Guide & Walkthrough Total War: Rome II Emperor Edition

Overview

Guide & Walkthrough Total War: Rome II Emperor Edition

Introduction

This Total War: Rome II Emperor Edition guide is mainly intended for beginners, especially for those players who are playing the Total War series for the first time. But more experienced generals also will find some interesting information here.
The guide was written based on the Hard difficulty level. It is a perfect balance between mindless hack and slash on easy difficulty level and the complicated gameplay full of careful calculation and risky tricks on legendary difficulty level.
Below you’ll find, among other things:

• Basic information for beginner generals
• Advice to help you complete the Prologue
• Information on expanding your empire with sample provinces
• A guide to recruiting and moving your army, fleet and agents
• Description of tactical battles

First Steps

Before you start playing I recommend selecting graphics options in the menu on the left side of the screen and then selecting Advanced Options. There are two interesting elements: Unit Size and Run Benchmark.

The first option allows you to increase the number of units you can see during a land battle. When set to Ultra, your biggest units will consist of 160 soldiers. Battles will look much prettier this way, with thousands of soldiers on the field at once instead of hundreds.

The other option, Run Benchmark, allows you to test your graphics settings. When you check it and view the prepared movie “forest”, you’ll be able to watch a few minutes of animation, after which you’ll get information about your machine’s performance. If you haven’t noticed any problems with graphics and the movie played smoothly, you can go right on to the game. Otherwise I suggest modifying the graphics options you set previously.

Prologue

Whether you’ve played the Total War series before, or if Rome II is your first Creative Assembly game, I recommend starting with the Prologue. This is a mini-campaign, which will familiarize you with the controls of both the tactical battles and the strategic campaign.

New campaign

After selecting “new campaign”, you’ll have to make the most important choice in the game: you have to decide which faction you want to lead to victory. Factions are grouped into different cultural circles, which will be of great importance in alliances with other nations in the future.

Once you decide which culture you want to represent, you have to choose a particular faction. This choice influences not only your starting position on the world map, but also additional bonuses or penalties which affect your empire. In the case of Rome or Carthage, regardless of the chosen family, you always start the game with the same provinces. The house or the dynasty you chose will affect the further gameplay, while the other two political factions will be active only in the Senate (more on this in the Politics section).

Your last step should be to check victory conditions and campaign settings. Beginners should have the “Show AI Player Moves” option checked, in order to better understand the situation on the world map. Unfortunately after several dozen turns, AI movements take too much time, so I would suggest unchecking then this option.

Another important option is “Battle Realism” mode. It makes battles more demanding, so it should be considered for use only by more experienced players.

The only thing left is to set the game difficulty slider and start the campaign!

Interface (strategic map)

After starting the game you will be taken to the strategic map. The ancient world is divided into dozens of provinces, and these are divided into smaller regions. Each region consists of a central settlement, with surroundings lands.

When you select a settlement, you’ll see the province management screen. This shows all the settlements in the province. The province capital is always the first city on the left side of the menu, while the remaining towns are its subordinates.

For regions under your control, this menu always shows a list of existing buildings. Neutral locations have a gray background and regions controlled by enemy factions are red. If your spy is located near the enemy settlement, you’ll get an access to the intelligence screen: just move the mouse cursor over the eye icon in the upper-left corner of the region screen. Additionally, under each discovered location you can see fortress and ship icons. When you move mouse over these icons you will see information about the number of troops in the local garrison.

If you control at least one region in the province, you will see a development bar in the upper-left corner of the screen. This shows the population surplus which can be directed (or “spent”) to any of the settlements in the province in order to expand it.

Pressing the 2 key will show the province details screen. The Wealth & Income field allows you to check the earnings in each region. When you move mouse over the settlement name, you’ll get more details. In addition you can see how taxes, slaves and corruption affect your income.

