Intro


This guide will help you with many aspects of Rome II, form province management to battle tactics and the odd pieces of info that will help you become a Rome II expert!

Me and the team are dedicated to helping you out but we cannot do that if you do not help us. We need you to comment, rate up and favourite if we are to ever know what you want us to answer.

Screenshots used are ones from our Rome II campaigns and Artwork from the web.

Is the game worth the buy?

Yes. Yes is the simplest answer anyone can give you. The game will blow your mind with just how big the map is if you do not own any of the games after this but have played the previous ones.

The game may be buggy, slow and annoying at times but with CA always patching it the game always is under improvement and that shows commitment!

Though the main question is; Attila or Rome II? I would certainly be spending my money on Attila. The game shows much more improvement and has mroe to offer than Rome II ever will. However if you are looking for an easier game with more bugs and lag as well as more factions to kill then Rome II is certainly the better option. Though with mods Attila can be made to be set in Rome II times. If a mod is ever made Rome II would become obsolete and a waste so if contemplating which one to buy look at the Attila mods!

Here is a youtube video to help give you a better idea - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_QK-lcW8a8

Description on Rome

Well where to start. Rome is a brilliant nation. It has the ability to recruit 6 units a turn if the army is recruiting in Italia as Rome can recruit 2 extra units and Rome gets an extra recruitment slot a turn anyway.

The nation starts off with a non-aggression pact with Carthage and has potential to be great allies with Syracuse. Besides this you start at war with the Etruscan league in the North. They own Alalia, Velathri and Arminium. They are also good friends with Carthage as a result so beware of them bringing Carthage into your war if you do not get rid of them swiftly.

The politics system consists of three families, not like in Rome I but much worse. You will find the politics system very plain and not much fun, though CA did try. You will find that the three families all have different abilities that will affect the start of your game. The Julii are good against barbarians, the Cornelii good at taxation but have public order penalties. The scipii have their own buffs and decreases but I cannot remember.

You will find Epirus will start off not liking you, they may even declare war if you struggle against the Etruscan League or if your armies are busy in another war.

DLC’S - Basic info

Well there are so many I do not know where to start. We need to mention the campaign DLC’s so I will start there. You have the Caesar in Gaul DLC which adds on a new campaign mode based in Gaul where Rome starts off with a single settlement. The tech tree is updated and changed to apparently be better than the grand campaign.

There is the Hannibal at the Gates which allows you to conquer all of Italia as Rome and face off against mighty Carthage in Hispania, Southern Gaul, as well as a more detailed Italia and Syracuse. From reports this is the best add on campaign.

Then there is the Wrath of Sparta DLC which makes it possible to conquer Greece, Thrace and Western Turkey as a Greek state! This is the one DLC I know little about and do not own so I cannot give more info on.

Then you have the extra little DLC’s which make the game feel more alive. You have Blood and Gore, beasts of war and many culture packs. There are so many of these minor DLC’s you might think CA to be money grabbing. However they certainly add much to the campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYggmFGSQRk

Bigginer: Rome, this will prove the easiest as you can train six units per turn in your capitol region, otherwise you still get an extra recruitment slot in every region. You also have god-like units anyway. Archers and missiles will never harm your testudo either, so overall Rome is easy to play as.

Knowledgable: Carthage. Carthage will start off with enemies in Iberia and enemies in Africa, they'll have potential wars with Garamantia and Nasamontes, as well as Cyranaica if they refuse to pay for non-aggression pacts. They also have enemies in Syracuse on Sicily and Rome. However you have a lot of income and eventually will unlock better troops that can steam roll the AI armies. These unit include Elephants, Libyan Infantry, Pikemen and Sacred Band.

Advanced: Epirus, Epirus starts off with a mighty disadvantage, they are hated by nearly everyone. However they do have elephant units and pikemen so you'll feel like Hannibal in Greece.

Expert: Roxolani was a great tribe to play as, they start off in the steppes and have many skirmisher cavalry at their disposal. You will be fighting the other steppe tribes and will have to then contend with armies that have a bigger variety in troop recruitment. Train wisely, watch out for enemy development and prepare for war.

