So the legions finally made their entrance! I am surprised you have no archers there, what is the rationale for that? 
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Rome's plot armour is insane - both of their biggest rivals descending into massive civil wars around the same time is just silly.
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Honestly, that's a good question. I focused on the front line / back line / flank compositions, but never really thought to pepper in supporting units. That would probably be a good idea!So the legions finally made their entrance! I am surprised you have no archers there, what is the rationale for that?
I don't know if Invictus affects it at all, but there seems to be a -lot- of civil war among large nations.
My goals aren't too well-defined. I need to flip Rome to an empire at some point, and I do need to get ahold of Jerusalem before 33AD if Christianity is going to make any sense, but mostly I'm just expanding Rome until it's time to make the jump to emperors, where I can focus on characters a little more since my leader won't be changing every five years, and then the -real- fun part is when the Crisis of the Third Century kicks in, and I watch Rome completely explode to set up a fragmented CK3 world. I'm hoping that Rome herself doesn't really survive in any meaningful form, so I can end up playing a kingdom in CK3 other than just a continuation of Rome, but we'll see what happens! Being strong for -too- long isn't much fun, after all.
If my experience of this game so far tells me anything, Rome is going to continue to steamroll for awhile until civil wars and crises start spicing things up.Carthage allying Egypt would have put a serious damper in your expansion into Africa if they both hadn't immediately collapsed into civil war. Part of me was looking forward to seeing a bit of challenge there, but I also enjoy seeing Rome just walk all over its enemies.
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Still a very long time and a lot of territory between you and the empire.
depending on how quickly you achieve the historical roman borders, you might have a couple centuries of pax romana before the 3rd century crisis really starts challenging you.
depending on how quickly you achieve the historical roman borders, you might have a couple centuries of pax romana before the 3rd century crisis really starts challenging you.
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Have you thought of other religions possibly filling in Christianity’s role? Not sure how Imperator handles it, but maybe other religions like Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, the cult of Sol Invictus, or Bactrian Buddhism could take Christianity’s place, though I get that it would probably make things unrecognizable come CK3.
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I have thought about that, and depending on how thing shake out, I do think it would be interesting. But I think that, if anything, Christianity would potentially spread to fewer places, leaving other religions to fill in the gap in certain regions. The technical limitations of game design give a few obstacles there. For example, it makes no sense for CK/EU to represent Christianity with a cross if Jerusalem was owned by, say, Egyptians or Arabs at the time, who wouldn't have practiced crucifixion. The rise of Islam is also not covered by any game, so without extensively modding the start of a CK3 campaign, balance there could be an issue.
But yes, I do think it would be interesting to see how other religions could thrive if Christianity wasn't as widespread as it was historically, but I also think it would break too much of the experience in CK for Christianity to be -too- small.
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I wonder if it would be possible to mod some other religion, like the cult of Sol Invictus or Zoroastrianism, to have Christianity and Islam's mechanics? While we're here, since there's a chance Christianity won't spread like OTL, and you mentioned how no game covers Islam's rise, what religion could take Islam's role in that case?
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Makes sense. I can see "Christianity" still existing as a regional Abrahamic sect akin to Samaritanism but not catching on outside of the Middle East (with a historically appropriate symbol if Jesus died by some other method). Then you could have Mithraism in Anatolia, Egypt, and certain other cities across the empire, or Sol Invictus being integrated into the imperial cult. If Rome starts expanding into Persia, it would come into greater contact with Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. Zoroastrianism could work really well as an evangelizing sort-of monotheistic religion that spreads among the people before being adopted and spread further by the state, absorbing but not completely displacing the old Greco-Roman pantheon. Buddhism, meanwhile could completely preserve the old pantheon, as happened in East Asia, and open up pretty interesting story ideas for when that religion spreads to the rest of Europe. It could even preserve European pagan traditions to a certain degree. I know we don't have much information on European paganism, but we can rationalize it as those parts being discarded in favor of Buddhist syncretization/Roman cultural assimilation. The best thing is you could still have Sol Invictus or Mithras in the imperial cult since they're not incompatible with Buddhism.
I like the idea of Zoroastrianism establishing a Christian-like hierarchy under the Roman Empire, or perhaps Buddhism being organized like autocephalous patriarchates as in early Christianity and later Eastern Orthodoxy.
Islam's rise was influenced by Christianity and the sense that it was "completing" or "perfecting" the faith of the Jews and Christians. For example, Jesus was one of the prophets in Islam before Muhammad. So if Christianity doesn't take off to the same degree as in OTL, I don't see Muhammad rising to power and Islam emerging. On the other hand, maybe we could make "Christianity" as "Islam." I don't know how the game depicts the death of Jesus, but if he decided to go down fighting due to different circumstances in his life (Matthew 10:34 - “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."), he could radicalize the sect and make it more militant. When Rome collapses after the 3rd century, Christians could take the opportunity to spread outward by force much like early Islam did. But maybe instead of going west like the Islamic conquests did, it goes east through Arabia and Persia into Central Asia and India, setting up a mostly Roman/Buddhist Europe and a militant Christian Middle East and India. Though it would be nice if Zoroastrianism survives in Persia into CK3 for added religious balance.
