[Let's Play Democracy]Total War: Rome II - The confederacy expands. Join our Council!

Farangu

Friends! Countrymen! Romans!

Our time is at hand! Ever since we claimed this peninsula in our name, from those wretched Etruscans, the gods have showered us with favor and glory. But those triumphs PALE in the face of what we shall soon accomplish! We will be the masters of the Mediterranean, and from there, other nations shall have the choice put to them: whether their knees shall bend, or their heads shall roll!

We will create an empire, such as the world has never seen before, nor will again! For we are destined to be the masters of this world.

TRIUMPH, SINE QUA NON!

What is this?

This is a Let's Play of Total War: Rome II, the newest addition to Creative Assembly's long running series of global strategy and conquest. In it, we shall take a group of peoples from their humble, tribal beginnings, to the height of worldly power, through military, political, and cultural means.

This'll be fun to watch!

Oh, you poor, silly pleb. Haven't you heard?

http://youtu.be/JLdA1ikkoEc
Just replace “America” with “Gaul”, and "freedom" with "enslavement"

While I, as Great Leader, shall dictate the overall goals of our society, it can only be reached on your backs, with your will! To that end, I issue the following decree: Those who make a post in this thread, under the color of blue, shall hereby be a member of the Council from henceforth, until such a time as either your contributions diminish, you choose to retire, or you are removed from service. Councilmen shall have a say in the course our nation chooses to follow, and we can always use more.

Sounds good, I'll just-

Hold! Think on your choice wisely. Because while I shall need councilmen, those in seats of power shall have difficulty leading our glorious troops! I issue another decree: Those who make a post in this thread, under the color of red, shall hereby be inducted into the military officer school, until such a time as you die on the field of battle, your contributions diminish, you choose to retire, or you are removed from service. Each general/admiral(please specify which you would rather be upon induction, as Army/Navy competition had to start somewhere) is responsible for recruiting troops for his army – a significant departure from previous TW games – and will be responsible for troop morale, upkeep, and adoptions of traits/traditions that will influence how their army group fights. A forewarning: The number of armies and fleets we can field is determined by how influential our society is and how much money we have a lot more than previous games. Expect there to be only 3-4 armies and 2-3 fleets for the early game.

Oh hell yea, let's-

I SAID HOLD! For there is one more option. I issue my final decree: Those who make a post in this thread, under the color of green, shall be taken and groomed for an advisory/agent role, subject to the terms of the previous decree. You may list your preference for whether you would be an adviser in the fields of economy and commerce(you make recommendations of how the citizenry should be taxed, and collaborate with regional governors when we get them on what regions should focus on construction wise), technology(you make recommendations of how we progress along the tech tree), or diplomacy(you make recommendations about which nations we should trade, ally, fight or pact with). If these do not suit, you may train to be either a spy(sabotage settlements, assassinate enemy leaders), a dignitary(maintaining public order, increase vigilance for enemy spies, incite corruption and riots), or a champion(increase recruitment drives, harass enemy armies and lower their performance). A forewarning: The ability to recruit these agents is unlocked via a technology advance, and are not available right away.

Take heed: Our society values performance above all else. Generals and statesmen can, with good performance, become involved in politics of the state, or cast out as an exile with poor performance. There are options to bribe, spread rumors, and even assassinate your fellow leaders. Also, since officers and agents will die, either from battle or old age, when that time comes they will have the choice of re-entering the line for command and action at the back of the queue. Advisers will have a limited period of office, to be determined later.

So come! Render your loyalty unto Gaul!

(A side note: While I've played most of the previous games in this series, I am by no means an expert in any of them, and this game is still brand new. Please forgive the most likely numerous tactical blunders I will make.)


