Senate (RTW Faction)

Senate General's Bodyguard.

Overview

The Senate faction (also known as SPQR) is an unplayable faction in the vanilla Rome: Total War game.

The Senate faction is relatively immobile and acts as guardian of the Rome region, they have comparatively strong units and provide a good defence for Rome in the early stages of the game.

When the Senate faction is present in the game the other Roman factions will receive senate missions, have senate standing ratings and senate offices.

History

The S.P.Q.R. faction acts as protector of Latium, the region where Rome is situated and as lord of the other 3 Roman factions, giving them missions and influencing them in several ways: the missions itself and the result of these missions, completion will earn you the Senate's gratitude and nice rewards in the form of games, Senate offices (making the Roman faction more powerful) or denarii. However, if missions are not completed the particular Roman faction will become hated by S.P.Q.R. and in extreme cases war may be declared on the Roman faction not completing the missions.

S.P.Q.R. are mostly among the richest factions in the game despite controlling only one region and Rome's riches are mostly in minus. Also, Rome's public order is generally low when under S.P.Q.R. lordship, always between 45 % and 95 % to 100% in rare cases. S.P.Q.R. control some of the strongest units in the game combined with good generals and leaders creating an impenetrable defence for Rome in the early stages of the game. They are soon surpassed in military power by the other factions but because of the strong alliance with the other Roman factions, they are almost never under threat from other factions. Enemies may send small armies by fleet but they are always destroyed. The only enemies that enter Latium by land are the Rebels and in extreme cases, either the barbarians,the Greeks or Macedon destroy the Julii and become neighbours with the Senate.

If S.P.Q.R. gets destroyed, it is generally by a Roman faction when the Civil War starts. Mostly The Senate stand their ground for some time and it requires certain skill to wipe them from the map in one move.

Generally S.P.Q.R. only fights when an enemy army enters Latium (also during the Civil War) and despite having a port (and later a shipwright and a dockyard) they have no naval power as they mostly don't bother about building a strong fleet. Rome is the only place were Legionary First Cohorts can be trained, giving S.P.Q.R. command of one of the strongest infantry units in the game as said earlier. Their generals are also more than decent, for example Marcus Maxentius who mostly becomes an eight to nine star general.

They do use diplomats but mostly only have one, being Flavius Nepos in the early game. Assassins never seem to be used by S.P.Q.R. ( only seldom they use assassins in the Civil War) and spies are also not common.

THE "TEMPLE PROBLEM" AND ITS SOLUTION

If you intend to play as the Senate, there is one thing of import to note before even firing the game up, as it involves further modification of game files. The Senate has, by default, no religious buildings to speak of; they're entirely dependant upon capturing others' buildings. Even if not playing as the Senate, it seems reasonable for them to have access to at least one of the Roman temples, and to give them this, you will have to modify the export_descr_buildings.txt file, which is located in Rome: Total War/data. A thorough explanation is given on the page devoted to this file in the Wiki, but a quick glance at the file should yield a good idea of what do; it's organised by building type, each type comprising all levels of the building. You must add the faction name (in this case, romans_senate) in the obvious location next to the building name for it to become available. For instance, to give them access to the Shrine of Jupiter, the first few lines should look like this:

   building temple_of_leadership
   {
   levels temple_of_leadership_shrine temple_of_leadership_temple temple_of_leadership_large_temple temple_of_leadership_awesome_temple temple_of_leadership_pantheon 
   {
       temple_of_leadership_shrine requires factions { armenia, greek_cities, romans_julii, romans_senate, }

The addition you must make yourself is in bold. The comma and space after it are important; don't forget to add them!

A function of the facion's culture is to automatically add the graphic and name appropriate, so if, as in our example, you give the Senate "temple_of_leadership" level 1, you don't have to worry about naming it "Shrine to Jupiter" and giving it a Roman shrine graphic, as it's done automatically.

If you wish to give them more than one temple, keep in mind what they do and try to diversify them, particularly if you're only using two or three. If using more than that, while more diversity is a perfectly valid idea, also consider putting in temples that are very similar, but have slightly different effects, like the Egyptians have. A couple of their temples even have identical effects until the Temple City level, making the player think ahead to what he thinks he'll need and adding a new dimension of interest to his building plan.

EARLY WAR GUIDE

Although there are not many who are eager to play as the Senate, they're certainly a challenging, rewarding faction to play. The Senate gives players the chance to try being the Romans from their real beginning, which is never covered in video games: one city, Roma. While the timetable for this start is a bit late, the sizes and similar culture of their Latin neighbours, as well as the superior power of many outlying factions, remain facts, and they must be overcome by cunning and superior generalship rather than outright power (not to mention without hiding behind the other families on all but one or two carefully-chosen fronts, like the other Roman factions can do).

The player starts in control of Rome, respectable generals and a large, highly-experienced army. Generally, the first thing to do is to get rid of the Roman families. This is for two reasons: First, because the Senate's usual "protected" status is non-existent when playing as the Senate; the Roman families can attack you as soon as they'd care to. Second, because you're losing money quickly in the beginning and need to obtain regions equally quickly, and the families are closest to you.

One 'tactic' some may enjoy is to act like the Senate under AI control: simply wait, see and try to guide the wars while building up Rome and making it into an impenetrable fortress. You will have to cheat to do this, using the 'add_money' command for income as Rome alone cannot pay for a great host, generals and construction works. Therefore, expect to add about 5000 denarii by means of a cheat every turn. So long as you only control Rome, of course, you don't have to think of it as a cheat, per se: keep in mind that the game gives the Senate free money constantly, as proven by the fact that they always seem to be able to pay for construction and large armies despite Rome being ever in the negative. At any rate, experience teaches that playing the waiting game may serve well when one's neighbours have problems beside you, and when the Gladiator Uprising appears, it becomes all of a sudden much easier to take over all the Roman families' cities.

