Imperator: Rome - Part 3 - The Spartan Problem

[@kaleam9386]

Jon the sieges are based on first come first serve and you were always a day or so behind sparta so basicly you were free labour for them

[@kevinambler4931]

Hey Jon, just wanted to say that I'm a big fan of your content and your style, and that you are one of the few KZbinrs who make me genuinely excited when I see that you've uploaded a new video. Loving the series and the nerd history that comes with it is great! Keep up the awesome work!

[@ManyATrueNerd]

Thanks :)

[@5Andysalive]

While i completely agree in general, this game is a lost course. Even as a not fan of CK2, i really enjoyed that series. Same for TW. This, i don't somehow. In it's very concept. It's all numbers. The historical setting feels completely irrelevant, personalities feel completely irrelevant. Reduced to (precise) numbers. It's a maths puzzle. That's NOT criticising his playstyle. This game just has no character(s) like similar games. And even Jon can't make up for lack of personality. Many of Jons strategy series, TW, CK2 are connected with names, personalities, events. There is nothing of that here. The game offers nothing to make even your rulers more than a pile of numbers. It's just various numbers going up and down. That health is a precise number is just perfect proof of the fact. The death of a ruler in ck2 wasn't plannable, it was an event that gave a playthrough character. Remember the exploding pile of manure? This here, as a MATN video feels a lot more like just playing a puzzle game than a ck2 or TW series. Again, that's the games concept fault. Not even going into lack of balance and content. It's an unDLC'ed Paradox game. Likely the most shameless case.

[@publiusthehandsome2314]

I'll have one large hot take, extra spicy please

[@OblivionOtaku]

Thrace is gone. It disappeared without a Thrace!

[@entertheunknown3554]

Bu du du crash.

[@benjaminmiddaugh2729]

No Thrace was found anywhere!

[@liampatrick3513]

No Thrace of Thrace

[@khaleneaden4962]

Nice

[@publiusthehandsome2314]

I was waiting for that joke and it never came :(

[@suborbitalprocess]

30:33 No! Please don't be sorry, these distractions are fun and the best parts of the series!

[@bart7695]

0:34 "Not to be confused with the Swedish manufaturer of cheap furniture".

[@seawind930]

Or with the subpar car line.

[@entertheunknown3554]

(Incert cowboy screaming meme)

[@alexanderkurtz6520]

If you did choose to expand southward, Nice to Crete You sounds like a nice title

[@tanku4995]

Those perfidious Spartans , using game mechanics to drain your manpower , such AI hacks

[@pontifexcellence6648]

History Jon is my favourite Jon.

[@mudcrab3420]

What? More than American Jon?!?! GASP!!!

[@agrainofrice9274]

First, Jon the blessing of Apollo DOES NOT GIVE YOU MORE MANPOWER PER MONTH it extends the manpower cap ( you can install a mod that makes the blessing give more manpower per month). Secondly when you conquer a country with the families, choose the option of IMPRISON THE IMPORTANT CHARACTERS LET THE REST DISSAPEAR because then you have many characters in your prison & arrange gladiadoral debouts between two imprisoned characters ( the winner is set free & the loser dies) wich give you around 20 popularity. EDIT: if you want to see your monthly income without waiting for the end of the month just enter the ECONOMY screen

[@oneofmanyjames-es1643]

Aachia sounds like classical IKEA, where do I find the DIY senate building?

[@nathanielsmith5976]

You know those famous Grecian columns? Those really are snap together construction.

[@vaporisedair4919]

One of Many James-es DIY was a bit different at that era, as you needed many slaves to move about all those heavy Doric columns.

[@jashanjeetsingh5388]

What does IKEA mean?

[@FfBrenhines]

@@jashanjeetsingh5388 It's a Swedish furniture shop that's spread quite widely around Europe and North America

[@jashanjeetsingh5388]

@@FfBrenhines thanks

[@teakvandergarderen2973]

Jon, for the love of God, recover your manpower!!!!!!!!!! Sometimes you just need to chill and recover. Do not buy mercs, they will trash your economy.

[@5Andysalive]

Just seen isp getting incredibly rich with slaves and buying all the mercs in the world and conquering everything. To a point where he stopped playing because it got ridiculous. And he didn't try to break the game or hitting on it. It just happened.

[@KashouWannabe]

"If I go down I'm taking you with me!" - Andross, 461AVC.

[@MrGhosta5]

Jon you may want to consolidate your slaves into a smaller number of cities to give yourself a surplus of trade goods.

[@minscandboo9749]

I wouldn’t have been confused by the different things that all have the same name as you if you hadn’t brought it up, now I can’t stop thinking about it...

[@highrezi]

Jon it's just a flat 1% attrition while besieging

[@Matthew_Calmert]

I actually like when you get sidetracked with historical information. I like learning from you!

