The Complete Guide to Imperator: Rome!

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Make sure to boot up the game today for Imperator Day, so we can force PDX to revive it! If you don't have it, it's on sale right now - store.steampowered.com/app/859580/Imperator_Rome/

[@Hungryboi-ey1ct]

damn

[@СтавридесКелевра]

ok, i organised the purchase of three copies by my friends, that's 1|400 of worldwide played today just by us four, lol))

[@Boretheory]

Laith i strongly disagree that Legions are that important. I personally only used 30k to defend the border with the barbarians in Italy for most of the campaign and mercenaries were a safer option to deal with the rest of the barbarians. I think u should never go Royal army unless you’re larping it’s really not that convenient and u risk having issues with the military. Plus i had an army become disloyal and kill my leader by walking into Rome so i would say the main thing for the army is discipline and attack/defense, while for the internal side big economy, pop and strong integration is how u build a strong empire. Also u should try to avoid giving positions to noble families above what they need to be loyal as that risks raising the demand from all of them and ends up forcing u to giving too much to them. Furthermore the ideal is creating a region where the main strength of the empire is located so as to defend it well and ensure that u have a strong base to control the rest. Italy and Spain are absolutely the best mixing terrain defensiveness, Economy and Province availability while defensively speaking Greece and Ethiopia are also good. And economically Egypt is by far the best with Thrace having big potential. In my roman run i mass urbanised Spain and Italy but for some reason Egypt was very unstable although integrated and converted. Which meant i had to develop some level of Regional self subsistence and Egypt never grew that much. Italy ended up having 60k pop and Spain 40K while the rest of the empire wasn’t that much populated.

[@kunatix7033]

Please do a tribe guide so we can larp on those berber kingdoms and create a glorious Amazigh empire!😎

[@C1rn0n]

Laith should oil himself up like a true ancient carthaginian noble

[@TheSocialStreamers]

I saw this be one of the first comments, and I didn't reply because I hoped it would get buried. One day later and it's the most liked comment. Seems about right.

[@joe-9718]

@@TheSocialStreamers Now you know what your people really want.

[@inquisitor1984]

@@TheSocialStreamersthe internet is always creepier than we thought.

[@Matthew-cc4xt]

If that's your jam try joining a hawaiian dancing troop. Don't ask me how I know this.

[@SylveonSimp]

you guys like oil? type in "yagli güres", thats oil wrestling

[@niuco5650]

Just saw the sale and said “man I’d buy this if I knew how to play”.

[@bboi1489]

Timing is everything

[@_Lumiere_]

Seriously, paradox. The community is serving the game up on a platter, just invest in it again.

[@Matthew-cc4xt]

Ok what do you want to know? I'm sure there's got to be a discord too.

[@monkeymoment6478]

@@_Lumiere_ Literally a no brainer at this point. Release some updates, pump new DLC out, the community will eat it up

[@CrimsonSp33d]

It’s got a steep learning curve, as most paradox games do. But despite its lack of future support, you know with this one isn’t gonna get peicemealed with dlc since they don’t see the profit in the game. The workshop will keep the game alive for years to come.

[@72stef65]

I litterally bought the game 5 minutes ago Laith, it is still dowloading ... Just on point 👌

[@SylveonSimp]

Tip: Offices for families Don't give offices to bad persons, just because the family is scournful. Create a fleet of 1 ship and make the guy or gal a commander of the fleet. If he gets illoyal it doesn't even matter.

[@monkeymoment6478]

Napoleon in exile vibes

[@cascadeblue9]

you are a fucking genius and i can't believe i never thought off this

[@cascadeblue9]

the only place where this unfortunately is avoidable is for tribal levies

[@vivian_492]

while this fight to revive this game might be in vain, you're still a hero in our eyes for trying your damn hardest.

[@apollo9098]

I already have 500 hours, still watching for the glory of Rome.

[@MichalLiszkay]

Same here 600 hrs. Playing invictus

[@Vince-tt1uj]

@@MichalLiszkayCan you tell me what are the biggest differences with 2.0 update and Invictus? I came back after almost 3 years and the games feels the same. I'm playing Sparta in Invictus mod.

