House Rules

[Samos41]

So I saw a post by i think Greek strategos saying playing by 'house rules' is a good way to make the campaign harder. Im just wondering what are those rules exactly? I've pretty much perfected the first 40 turns in my Rome campaign, having control of all of Cisalpina, Illyricum annd Makedonia and with 2 armies ready to invade Massalia all usually done by turn 40. This does feel way to quick and i usually get bored by turn 50 and start another campaign with someone else. I don't like giving the AI bonuses in terms of battle difficulty but I'm open to putting campaign difficulty up to VH but im not sure if that will make it painful or challenging. Anyway chuck us your favourite house rules that you play your campaigns with. Cheersy

[chicobaptista]

One of the house rules I play is to do a semi historical approach. This can take many forms, but my way includes:

* Maximum of 10 core Roman units, such as hastatii, equites and velites, general included.

* At least half of the army composed of AOR units as auxiliarii.

* Before hitting Imperial reforms, always disband legions after a successful campaign or war.

*Before Marian reforms only recruit core roman units in Latium

*Avoid annexing too much territory. Favor liberating and subjugating. When they inevitably turn on you, then put them down and annex their territory.

*No running around with spies or lone admiral to discover far away factions and engage with long distance diplomacy.

These are some suggestions, I find they make for a more slow paced and engaging campaign. I suddenly get way more conservative with my core legions, knowing that they can only be replenished from Rome, but they don't get too powerful with experience, since they get disbanded.

Using such a large portion as auxiliarii also forces me into some creative tactics, and I noticed that I tend to experiment more on the battles.

Liberating and subjugating also creates some interesting diplomatic deadlocks, usually forcing me to take a side when they attack each other and making me engage much more actively trying to manipulate rival neighbours.

[Dardo21]

Max of 5 1st class Roman units before the marian reforms, can be either of the 2 triarii or the aor apulian infantry (I brought those in line with the triarii, since they're a bit lacking statwise for their cost), max 4 veteran units after the marian reforms rather than 5, atleast 1, pref 2 auxiliary infantry units, max 2 ballistae.

[meerkatology]

One of the house rules I play is to do a semi historical approach. This can take many forms, but my way includes:


*Before Marian reforms only recruit core roman units in Latium

as far as historical RP goes, you can't stop them from replenishing in conquered areas though.

also , did rome never recruit legions prior to marian era outside of rome? like after a while roman citizens would migrate to newly conquered areas to settle and they can join the legions right?

the issue with more realistic pre-marian play, is that the early game is already much harder than the late game, id favor to enforce more rules later on rather than early. like thru restrictions on -EM. but well

i feel like population mod already does a nice job of restricting core unit requirement in conquered areas for a long while. espeically premarian where they are mostly all plebs

[waidizss]

1. No surprise attacks. Declare war one turn before moving into enemy territory.
2. Only marching stance.
3. No using only general stacks to siege/bait
4. No farming rebellions for general xp
5. Only metal music allowed during a sesh
6. Data Venia

[chicobaptista]

also , did rome never recruit legions prior to marian era outside of rome? like after a while roman citizens would migrate to newly conquered areas to settle and they can join the legions right?

the issue with more realistic pre-marian play, is that the early game is already much harder than the late game, id favor to enforce more rules later on rather than early. like thru restrictions on -EM. but well

i feel like population mod already does a nice job of restricting core unit requirement in conquered areas for a long while. espeically premarian where they are mostly all plebs

I don't believe they raised legions outside Rome (or at the very least it's surrounding areas) no. There were socii, of course, composed of Rome's Italian allies, and they largely adopted Roman organization and tactics, but were grieved enough at not having roman citizenship and it's privileges to rebel en masse after the second punic war.

I based myself on Wikipedia , https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma...e_mid-Republic , full disclosure, so take it with a grain of salt. Notice the "semi-" before the historical though, I see no problem bending history if it makes for a more enjoyable gaming experience

Also, Julius Caesar famously recruited retired veterans and their sons into a militia in North Africa to hunt the pirates that had kidnapped him, but these veterans had ostensibly been given land on the conquered provinces as a result of Marius reforms, so again...

I agree that the early game is way harder than late game. However I rarely get to the late game and thus have not come up with any house rules for that stage. =P

The population mod indeed is very helpful in enforcing a reasonable unit distribution and capping some of the more powerful units.

For my personal gameplay I roleplay that these roman migrants justify unit replenishment in pacified provinces. Newly conquered provinces not having top tier population effectively prevent the whole army from replenishing there for quite a long time, which is also a bit of fun roleplay for me, having to decide whether to retreat my legions to rest and leave the newly conquered lands open to a counterattack or try to hold an usually not friendly populace under order with a depleted army.

[Inkompetent]

I'll toss in the ones I posted in the other thread for a more difficult Roman campaign:

• Realistic army composition, which for Rome would be 50% Roman troops and 50% Italian allied troops, until the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) during which Rome started using foreign mercenaries to cover for their own shortcomings, for example good light cavalry, good archers, etc. Mercenaries or Italian allies though, the armies would generally be 50% Roman and 50% "other". Of course the triplex acies manipular system should be employed, so that the Roman line infantry is 40% Hastati, 40% Principes and 20% Triarii.
  
