Politics and the Family Tree (TWR2)
Overview: Politics and the Family Tree
In Rome 2 the player's faction includes a ruling party and one or more rival parties.
You can see an overview of the ruling party and rival parties by selecting your faction symbol in the central lower part of the screen, then selecting the Politics tab.
Ruling and Rival Parties
The ruling and rival parties and the family tree affect various aspects of the game, such as:
- The generals and admirals that you can recruit.
- The influence of your ruling party, providing bonuses or penalties to your research rate, public order, tax rate and unit morale.
- The prosperity of your settlements on the campaign map (they receive a bonus if they are controlled by a loyal party).
- The roles of women in your society (women in some Cultural Groups cannot be faction leaders or military commanders).
- The percentage chance of a secession or civil war happening in each turn (determined by the loyalty of each rival party).
Ruling Party
If you select your faction symbol in the central lower part of the screen and then select the Characters tab, you can see the members of your ruling party in your family tree, any members of your ruling party who are not members of the ruling family (in the 'Other Nobles' column on the right hand side) and members of rival parties (on the left hand side).
On the Characters tab, you can select one of your characters and choose a political action, such as 'seek spouse' (to marry them to another character in the same party) or 'political marriage' (to marry a member of your ruling party to a member of a rival party and strengthen the rival party's loyalty). You can use these political actions to expand your ruling party and rival parties, using the 'Hire Noble' button in the top left corner.
When you hire a new member of your ruling party, they appear in the 'Other Nobles' column on the right hand side. You may have a character in your ruling family who can adopt this new member into your family. Adoption moves the new member into your family tree. This enables the new character to get married and have children, expanding your ruling dynasty and providing your pool of candidates for generals and admirals in future, when the children reach adulthood.
Rival Parties
If you select your faction symbol in the central lower part of the screen and then select the Politics tab, you will see the current situation of your rival party or parties. An Eagle Standard article on Politics and the Family Tree provides examples of rival parties and discusses the factors which affect their loyalty. Some factions, such as Rome and Carthage, have several rival parties at the start of the Grand Campaign, while others have only one. Rival parties can be removed by defeating them after a secession or civil war; when this happens, a new party will spawn sooner or later to replace the one which was destroyed. After your empire has expanded to a high level of Imperium, additional rival parties can appear. For each rival party, you can see their Party Traits and Party Statistics on the Politics tab.
Party Traits
Party Traits affect the loyalty of a rival party. Each party has two traits which exist as long as the party remains (if they are destroyed and later re-emerge, they might have different traits) and one trait which comes from their current party leader (so this changes each time the party leader dies and a new leader takes over).
| Trait | Effects |
|---|---|
| Agriculturalist | +5 loyalty for a food surplus |
| Bigot | -1 for each province where your culture is not dominant |
| Diplomatic | +1 loyalty for each faction with over 100 relations, -1 loyalty for each faction with below -100 |
| Expansionist | +5 loyalty for each settlement captured for two turns (maximum +10) |
| Hates Barbarians (or another Cultural Group) | -2 loyalty for each treaty with a faction in this cultural group (maximum -10) |
| Likes Greeks (or another Cultural Group) | +2 loyalty for each treaty with a faction in this cultural group (maximum +10) |
| Mercantile | +1 loyalty for each trade agreement (maximum +10) |
| Militarist | +2 loyalty for each military victory for three turns (maximum +6 per turn) |
| Mogul | +2 loyalty for each province with over 5000 wealth |
| Pacifist | -5 loyalty for each faction you're at war with with (maximum -15) |
| Subversive | +1 loyalty for each agent action for 5 turns (maximum +4) |
| Traditionalist | +1 loyalty for each province where your culture is dominant |
| Xenophile | +2 loyalty for each faction with diplomatic treaties (maximum +10) |
| Xenophobe | -2 loyalty for each faction with diplomatic treaties (maximum -10) |
Party Statistics
Party Statistics shows you the number of members of the senate or house of nobles controlled by this party (such as 2/500 or 167/500), their current party loyalty (normally in a range about 50 to -50, although higher and lower numbers are possible), the percentage influence which this party has (shown as a percentage) and the number of provinces controlled by this party. When a rival party's loyalty drops to -10 or lower, you will also see a symbol indicating that there is a danger that this party may break away - when this happens, if you select the Politics tab and look on the left hand side (in the Government Overview section) you will be able to see the percentage risk of a secession or civil war in each turn.
