As of now this guide should be more or less complete. If there are any mistakes/missing achievements let me know. Based on how your games go, sometimes you will need to take some extra steps, and sometimes this guide can be entirely useless. I hope the guide will at least give you a general direction of where to start.

A lot of stuff in this guide comes from sources on the Imperator Wiki[imperator.paradoxwikis.com]. Make sure you check out their website!

These are achievements that are considered "Very Easy". During typical playthroughs, you might have unlocked several of these already. For the purpose of this guide, I will nevertheless include them and how one might clear off this section.

A New Home
Settle a new province as a Migratory Tribe.


As described, you need to migrate and settle new territories. You can only do this if your nation is a Migratory Tribe, a form of government typically found in central and northern Europe. You can however also adopt this form of government as a settled tribe via decision, which I will not cover here.

To do this, you will first need to migrate population. You can only migrate if the territory:

• Has more than 3 pops
  
• Your stability is sufficient (hover over migrate button to see cost)

Once you do this, migratory cohorts will be spawned and your territory abandoned. Move your migratory cohorts to a new, unoccupied territory and hit setttle. Note you can only settle if you have more than 4 migrant cohorts (2,000 men)











Alea Iacta Est
Have an appointed Dictator refuse to give up power.


As of writing this, you cannot achieve this in 2.0.4 Augustus patch. You will have to revert back to 1.5.3 Menander (Look up if you do not know how to change game version to older patches) and play. Guide for this achievement as well as Cincinnatus will be included in the "Additional Stuff" section since the gameplay is quite different from 2.X Imperator Rome.

Cincinnatus
Appoint a Dictator, and have the same Dictator voluntarily stand down.


Similar to Alea Iacta Est, you will have to revert back to 1.5.3 Menander to achieve this.

Do Not Disturb My Circles
Research 40 inventions.


As per description, you need to generate 40 innovations. A few good approaches can include:

• Having researchers with high respective stats. If all of your characters are dummies, look at the character list of your neighbours - Remember, you can entice foreign characters to your court!
  
• Having researchers with traits like Scholar, Intelligent, Obsessive and Polymath. Characters with these traits can lead to events where you get innovation for free - Especially important if you started as a barbarian tag!
  
• Keep your research ratio high - essentially means having a lot of citizens and nobles who generate research points. You can force this by building Academy or Court of Law in your cities which allows more population to promote.
  
• Complete traditions, missions that give free innovations. The Hellenistic Empire mission tree available to the Diadochis give around 10 innovations - And I'm pretty sure you can exploit this by restarting the tree every 20 years.

International Relations
With your current ruler, acquire two other ruler-level friends.


Mostly straightforward. Find neighbour rulers, and befriend them. A Megas Basileus or Tribal Chief weighs just as much for this achievement. Note that:

• You have limited slots of friends. You might have to un-friend someone else.
  
• Your friends can DIE - Try to befriend young guns.
  
• Having tributaries/clients/feudatories/satrapies helps as well, since there are events that make you befriend them free of charge.

Panem Et Circenses
Compete in the Olympic Games on at least 10 occasions.


Wiki suggests only picking the first character in the list. Other than that, do note you cannot own the territory Olympia where the game takes place - Release a vassal if necessary.

Render Unto Caesar
Conquer a territory.


Win a war, take stuff. This one should be easy unless you are playing some sort of migratory sightseeing corporation.

Soldier of Fortune
Send a disloyal pretender away to be a Mercenary.


This is only available when you are in a succession crisis. Succession crisis fires if any of thee pretenders are disloyal upon monarch death. Give a pretender a province, raise levy, anger them and keep the disloyal levy around. Upon crisis firing, gather gold and pick Entice to Become Mercenary option, NOT Send Adventuring. Apparently, the character cannot own more than 1,000 gold in personal wealth. If they do, use Seize Assets interaction to reduce their wealth below 1,000 gold. Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt starts off with many children that can help you get this achievement.










Strategic Reserve
Import at least one of each Strategic resource to your capital province.


Import one of every resource in the Strategic Resources section. You should be able to do this as any large enough nation during any gameplay. Wiki recommends starting with Macedon to quickly achieve this.










Tribal Concord
Whilst you have a tribal government form, change a Law.


Change a law as a tribal nation. You will almost certainly achieve this alongside Tribal Assembly.

Easy achievements are generally straightforward (who could have thought!). I have no idea why Legio Augusta is in this section.

Antipater's Dream
As Macedonia, own the region of Greece.


You can do this as Macedon, or Epirus through its mission/decision. I recommend doing this achievement with the Antigonid Kingdom, as they can also form Macedon.

Envy of the World
Have any owned city with 100 or more Civilization Value.


It is recommended that you get a Metropolis-tier territory for this achievement, since they have a lot of building slots. Maurya starts with a metropolis, being its capital Pataliputra. Hellenistic Empire mission tree can also make your capital a metropolis. To do it the normal way, navigate to territory view window and upgrade a city into a metropolis.

Buildings like Foundry, Great Temple, Grand Theater, Academy, Court of Law, Forum and Mill provide the most civilisation points. Your oratory technology level, certain traditions and heritage (Iceni) also buff your civilisation. An additional 10% can be scored if you import two copies of Gemstone and Glass to your capital.

Hispania Universalis
Form Greater Iberia.


Recommended to play as Turdetania in the southern parts of Hispania. The country starts with some cities, and tags nearby sharing your starting culture that can be quickly annexed. Carthaginian colonies would not be hard to manage either, since they are in your capital region. (+0.05 province loyalty) Quickly civilise, watch out for Rome, and you should be good.

Legacy of Aristotle
Have four researchers with at least 11 of their relevant skill.


If your country do not have talented researchers, look to your neighbours, esp. in the eastern mediterranean since there are usually many tags. Find that smart guy, befriend, entice, employment, in that order. If you are extra wealthy, building wonders with education effect can help with scoring this achievement.

Punic Ascendance
As Carthage, own or have a subject own all of Hispania.