• Public order measures the level of satisfaction of residents in the province.
• The culture screen shows the influence of other cultures on your province.
• The security of the province shows the resistance to enemy agents’ attacks. The higher the values, the harder it will be fore hostile agents to perform actions against you.
• The tax province option, visible in upper-left corner, allows you to turn taxes on or off in the province. Turning it off will increase public order. Keep in mind that turning off taxes also takes that province out of your faction-wide food supply system, potentially affecting other provinces.

A short list of this information can be seen in the bottom-left corner of the main screen. There is information on public order and culture, food production, income and various effects affecting your province.

It is worth mentioning that as long as you have an excess of food in your empire, it will be evenly distributed among all provinces. Problems will crop up when food production does not keep pace with consumption. In this case provinces which were importing food will begin starving. Public order will decrease and soldiers will slowly desert from the army. Therefore I suggest that each province be self-sufficient with its food supply.

Expansion and development of the province

When you select any settlement in the province, you’ll be able to start its expansion. In order to expand your settlement and add a new building slot, you have to have sufficient population surplus. The number of people needed to expand the settlement can be seen by moving the mouse cursor over the uncultivated land symbol.

If all requirements are met, click LMB on the expand town option and your region will get new building slot. Now select it and then choose one of the available buildings: you’ll see the price as well as building time in turns for each option. If you do not have a required technology or resources, just move the mouse cursor over the red icon to check what requirements are not fulfilled.

Always use empty building spots! If they remain undeveloped, after two turns they will automatically become slums. Slums consume large amounts of food and decrease public order in the province, contributing only a minimal amount to population growth. In addition, removing slums and converting them back into development sites costs money and time.

Each building built in a settlement provides bonuses for the entire province.

The province capital is the only town with 6 development sites. The remaining settlements in a province can only have up to four buildings. Additionally, some buildings can only be constructed in province capital cities, while others can only be constructed in the subordinate towns.

In Total War: Rome II Emperor Edition you can build several construction at the same time. This helps you to more easily reorganize a province. Just destroy unneeded military buildings and in the next turn you’ll be able to start building new farms, marketplaces or ports.

Edicts

Taking control over an entire province allows you to use special legislation which gives huge bonuses to the entire province. To set an edict, mouse over the first button on the menu bar on the bottom of the screen, and then choose the edict you want to issue. The edict will take effect the following turn and remain in place until you choose to turn it off (“repeal it”), or lose one of the regions of the province.

While expanding the province you should pay attention to buildings which give bonuses to particular edicts.

Building types

There are several dozen types of buildings in the games, grouped into 9 categories. Each building usually has several upgrade levels, increasing its productivity and effects. This also allows you to specialize your buildings. Not all upgrades are available for each faction, and sometimes the building choices are dictated by the natural resources in the area.
Below you’ll find a short description of each buildings group along with a sample of the development tree (based on Roman culture).

Provincial Capital

This is the main building situated in every capital city. Expanding the provincial capital increases the province’s population growth and tax income. In addition it guarantees ever-increasing bonuses to the income of other buildings located in the province. A larger capital has also a stronger garrison and thicker city walls – the largest metropolises even have their own siege equipment. The highest levels of city development also provides bonuses to edicts. Unfortunately, the higher levels also consume large amounts of food and significantly decrease public order due to squalor.

Minor Settlement

As in the case of the capital, the other towns in a province can be also expanded. The higher the level of the settlement, the higher income it can generate the more resources it can produce. The latter can be sold to other factions though trade agreements. As with the capital cities, expanded towns require more food and decrease public order. Also, they do not have the city walls which capitals have, and the garrison is noticeably weaker.

Special Minor Settlement

These settlements provide resources and bonuses to units

• Amber

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Glass

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Gold

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Grain

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Horse

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Iron

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Lead

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Leather

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Wood

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Marble

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Oliva

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Purple Tint

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Seda

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Wine

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Port

Ports can be found only in settlements located directly at the sea. This building has four possible upgrades: fishing port, trading port, docks, or military port.

Agricultural

Obviously, the main task of buildings in this category is to produce food. Higher levels of this building allow you to specialize a settlement for food production.