Bigginer: Octavians Rome. You will have low food but your troops are easily capable of expansion and you'll be able to turn Gaul into a farming area. You have many client states and a weak Pompay's Rome nearby. You can also recruit strong units that have Testudo and recruit more than most nations due to Rome being your capitol.

Knowledgable: Seubi start off with strong units and remain a strong competitor for Rome. You still have the chance to create an empire in the Steppes and then expand into Octavians Gaul. You'll need to know how to balance armies with food and income so beware of the dangers of large armies.

Advanced: Lepidus and Antonys Rome will provide a degree of difficulty as you are faced with barbarian foes. Lepidus is faced with Iberia and Africa, as well as Octavian, Pompay and Antony. Meanwhile Antony is faced with the threat of Octavian, the enemies in the East and nation-wide unhappiness.

Expert: Pompay's Rome will provide an unfair advantage to your enemies, you'll be small and weak and surrounded by large Roman faction like Lepidus' Rome that covers the length of Africa to Iberia and Octavians Rome that expands into Gaul.


Bigginer: Rome will be victorious. You'll have more recruitment available, better units and an incompetent AI foe. With allies to help you, you'll be able to recruit excellent generals like Antony and gain more support from Pompay.

Knowledgable: Seubi will provide a big challange for Rome as the German invasion of Gaul begins. Remember Ariovistus? You can be like him as you and your German army storm through your enemies, bathed in blood.

Advanced: Arverni, well they proved that they can challange Rome, they sacked the capitol after all. However now Rome is stricking back and the Arverni need a strong and capable ruler to lead them thorugh these dark times ahead. You'll need to use diplomacy to unite Gaul under a common cause while keeping your armies strong enough to defeat the Romans.

Expert: N.A

Province Management

In Total War: Rome II, there are two different ways to approach provinces. The first way is to create self-sufficient balanced provinces. The second way is to specialize provinces based on resources, location, and province bonuses (such as wonders or special region bonuses). Regardless of which path you choose, there are a couple of things you have to keep in mind when chosing what to build.

1. Food
Making sure your empire is well fed should be your #1 priority. Food shortages will lead to attrition, public order problems, and negative bonuses to your income.

2. Public Order
After making sure you have enough food, you should look to manage your public order. Sometimes it is necessary to garrison troops in regions which are vulnerable to public order problems.

3. Protection/Garrisons
Depending on where a province is located, especially if near an enemy border, you may need to fore go economic buildings and build straight millitary. Otherwise, make sure you have army stacks to protect it.

4.Weatlh
Weath is the term used to tell you how valuable a region/province is in regard to a type of income. There are several different wealth types; Agriculture, Industry, Culture, Subsistence, and Commerce(Maritime and Local). Buildings have both flat wealth increases and wealth percent multipliers. Certain provinces have resources, wonders, or special region bonuses which also increases income types.

Balanced Provinces
When using the balanced provinces technique, you ignore bonuses in order to create a self sufficient province. You have to balance Food, Public Order, and Protection, while still trying to take advantage of wealth bonuses.

You have multiple DLC tech trees so I will describe the general way each works.

You have two main categories, Civil and Military, represented by Red is Military and represented by Blue is Civil. You'll know what I mean when you see.

On the left is Military and on the right is Civil.

Each category is spilt up into three sub-division categories. The will be the same colour as the main category colour.

In the grand campaign you'll have the unlock unit tech options as the first military branch. The second military branch will be increasing those unit skills and ammo. The third will be siege unit options. Keep in mind that siege units will be unlocked via this third branch, so choose between superior infantry and cavalry or superior artillery and siege organisation.

The improving stats branch will unlock buildings called training grounds which be able to further specific type of units stats further. This will only unlock those buildings in your capitol, just like the siege buildings that unlock new siege units will only be build-able through the corresponding building being built in the capitol. Minor settlements cannot build training grounds or siege workshops.

As for civil, you'll have again three branches. The first will be to do with philosophy, unlocking technology that will increase research speed and will increase tax capability; as well as unlock library buildings. Perfect for people trying to win a cultural victory.

The second branch is to do with agriculture, this will improve the efficiency of your farms and help generate more income through farming. You'll never have an army go hungry with this branch fully researched.

