Grand Strategy Imperator: Rome - the new grand strategy from Paradox

[Harthwain]

Still wanna know if that rip at the edge will ever be undone...

Alas, this must be the famous Edge of the World.

 

[Silva]

CK3 map also looks worse.

You can't convince me this map looks worse than any map Paradox came up with:

Spoiler

Unless you mean zoomed in or something. But even then I like that I have the option to play with solid borders.

Bitch please..

 

[Harthwain]

Bitch please..

Spoiler

Borders are watered down too much for my taste (like I said, I prefer borders to be solid) and I would switch to terrain mode if needed anyway, but I guess you're right about terrain being really pretty in Imperator.

 

[Silva]

As one of the programmers on post-release Imperator, it always warms my heart when people are willing to look past sour first impressions; we've all worked hard to get it where it is, acknowledging its flaws while always looking ahead. Nice video, glad you enjoyed what it became

 

[Axioms]

So after going super far as Rome in Imperator, not forming the empire but still pretty far, I would say my number one upgrade would be a more modular outliner. It is just too short when you have piles of legions and a few fleets and various other stuff going on. Number one is probably separating the military from the rest of the outliner. Either have tabs total war style or have a separate window on the left. Main outliner is on the right. An upgrade to the province/governorship menus wouldn't be a mistake either.

I was trying to upgrade all of Iberia and it took ages.

Also they need to let you multitask on the "upgrade some province" mission trees. It just feels bad to grind through 1 at a time and not be able to do other stuff.

 

[Axioms]

So I am playing a very Caesarian western Rome game. I conquered up to Moravia first because I didn't get Malta somehow and I didn't know and I couldn't spawn the Punic Mission tree after First Provincia. Found this out after getting into lower Gaul and lower Germany. Took Africa to Cyrenaica. After I cleared Mauretania and cleared Aquitaine I went hard on Iberia/Hispania. Did every development mission for Africa and Iberia. I really put a ton into Iberia. Although ironically it can't do shit for you legion wise because of low levels of integrated pops. Even with me integrating the 4-5 largest Iberian pops. Baetica had a big pop so it is actually pretty good. Comparable to Africa legion size wise. But I do get tons of resources and such and Iberia is a sleeping giant as my metropolis regional capitals come online and it Romanizes. Not that it matters since Legio Italica is swole as fuck with like 5 Legion bonus thingies.

I swept into northern Gaul and Germany and cleared out Britannia and Scandinavia in a big blitz. Grinding through those development missions now. I extensively "pre-buff" for these missions by building lots of cities and stuff while I wait for the stupid yearly and bi-yearly timers. Maxing out settlement buildings as well. Still it takes a decade or more to grind through Iberia/Gaul/Germany. Less time for smaller Britannia and Scandinavia. I am fighting for Venedia/Vistulia. Poland/Lithuania stuff. I am planning to just massively blitz Egypt with my 80000 man legions.

I have triple the pop of Maurya, 4x the pop of Egypt and 5x the pop of the Seleucids. Of course it is all unintegrated trash pop in northern hinterlands but still.

I am on hard mode I think, can't recall. But the penalties listed are not extensive for hard mode anyways. Obviously no one in the world can mess with me, barring a big revolt in my own country.

Once I take out Egypt the Greeks are next. I got Pannonia in the Adriatic, coming down on Dacia from the north, etc.

The places I am not are really the most interesting. Maurya is gonna add 50% to its pop/territories after clearing out Pandya. They are crunching into the Seleucids in the very south of Persia. Just a real big boy for an AI. Egypt is crunching the Seleucids in Mesopotamia. Egypt and Thrace are at war in eastern Anatolia. Iberia is caught between the 3 big powers in the caucuses with Egypt from the west, the Seleucids from the south and Thrace circling the Black Sea to the north. Still they are a shockingly medium sized power. Thrace is hitting Moesia from the north and south and Epirus from the east. If it could spare some armies from fighting Egypt it could meet the Roman from in southern Dacia. Moesia is sitting pretty there right now with a couple buffer states between them and Rome.

I have 2000+ territories and 24000 people. The next 5 nations, Maurya, Egypt, Thrace, Seleucia, and Pandya(until Maurya finishes them off), have roughly the same amount, perhaps slightly more in each category. I wonder if they could theoretically ally and fight me due to their more compact and integrated natures.