Religious

In this category you’ll find various shrines or sacred groves. These greatly improve public order, while ensuring an access to various bonuses. These bonuses can include everything from increased income from trade to through higher population growth, or improved army morale.

City Center

This building, depending on the selected upgrade, offers a wide selection of bonuses. City centers can also generate substantial income, so they is a great addition to every province aimed at generating money.

• Capital
• Settlement

  

Sanitation

The buildings in this category can be built only in a provincial capital. They increase population growth, public order and, depending on the development path you choose, increase agents’ experience level or speed up the spread of your culture. Unfortunately, these buildings consume large amounts of food.

Industrial

Industrial buildings built in a provincial capital specialize in the production of goods, which increase your annual revenue. Depending on the chosen path they can also help you to construct other building in the region or ensure bonuses to trading and agriculture. In case of barbarian factions, industrial buildings ensure also various upgrades for units recruited in the province: woodworker will increase amount of ammo for projectile units and bronze workshop will allow the production of war chariots.

• Capital
• Settlement

  

Military

Military buildings can be divided into three minor categories:

• Recruitment, buildings that allow you to raise units for your army.
• Training, buildings that impart battlefield bonuses to your units.
• Siege, which allows you to recruit special siege units.

  

Sample expansion of the province

Since each faction starts the game in a different location and with a different number of starting regions and provinces, it’s not possible to make one “recipe” for expanding your borders. However, there are strategies you can follow to make the beginning of the game easier.

Your first goal should be building military buildings in your central province. This will allow you to temporarily gain a military advance over your neighbors. In the early game, it is important to have more advanced troops than your opponent, so you can quickly conquer nearby lands. Before you attack the enemy, I suggest also generating a surplus of food in empire: this way, if the conquered province is starving, it won’t be a big problem for your entire faction.

In the first turns of the game, focus on military and food production buildings.

• After conquering a few regions, convert the center of your territory into a granary for your faction, building shrines only to keep public order as needed. Move military buildings toward the front line
• Always maintain an overall food surplus for your faction. In the first phase of the game this may be +2 food, while later on it could be +10 or +20 food. This will allow you to maintain several conquered areas at once
• Temple/shrine complexes should be built mainly in border provinces, to spread your culture and in the center of the country when needed to raise your public order. You should also constantly use dignitaries and champions, who will propagate your culture and lower social unrest.
• In the case of provinces with many ports, you can try to increase trading income by building appropriate port types.

Objectives and missions

You can pull up your current objectives and missions by pressing the 6 key. This screen will show you both side missions issued by Senate and overall objectives you’ll need to complete to win the campaign. The first tab, meanwhile, presents interesting bonus objectives for your faction. Completing these is not mandatory but it makes it much easier to succeed in the overall campaign. You can find in this tab both the main objectives, such as “Inveniam viam” shown below, which involve conquering a large number of settlements, as well as side missions which task you with fully controlling specific regions or provinces, or recruiting a minimum number of troops or ships.

Trade and finance

Bring up this window by pressing the 7 key. In the first tab, taxes, you can set the tax rate for your entire empire. Higher tax levels quickly fill your treasury, but also raise public unrest. High tax levels can also stop population growth and thus the expansion of your provinces.

Your empire’s income comes from several sources. Empire-wide taxes are the most important, followed by trade. Income from slavery is closely tied to the amount of slaves captured during your conquests (this is a simple multiplier between the slave population in the province and the province’s base income). You can also receive annual tribute from conquered nations or rewards for completing mission ordered by the Senate.

Regular expenses include army and fleet maintenance and any tribute which you have agreed to pay to a more powerful neighbor.

The next tab shows trade details. If you have a trade agreement with another country, you’ll see a list of imported and exported resources along with their prices. Importing resources used in construction is of great importance in the later stages of the game, when largest available structures will require resources which are hard to come by such as marble.

