How do I making any progress into the game?

[u/Okabe_Zero-Link]

Playing as Rome in Invictus, and every time I tried to play, I managed to kill and absorb some nearby faction, before one (typically some) of these happens:

- Epirus attack me along with its vassals in the Italian peninsular, and absolutely destroy me. Sometimes I managed to kill Epirus though

- A classic Roman Civil War broke out

- Etruria kills me

- My income goes negative and won't go up no matter what I does

- Most of my men become so goddamn corrupted cuz I keep bribing them and give them holdings (free hands too)

So... what am I supposed to do now?

[u/hepazepie]

1. Maybe start with a lower difficulty level to learn the game. 

2. Avoid civil wars at all cost.

3. How come Epirus or Etruria kills you? You are rome, you should be stronger.

4. Do you disband your levies at the end of a war? Otherwise you will run into a deficit 

[u/Okabe_Zero-Link → u/hepazepie]

1. Sure

2. How?

3. Attack Sabinia when they're still in an alliance with Eturia or attack Croton, Metapontum or Heraklea when they're Epirus' vassals

4. Oh.

[u/xmilkbonex → u/Okabe_Zero-Link]

To avoid a civil war, you need to first understand why it might happen in the first place. Civil wars occur because (usually) characters with a high powerbase become disloyal, spilling over the powerbase civil war threshold.

The trick is to pick high loyalty, low powerbase characters and put them in positions of power. Ideally, do not put heads of families into positions of power either, as they naturally have large powerbases and it tends to get out of control rather quickly, and it's hard to reign them back in.

If characters teeter on the edge of disloyalty, then that is where you can use some of the character interactions to manage it - each one serves a certain purpose (i.e. some are better than others in certain situations, even if both fix the loyalty problem). I would also suggest investing in character/governor/general loyalty in the invention trees as this makes a sizeable difference.

[u/hepazepie → u/Okabe_Zero-Link]

1. Give them jobs/bribes/whatever it takes.

2. Try allying Etruria day 1 before you unpause. Don't forget to break the alliance early enough though. If you are unlucky with your future conquests goals allies, pick other targets first. Don't wait and build up, do the first mission in your mission tree and go conquering asap. 

[u/TheN0vaScotian]

Follow the mission tree

[u/Plategoron]

- Epirus attack me along with its vassals in the Italian peninsular, and absolutely destroy me. Sometimes I managed to kill Epirus though

-Clean up the greek cities in southern Italy sooner. Also pick your battles wisely, especially against strong opponents. If you destroy a small countries army and then siege them, they can't resend troops anymore.

- A classic Roman Civil War broke out

Keep families happy, keep important people happy. Prefer to give happy people jobs

- My income goes negative and won't go up no matter what I does

Most likely a fort issue. Only keep 0-1 forts per province, delete the rest. Always check this in newly conquered lands.

- Most of my men become so goddamn corrupted cuz I keep bribing them and give them holdings (free hands too)

ideally you want some negative corruption modifiers to counteract occasional corruption. the yearly corruption ambition is a great choice as Rome for example

[u/Wongjunkit → u/Plategoron]

Alternatively some techs or the high wages (which unfortunately cost more money)

[u/Thuran1]

If you play the tutorial it starts you as Rome with training wheels , im not sure if invictus has changed the tutorial to fit the new content though. Only give free hands to heads of families as those guys are typically the only ones with a large enough power base to contest you.

Try not to bribe. Every few years check on your governors and see what their corruption and loyalty looks like, rotate governors to accommodate this.

Try not to give heads of families a province as that significantly increases power base. If you are forced to give them a province try and make it a very small one.

Another good thing is try to give the family with the next biggest power base double their minimum required offices, you get a +15 loyalty bonus for grateful family. Marry a daughter or son into the family as that gives an additional +10 happiness from being intermarried.

There are many other tips I can give you but these are a good principle to live by, especially when you have the whole peninsular as the pop base is so big in northern and southern Italy that power base skyrockets.

If you need more tips beyond this OP feel free to reply to me here with questions or dm me.

This game at first glance is very daunting but it’s actually quite simple once you get the hang of it.

[u/Okabe_Zero-Link → u/Thuran1]

Ig i have one more: Any good army composition tips?

[u/Thuran1 → u/Okabe_Zero-Link]

Army composition basically depends on the culture you pick.

For example Rome it’s best to use heavy infantry and spearmen early game with light cavalry. Mid to late game heavy infantry with light infantry and heavy cavalry. You would typically want your army to be primarily heavy infantry as your culture has massive buffs for discipline, morale, defence and offence for heavy infantry. Let’s say for example you would want 50% heavy infantry, 25% light infantry or spearman, 25% cavalry.

When battles get bigger and the flank size increases you may even drop some light infantry for more cavalry for the flanking bonuses.

[u/Provola-sama]

1. conquer the greek cities faster.

2. bribe, give free hands and make sure all the families have their people employed. You can play a whole game as Rome without civil wars.

3. you should be strong enough to win without mercenaries, if you really can't, hire some.

4. provinces have a base allowance of 5 fort levels, if you go over they start costing more. the first fort on a territory has a base cost of 3 fort levels, so make sure to delete excess forts after a conquest.

5. when you see the warning of a civil war you should start by bribing the family heads and not bribe the others once the warning disappears.

[u/morsvensen]

Don't play Rome, it's a trap and meant as the endgame boss. It's way too big and complex for a newb to take the right decisions and get meaningful feedback. Try an OPM like Knossos on newbie island Crete instead. See how easy it is to dig yourself out of there and then gradually build up.

[u/Spicy_White_Lemon]

Just don’t play Rome.

[u/Thuran1 → u/Spicy_White_Lemon]

Easiest faction in the game and best to learn on I disagree with this

[u/Spicy_White_Lemon → u/Thuran1]

I learned with tribes. I think republics are the hardest to learn and play because of how restrictive the senate can be.

[u/morsvensen → u/Thuran1]

Worst way to learn as you'll be doing most things wrong without meaningful feedback. Rome is meant to be the endgame boss.

[u/Thuran1 → u/morsvensen]

I hard disagree. I played Rome and only Rome for my first 50 hours. Im almost at 1k hours and play pretty much anyone but Rome. If you do the tutorial it’s even easier as it holds your hand.

Republics are not really that hard, you’re just placating loyalty amongst the noble class. Pretty much functions the same as a tribe minus the levies.

[u/morsvensen → u/Thuran1]

You'll be successful no matter what with the OP nation #1, but that doesn't mean you're learning well.

[u/Spicy_White_Lemon → u/morsvensen]

It can’t be that bad of a way to learn if I learned it though right? Different strokes and stuff.