[@MichalLiszkay]

@@Vince-tt1uj there are lot of mission trees, special country features, changes in AI, tons of events and flavor. You should try Sparta or Syracuse

[@Vince-tt1uj]

@@MichalLiszkayIt looks like I was playing Sparta without DLC so the mission tree were locked for me

[@djangounchained9387]

Clocking on 1500 hours here. Nearly took over the entire map.

[@oneofmanyjames-es1643]

I honestly think the best thing Paradox can do is take on the Invictus modding team to manage the game with Paradox backing. Playing with that mod is some of the most fun I've had in a Paradox game, as they understand and play to the strengths of the game better than the original development team did.

[@LibertyMonk]

There's a lot of legal and ownership issues just letting someone have access and make changes to your source code. Their current solution is close to the best option that doesn't require them to get contracts signed or lose control of their IP. The only thing mods really can't do is add entirely new mechanics, change the default experience, or fix engine bugs. Though, some modifications are more trivial than others.

[@oneofmanyjames-es1643]

@@LibertyMonkThat's not what I meant. I meant bring them into the company not give them the IP

[@thatguy.4736]

​@@LibertyMonk Imagine not reading.

[@belphegor_dev]

Not gonna happen. Being good at modding a game is not the same as being a seasoned game developer.

[@thatguy.4736]

@@belphegor_dev True, but honestly tho with how ass the industry has been. I think there's a good portion of us that could make games better than 90% of what's on the market rn.

[@SquirrelMaestro]

We making it out of the insulae with this one

[@omeganichtdieuhrsondernder6906]

Man Laith because of you i played for 6 hours straight from 12 am to 6 am but it was a great time and now i have a great Headache. Thanks for your Videos and have good life.

[@Meamiscool19]

"Oh sure I can watch this 50 minute video before bed, I got Imperator when it came out and I don't remember it being that good, I doubt this video will make me want to reinstall." That was at 1am... Laith it is 4am... you've awoken a love for this game I didn't know I had in me... This game seems really cool and I feel like I'm gonna lose the next couple months of my life to it.

[@BurningDesire8]

I've been waiting to buy Imperator and that wait had just went on continuously due to the reviews I had seen over time but your recent focus and campaign of Imperator has made me finally give it a shot and purchase it!

[@benjitheband5661]

Playing for the first time in years. Having a ton of fun, bought the all the dlc today, and gonna try invictus next campaign!

[@SylveonSimp]

Tip: Granting holdings From time to time buy your family holdings. This gives you personal money to spend on some interactions. Also, if an internal civil war appears, the territory of the families is determined by their holding, so get as much of the cake as you can.

[@Gegaczjo]

If Paradox will ever create a new content for this game DLC/patch they should name it "Laith". This man is doing some remarkable things to bring back this game.

[@Alykar98]

Doesn't need to watch it, but since i LOVE Imperator Rome - like and comment anyway. Keep at it Laith! Soon The Empire of Rome will rise from ashes)

[@SlagNasty]

Imperators never die! *we buy the game at a reasonable price for Invictus, Terra Indomita and Bronge Age (and more)!

[@commissarkordoshky219]

Another note on Civil Wars - Any and all province improvements are removed when conquered by you or your opposition. This makes civil wars on tall plays absolutely DEVASTATING

[@borisnikator7060]

Also rebels spam castles. So if you go down a civil war spiral you could not survive because there are always external enemies closely watching for you.

[@Aerozona23]

With all these imperator vids you're putting out i gotta turn on notifications to keep track of them all 😂😂

[@aeternitasromae]

Amazing help, I’ve tried over the years to get into this game but never could. Now I actually understand what I’m doing it’s so fun.

[@Kvs-vf9nt]

It's weird I can't get in hoi4 but this game (with invictus mod) and looking like 10h off content before I bought it and I played like 7 hours (had a couple off restart too) and conquered whole of Italy and 1/3 off Sicily ( I expand like the romans did in real life). Then again I allready play a lot of Rome games like Rome 2 DeI or Para Bellum and have all campaign DLC and the Greek day 1 DLC. So maybe it's because I know a lot off Roman history, and it interests me that I just can concentrate more because playing as Rome isn't difficult at all. I only play on normal though.

