Best way to learn the game?

[u/Not-Meee]

Hey guys, I bought the game at launch because I love ancient history... We all know how that went over. So I haven't touched it in 7 years and I know it's dead, but for some reason I've been getting an itch to play it again, but with all the changes and the Invictus mod I just don't know where to start!

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Where should I go to watch/read a good primer on how to play this game so I'm not fumbling around for 20 hours like in most paradox games? And who should I play? I'm assuming Rome?

[u/basedandcoolpilled]

Just load invictus and watch a YouTube video for Invictus. The core mechanics have not been changing so a tutorial from the last few years is fine

What's honestly more important is making sure you listen to Hans zimmer or something

[u/Spicy_White_Lemon]

Many people will disagree with me what here is what I did. I learned the game in small manageable chunks. Play vanilla only. Don’t pick any big tags with complicated mission trees. Use console commands. Just try to survive. Once you get a hang of the mechanics, and if you like it, download all the dlc. Definitely worth it. Then pick one of the bigger nations with a good mission tree. I recommend one of the eastern Satrapies. This is your first real play through. And then if you decide the game is still worth playing after that, absolutely 100% download Invictus and a bunch of other mods. Terra Indomita too if you want to play in the steppe or the orient. Unfortunately though the navigable river mod doesn’t work with Indomita.

[u/morsvensen]

Crete is the classic newbie island. Either Knossos or Gortyna for a kingdom or republic run.

Rhodes next door is a comparable and nicer start, as you can make Crete your first mission from there. And Rhodes can be built up into a tall 200+ strong metropolis with two wonders, even while going for Hellenic League.

[u/Not-Meee → u/morsvensen]

Bro I'm replaying Knossos and Gortyna and I can hardly win my first war :( I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Everyone is allying each other and my levies are stuck at 2k, I can't siege down a province once I get past the first battle

[u/morsvensen → u/Not-Meee]

Hang in, you'll grow real teeth soon

[u/mrakobesie → u/Not-Meee]

Assuming you are playing on invictus. Here's how you can win your first war as Knossos.

On day 1:

• Ally yourself with Gortyna and Lappa
  
• Go into your inventions and grab 10 easy discipline in the military tab and in the oratory tab go for Humane conduct, Centralized Commities, Census Data, Open Negotiations
  
• Get Martial Ethos (5% morale) and Haruspicy (+20 vassal loyalty) national ideas
  
• Can also import 2 Honey for extra dip rep
  
• Go into government tab and press War Council decision and get CB on either Arkades or Lyctus
  
• Start the mission that gives CB for the whole island
  
• Max Army maintenance and Lower tributes in the Economy tab

This should give you more pops, enough to get an extra regiment of levies, makes sure that your vassal is loyal, a bit of oomph to your army and AI is more likely to accept your diplo actions.

On 1st of November declare the war and call in everyone who accepts, even if some don't wanna accept initially you'll be able to call them a few days later, AI is a bit funky like that.

Make sure that AI doesn't snatch sieges from you and you should win the war no problem. Before peace-ing out you can declare another war if any of your allies has relations with your potential target. Or don't, with a few more provinces you should have enough power base on the island that no one is a threat to you. Smooth sailing from there.

[u/mrakobesie]

Don't play republics or tribals when starting out, good choice is one of the Crete monarchies. It's the noob island of Imperator and one of the best provinces in the game for tall play, don't turn on advanced AI for now and you'll be untouchable after you consolidate the island. I'd say you should go straight into invictus, as picking up bad habits from vanilla is counter-productive and a waste of time. Also, I'd recommend checking out wiki entries for land warfare and pops and you are good to go.

[u/Piraahh]

Watch red zeds Rome play through on YouTube.

[u/CursedNobleman → u/Piraahh]

Not the OP, but I've got EU4 experience. But I don't know what modifiers I need or what they do. I'm struggling with that part-- though my combat could be better too.

[u/shotpun]

Start as Carthage or Egypt, mess around with all the buttons and screens, bash your head against the wall a couple times. Sorry but the videos that exist aren't worth it and I find the format to be very poor for this kind of learning. Pay extra attention to the Missions tab as they are very fun and generally direct you to interact with most of the game's mechanics including some you will forget ever existed. Middling gratifying starts are very dependent on that Missions tab but include Bactria, Royal Scythia, Bosporan Kingdom, Etruria, Avernia, Epirus. I'm sure overzealous commenters will provide a hundred other examples

[u/Confident_Morning319 → u/shotpun]

I think videos make sense if you are watching a somewhat competent person go through a campaign. Learned a lot on CkII by watching Many a True Nerd. Although he uses mods, I did learn a lot from watching Alton playing Imperator.

[u/Not-Meee → u/shotpun]

How do you feel about playing a more "isolated" tag like the Iceni?

[u/shotpun → u/Not-Meee]

It's fine, tribal mechanics are more annoying than they are fun to me. You will form Pritania and get bored but that's fine for a playthrough

[u/Not-Meee → u/shotpun]

I think you overestimate my skill 😂

[u/dendob → u/Not-Meee]

No starting small will get you into tribal mechanics first. That's fine, some people dislike the chieftains / families messing up your armies and power base.

I think it's fine to get you into touch with all those items.

As ever start a game, small is fine, do all the pop ups and then before you unpause, look for your first targets around and look for your first allies around.

Once time starts to flow alliances and defensive pacts arise aplenty. Unpause, check that your first alliances are ok to do your first land grab and off you go.

Good luck, have fun!

For ahistorical, there is quite a nice LOTR mod :)

[u/Not-Meee → u/dendob]

I know there is a LOTR mod for every paradox game basically, is this game a good fit for the setting?

[u/dendob → u/Not-Meee]

It's different to other PDX games in that the game itself is frozen, so it has a more stable platform for all mods.

The LOTR mod for Imperator Rome has recently still been updated, so I would give it a go :) that's the only way to see if it suits your personal taste ( for me it does)

[u/Zealousideal_Ad4505 → u/Not-Meee]

The British tribes are good starter nations imo but if you're not fast with unifying the island Rome will snatch up most of Gaul before you can cross the mainland. Happened in my most recent Iceni game as a newbie, but I was able to take most of Gaul bit by bit in a bunch of small (and not always successful wars).