Should I give a F**k about my family name?

[CoolHodge7]

I'm playing Imperial Campaign as Scipio and still pretty early game. For my own amusement I'm trying as far as possible to only act with the Senate's explicit instructions which is making things quite boring.

This has led to a situation where my genunine Scipio family members - the ones with names like Gaius Scipio, Julius Scipio, Aulus Scipio etc - are dieing of natural causes. This leaves me with their young children who are weak in the traits department, and the various in laws I've acquired by marriage and adoption, who have better stats and retinues.

My question is: is there a penalty to abandoning the Scipio line of succession in famous of a more talented 'Man of the Hour' or other non pure-bred family descendent?

TL;DR: is there a penalty for chosing faction heirs who don't have Scipio/Julius/Brutus in their name on the Roman Campaign?

[Gilmaris]

I've never been in that particular situation myself, but I shouldn't think it matters.

[Efstathiou]

You can give traits to a general by another general. For example get the faction leader and drag his traits into your heir's traits and he will get them but your faction leader will lose his. It doesn't matter though because he would be dead soon. You can do it with any general but remember that all the traits aren't for everyone.

[CoolHodge7]

Originally posted by Valerius Sulpicius Maximus:

You can give traits to a general by another general. For example get the faction leader and drag his traits into your heir's traits and he will get them but your faction leader will lose his. It doesn't matter though because he would be dead soon. You can do it with any general but remember that all the traits aren't for everyone.

I did this with my ageing faction leader, passing on his retinue of preists, engineers, tribunes etc. to one of the younger family members, I didn't know it worked for the personality traits as well.

My main worry is that I'm going to end up with no line of succession and get game over. I'll keep playing and see what happens!

[NekRon99]

He means retinue. As long as you have family members you will survive. Names dont mean anything.

[nhaK niveK]

Dont worry about the line of succession, If your family tree starts to die out or is too small for the size of your empire, the game starts to offer you "a candidate for adoption" these are considered prominent citizens which you can adopt to your family. they will become adoptive sons of whoever your faction heir is (that or leader, can someone confim?). sometimes these characters will have poor traits. just make sure you build academies and scriptoriums in your larger cities. If your playing as barbarians then youll have to capture a city with an academy already built.

[nhaK niveK]

Academies and scriptoriums will also increase management traits of your family members if you keep them garisoned in those cities. the bujildings in each settlement help determine the traits of each family member, as well as the actions you have them do. If they sit in a small town for a long time some characters pick up "social drinker" which which ive viewed as a positive trait, after a while can turn to "drunkard" which is definately negative. Use your younger family members to fight off rebel armies that appear in your territory (high taxes help too). this will help give them command traits. What I like to do when at war with another faction is choose a 20 something family member and designate him as my general against that faction, I'll keep reinforcing his army so he keeps winning battles, I even send younger generals to be in his army (if their command trait is lower) and use them as I would the general in any battle to help turn the tide, that way I take minimal risk with my main general.

[NekRon99]

I think the adopted general is placed under the first family member who has less then 4 offspring already. not necessarily the faction leader or heir.

[nhaK niveK]

Originally posted by NekRon99:

I think the adopted general is placed under the first family member who has less then 4 offspring already. not necessarily the faction leader or heir.

ah right, its something like that, and it doesnt matter if that family member is married, he can still have adoptive descendants. I always find it funny when I can adopt a 40 something year old candidate to a 30 something year old family member, making the son older than the father in the family tree.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

I've never bothered with a bloodine and always gone for the Man of the Hour event.

[CoolHodge7]

Originally posted by runkevinrun38:

Originally posted by NekRon99:

I think the adopted general is placed under the first family member who has less then 4 offspring already. not necessarily the faction leader or heir.

ah right, its something like that, and it doesnt matter if that family member is married, he can still have adoptive descendants. I always find it funny when I can adopt a 40 something year old candidate to a 30 something year old family member, making the son older than the father in the family tree.

Haha, yup, it's even weirder when they age and the 'son' has his wizened 60-year-old's portrait card!

Thanks very much, especially for the tips on traits and better governor strategy, those drunkard traits have been bothering me for ages!

Seems like I don't have to worry about my infertile Scipii generals lack of progeny :)

[Jay]

Originally posted by Kimhari_NO_PASS:

I'm playing Imperial Campaign as Scipio and still pretty early game. For my own amusement I'm trying as far as possible to only act with the Senate's explicit instructions which is making things quite boring.

This has led to a situation where my genunine Scipio family members - the ones with names like Gaius Scipio, Julius Scipio, Aulus Scipio etc - are dieing of natural causes. This leaves me with their young children who are weak in the traits department, and the various in laws I've acquired by marriage and adoption, who have better stats and retinues.

My question is: is there a penalty to abandoning the Scipio line of succession in famous of a more talented 'Man of the Hour' or other non pure-bred family descendent?

TL;DR: is there a penalty for chosing faction heirs who don't have Scipio/Julius/Brutus in their name on the Roman Campaign?

There is no penalty besides lack of historical accuracy.
You might notice that the other factions almost always lose their lines when you actually start the civil war...The line eventually gets dilluted enough that only adoptions or marriages are left, you'll start to see this by about 50 years into the game or so.

[Steed]

Originally posted by Valerius Sulpicius Maximus:

You can give traits to a general by another general. For example get the faction leader and drag his traits into your heir's traits and he will get them but your faction leader will lose his. It doesn't matter though because he would be dead soon. You can do it with any general but remember that all the traits aren't for everyone.

Huh. I've played hundreds of hours and never knew this. Thanks!

[nhaK niveK]

Originally posted by Steed:

Originally posted by Valerius Sulpicius Maximus:

You can give traits to a general by another general. For example get the faction leader and drag his traits into your heir's traits and he will get them but your faction leader will lose his. It doesn't matter though because he would be dead soon. You can do it with any general but remember that all the traits aren't for everyone.

Huh. I've played hundreds of hours and never knew this. Thanks!

You can’t move traits, but you can move retinue from family member to family member.

Certain actions the family member performs and certain buildings in the settlement your family member is garrisoned in affect which retinues your family member will gain. Keep this in mind when you’re passing along retinues from a dying family member to a younger one

Also keep in mind that a family member can only have a retinue count of 8.

I find it a good strategy to pass along retinue members I do not want onto a dying family member so when he dies they are gone too. This makes room for retinues I’m looking for.

My fav retinues are any that increases chances of having children, increase in command, and ability to forced march. I have many others I like like surgeon (improves chances some men will be healed)

There’s a guide with a list of retinues you can find. I’m considering making a guide on family members in general including traits, retinues and specialty names (I.e. the great, victor, the cunning, the ugly, the wrathful, etc.) as these names are affected by traits and actions you have then perform

[ThePursuer78]

it doesnt matter