I have a question about what happens when civil war starts and hope that some of you experienced guys might be able to help me with a few bits of advice. I know every game is different though and just want to let you know the situation before I ask the question:
I'm playing as Scipii, have all of Hispania - with the exception of Osca - Africa, Bostra, Petra, Jerusalem, Damascus, Sidon, Antioch, Hatra, Tarsus, Halicarnassos, Nikomedia, Palma, Sicily, Capua, Kydonia, Rodos and Cyprus (Forget the name of the town there). Carthage, Numidia, Spain and Egypt are no more. Having concentrated on armies, I have not built up a proper navy yet and am in the process of forming an invasion army for Rome.
The Julii have northern Italy and southern Gaul, while the Brutii have all of Greece and Illyria and have pushed north to the Baltic coast. The Brutii are fighting the Britons on the one hand and expanding into rebel held modern Ukraine on the other. The Julii defend their borders agains the Gauls but have not done anything else in well on 60 years.
To the East are the Parthians, who are weak and my allies. I am about to move into modern day Turkey, which is controlled by Greece. There are also the Thracians, who have successfully held off the Brutii, the Scythians who are at war with the Parthians and have the Brutii closing in, the Gauls who own Middle Gaul (3-4 provinces) and the Britons, who own northern Gaul and most of Germany.
Now the senate demands a faction leader suicide every 2 -3 turns, and that should be the next turn again. I have already lost 4 faction leaders (I set the most worthless family members as heirs), but I can't afford to lose any more to buy time and will need to go to war with the senate. But I need about another 10 years to be ready for that war.
So here are my questions:
1. When civil war starts, do the other factions' attack you? What I mean is do they invade your territory immediately or do they concentrate on what they were doing before the war? If I leave them alone for a while do they leave me alone too? If they were to attack me how long would it take until they attack me?
2. If they were to attack me, where would they attack first? Capua? Sicily? Spain? Carthage? Do they take Capua asap?
3. Do their navies attack yours, even if you are no where near them? I.e., do they search for you and destroy you? Do they come to your ports to attack you? Do they blockade your ports?
4. From your experience, what is the loss of trade from not trading with the other Roman factions? Does the economy take a big hit?
5. If I take Rome, how soon do they bring up reinforcements? Or do they just leave Rome to fight for itself?
6. If I take Rome, will the Julii and Brutii fight each other?
Thanks for your help!! All comments appreciated!