Roma delenda est! You can rewrite history simply by fabricating claim on Latium on day 1. You have more than enough ships to transport your levies and your mercenaries. Ally Samnium and crush the Romans. Expand into Hispania at your own leisure through the mission tree. Maybe it's that tall game you always wanted to play.

The Besieger
As the Antigonids, sack the cities of Babylon, Alexandria, Lysimacheia, and Pella.


Goes together with King of the Blind achievement. See Additional Stuff section for opening moves.

King of the Blind
As the Antigonid Kingdom, enact the decision "Secure Antigonid Position".


See Additional Stuff section for opening moves.

Legio Augusta
Own a Legion with X honors.


Probably the only RNG achievement. You actually only need to achieve 9, since each legion always start with one. Imperator Rome Wiki have a list of distinctions that you can achieve. To summarise, it involves having your forces fight on different terrain and with certain units. If you combine some of the more consistent honors, you can get this achievement with as little as 5 distinctions for your first legion. They are:

• Primigenia - Your first legion gets this. i.e. you only need 8 more distinction for it to reach 10.
  
• Insidiatrix - By having your legion on drill 24/7. The odds are much better than terrain-based distinction.
  
• Pia - Sacking a holy site of a different religion. You get Impia if you do it on your own religion, but it counts as a distinction nevertheless.
  
• Triumphalis - Give the legion commander a triumph after winning battle.

Times New Roman
As Rome, conquer the cities of Cariala, Italica, and Aquae Helveticae.


Use hourglass button next to the map if you are unsure where these territories are. Italica is in southern Hispania and Aquae Helveticae in the Alps. The only difficult tile is Cariala, since it is beyond even the Carpathian mountains near the northern edge of the map. You can do this later when you can afford transporting slaves all the way to Cariala through colonisation.

Tribal Assembly
As a Tribe, enact the decision to become a Republic.


You can do this with any barbarian tribe, but out of them Icenia is the best choice. Its heritage gives you +5% civilisation value and its capital is a city - This can be hundreds of gold saved for warfare, since you need 40% civilisation value in your capital in order to progress tribal reform. Can be achieved alongside Perfidious Albion in one playthrough.

Triumvir
Survive a Civil War.


You can make civil wars a lot more manageable by:

• Triggering it when you are still a small nation
  
• Have only one family angered and make sure none of them (and the friends of the head of that family) are governors or legion commanders. Revoke all their holdings while you are at it.
  
• Give all province governors free hand

You should have a tiny rebellion that can be easily crushed.

What have the Romans ever done for us?
As Rome, own and at least one City with 70 or more Civilization Value in every Province within the Palestine region.

Rome's eastern glory mission tree should lead you here. Note that out of all regions, Peraea is the only one to start without a city necessary for 70 civilisation value. Build a city in the province at your own discretion. Import Gemstone and glass to your capital for an extra 10% base civilisation value. Spam Great Temple, Grand Theater (You'll need them to placate the angry Hebrews anyways) and buildings. If you are running out of time, issue civilisation edicts in these regions (Temple icon) and pick State Religion idea to fast track the process.

Catch them All
As a Polytheistic country, have a State Pantheon composed entirely of deified rulers.


Note that you cannot complete this achievement as Judea. The amount of political influence needed for this achievement can be slightly negated by religious tech innovations. I did this achievement as Bactria as I rarely had the chance to expand without war declaration and saved up quite a lot of political influence.

Wonder Builder
Build a Great Wonder.


I'm not sure if special wonders like Lighthouse of Alexandria or the Library counts. At any rate, you should be able to save up thousands in late game more than enough for your own wonder. Note you do need to save up a bit of political influence.

Gazophylax This!
As Thrace, kill the ruler of the Antigonid Kingdom, by completing the “Poetic Justice” mission task.

Pick Thrace. Select the Cross the Hellespont mission tree, send gift to Epirus and buddy up. Play out the Fourth War of the Diadochi as usual, but make sure you annihilate scheming Odrysia who will rebel before your troops cross the strait. Use your capital levy to gather gold. Whether Antigonids gave you land or you won it by the spear, you now have a truce with the Antigonids after Antigonos died.

Now turn your attention to Macedon, where Cassander should be dying, Declare war once the succession crisis fires and civil war begins. There is a rare event where Demetrios kills the rebel leader and annex rebel territory. You can do the same against Macedon's king, annexing all of it with little bloodshed. If you are not lucky you will have to take land the old fashion way. By the time this is happening, your truce with the Antigonids should be over. Declare war again with Legacy of Alexander CB and completely annex them.

When the surrender event fires, pick the last option so you pass judgement on every important family. Imprison option does not work. Take in Demetrios. Since he is a minor character, you can imprison him immediately. If you do not have enough gold from your past sacks, deconstruct buildings. You should be able to complete the mission Poetic Justice, scoring you this achievement.

having familiarised yourself with the game, medium achievements are usually fairly tame compared to the world conquest type.

Carthago Delenda Est
As Rome, own and sack the city of Carthage.


For this achievement, you have to own Carthage itself for the event to pop. Occupying it in war with capital levy does not work. To avoid it not registering, make sure you select the harshest sack option - Not that a real Roman would have any sympathy for those baby-sacrificing Carthaginians!

City of the World's Desire
Have 15 Trade Routes in Byzantium.


Upon closer inspection of the condition you will probably realise it's quite easy - Play as Thrace, build tall in your capital province Europa and this should be no issue. Diadochis also have events (I believe they fire if you own one of the many Alexandrias) that give province investments so watch out for that too.

Holy Fire
Desecrate Holy Sites for at least 10 different religions.


Start in eastern Mediterranean where many religion can be found. Don't be shy to sack your own holy sites. The Seleukid Empire is a good option.

Imperial Ambition
Adopt the Empire government form.


Starting as a Diadochi tag makes this quite easy - You can also do this as any monarchy once you have more than 600 territories and your ruler is very popular. The Seleukid Empire and Egypt are good choices because of the Legacy of Alexander CB. Alternatively, the more difficult Antigonid Kingdom essentially guarantees this achievement if you take out your opponents.

Mystery Solved
As a Megalithic country, own at least 20 cities producing Stone, and the territory of Cunetio.


