So you feel like you want Major factions to have an advantage in your game - But you don't feel comfortable using my mod for whatever reason. Maybe because of compatability, maybe you just don't feel the need to use a mod. Or maybe you just want to give certain factions even more of a boost in conjuction with my mod.
If this is true, then this guide is for you! I warn you though - It is a "dirty fix" and it wont use any of the balancing that my mod introduces to the economy of certain factions(Unless you keep the mod installed of course!). I also haven't fully tested this method but I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work.
Still with me? Good! Because here we go!

To give certain factions a headstart you can follow these simple steps:

1. Start a new campaign, save the game as any name you want and then exit the game.

2. Download EditSF and install it. (Link below)

3. Start up EditSF, Click Open and navigate to the savefile you want to edit. It will be located in "Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Rome2\save_games".

4. Open the savefile up and then click on the dabs in this order:
"CAMPAIGN_SAVE_GAME" - "COMPRESSED_DATA" - "CAMPAIGN_ENV" - CAMPAIGN_MODEL" - "WORLD" - "FACTION_ARRAY"

5. This step requires a little investigation on your behalf, since values change depending on which faction you are player.
Once you are in the faction_array, you need to find the factions you want to edit. The first entry(FACTION_ARRAY - 0) is always the player faction in the savegame. It's easy to find out which faction is in which field by opening up the "FACTION_ARRAY - x" and then selecting "FACTION" - This will show you tables on the right side, which will include the name of the faction in the second field. In my case rom_rome - Which means Rome.

6. After you've located the faction that you wish to change, you need to open up the corresponding "FACTION" path and then select "FACTION_ECONOMICS" without opening up a new path. On your right, you should get a field again. The TOP value in this field is the amount of money that faction has.

7. Change this number to whatever you want. If you give a faction a lot of money on the first turn, chances are it will survive and build a small empire.

8. Rinse and repeat for every faction you want to edit. And then choose "File - Save" and then you can close down EditSF, start the game, load your save and play to your hearts content!


A good way to test if it worked, is to give your faction a different amount than it originally had. If it is changed in the game after you load it, then it worked!

So if you suffered through all that, you should now have a game that will be more likely to have certain factions rise to power, depending on what you picked.
Of course, you have to do this every time you start a new game since it's editing the save file!

Link to EditSF: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?623719-EditSF-1-1-Added-Array-Editing

If you try to edit a save game of an ongoing campaign ALWAYS make a backup beforehand. Otherwise you run the risk of losing your campaign!