[@dangbar200]

Thanks man, I've been playing Imperator again after seeing your videos the past few weeks and this helps a lot. Even as a veteran Paradox player I felt a little lost.

[@keizervanenerc5180]

Thank you very much, i was looking for this. I want to sypport the effort to revive this game, but i always get stuck with not understanding how to deal with disloyal families.

[@centseighty5100]

I usually bribe and give free hand and use all tech and policies to increase character loyalty

[@Gorge-890]

Grant them holdings, pass laws they like, give them jobs in government, research technologies that give loyalty and reduce corruption!

[@LibertyMonk]

whatever you do, don't give governorships to corrupt characters, it'll only give you bigger problems.

[@shaunatkinson2719]

If you don’t feel like murdering and revoking the lands of the the families all the time via civil war an easy way to cheese loyalty is to create 1 ship fleets and have the admiral be someone of a prominent family( beware that this will cost quite a bit of money as the characters will have a base wage no matter how many ships they command). FYI if a family has the minimum required amount of characters in office there will be no loyalty penalty but every office they don’t have will give -5 loyalty to all members. Along with that every time you double the amount of office a family is expected to hold all family members gain the grateful family loyalty bonus which is something like +10 or 15 loyalty, which is quite a bit. If you want really cheesy tips to make the game easier reply here and I’ll try and share what I know

[@Badpak.]

@@shaunatkinson2719 I do like me some cheese, tell me more

[@Zephyriia]

I love how the way you break down the game is exactly the major points of a Grand Strategy Game

[@hueman4856]

Laith thank you so much I literally bought the game the same day you made the video and the video helped me massively.

[@mihaicercel4718]

The one thing i`ve been struggling with as a new player on this game was embarking/disembarking units when fighting abroad. Also maybe a bit of naval info would have been nice. Otherwise it`s a great guide! Good Job.

[@Enum_Dev]

The video we needed but didn't deserve. Thank you laith

[@bababoi5815]

finally a guide is here from the legend Laith

[@ohLyln]

They need to bring back development on IR. This game is probably my favorite paradox game, and my favorite time period.

[@Katiekooleyes]

Thank you. Been on the fence about getting this and your video just convinced me. Been playing CK3 for a while and wanted to branch out into other Paradox games. You've helped me know I've mad the right choice

[@Imperial_Legacy]

The most important thing I didn’t knew earlier in imperator and is massive important for your culture being the dominant culture is Roads. Roads are hugely important! Another good tip is having market and library in every city.

[@gfalle]

Really appreciate you doing this, Imperator ad Maiora!

[@andreweaston1779]

I shit you not, I saw all the imperator vids from the last week or so, and literally commented I wish there was a comprehensive guide to this game. GG

[@realEpicGold]

Yes! Thanks for the tutorial, was inspired by you to play it again but after such a long time I forgot everything.

[@colemorin5177]

Laith, love the dedication to revive imperator!

[@nubber04]

I don't subscribe often. And usually feel like someone needs to earn me clicking that, but I've been watching your videos for a while. And figured it's about time I hit that button

[@diegoortiz7104]

Just started playing this again a week ago and with all the new patches the game has . its come a long way from launch if you have always liked paradox games but felt to intimidated by all the details and crazy amount of menus always thinking that you might have messed things up I can safety say this game is hands down very simplistic and forgiving as well as strait forward . The game can be very fun because of all the different countries you can play as build a small country and build your empire from the ground up or you can start as a large empire and try to survive the political and wartime issues their are also simple missions and objectives but you don’t have to follow them if you don’t want to the game never forces you to do any Thing you don’t want you have full control of what way your empire will go nothing feels like it’s too much or to complicated to do honestly I would definitely recommend it their are also many videos on the game like this one that can give you more insight I just wanted to say my two cents from a normal simple gamer how well this game has been put together and fixed to now be worth the buy you can also get it on sale it seems to go on sale regularly as well but good luck if you get it you will not be disappointed!