The game obviously wants you to do this achievement as a Numidian kingdom, but if you want it quick converting Carthage to Megalithic faith is far less demanding. Note the wording is outdated and you only need 20 stone-producing territories, not cities.

New Kingdom
Form Egypt, enact the Egyptian Succession law, and conquer the regions of Nubia and Syria.

Relatively easy as Kush, since your chief rival Egypt is otherwise too busy fighting the Antigonids. Declare war on them after the Ptolemaic armies are well into Syria. Unleash your capital levy with impunity upon undefended Egyptian cities and you should be set, no pun intended. Note you do have to completely kill off Ptolemaic Egypt for you to form Egypt. Nubia does not start with Egyptian Succession so don't forget to enact it!

Over 9000!
Have at least 9000 pops.


Should be easy for any respectable empire. If you insist on playing tall, be sure to select a few religion inventions for population growth.

Pan-Hellenic League
As any Greek Republic, own the entire region of Greece.


Athens is a good choice because of its unique mission trees, if the DLC Magna Graecia is enabled. Alternatively, Argos is in a good spot because the Diadochis will typically leave you free to expand in the Peloponnese, but be wary of the Arcadian OPM swarm!

Pyrrhic Victory
As Epirus, own Rome.


Epirus' mission gives you an opportunity to claim Macedonia - Take advantage of that, integrate Macedonian culture and then fight Rome is the safest bet. Your mission tree is almost certainly useless given how aggressive Rome AI is. Strike swiftly when Romans are bogged down in the north. Note that forming Macedon forfeits this achievement! Do NOT siege Argos with Pyrrhos!

Soter
As Egypt, own all the wonders of the world, through conquest or construction.


Namely, they are...

• Lighthouse of Alexandria - You build this through decisions, save up about 2,500 gold.
  
• Giza Pyramid Complex - You start with it!
  
• Mausoleum at Halicarnassus - Owned by Halikarnassos, an Antigonid tributary
  
• Artemis Temple - Owned by Ionia, another Antigonid vassal
  
• Colossus of Rhodes - Owned by Rhodes, an independent nation that often enter defensive pacts with Lycia and nearby powers
  
• Zeus Temple - Owned by Elis, typically in defensive pact with Achaean and Arcadian minors
  
• Gardens of Babylon - Owned by the Seleukid Empire, take advantage of their frequent civil war and Imperial Challenge CB.

The Bois Are Back in Town
Conquer Boihaemum region as the Boii.


It's really all about taking out Rome. Consolidate Cisalpine Gaul and strike them when they are busy fighting Carthaginians or Italian Greeks. Once you have Rome down, controlling Boihaemum should be straightforward.

The Romans are Crazy
Form Gaul.


I combined this achievement with The Bois Are Back in Town by simplying moving my capital into Gaul, making the Celtic Boii eligible for forming Gaul. Boii is advantageous in that the playthrough requires eliminating Rome early on, making your mid and late game a lot less stressful.

Three Great Fires
Form Persia and own Ganzak, Nevshapur and Gur.


You can do this achievement with its harder cousin Heraclea Persica. Alternatively, play as any Iranian tag such as Atropatene and snipe Seleukid Empire during Dahae invasion and civil war should set you up for this achievement. If you do play as Atropatene, watch out for expansionist Armenia at your doorstep.

To the End of the World
As the Seleucid Empire or Bactria, conquer the regions of Gandhara, Mahdyadesa, Pracya, Maru, and Avanti.

I recommend doing this with the harder option - Bactria. You don't have thorax pikemen or indian armoured elephants, but it is not impossible. You can do this achievement alongside The Man who would be King.

Brennus' Revenge
As a Gallic Tribe, desecrate all Hellenic Holy Sites in Greece before 480 AUC.


Very RNG as Greek allies shift a lot from game to game. Remember to preemptively claim so you don't waste time waiting for claims. Pick Scordiscia. Use War Council to immediately claim Cotinia, ally Deuria and Cataria and make sure you annex as much land as possible. Take Dindaria out if possible. Make your way to the coast through Armistia and Abria. Ally Epirus and take out Taulantia. Build cheap fleet, invade Crete (Claim Sparta meantime) and integrate locals. Unifying the island gives you plenty of levies. Take out isolated Sparta.

Peloponnese is typically divided into an Achaean League (Elis, Aigion) and an Arcadian one (Argos and everyone else). Remember you only need Elis, Argos and Epidauros. It might be advisable to annex everything, since OPM forts can then be destroyed for some extra gold. Don't sack right away, as if you do it too early Greek tags might create new holy sites, ruining your run. I was lucky in that the Nesiotic League became independent, making it easy pickings. If not, leave it to the end when you declare suicide wars to sack holy sites. (see below) If Diadochis declare war on you for a province, sack holy site in that province and cede it.

Similarly, Boeotia and Athens are often in two different camps. Take them out separately. If Diadochis are allied to your target, try declaring war against target's other allies. Since Delphi and/or Elatea are typically owned by a Diadochi kingdom, before war I recommend placing a single cohort on every holy site you own. Declare war, assault Delphi, and sack all of your holy sites while in pause.

Holy Pilgrim
As a Jewish country, own and control all original Jewish Holy Sites: Ekbatana, Oros Chorib, Apologos, Jerusalem, Ephraim, Sousa, Kadasa and Aqola.

Essentially a variant of Kingdom of David, except you have to snake into Iranian plateau to grab Ekbatana. See Kingdom of David for guide.

The Great Destroyer
Playing as any nation from the Veneti, Germanic, Pretani, Gaelic, Gallic, Celt-Iberian, Iberian or Pre-Indo-European culture groups, conquer and destroy 10 Great Wonders.

