards way out, but I see as diplomatic genius, bribe away my foes until I am able to atleast put up a fight against them rather than let them march on my cities and utlimately crush me like a little bug because I can't mass the manpower required to put up a decent fight, it seems realistic to me to be honest.

But then again, I could easily bribe every army on the map within a few turns and just walk across everybody which I do see as unfair really, bribes need to atleast be made easier, sure they sometimes ask for a bundle but if your rich it means nothing what-so-ever, should make bribery alot harder to accomplish because I've got diplomats who have just been "built" who can bribe huge armies, the experience of diplomats seemingly mean nothing when it comes to bribes.

Ah well, off to spill my coffers into the weak again......

[Tamur]

Agreed here as well. I can bribe a ten-unit rebel army who are disrupting trade for 2700 denarii. With 134.000 in the bank, it's negligible. Also, with my 10-influence diplomats, I can bribe almost any family member of any faction it seems. Couple that with an economy that produces 40k denarii per turn, and I have in two experienced diplomats an unstoppable faction crusher.

I absolutely adore the new diplomatic engine, but when you can use a single tool to come close to winning the game, you know it's too much. If we could bribe the peasants in cities so they don't revolt, we'd have a game-winning unit.

Influence needs to be knocked down a bit when bribing, and ALWAYS have a 5% possibility that you'll get a refusal. That may be in the game, but I just got done with a string of 27 bribes and had zero refusals using a seven-influence diplomat (well, he started at 7, ended at 10).

[Doug-Thompson]

I don't recall ever having a bribe refused. They always name their price and I've frequently refused it, but there's always a price.

[Longasc]

I am no 1/10 as rich as the Brutii, but I can bribe whole Armies per turn, with just 12.000 Denarii at the start...

Too easy, indeed.