u/mulligrubs

That was tough. Alright enemy, be my satrapy so I don't need to continue on further into this hellscape.

...No

God-dammit

Oh, a provincial capital. Okay. Cheers for that. And the minor settlement is right next to your capital. Interesting.

I cannot say for sure if it occurs without mods, the internet says maybe, I say I don't remember, but probably it does, yeah... It's time for all the unanswered posts over the last 15 years to make their way to the top of the "Rome 2 transparent UI bug" search queries which actually has an answer beyond update your graphic drivers and do an integrity check.

After my many failures as Rome I decided maybe long pointy sticks are the answer. In the first play-through I took out the starting faction and then went further north to war with Dacia, and after that moved around the north of the Black Sea, heading east, fighting the Persians there and having a great ol' time admiring the fantastic army this had become.

I had made friends in the west and north and had a few allies, that was nice.

In my distractions the most obvious path was left to later, and later came before I was ready with Lydia attacking on masse through the strait. That was suspected and I planned to close that option in the next few turns. I got caught out and having a better understanding of a lot of things I decided to start again. New and improved.

This time I took out the starting faction and are befriending Dacia, and anyone northish and west for allies. I did plan on picking on the nomads north of the black sea for experience and maybe for farmland cause food *shakes fist, but intel is showing 4 stacks of Lydians doing stretching exercises and I know where that's going.

Firstly, if I declare on Lydia, would that pull the entire Persian faction, or just Lydia?

Or, can I piss Lydia off enough that they alone declare on me and I can chip away at them?

It's turn 19 and I'm torn. DEI is a different beast, the TW rolling domination we're used to doesn't apply here, patience and consideration are key and while I'm building up that peninsula to be recruity and replenishy, that's like 10 turns away. Growth is slow, public order and seasons are fickle and building choices matter.

From my current position I just can't yolo in there when replenishing has yet to catch up, which is why I want to go pick on some nomads in the meantime. But I've had three different demands for payment from the Persians, which weirdly didn't happen last time and I'm all too accustomed to the perils of wandering away from a potential theatre. Second army isn't an option yet, you can actually go some distance with a single army, so I'm not too worried about that, plus it's crazy expensive. A small navy to block the one Lydia port I can see to stop troops disembarking, and to buy time... It's all possible.

Also last time some Persians south of the Black sea declared on me without all the other Persian factions, which leads me to think I can goad Lydia into attacking, and the pointy boys are pretty good on defense. But not until I can replenish. And omg, that is tough to manage, which is great cause steamrolling is boring and the last play-though I played almost every battle to reduce casualties. And the battles are so epic, why wouldn't you :) Besides setting them up, links to mods which can recall a battle formation you created in here please.

All my adventuring last time got me the Achaemenid declaration around turn 90ish, so..... how much wriggle room do I have? Can I go beat up nomads for 20 turns, which can settle my lands, economy and to gain fighting experience.

What do.

EDIT: No-one said anything?! Allow me, future reader: Arguable the hardest TW campaign ever. No way around it, you're going have to fight and destroy around 45 armies. Put your min-max pants on and say goodbye to the kids, this requires some focus. I'm, not ready yet.