Much easier if you have the Hellenistic World Flavor Pack enabled. I recommend playing as a Gallic tribe for proximity (Boii is an excellent choice). With said pack enabled, you can have as many as 12 wonders in eastern Mediterranean. They are:

• Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, located in Roma
  
• Acropolis of Rhodes and Colossus of Rhodes, both located in Rhodos
  
• Acropolis of Pergamon, located in Pergamon
  
• Artemis Temple, located in Ephesos
  
• Palace of the Argeads, located in Methone
  
• Zeus Temple, located in Olympia
  
• Giza Pyramid Complex, located in Babylon Aigyptou (Next to Memphis)
  
• Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, located in Halikarnassos
  
• Oracle of Dodona, located in Dodona - RARE
  
• Library of Alexandria and Lighthouse of Alexandria, both located in Alexandreia. They must be built by Egypt. By the time you arrive, at least one is likely up.

Of which, Oracle of Dodona usually does not appear unless Epirus is wildly successful. This means you have at least 10 guaranteed if you seize Greece, Anatolia, Egypt and Italia. If you don't have enough, consider

• Stonehenge, located in Cunetio
  
• Gardens of Babylon, located in Babylon

And the achievement should pop. If you somehow do not have the Hellenistic World Flavor Pack, it amounts to essentially a world conquest to destroy

• Sigiriya, located in Avakana
  
• Taxila, located in Taxila

Since they give nice bonus, it might be better for you to own all of them, and then destroy before end date.

On the Measure of the Earth
As any Greek nation, build Towers in Omboi and Alexandria.


Contrary to all logic, the Lighthouse of Alexandria does NOT count as a tower. You will have to tear it down sadly and build another tower in its place. Egypt is a natural choice for this achievement.

Nikator
As the Seleucid Empire, conquer Pella before the death of Seleucus Nikator.


Gather your levy and recruit mercenaries prior to the war against the Antigonid Kingdom. When you declare war, gather your navy and send them on a grueling journey around the Arabian peninsula to the Syrian coast. They should arrive around the time you take Antigoneia from the Antigonids. Keep pushing into Phrygia, but be wary of Antigonid main fleet. Once in naval range, gather your troops and sail to Macedonia. Declare war on whoever owning Pella (No CB is viable if you wish to throw away the save) and assault.

Hall of the Mountain King
As Armenia, construct a level XV Fortress.


You will have to use province investment a lot to keep your maintenance at a reasonable level. Pick inventions that give you free province investment. Upgrade the city you are doing this achievement with into a metropolis so you do not waste too many investments on expanding slots. Make the metropolis a holy site to get some extra slots.

Ktistes
Starting as Kios, form Pontus.


Start as Kios. Wait for your old monarch to die, and follow events allowing you to abandon Kios and play as the Mithridatic Kingdom in Paphlagonia. Ally locals and take out Paphlagonia and importantly Pontus. Once you destroy old Pontus, you can form it if you have the right provinces.

Land of the Rising Sun
As a country in the Anatolian Culture Group, own, or have a subject own, the regions of Asia, Phrygia, Cilicia, Bithynia et Paphlagonia, Cappadocia Taurica and Armenia.

Of all Anatolian tags, Armenia and Cappadocia are the best candidates for this achievement. I recommend getting this with Armenia so you can score Hall of the Mountain King along the way.

If you are playing as Armenia, I recommend rushing Atropatene first. They provide you with some Zoroastrian pops that improve your religious unity (You are Zoroastrian but most Armenian pops are Khaldic). If Diadochis have claims against you, try peacefully expanding into Anatolia first by vassalising Cappadocia, Pontus and Paphlagonia. This should set you up for future conquest depending on your situation. I don't recommend expanding north as you will have territories with wrong culture, wrong religion and little value.

Hard achievements are quite the challenge - And more fulfilling when they pop.

Ashoka’s Pillars
As the Mauryas, conquer all of India, convert to Buddhism, and have at least 80% Religious Unity.

Forming Bharatvarsha does not affect achievement registration. To do this you will need to refrain from conquest and release territories with lots of Hindu pops as client states so you are 20% Buddhist. Most of your Buddhist pops can be found along the Ganges in cities. Also change your pantheon to include Siddhartha, who will convert 5 pops to Buddhism per omen. Gather 200 PI, change religion and start conquering. Pick Open Religion invention so you can use your very respectable income to spam Great Temples.

Garum Nobile
In any owned territory, produce a surplus of at least 10 fish.


Depending on technology and various effects, you will need to stuff at least 100 slaves into a territory for this achievement. Move them out later to avoid starving. Remember importing two copies of vegetable makes moving slaves a lot easier.

Alternatively, one of Carthage's mission Aegis of Africa changes two ports, Portus Magnus and Portus Divinus into cities, one of which will still produce fish. Develop them into metropolis, build mills and foundry to maximise production.

Germania Magna
As a Germanic nation, own every territory in the regions of Germania, Germania Superior, Venedia, and Boiohaemum.

I did this as Burgundia to combine this achievement and An Unexpected Turn. Rome will be your biggest enemy, but they should be usually busy fighting Macedon or Carthage. Build alliances and strike the Romans during internal strife/war to neutralise them. Other than them German tribes should pose no threat.

Mare Nostrum
As Rome, own every territory adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea.


This one is not that hard so long as you stick with your mission tree. Remember taking Magna Graecia and subsequently Epirus gives you claim to all of Greece and Macedonia. Take advantage of your war council, and integrate Macedonian culture so you can amass sizable levies in the East. Engineer rebellion in your chief rivals Egypt and Seleukid Empire to make conquest easier.

Megalopolis
As the nation of Megalopolis, have at least 80 pops in the territory of Megalopolis.


Taking out Sparta will be an important step to victory. Remember to make allies (Such as Argos or Messenia) and siege Sparta first so you get the land. Betray and take out Argos if they are not (unlikely) allied with Macedon. At any rate, keep your defensive league and start killing Cretan tags, and integrate Cretan culture. You will probably encounter a Rhodian coalition along the way, but in no playthrough have I seen them actually landing troops in Crete to back their allies up. At this point you should also leave the defensive league and prepare claims, preferably against Messenia due to distance.

Once you have a sizable Cretan levy and one or two mercenary armies, declare war. I recommend assaulting one key fortress to keep the Arcadian coalition at bay. Do this over time and you should gradually weaken the Arcadians. While waiting for truce, try striking Elis, Aetolian League or Athens if any of them are up for grabs. Move slaves, and use province investments to develop your capital to 80 pops.