[@Matthew-cc4xt]

Map Modes: Other map modes are quite useful. Forts map mode helps you tell where forts are during wars or to prepare your own forts in the correct spots. Simple Terrain map mode can also show you where mountains or other good features are to put forts on. Trade map mode shows you where all the different trade goods are which can help you know where to put farms or other structures or plan what land to take from enemies etc. Maybe they have stone or horses or something that's valuable to you. Cities map mode allows you to know which areas are cities vs just basic villages, allowing you to plan your city building and where to conquer and where you might need forts to defend, etc. Culture and Religion map mode show you those crucial features as well. Diplomacy map mode helps you keep track of subjects and allies, either yours or your opponents'. Tech: Many nations do not actually have any techs at the start of the game (such as tribes). You likely have between 0-8 techs to start the game. Often times you won't get new techs for 10-30 years depending on how bad your research ratio is so any starter techs could be important. Do you want to go all military discipline? Or all trade for money? or religious conversion? Types of people: It seems in my plays that the easiest way to improve research is to build 3 academies in your capital or major city of your main culture. This dramatically increases your percentage of nobles and their happiness, meaning you could easily double or triple your city's research or more. This seems far more effective than libraries which are likely mostly there as a less effective supplement of the academy buildings that are capped at 3. You can also bring in more pop to that city and they will slowly convert toward more nobles and thus more tech. Freemen seem solid for manpower. Slaves seem fantastic for money. But they tend to be quite unhappy. So structures, techs, and trade goods that can increase slave happiness can be quite useful in mitigating that. Religion and Deity Swapping: If you have non-main religion deities I believe that dramatically reduces your conversion speed. So in most instances you should eventually swap all deities to those from the main religion so you can convert pops faster. You can increase their bonuses if you make them a holy site and the holy site will give better bonuses if you upgrade the associated territory to a city or even better a metropolis. I think I had a .11 pop growth bonus from a certain deity I had swapped to and then built a holy site in a city for (a crazy good bonus). Conversion: I believe you are supposed to religious convert first and then culture convert because if they are not your religion you will culture convert far more slowly. I believe if you accept a culture you will not be likely to culture convert them so if you want to culture convert be careful about accepting a culture.

[@diegoortiz7104]

Just started playing this again a week ago and with all the new patches the game has . its come a long way from launch if you have always liked paradox games but felt to intimidated by all the details and crazy amount of menus always thinking that you might have messed things up I can safety say this game is hands down very simplistic and forgiving as well as strait forward . all you need to do to learn the game is to watch five , five min video on KZbin and you will have it down the game can be very fun because of all the different countries you can play as build a small country and build your empire from the ground up or you can start as a large empire and try to survive the political and wartime issues their are also simple missions and objectives but you don’t have to follow them if you don’t want to the game never forces you to do any Thing you don’t want you have full control of what way your empire will go nothing feels like it’s too much or to complicated to do honestly I would definitely recommend it their are also many videos on the game like this one that can give you more insight I just wanted to say my two cents from a normal simple gamer how well this game has been put together and fixed to now be worth the buy you can also get it on sale it seems to go on sale regularly as well but good luck if you get it you will not be disappointed!

[@rusael333]

Please more Imperator guide/tutorials! I couldn't find good tutorials and I would love to get more into this game

[@vairaul]

I admire Laith effort to promote this game doing a work that a company should be doing.

[@frankiecedeno3724]

Last month’s little event nearly made me buy the game, this month the game plus all DLC is $19 tax included. Easiest purchase if my life, I’m downloading it right now.

[@EVH3EVH3EVH3]

The last time I was this early laith was playing imperator Rome …. Oh wait he is 😂

[@bboi1489]

Get him to 200k boys 🙏🏼

[@steppebro]

I have like 4000 hours in EU4 and just started playing this game today. Thanks for the guide bro

[@johnnicholas1657]

I've played the game a while and watched the video because I like your enthusiasm. Glad I did. I had no idea you could build roads 😂

[@bayatekmekjohn7445]

one of the few amazing guides on this game. just bought the game and played for a couple of hourse just to get crushed by a south italian defensive alliance. but now that i've seen this video, those bastards are about to get what's coming to them.

