Welcome to the list of best ideas of Imperator Rome divided by their respective categories.
Ideas of Imperator Rome are divided into 4 categories which are military, civic, oratory, and religious each having 9 unique ideas netting a total 36 ideas to pick among.
Also, each idea category has three tiers. You can only unlock tier 1 ideas at the beginning of the game. Tier 2 ideas require 4 and Tier 3 requires 8 innovation investment in their respective category.
Final thing, you can only pick 3 ideas as Rome. Because that’s how republic works. Other government types might have more or less idea slots.
Best Military Ideas
Military ideas tier list:
- Elite Soldiery: (Discipline: +5.00%)
Best military idea for crushing enemy armies. Remember, discipline is always superior to morale in Paradox games. - Siege Training: (Siege Ability: +15.00%)
Siege ability is a huge bonus for quickly capturing forts in wars. As you know, AI loves having bunch of forts all over the place. - Militarized Society: (Legion and Navy Maintenance Cost: -20.00%)
Legion and navy maintenance costs become unsustainable after some point, especially if you’re non-stop expanding. Militarized society allows you to breathe a bit. - Martial Ethos: (Morale of Armies: +5.00%)
Not as good as discipline bonus but is still strengthening your armies and can be embraced right at the start since it doesn’t require any martial advances. - Ordered Retreat: (Reinforcement Speed: +10.00% and Army Morale Recovery: +5.00%)
Reinforcement speed and army morale recovery bonuses are actually very good because armies lose lots of morale and manpower after fort assaults. - Support of the People: (Experience Decay: -1.00%)
Experience decay is not really a big thing in Imperator Rome and -1.00% reduction doesn’t really do much. - Thalassocracy: (Morale of Navies: +10.00%)
I wouldn’t waste my idea slot for navy morale bonus because navies pretty much useless except for transporting armies. - Permanent Shipyards: (Ship Building Cost: -25.00%)
Reduced ship cost is not making a much difference because expensive ships are useless. Simply build 5-dollar ships for army transport duty. - Conscription: (National Manpower: +10.00%)
Manpower is a useless resource in this game because you never run out of manpower even in very big wars.
Best Civic Ideas
Civic ideas tier list:
- Institute Tariff Exceptions: (Province Import Routes: +1.00)
Each and every province I have gains +1 import routes huh… Where do I sign up? It’s a broken idea to be honest. - Patronized Trading Posts: (Capital Import Routes: +3.00)
You already know about the powerful capital surplus bonuses. This idea will help you take advantage of them more! - Complex Tariffs: (National Commerce Income: +20%)
Commerce income is your main source of income in the early to mid-game. +20% increase in commerce is extremely valuable for a long time. - Standardized Construction: (Build Cost: -10%, Build Time: -25%)
If you managed to build a solid economy earlier on, this civic will be very helpful because you can start building all over your empire with a discount, and much faster! - Central Urban Spaces: (Province Loyalty: +0.05)
You’re having a problem with rebellious provinces? Don’t worry, Central Urban Spaces will solve your problem instantly. - City Planning: (Population capacity: +25%)
Population capacity increase is always great for capital province, but can you fill all those cities and settlements? I think there are much beter civic ideas. - Tax Farming: (National Slave Output: +20%)
Without a doubt it’s great for tax income. However, this bonus is only helpful in the mid-late game. You’re already rich by the time you hit those eras anyway. - Land Appropriation Reform: (National Citizen Output: +12%)
Citizens mostly produce research and a little bit of manpower. I don’t find it appealing because I’m always ahead of time in tech. - Grain Stockpile: (Global monthly food modifier: +5%, Base food capacity: +400.00)
You’ll never have food problems in Imperator Rome unless you did something extremely wrong. Thus, grain stockpile is the worst idea in civic tree. Food capacity helps with population growth but it’s still extremely slow.
Best Oratory Ideas
Oratory ideas tier list:
- Casus Belli: (War score Cost: -10.00%)
War score cost reduction is very helpful against big empires such as Egypt, Persian Empire, Carthage, and Maurya. - Sanctioned Privileges: (Monthly corruption: -0.05)
Corruption is a big problem. Consul and co-consul corruption reduces political power. And governor corruption increases province disloyalty. So, corruption reduction modifiers are always good. - Legislative Reform: (Unintegrated Culture Group Happiness: +6%)
There are hundreds of cultures in Imperator Rome, and you can only integrate handful of them. So, increasing unintegrated culture group happiness is great. - Strategic Propaganda: (Unintegrated Culture Happiness: +6%)
Again, Unintegrated Culture is very good for preventing revolts. - Patronized Scholars: (Research Points: +20%)
I don’t know why but I’m always ahead of time in Imperator Rome research. Therefore, I find this idea pointless. Though it might come in handy if you play a tribal nation. - Military Administration: (Loyalty of Generals and Admirals: +10.0)
Another situational idea. Loyalty of generals and admirals +10 is absolutely amazing if you’re about to enter a civil war. If there is no such issue, go for other ideas. - Functional Bureaucracy: (Loyalty of Governors: +10.0)
Governor loyalty should never be an issue for you in Imperator Rome. - Permanent Ambassadors: (Diplomatic Relations: +2.00)
You don’t really need +2.00 diplomatic relations bonus. Can already have enough vassals, just reserve your idea slot for something better. - Hospitium: (Improve Opinion Maximum: +33%)
Improve opinion interaction is pretty much useless except for vassal integration. And you don’t need improve opinion maximum bonus for that. Your tribute policy already gives +50 relation with your vassals instantly.
Best Religious Ideas
Religious ideas tier list:
- Institutional Proselytism: (Pop Conversion Speed: +20%)
+20% pop conversion speed is too good to pass up. You know, converted pops gets assimilated faster. - Mandated Observance: (Omen Power: +15%)
I use my omens mostly for aggressive expansion reduction. So, +15% boost to that is very nice. - State Religion: (Country Civilization Level: +5%, Monthly Civilization Change: +0.02%)
Civilization level effects pop output, pop capacity, pop happiness, commerce, tax, and more. It’s a nice nation-wide bonus. - Tolerance of Pagans: (Integrated Culture Happiness: +6%)
With this you can integrate 2 more cultures without any happiness penalty. - Loyalty to the State: (Loyalty of Characters: +5.0)
I never have loyalty problems in Imperator Rome. If I do, I just befriend the disloyal person. So, this idea is neither good nor bad. - Divine Mandate: (Monthly Tyranny: -0.04)
Tyranny is never a problem unless you anger the senate. Don’t anger the senate and you are gold. - Religious Calendar: (Monthly War Exhaustion: -0.05)
War exhaustion is a real problem, especially if you’re waging wars with imperial challenge. However, clicking on invoke devotio multiple times solves all your war exhaustion problems. - Origin Myth: (Ruler Popularity Gain: +0.33)
Ruler popularity is not a big deal in this game. There are much better ideas in religious tree. - Haruspicy: (Loyalty of Subject States: +10.00)
There is no such a thing as rebellious subjects in Imperator Rome. Therefore, I find this idea very pointless.