When I first saw people play Stellaris, the Roman playthrough was always the go-to. With some knowledge in history in both Ancient Rome and Greece, I wanted to make one that accurately portrayed the SPQR. The outcome was fun as all hell. In this guide, I’ll be showing off my build and getting into some brief historical detail. I’m sharing it because I want to see what the other great players can do in their own games, and how y’all modify it (since I can’t really upload it or something).
Human Traits
All credit goes to Gamerdudle!
When I first made this empire, I thought about the culture of Rome itself. It took really from two greek city-states, Athens and Sparta, but each in their different ways.
Sparta
From sparta, they took much from their military and sense of national pride. Its why many Romans who were plebian (the lower class under the ruling Patricians) made their careers and legacy as troops in the army. It provided the best methods for social mobility. In Rome, social mobility is something defined by a few things, wealth, prestige, whether or not you were of Roman citizenship, and honor. The military was one way in which someone could find prestige and build some wealth. The romans very much revered their generals and veterans. So mobility was indeed possible, it would however require hard work and effort. I made them Strong for army buffs.
Athens
From Athens they took knowledge and much of the administrative techniques. There were many Roman writers and thinkers, for example, Marcus Aurelius, not just a Philosopher but also an emperor during the Pax Romana Period. So I made them intelligent.
TLDR (for those like me sometimes who just want to get to the point).
I made them Strong and Intelligent, I also made them communal (mainly because I felt like it, but Rome did also make improvements in housing so it makes sense when you get deep…but im a little lazy lol). I also made them nonadaptive.
Pax Galactica – The Senatus Populusque Romanus
Naming
Yeah, I wanted to include this to get every detail for you, but you can always change this. Before you ask, I did name this empire the “Senatus Populusque Romanus” and yes, before you ask, I did have to google that. That translates to “the senate and the roman people”, I felt like it’d be much better than just ‘roman empire”, ya know? Its a little classy lol.
In this part I’m gonna get into the administrative stuff in your gov tab. I’ll first get into my inspirations and then move into each thing and its strategic use.
Inspiration
The inspiration is a mix of periods, I suppose. I didn’t want an imperial system, rather, I wanted some of the SPQR spirit in it, so I needed a senate. For that reason, I used a dictatorship, where there are elections that happen at the death of the ruler. This is similar to the time of Caesar and Augustus, since the senate and republic waaasssn’t really gone, but they did take all roles of power (i.e consul etc). So thats fun lol !!! I focused on influence, progress and control with this game. I took civics that would make it easier for me to choose my own ruler (since, irl the praetorian guard did indeed exist, and kinda chose their own rulers) and move rome further in research to make conquest easier.
Ethics
I took Fanatic authoritarian and Materialist as my ethics for this gameplay. I liked fanatic authoritarian because of the influence gain bonuses. Materialist provided a nice research bonus I couldn’t go without, on top of the intelligence trait, it’ll make research easier.
Civics
For my civics, I decided to focus on succession and leadership. Authoritarian is nice for influence, combine that with shadow council, and I will never be unable to choose my ideal leader to hold the title of Augustus. That helps because good leader = excellent bonuses in a variety of things. I also took the trait cutthroat politics for edict cost down, because why not. In hindsight, efficient bureaucracy is a good one to use, same as functional architecture.
Decorations and Extra Stuff
One mandatory, imo, is purple.
I don’t know why, I guess its some psychological association I have with Purple and SPQR, but it is sooooo satisfying to see a giant purple blob on half the galaxy in both union and non-union map modes. I made an all purple banner and took the humanoid ship because I don’t like the mammalian ship types all that much.
All of this is just optional stuff ( except the purple) that I felt like including. Anywho, like I said before, all of this is just a template I made based on research I had done. I had wanted to share this because I wanted to see how you all played this game. Will you play tall and integrate your subjects? Or will an endless game of conquest ensue? or both? Take this template play around with it! Feel free to share screenshots, I would love to see how y’all do.
For me, starting the game I had started next to a fallen empire (xenophiles! lucky me) and fanatical purifiers. I also had the world ending event chain where you have to observe different planets for their climates. Whatever the case, Rome could have fallen veeerryy quickly. Not fun, but a hell of a challenge to start with!
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