[@KRisziFicaTion]

Best guide I've seen for a paradox game!

[@bonzijamesmendez9463]

Exactly what i needed thanks laith

[@dreamofyesterday]

Thank you for this awesome and detailed guide Laith! After watching this video I bought Imperator: Rome - Centurion Bundle.

[@prospero7849]

Quick tip: if you're making a tuorial please don't move the mouse pointer around so fast. It's visually very irritating and makes it hard to just take a second to look at a tooltip you moved over.

[@Matthew-cc4xt]

426 hours. My second most played Paradox game behind EU4 (and Anbennar).

[@clone9740]

Buying the game in an hour, thanks for the guide Laith!!!! Ave Roma

[@makiskanyt9269]

you madman, you actually did it fuck it we ball i am now imperator gang

[@RainBrain26]

I just downloaded it again after trying and giving up when the one big update came out. Can't wait for giving it another chance tomorrow.

[@mikemcguinness92]

Roma Invicta!

[@vbus5236]

This was the last Paradox game I preordered and I'm still heartbroken about the way it was abandoned by the studio. Big kudos for the Invicta team for keeping it alive, it's just an amazing game

[@vividsky1669]

roads also increase religious and cultural conversion speed, the amount increases based on the amount of roads connected to that territory

[@omersahar7738]

I bought the game today! thank you for the great toturial you are the absolute best!!

[@knightsolaire6342]

"Babe, wake up, Laith just dropped another Imperator: Rome video."

[@Hungryboi-ey1ct]

like damn keep it a stack peeps hate imparator even though it's not bad

[@Hungryboi-ey1ct]

and i feel like impara tor im a guy but i still wanna play as rome

[@simonallum5328]

This was a great video, thank you. Have tried a few times to get into this game but never succeeded. Time for another try!

[@Gamereal6286]

Thank you for this tutorial Laith, atleast now I wont need an university degree in order to understand this game, because you already did it for us. Any recommendations for nations (heh, that rhymes) that I could play? Just to get into it a little.

[@Garindo]

Well rome is obviously the best faction for beginners. You're more powerful than your nations, you have an awesome mission tree that helps you expanding and building up your economy. The bosporan kingdom is also a good beginner nation because it's far away from any great powers. The iceni are a good faction if you want to learn how to play a tribe. You're far off any great power on a island full of people with the same religion and similar culture (what makes them easier to assimilate).

[@JohnPaulSaylor]

Now you just need to make a EU4 and HOI4 tutorial and I won’t feel like a smooth brain whenever I try to play these games. Seriously, it feels like the only paradox games I can play are CK3 and Stellaris. The rest make me feel like I’m in math class again and I’m failing. Seriously though, thanks for making this.

[@Lincy7734]

Brother Laith providing the best content

[@holydoggo4822]

Local brit attempts to bring back dead game, shocks entire pdx community

[@Havingfun0]

I wanted this game to be good so bad at launch! Finally having some fun playing it!

[@Praetorian1995]

49:19 how here you have the legio with the punic style uniform? I did know we could have that. I always have the levies style and marian style legion. I mean the little soldier that represents the troops :D

[@af.tatchell]

5:35 I do think in general Paradox has quite a serious UI/UX design problem - even after this Imperator UI revamp, there are still lots of basic UI issues. I'm always amazed at how inaccessible or difficult they can make their menus and screens. I think the core issue is they fail to establish consistent UI rules / patterns between screens, and this makes understanding the hierarchy of elements quite difficult to determine. I think the icon designs also make consistency very difficult - too pictographic, and not symbolic enough. It's definitely not easy to design all these components, but I think a more consistent UI design system would significantly reduce the number of components people need to learn, thereby making the UI much more learnable, and in turn, more usable.

[@rexlor]

The day this video released, player count peaked at 2735. Highest count since exactly 3 years ago! According to steamdb

[@bogdanionita7861]

Laith made me want to buy imperator with this guide

[@TalonAshlar]

I wish paradox would add a religious dlc to imperator that allowed options to found and proselytize your religion which would also give some use to the religious map mode. After all numerous religions arose in this period including Christianity.