The final branch is construction, wish to honour the gods with temples and gladiator matches like non-other? Then this is for you. With the unlocking of the third gladiator arena level you'll be able to train gladiators to fight for your army! You'll also be able to construct mighty settlements that don't need armies to keep them safe! You'll become an unbeatable empire.

How to keep units in formation while attacking.



Surprisingly this is something most people who are new to Total War have difficulty grasping, it is why I will include this in the guide. To keep your army in formation when attacking a singular enemy unit is simple. Select the troops in a formation and click behind the enemy unit. If you click on the unit then your army will run at it and merge into a big blob which can become very frustrating and devastating if the enemy surround your soldiers.

To gain charge bonuses and precursors, such as javelins, you will still need to give attack orders for the last few yards.

Gaius Julius Caesa

You can either click a unit and click on another area of the map to move it to that place or you can be more technical and decide on the width and length that each unit under takes. This will improve your multiplayer play and single player play tremendously.

To do this new technique that you will learn you can click on a unit, scout where you want to move it to and click and drag the area you want the unit to cover. Te longer the unit is the less width it will hav to be careful, you don't want weak units being brocken from a centered attack. However powerful beserkers might be better at thin line ambushes / flank attacks.

This can also be done in battle, so don't just use it pre-battle.

If you are the defender you will not be able to move your units, they will walk in a line until you see one of the enemy. The camara will go back and battle will begin. It often has missiles at the back, infront of them are artillery, then cavalry, then swords and spears. General is always first.

If attacking then you will have the full map to place your troops and you will see which direction the enemy is moving, you will also be able to place troops far away or up close. You can place deployables and strategically place your troops.

Any questions you have just ask in the comments section and I will add it to this section here.

Gladiators are a fun addition to Rome II and will make you enjoy battles much more. Want to have that feel of a gladiator uprising? Use a Roman Families mod, unlock Gladiators, make all your armies out of them and then attack the other families. Great campaign idea for you there.

To recruit Gladiators you must first know what types you can get.

You can only get two gladiator type. Swords and Spears. They can gain experience and better armour but you cannot get better quality troops an are only really tier one troops.

You unlock them through going down the construction branch of the technology tree. You must get the technology which unlocks a level 3 Arena.

When done you must construct this level 3 arena, which will take 5 turns. Once done you will be able to construct multiple armies of gladiators! Let Spartacus feel envy as he witnesses hordes of gladiators working for the Romans as army men.

Rome II incorporates a newish system on seasonal effects. We saw this in Shogun II but Rome II took a while before incorporating it into the game. Thankfully they gave us another DLC and update to go with the seasonal effects. Seasons and Wonders I believe it was, added new wonder sites to parts of the map when you went into battle. Yeah.. That wasn't much of a big deal.

So her is what each season gives you as a buff / de buff (in no particular order:)

Summer: You will have a larger surplus of food and people will be happier. The sun will be more viasble in campaign mode and everywhere will be more clear as a result.

Autumn: You will have leaves on the ground on the campaign and a moderately happy population from the time period. Food surplus will no longer be affected.

Spring: You will have a larger surplus of food and people will be happier.

Winter: You will suffer attrition, especially in enemy territory. To avoid attrition just go into a fortified mode. You will also suffer food surplus loss.

How to increase food surplus

This is easy to fix, all you need to do is get some good buildings that produce food such as agricultural buildings, coloured green. Same as with the public order, there is a building that is coloured in yellow, you need room to build it though and you can only build it in provincinal capitals ( not the green one, the yellow one ). However when you get the chance you should build it. Make sure though that when you upgrade it, you upgrade it to one that increases food surplus instead of one that decreases slave population decline!

Now some of you might not truly understand what alliances mean. First look up what the word alliance means and then laugh when they don't include different forms of alliance.

Non-Aggression-Pact: this means that any act of aggression (declaration of war, trespassing ect) is not allowed, of course you can break this treaty but at a much higher diplomatic penalty than before. This is the first step of a long road to friendship, or a way to trick an enemy into a false sense of security... Of course that is if you don't care about how people think of you.


Defensive Alliance: will mean that if you get invaded they will defend you, if they get invaded you can defend them. Depending on your relationship with the faction will determine your chance of success in having your allies help you. This is a great way to make your enemies afraid to invade, if you ally with a strong faction then a weaker faction that is still stronger than you might not invade, a great way to prepare for war is to make allies!