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Roman syncretism could allow Mithraism, Sol Invictus, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism to exist as one faith, with some variation for regional sects, so this could work.
I like that idea. Going off that one Sassanian prince who went into exile in China after the Islamic conquest of Persia, as well as Vladmir the Great having to choose which Abrahamic faith to convert the Kyivan Rus to, it could be interesting if Christianity ends up pushing Zoroastrianism to migrate into India, Central Asia, Russia, or China.
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Definitely. You could have Buddhist monasteries dedicated to the old pantheon in Greece and Italy (where the gods have been "converted" to a more pious lifestyle by the Buddha), Zoroastrian fire temples in the east, Sol Invictus in the imperial cult, and temples to Mithras scattered across Europe in between Buddhist temples syncretizing with local gods. We could even go all in with the East Asian parallels and have the political and religious evolution of Britain mirror Japan's early development and adoption of Buddhism.
Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism already had significant communities in Central Asia, so I could see refugees from the Persian conquest going there and helping organize a resistance to further Christian expansion, with the end result that Zoroastrianism/Manichaeism spreads across the steppes and circles around to Russia. I can also see Christians pushing deep into India and then a Reconquista-like series of wars gradually pushing them back from the east, maybe with China's support. Oh, and Ethiopia adopts Christianity much like in OTL and begins expanding into North Africa and Arabia, becoming another major rival in CK3.
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Armenia was also historically was one of the earlier kingdoms to adopt Christianity in OTL, so maybe it is one of the kingdoms to spearhead Christianity's eastern expansion and become a major empire in CK3 like the Abbasid caliphate. To continue the early caliphate parallels, perhaps the Bagratids could overthrow the previous ruling dynasty and exile them to the Indian conquests, while the Bagratids preside over a golden age in Armenia proper.
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What follows that verse is needed to understand what is reported to had been said by the Christ. He warns that his teachings are revolutionary, threaten the social order, will not be peacefully accepted by everyone and will lead to strong disputes. That those who'll follow him might become pariahs. Even their families might ban them. He doesn't speak about martial wars... and promotes love (diligere, not amare) and non-violence.
https://www.esv.org/Matthew+10/ said:
See also Luke
https://www.esv.org/Luke+12/ said:
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Couldn't Imperator: Rome be modified to go up to the 700s, before being converted to Crusader kings?
Why couldn't Islam be modified to appears at some steps in Imperator: Rome?
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Maybe Armenia expands west and south into Anatolia and the Levant but is barely beaten back from western Anatolia and the city of Byzantium by the post-Roman states, while Ethiopia goes north into Egypt and Arabia and then across into North Africa. The two of them fight massive wars over Jerusalem and the Holy Land as a result, which leads to their decline and fragmentation into smaller Christian kingdoms. Eastward land expansion is stalled by a still strong Zoroastrian Persia, but the Christian conquest of India comes from the sea and expands out from Gujarat, eventually taking most of the subcontinent aside from the southern tip and Bengal, from which the "Reconquista" begins.
Thanks for clarifying that. I wanted to demonstrate that with a vastly different political and religious situation in Judea, as well as a different life for Jesus, he very well could become militant in this AAR, or maybe some of his followers interpret his teachings that way and take up the sword.
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I haven’t played Imperator, but don’t late games tend to lag out or suffer other performance issues? Aside from other potential technical issues from that kind of modding I’m not sure about, I’m also worried RedTemplar might end up getting burned out by playing for that long.
I also just remembered there was a Jewish kingdom in Yemen in OTL, so maybe that kingdom survives against Ethiopia's onslaught through a Battle of Tours style engagement, allowing Jewish kingdoms to exist in southern Arabia, causing Ethiopia to go into Arabia by land through the north, triggering its clash with Armenia over Jerusalem.
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There were also Zoroastrian tribes, and some sources suggest even a Buddhist one, so it would be pretty interesting if those survived with Persian backing.
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Instead of Marius' mules, we have Pulcher's pack animals. Both of your rivals collapsing into civil war the moment they unite against you is convenient.
Do you want to expand into Gaul or Britain? Or are you saving that for a Julius Caesar-type figure?
Do you want to expand into Gaul or Britain? Or are you saving that for a Julius Caesar-type figure?
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That's a solid 'maybe'. I'm not sure how economically valuable Gaul is, and the idea of having some of Gaul, or even all of Albion, left in barbarian hands, could make for interesting developments into the CK-era. The British Isles, free of any Roman influence, could be fun. But in terms of value for conquest, I would focus more on Iberia, Anatolia, and Egypt, I think, before I'd focus on Gaul.
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I read enough Morgan Llywellyn books when I was a girl to want there to be druids for as long as possible. So I vote Leave Albion Alone.
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Agreed, we should destroy Persia instead. Can’t have centuries of constant wars with our eastern neighbors draining the economy, can we?
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