I'll probably quit Imperator after this run. Likely won't go all the way to world conquest. Just a lot of grinding and micro-management for a small reward. The tech-tree is mind numbing as well. Good god who thought it would be fun to wait 10 years and blow an advancement on 3.00 governor loyalty or some shit?

 

[Theodora]

From what I've seen people generally struggle to conquer the entire world in imperator, unlike eu4.

 

[Axioms]

From what I've seen people generally struggle to conquer the entire world in imperator, unlike eu4.

Imperator just has a lot more going on so world conquest is more tedious.

 

[Silva]

From what I've seen people generally struggle to conquer the entire world in imperator, unlike eu4.

Imperator just has a lot more going on so world conquest is more tedious.

Yeah, makes sense.

Another reason I prefer roleplaying smaller nations with their historic goals & issues. I think Imperator fits like a glove if you're into this.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

The tech-tree is mind numbing as well. Good god who thought it would be fun to wait 10 years and blow an advancement on 3.00 governor loyalty or some shit?

That at least is in large part due to having a large empire. You can get more tech with a big empire but it also costs far more to get techs, plus you get "Ahead of the curve" penalties to rack the price up even further. So earlier and mid game while you're conquering and not too obese (And super far ahead on tech) you're picking shit up quicker, and then late game the tech slows to a crawl. IIRC at the end of my Rome campaign my total amount of tech was roughly two tabs worth. Obviously I had it spread out more than that, but I think that's a rough estimate of everything I was able to get so you only nab maybe half the total tech in the game.

They absolutely could theoretically ally and fight you since the big speed bump in my Rome campaign was Thrace and Egypt teaming up which were the two other largest kingdoms in the region so basically every time I wanted to expand I had to fight the two other biggest powers at the same time on opposite sides of the Mediterranean. If they DON'T ally you should have smooth sailing though.

 

[Average Manatee]

As far as tech goes it's much better to go for the researchers with traits that give random events with invention unlocks even if they are significantly weaker in their stats. Any increase in research speed hits heavy diminishing return quickly and isn't all that significantly useful.

 

[Axioms]

As far as tech goes it's much better to go for the researchers with traits that give random events with invention unlocks even if they are significantly weaker in their stats. Any increase in research speed hits heavy diminishing return quickly and isn't all that significantly useful.

I got one of those luckily, it def helps. He even had good stats.

 

[Axioms]

The tech-tree is mind numbing as well. Good god who thought it would be fun to wait 10 years and blow an advancement on 3.00 governor loyalty or some shit?

That at least is in large part due to having a large empire. You can get more tech with a big empire but it also costs far more to get techs, plus you get "Ahead of the curve" penalties to rack the price up even further. So earlier and mid game while you're conquering and not too obese (And super far ahead on tech) you're picking shit up quicker, and then late game the tech slows to a crawl. IIRC at the end of my Rome campaign my total amount of tech was roughly two tabs worth. Obviously I had it spread out more than that, but I think that's a rough estimate of everything I was able to get so you only nab maybe half the total tech in the game.

They absolutely could theoretically ally and fight you since the big speed bump in my Rome campaign was Thrace and Egypt teaming up which were the two other largest kingdoms in the region so basically every time I wanted to expand I had to fight the two other biggest powers at the same time on opposite sides of the Mediterranean. If they DON'T ally you should have smooth sailing though.

Yeah I was like 100 years ahead. Brutal penalties. I had like 225% research efficiency and 6000 a month or something and it barely helped.

 

[thesheeep]

Obviously people did NOT buy imperator and so future games won't look like that.

Imperator sold more than their targets, though. It was poorly received on launch, but it wasn't (isn't?) a commercial failure.

That might be true if we didn't all know Paradox's business model was milking via DLC.
How much DLCs do you think Imperator can be milked with still?

I think they realized they have to stop pouring resources into the game when the DLC that did release, sold poorly and didn't really boost the main game's sales, either.

 

[Silva]

If there's one problem with the game is that it's too easy right now. You can blob in a too stable fashion, no matter how much foreign pops you conquer, their religion or unhappiness. Shit should be more unstable the bigger you grow. Aggressive expansion is too easy to abuse, like it always was with infamy and bad boy.

Any mod that changes that? I think a mod that increases the AE penalties by a small factor (say, a 15% increase) would already turn things more chaotic.