The most likely tactic, however, will be to get rid of the Roman families early on and to secure the italian peninsula. Controlling the Roman heartland will give you a good income indeed, allowing you to build your might slowly and simply wait and see.

There are many viable tactics for securing the peninsula, but they all involve using the Senate's main starting advantage: its large, experienced army, which makes them ready for war straight away. This is at the same time a disadvantage since this great army is very expensive and will make you bankrupt with notable swiftness. It is important to move with haste.

In the very beginning, there are a few sets of moves that will allow one to secure a few provinces, after which everything becomes dependant upon the various factions' reactions, which will always differ.

Initially, the most logical move to many is to split Rome's garrison into the two existing armies and move against Arretium and Capua. The advantage to this plan is that Capua can be besieged on the very first turn, and captured on the second. The Scipiones have very little military presence, but two very respectable generals, on the peninsula in the beginning, so this is a good opportunity to get rid of those generals without fighting the sizeable armies that may be behind them later if you wait. As for the Julii, Arretium will probably be besieged on the second turn and taken on the third, which, if they've taken Segesta, will split their faction, and you'll have the two closest provinces to Rome to continue outward with.

A tactic which is preferred by some is to attack Tarentum instead of Capua, still taking Arretium. This has the advantage of splitting both the Brutii forces, with a sea barrier on one side, and the Julii forces immediately, and also allows you to attack the Scipiones from two sides. While the tactical advantage afforded by this method is superior, it has its downsides. First, you have to wait longer to capture your first two provinces and do not get one on the second turn, which matters greatly when you're losing over 1,000 Denarii per turn with only Rome. Second, you miss the opportunity to destroy *two* flimsily-defended four-star generals belonging to the Scipiones in one swift, early blow.

Further moves vary as the families will react differently every time. Generally, the Julii will gather their remaining units and make an attempt to recapture Arretium. Meet them, because they'll come to you if you don't go to them; perhaps try blocking the way to your city with a fort. Fight the battle before the gates of the fort and, provided you win (which you probably will by a good margin, as the Julii lack artillery at this point), the Julii's resistance to the true Lords of Rome crumbles now with remarkable speed. Take Ariminum and then Segesta.

Meanwhile, if you took Tarentum, you must have rebuilt your strength in the south to assail your next target. I would have Tarentum attack Croton and Rome attack Capua (remember: the longer you wait, the worse your chances are at getting those generals!). Tarentum has stables for the adding of cavalry to your army. As soon as you're satisfied with your armies, attack. The Brutii are now left with only Appolonia, which will still take very long to evolve to a real city and it won't be long before the Greeks are literally knocking on their door (with a battering ram).

If, instead, you took Capua, you will have a somewhat tougher time taking the rest of the peninsula, but you'll be rewarded afterward by an easier fight with the Scipiones in Sicily. At this point, I would suggest attacking Tarentum; again, it splits the Brutii, and it also gives you access to Stables (and takes it from them), as you've probably yet to build them. After this, round your army out with some cavalry and take Croton. An alternative may be to take Croton first and use your power on the western coast to wipe the Scipiones out ASAP, before they have a chance to conquer Sicily, but I have yet to attempt this strategy.

Presuming you took one of the more expected routes, leading to the conquering of the peninsula proper, the Scipiones are now your greatest problem. At this point, one can either attempt to wrest Sicily from them, or build a navy to lock them on the island for the moment (probably preferable if some faction such as Gaul has attacked you and your armies are needed elsewhere).

After the war is over you can regroup and take Mediolanium and Patavium, uniting the italian peninsula under the banner of the Senatvs Popvlvsqve Romanvs; a feat worthy of a triumphal arch in Rome herself!

From here, build up your settlements as funding allows, raise armies, and then set out to conquer the Mediterranean at your pleasure, but always remember to defend your peninsula with vigour, for so long as you hold it you can always support your outlying territories and, if necessary, recover from lost conquests, living to fight another day.

On a final note, the Senate has no victory condition. Unless you wish to alter internal game files (that is, more than you already altered to be playing as the Senate), you'll have to set your own, which can be no less daunting to accomplish than one set by the game! Perhaps you want to conquer every province, or capture every province that made the Roman Empire up at its height, and no others. Perhaps you want to accomplish this latter feat in the order that it happened historically! Whatever your goal, best of luck, and remember: Fight well, for you fight for the Glory of the Empire.

Modding the Senate

The internal name of the Senate faction is romans_senate The strong alliance between the Senate and the other Roman factions exists because of the superfaction romans_senate line in the other Roman factions sections of the descr_strat.txt file.

If that line is removed the alliance becomes a normal one that can be broken by any of the parties at any time. However that does not remove all the hard-coded attributes associated with the Senate faction. If you wish to play the Senate as a normal faction or mod them to represent another faction in RTW v1.5 you should change their internal name to something else. This has to be done in all the files the romans_senate name appear in. The apparent name can be left the same so instead of

 {ROMANS_SENATE}					S.P.Q.R.

in expanded_bi.txt you have:

 {NEW_NAME}					S.P.Q.R.

A set of files changing the internal name of the senate faction is available here.

See Also

• Factions in RTW

External Links

RTW Factions
Armenia | Britannia | Carthage | Dacia | Egypt | Gaul | Germania | Greek Cities | The House of Brutii | The House of Julii | The House of Scipii | Macedon | Numidia | Parthia | Pontus | Scythia | Seleucid Empire | Senate | Spain | Thrace | Rebels