a few question for Romani players

[Chris_]

Something I tried with one of my recent Romani campaigns was to use diplomats for communication. It goes something like this :

1. Each city/army has a diplomat (or several) which carry messages between cities/armies.
2. Cities with governors have a degree of autonomy - they can build what they want to keep their city happy
3. Special orders must be taken from the capital via diplomat to other cities ( ie, build building x ).
4. Armies receive their orders in the same way.
5. Diplomacy with other factions also carried out in the same way.
6. The sender doesn't officially know the outcome of a communication until the diplomat returns.

Makes you think about where you're going to send each diplomat - you may need it in an emergency - for example if a city is besieged, other cities won't immediately know about it unless you send your diplomat (I decided they would eventually find out - with a turn or so delay).

[bigmilt16]

Something I tried with one of my recent Romani campaigns was to use diplomats for communication. It goes something like this :

1. Each city/army has a diplomat (or several) which carry messages between cities/armies.
2. Cities with governors have a degree of autonomy - they can build what they want to keep their city happy
3. Special orders must be taken from the capital via diplomat to other cities ( ie, build building x ).
4. Armies receive their orders in the same way.
5. Diplomacy with other factions also carried out in the same way.
6. The sender doesn't officially know the outcome of a communication until the diplomat returns.

Makes you think about where you're going to send each diplomat - you may need it in an emergency - for example if a city is besieged, other cities won't immediately know about it unless you send your diplomat (I decided they would eventually find out - with a turn or so delay).

That is very thoughtful, Chris! That would definitely force me to keep diplomats in every city

The more I think about it, the more I realize that I don't stick to my own houserules once the campaign gets difficult (past the polybian period) because I start having to get into serious border conflicts. The houserule of "consuls/praetors" only leading armies should make the game difficult enough. That in itself should limit the number of forces actively campaigning and make it harder to go to war with everybody at once.