Rome II Politics Overview

Families & Parties

Depending on the size of your faction on the campaign map, the total number of political parties may vary between two and five. Throughout the campaign you must manage your party’s influence in relation to the others such as the Senate, court or tribal council.  However, controlling the balance of political power is more challenging when influence must be balanced between more parties. Party loyalty needs to be managed or you face the risk them openly show discontent and starting to secede. New parties can appear as your faction expands and old parties can disappear if they start a secession and are defeated in the subsequent civil war.

Important Characters

Important characters take part in your faction’s life and politics. Appearing throughout the game in missions, incidents and dilemmas, as well as the Faction Summary tab, they are not just serving generals and admirals (commanders), but also wider members of your faction, party, or the faction leader’s family.  More importantly, your important characters also consist of statesmen representing the various parties, who reside at your faction capital. In political terms, statesmen are the same as commanders and have influence-contributing gravitas, but unlike commanders they don’t have a physical presence on the campaign map, instead holding positions in political office until a new army or fleet is raised and requires leadership. Additionally, a commander does not have to die to be replaced; you can replace him by selecting his army on the campaign map and navigating to the Replace option on the General’s Details panel. If you choose to put an existing statesman in command of an existing military force, a swap will occur and the previous commander will be removed from the field, becoming a statesman instead.

Gravitas & Ambition

Gravitas is a character’s popularity and standing in the Roman world and is the key factor in determining their party’s influence. All the characters in a party contribute, but the effect is relative to the total gravitas of its rival parties. So, if an opposition party has several high-gravitas members and yours doesn’t, the likelihood is that their influence will increase each turn, while yours will decrease.

 

Also, remember that a character’s ambition can increase the effect their gravitas has on their party’s influence, so it is prudent to keep an eye on your ambitious generals. The more ambitious a character is in relation to others, the more effect his gravitas will have on his party’s share of power.

 

To manipulate a party’s influence, increase or reduce the amount of gravitas their characters possess. For example, one could attempt to discredit a party by spreading rumours about some or all members, reducing their overall gravitas. However, assassination of a prominent opposition member might have an even greater effect, since all of a character’s contributing gravitas can be removed completely in one swift action. Conversely, adoption steals a character from another party, taking gravitas away from them and adding it to your own. See below for further details about political actions.

Influence & Support

Your party can gain influence by completing missions, winning victories on the battlefield, and through political machinations back home. Generals with some experience can be left to lead your armies and fleets or be granted political office, known as Cursus Honorum. While offices cause a gradual increase, a successful general provides a major boost to your party’s influence during wartime. Although it can be left to accumulate at times when your party has superior gravitas levels over the opposition, influence can also be used to carry out political actions, such as assassination, aimed at undermining the influence of another party within your faction.

 

Influence is shared out in percentages amongst the parties and can be viewed within the list of important characters, located in the faction politics and faction character tabs. These percentages correlate with the amount of support each party has from within the faction, usually from an invisible ‘patrician’ class. These individuals, such as Senators, tribal elders, and court nobles, vary depending on the culture of the player faction (for example, the support given to the parties of the democratic Hellenistic factions comes from their citizens, rather than a patrician class). In any case, there is always a limited number of these power-granting individuals, and they can only give support to one party at any one time. Therefore, losing or gaining their support results in a change in influence. This is important when deciding whether to carry out political actions, as in the short term many of them cost the support of a fixed number of patricians, subjects or citizens. Observe the exact amount of support each party has by mousing over the associated percentages displayed in the character list.

 

Each party’s influence is tied to the number of provinces under their sway. The higher a party’s influence is, the more cities share their affection or dislike to your ruling methods. Any bonuses or penalties that come from a party affect the provinces within their influence area.

 

Faction traits related to your level of influence may be awarded, depending on the power held. They can be viewed on the Faction Politics tab.

Loyalty

To maintain control over your faction, you must garner other parties’ loyalty to your cause. Each party’s loyalty represents their satisfaction with the status quo. The higher it is, the happier that party is with your regime. If it drops low, then that party does not agree with your political choices. This animosity can grow to treachery and, if neglected, can incite rebellion.