Alternatively, if you have enough slaves there might be no need for the bellicose path mentioned above.

Laconic If
As Sparta, conquer and sack Pella before 480 AUC.


Before you hit unpause, do the following

• Make a defensive league with Argos, this prevents them from joining the Arcadian one and messing the run up
  
• THEN ally Argos
  
• Ally Elis
  
• Ally another minor not in the league

Use your mission tree for claims against Messenia. Keep the defensive pact AND alliance with Argos. Only dissolve the league after you have declared war. Declare war on the league and call in all allies. Argos and Elis should serve as good distractions, while you assault Messene. You should aim to take Messenia and another minor (Megalopolis or Heraia) in your first peace deal, the more the better. Inevitably, you must betray your allies and unify the region. I have not tried it, but forming the Peloponnesian League MAY mess with the achievement. You should be able to do this in about 10-15 years. Circumnavigate truce by declaring war on the league's new buddies.

While unifying the region, you should be landing claims against whoever owning Pella. It will be easier if Macedonia is divided between the Antigonids and Antipatrids, but if not victory is still possible. buddy up with Thrace, Epirus and anyone willing to be your friend. Invade Macedonia and take Pella down. Note you do have to take the harshest sack option for it to count.

Molon Labe!
As Sparta, conquer and sack the city of Persepolis.


This one is essentially a continuation of Laconic If. Integrate Macedonian and another Greek culture to provide you with the levies. From there, you should prioritise areas with Macedonian pops. Your biggest enemy (This is a consistent theme in this guide) is Rome, not the Diadochi. Before you wage conquests in the east, make sure you neuter Rome by allying Carthage. With the west dealt with, you can comfortably make opportunistic gains in the east. Again, pick the harshest option to ensure you get this achievement.

No More Worlds Left to Conquer
Reform Alexander's Empire as a successor state.


Egypt and the Seleukid Empire are both well suited. Alternatively, playing as the challenging Antigonid Kingdom will get you this achievement fast. Note despite having relevant mission tree, forming the Hellenistic Empire as Epirus will NOT net you this achievement, even if you have an Argead ruler!

Pax Aeterna
Conquer the world.


Rome and the Antigonid Kingdom are good candidates. Roman mission trees give a lot of free claims, while the Antigonids can eat up all Diadochis if played correctly with minimal aggressive expansion. Note you only have to own all colonised territories. You just have to be the only nation with territories on the map. See Additional Stuff for more tips.

The Man who would be King
As Bactria, become independent, and conquer the regions of Ariana, Bactria, and Gandhara.

Go independent when Seleukids fight the Fourth War of the Diadochi. You should still try to ally them or Maurya. The main strategy is alternatively stabbing one of the powers in the back when they have their civil war. Using Entice Governor can be very useful early on. Beware both likely have claims on you, so you might want to only declare war when they are fighting someone else. They are far less aggressive than Rome and so long as you remain peaceful they should not attack you frequently.

True Vandal
As a Vandal Nation, own any territory in the regions of Mauretania, Numidia, Africa, or Cyrenaica, and occupy Rome in a war.

Pick Lugia. Move all your pops so you have fewest possible territories, with at least 3 pops each. Migrate all of them. Gather your migration stacks, and divide them into two groups, one with at least 2,500 men (5 cohorts) and the rest in another. March the 2,500 stack to Mauretania, and your bigger group to Roma. Wait until your smaller stack reaches Africa. You can tell when Rome is raising its capital levy and marching away. Have your 2,500 stack settle, and your main stack pillage Roman cities close to Roma. Once you pillaged to the point war erupts, siege and assault Roma.

Pentecontaetia
As Athens, be independent and own Delos, Naxos, Kassandreia, Thaso, Chalkis, Samos, Sestos, Kition, Salamis, and Oreos before 500 AUC.

Before unpausing, insult Antigonids. Do it thrice in total and proceed down the independence tree. You want to be:

• Not at war with Macedon
  
• At war with Egypt

Get your capital stack and divide it into groups of 500. Load them on boats and sail towards Egypt and avoid the Egyptian fleet. Unless the AI detects a fleet, the Egyptian doomstack is typically parked in Alexandreia. Once you make landing, ransack undefended Egyptian cities. This will net you lots of gold crucial to your campaign.

Complete the mission tree ASAP. Once you do, justify on Tanagra or Thebes to expand in Boeotia. Take them out with levy and mercenaries, alongside Tanagra's overlord, Boeotia if possible. Land another one on Megara for your mission tree. Peace out with the Diadochi or wait until Antigonos dies and the kingdom falls apart. Your campaign will be considerably easier if the Antigonids did secure some land (esp. Thessalia which separates you from Macedon) in Macedonia. Declare war on Megara. Generously spend the gold on mercenaries. A sizable stack can be found consistently at Lamia, though you cannot see them unless you park a boat next to it.

Your main objectives will be Megara, Chalkis, Salamis and the Nesiotic League, where another sizable mercenary stack can be found. After your initial wars, you will instead target Macedon-aligned states, such as Oreos, Argos and the territory Korinthos. By cycling wars, you should be able to defeat the two Diadochis in detail and acquire Macedonia, though you only need some islands for achievement. You *should* be able to do all of this without fighting Egypt.

Depending on your situation, you might want to reverse the previous steps to take out the weaker DIadochi.

During your gameplay Thrace might declare war on you for Rhodope. Give them the island if you can't fight them, strike back after you captured Macedonia and integrated locals. At this point you should start expanding overseas. You will need Samos from Ionia, as well as Salamis and Kition from whoever owning Cyprus. Build a sizable navy and invade. You should be able to take out both targets easily with your Macedonian levy.

Potter to King
As Syracuse, conquer all of Sicily by the death of your ruler, Agathocles.


Ally a local tag and Rome. Taking locals should be relatively easy. Carthage is not particularly challenging either as the AI are definitely more A than I in dealing with naval landings. Having Rome as an ally makes holding onto your gains more manageable. Note you need Milet which requires you to land on the island and siege it down. Peace out and form Sicily. Sit back and relax, knowing you gave even more power to a morally questionable king.

