I have discovered some new evidence, partly thanks to my obsession with assassins. Playing Scipii, VH/M. The plan was simple. Train up a hoard of assassins and use them to bring down the other Roman factions without a silly civil war. Killed almost all the senators save the leader and the heir, which were too strong to touch. Killed almost all the Brutii, save two, who were infected with plague and i rightly believed would die soon. Then there was one: the 66-year old faction leader. Victory was at hand. Suddenly, i noticed a new family member. I thought he had slipped through my net around the capital, but i saw he was 20 something. then another, and another. Then the old man fell dead and another appeared.
Then i realised that either this is some unknown mechanism for self-preservation, or the com is getting masses of Man on the hours because almost all of his generals are dead. So it was back to square one. The Brutii are down to one again, but a stupid captain is blocking the hordes from reaching him. Grrr...
My only consolation is that the line of Brutii has been broken and all their new generals had funny surnames. Fortunately the senate doesnt do any fighting and they are down to their leader who is 40-something years old. I tried to get rid of him when he was only a faction heir but it didnt work and he got lots of Personal security traits and retinues. stupid fat food tasters. i have to wait 20 years till he's dead. Bah. I feel like being cruel and bribing the leaderless, massive stack of SPQR troops just for fun to see what they do. Maybe they might build another stack. We'll see, grrr.