Senate Loyalist (and Rome?) Fail at attacking capitals

[Alexandria38]

I recently began and ended the civil war with the Senate Loyalists, (which as I agree with many others, should be triggered by the player, not at random), but I noticed something VERY lame about it. They would attack as normal in smaller towns and vs my army, but when they got to a capital... well... http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/594764126132588429/012A2628A75F9A84F432C58C1AF277A12250EEB3/

They would just stand there, in testudo, getting pelted by my towers and leves/velites. This happened on 3 different occasions and the "battles" lasted an hour each. (20 minutes in 3x fast forward). Just thought I'd share this. I wonder if the Romans do the same thing? This is a good reason to scrap torching gates and make siege equipment mandatory... seriously, torching gates suck and that is my main point.

Opinions, similar stories?

[Donpedro07]

It makes sense why you can't start a civil war. Why would you start one if you are the one in charge of the faction? Unless you want them to change it to where you have the opportunity to work your family name up the ladder like it was back in the day. Ex: The leader of your family going from Queastor to Aedile, but that means you would have no control over the empire as a whole until you reached the top. I've played two campaigns as Rome and in both the loyalists took settlements that were near two of my armies, (which had full stacks) and needless to say I gave it them dirty. I thought the war would at least hit Rome, but I guess they prefer smaller capitals on the frontier. I think siege equipment should be mandatory for certain cities and sizes. Like a barbarian capital, which has wooden defenses should not be mandatory, while stone walled settlements should.

[Alexandria38]

I see where you're coming from, but honestly, shouldn't a wall be useful instead of something the enemy needs 1-2 minutes to break (and maybe lose 30-50 guys depending on your defenses?). Plus, having those epic battles on walls is a lot more entertaining than trying to keep the stupid AI units from running straight past my guys and into the town center.

For the civil war, a notification ahead of time would be nice as I hardly ever check the diplomacy page (as I have found no reason to).

[Donpedro07]

It actually does tell you that a civil war is coming, but it doesn't say when. At least it did for me around like turn 80 and then around 86 or 87 it happened. Some voice came up on my game and cautioned that my success may lead to a civil war. So, I brought two armies back to the core of my empire, one in Rome the other in Arminium and as soon as the loyalist appeared, which was in a middle capital on my frontier I was able to subue them pretty quick.
As for the siege thing, it should take the torching of the gates a lot longer so the enemy has to sacrifice more to push through. I personally like to wait and use the siege engines. It defintiely makes the game a lot more fun and is more historically accurate. No one in their right mind would just run up to some big ass wall without something a little more than just fire sticks.

[Alexandria38]

Hm, I didn't get the warning. I did turn off tool tips/the advisor lady before even starting the campaign which may have been why. But even with a warning, I had no knowledge as to why, or where the civil war would start.

And yes, if the gate torching must stay in, I'd prefer it to take a lot longer. Currently the AI will just send up any 3 infantry units and they'll each throw their torches twice, and the door is on fire. When they run away I see a pitiful amount of damage dealt to them judging by the bodies.

[Donpedro07]

The civil war is inevitable and completely randomized. I think it is basically based off your familes prestige rating. I had 80% senate approval and 55% in my 2nd game, but I still went into one. I think they also wanted the game to be historically accurate because Julius Ceaser started a civil war and became the Roman Emperor. Plus, in order to rise to power you had to get past certain people, and in many cases the Romans and other factions would kill their rivals.
We'll see if CA will make any changes in the future to sieges and politics