Getting Started with Cursus Honorum 2.0
Part 1: Choose Rome
Cursus Honorum 2.0 is a mod for Rome only. It was designed to have virtually no impact on any other country. It was also designed to have virtually no impact on Rome if you happen to be playing another country. If you are not playing Rome, Rome will look like any other vanilla Republic.
Part 2: Before You Unpause
Please refer to the Unofficial Strategy Guide: Republics that has been stickied in the main Rome forum for general tips on how to play a Republic. This guide is intended as a walkthrough for playing the first year in Cursus Honorum 2.0.
Step 1: Check Your Government Positions
Cursus Honorum 2.0 imposes a rigid heirarchy of major offices for your characters to progress through, known collectively as the Cursus Honorum (the "course of honors"). Characters will have to hold each office in the Cursus Honorum in their proper order and with intervals between offices eventually working their way up to the office of Consul.
The offices of the Cursus Honorum are: Quaestor (min age 28); Aedile Curules (optional; min age 31); Praetor (min age 34); and Consul (min age 37). Each office lasts one year and characters may not hold another office in the Cursus Honorum for three years after the date of their election. That means a Character who firsts serves as Quaestor at 30 may not be immediately elected to Aedile Curules at 31; he must wait until he is 33. However, the position of Aedile Curules is an optional office, meaning that characters may skip it; so in the example above, our character is eligible to be elected as Aedile Curules at 33, or at Praetor at 34.
Cursus Honorum 2.0 also adds a number of minor offices. The vigintisexvir, "twenty-six men"), are represented by the title Magistratus Minores ("minor magestries") are always available to men ages 21-27. The Tribunes Militium ("military officers") are likewise available to men ages 25-29. The plebeian titles, Aedile Plebis and Tribuni Plebis, are only available to characters who are plebeians (those who are not patricians), and are always available at age 28. Religous offices, Flamin Dialis, Pontifex Maximus, Pontifex, and Augur, are available at 18. And finally the senior magestries, Princeps Senatus and Censor, are available to anyone who has held the office of Consul, regardless of age.
The Lex Villia Annalis increases the age minimums necessary for the major offices to their familiar late Republic values. Do not enact this law just yet. Wait about a hundred years.
If you take a look around your government, you will notice that you have several major offices to fill immediately. This is because the prerequisites of these offices are such that most characters are unable to fill them initially. Fortunately, you start the game with a number of former Consuls who are able to step into any office until you build up your ranks of Quaestors. Use your former Consuls to fill your two Censor positions, your Aedile Curules (construction tech) and your Praetor Urbanus (civic tech).
Two positions are not immediately fillable: Flamin Dialis (religious tech) and Governor of Magna Grecia. This is because at the beginning of the game no character meets the requirements for either office. You should, however, be able to fill both offices within six months. To fill the office of Flamin Dialis, watch out for marraige notices. The office must be held by a married Patrician. Any married Patrician will do; plunk the first eligible candidate in there.
Step 2: Put Your Consul in Command
The Consul in January 474 AVC was Lucius Aemilius Barbula. He will only be Consul for another four months, and he will get a little upset when we releive him of command later, but that's okay. We have a position in mind for him down the road.
Rome always, always, always (ok, almost always) put their Consuls in charge of their armies, even when it meant almost certain ruin. Romans rarely seemed to understand that rich, powerful men of prestigeous lineages who were possibly descended from the gods but had virtually no command experience were rarely competent generals. But, to be fair, modern peoples almost always vote for the famous, rich guys (whose fathers were famous, rich guys) too.
If you want to have a real Roman experience, you should always make your Consul the Legatus of your largest army, no matter what his martial skill is. You should rarely use your former Consuls as generals (historically it would have required a proclamation of dictator rei gerendae causa ("one who dictates orders") from the Senate). However, it is okay to leave a recent Consul in command of his army if you are fighting a war on two fronts; in effect, you are proroguing his command.
In real life Lucius Aemilius Barbula enjoyed some success in Tarentum, went home, celebrated a Triumph and turned over his army to Publius Valerius Laevinus who lost the battle of Heraclea in 474 AVC. The Phyrrhic war is so lopsided in EU:R that there is a fair chance that Lucius Aemilius Barbula will conquer Magna Grecia before his term is up.
Step 3: Assign your Praefectus Classis (Admiral)
Look for someone with a high martial, who has Become Praefectus Classis as an objective. Fulfilling that objective will give him a +1 to his Martial attribute, which you will need if you ever hope to take Sicily. To a Roman, the office of Admiral was less respectable than that of General, so fewer of your characters will have the objective Become Praefectus Classis, however, on the positive side, the only requirement to holding the office is that a character be at least 28. As with vanilla EU:R, if you do not fill any command position of an army or navy with 4 or more units, the Senate may take it upon themselves to fill it by special appointment. And they could chose anybody.