Military Alliance: is a different sort of alliance, they will join you in a war if you invade another and vice versa. This is a great way to increase your chances of winning a war but the thing people forget is that a military alliance is not a defensive alliance and your allies will not join you if you get invaded so the question is can you afford for a defensive ally to become a military ally? Sometimes when I have a defensive ally that I am using to keep an enemy at bay my ally asks me become a military ally but this I have to deny as it will ruin my own plan.


Make Tribunal State: means that they are basically a client state or subjugated. They will do whatever you say,defend you and pay you taxes. I do not believe they go to war with you if you invade, for that you need to subjugate by taking the last settlement. Rome did this a lot in Gaul.

Gaius Julius Caesar

How to improve the population's attitude towards you


This is very difficult to do as every time you take a settlement public order goes down, however it can be controlled!


All you have to do is build temples... this is the greatest building for those who hate rebels and slaves! All you need is to build one of these, keep upgrading it, make sure though that it increases.


However there are ther buildings that increase happiness in a province, they are coloured yellow, and once you build it it is like a temple, it has loads of options. Look through them and read the benifits of them, some decrease slave population decline but increase gold income, others increase food and others increase happiness.


All of this however needs to be looked after, the perfect building is not all military and public order, it also needs to produce food for your armies!!!

Expansion


This should be conducted to adapt to change. An expansion plan that is perfect for only one scenario, is a doomed expansion plan. You should always expect your enemy to put up a fight.


Look at the map after every war you have had, see how the expansion plan has gone, has your ally taken your next target? Has your enemy already fallen and become apart of a massive friendly faction?


This should all go into your planning, otherwise you will find yourself at war with people you do not need to be at war with. Betrayal of allies should be planned as well, is it sensible to betray them because they are allies of your allies? Place everything into consideration!


This aspect of the game is the most appealing to me, so I do try and plan ahead, however I often find that my plans are destroyed because they are not thought through to a great enough extent. When that happens I start planning a new expansion plan, this happens again so i have to start a new plan... This goes on and on... So do not expect to make a single plan that will last you your whole campaign, just one that will last long enough!

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Basic Naval Battle Concept

Ramming

The fastest and and cheapest way to sink an enemy is ramming him. When two ships ram each other the ship with the fastest speed (Sometimes it just seems the AI wins at random) rams the enemy. Ramming the front is ill advised however. The enemy can simply lock you with the boarding order. It always beats ramming.

Also ramming and boarding only really work in every 45degrees. That means two ships cant ram from the front and its hard to ram somebody with two ships from the sides. It gets really messy. Boarding ist the same. If possible, always have a clear sight on one side of the enemy ship with nobody interfering. If you can, get the extra speed bonus most ships have to ram the enemy. Ram sadly does not always work when ships are really close to each other.

Melee

Melee atacks can be made from two sides dropping the enemy morale and troops in no time. Two medium infantry can beat one heavy infantry in boarding action easily. Besides that, its just battling it out. If you sink a boarding ship its crew is so kind and jumps in the water instead of harrassing you any further. Unfortunatly the AI is way better at boarding your ships then reversed since this mechanic doesnt work really well.

Thanks, we had our chance, we just go swimming now

Ranged Atack

Ranged ships have been pretty buffed. Having a lot of fire javelins hand can complettly destroy any enemy ship but low armour enemies are better just shot to death with normal javs. Use fast reload. Keep your support ships together in groups and be careful that not all get boarded at the same time. To be honest a fleet of just skirmishing boats is all you need in campaign.

Artillery ships just need to fire at the enemy. If you can do it yourself. They should be protected from melee but if nescessary they are pretty good at ramming.

Huge rocks and ships dont go together very well

Your General

One of the most importing aspects of naval battles is moral so keep your admiral well protected behind you line and kill their admiral. Ship give the admiral bonus they receive to every ship in their side making a small battle line with admiral in the rear pretty steady.

Naval Strategies

The machine gun

This strategy is advisable with javelineers/archers with huge numbers.

Put less ships in the front row than in the back row. Only deploy on a small scale. Maybe distract the enemy flank with fast ships.