Councilmen:
The Noble enlightenedbum
The Wise Phyphor
The Rich firewaterword
The Populist Vic
The Extravagant Mr Ray
The Venerable Fleeb
The Grumpy Capsaicin
NerfThatMan, The Commander's Son
The Bountiful Elvenshae

Officers:
Skipper Zombie Hero(The Drowned Men)
Maj. Terrendos "Cambo"(The Light of Belenos) Stubborn Bastardix of the Gauls
Capt. JusticeForPluto "Adbitos"(Hand of the Council)
1st Lt. Kadoken "Iatupocios"(Easy Legion)
1st Lt. Schuss "Adcoro" (The Doom of Men)
1st Lt. "Abonios"(The Hordes of Farangu)
2nd. Lt. "Brigios"(Catubodua's Flight)

Advisers:
Stilts(Technology)

Agents:
Retaba "Ausios"(Scout/Spy)
NotoriousBEN "Abonios"(Scout/Spy)
rockrnger "Anauni"(Champion)
"Ica"(Champion)
"Beros"(Druid/Dignitary)


THE HALL OF HEROES

Vercassivellaunos - Stubborn Bastardix of the Gauls
Belenos
Iliatos
Lugios

The Saga of the Gauls:
Update #0: We are Gauls! Look at our tiny huts!
Update#.5: I think you underestimate their chances!
Update #1: Out of the frying pan
Update #2: We looked right into their eyes, and said "SHIT"
Update #3: A long, grinding resolution
Update #4: Paying the butcher's bill
Update #5: And there was peace, for a time
Update #6: Paper Tigers
Update #7: Blood Moon Rising
Update #8: The Breaking of the Peace
Update #9: Operation Sealion Pts. 1 & 2 - The saga of Vercassivellaunos and The saga of Campo
Update #10: Operation Sealion Pt. 3 - The Brits are such a pleasant people. Let's conquer them.
Update #11: The Great Joining
Update #12: Rule Britannia

Farangu

State of the tribe:

Link to the Encyclopaedia, containing massive amounts of info for buildings, units, tech trees: here

Regions held: Provincia(Massalia, Tolosa), Aquitania(Nemossos, Burdigala, Lemonum)

Settlements held: Namnetum, Bibracte, Iska, Moridunon, Camulodunon, Vesontio

Treasury:

Family Politics:

Diplomacy:

Defensive Alliance with: Carnutes
Military Access pact with: Carnutes
Trading with: Carnutes, Carthage, Macedon, Athens, Suebi, Bithynia, Gallaeci, Liguria, Nova Carthago, Odrysian Kingdom, Rugii, Veneti

Technology:

Military:
War Exercises(Reduces recruitment costs and upkeep costs for both army and navy. Further progress increases movement rate)
Warrior Code(Increases army attack and defense bonuses, along with other various add-ons. Further progress increases replenishment rate for soldiers)
Siege(unlocks artillery units, reduces attrition losses and siege time. Further progress reduces siege unit costs)

Civics:
Tribal Council (encourages tax bonuses, lower agent costs, unlocks buildings with that focus. Further progression lowers corruption in cities)
Tribal Economy (modest wealth bonuses from agricultural and cultural buildings, unlocks buildings with that focus. Further progression increases food)
Construction (Encourages growth, wealth from industrial buildings and capital bonuses. Further progression reduces construction costs)

Military:

1st army group, "The Light of Belenos"(Maj. Terrendos):
2896 men
960 Celtic Warriors, all at various levels of veterancy
960 Spear Warriors, all at various levels of veterancy
320 Levied Freemen
240 Celtic youths (javelin troops, good damage at medium range and can throw flaming spears)
360 Celtic Skirmishers
80 personal cavalry bodyguard
All have upgraded weapons and horse

Superficial losses, garrisoned at Camulodunon

2nd army group, "Hand of the Council"(Capt. JusticeForPluto):
2400 men
640 Celtic Warriors
800 Spear Warriors
480 Celtic Skirmishers, 1 at rank 1
120 Celtic Youths
80 of the General's cavalry
Ica the Warmaiden

Full Strength, garrisoned at Moridunon

3rd army group, "Easy Legion"(1st Lt. Kadoken)
2680 men
800 Celtic Warriors
480 Celtic Skirmishers
240 Celtic Youths
160 Light Horse
480 levied freemen
320 Spear Warriors
80 General's cavalry
Celtic Ballista
rockrngr
All have upgraded weapons and horse