Pytheas' Legacy
As Massalia, own at least one territory in Dumnonia and Cantiacia, as well as one territory in the Scandia region, and the territory of Orcades, before 550.

You must embrace Drudic faith and integrate Caledonian to colonise Orcades. A starting event might give you claims on Salluvia. Ally Vocontia, annex Salluvia and expand in your capital region towards the Atlantic. If Rome has claims on you, do not declare wars until they are also at war. Continue to make new allies. Taking Santonia should get you in range with Dumnonia, which in turn leads to Cantiacia and Carnonarcia. Once you secure Caledonia, claim and declare war against isolated Aetelrugia.

An Unexpected Turn
As Grania, Raumaricia, Suionia, Leuonia, Guthonia, Dania or Burgundia, build an Ivory Tower in Uppakra with all effects upgraded to Tier 4.

I recommend picking Burgundia, since you start with your capital in Uppakra. The achievement is about securing an elephant trade route and money to build the tower fast, since your ivory tower prestige needs time to scale up. A base 10 prestige from tower wonder and 53 from ivory means you need to be completed at least 77 years before the end date, around 650 AUC. To do this, you can conquer your way down the Atlantics until you can import elephants from Carthaginians.

I did this achievement by instead colonising my way eastwards until I reached the Black Sea around Olbia. I developed a navy for me to sail down and take out the Nesiotic League. Cretan tags are also a good choice. A few oratory tech later and you should be able to import from Carthage.

Proclamation of Tyre
As a Greek Republic, have Macedon, Egypt, the Seleucid Empire, Thrace or the Antigonid Empire as a subject.

Good to combine with Pentecontaetia. Remember to puppet a Diadochi tag instead of full annexation.

Eumenes' Footsteps
As Cappadocia, keeping Macedonian primary culture, become independent and conquer Alexandria and Babylon.

During the war with the Seleukids, raise and sneak your capital levy to Babylonia. Assault Seleucia and sack every city hard. I was able to secure more than 4,000 gold along the way, making expansion after Antigonos' death infinitely easier.


Periplus of the Seas
As Egypt, own or have a subject own the Aegean Islands, Rhodes, Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, Alalaiou, Devada, Diouscourides, Tylos, Sri Lanka, Mliet, Yermena, Corsica, Gymnaesia, Korkyra and Qarkna.
This achievement requires you to take out Carthage, humble the Seleukid upstart and keep Romans in line, while going after India. Once you have taken as much land as possible during the Fourth War of the Diadochi and subsequent wars with the Legacy of Alexander CB, I recommend targeting Rome first to neuter them. Diouscourides can be tricky as you need to colonise it yourself. If Maurya owns Sri Lanka, simply declare war with Imperial Challenge CB and move your large navy and troops to capture Sri Lanka. You should be able to take the entire island with good micro before Mauryan troops even come close. If not, you will need to snake down the Indian coast. Triggering rebellion and taking some of their land can be a good idea.

Painstaking would be an understatement. However, passing this category and you should be claiming that precious 100% in no time!

Heraclea Persica
Starting as Heraclea Pontica, form Persia whilst your ruler belongs to the Achaemenid dynasty

Make sure your country is Persian for the decision to be available. Before unpause, do the following:
Use your war council. Restart if there is no option targeting Mariandynia. Ally Kaukonia and Tieion and declare war as soon as possible. Once you annex Mariandynia, immediately fabricate claim against Paphlagonia and dissolve all alliance. Fabricate claims against your former allies. Paphlagonia typically get overwhelmed by Pontic city states, so they shouldn't be a big challenge. Declare war as soon as possible, taking as much land as you can. In runs where I took coastal land, there seems to be a chance for the Mithradatic Kingdom to migrate over, so you might want to keep Paphlagonia on the coast. Take out Kaukonia and Tieion as soon as truce is over. Justify on any independent tags, such as Bithynia in your region. Integrate Phrygian culture for levy. Attack Antigonids if they are still around, or entice Diadochi governors to annex Phrygia. Meanwhile, ally Cappadocia and Armenia, who otherwise will be a threat. Thrace should be your only opponent in the region, so be careful when taking up lands where all Diadochis have claims.

At this point, you have broken out of your difficult starting situation. Use Entice Governor, trigger civil war in nearby powers and gradually make your way eastward. I also recommend getting Zoroaster in your pantheon to kick start conversion so your religious unity isn't in the gutters. My run was particularly unlucky in that the Dahae invasion never fired, leading to a much more stable Seleukid Empire. Despite that the achievement should be fairly easy once you own all of Anatolia.

Kingdom of David
Starting as a Jewish nation, own the regions of Palestine and Syria, as well as the areas of Sinai, Eastern Delta, Central Delta, Memphis, Euphrates, Niniveh, Mesopotamia Superior, Apolloniatis, Babylonia, Sittacine, and Sumer
Pick Judea. Use your generic mission to land claims in your region. Improve relation with Egypt so they don't declare war on you. Once the Diadochi War starts, declare war for independence and seize as much land as possible before Egypt take them up. You should prioritise Decapolis with its capital at Raphon. Assaulting is viable here because Antigonid AI typically prioritise Egyptian armies over yours. Once you assault, Antigonids will be distracted/defeated by advancing Ptolemaic troops, securing your claim. Aim to take around three states.

Once you secure your independence, do not expand until you are allied with Egypt. Take out Samaria and Nabatea. Use entice governor liberally on your only ally (In my run they did launch an unsuccessful Syrian War that costed me land, justifying my betrayal). Once Egypt inevitably goes into a civil war, fuel their rebellion by inspiring disloyalty against Egyptian governors and great family heads. Once you have the Delta, Egypt should be easily defeated. Then, turn towards the Seleukids and use the same trick to gradually eat away their power base.

Perfidious Albion
Form Albion before the year AUC 500.