[@DrDoom-ph4gi]

Don’t apologize for travel tips! I would pay real money to see the egg carton travel around the great sights of the classical world.

[@adammullarkey4996]

7:20 I love that message. "O, Archon, SAPPING."

[@nguyenball3021]

Your narratives are incredible, it really makes the game a lot more interesting

[@draconic_sprinkles5203]

Hey, Jon, I don't know if you'll see this or respond to it at all, but I'm in a tough place right now and your content helps me so much. It reminds me of when I was younger and would wake up at 8 AM, turn on Saturday morning cartoons and just relax. How simple things used to be. Can't say that things now are simple though. I recently tried talking someone on Reddit down from suicide. It didn't go well. I didn't know what I was doing and I think I caused more damage than I helped. 19 years old and charged with a felony. Even though I didn't know them at all, it still hit me really hard because I felt partially responsible, yet you're here just trying to make our day better (and succeeding). There's a lot more going on in my life than just that, but I needed to get it off my chest and I don't really have anyone to talk to who will take me seriously, and I just needed somewhere to vent, and showing you my gratitude in doing so seemed like a good opportunity. Anyway, just a simple boi trying to live life, appreciating your content (and ofc I don't mean to forget Claire's part in all of this, I love both of you equally

[@burntbybrighteyes]

You always take at least 1% attrition when sieging. You can see that in the tooltip when you hover over the siege.

[@burntbybrighteyes]

19:40 antisemitic Jon force converts the one jew in the entire empire.. tut tut

[@FwendlyMushwoom]

I was like "no Jon read what their religion is- how could you break my heart like this"

[@Yoshigasm]

Kings of the Northern bit of the Southern bit! Fear us, rest of Hellas!

[@TheManiac201]

Jon, the first nation/army to the city becomes siege leader, the size doesn't matter. Sparta beat you to the cities and that's why he was the one who took the occupation when both of your armies were sieging the same cities

[@jimmykrabklaw1216]

For someone who doesn't play these games they are fun to watch.

[@Ragd0ll1337]

The reason enemy forces are allowed to return home is the Black Flag mechanic. It prevents armies getting trapped in other countries. Shattered Retreat only applies when an army has lost a battle

[@ParkeraNZ]

Love how you do these videos and talk through your decisions.

[@bart7695]

Jon, I love the fact that we found a way to make use of your education. Classics are better than excel any way you cut it. Good career move, well done :)

[@BlazinBlz]

so what happened here is the Peloponnese utterly imploded so hard that even some non Peloponnesians got dragged in God I love this series Jon, you should upload more of this

[@Anya_khaos]

Sparta? this isn't sparta. THIS IS MATN! *kick*

[@entertheunknown3554]

Drinks tea patrioticly.

[@publiusthehandsome2314]

I prefer the version with all of the golden abs

[@puppysect]

Rage - Goddess, sing the rage of AchilleJon, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds, and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end. Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed, Sparta, lords of men and brilliant AchilleJon. . . . - The Illiad, updated version.

[@1spartanelite]

I'm not a big fan of using this monarch point system Paradox seems to love. I very much prefer EU 3's style of technological advancement which is concentrating a certain portion of your nation's income towards a specific category. That way how advanced in tech your nation is will be based on how prosperous your economy is. Pulling numbers out of my rear to magically discover irrigation just seems dumb. Just a random opinion I wanted to share.

[@MuckelMaster]

Love this series. Playing this game myself is a lot of fun but watching it is too! :D Also live your funny comments and insights!

[@polishenglish8356]

Jon the Warmonger is at it again! :D

[@juliuszondag5515]

Love your videos so much, you just have a style of presenting your videos which simply makes you excellent in what you do!

[@Al3xtheMeh]

This is the first Paradox Game that I've had any interest in. Plus its the only one where the mechanics actually make sense to a complete newby like me. (I actually like the "Mana" points stuff) The problem is so many people are hating on it that I'm not sure if I should even bother buying it if it ever goes on sale. Like seriously, I only recently got gaming PC and the amount of anger towards games is WAY more apparent then on console. Like Rimmy uploaded that one video ripping the game and now that kind of review video is all I see on my recommend now.

[@Joe-cc9it]

@jocaguz18 a lot of the criticism is actually revolving around the nonsensical mana rather than the fact it's different. Mana has been a contentious issue in other paradox games and they decide to expand it rather than decrease it. It's understandable there's been backlash. A lot of people also feel the game is a bit bare, it fucks up mechanics they've gotten right before. To say it's just 'they dislike new mechanics' is wrong. Stellaris didn't get this level of backlash and it's very different to eu4 and the like.