Full strength, garrisoning Bibracte

4th army group, "The Doom of Men"(1st. Lt. schuss)
1800 men
80 General's cavalry
160 Heavy horse
80 light horse
Celtic Ballista
Celtic Scorpion
160 Celtic Warriors
640 Celtic Spear Warriors
360 Celtic Skirmishers
240 Celtic Youths

Full strength, garrisoned at Vesontio

Navy: The Drowned Men - Off the coast of Lemonum

Scourges of the Sea - Off the coast of Massillia

Available units to recruit:
Celtic Ballista(Tremendous damage and 6x the range of our javelins, but slow to move and very delicate) - 532 to recruit, 135 upkeep
Celtic Scorpion(More mobile than the Ballista and more ammunition, but a bit less damage) - 494 to recruit, 95 upkeep
Spear Warriors (bit more raised stats than the Levied freemen, but still not a ton of damage. More defensive) - 466 to recruit, 95 upkeep
Celtic Skirmishers (Javelin troops, decent damage and range. Frei started with them, now anyone can recruit) - 304 to recruit, 76 upkeep
Celtic Warriors (average swordsman unit, decent damage but pricey) - 434 per unit, 86 upkeep
Celtic Slingers (Twice the range and ammunition of a javelin unit, but half the damage) - 120 to recruit, 67 upkeep
Levied Spearmen (poor quality troops, usually meat shields but can kill some people) - 295 to recruit, 76 upkeep
Celtic Youths (other javelin troops, bit slower to fire but more armor) - 276 per unit, 67 upkeep
Light Horse (Light cavalry, good for flank charges but not great defense) - 428 to recruit, 105 upkeep
Heavy Horse (Twice the armor and more health and morale, but pricey) - 618 to recruit, 124 upkeep

Advisers:
Stilts - Technology

Agents:
Retaba "Lugios" - Scout/Spy
NotoriousBEN "Abonios"
rockrnger "Anauni"(Champion)

enlightenedbum

Someone read my Civ4 LP, is what I'm getting from that OP.

Anyway, I'll join the Senate. I don't particularly care who we start with, though I maybe have a mild preference for the Celts. Though this is not yet Boudica. She was pretty rad.

Zombie Hero

I would like to be a Military Leader

Stilts

I shall be a technology adviser.

Also, my vote goes for Rome.

Farangu

enlightenedbum wrote: »

Someone read my Civ4 LP, is what I'm getting from that OP.

Anyway, I'll join the Senate. I don't particularly care who we start with, though I maybe have a mild preference for the Celts. Though this is not yet Boudica. She was pretty rad.

If you're going to imitate something, imitate something that works, is what I believe.

Farangu

Also @Zombie Hero would you rather be a General or Admiral?

Zombie Hero

Admiral

Bogey

Moved to G&T.

enlightenedbum

Farangu wrote: »

enlightenedbum wrote: »

Someone read my Civ4 LP, is what I'm getting from that OP.

Anyway, I'll join the Senate. I don't particularly care who we start with, though I maybe have a mild preference for the Celts. Though this is not yet Boudica. She was pretty rad.

If you're going to imitate something, imitate something that works, is what I believe.

Ironically, I would say that LP did not work as intended. I needed to do it at SA to get a big enough population for my goals.

...which would have driven me insane, but there you go.

Retaba

Agent - Spy if that is ok.

Also, something east of Rome!

I'm fine with Celts.

Capsaicin

This looks fun. How do those of each role play their role?

What do the Senators do? Vote on what to build and what army to move where?
What about Generals/Admirals? Do they fight the battles and/or control movement/mustering?
Agents are just solely responsible for their selves?

Farangu

Every update I will list some goals to be accomplished, or have headway made on, for the next update(i.e. We've dealt with the Macedonians, next we should focus on either...) The senators will be the ones to decide what our next goal is.

Unfortunately I can't just send a save to the Generals so they can fight the battle, so I will be doing the fighting. They will control the muster of their armies, and will gain many choices of traits and traditions as they go that will further influence how they fight.

