Childbirth problems

[Cowabunga73]

No, I'm not oversharing personal information....

In game it's c. 70 BC and my political "dynasty" has finally produced it's first child. I've read comments on line and here about getting characters married early*, about using beneficial +5 to childbirth traits and about general (bad) luck being a factor but throughout the game I've been hampered by a shortage of characters due to this lack.

I'm imperium level 6, have 10/12 armies and 2/6 fleets but there are no spare characters to mobilise other armies / fleets and the only politicians available for hire are two women ineligible for leading armies (I'm playing as Rome). This has been a constant issue as with one turn per year the rate at which new useful characters are available for hire really only works to replace those who die of old age or in combat rather than give me a larger character pool.

Similarly with all my characters leading armies the range of political actions I can undertake is severely limited. I assume the % chance to have a child must be quite low to prevent the family tree effectively giving you oodles of idle characters after a few generations but I have the absolute opposite.

*When I did this recently my character lost 20 gravitas for the marriage and was rewarded with an "unsuitable wife", -2 per turn to gravitas and -5 to the chance of having children. He lacked the gravitas to divorce her so waited and then spent 40 gravitas divorcing her and another 20 gravitas on a new marriage to a "flirtatious wife" -1 per turn to gravitas but +5 to the chance of having children (I think).

I understand this stuff is random but it seems absurdly hard for, in this case, the emperor to marry and have an heir. It seems very random and a bit of a weird mini-game that if you fail starves your faction - not just your political family - of characters to use.

Any tips on getting enough characters to have a full suite of military leaders and enough politicians at Rome to carry out political actions?

[Messsucher]

Always find spouses to members of your dynasty as early as you can. You need gravitas for that, but you don't really need to use gravitas for anything else. Give armies to generals of your dynasty, and make them fight and conquer land.

[Cowabunga73]

Right, but how do you recover when you have an Emperor 53 (wife 43) with a daughter 12? There is no dynasty and the political "party" consists of three women 63, 55, 45. All other characters have died of old age and no other children exist. The only politicians available for hire are members of other parties. So no one can be adopted into the dynasty and no one can be enticed to join my political party as a precursor to that either - all targets have authority 3-6 and enticement requires 2 more cunning more than the target's authority (the emperor's cunning is 3).

Any suggestions?

[BIGDOJO]

I don't know about your current campaign but in the future definitely get everyone in your party married on turn 1 or 2. The sooner they are married, the sooner they are having sex every time you hit "end turn" and trying to make babies.

Also, your faction leader has an "adoption" mechanic. Adopt everyone you can. This puts them directly in your family tree or "dynasty" and producing future potential heirs. Make sure you always put points into Authority on your faction leader, as your ability to adopt into your dynasty depends on your leader's authority being higher than the adoption target's zeal level. Likewise, if you have someone off to the side in "other nobles" that you might want to adopt, DO NOT level up their zeal too much.

Every noble gets a free promotion in rank once they've reached age of 20, always do this as it will increase their gravitas enough for them to afford to get married ASAP.

Thats off the top of my head.. Do all this and you will end up with such a huge dynasty that you will go insane managing them all by mid to endgame. Also all of this applies to Attila: TW as well with some minor variations regarding the political system.. But I wont get into all that.

[Cowabunga73]

Okay, cheers, guys. I guess I'll ride this one out, see how it goes and make more informed decisions in future.

Thanks for tips

[Yews]

Are you playing with Ultimate Fixes? My Suebi campaign ended with 200 people in my family alone.

[Hidden Legend]

Options to fix.

1. Quicksave before find wife.
2. Replay end of turn until you get a birth.
3. It seems like Rome 1, you only get births and characters appear to match the number of Armys/Navies they can staff. In Rome 1 it wae provinces.
4. Promote your characters and make sure they win battles to get the experience. If they dont have lots more gravitas than the wife they cant divorce them.
5. Spend your wife's gravitas and then divorce here. Find a younger wife using options 1 and 2.

[NekRon99]

Use the other party's members if that's all that's available. Train your own generals cunning until you can turn them to your side. Its only 2 promotions to get it to 5 which is enough to turn a 3 authority rival. Then adopt with a 5 authority to seal the deal. I try to do all this in one turn, first promote them to give their leader some approval, then kidnap and turn them.

[Majpalmer]

I've only had that happen once. I was playing with a Mod. Are you? A 12TPY Mod?

[Cowabunga73]

Grand Campaign (Base Game) on hard mode, no mods installed.

I started an Egyptian campaign on normal mode and have no problems at all: the Pharaoh has 4 children and the three who are old enough to marry all have children themselves.

All this happened fairly naturally and in a reasonable time frame so I guess the Rome campaign was a mixture of player error (not getting characters married early enough), bad luck and maybe difficulty level.

[Oedipus's Stepdad]

Considering each turn lasts one year plus one season, characters rarely live long enough to have children. I highly recommend the 4 turns per year mod, that actually gives you a chance at starting a dynasty.

[NekRon99]

I think Bactria has the worst familial start of all of the factions. You start with a widowed king and his 1 young son. His son dies after a few turns. I remarry and his new wife dies after 2 turns. I remarry twice more and they again both die after 2 turns. He is the only member of his family. That has happened to me on both occasions playing that faction. It is an unavoidable glitch in the game and forces you to use alternative measures.