How to reach historic Roman boarders? (Before end date)

[striderhce]

A while ago I posted on province loyalty and I think that I now mostly understand it. However I’ve played three Rome campaigns and every time I’ve not even been able to conquer Spain or France let alone Britain before the end date. Can anyone explain what I might be doing wrong? I’ve tried to prioritise assimilation but pop happiness is always a problem for me even with buildings and low AE. I’ve tended not to use the integrate pops mechanic so maybe that’s the problem?

 

[striderhce]

Create as many claims as possible. Claims have a huge effect on AE gain.

There are many oratory advances which give bonuses to AE reduction and impact. Jupiter's omen also gives a fairly big boost to AE reduction. You can stack all this up to bleed off AE very quickly.

You don't need to worry too much about unlocking legions with tech, because I'm pretty sure you can unlock them via event. I would focus on controlling AE first, then think about military buffs later.

In one of my attempts I did quit well by rushing Imperial cb. It was quit fun eating Carthage in about two wars but something made my war exhaustion go through the roof.

 

[Pro]

I tried a new campaign today (I’ve basically quadrupled my hours on IR since Marius) and went pretty crazy expanding. It was going well but stability broke me and one of my parties got 0 support somehow.

Remember that your pop happiness will rise the further into the game you get. So you don't need to be super aggressive early on. You can make up for lost time by weathering high aggressive expansion later.

 

[striderhce]

View attachment 689318


In my case I did what many people have already commented, always being at war.

1-Take advantage of the claims that Roman events give you.

2-Do not wait to create claims, when you are at war with civilization A you already have to create a claim with civilization B and so on.

3-Watch the aggressive expansion (less than 50), I recommend the pacifying diplomatic posture, it makes the aggressive expansion go down faster.

4-Focus on military inventions, especially to unlock the legions, once achieved, focus on inventions that help reduce aggressive expansion and inventions that help different cultures and religions to be happier.

5-Integrate the culutras with many pops, my recommendations:

Etruscan, Macedonian and Punic culture

View attachment 689318


In my case I did what many people have already commented, always being at war.

1-Take advantage of the claims that Roman events give you.

2-Do not wait to create claims, when you are at war with civilization A you already have to create a claim with civilization B and so on.

3-Watch the aggressive expansion (less than 50), I recommend the pacifying diplomatic posture, it makes the aggressive expansion go down faster.

4-Focus on military inventions, especially to unlock the legions, once achieved, focus on inventions that help reduce aggressive expansion and inventions that help different cultures and religions to be happier.

5-Integrate the culutras with many pops, my recommendations:

Etruscan, Macedonian and Punic culture

Thanks for the break down I’ll give it a go next campaign! Do you have any building tips like noble happiness or just temples and theatres?

 

[striderhce]

Remember that your pop happiness will rise the further into the game you get. So you don't need to be super aggressive early on. You can make up for lost time by weathering high aggressive expansion later.

That might be why Rome fell into chaos in the first 40 years earlier, I thought if I took a lot at first it would have more time to assimilate but I think I did it too early.

 

[Pro]

Not the one you asked, but I would go for temples and theaters. For a long time you won't have enough money to build everything you want anyway.

 

[EricMN93]

Not the one you asked, but I would go for temples and theaters. For a long time you won't have enough money to build everything you want anyway.

I agree. Temples and theaters is what I usually build.

 

[olivenkranz]

I agree. Temples and theaters is what I usually build.

The issue is, you need tens of thousands for all cities temples and theaters. And after Conquering Africa and Numibia (f.ex) you'll have lots of pops and cities there.

 

[Reman]

There are 3 main points to managing AE:

1. Have 90+ tyranny. This gives you quite a bit of AE decay, and you can deal with the loyalty loss by giving characters free hands, then using the "impose corruption sanctions" if corruption becomes too much of an issue.
2. Use the Imperial Challenge CB. This gives a chunk of AE per tile, but it's less than you'd get for normal wars in heavily populated areas such as Egypt.
3. Get the Militant Epicureanism invention and start sacking holy sites to avert the stability loss from high AE. Note, this probably isn't necessary if you just want historic Roman borders. It becomes more helpful if you're going for a full WC.

That's really all there is to it.

 

[striderhce]

There are 3 main points to managing AE:

1. Have 90+ tyranny. This gives you quite a bit of AE decay, and you can deal with the loyalty loss by giving characters free hands, then using the "impose corruption sanctions" if corruption becomes too much of an issue.
2. Use the Imperial Challenge CB. This gives a chunk of AE per tile, but it's less than you'd get for normal wars in heavily populated areas such as Egypt.
3. Get the Militant Epicureanism invention and start sacking holy sites to avert the stability loss from high AE. Note, this probably isn't necessary if you just want historic Roman borders. It becomes more helpful if you're going for a full WC.

That's really all there is to it.

That’s sounds like an interesting way to play, I’m having a lot of luck at the moment claiming everything and prioritising stability. It’s around 170BC and I have all of Africa and Greece. I think I’ll have time to get everything especially with a few Impetial conquests.

 

[Pro]

Good job. At that point you should be pretty much over the hill. Have you got the Mausoleum and the Artemis Temple? They're really good. Otherwise you should be at a point where you can handle a lot of AE and low stability.

 

[Abathorn]