Dont make war you fools, make love....

[Lucius Lucullus]

How come that in every game Ive played so far, the faction name (Julius, Brutus or Scipio) is extinct within three generations? Some fools dont marry at all, or when they do marry their bride is some 40+ old hag unable to give birth due to her age. Its gone so far, that to keep my faction alive, Ive had to resort to bribing other factions family members.... and those that do get married to some young tart, they are unable to get children.

Now I know infanty mortality were high, but this is ridiculous, in my current Julii game I have no living members of my family with the last name Julius. And I havent even had the Marian reforms yet.

[Lonewarrior]

LOL that's not good

[sapi]

Ouch - mine die off for a while then breed like rabbits!

[Havard]

How come that in every game Ive played so far, the faction name (Julius, Brutus or Scipio) is extinct within three generations?

Well... My current faction leader is a true Julii, and that's fourth generation...

[King Yngvar]

I do what I can to make the true royal family members survive, I always note on a paper the names of the true royal family members and who are adoptives or inmarried ones. That way I can keep the real family. Of course, I make sure that the real ones are kept mostly out of danger so the family can live on as long as possible :)

[Servius]

I've found that family birthrates are VERY strongly tied to military expansion (or lack thereof). If I'm not taking any cities, my family members aren't having any kids. If I go on a blitzkriek, they breed like rabits.

Personally, I don't mind the connection when it's possitive; when the birth rate increases as my cities that need governors and armies who need generals increase. But I HATE that they don't have any kids if I'm not expanding, because that basically forces me to attack, otherwise my line dies out and I have to resort to buying barbarian heirs, ick.

MTW was better I think, because the downside of the above connection is more significant than the upside, to me at least. The brithrate was relatively steady, regardless of expansion, and it was easier to train up vanilla units to generals.