How fickle is the Senate?

[Bhruic]

Ok, I haven't played Roman factions much. I thought I'd give them a try. I played a nice campaign as the Scipii, and decided to move to the Brutii and see how that worked out.

Right off the bat the senate wants me to take Apollonian. No problem, I take the settlement easily. Next, they want me to blockade Syracuse. Again, no problem, I was moving to attack the Greeks anyway. I besieged Thermon just in time for the senate to order me to take it. Nothing easier. Next they order me to get a trade agreement with the Macedonians. Well, my diplomat happens to be 2 squares away from a Macedonian diplomat. Job accomplished. Finally, they order me to take Corinth. Well, I wasn't sure that I wanted to go to war with Macedonian before dealing with the Greeks. But I'd just eliminated most of the Greek army in that neck of the woods, so I figured why not.

So Corinth falls to my troops. The senate rewards me with a unit of Numidian Mercenaries. Not my favourite, but ok, I'll take them.

"Oh, and by the way, you are now outlawed, and all of the other Roman factions are declaring war on you." What?!? The game is less than 10 years in. My rating with the senate and populace is identical to the Scipii, and almost identical to the Julii. I've fulfilled every mission that the senate gave me. So what exactly did I do that irked them so badly? Was I suppose to not do the missions?

I didn't save, as I had no real interest in a war so early with all of them (I could play a non-Roman faction if I wanted that). But is there any way to avoid this? Should I just not take Corinth? Maybe sleep with a Senator's wife or something?

Has this happened to anyone else, and did you figure out what the problem(s) was/were?

Bh

[R'as al Ghul]

I played mostly eastern factions so my experience is limited on this issue.
I would guess that you're just a bit too successful and they thought, better just get rid of him in the beginning?
Playing the Brutii, however, I remember that the missions were very easy to accomplish and I always was done with them in under the time. I didn't expand that fast, though, so that might be the point. I think when you have too many popularity points with the plebs that it might trigger the civil war.
Anyway, all of the above is mere speculation.

R'as

[ghostcamel]

Curious.

In my Scipii campaign i had much more land than you have now, and i had been doing some sabotage and assassinations on border Julian settlements. Jullii was just about to steamroll the northern barbarians and i didnt want that to happen.

So much covert activity in fact, that the Julii broke the starting alliance with me and cancelled military access. I have about 25 territories. The Senate still gave me missions through it all(yea like my all time favorite mission: Blockade Bostra!!!!!).

[lancer63]

If the mission's reward/warning is not up to the consecuences I ignore it. If the mission diverts me from my strategic path I ignore it. The Brutii gets lots of second chances. It's just a matter of patience and timing with them. I even managed to take Larissa last night without going to war with the Macs, who btw have been my allies for the last 80 years.

[Sin Qua Non]

I've noticed this too when playing as a Roman family. Complete all missions, or ignore all misssions, and you're in for trouble. It seems that the path of longevity with SPQR is to know when to fail. Whenever I have met all of their demands, some trigger seems to go off and they suddenly treat me like a usurper, almost like they are following a later game script. Actually, I've found that succeeding all missions will lead to trouble quicker than failing all missions! The popularity meters seem useless at this stage, since they only seem to react over longer trends.

What I usually do is complete all misions that are compatible to my situation. That is, if it's vs. Greeks I'm at war with Greece, OK. If it involves opening an entire front up with the Gauls, no way. If it's blockading a port where my navies have projection force, OK. Blockade Southern Brazil? Nope. As a rule of thumb, it may seem a bit odd, but it only takes 1 game to realize that SPQR are a bunch of jerks running on scripts.

[Maltz]

I was thinking, to succeed in politics sometimes you have to pruposely fail something so you don't attract your potential enemy's attention this much... But I doubt whether this factor is incorporated in RTW? It is not supposed to be such a dark game.

[Tricky Lady]

As a rule of thumb, it may seem a bit odd, but it only takes 1 game to realize that SPQR are a bunch of jerks running on scripts.

Perhaps that's true, but I still find the RTW Senate script a zillion times better than the Pope in MTW. I think I have played half a "Catholic" campaign (PBMs not included, that is), and I couldn't start a new muslim or Byzantine campaign quick enough.

I personally like the Senate function in RTW, even when they sometimes act a bit weird (like in Bhruic's example.