u/ProfileSubstantial16

Long Rome run on Invictus. This session was supposed to be a quiet economy tune-up while I wait out a truce, and instead the reaper just went through my entire cast of characters.

In the space of one session I lost the head of the Corneli family, then the head of the Fabi family, then my Praetor who was only 34, then my Optimates party leader, then my Censor. And I am not exaggerating when I say at least three of them died from the exact same cause: "ate a particularly rotten herring." Same event text, over and over. At one point I was just sitting there laughing because a fourth guy keeled over from the cursed herring while I was still trying to replace the third.

The annoying part is it actually mattered. I'd recently opened up offices to a bunch of new people to fill gaps, and because most of them had never held a government position before, their statesmanship was rock bottom. So I'm scrambling to refill Praetor, Censor, Vulnerarius etc all at once, and the best available bodies are all green. That immediately triggered a dissatisfaction event about my new Praetor mismanaging the treasury, purely because her statesmanship was too low. So one unlucky death chain basically exposed how shallow my experienced bench was.

Takeaway I'm sitting with is that I've been totally ignoring character development this whole campaign. I treat officers as interchangeable slots, never groom anyone, and then a bad RNG streak hits and I've got nobody seasoned to promote. Going to start actually paying attention to who's gaining experience where.

Anyway, mostly posting because the herring thing genuinely got me. What's the dumbest death chain the game's ever handed you? And does anyone actually manage their character bench properly, or do you all also just yank whoever's got the highest number when someone dies?

ok this might be obvious to some of you but it took me embarrassingly long to get it.

every time i took something rich i'd win the war, feel great, then like 4 years later the whole province just goes. and my reflex was always to go hunting for anything that added loyalty directly. harsh treatment, more harsh treatment. band aid on a band aid.

what finally clicked is that loyalty isn't the problem, it's the readout. the province was yelling at me the whole time and i was basically muting it.

the thing that actually got me was trend vs the number. had a province sitting at 60 so i ignored it, 60 sounds fine right. meanwhile it was bleeding a couple points a month, and a province at 40 right next to it was climbing and totally safe. i had it completely backwards.

then i finally opened the happiness tooltip (which, yeah, i almost never did) and it was my nobles. under 50% happy, dumping most of the unrest into the province on their own. one unhappy pop type in the biggest city doing more damage than three quiet territories put together.

harsh treatment stops the bleeding but it doesn't make anyone happy or roman, so the second you stop babysitting it, it's back. the real fix was way more boring. convert the religion first, then assimilate, plus the buildings that speed it up. not exciting. actually works though.

feels heavier in invictus too with how the pop stuff shakes out.

anyway curious, what's the worst rebellion any of you have had. like which single province actually ended a run. want to know if mine was pathetic or pretty normal

Hi everyone!
Any of you experienced this? I suddenly stopped being able to play with mods...
I tried to play as usual, but didn't upload any mods.. I've tried EVERYTHING...

Anyone went through that? Please tell me this is temporary!!

Long Rome run on Invictus. This session I finally passed the Punic reforms and made my first actual legion. Legio Italia. Felt like a big deal, you get siege engineers, sub commanders that can pick up distinctions over time, way more control over the composition than levies. Game even gives you a "new era has begun" popup so it really sells it as this milestone.

Thing is, right before that I went to war with Boii (tiny one province nation) plus some barbarians that showed up, and I was so relaxed about it I didn't even bother raising my army maintenance. Total brain fart. Went in with cold troops and still stomped them, barely lost anyone. So then I turn around, pass the reforms, take a 15 stability hit, do a divine sacrifice just to get some of it back, and pick up the ongoing legion upkeep... for what exactly? My levies just handled everything fine while I wasn't even paying attention.

I think I just did it because it felt like the "proper" thing to do at that point in a Rome game, not because anything actually forced my hand. And the annoying part is the thing that SHOULD have had my attention was Carthage, who went and annexed most of Massaesilia while I was busy fiddling with unit ratios. They're sitting at like 2000+ pops right on my border now. So I basically played dress up with my army and let the actual monster next door get scary.

Anyway I'm curious when you all actually make the jump to legions. Soon as you unlock it like I did, or do you wait until you've got a specific war that needs the siege engineers and the extra control? Because in hindsight I think I went professional a bit early and turtled way too long on Carthage, and I can't tell if that's a real mistake or just me being paranoid.

Long Rome run on Invictus. This session I finally passed the Punic reforms and made my first actual legion. Legio Italia. Felt like a big deal, you get siege engineers, sub commanders that can pick up distinctions over time, way more control over the composition than levies. Game even gives you a "new era has begun" popup so it really sells it as this milestone.

Thing is, right before that I went to war with Boii (tiny one province nation) plus some barbarians that showed up, and I was so relaxed about it I didn't even bother raising my army maintenance. Total brain fart. Went in with cold troops and still stomped them, barely lost anyone. So then I turn around, pass the reforms, take a 15 stability hit, do a divine sacrifice just to get some of it back, and pick up the ongoing legion upkeep... for what exactly? My levies just handled everything fine while I wasn't even paying attention.

