[necro] Rome Total War: Faction Leaders

[Greg 1]

What difference does it make who my faction leader is? How do you choose between the candidates?

[Zach Bush]

What difference does it make who my faction leader is? How do you choose between the candidates?Do you know how to get to the screen with the Senate/Diplomacy/Faction/Financial tab? Go to the Faction Tab and one of the buttons in the lower left of the window should show your family tree - I believe it's the icon with the marble bust. Click on that, then view your family tree. The faction leader should have an icon by him, along with the faction heir. I believe you can only change the heir - but note that when you do the "former heir" will gain a negative trait indicating he was passed over and could possibly gain other negative traits later on. The faction leader may die anytime after 60, or you could kill him by sending him into one-unit battles against a phalanx wall.

-Zach

[Dulahan]

And given it is Cavalry. Used right you could even manage to do a lot of damage before being taken down. I had two plague bearer family members I decided to sacrifice. And, well, using them in concert I destroyed like 6 Phalanx units and a couple Macedonian Lancers, winning a battle I didn't think I'd stand a chance in. They were eventually brought to bear in a later battle, but they did a hellacious amount of damage to the Macedonians before dying valorously.

[Zach Bush]

And given it is Cavalry. Used right you could even manage to do a lot of damage before being taken down. I had two plague bearer family members I decided to sacrifice. And, well, using them in concert I destroyed like 6 Phalanx units and a couple Macedonian Lancers, winning a battle I didn't think I'd stand a chance in. They were eventually brought to bear in a later battle, but they did a hellacious amount of damage to the Macedonians before dying valorously.It's that 2 hit point thing. It can be really hard to kill off your generals unless they're facing other generals, and even then you have a human edge.

Incidentally, have you done the plague carrier agent thing? I think I was playing the Greeks when a spy caught a bit of the pox. I sent him out to spy on all my enemies and either kill him off/infect their cities. Of course, I kept succeeding at highly improbable insertions, eventually gaining something like 10 ranks due to retainers and skill. All the children of Macedon fell to his quiet wrath, and he eventually died of old age. :)

-Zach

[Dulahan]

No, I haven't. But I rarely use agents to begin with.

Something else strange I noticed in a later game is that I had a plague carrier actulaly "Recover" and no longer be a plague carrier.

[Zach Bush]

No, I haven't. But I rarely use agents to begin with.

Something else strange I noticed in a later game is that I had a plague carrier actulaly "Recover" and no longer be a plague carrier.It can happen. I parked a sick general in a fort and a few years later he got over it.

I generally use agents to counterspy, particularly if I'm running a general around in lands that can afford assassins. I recommend taking along a few with armies for taking any settlement that has less than a stone wall, as you have a significant chance of the gates being open as your armies march in. That can save you a turn or two of building rams and allow you to avoid skirmisher harassment while you're knocking the gates down.

-Zach

[Bob the Insane]

"I had the plague once, but I got over it..."

:D That made my day...

For RTW, unlike MTW it does not matter all that much who you faction leader is. Far more import in the position of the capitol and the quality of your governors...

In RTW:BI the faction leader's regilion is somewhat important but it still does not matter in the same way as having a sucky King in MTW...

[Greg 1]

Sorry - I wasn't clear enough in my original question.

I know how to change faction heir, I'm just not sure what difference it makes. Why do I care who gets to be faction leader?

Edit: Thanks Bob. That is what I was looking for. You must have just posted as I did.

[Waiwode]

It doesn't (seem to). How good a general or a governor any character is can have a marked effect on the game, but your actual faction leader?

One area where it may matter is in senate/public support. But I have no proof of that.

Doug.

[suedenim]

You probably don't care much. It boosts their influence and management stats, but the "automatic" designation of heirs generally seems to select qualified men. I'm not sure it'd be all that huge a deal even if it named (which I've never seen) some guy with no useful qualities.

[maximusbrutalis]

You probably don't care much. It boosts their influence and management stats, but the "automatic" designation of heirs generally seems to select qualified men. I'm not sure it'd be all that huge a deal even if it named (which I've never seen) some guy with no useful qualities.


Another thing it should affect would be if a faction leader has no stars (shouldn't it) affect the rest of the army as a whole?

I tried the way someone suggested to stick the faction leader in a bireme and send him against 300 pirates in ships.

It failed misserably and he survived it as the pirates where behind a name tag of Massana and I didnt see the reinforcement ships (some 400 +) stowed away behind the city name :)

I tried jumping in against rebels too, and he killed them all. I even won a battle with half a barbarian cavalry unit and his own horses against 1200 rebels in the end earning him seven stars on a four turn trip around the map.

Then I decided to keep him since he got the stars inspite of being corrupt.

---

In closing...

I believe it has to do with other things behind the scene too.

I never get praetorian cavalry since they historically auctioned out the empire.
(Read the tech data on the info sheet for the unit)

A friend of mine had a corrupt leader and he used praetorian cavalry too.
His empire got sold of for a bribe towards the end of the game.

I never lost a captain to bribes even.