Hello,

I was curious because I noticed my usual go to regarding technological advances was really different than most choices content creators make whenever I watch a video/stream (most recently I watched the Laith Rome video and I was confused about why he put all his advances into the military tree, given how Rome is op and steamrolls all of Italy pretty much whatever you do). So I was wondering if my reasoning was bad (I'm by no means an expert I only do a 3-4 campaigns per year at most).
I mean, of course there are some difficult starts which requires all the military boni to get the smallest chance to not get crushed in their very first war. Or you may want to play with some kind of RP goal such as forming a trade empire or anything like this. But those specific instances set apart, what are you aiming for at first ?

My own priorities are always about getting the Research Efficiency and Influence Points advances asap, as I consider them as the most valuable (and of course Theater and Temple unlocks). But I see very few people doing the same. So just wanted to hear about your picks. That's all.

Thanks.

1. Assimilation of pops: It is said that slaves assimilate the fastest. Why is that? How does it work mechanically? When I look at pop info of a territory and assimilation and hover over that it says things like "Freeman Assimilating +0.6%". The problem is every pop type has the same assimilation percentage, inluding slaves, so how is it that slaves assimilate faster? I can't seem to find any bonus that would apply specifically to assimilation of slaves.
2. Legion vs Levy composition: When raise levies as Sparta my composition is heavy/light infantry and archers (integrated cretans), but when I'm creating Legion I can also choose heavy cavalry and chariots even though I didn't integrate any cultures for that and I don't think I have any invention for that or tradition.
3. Unlocking unit types: Are unit types unlocked only by integrating cultures or can I unlock for example elephans without integrating (I want to maintain Laconian purity and enslave everyone, not integrate).
4. Can I see the type of tactics an enemy is using?
5. Is this game mainly about conquest and maintaining your realm so it doesn't crumble and so that conquest can be done effectivelly? Or can it be played without conquesting anyone?
6. Disbanding troops: When I click disband levy, it says it will take 4 months before I can raise them again, but is also says that it will take additional 24 months based on the current strength of the levy, even though I didn't loose any troops. Why is that?
7. Can I purge pops?

Hey guys, this game took me like 60+ hours of gameplay and at the very end i came to conculsion that its not possible to conquer everything since when you almost hold whole map everything is falling apart, in link i forwarded timelaps of my game, but at some point everywhere i was geting rebelions >.>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moVffmE34Xg

Is there a specific time u should do it and what’s the benefits and downsides to it

I'm a relatively new player to the game with about 100 hours of play time, almost all of that in vanilla. I'm having a hard time with the first war in Invictus as Rome. Let me explain.

In Vanilla my first war is always south towards Samnium and Lucania and this tends to go fairly well. I take most of the south before rolling north to take on the Etruscans.

Because of the truce with Samnium in Invictus, I've been trying to attack the Sabines first, but in about 80% of my attempts they end up in an alliance with both Etruria and Picentium (sometimes also Umbria but not always) and I find the Etruscans really hard at the start of the game. I start off with 20,000 men between my two starting levies and I can win the initial frontier battle with Etruria's 20,500 man army that spawns. In the game I just rage-quit I was able to take two fortified cities from the Etruscans but my army was down to around 15,000 men, when I noticed the Estuscans had three separate armies of about 9,000 men each, so say 27,000 men total. I got out-manuvered and had to fight all three at once and lost, included the complete stack-wipe of the Magna Grecia levy. I was beating their armies peace-meal but got caught having to fight them all at once. I guess I didn't realize Etruria has so much more manpower available at game-start than Rome (granted it might not have been 100% Etruscans - recall I'm fighting Sabina and Picentium at the same time).

In the one game Sabina didn't ally with Etruria, Etruria allied with Carthage instead, and while I was able to conquer Etruria I didn't have the war score to actually take it, because Carthage was fighting a war in Spain and the Etruscan armies had been moved there instead.

Am I just bad at the game? I'm trying to avoid hiring mercenaries but I might need to, even if that means not building anything at game-start and just eating the temporary negative cashflow since Rome's economy also seems pretty nerfed in the mod.

Hi guys, I'm playing as the Antigonids and just finished the civil war from the mission tree granting me a huge culture assimilation bonus and I have 4 or 5 other permanent bonuses. Does the decision to reform the Argead empire remove those bonuses? In general, does taking a decision that forms a new nation result in you losing your permanent bonuses?

I went to bed after playing imperator, and I couldn't sleep because I keep asking myself if it is possible to hire mercenary ship them to an island free them and repeat until every mercenary company is trap on the island. I really need an answer please

Basically question in the title: Looking at buying Imperator during the current sale and deciding between just the base game or the full bundle. Since I plan on playing with Invictus, do the DLC add anything significant that isn't changed/covered by the mod, or does the mod use any dlc-specific features?

Title

https://preview.redd.it/vc3nuan73e3e1.png?width=383&format=png&auto=webp&s=eacd7973461ec135bda7a5cc2a21e54978325138

https://preview.redd.it/alvh3lwf3e3e1.png?width=745&format=png&auto=webp&s=16c531a7b37cc21e7648b67fcc9b0a52c2fbf3c6

Love the game but man, any remotely big wars just completely ruin it for me. Like from small ai armies running past the frontline to conquer every province capital while controlling like 20 different armies at once it just feels impossible to keep up, and it makes any big war SO lame because I truly don't feel like chasing their army spam across my country so it just becomes a who can besiege who faster competition, genuinely just super boring and kinda ruining the game for me, is this really just how war is?

I’ve played for 600 hours now and I’m debating whether I start with Invictus. On the one hand all the new mission trees and features look incredible however on the other it seems to make the game much more difficult and complex, I fear that as I’ve played so much vanilla it will be very hard to transition over to Invictus. Is this true or should I start playing Invictus?

edit; ppl misunderestimating what im saying;

i mean like what was it about this game in terms of gameplay that was unfeasible

I just got back into this game and everyone says assimilation is better than integration. OK. I spend ~250 gold on a grand theatre, another ~60 gold on a market, I do the edict colonization, all the other little things, and get about 3% assimilation in a single province, per month. In a city with 40 people that'll take almost a century, and what to I get, just a couple levies and slightly less rebellious pops? For one single tile? I wouldn't even consider them a couple more levies, since by integrating I'd get levies anyway, but as romans the levies are just slightly improved. Am I missing any ways to speed up assimilation?

Hello everyone. Relatively new to the game. Playing with Invictus on. Been watching a lot of tutorials and got the basics down but now want to start getting better and optimizing economy, army/battles, culture, etc. I feel that watching someone who knows what they’re doing playing a good campaign would teach me a lot of this and help me keep improving and enjoying the game. Any recommendations? Im playing Rome in case that matters.

Thanks so much in advance!

After i finished with the republic ---> monarchy civil war \"rome\" has appeared and is nowhere to be seen

I am trying to do an Athens independence run, but I’m always getting stuck with the senate support dropping super quick, and when I take an alliance with egypt/macedon or thrace that they take over the territory that I conquered. Could use some tips/guidance because the army looks so cool as Athens and they deserve a little bit of recognition historically speaking.

I'm doing an Albion run, starting from Ivernia, in Invictius. I've gotten to the A New Adventure Awaits task, but in not sure whether to reform the culture or stick with traditions.

I like the Mediterranean in this game but Rome kind of ruins tallness for me because i can never defend against them. I can form Sicily but I don't have the pops to defend against rome