I think I just did it because it felt like the "proper" thing to do at that point in a Rome game, not because anything actually forced my hand. And the annoying part is the thing that SHOULD have had my attention was Carthage, who went and annexed most of Massaesilia while I was busy fiddling with unit ratios. They're sitting at like 2000+ pops right on my border now. So I basically played dress up with my army and let the actual monster next door get scary.

Anyway I'm curious when you all actually make the jump to legions. Soon as you unlock it like I did, or do you wait until you've got a specific war that needs the siege engineers and the extra control? Because in hindsight I think I went professional a bit early and turtled way too long on Carthage, and I can't tell if that's a real mistake or just me being paranoid.

Been doing a long Rome campaign on Invictus and hit the Italian Colonia mission this week (the colonia specialization one once you've got the peninsula locked down). It gives you four payoffs and three of them are basically free money — building slots + local tax, commerce value, or extra recruits. I genuinely sat there for a few minutes because the tax one is so tempting when your treasury is sitting around 450.

Then I actually opened my assimilation map and most of my provinces were still under 50%. A couple in the teens. And it kind of clicked that the reason my older saves always start to feel sluggish around this point isn't money, it's that I've got a huge unintegrated pop base quietly dragging happiness and stability everywhere. So I took the Romanize option and the assimilation/primary culture happiness bonus instead.

The part I didn't fully clock until this run: the Roman Hegemony follow-up actually slows your integration speed, so if you enact it while you've got feudatories mid-integration you're shooting yourself in the foot. I ended up just sitting on it until my current integrations finished. Felt obvious in hindsight but I'd never paid attention to the timing before.

What I'm not sure about is whether I'm overrating assimilation here. Part of me thinks taking the +10% tax and just brute-forcing assimilation through governor policies would've snowballed harder long term. Curious how the rest of you handle that fork — do you take the economy reward and fix culture later, or front-load Romanization the way I did? And does anyone actually find the recruit-focused option worth it, or is it a trap once you've got Italy?

doing a rome invictus run and had something happen mid-session that I'm still a bit annoyed about

one of my neighbors — and the game specifically says it could be any of them — paid saboteurs to attack one of my fortresses. the sappers got driven off before too much damage was done but the fortress still needed repairs. the event gives you two options: fix it and spend 87 gold, or don't fix it and lose popularity. no third option where you investigate or retaliate or even narrow down who did it.

I took the repair option. lost the gold. war score was at 99 against insubria so it's not like I was in a position to open a second front anyway, but it still bothered me that there was no resolution.

I'm wrapping up in the north now and starting to position for the thurii war in the south. aggressive expansion is sitting higher than I'd like which is making me hesitant to rush the next declaration. thinking about waiting a few more years to let it decay but I'm not sure how long that realistically takes in invictus.

two actual questions if anyone knows: does the sabotage event ever fire a follow-up that reveals who did it? and is there a way to speed up AE decay beyond the normal diplomacy options in invictus, or is it just time?

doing a rome invictus run and had something happen mid-session that I'm still a bit annoyed about

one of my neighbors — and the game specifically says it could be any of them — paid saboteurs to attack one of my fortresses. the sappers got driven off before too much damage was done but the fortress still needed repairs. the event gives you two options: fix it and spend 87 gold, or don't fix it and lose popularity. no third option where you investigate or retaliate or even narrow down who did it.

I took the repair option. lost the gold. war score was at 99 against insubria so it's not like I was in a position to open a second front anyway, but it still bothered me that there was no resolution.

I'm wrapping up in the north now and starting to position for the thurii war in the south. aggressive expansion is sitting higher than I'd like which is making me hesitant to rush the next declaration. thinking about waiting a few more years to let it decay but I'm not sure how long that realistically takes in invictus.

two actual questions if anyone knows: does the sabotage event ever fire a follow-up that reveals who did it? and is there a way to speed up AE decay beyond the normal diplomacy options in invictus, or is it just time?

not my proudest moment

had my armies split on two flanks, veneto called in as ally, claim on liguria ready to go. declared war, started moving everyone toward genoa. then noticed morale was sitting at 3.19 out of 3.78 and just kind of stared at the screen for a second.

army maintenance had been on minimum since the last war ended. never raised it back up. just forgot. so now i've got a full-scale northern invasion running on morale that's recovering but nowhere near full, with sieges already ticking.

war ended up going fine — genoa fell, forts taken, lingonia swept, most of their allies didn't even show up. but it was genuinely uncomfortable for the first few months and i got lucky their stacks weren't bigger than they were.

what actually surprised me was the civic advance i got mid-war: roman concrete, 20% build time reduction. small thing but it stacked on top of a martial advance for professional training in the same session which means discipline went up and i can finally raise a proper legion. so the session wasn't a disaster by any means, just started badly because of my own carelessness.

anyone else have a habit of forgetting to reset maintenance between wars? feels like such an obvious thing but i always get caught up in the declaration screen and just forget to check it

not my proudest moment

had my armies split on two flanks, veneto called in as ally, claim on liguria ready to go. declared war, started moving everyone toward genoa. then noticed morale was sitting at 3.19 out of 3.78 and just kind of stared at the screen for a second.