[@richardnorthcutt9356]

@@Joe-cc9it Lemons Do not equal tomatoes. Paradox, wishing to have more people play their games made a game thats more accessable but doesnt have the same systems as their old games. Problem is, this isnt their old games, and people complain a lot because they thought they were buying crusader kings: Rome. I like playing Ck2. I like this more because of the setting. They are completely different, and i like that. In CK2 as Norway i was frequently conquering coastal areas of england germany etc, but because of the difficulty in cultural differences they rarely did anything for me, and the city would convert to a bunch of huts all over instead of a feudal territory. Vikings at the start of the game dont understand feudalism. Converting to Feudalism is a war inducing but wonderful process. That being said, 300 BC is a very different time period. Rome wasnt just conquering people, they were being romanized, and any attempt at a game system for this gets a +1 from me.

[@Joe-cc9it]

@@richardnorthcutt9356 but the issue that's been raised isn't that the systems are different. It's that many people feel mana is a poor and lazy alternative. Numerous games achieve simple and understandable mechanics without such a heavy reliance on mana. Personally I like the conversion system via governor policy. It works to romanise but also works as it's not arbitrary and means it takes long than 0 in game days to eradicate entire religions and cultures providing you've stored up enough oratory. Also a lot of people's complaint is that the game feels a bit barren right now and a lot of the mechanics just don't feel consequential. I've seen a few people who feel the characters are unimportant. And at the end of the day it's not exactly their fault for feeling disappointed because there are some definite failures considering how hyped up the game was getting. Again when I say 'failed where other games succeeded' I don't just mean features. I mean simple QoL things that were present in eu4 or whatever that are simply lacking. Army Templates. The naval transport is weirdly clunky compared to other paradox games. Buildings actually telling you what benefit you'll get on the macro builder. These things are not 'It's not eu4 waaaa' this things are minor mechanics that you don't even notice until they're gone. Some people hate for the sake of hate, others have minor issues. Some feel disappointed. Some probably wish it was more like eu4. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but to pretend that legitimate criticism is "waaaa I want eu4 : rome" is hardly fair. It has potential but I don't want to spend £40 for the potential. I want to spend it knowing that I'll enjoy the game and in its current state I have to agree that so many things feel laborious in comparison to previous games from paradox it does feel rather bare at times and finally waiting for my mana to tick up because oratory is massively overspent and does half the things where as religious does two isn't fun. In other games stability loss has felt like a loss. In this I'll take it over a wait because I'm never not in massive excess of ways to instantly fix it. Again, it's not because everyone wanted ck: rome or eu: rome. That's seems to be a minority and reducing it to that is unfair. Most criticism I've seen revolves around how they feel the mana system devalues a lot of strategy and planning because it's just a replacement for better mechanics to do the same thing. Or how it's bare or how it's missing so many small QoL things. Not because it's missing eu4s mechanics

[@coagmano]

Jon, there's a button to take over the siege and become the siege leader! It would have given you those two territories

[@theunheardvoice007]

Good to see you still enjoying the game with the bits of negativity around it.

[@benjaminmiddaugh2729]

Every new Paradox game is an excuse for people to criticize what people dislike about Paradox games. It'll settle down, most of the situation will stay the same (including the annoying aspects of the game, sadly), and we'll all wonder what the fuss was about in a year or so. This may or may not be a good thing, but that's how things seem to work.

[@BRUXXUS]

I think you should share your olives with Sparta. Not for any tactical reason, I just think it's cute that they like olives.

[@Thebatman0808]

Thanks again Jon

[@kazoospew3639]

I’ve been waiting all week for this... I’m very excited

[@NotFinnish]

Sparta owns Troizen Wait. Thats Troizen!

[@johnpartridge9999]

The boost to manpower bonuses are a boost to the max manpower, not manpower regeneration rate. Also, god damn it, be careful with your manpower! Nurse it!

[@5Andysalive]

I stick with it: This game conceptually has too much numbers and too little personality. Making the historical setting feel completly irrelevant. It's basically a fancy looking numbers puzzle game. That health even of your ruler is a precise number, is just proof of the fact. Not even going into lack of balance and content.

[@benjaminmiddaugh2729]

Welcome to the challenge of having a "game," not just a "historical simulation." There are tradeoffs that will make the history feel awkward or even forced.

[@5Andysalive]

Let's name the elephant in the room: The game is shallow, empty and boring.

[@entertheunknown3554]

Well this came faster than expected.

[@matthewmorris9161]

Love this series

[@chug4083]

Jon you so need to play AC: Oddyssey, all the history you love in glorious 3D you can climb up

[@nickh-i9846]

All sieges cause 1% attrition, it's a carry over mechanic from EU 4

[@Joe-cc9it]

Okay so I think the siege with Macedon had high attrition because there were 19k on the province. Not because there was a garrison There's a flat 1% attrition for sieges You need to replenish your manpower a little more Sieges are first come first serve. Even if it's 1k on a level 3 fort. It's your siege and even if your allies help you I believe you keep the siege because you set up camp first.

