The Romans never stop, never surrender.

As for other factions, usually showing them that you are clearly superior to them works. The AI may not be very smart, but it does seem to have a clear set of internal reasoning which determines whom to be allies with or not.


Lay seige to one city, threaten them into ceasefire. If they refuse, conquer that city and pillage it to the ground. Then, negotiate return of the city(if they refuse every terms, just give them back as a gift). Move to the next city, lay seige, threaten for a ceasefire. If does not work, repeat the above steps. Usually, after smiting about 3~4 of their cities, they get the picture and grovel under your feet.

Or, sometimes they have a deathwish - in this case, make a trip to all their cities and loot and pillage. It's like going to the bank. By the time you've looted all their cities you've amassed probably more than 30k denarii. And then, coax them into a ceasefire by offering the money you've looted from them. Usually 20~30k does the trick. Works like a charm.

Now, in some cases they still refuse to ceasfire.

In these cases, sometimes giving them time works. When somehow you are at war with a faction really far away(like, due to the stupidity of random port blockades), if there hasn't been actual military clash for many years, even decades, you can get a ceasfire easily.

Other times, some factions refuse to ceasefire or ally with you because their interest lies in the same area as yours. If you show them you will not tolerate incursion, they get the picture and agree for a ceasefire and/or alliance.

Like, for instance, I was playing the Seleucids. I've been trying to get an alliance with the Parthians for a long time, but they refused everytime. After a few years, the usual "Seleucids vs the World" scenario broke out. The Ponthids betrayed the alliance and started attacking, and the Ptolemaics and Parthians also started attacking at the same time. So I smacked the Ponthids and destroyed their faction. And then attacked the Ptolemaics and gained two cities, and set a strong defense line. Now, it was time to deal with the Parthians. But I've sent a diplomat first. Well what do you know, they must have seen what we can do to others. They agreed for a ceasefire, and an alliance, too.


Sometimes, RTW diplomacy weirdly makes sense.