 

[Theodora]

Posting this because I didn't see it mentioned, and I only saw it myself for the first time yesterday.

 

[Silva]

Invictus mod is released.

 

[CootKeeper]

Invictus mod is released.

with link.

 

[Silva]

Invictus mod is released.

with link.

I'm waiting for them to iron the kinks out. I've read feedback indicating they made food too scarce leading to nul pop growth and commerce, and slave revolts are so oppressive it's a surprise they didnt unite into world slave communism. I mean, the direction is right, making the game more difficult to manage is exactly what was needed.

 

[Gammer]

Wasted some gelt on the steam sale for this. I've played too much paradox games for my own good, and this one I cannot penetrate. It's like how I felt with stellaris. I get the systems and how to achieve my goals but I just don't want to eat this flavour cake or something. Eu4 and vic2 I can gobble down for DAYS but imperator and stellaris I just stop pretty soon after starting a run and never go back. Please don't let Vikusha3 taste like these!

 

[Silva]

Invictus 1.3 update is out now.

V1.3 - "Ashoka"

Map changes:
- Expanded map into Morocco
- Expanded map into Algeria
- Added Maldives
- Improved map quality in newly expanded areas, thanks to MattTheLegoMan
- Changed Central-Asian nation setup
- Changed Moroccan nation setup
- Added Oasis, Desert Hills and Floodplain terrain types around the map

Added content:
- Added full content to Cyrenaica:
Includes 6 full mission trees and plenty of events
- Added missions for Germanics:
Istvaeonics - 1 Tree (form Francia)
Francia - 1 Tree
-------------
Ingvaeonics - 1 Tree (form Saxonia)
Saxonia - 1 Tree
-------------
Marcomannia, Quadia, Suebia - 1 Tree
Semnonia, Suebia - 1 Tree
-------------
Gothonics - 1 Tree
-------------
Vandals - 1 Tree
-------------
Bastarnae and Sciria - 1 Tree
- Added full content for Rhodes:
Including 2 mission trees, flavour events and more
- Added full content to Maurya:
Includes scripted collapse, spread of Buddhism, 2 mission trees and plenty of events.
Scripted collapse includes rebellions, Indo-Greek invasion and more.
First mission tree becomes available once Ashoka becomes ruler
- Custom scripted Central-Asian invasions
- Added Persis to the map as a Satrap
- Added Gedrosia to the map as a Satrap
- Added full content to Anuradhapura
Includes 2 mission trees and flavour events.
- Added large mission tree for Kalinga
- Added large mission tree for Lanka
- Added content to Buddhism including decisions, events and more
- Added large mission tree to Fezzani tribes
- Added Hindu Caste laws
- Added sugar as a tradegood
- Added various new artwork to missions
- New formable: Achaean League, Indo-Scythian Kingdom
- Decisions for Steppe tribes bringing along Steppe horses
- Added custom wonder effects to all historical wonders

Reworked content:
- Rebalanced all wonder effects
To compensate for historical wonders receiving custom effects and thus preventing stacking.
- Extended Kush content
- Reworked progression into Dictatorship
Tech should now appear properly once you appoint a dictator and sensibilised requirements
- Reworked Spearmen movement 2 to 2.5
- Rebalanced Diadochia AI to make them more competitive
- Internally reworked Bloodlines to make them easier to change

Translations:
- Translated over 250 events/missions into Spanish.

Bugfixes:
- Fixed broken Meshes
- Fixed Antigonid mission with broken Bloodline triggers
- Fixed broken cultural province names
- Fixed broken Bactrian mission in the final tree
- Restored Vanilla Punic Deities
- Removed broken Deities
- Fixed some Anatolian technology not appearing
- Fixed various vanilla bugs with GUI thanks to Agamidae
- Fixed not needing Pella to develop it
- Fixed bug where Kush lost its military traditions

 

[fantadomat]

Invictus

What about underrail ?

 

[what am i doing]

So is the game good currently, and can I form the Sassanian Empire?

 

[Fedora Master]

The game is technically alright but offers no content beyond your first playthrough because there isn't any meaningful differentiation between nations.

 

[Silva]

Got interested in this. Any mods can recommend? ESPECIALLY performance-enhancing mods, I've tried to find some but couldn't find any. Odd.

Don't know of performance mods, unfortunately.

Invictus is mandatory, but you probably already know that.