Senate Rewards and strategic considerations

[dcd111]

I have two questions:

1. Do most people find the senate rewards become underwhelming very quickly? After only one or two decent paying missions, I now get promised rewards of special consideration for Senate offices or a unit I can already train, instead of the cold, hard Denari I need. My popularity with the Senate seems fairly high, high enough to have three offices currently. I did fail at one mission, but I completed all the others so far. I'm around year 245 BC, so I'm not very far into the campaign.

2. The Senate has asked me to blockade a Greek port, in exchange for a unit I can already train. I am currently not at war with the Greek Cities, and have my hands full with the Gauls on land and Spain at sea right now, plus I'm at war with Carthage, although they have not been aggressive so far. Should I worry about also being at war with the Greeks right now? It's early and we are nowhere near each other on land, but my fleets are weak and I don't need yet another faction interfering with my troop movements at sea. Will they be likely to take the war to me so early on, or will the change in diplomatic status have no real effect right now? The reward doesn't seem worth the risk, but I don't want the Senate to give me even cheaper rewards in future assignments if I start ignoring their requests for missions against the Greeks.

I should note I'm playing the Julii on hard/hard.

- dcd111

[Sleepy]

The Senate rewards can be fairly low.

Ignoring Senate missions is fine, especially if they want you to start a war with a major trading partner, especially when all they offer is their "gratitude".

I only accept missions in my campaign that fit within my overall goals. So I'll blockade a rebel port for the Senate but I wont blockade a Spanish port when my trade with Spain is worth 1000d/turn plus get embroiled in a war I dont want.

If your Senate rating drops too low I think their could be repurcussions in that failure could be painful ie suicide/fines but I've not been their myself.

[Vlad Tzepes]

1.The money form the Senate seem to drop quickly. I got 10k denarii (richly rewarded), 5k(greatly rewarded) and 1k (just... rewarded, wtf). Usually, big financial rewards don't happen very often, the Senate goes cheap pretty soon in the game.

2. I never follow Senate's orders if they are against my interests, but I try to adapt my policies to the senator's wishes. It doesn't seem to tick the senators too much. They outlawed me, during my first campaign as Julii, only after an assasination rampage against other Roman factions (I tried to wipe out at least one faction this way...).

[chemchok]

I don't know what everyone's talking about. I find that building a ship, crossing the Mediterranean, and laying siege to a neutral faction's city is well worth the Senate's gift of a barbarian warband.

[Sleepy]

1.The money form the Senate seem to drop quickly. I got 10k denarii (richly rewarded), 5k(greatly rewarded) and 1k (just... rewarded, wtf). Usually, big financial rewards don't happen very often, the Senate goes cheap pretty soon in the game.

The Senate can run short of money, in the early and middle games hence the miserly rewards. Or at least thats my observation. YMMV.

[Mori Gabriel Syme]

In your situation, it might be best to ignore the mission you describe. I ignored many, many missions against the Greeks while I was at war with Macedonia because I needed the Greek trade income to finance my war & I was at war with two other nations as well. I finally accepted one, beginning war with the Greeks a bit earlier than I intended, but only a little. But by then I had enough ships to strangle their trade income completely, so they are unable to rebuild. If you are not yet in a position to risk the damage to your navy, ignore it.

[Ulstan]

I usually take the cities they ask, but when it comes to blockading the ports of my trading partners, I have to respectfully decline and mumble about how I, as the julii, can't possibly spare any money for a fleet.

[Oaty]

When I played as the Julii, I got lovely rewards. About 80 percent were lovely gifts. 10k and 5k rewards for taking cities. All decent mercanary units. The worst mercanary unit I got from them were the numidian cavalry but they gave me 2 of them and since it's hard to train cavalry auxilia early they were in good timing. The other 20 percent were poor gifts but when they gave me missions for being considered into senate office it allowed my whole faction to be elected to senate and the missions seem quite easy once you have that power. When I had every senate position it seemed I'd get a mission to take a city I already had besieged. It does seem the more positions you have in the senate the easier the missions and the better the rewards.

Now when I played as the Scipii, the best unit I got from the senate was Scorpions. 1 10k mission reward and the rest were lousy rewards principes, ships and barbarian mercanaries and I never held more than 2 positions in the senate.

So it seems the more control you have of the senate the better the rewards are.

[Vanya]

GAH!

Vanya sez... Opportunity wears many guises.

Vanya recently finished Scipii campaign. Vanya figthing Carthaginians. Vanya take Carthage. Then Numidians stab Vanya in back.

Senator waltzes in and tells Vanya to "go blockage Apollonia for the glory of the Empire." At first, Vanya sez "GAH! Senator lost head! GAH!" But, then Vanya sez to Himself, maybe senator onto something?

So, Vanya send a ship to commence the hostilities, and packs TWO legions from North Africa and Sicily into boats and crosses the pond. First dingy shuts down the port, giving Vanya an irrelevant prize. That same turn, the two legions -- full stacks no less, though mostly of crap units (hastati, archers, equites, watch) -- disembark in the meadows outside of Sparta. One goes for the capital, Sparta, and the other makes a run for Corinth just to the north. Few turns later, GAH! Vanya is master of Peloponesus! Vanya had to gourge His admirals with sake to get them to navigate the greek-infested waters to get reinforcements there (cause Vanya, in His eternal Wisdom, decided to land legions headed by mere captains only ). After a few tough battles, Vanya finally broke through to Athens and later Larissa. After that, it was a rampage.

Vanya eventually lost Carthage to a Carthaginian revolt. At time, Vanya at peace with old foe. So, Vanya walk away -- head to Thapsus. Vanya later just let Thapsus go the same way when He decided the remaining legion was best used in a rear attack on Egypt.

So, Vanya essentially traded North Africa for Greece. Turns out it was a pretty good trade. At least in this case.

So, ask yourself... can youz drop one war with meagre riches up for grabs and instead focus on a bigger fish?



GAH!