If you select a map filter, you can see which provinces are controlled by which party. You can see this by selecting the map button (next to the End Turn button in the bottom right hand side of the screen) and then selecting the left-hand button of the six small buttons in the lower right hand corner of the screen.
Knowing which provinces are controlled by which party can be useful. You can enact a loyalty edict in a province controlled by a rival party. This provides a +10 bonus to the loyalty of that party, for as long as the edict remains in force and as long as the rival party still controls that province. Over time, the provinces controlled by rival parties will change, so it's important to check occasionally. Also, if a rival party is likely to break away, you can see which provinces are likely to break away with them. This enables you to move forces controlled by loyal commanders closer to those provinces, to re-take them quickly if a secession or civil war occurs.
Political Actions
When you open the family tree and select a character, you can choose to carry out political actions. These actions can improve the influence of your ruling party, improve the statistics of your characters, expand your pool of potential commanders and increase or reduce the loyalty of rival parties.
The table provides a (currently incomplete) list of political actions.
| Political Action | Requirements | Effects (when used by a ruling party) |
|---|---|---|
| Secure Promotion | Coins | Increased gravitas |
| Improve Relations | 2 more zeal than the target's cunning, coins and gravitas | -5 gravitas per turn for 2 turns, +2 loyalty per turn for 3 turns |
| Leisure Time | 6 zeal and 6 authority | +1 cunning, +5 gravitas per turn for 5 turns |
| Send Emissary | Coins | +8 gravitas, -2 loyalty for other parties for 5 turns |
| Organize Games | Coins | +8 gravitas, -2 loyalty for other parties for 5 turns |
| Send Diplomat | Coins | A temporary buff or debuff for your faction (rarely: acquire a settlement),-2 loyalty for other parties for 4 turns |
| Assassinate | 2 more cunning than target, gravitas and coins | Kills character, -5 loyalty for 2 turns (if used on another party) |
| Spread Rumours | 2 more cunnijng than the target's zeal, gravitas and coins | -3 loyalty for 4 turns |
| Gather Support | 7 zeal or 7 authority, coins | +2% influence for ruling party, -2 loyalty for 4 turns for other parties |
| Political Marriage | To be added | +2 loyalty for 4 turns for spouse |
| Entice | 2 more cunning than the target's authority | Rival party character joins ruling party, -8 loyalty for 2 turns |
| Embezzle Funds | 6 cunning | +2000 coins, -3 loyalty for 4 turns |
| Send Gift | Coins | +2 gravitas for initiator, +2 loyalty for 4 turns |
| Do a Favour | 2 more authority than target's authority, gravitas, coins | +1 authority and +5 gravitas for target |
| Flirt | 2 more cunning than target's authority, gravitas | +5 gravitas for 2 turns for initiator, -10 gravitas for spouse and target's spouse for 2 turns |
| Praise | 2 more zeal than target's cunning, gravitas | +1 zeal and +10 gravitas for target; when used on rival party member, +3 loyalty for 3 turns |
| Insult | 2 more cunning than target's cunning | -1 zeal and -10 gravitas for target; when used on rival party member, -5 loyalty for 2 turns |
| Provoke | 2 more zeal than target's zeal | -1 cunning for target and more political incidents for 4 turns; when used on rival party member, -3 loyalty for 3 turns |
| Seek Spouse | Gravitas, coins | Adds husband or wife for character, +5 gravitas for spouse, +2 gravitas per turn for 3 turns |
| Divorce | Spouse must have 20 gravitas or less, gravitas and coins | -15 gravitas for spouse, initiator -5 gravitas per turn for 2 turns |
| Usurp Legacy | To be added | -10 gravitas for other family members, +10% influence for rival parties |
| Educate | Coins | +2 to a random attribute (zeal, authority or cunning) when the child reaches adulthood |
| Declare Heir | Gravitas, target's zeal not 2 or more points lower | +10 gravitas to target, -20 gravitas to current heir, -5 gravitas to other eligible heirs |
| Adopt | Gravitas, initiator needs 2 more authority than target's zeal | Character leaves 'other nobles' column and joins ruling family tree; +10 gravitas to target, -5 gravitas to other eligible heirs |