Agents can be left to their own initiatives, but will often be working to further our interests. Ex. If the Senate decides that our next goal is to conquer a neighboring territory, then spies could either interfere with armies to steal orders, or sabotage their settlements to make a siege easier.

enlightenedbum wrote: »

Farangu wrote: »

enlightenedbum wrote: »

Someone read my Civ4 LP, is what I'm getting from that OP.

Anyway, I'll join the Senate. I don't particularly care who we start with, though I maybe have a mild preference for the Celts. Though this is not yet Boudica. She was pretty rad.

If you're going to imitate something, imitate something that works, is what I believe.

Ironically, I would say that LP did not work as intended. I needed to do it at SA to get a big enough population for my goals.

...which would have driven me insane, but there you go.

The nice thing about this is that, at least at first, I don't need as many people as you were aiming for. Extra signups can go to the Senate until we grow enough to have the economy to support more armies, navies and agents.

Zombie Hero

If you need me to be a general, i can switch.

Zombie Hero

Do we all get a vote? I vote Carthage.

Phyphor

SPQR (though I will be a little inactive from the 20th-6th, all the cool stuff starts when I go on vacation)

Farangu

Zombie Hero wrote: »

Do we all get a vote? I vote Carthage.

Everyone gets a vote for the Culture, and if applicable, which sub-family. Once the game starts for realsies, the Senate gets put in the driver's seat.

Also unless we're landlocked, we will start with 1 navy, probably. If not, you can switch or wait for us to grab a port.

firewaterword

Sounds fun! I'll try my hand as a Senator.
Here's my resume:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYqF_BtIwAU

I guess Iceni?

Retaba

I have united the British Isles on my game, but just as a heads up, that was through Imperial Guard strategy so I'm not sure how effective of a general I will be, I will do my best though!

Farangu

Retaba wrote: »

I have united the British Isles on my game, but just as a heads up, that was through Imperial Guard strategy so I'm not sure how effective of a general I will be, I will do my best though!

Just remember, you're sharing money for recruitment with all the other generals, admirals, agents and construction workers.

Just like real life!

Retaba

So you're saying I should start plotting my rise to Emperor early?

Hrm, I think I might work better as an Agent - Spy. I don't have a firm grasp on the mechanics to be able to succeed as a general

Phyphor

Farangu wrote: »

Retaba wrote: »

I have united the British Isles on my game, but just as a heads up, that was through Imperial Guard strategy so I'm not sure how effective of a general I will be, I will do my best though!

Just remember, you're sharing money for recruitment with all the other generals, admirals, agents and construction workers.

Just like real life!

The first instance of "spend your budget each year or it gets reduced" in history!

Farangu

I will probably use most of the first update or two to go over how the systems work for new players, and how they've changed for vets.

Also I think that if any generals have this, I could send them the save file so they could fight their own battles...possibilities!

rockrnger

Sign me up for a champion.

I'm not that good at adventuring or training troops but I'm really big, so you have to going for you.

Farangu

Any preference on who we are, rockrnger?

Also a note, the tech needed to produce a champion needs to be researched.

Farangu

Also, we will be using a couple of mods that help reduce the feeling that we will start out as an unstoppable juggernaut.

We have to earn that.

rockrnger

Farangu wrote: »

Any preference on who we are, rockrnger?

Also a note, the tech needed to produce a champion needs to be researched.

Whatever is fine with me.

I will say that champion and dignitary tech should be a priority as they are both really strong.

Frei

Reporting for military duty as a land general.

Also, I would say Egypt because they have a very active and interesting campaign start, but if it comes down to it, I'll vote for Rome because Rome would be better than any barbarian tribe.

Vic

The people need bread and merriment, consul! As a representative of the populist party, I must urge you to cease your plans to do anything even remotely useful!

My vote goes for Carthage.

enlightenedbum

I think my goal as Senator will be to stamp out any inklings of Wiz's Crete game from SA.

NerfThatMan

We go now to our bloody business. Land General, please!

I vote for Carthage! Love me some Hamilcar.

Also, no worries about figuring out that save thing in my case, I do not (yet) own the game.

Farangu

Good to know. What about you, @Frei - Interested in fighting your own battles via some save game transferring, or would you rather I attempt to take care of it?