[@TezHibmeister]

I followed your start for rome, umbria became an ally and declared war with ancona, then etruscans and carthage declared war on me. So it's been a much more interesting start!

[@georgimihalkov9678]

Do we have a similar vid for EU4?

[@Anarnam]

Laith's video as well as recent Ludi's video makes me feel a little bit like Paradox is maybe, JUST MAYBE, secretly working on reviving the game... I wish...

[@hashtagrex]

When i first played imperator, the UI really overwhelmed me. I thought it was clunky and awkard, but man has it grown on me

[@JaxaansePizza]

Man, I want a game like this set in the late medieval ages/ renaissance.

[@DarthMuffin677]

do you think you could do smaller guide covering things unique to the tribal nations of the game like how to properly transition into a civilized nation? I always had a hard time trying out the various tribal nations.

[@Imperial_Legacy]

Greatest paradox game ever made!

[@BonzoKeith]

There's so much love for this game! Can't believe they abandoned it!

[@Bevalderon]

Alright alright, I was resisting because I didn't enjoy the game at release but I'll give it a go now that I've got a guide

[@SereglothIV]

I finally bought Imperator yesterday and decided to play for a day on my own before checking out guides and tips. I took the mission for Italian expansion and it said that it will take a year and give me claims on Italian penninsula. Then I started getting dilemmas to wither get claims on various nations or get a different bonus. I always chose the bonus, because "I'll get claims everywhere once the mission is done anyway". Well, I didn't. Turns out these events were part of the mission and were supposed to give me claims that I rejected 😂 I guess that's too much "click a mission to get claims everywhere" from EU4. But I think like this Imperator approach more.

[@AdamPersson]

I bought the game when it was brand new. I was excited. I was having a lot of hopeful thoughts. But it wasn't the EU4 with CK2 character flair that I was hoping it would be...Imperator just feels lacking in a lot of ways, but maybe that's because it wasn't what I expected it to be initially.

[@kingsuperbus]

everyone is playing imperator!

[@Skeltcher]

9:00 You dont need to fabricate claims at the start... theres missions for that. 29:10 Are you using a mod? Because Mines dont add +1 base resource production.

[@pie-senpai2360]

Me after an hour of gameplay "man I'm kinda confused and I haven't even unpaused" Laith "I can help with that 😎"

[@martinwebb746]

Tribes guide would be awesome. I’m playing as Iceni doing pretty well but worried for when the romans come lol am loving this game havnt played it much before hope Paradox pick it up again

[@cohortus]

This got me pumped to play some Carthage.

[@jero0ome152]

hyped for the second imperator rome day

[@HansWurst1569]

I play this for the terra indomnita and bronze age mod. It's so cool to play in the bronze age mod. It tbh feels a better fit for the game than the ancient era lol.

[@RenatoMonducci]

Saw the video, tried to pick up the game, failed to understand how to play, came back to watch the whole video

[@saltysheev5502]

Inperator’s renaissance is here!

[@lateralus6512]

It's interesting that this game has started becoming popular recently. Maybe players are over the bad launch now and have given it another chance?

[@fred.moraes]

The best way to learn a Paradox Game it's this "opening moves" videos

[@goestah]

Such a fantastic underrated game

[@brentgerchicoff8084]

This video got me subscribed.

[@megabytes6434]

This is a great video Laith! It was your other Imperator: Rome videos that got me to get the game. I think that a tribe guide would be a good vid. Keep up the great work man, and don't stop bringing new life to this game!

[@stormblind1654]

How dare you call me a rome-a-boo. I'll have you know I'm a massive edgelord and have to play to play the underdogs, and immediately quit when I become the big dog!

[@mako2078]

Very useful guide, this video made me realize I suck at the game... But I will learn! >:)

[@darthcalanil5333]

I love this so much❤ Ave!

[@darmocat]

Wasn't going to play because Invictus mod is highly recommended (almost required) Saw that achievements are still possible with Invictus LETS GOOOOOOOOO