Quote Originally Posted by Xander77
Quite a bunch of them, really. I've read through some of the forum archives, but they occasionally created more questions than they answered.2. Are there ANY mods that improve diplomacy/battle AI? Yes, I know its mostly hard-coded, but this is getting very annoying. I would love to leave the numidians alone (even though the current Corduba governor is a former Numidian general who is getting quite homesick. Keeps muttering about barbarian malcontents and foul smelling local girls. Not at all like the friendly folks back home.) - They've helped my navies out quite a few times, but I know they're just going to backstab me. I would also love to negotiate something with the Spaniards - maybe give them Corduba and be glad I got rid of it. But they're unwilling to accept anything, even though it's totally obvious that I'm going to kick their ass. Very annoying.

I've tried Darth Mod, but it only made the AI stupider, unwilling to do much when faced with losing the formation. Like, I don't know... charge my town watch and equites when they're getting ready to surround and annihilate their king.
You might want to try Sinuhet's Formation Mod, I haven't played it yet but I've heard good reviews. As far as diplomacy goes, the AI gets more aggressive as you conquer more provinces and I think that's completely hard-coded...you can get decent diplomacy if you stay under 15 or so provinces but afterwards you're guaranteed to be attacked by every neighboring faction unless you maintain large border armies. In my last Brutii game I did manage to get a quiet front with Egypt by maintaining several full stacks around Tarsus for about 30 turns until I attacked them and afterwards I remained at peace with Armenia and Parthia for the rest of the game by maintaining one full stack per border province. I was playing the campaign at Hard difficulty and had several similar experiences in BI campaigns so I don't think it was just luck, but I'm not sure if it will make the AI more reluctant to start a war by blockading one of your ports.
3. Does giving occasional 100 denari giftd to your allies improve relations, or mess them up? I've encountered some contradictory info, and I'm not inclined to trust the diplomacy guide - seeing how one of the first things it says is that a diplomats talents incerease whether his offer is accepted or refused.
I think it does since your Senate rating increases if you gift some money to the Senate and I find it easier to get Military Access treaties after giving a few 10,000 denarii gifts. 100 denarii is too low though.
4. If a stack containing several generals seperates, surround an enemy, and all the generals enter the battle as seperate reinforcements leading their own armies - does it or does it not mean that each general has a chance of getting the various "won the battle" traits?
Not if they're leadership traits.
5. Is there some way to counter chariots/HA besides "mob them / return in kind"? I've been able to develop a counter to everything up to and including elephants that doesn't realy on numerical advantage and/or slugging it out, but I can't seem to do anything else with the above. Is there a general unit guide of some sort that does more than just copy info from the game text? Hints on how to use and counter certain units?
Fire arrows will cause Scythed Chariots to run amok, javelins will kill them quite easily since they have a bonus against them, slings work as well since they're accurate, and phalanxes kill them on contact. The most common tactic I use though is charge them with 2 or preferably 3 cavalry units at the same time...the weight of numbers bogs the chariots down preventing them from using their scythes too much and their low defense means that enough of them will be killed during the charge.
6. I know that assassinating fellow romans does not disturb the senate... but will my "allies" take it as an insult if I start pruning their family tree?
They will if the assassin gets caught.
7. I understand Rome: Gold Edition, comes pre-patched with patch 1.5. What does patch 1.6 do, what does the Bug-Fixer mod do, and are they compatible?
patch 1.6 is to BI what 1.5 is to RTW, the AI engines are slightly different though as the 1.6 AI is far better than the 1.5 AI when it comes to naval invasions. There's a way to play RTW with the BI engine but I don't know how. Bug-Fixer corrects the bugs that were left in RTW and BI that could be fixed.