The last tab summarizes finances from the last two turns. This information is much more detailed than what you find in the taxes tab. You can use this tab to see which parts of your empire are losing money in order to reverse these trends.

Technology

Each faction in Total War: Rome II Emperor Edition has its own technology tree. From the campaign map, press the 8 key to open the technology tab. From the beginning of the campaign, you’ll only be able to research two technologies. Researching these basic civil and military technologies will open up the remaining technology trees of each type. There are three civil technology chains and three military chains. For Rome, these are management, tactics, siege, (military technologies) and economy, construction and philosophy (civil technologies). Other factions may have different names for these chains with different technologies to research, but every faction’s tech tree is divided into civil and military halves.

In each of the six technology chains you’ll find 9 technologies divided into 3 groups. Researching all three upgrades in given group provides a bonus in addition to the benefits provided by the technologies themselves. While playing as Parthia, for example, if you unlock Formal Government, Temple Tax and Foreign Custom, on top of the bonuses each of these provide, you’ll reach the first level in The Philosophy chain, decreasing factionwide corruption by 5%.

Research can be queued by choosing an advanced technology for which you have not yet performed the necessary prerequisite research: your faction will get to work on technologies which will unlock the chosen advanced research, and they will move on to your chosen technology as soon as possible.

Army management

Right from the first turn of your campaign, you’ll be given control over all the armies in your faction. Legions are represented by a general with a banner over his head which shows the number of units under his command. The more horizontal lines, the larger the army accompanying him.

You can raise a new army in any settlement. To do this, select the settlement and press the “raise army” button at the bottom of the screen (the icon is a banner with a “+” symbol). You can raise armies in any settlement, however fleets can be raised only from coastal settlements (more on this below). Selecting the raise army option will open a new window with all available commanders. Mouse over a commander to see to which family they belong as well as their attributes. Once you have chosen your general, choose the type of unit he will fight in on the battlefield, and start recruiting troops. If you want to reinstate the legacy of an army that was either destroyed or disbanded earlier in the campaign, just select “Reinstate legacy” at the beginning of this process to see a list of your past legions and their rank.

To recruit additional units into an army, select the general on the map. Now select the recruit units button on the bottom of the screen (the icon is a shield and spears with a “+” symbol, in the same place as the “raise army” button when a settlement is selected) and choose the troops you want to recruit in the newly opened window. The number of units you can recruit per turn depends on the province’s level of development: higher development will allow you to recruit more troops at once. When adding more troops you should pay attention to their recruitment and per-turn upkeep costs.

If your general is in a region belonging to a client state or satrapy’s, the recruitment button is replaced with a button which will allow you to raise recruits from the protectorate/satrapy. The available in this menu units are directly dependent on the level of development of the province in question. These units are much cheaper than mercenaries, so they are a perfect replacement for units lost on an ongoing military campaign.

If you want to quickly recruit several units, you can use mercenary troops. Selecting your army and pressing the hire mercenaries button (next to the regular recruit units button) will bring up a list of mercenary units available in the given province and for your faction. The initial cost of recruiting these troops is much lower than for your regular units, but their per-turn maintenance costs are several times higher. A good strategy is to hire mercenaries only before a battle and to remove them from the army once they are no longer needed: they should not be seen as long-term troops.

To remove a given unit from the army, select your general, click the unit you want to disband in the army view that pops up, and mouse over the unit. A pop-up menu will appear, and the top button will disband the unit. The other button in this pop-up menu will allow you to upgrade your units with new weapons, armor, or horses, but these options are only available in provinces which have buildings that provide these bonuses. These upgrades also cost money, and you can easily spend your entire turn’s budget on upgrades for a legion, so be careful.

You can also switch the general with another available commander in pool of characters. Just select the army and click the army detail button at the bottom. In the window that opens, select the commander tab (this will be the second box at the top of the menu), and click the “replace” button.