Start as Icenia. Ally Dobunnia and Durotriga. Use your generic mission and war council to rush Trinovantia. Dissolve alliance with Durotriga and declare war on Cantiacia. If you are lucky, Durotriga would be in alliance or defensive league with Cantiacia, allowing you to take a lot of land fast. Once you have taken out Dumnonia, make new allies and betray Dobunnia. Using this technique you should be able to at least form Pritania. Integrate Brigantic to provide for colonisation and conquest. Once you are in Hibernia, integrate locals and colonise. Note you must be civilised to form Albion. To civilise, build up your civilisation level in your capital and prepare some political influence for the stability malus.

rednaxelA
Starting as a Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain nation, which is not the Mauryas, conquer Pataliputra, Babylon, Memphis, and Athens.

Forming Bharatvarsha as Maurya bypasses the requirement. It will still appear locked, simply reload save and it should be available.

Tyrian Purple
Form Phoenicia, own at least 500 ships, and produce a surplus of at least 5 dyes in Tyrus.

Start as Sidon. Use generic mission for claims and improve relation with Egypt. Declare war a couple months after the Diadochi War so the Antigonid forces would have passed you already trying to fight Ptolemy in vain. Use your capital levy to sack cities for gold to recruit mercenaries. I recommend looking at sack event so you avoid killing Phoenician pops. You should prioritise South Phoenicia and North Phoenicia. Once you secured new lands and independence, ally Egypt to make sure you do not get backstabbed. Take out the remaining Phoenician city states should be easy as their Antigonid overlord is weakened considerably. Use Entice Governor on your Diadochi neighbours. Mothball your navy maintenance and spam Liburnian. Combine this with Militarized Society idea and your military traditions to further suppress maintenance cost. Move slaves into Tyrus so it produces 6 units of dyes.

The Corners of the World
As any nation, build Great Wonders in Safim, Orcades, Sadiya, Odoka and Agawe.


Of all territories, Orcades is the most annoying as you need to colonise it. You should therefore target Britain early on so by the time you take other required territories you will have enough slaves on the island to be transported to Caledonia. You do not need to actually finish them so pick the cheapest option possible and leave the wonders there. For Sadiya, use Imperial Challenge CB against Maurya and naval invade eastern India. Maurya should not have troops to counter your gains quickly. Land a great wonder and secure the achievement.

The Spice Must Flow
As Mosylon, own every Spice producing territory in the world.


Take advantage of your exotic trade goods - Boost commerce income with ideas and techs to make the most out of your incense/elephant/gemstone/salt goods in the region.

Immediately leave defensive league and claim Mondou. Improve relation with Himjar. Buy a mercenary stack and quickly assault Mondou, take down Oponia along the way if possible. Ally Himjar and declare war on Avalitia. Dissolve alliance and claim Himjar. Pick a local ally and start gobble up Arabia Felix. You will need to watch out for Kush - Ally if possible, leave if they are fighting Egypt. Fight your way up along Arabian coast until you are in range with Egypt. Improve relation, ally and attack Kush. Integrate Meriotic, and backstab Egypt during civil war/war with Seleukids. Since you start with Kemetic religion, stabilising Egypt should be easy. With Egypt in your hands, conquering Carthage, Seleukid Empire and the Mauryans should be easy.

Afterthought and stuff that don't really fit the achievement categories.

Cincinnatus and Alea Iacta Est in 1.5.3 Menander
You can only do this in said version! Make sure you revert back. Look up if you do not know how to revert.

Pick Rome. Go through your mission tree and take out Samnium first. Etruria, Sabinia and Umbria are often allied, making gains towards the north difficult. Once your senate support hit 75% in a war, appoint dictator. He should step down soon after your war ends automatically. This gives you Cincinnatus.

As for Alea Iacta Est, Try to steer politics so a member of the Populares with good martial skill becomes consul. For a dictator to refuse to stand down, you want to own more than 100 territories, have the Populares in charge and the dictator having high popularity. To increase popularity, have your dictator win battles and sack cities. If you have high enough (I got it with 100) a relevant event will fire.

Expanding as a small country
A lot of achievements will require you to start out small with odds stacked against you. Some good ways to break out of tricky situation include:

• Entice Governor - You can immediately flip every province adjacent to any territory you own in the region the enticed character is governing. You can do this at the cost of 20 aggressive expansion if the governor is a friend of your ruler, his/her loyalty is below 40 and any province loyalty is under 50. Do note if you befriend too early, AI might give the governor free hand, rendering enticing impossible. You should therefore try to chain befriending scheme -> inspire disloyalty -> entice governor in rapid succession.
  
• Use War Council - Your Government tab comes with a war council button. (requires specific laws if you are a republic) This gives you a free wargoal and crucially allows you to gather ally and declare war before your opponent can do the same 30 days into the game.
  
• Assault Forts - You only need to send in 2000 men per fort level (this depends on general martial skill. Send in slightly more if particularly low.) to siege any given fort. Since AI rarely if at all assault forts (except barbarian hordes), you can give your smaller army precious time to take objectives and force through peace deals. The invention Triumphal Coins give a nice 5,000 manpower if you are short on bodies.

Defeating Rome
Rome's Antagonist Nation buff offers loads of advantages, most importantly levy multiplier, essentially doubling its already large army. Once you have a sufficient power base anywhere in the region, taking out Rome will be a priority. Just like real life, naval power matters the most and Rome sucks on the sea. The AI rarely builds medium ships, so a well-equipped Hellenistic navy is more than enough to defeat them. To fully annihilate Rome, you should:

• Declare war on Rome for an island or otherwise inaccessible exclave. This way you ensure Rome cannot pour its large army and defend target province, giving you passive war score.
  
• Use minimal ships to actually blockade Romans. Your main navy should be hunting for their Roman counterpart and keep them in their ports. Your main navy should also carry your capital levy.
  
• After you secure your first naval victory, pay close attention which direction they are retreating to. Follow closely. Once you found their hiding spot, land troops to occupy the port territory. This way you force an engagement with their morale already low. Repeat this and you should be able to eventually stackwipe their navy.
  