Step 4: Assign Other Offices
Cursus Honorum 2.0 adds many major and minor offices that you should immediately fill. Some of them give useful local and country bonuses, others are part of the Cursus Honorum, and all of them keep otherwise idle hands busy. Offices you should now assign are: Augur x9, Pontifex x8, Magistratus Minores x6, Tribunes Militium x6, Aedile Plebis x2, Tribuni Plebis x2, Quaestor Urbani x2, Pontifex Maximus x1, Princips Senatus x1, Censor x2 and Sacerdos Vestalis x4. If at all possible you should assign offices to characters who seek them as an objective because they will often receive a bonus in loyalty, family prestige and attributes.
Sacerdos Vestalis is an office for women only; they are the Vestal Virgins, young women chosen between the ages of 6-10 to serve 30 years to tend the sacred fire of Vesta. At the start of the game, you will only be able to assign 3 of the 4 available positions.
You will also notice that Cursus Honorum 2.0 does not distinquish between types of Quaestors or Praetors. An objective to become a Quaestor can be fulfilled by any Quaestor office (Quaestor Militares, Quaestor Naves, Quaestor Urbani or Quaestor Classici) and the objective to become a Praetor, fulfilled by any Praetor office (Praetor Urbanus, Praetor Peregrinus, or Governors).
Most of these titles will automatically expire after one year. Only the major vanilla titles (tech, Consul, command, Governorship) require manual retirement or replacement.
Step 5: Do All the Other Stuff
Assign trade routes; choose national ideas, start building fleets and armies, etc.
Step 6: Conquer Magna Grecia
Enough said.
Step 7: Assign Governor of Magna Grecia
As mentioned earlier, you are unable to assign the office of Governor of Magna Grecia at the beginning of the game, however you will be able to fill it as soon as a new Consul is elected on May 1. If Lucius Aemilius Barbula is on Roman soil (or in Roman occupied territory) you can relieve him of command by promoting the new Consul to Legatus of the Army. Notice that Lucius Aemilius Barbula has the temporary title Proconsul (or will after one day). While Proconsul, a character may be assigned as the Governor of a region (EU:R will give him the title Preator, but that is due to the game engine; he actually remains a Proconsul for his entire governorship). Praetor Urbanus and Praetor Peregrinus become Propraetors at the end of their terms, and may also be assigned as Governors. The titles of Proconsul and Propraetor only last for 180 days; if a character is not assigned a province within that time period, he loses his chance.
Until you pass the Lex Baebia de Praetoribus, all Governors must be Proconsul or Propraetor. Since you only produce one of each, every year, you may soon find yourself running short of eligible governors. You may have to leave effective governors in office for two or three years, but that should not be too troubling because that is what historically happened. Once you pass the Lex Baebia de Praetoribus, you may appoint anyone who is eligible to serve as Praetor as the Governor of a region. Note, however, that Praetors directly appointed as Governors do not become Propraetors when they leave office. The offices of Proconsul and Propraetor used to move administrative officers into Governorships, not from one Governorship to the next. You should always give your most recent Consul the Governorship of a region. It's his reward for not completely running your government into the ground. If you have any extra regions lying around, you should similarly reward your outgoing Praetor Urbanus and Praetor Peregrinus.
Part 2: Additional Laws and Titles
As you progress, additional laws will be made available to you. Lex Atilia adds the office of Quaestor Classici x4. Lex Lutatia adds the office of Praetor Peregrinus x1. Lex Baebia de Praetoribus permits you to directly appoint anyone who is eligible to serve as Praetor to be a Governor of a region. And the Plebiscitum Atinium admits Quaestors and Tribuni Plebis into the Senate automatically.
Part 3: Fighting Wars
By now you're probably wondering how you're going to fight a bunch of wars if you can only have one general. Its not easy, but it can be done with a combination of two methods (and if it were easy, it wouldn't be Roman). One, assign legions to your regions. Regional legions will be under the command of your Proconsular and Propraetor governors, but they will not be able to leave the region to which they have been assigned. These armies are good for defense and for limited offence ("filling out" a partially occupied region). Roman governors often left their regions a little larger than when they found them. Two, build a second or even third army and "prorogue" your outgoing Consul's command by leaving him in place until he is no longer needed.
If you're desperate, go ahead and use a former consul (technically he'd be a dictator, but not a Sulla or Caesar, so don't worry about a government change).