As long as you don’t lose an entire unit, troops lost in battle will be automatically replenished fully over time when your army is stationed in a friendly province. The replenishment rate can be increased by stationing your army in a settlement, using the mustering stance, or by unlocking certain abilities for the army’s commander.

Moving your forces

Moving your troops is very easy: just press LMB in the general icon to select and army and press RMB on the ground to move them there. The highlighted area shows the maximum range of the army in this turn – if you order them to go further, your army will continue its movement in the next turn.

Each army moves as fast as the slowest unit: if it consists of cavalry and war machines, the entire group will move, on the map, much slower than a legion consisting of horsemen only. For that reason, there is no point in merging various types of units onto one. The best idea is to have one general who is responsible for commanding cavalry, another one for commanding the infantry and a third commander for commanding siege machines.

Stances

During moving your army you have several types of stances to your disposal. Below you’ll find a brief description of them along with their usage.

• Default, no bonuses neither penalties
• Forced march, doubles movement range of your army but makes it more vulnerable to enemy attacks. Units in such stance are not able to initiate a fight. We use it only to quickly move troops over the map. If you find yourself out of range of the enemy army, you can safely use forced march.
• Raiding, decreases army upkeep costs and increases its morale, while reducing movement range and creating some havoc in the province. This is useful when approaching enemy city – it will not only decreases public order in the province, but also reduce upkeep costs of your troops.
• Ambush, immobilizes army and makes it invisible to enemy. If the enemy falls into an ambush, a special fight begins, where enemy units are placed in the column, surrounded by your army. A chance of success of an ambush depends on the terrain: an attack in the wood is more efficient than the attack in the field. Using this option is very situational, it works mainly on marching roads of hostile armies, when you want to destroy enemy manpower. One successful ambush is able to completely disarm smaller countries.
• Fortify, immobilizes army, increasing defensive capabilities of all units and deploying fixed defenses such barricades or wooden stakes. When you use this stance, you show your opponent that you won’t allow him to enter your terrain. Fortified army is clearly visible on a map, thus deterring potential marauders. This option is also effective when your troops are surrounded and are in danger of imminent defeat, additional defensive bonuses can turn the tide on your site.
• Mustering, this is a default stance during recruiting new troops. It immobilizes army but increases ratio of replenishing army manpower.
• Garrison, this is the last stance available after moving the army to a friendly town. Replenish ratio is increased and units have higher morale in case of the settlement fight. If the settlement is under the siege, army suffers attrition. Units which are kept as a reserve should use the possibility to join garrison, because they will increase public order in this way. This option is particularly effective in newly conquered regions, a garrisoned legion effectively reduces rebellious mood of the inhabitants.
• Attrition, can be suffered during the siege, plague, food shortages, and lack of money to pay service or during moving the army on a hostile territory: the snow-covered mountain ranges, desserts or high seas. Tired units slowly lose soldiers, so therefore you should counteract this effect as soon as possible.

Merging forces

When you select one of your commanders and click RMB on the allied army, you’ll be able to switch units between armies. Since every army needs a general, you won’t be able to move him to another army. After the exchange, commanders can continue their marches, using their remaining movement points.

Preparing for battle, siege

If the goal of your march is a hostile general or enemy settlement, you’ll be able to fight a battle. But before it starts, you’ll get information about manpower of each army and support troops. In the middle of the screen you’ll also see a power balance shown as a two-color bar. If your site doesn’t have a clear advantage, you’ll have to lead the battle yourself.

In the lower part of the window you have several options to choose from. Resolve the battle automatically will allow AI to lead your troops. In this case you can chose the battle stance for your troops, which influences chances of winning the battle, damage dealt to the enemy and number of your units after the battle.

Another option allows you to withdraw, you army will use any remaining movement points to flee from the enemy.

Zones of control, reinforcements

Each army, fleet and settlements has so called zone of control around it, it is a reed area, inaccessible to enemy armies. The only way to get closer to the enemy is a direct attack. Zones of control are used to block the march of enemy troops and agents, well placed army can block a narrow pass, forcing the opponent to start the battle.