S-----------------------S-S-S----------------------------S

-----------------------SSSSSS---------------------------

Your first line of ships will block the enemy advance bogging him down. Your machine gun like fire javelins will knock them out. Use it if the enemy hast more melee ships. Your Flanks either distract and try not to engange or if the enemy doesnt take the bate then flank their main advance in the middle for further chaos.

Two against one

SImple and deadly. One ship locks the enemy with boarding. One goes around the side and rams it with 2-4 ramming actions to the ground. Its the most effecting way to fight with cheap units. Even Light Skirmishers can take out most enemies with it.

------------------S>--E--------------------------

-----------------------S--------------------------

Distracting

Use skirmishers or fast assault boats to lure some enemies from the battle. Most likly they wont catch you for a long time. If you have enough time to evade the enemy main line then take some skirmishers in a group and destroy the crew of the pursuing ships with fire.

Melee Atack

If you are better in melee for example you have a lot of small fast assault boats then dont just rush in. Getting bogged down is the worst thing that can happen and groups of emeny support ships are your enemy as well. Try to get some fast ships to atack over the flanks. The moment the enemy tries to reinforce them atack the reinforcing ships from the side.

-----S------------E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E----S---

------S-----------------------E-E-E-E-E----------------S----

-------S--------------------------------------------------S-----

----------------------S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-----------

This tactic gets even more evil if you have more artillery ships then your enemy and you can force him to come to you.

Artillery Line If you are confident just do all artillery ship in a line and fire away. More cautious characters might want to set them in a diagonal line shooting from the first ship in line personally. That way you can always fire with the next ship by yourself on close range and absolutly wreck any enemy thats coming. You might lose more than with a straight line but you dont lose everything as soon as the enemy reaches you. Also the possibilty of the enemy getting bogged down is pretty high.

Ship Classes


Cheap skirmishers: Starting navy for all greek style navies. They are pretty useful. Faster than transports and bigger ships and used in masses they can quickly kill any enemy marines on their ships. Raming is decent against transports but against bigger ship will do no damage. Still, unless you have a lot of cash these will be the backbone of your navy.


Transports: Slowest unit in the game. Most of the time stands not more than 2 rams or 2 shots from a ballista .Depending on the unit that is one them they can be usefull. Slingers tend to do well but since some patches ago they are pretty much useless.


Support ships: Manned with better skirmishing troops they can fullfill allmost any role. Use them to make enemy ships follow them away from the battle, ram the enemy, shoot them to pieces or sacrify them against stronger vessels. Flaming javelins are effective against most tougher enemies but most of the time normal ammunition is sufficient. When 2-3 ships of these class concentrate on one target its like machine gun fire. Barbarians have slingers in this class. They are not bad but I would take skirmishers over them any day.


Assault vessels: Fast, great at melee and great at ramming but... mostly useless against huge armadas of support ships. These have really been nerfed to the point of uselessness. Fire ships are sometimes good for their additional fire damage but they die in autocalc every time. Furthermore boarding is a mechanic not really reliable.


Huge ships: Huge impressive vessels, mostly containing generals and are built to last. They take a lot of abuse, excel at ramming (If they ever have the chance) and can either have skirmishers or assault infantry on them. They are powerfull but never think of them as unbeatable. They too go down in no time when showered with fire, getting flanked from two fire ships or against severhis means I don't get to fight rome. Huge ships with assault infantry are your main strinking force against enemy towns but are not really useful in naval combat. Archer or slinger ships excel against most other ship types. Strong ramming, decent speed and a missile advantage against all other ships.



Artillery ships If used right they can give any enemy a headache. Control the shooting yourself and even fast atacking enemy fleets should lose at least two vessels against one of these ships. They are perfect general killers too. In close combat they lose against everybody but their ramming is pretty decent. Against bigger ships they can have problems though needing 10 hits to take the biggest ships down.


Most overpriced bad ship in the game:

The biggest ship of them all: The egyptian Octareme. They lose really really badly against the sacred band or even a barbarian general ship which costs 40% less in Multiplayer. 200 man are great but no speed and 200 egyptian infantry are not that great. However if they ever get to ram the enemy, small ships break apart with one ramming.

Huge, slow, expensive, suprisingly weak in melee and pretty low morale...