[@thatguy3421]

This is epic! Very political and strategic!

[@dpwellman]

I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an elephant in the rear. . .

[@entertheunknown3554]

I used to be alive like you. Then John got elected.

[@insanity2amillion]

Oh mercs, pulling a Carthage

[@Snaut1]

Hope you proclaim a dictatorship later on and transition into an Empire like Rome did. Would be very interesting.

[@colinspeirs]

"Hmm,there is someone Jewish in Achaea, can't have that, convert them!" Typical

[@eviljackylynclone666queeno2]

Or the IKEA furniture store where we get our trojan tabby

[@Nightingale1986]

Wait... You can *promote* slaves to freemen with just a click?? What kind of paradox game is it?

[@tjt5331]

It's kind of a paradox... ok ok I'll see myself out :p

[@randomlyentertaining8287]

You should have a zoom out every ten years to give a showing of what else is going on in the ancient world. Check on Rome's progress, see how the Indians are doing, etc. Just a nifty idea.

[@samreid6010]

Because I live in Arizona my mind immediately went to Native American when you said Indian and I was very confused for a hot second

[@stephenw1648]

“Had a child. Don’t care!”

[@TheSolarzEclipse]

41:45 - why not split off enough men so the total for Sparta and you equals the 10k fortress limit and leave the rest close by in cas of reinforcment or Sparta's departure?

[@Cartographical]

Taulabtia is in Albania it is an Illyrian Tribe.

[@TheTruth-xp2of]

Jon 0 - 1 Sparta. Well played.

[@dovalist6637]

You should focus on conquering Cornwall

[@muhammadfirstian4847]

Achea = Ikea Never knew the Swedish been to Greece...

[@theDuke0001]

the problem for me with the game is that you have to wait between wars for your man power to come back, but there isn't much to do between wars....

[@richardnorthcutt9356]

Depends On who you play as. Large tribals pull retinues out of thin air, And if you pick a smaller culture theres more interesting (read difficult) mechanics with having to slowly assimilate other cultures. If your civilized, basically just stack about 20-40 freemen in your capital and do the same for cities in your capital region and manpower will solve itself. Judea has the culture game, but low manpower for sure. Im having some fun in Iberia atm as Vasconia, converting everyone to be PIE culture results in a lot of civil war and internal tension when expanding. Hellenic Greece can basically walk into rome and make some use of it, thats not true of other cultures. Basically, between wars you just try to make use of what youve taken.

[@werdna4577]

I think Boetia should be pronounced bee-o-tier, but I might be wrong

[@sasanian]

19:10 69 is not great Jon, it's nice.

[@londonsimmer5180]

finally honey, its been to long

[@BauthorFowler]

Any opinions on youtube videos "Mana is Anti strategy..." by Rimmy- Downunder gaming, or "Imperator: Rome has BIG problems" by Republic of Play?

[@belladonnalavender5493]

I feel like the populists really should have some benefits, like slave unrest down or happiness up.

[@lukeskymaster]

"its 69 thats not great" - jon

[@chadvader974]

Have you done a review yet?

[@nexusvoid_cringeiknow]

Is it just me - or do the Spartans actually own the former Phrygian territories directly north of the Peloponnese as well? EDIT: Or is that a Phrygian splinter with poorly chosen map color?

[@justgoaway789]

Can u make this 3 times a week instead of 2

[@danielkjm]

JON PLZ, Play with the Buildings Mod, It makes the game a lot better. MORE MODS JON

[@ManyATrueNerd]

Oh, I'll be staying off Imperator mods for a while - they've got hot-fixes and patches coming in rapidly, and they'll likely keep breaking mods.

[@danielkjm]

@@ManyATrueNerd Thats a shame, mods are making this game a little better. No mana, more corruption, Economy rebalance, better combat, Buildings and soo much more. PS: You are the best

[@starsky-nq3mo]

200th yay finally not in the thousands.

[@TheRagaz]

nerd got played.

[@xanderellem3646]

35:30

[@pastabad4939]

There was I single Jew in your civilization

[@ziggyzap1]

2:03 so basically the Donald Trump of Greece?

[@joshbrown5842]

It’s my birthday in 46 minutes 🗿🗿🗿🗿

[@Chronospectrum]

Happy birthday!

[@JoshuaKevinPerry]

IF

[@autisticgamer4949]

Unlike the Persians, Jon definitely will crush the Spartans

[@joshbrown5842]

Sparta more like GayTa lmao gottem

[@Waterford1992]

You really know how to make a terrible game sound good... seriously though how much were you paid to promote this abomination?

[@bobhansen7421]

fist

[@vinhagg7772]

2#

[@seddekiller]

@@vinhagg7772 #3

[@coffie1852]

Why don't you play something fun instead?