Reinforcements mean the ability of one army to support another one on the battlefield. To check if this is possible, move the mouse cursor over one of your troops, a small yellow arrow means that if one unit is attacked, the other one will reinforce it. When using this feature, it is possible to conduct a battle with several thousand soldiers on each side.

Experience

Units can gain experience points in several ways. The most common way is in the fight, through killing enemy soldiers, destroying enemy siege machines or destroying enemy ships. In addition, units can be trained during recruitment thanks to train buildings and actively with help of champions attached to the army. Subsequent experience levels increase attack and defense efficiency in melee fights, missile shots per minute, missile accuracy and morale of troops. They also reduce vulnerability to fatigue.

Experience level can be easily checked with the icon on the upper-right corner of the given unit. Brown icon indicates levels 1-3, silver 4-6 and gold 7-9.

All units in the army were trained by a champion.

Traditions

Each newly raised army has its own name and symbol. During the game, both the army and units in the army gain the experience points through battles. When army advances to the next level, you can choose one of many available traditions, which will give bonuses to units within the army.

After choosing a general just press details button (2 key) and you can see name, emblem and unit history on the first tab. In addition you can check amount of experience points and current army level. If you have unlocked a new tradition, you’ll be able to choose it from the list – with higher experience levels it will be also possible to “upgrade” previously gained abilities.

Traditions are of great importance in Total War: Rome II. Even if your army is defeated or you disband it, the experience gained by it is not wasted. When raising a new army you can restore traditions, so your units will immediately use previously unlocked abilities. Same as with disbanding the army, this system allows you to rapidly move legion with traditions from one corner of the map to another.

Fleet, transport by sea

Managing the fleet is very similar to managing the army. New fleets can be raised in coastal settlements with a port and can be replenished at friendly or common sea regions. Damaged ships can be quickly repaired in docks.

Same as with land armies, fleets have several types of movement. These are: Double Time (equivalent of Forced March), Patrol (equivalent of Fortify) and Raid. Your ships can also attack enemy port, completely blocking an access to it and stopping sea trading.
Transport

Transporting army over the sea is not demanding. Just point commander of your land army over the marine area, and army will board transport ships. You have to remember about providing proper support for such units in form of navy, because transport ships can be easily destroyed. To do this, you have to select the transported army and click RMB on naval ships, navy units will protect your vulnerable troops.

Bigger flag indicates fleet’s strength, the smaller one, the strength of transported army.

Land unit

• Spear infantry, this basic formation is the backbone of any ancient army. Those units often have many special abilities, allowing quick movement on the battlefield and guaranteeing bonuses in fights with cavalry.
• Pike infantry, in contrast to spear infantry, pike infantry hits enemy from a safe distance, slowly destroying enemy units and having small losses. Unfortunately, this formation has one big disadvantage: it is very hard to maneuver such units, so they can be easily flanked and destroyed.
• Melee infantry, this formation is equipped with melee weapons such axes or swords. These units typically are characterized by better attack abilities and higher damage inflicted than spearmen, so it is usually used to break enemy lines. These are particularly useful during clashes with best armored enemy units.
• Missile infantry, this infantry equipped with projectile weapons is used to harass the enemy with continuous attacks. Unfortunately those troops are very poorly armored, so one decisive charge of cavalry or chariots is able to destroy even the entire unit.
• Melee cavalry, this is light armored cavalry, serving rather as auxiliary units that the main striking force.
• Shock cavalry, this is heavy cavalry, able to destroy even medium armored enemy infantry. When they get to the enemy army flank, they can easily force it to withdraw.
• Missile cavalry, just like missile infantry, this type of cavalry is equipped with projectile weapons. Thanks to high mobility it is able to attack exposed flanks of enemy formation and get to the light armored enemy units without any problems.
• Chariot, they are greatly armored, mobile and capable to shoot at the enemy. They are mostly used to break down enemy formations. They perform excellently during the charge, especially on light and medium armored enemy units. Unfortunately, their biggest disadvantage is small size and vulnerability to long-termed melee fights.
• Elephant, these animals, like chariots, are used to break down enemy lines, but unlike war machines they can stand longer in melee fight. On the other hand they are much more vulnerable to projectiles.
• War machines, you’ll find here many types of machines used to throw heavy projectiles or arrows towards enemy, but have also one, huge disadvantage, their limited mobility makes them very vulnerable.

