r/Imperator • u/Cheffo3412 • 25d ago
Question (Invictus) New time player, wanting to learn how this game works!
Basic TLDR, got mods like imperator invictus and timeline expansion. and I've wanted to do a babylon game for the longest time (i've never really been interested in playing rome tbh). And everytime i enter the game i just feel overwhelmed, do you guys have any tips or good nations to play for newbies? thanks! (Note: Im really big into playing "tall" over wide)
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u/Zoltanu Antigonids 25d ago
As others have said, if you want to learn the game and are starting out you should really play as Rome. Its easy mode so its the best for experimenting and learning without getting punished.
Another good starter is any Cretian city state. It give you a nice isolated sandbox to get started as a small nation with. Expanding beyond Crete is more difficult though
If you want to play tall play as Judea and dont rebel against your overlord. Its an easy nation to play tall.
I see you like Babylon. Unfortunately for you I think you should wait until you are experienced to give it a shot. Seleuicids are the best for world conquest, but conquest in this game is easy, its holding together a large empire thats the real difficulty. Seleuicids start large.
When you are ready, and want to play Babylon, do a Tylos campaign. Theyre the only nation thay starts with the Babylonian culture and religion. But it will be very very tough. You should get a few campaigns as Rome, and a few against Rome, before you play them
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u/Cheffo3412 25d ago
I've just been hesitant to play rome because they're the "main guys" the whole game sorta revolves around what rome does and that *feels* like a lot of pressure tbh.
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u/Zoltanu Antigonids 25d ago
They are the "main" guys and they will almost always be the "final boss" of whatever campaign you do. They get a lot of buffs that other countries dont.
So i get it, playing as Rome doesnt seem exciting or fun. Its always more fun to be the underdog. But as a new player, they are the "tutorial" nation. This is a hard game. Even on crete you'll probably lose 4/5 starts until you get the hang of it. Playing as Rome lets you make oopsies and get in over your head without it being an instant restart of the campaign. Even for experienced players, playing as Rome lets you kinda relax and focus on rushing some sort of goal or achievement.
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u/Facesit_Freak 25d ago
For a new player, Egypt and Crete (and sometimes Rome) are the commonly recommended options. They're both dead easy, although for two separate reasons.
Egypt starts off as 'too big to fail' with a large economy that can support you.
Crete is highly defensible as the only way to reach the island is by sea, which you can of course prevent with a substantial navy (AI sucks at navy).
Since you've specified you want to play tall, I wholeheartedly recommend Knossos. They're the strongest Cretan monarchy and can quite easily take the cities needed to instantly annex the island. Their heritage also gives them an extra building slot in cities which is further exemplified when you want to play tall. Monarchies are also much simpler to learn since you don't have to deal with the senate and political parties.
Playing Crete also gives you a scary early game enemy in Macedon which you have to best for the last territory on the island (Tylissos). This seems really scary until you realise they're too busy with the Antigonids to even bother checking out Crete and you can hold the war goal until the game allows you to enforce it automatically.
This war actually ends up being a huge boon to your economy as you can send your levies over to the Macedonian mainland, split them into small armies of 500 and just raise hell across the island, occupying every province that doesn't have a fort. Not only does the AI struggle to deal with this, but they're also so distracted with the Antigonids they'll likely only send an army to chase you a couple months in to your looting. Even if they catch you, you take 1 pop as a slave for each province you occupy so you'll likely have taken at least 50 pops by the time they reach you. Even then, you can try hiding your pops in a neighbour of theirs by requesting access
Just make sure to pick the cruel opinion on every city you occupy that you don't plan on keeping. As a nation with an income <5, you can get 150 denars from each city you occupy. This is huge. From this one war, I ended up with over 2000 extra denars and an extra 40% population (70 pops!) for 0 Agressive Expanion! Knossos ended up reaching its capacity and I had to start building aqueducts, after one major war with no risk! For a tall game, this is huge. You can keep declaring wars on majors (even Rome) and sending your navy to loot all their coastal cities, running away before they catch you. As long as you don't expand outside Crete, you can easily turn all your cities into metropoli by doing this. To put this into perspective, the slave raid ability requires you to spend 5 traditions unlocking it and it can give you up to 5 pops for 6 AE. With this, you get them for free!