 

Loyal parties grant bonuses to the provinces within their influence area, while unhappy ones confer penalties on theirs. Loyalty can be gained or lost in several ways: political actions; victories obtained by that party’s generals or admirals; the death of party members. It is also affected by the faction’s imperium – the larger a faction grows, the harder it is to keep other parties in check.

Government Types

Each faction starts out in one of four possible government types, which provide different factionwide bonuses. The goal for any faction is to become an empire, which grants the greatest boons, but it can only be achieved when certain prerequisites are met, such as acquiring a large number of provinces. At any point, the player can choose to reform their government, causing instability for a short while, but reaping the benefits of their new regime. However, not every culture can reform to any government, for instance eastern cultures are very adherent to their traditions and would never agree to an elected monarchy.

Imperium

Your faction’s imperium is a measure of your progress during a campaign as viewed by rivals within your faction. It can be increased by conquests. As your imperium becomes great, politics have greater importance, because this is when other parties start to consider you a real threat, increasing the chances for a secession to grow into a civil war with every turn. Larger empires will find it much more difficult to maintain inner stability due to much more frequent occurrences of political incidents. When full imperium has been achieved, it is important to keep a very close eye on the situation, because fluctuations in influence may be more extreme because of the machinations of the opposition. Also, keep in mind that you may not always be able to recruit a general from the ‘right’ party. If loyalty in other parties is too low, this may result in a civil war against separatists; keeping loyalty high for all parties can prove difficult and expensive. It is therefore important to use the early game to learn how politics can help you, and, once your empire has grown, actively try to hold on to your rule.

 

All information regarding your faction’s imperium levels, including the associated traits and effects, can be viewed on the Faction Summary tab.

Secession & Civil War

Politics in Total War: ROME II is about maintaining your rule and keeping other parties loyal. If their loyalty is ignored, it is possible that your loyal subjects will become treacherous and attempt to take your power for themselves. If a party’s loyalty falls too low, mistrust and paranoia ultimately lead to a challenge for control of your faction. At this point, a secession occurs – that party’s forces lead a rebellion against you, taking control of the provinces within their area of influence as a first step to overthrowing your regime. If your faction has gained enough imperium and owns a vast territory, secession can expand into civil war, forcing other parties to choose a side. The newly emerged faction is a direct result of the opposition to your party’s rule; it is not possible to engage in diplomacy with them, and they will always try to capture and hold your settlements in an effort to ultimately destroy you. Civil wars will continue indefinitely until the opposition faction is defeated, and will occur multiple times in a campaign if party loyalty is not consistently kept in check.

Cursus Honorum

Cursus Honorum are the offices and commissions that can be allocated to subjects in your faction when they reach a certain age or rank. They work rather like character traits or household members or objects in that they give useful effects. There is a power cost associated with Cursus Honorum, meaning they can be used to placate useful but potentially dangerous individuals. When all the criteria for a level of Cursus Honorum have been met, the secure promotion button will be enabled; click on it to bestow the office. Promotions can be used as a political tool to secure a party’s loyalty, as they will be happy to have high-ranking members in office. Your faction leader is excluded from this system, as they already hold the highest possible office. Instead, he or she has a custom trait that depends on your government type.

The Faction Summary Tab

This is the main hub of the politics system, accessed by clicking the faction symbol at the centre of the main campaign user interface. Here you can view everything you need to know about the inner politics of your faction, such as who the opposition is, how much influence they have, their loyalty to your cause, and their traits. This tab also helps you to manipulate the balance of power by using political actions on parties or characters, using either flattery or skulduggery.

 

Your current government type is displayed on this tab, along with the bonuses it provides. Reforming the regime is possible, but will cause instability for a while, as simple men find it difficult to accept change.

 

The important characters listed in the Character tab are your political pawns or subjects; their triumphs, trials and tribulations directly affect the level of influence their parties gain or lose. Clicking on a portrait reveals a breakdown of that character’s attributes, the most important being gravitas and ambition.

Maintaining your rule is about making sure other parties’ loyalty stays at a reasonable level. There are various political actions available to help achieve or maintain this, most of which incur a financial or political cost, or both. The political cost is always a loss of support from a few individuals in the patrician class, which in turn immediately affects your party’s share of influence. However, these actions can affect influence levels in the long term; if attempts to manipulate gravitas are successful, there will be favorable changes over successive turns.