Kadoken

Not to be a party pooper, but before you start this thing you may want to wait for patch 3. While the Patch 2 beta seems to help a lot to make the game more playable, it seems like another patch like that or two should be waited on before starting.

Also, we should probably discuss what mods to use if you don't want to go full vanilla. I've heard good things about the close combat mod making battles longer and the spacing between troops better. Are we going to be tied to certain generals? Or just armies (Which makes sense as you can rename armies into something like Ebum 5th Legion) because if we are based on agents, generals, or senators in the game, we might want to take the two turn per year mod.

Also, Land General Kadoken reporting for duty [/b], and I vote Arverni.

Farangu

The mods that I have in so far are most of the Radious ones, I believe all but the campaign map(starting with that many armies would make conquest a bit too easy, IMHO) and the visual mod, since I didn't see it do much of anything. Close combat mod, AI mod, and Economy mod are all set.

Also, considering that my first update or two will probably be translating all the difficult to parse info for all our new players, and that there needs to be a decent amount of time in between each update to allow the Senate(of which we can still use more people!) and advisers to perform their work, Patch 3 will probably be released before we get too far into it.

You are tied to certain generals, who are in charge of armies. The two-turn per year mod will be installed, I just didn't feel like searching for it last night. (If it were just you being tied to an army, than very few people overall would get to lead the military. You have a chance for reinstatement after your first general dies, we will cover that when it happens)

Farangu

Also now we have a military leader for each of our starting armies and fleets, so any further military signups shall have to wait for their group to be bought.

Frei

@Kadoken Your posts are confusing because you don't even own the game, unless you pirated it. Also my game is 100 percent playable and I have run into very few bugs and never had any graphical problems. The game won't be "perfect" for a long time.

@Farangu I'd be up for fighting my own battles, but if you need to move things along or just want to get through some stuff, feel free to fight them yourself.

Zombie Hero

I don't have this game, and i haven't played very much total war at all

Frei

Zombie Hero wrote: »

I don't have this game, and i haven't played very much total war at all

Nah, you misunderstand. I'm not saying that as a means of participation or whatever, it's just that he's always talking about the game, what people should or shouldn't do in regards to it and whatever (and in the Rome 2 thread mostly), what mods should be used, etc, but he hasn't actually played it (unless he pirated it), so I just don't really understand where he's getting it from.

Kadoken

Frei wrote: »

Zombie Hero wrote: »

I don't have this game, and i haven't played very much total war at all

Nah, you misunderstand. I'm not saying that as a means of participation or whatever, it's just that he's always talking about the game, what people should or shouldn't do in regards to it and whatever (and in the Rome 2 thread mostly), what mods should be used, etc, but he hasn't actually played it (unless he pirated it), so I just don't really understand where he's getting it from.

I have played earlier TW games, mainly the Warscape ones and M2, so I can figure out the gist of what it is. First of all, I don't pirate shit, so don't fucking presume that I did. You're a goose for doing so.

Second of all, your posts directed to me on account of Rome 2 make me think you think I'm saying the game is horrible. I don't. I do know, from several videos, letsplays, and forum posts (Not TWcenter) that the game MIGHT have problems. I don't believe the 2% number that CA put out (Not to mention, it was dumb to choose a specific percent anyway) and I have seen that the game runs badly for some. You Frei, are in the majority who can run the game. That's good, but it doesn't mean the same for anything.

Third, don't come at me with hostility and fucking saying I might have stolen the game. There is such a thing as a third person point of view on these things. I know the combat is fast. I have seen several videos where it lasted 5-10 minutes. Just because I haven't playd a battle myself doesn't excuse any notion I have of battle speed.

Frei

Oh, I'm not making accusations (or being hostile), I was just curious. It's just strange how you're giving mod recommendations, telling people what to do, etc, like someone who has been playing, but I guess you're just religiously following the game and not actually playing it. That's fine. Don't need to be so angry.

edit: I agree with Farangu, let's try to be civil.

Farangu

Let's be civil here.

Looking to start the game in the next day or two, although I was hoping for a few more senators at first...