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Fate of Empires

This mod is based on the work of Sir John Bagot Glubb, Army General and historian, who studied eleven empires starting with the Assyrians in 859 B.C. and ending with the British in 1950 A.D. Sir John determined that each followed a remarkably similar pattern from birth to demise. Spanning a period of about ten generations, each went through 7 Stages of Empire:

1. The Age of Pioneers (Outburst)
2. The Age of Conquests
3. The Age of Commerce
4. The Age of Affluence
5. The Age of Intellect
6. The Age of Decadence
7. The Age of Collapse

Interestingly enough, Total War has a hidden value, the Imperium Level, which goes from 1 to 7. It determines when Chaos Invasions happen, and your Great Power Diplomacy penalties.

Using max.94's "Great Power Administration": https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1286343342 as a template, I've tried to represent Sir John Glubb's ideas into the different stages of the player's Imperium Level by tweaking five indicators:

1. The Age of Pioneers

Tax Rate: +75%
Trade Tariffs: +75%
Research Rate: +75%
Public Order (all provinces): +7
Leadership (all armies): +7

Stage-Exclusive Trait -> Campaign Movement Bonus: +15%

2. The Age of Conquests

Tax Rate: +50%
Trade Tariffs: +50%
Research Rate: +50%
Public Order (all provinces): +5
Leadership (all armies): +5

Stage-Exclusive Trait -> Military Buildings Construction Cost: -15%

3. The Age of Commerce

Tax Rate: +25%
Trade Tariffs: +25%
Research Rate: +25%
Public Order (all provinces): +2
Leadership (all armies): +2

Stage-Exclusive Trait -> Income from Ports: +15%

4. The Age of Affluence

Tax Rate: +0%
Trade Tariffs: +0%
Research Rate: +0%
Public Order (all provinces): +0
Leadership (all armies): +0

Stage-Exclusive Trait -> Income from Industry: +15%

5. The Age of Intellect

Tax Rate: -25%
Trade Tariffs: -25%
Research Rate: -25%
Public Order (all provinces): -2
Leadership (all armies): -2

Stage-Exclusive Trait -> Infrastructure Buildings Construction Cost: -15%

6. The Age of Decadence

Tax Rate: -50%
Trade Tariffs: -50%
Research Rate: -50%
Public Order (all provinces): -5
Leadership (all armies): -5

Stage-Exclusive Trait -> Advanced Military Buildings Construction Cost: -15%

7. The Age of Collapse

Tax Rate: -75%
Trade Tariffs: -75%
Research Rate: -75%
Public Order (all provinces): -7
Leadership (all armies): -7

Stage-Exclusive Trait -> All Buildings Construction Cost: +15%

Your Imperium Level is displayed on the top bar. The Great Power Diplomacy penalty tooltip will be displayed even if you disable it through mods.

You may wonder why you get a penalty to Trade during the Age of Commerce, compared to the previous age, or why Research rate is lower on the Age of Intellect than the Age of Conquests. Those penalties are going to be balanced out with your empire's development through buildings and unlocked technologies. The penalties are there to represent the downward spiral your civilization is inevitably heading towards, due to internal strife, corruption, poor management and lack of a cultural identity once it becomes a continent-spanning multi-cultural juggernaut who has forgotten its roots, and the reason for its existence.

The extremely harsh penalties at Imperium Level 7 are not meant to be balanced; they are there to force the collapse of your civilization. The challenge would be to stop it, I guess, if that's even possible.

Vassalizing allies, instead of confederating them, could save your civilization from extinction, at least once you are at Imperium Level 4 or 5. It could prevent your race from expanding too thin, too much. To enable easy vassalization in the game, I recommend you to use the mod "Diplomatic Options": https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1155808469.

This mod affects both the player and the AI.

If you find you benefit from the starting bonuses more than the AI, I recommend you to play on Very Hard or Legendary difficulty, and use other mods to tip the scales against you, like MINOS's Better AI 2 or Jadawin's Cost-Based Army Caps and Global Army Caps.

Make your own recipe and enjoy the ride.

If you'd rather have a reduced range of modifiers, you can try Fate of Empires LITE: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1757272197&tscn=1559366743.