 

Clicking on a character’s portrait on the Faction Summary tab to carry out these actions, the costs of which are displayed on their respective tooltips. Not all characters can be targeted with all actions; only valid actions will be displayed for each of them. The possible actions are as follows:

 

Secure Promotion

Promotions can be secured for members of all parties, both your ruling party and others. The effects of a promotion are not entirely political, as a character given higher office will see an immediate boost to gravitas. If that character is not part of the ruling party, then promoting them will lead to an increase in his party’s loyalty. Such promotions also bestow special Cursus Honorum traits, which also have their own effects. This action can be carried out multiple times (up to a maximum level) if the target character is the right age and rank for each successive promotion. At the first level, the cost is the support of a few patricians. With each promotion thereafter, there is an ascending financial cost in addition to the loss of support.

 

Embezzle Funds

Embezzle funds can be used by any ruling party member to supplement the treasury at the cost of their influence and the loyalty of other parties. Although risky, making an important character act dishonestly can be a useful way to bolster your war chest. Note that attempts to embezzle funds are not always successful, but you will lose other parties’ loyalty nonetheless.

 

Administrator

You can send a statesman to help with the administration of a particular province to increase its public order. This action can be used on a member of any party that is not a general or admiral. That character will gain gravitas, signifying their importance to the people of the province. If you send a statesman of the ruling party, you will be considered greedy by other parties, causing their loyalty to decline. However, if a member of another party is sent, their loyalty will improve.

 

Organise Feast

A statesman can be sent to organise a feast, increasing the food supply for that province. Generals and admirals are not viable characters for this action, but any other member of your or another party can be selected. If you send a statesman of the ruling party to provide help for the masses, other parties will take offense that they had not been given this task, leading to a drop in their loyalty. However, if a member of another party is sent to aid the province, that party’s loyalty will rise.

 

Bribe

Bribery has the simple effect of moving a character between an opposition party and your own, at a financial and a political cost. It is useful to decrease the opposition’s gravitas and increase your own in order to restore the political balance. If successful, the bribed character loses gravitas when he moves. The financial cost is also greater for high-gravitas characters. This action can only be used in a republic or empire government type.

 

Adopt

This action is essentially the same as above, but can only be used in a monarchy government type. The target does not lose gravitas when he moves over to your party. Note that party leaders cannot be adopted or bribed.

 

Secure Loyalty

The most straightforward way to increase an untrustworthy party’s loyalty is a financial gift, spending some of your war chest to ensure they remain ardent about your rule. This action is not used on a member of a party but instead on the opposing party itself. The amount required is fairly low for an insignificant party, but the more influence they have obtained, the more their devotion will cost you. Be prepared to use the treasury if you wish to avoid a secession. This action can be used in union/league or empire government type.

 

Provoke

If there is no way to avoid conflict with an opposing party, it may be prudent to incite their ire prematurely, before they can gain enough influence to become a serious threat. In this case, you can use this action on a party for a chance to force them into secession. This provocation has a significant chance to turn a small rebellion into a factionwide civil war, so be prepared when you rouse the anger of your political rivals. The action has a cost in gold, which becomes larger as your imperium grows, and can only be used in a hereditary monarchy or an empire government type.

 

Purge

When a rival party is deemed too prominent, you can opt to forcibly remove their followers from your state. This will reduce their influence across the provinces, but will also cause a great drop in loyalty for all parties, who will see you as a harsh dictator. The higher your faction’s imperium is, the more this expulsion will drain your treasury.

 

Diplomat

Sending a statesman to another faction as a diplomat can be used on a member of any party who is not involved in your military effort as an admiral or general. That character travels to a chosen faction to negotiate a beneficial relationship for your state. They will return to the Senate after a few turns of negotiating with the fruits of their labour. If your diplomat exercises the proper finesse and flattery, they may be rewarded with gold, a bonus to your faction or even land! However, if the mediator handles himself poorly, relations will worsen and he may find his life is forfeit.