Imperator: Rome has proven to be quite a layered game, presenting us with numerous gameplay options for each of its major features. As was the case with the historical iteration of Rome, one of these features is warfare, too.
Imperator: Rome aggressive expansion is a thing that most players will have to use from time to time. Eventually, here comes a time when diplomacy fails, and all that's left to do is pick up arms and charge into battle. Here, we're going to offer a short primer on how it all works, and how to offset its cons.
How to get new Territories through Aggressive Expansion in Imperator: Rome?</h2>
Aggressive Expansion is a dedicated measure of how aggressive and threatening the Imperium appears to your neighbouring countries. It directly affects your foreign relations, how happy other populations are, and whether your own subject states are content under your rule. Aggressive expansion is built up via war declarations and land grabbing - two acts that you're going to have to carefully weigh and balance against the rest of the context in which your Imperium exists.
If you're being extremely aggressive in attaining other people's lands, you can expect your total popularity to plummet greatly, though this doesn't have to mean the Imperium will always be treated as an aggressor. Quite the opposite: your Aggressive Expansion has a dynamic rate of decay that is dictated by the grand total you've generated at any given moment, and past a certain threshold, your accretion of aggressive expansion will also diminish on its own.
Now, what you're going to want to do, if you're adopting a more aggressive external policy, is to adopt an appropriate Stance. Appeasing Stance, for example, will increase your AE decay by an additional 20%, as well as providing other much-needed bonuses in this situation. While it won't entirely negate the goodwill you will lose by attacking other territories, it might mitigate it somewhat.