• Fight in a realistic-ish manner which is quite stiff and inflexible, and which for example for the triplex acies formation means to mainly hold gained ground with hastati, counter-charge with principes and/or relieve the tired hastati, triarii should never engage at all unless absolutely necessary to at all manage to win the battle, cavalry should often pursue fleeing enemies rather than just breaking a unit and then charging the next, skirmishers (especially light ones, rather than say... peltasts which are highly competent in melee) should often be used quite inefficiently, tossing javelins at the enemy from the front rather than going for an optimal position on the enemy's right flank, etc.
  
• Let the general pretty much not lead the army at all, at least until the mid 2nd century BC, since they had a tendency to ride with the equites on the flanks. Glory of heavy cavalry over staying with the infantry. Will deprive the infantry of sometimes much needed bonuses. This goes for plenty of other nations/cultures as well, as long as the general is mounted. Wouldn't be rare for infantry generals to engage in melee if talking Gauls/Celts, phalanx-armies of varying sorts, etc.
  
• Build what is more or less historical for each region, rather than building what you need to min-max. For example Ariminum had an amphitheatre for 12 000 people, Arretium was a major trade hub, Beneventum was a well defended/fortified city and trade hub with a large amphitheatre, Cosentia was basically useless agriculturaly and neither crops nor animals did well there, and so on.
  
  [* ]Don't perform the Polybian Reform until ca 250-240 BC, and the Marian not until 107 BC.
  
• Play the units as blind when it comes to things they shouldn't be able to see: A unit on one flank probably won't know what's happening in the middle of the fight, and *definitely* won't know what's happening on the far flank, unless they have sufficient elevation to get an overview. Thus they can only act on what's in their immediate vicinity. They also shouldn't leave their place in the formation unless absolutely necessary, since if they do they'd leave a big gap in it, and have fun explaining that to the general.
  
  And some new ones:
  
• Roman garrison armies would be pretty much non-existent for a long period of time. The wars could be long and the legions out at the front for a long time, but it wasn't until the Marian reforms and especially the Imperial reforms that Rome had a system where it was financially possible to keep standing armies (even if half-size) to keep borders further away protected and populations subdjued. For a long time they instead relied on raising armies when needed, for example during a rebellion. (This adds to the point made earlier in the thread about disbanding legions after their war/campaign is over)
  
• Don't build Roman barracks (i.e. for training Hastati, Principes, etc) anywhere outside of Latium. Roman troops are only trained in what legally constitutes as Rome, and the other troops can be trained anywhere.
  
• Only keep four legions until the Second Punic War or until there otherwise is an alarming need for more.
  
• Fight all meaningful battles manually, even if you could win them with ease with the auto-resolver.

[Samos41]

sweet, so heres what im gonna use for my next Rome campaign.
- No cheapo exploits.
- Recruit Legions in Rome only until Imperial reform
- Swap generals every 4 turns to mirror switch in consulship
- Vassalise or Liberate instead of occupy and then capture after the second war
- No fleet until Punic War, after Punic war disband fleets until Imperial reform only raising when necessary for invasion of Britain etc.
- Historical expansion and army compositions
- No political purges or assassinations until Marian reforms
- Using spies in a realistic way, only using the deploy option instead of using them to destroy garrisons
- I consider battles however relatively free from rules. Only rule being the 3 line deployment, but I like to be very malleable in my tactics using my legions more like Scipio used them instead of sticking to the classic static model.

Cheers for the ideas guys this is gonna be fun!

[waidizss]

These damn roleplayers playing at 4TPY lmao

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

These damn roleplayers playing at 4TPY lmao

What's 4tpy ?
I know only one way. The turtle's way...12tpy

[Samos41]

...completely forgot about turns per year mods what have I been doing my entire life

[Vardano]

12tpy= OP generals and agents. Also AI struggles way too much with attrition when it is 12 tpy compared to Player, so yeah, it is almost house rule not to cheese with 12tpy.

[waidizss]

No, not 12TPY. Data Venia 24tpy. AI doesn't struggle with attrition because they outnumber u 10:1 anyway . Most of these are not house rules, they are roleplaying elements.

Like me, I use the great 'no passive xp submod' that doesn't allow u to sit back and rack xp governing settlements.

[drillmaster]

Also i tend to march to war right after winter.
All armies should be in camp stance during winter and not move
The king (if not rome) should lead the army only on campaign
Only use one army per campaign. Use the others for border control

I dont play as rome though. So i dont know if this is useful.

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[♔Greek Strategos♔]

12tpy= OP generals and agents. Also AI struggles way too much with attrition when it is 12 tpy compared to Player, so yeah, it is almost house rule not to cheese with 12tpy.

It's not actually, if you play with Hardcore submod on VH with slower movement. More strategical I could say.