army maintenance had been on minimum since the last war ended. never raised it back up. just forgot. so now i've got a full-scale northern invasion running on morale that's recovering but nowhere near full, with sieges already ticking.

war ended up going fine — genoa fell, forts taken, lingonia swept, most of their allies didn't even show up. but it was genuinely uncomfortable for the first few months and i got lucky their stacks weren't bigger than they were.

what actually surprised me was the civic advance i got mid-war: roman concrete, 20% build time reduction. small thing but it stacked on top of a martial advance for professional training in the same session which means discipline went up and i can finally raise a proper legion. so the session wasn't a disaster by any means, just started badly because of my own carelessness.

anyone else have a habit of forgetting to reset maintenance between wars? feels like such an obvious thing but i always get caught up in the declaration screen and just forget to check it

doing a rome invictus run, just wrapped up taking corsica from etruria, and somewhere around the midpoint of the war I got two events back to back — melancholia and then dysentery. checked the character screen and it still said "healthy" which I don't really understand, but the events were pretty clear about what was going on.

thing is I had 21k men already at sea so it's not like I was going to turn around. just kind of accepted that the consul was having a terrible time and watched corsica fall anyway. took about 18 months total which honestly felt fast.

what I actually can't figure out is whether stacking conditions like that does anything mechanical in invictus or if it's mostly just flavor events. like is there a hidden health threshold where you start risking losing the character, or does "healthy" on the tooltip mean you're fine regardless of what the events say? I've never been clear on how that system actually works.

also unrelated but the vendes event fired for me this session — freed slave from brundisium basically campaigns his way into rome on popular support. ended up letting it play out and he became praetor. curious if anyone's seen a follow-up event for that or if it just kind of stops there.

been a good run overall but the consul really needs a holiday

doing a rome invictus run, just wrapped up taking corsica from etruria, and somewhere around the midpoint of the war I got two events back to back — melancholia and then dysentery. checked the character screen and it still said "healthy" which I don't really understand, but the events were pretty clear about what was going on.

thing is I had 21k men already at sea so it's not like I was going to turn around. just kind of accepted that the consul was having a terrible time and watched corsica fall anyway. took about 18 months total which honestly felt fast.

what I actually can't figure out is whether stacking conditions like that does anything mechanical in invictus or if it's mostly just flavor events. like is there a hidden health threshold where you start risking losing the character, or does "healthy" on the tooltip mean you're fine regardless of what the events say? I've never been clear on how that system actually works.

also unrelated but the vendes event fired for me this session — freed slave from brundisium basically campaigns his way into rome on popular support. ended up letting it play out and he became praetor. curious if anyone's seen a follow-up event for that or if it just kind of stops there.

been a good run overall but the consul really needs a holiday

So I've been doing a Rome run with Invictus for a while now, just finished the Epirus war on the peninsula, and I made a pretty embarrassing mistake that I figured someone here might relate to.

I get to 99 war score. Hipponion just fell, I've got boots on basically everything I wanted. Open the peace screen ready to clean up — and Bruttium is blocked. Overextension cap. I'm already too close to 100% with what I was taking and just... didn't check.

I've been so locked into watching the war score tick up that I never stopped to do the math on whether the territories actually fit. Rookie mistake after 12 episodes of the same campaign, which is the embarrassing part.

So now Bruttium, Croton, and Hipponion are sitting there for a future war. In 481. Eight years in game time.

What made it worse — while all this was going on, the Antigonid Kingdom just silently ate the rest of Epirus. Like, the country I just spent two episodes dismantling on the peninsula? Gone. Absorbed. The Antigonids are now sitting right across the Adriatic with everything Epirus had left.

Won the war, got less than I wanted, and accidentally made my next problem bigger. Good session.

Does anyone do manual overextension math before opening the peace screen, or is there a ledger view in Invictus I keep missing? Genuinely asking because I can't be the only one who's done this.

So I've been doing a Rome run with Invictus for a while now, just finished the Epirus war on the peninsula, and I made a pretty embarrassing mistake that I figured someone here might relate to.

I get to 99 war score. Hipponion just fell, I've got boots on basically everything I wanted. Open the peace screen ready to clean up — and Bruttium is blocked. Overextension cap. I'm already too close to 100% with what I was taking and just... didn't check.

I've been so locked into watching the war score tick up that I never stopped to do the math on whether the territories actually fit. Rookie mistake after 12 episodes of the same campaign, which is the embarrassing part.

So now Bruttium, Croton, and Hipponion are sitting there for a future war. In 481. Eight years in game time.

What made it worse — while all this was going on, the Antigonid Kingdom just silently ate the rest of Epirus. Like, the country I just spent two episodes dismantling on the peninsula? Gone. Absorbed. The Antigonids are now sitting right across the Adriatic with everything Epirus had left.

Won the war, got less than I wanted, and accidentally made my next problem bigger. Good session.

Does anyone do manual overextension math before opening the peace screen, or is there a ledger view in Invictus I keep missing? Genuinely asking because I can't be the only one who's done this.