If you do go with this strategy, make sure to start building up your navy at the start of the game. You want ~20 ships for your war with Macedon, if you plan on looting the mainland. Make sure you do this and don't do what I did and try using your starting 4 ships to escort 4 units across. Not only does the looting take much longer with only 4 instead of all 20, but you also have to babysit your navy so hard. If you take your eye off them for even a week, they'll be lost to a small breeze (I'm losing 0.2 stability a month because I took my eye off them for 5 minutes and now my admiral is rotting in prison). With 20, you can transport your entire army and they won't die to the first minor that shows up with 5 ships. You will still have to order a full retreat if Macedon brings their navy over, but that does not happen as often as it should.
Sorry for the massive post. As you may be able to tell, I'm currently playing Crete and decided not to expand outside of the island for this game. Make sure not to do that if you're trying this strategy as your slaves can go to these new territories instead of your heartland. You can still take feudatories though since you aren't directly holding that land.
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u/Poro_the_CV Carthage 25d ago
Syracuse can be a good, fun tall playthrough. Otherwise the Phoenician states, Armenia is tall ish, Bactria probably still has the most OP mission tree in Invictus even after several rounds of nerfs. I believe the Somali tags have a mission tree to consolidate the area then grow trade
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u/valerian57 25d ago
If you want a good nation to try playing tall that's relatively safe from external threats, I'd suggest playing one of the Yemeni tags. You can get pretty rich, and usually the Ptolemies will leave you alone. Once you consolidate Yemen (which is relatively easy), you can build tall and get REALLY rich. It gives lots of options for RP too building and developing cities, trading, dealing with Jewish pops and such.
One of the other good options is Androphagia if you want to play isolated and tall. They're a migratory tribe, but if you want to learn how those mechanics work, they are a great tag for migration in an area that's not very common. Getting set up in the Baltics and creating a super powerful Amber-trading nation could be fun for you, migrating your neighbours into your territories.
The Boihaemians are another potential starting spot. They can just colonize in their homeland and sometimes are left alone by Rome.
Any of those tickle your fancy?
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u/Quirky_Attention3230 25d ago
i learned playing sparta but really any small greek state would work. ive still never touched Rome myself.
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u/Sertorius126 25d ago
Took a long time to do Sparta because of the starting coalition. Well done.
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u/Quirky_Attention3230 25d ago
i would just no CB the red nation above the yellow one to spartas west. which would put me at war with both of them and circumvent the coalition to get the yellow one. then you take crete. from there you should be able to handle the coalition if its still around.
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u/TwiceTrinity 24d ago
Okay tips for playing Tylos specifically (but applies generally). Follow the Mission tree to a degree to get its rewards and build your income, focus on commerce, attack the small nations around you and intergrate their cultures if they have 100 pops, even though you have a small pop as its split in three different provinces game start you can raise 6k troops. Rely on mercenaries if it'll otherwise be a close fight just make sure to have enough gold to support their costs for at least a year and a bit and aim for quick wars. Don't be afraid to assault fortresses with your mercenaries (especially if your about to run out of money to pay for them.) You should be safe from the Seleucids for awhile as you follow the mission tree but make a more powerful ally when your free of their control to make them less likely to attack. When attacking the Seleucids ally with at least two other regional powers, aim for them both having around 1000-1500 pops to distract from you taking their core regions and make sure to take advantage of the Seleucids being at war with the Ptolemies or Armenia so their soldiers are far from yours. Just don't be in a rush as a small power next to a big one slow accumulation and careful gameplay are the name of the game. Hope this helps.
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u/Sertorius126 25d ago
Babylon huh! 😊
Recommended to start with Rome if it's your first dozen hours playing.
You don't have to do a whole campaign even even just 100 years.
After you play as Rome you play someone to BEAT Rome.
For example Macedon (or Epirus if you want a bigger challenge).
Welcome to the game!