• Use your naval supremacy to full advantage. Divide your navy into groups of 2-3 ships so any newly built Roman ships will also be wiped. Blockade all ports. Take all of their island possessions, and start naval invading throughout Italy simultaneously to overwhelm Romans. Retreat to your ships if Roman forces come close.
  
• To do maximum damage, sack with your capital levy, select the harshest sack option, and target all non-capital cities before you occupy provincial capital. This way, you can reliably kill dozens of pops per province.
  
• Liberate as many countries as you can to maximise their territory loss. Ally the liberated (but do not call them in!) and repeat until Rome is thoroughly dismantled.

Antigonid Achievements
This small guide should set you up to win the opening war and take out everyone

A key part of this strategy revolves around making feudatories. Before you unpause, import two copies of honey for +3 diplomatic reputation, select Defending Liberty innovation (empties your starting 10 AE which affects opinion), and ally Thrace. Do NOT spend money in your opening mission tree. Then, for each Hellenic culture tag, you should ally, send gifts, and offer feudatory status respectively. If you do this, the combined opinion value makes it possible for you to essentially vassalise every Greek minor in the region, costing you only the gift money.
As shown here, the nation Rhodes (ironically) can be vassalised fast, without the need of improve opinion. You should aim to vassalise Epirus, Sparta, Argos, Rhodes, who will provide you valuable support. Once they are vassalised, take as many as you can onboard before war. Every single OPM can raise 2,000 soldiers, which can overwhelm Macedon in numbers. You should avoid doing this with tags Macedon tends to target first, such as Boeotia, Elatea, Amphissa, Delphi and Aetolia. While you are waiting for diplomats, raise levies and buy mercenaries. Send your entire army to Palestine, while your Navy should make its way to Chalkis on Day 1 to pick up Demetrios' army. Park your navy outside Korinthos and your army in Palestine and wait.

On war declaration, use your navy's Mega Polyreme to immediately breach wall and seize Korinthos. Immediately enact Secure Antigonid Position to get King of the Blind, THEN pick the relevant mission. Call in Thrace, who should capture Macedon for you. Together with your vassals, you just defeated Macedon without ever landing troops in Macedonia. Since the major city sack event is tied to ownership and not the army, you can sack Pella even if your armies are not in the city. Once you own Macedonia raise province levy to add 20,000 troops to your already impressive army roster. Meanwhile, your army should be pounding down Egyptians. Send in small stacks to assault so your army passes through choke points like Pilousion rapidly. Sack Egyptian cities with your capital levy to finance the war. Once you decisively defeated Ptolemaic forces in the Delta, leave ~20,000 troops to mop up Egypt while your main army turn back to deal with the Seleukids. if you are feeling extra fancy, you can even buy off mercernaries with Egyptian gold and cripple Seleukid forces. As always, pick the harshest sack option to make sure you get the achievement The Besieger.

Because you are only waging an offensive war against Macedon, you incur 0 aggressive expansion when taking Egyptian and Seleukid lands. Completely wipe out the Diadochis, and you are left with about 80% of Alexander's empire in just a few years. Take out Thrace and you would have acquired around 800 territories for the price of 80. Doing all of this leaves you in a great spot to do a world conquest.

Afterthought and stuff that don't really fit the achievement categories.

Avoiding Instability as Mauryas
It seems you can avoid the detrimental Mauryan Decline (though may be scummy) heritage if you do the following:

• Upon monarch death and event firing, pick the option giving you malus instead of the Mauryan Decline heritage.
  
• Use your Task Manager and close Imperator Rome.
  
• Restart game and continue save.

At least for me the game carried on without the negative effects at all. You will have to do this every time your ruler dies. Upon forming Bharatvarsha, the event stopped firing.

Dealing with province disloyalty
It's corruption. It's not the natives. It is always your greedy governor. A corrupt governor will likely pick an edict that enriches you and him/her, instead of Harsh Treatment, and generate additional disloyalty up to 0.15 per month or so. A somewhat incompetent but clean guy (You appointing him/her as governor also likely results in edict changes to better suppress natives, saving you some political influence.) is always better than a high finesse but corrupt character. Another way to tackle disloyalty is to understand how it is generated. Your provinces loses disloyalty when there's too much unrest in the territories. Each level of fortress helps with suppressing unrest and therefore more loyal subjects.

If disloyalty is inevitable, only those with greater than 0.20 loyalty decay per month is worth your attention. Since you know what province will rebel, tear down fort in that province and park your troops on a territory adjacent to the disloyal province (So your troops are not exiled in rebel territory). Upon revolt, just assault rebel capital to force a surrender. You can do this with just about any province levy even if you are in the middle of a great conquest war.

Usually, bonus to your unintegrated culture group culture happiness is better (i.e. Legislative Reform > Strategic Propaganda) at subjugating foreign cultures.

Republican politicking
In a Republic, low senate approval can easily spiral into massive tyranny and civil war. While you cannot attack anyone if your support is too low, even single-digit approval is definitely not a game-over. The following tips might help you get back on track again.

Just like Andrew Jackson, you should fully embrace spoils system. As only your faction likes you most of the time, change all your government officials, researcher and military leaders to someone from your faction (With perhaps an exception - high oratory skill is a must for your Censor). In Imperator Rome, the seats each faction has depends heavily on how many jobs their faction is holding which translates to political power. This also applies if you want to embrace dictatorship - Avoid civil wars easily by appointing your buddies to your main navy and spam Liburnian to that navy to boost your control of the senate immensely.

Generally, Traditionalist/Boni are the best IMO as being at peace and generally having a stable government helps with their opinion. They can be good by themselves or as a partner with another faction unlike Democrats/Oligarchs who will never work out with each other. As a downside, they love to take away 80 PI to do some random province development. For Democrats/Populares you want to have all families angered and tyranny low, and vice versa for the Oligarchs/Optimates.

While you cannot manipulate election directly, smearing popularity of undesirable candidate can help. If you have really low senate approval, you would want to have a Traditionalist leader which can work with both other factions somewhat. Use your senate interface, do favours for other factions and achieve their objectives. Keep doing aforementioned actions and you should gradually climb back in a decade or so.