Naval units

• Melee ship, as you might guess, these ships are used to board enemy units. The on-board units are often your elite troops, capable to quickly defeat weaker armored and equipped sailors.
• Missile ship, on board of these ships you’ll find archers, spearmen, slingers and small war machines. Their task is to kill enemy crew from a distance.
• Artillery ship, here you’ll find heavy war machines, such as ballista or onagers. Concentrated fire of several artillery ships can quickly destroy even biggest units available in the game.
• Transport ship, the weakest armored and armed units in the game, their only strength are soldiers on-board.

Character

There are four types of characters available in the game: commanders commanding armies or fleets, champions training troops and creating unrest among enemy units, dignitaries controlling provinces expansions and spies stealing enemy plans and poisoning their food supplies. You can recruit them by moving the mouse cursor over the province and selecting recruit agent option (4 key).

Since the initial attributes of each character class are different, it is easy to note that spies are extremely effective against champions and champions can easily eliminate dignitaries. Using the rock-paper-scissors method, dignitaries can easily eliminate enemy spies.

In addition, particular attributes provide additional abilities to all characters:

• Authority, reduces costs of all actions
• Cunning, increases line of sight on the map
• Zeal, increases chance to injure enemy agents in self-defense

As character gains experience levels, he can develop new skills, which not only increases attributes values, but also increases effectiveness of their actions.

Champion

Champion is one of first characters available in the game, usually unlocked after researching first or second military technology. His main attribute is zeal.

Below you’ll find possible actions along with the attribute associated with them.

• Friendly province
  • Increases order
  • increases settlement defense against actions that use zeal
• Friendly army
  • increases zeal of army commander
  • increases experience of all units
• Enemy province
  • unleashes mayhem among the population
  • decreases settlement defense against actions that use zeal
• Enemy army
  • (authority) decreases morale and charge bonuses for the army
  • (cunning) decreases melee attack and missile attack skills for the army
  • (zeal) inflicts significant damage in the given unit
• Enemy settlement
  • (authority) reduces public order
  • (cunning) inflicts minor damage to all buildings in the settlement, reduces number of slaves
  • (zeal) inflicts significant damage to an individual garrison unit
• Enemy general
  • (authority) kills designated target
  • (cunning) kills designated target
  • (zeal) kills designated target
• Enemy agent
  • (authority) persuade the target character to act in your faction’s favor
  • (cunning) persuade the target character to act in your faction’s favor
  • (zeal) persuade the target character to act in your faction’s favor

Summary

As you can see champions which base their skills on zeal can perfectly eliminate single, strong units in enemy army but in the case of garrisons it is not a very useful skill. Equally effective are champions using cunning. Not only can they damage building in the settlements, completely destroying its productive capacity, but can also reduce the effectiveness of entire enemy army, an invaluable ability just before the upcoming battle. But their biggest advantage is possibility to train allied armies. If your units are not involved in the battle, the champion attached to them will provide them with constant increment of experience point, thus increasing their combat value.

Dignitary

Dignitaries are characters that normally deal with expanding your provinces, increasing their income and improving public order. Outside the country they incite crowds and spread your culture, preparing the way for the incoming army. The main attribute of dignitaries is authority.

Below you’ll find possible actions along with the attribute associated with them.

• Friendly province
  • increases tax income
  • increases settlement defense against actions that use authority
• Friendly army
  • increases authority of army commander
  • reduces army upkeep costs
• Enemy province
  • decreases tax income
  • decreases settlement defense against actions that use authority
• Enemy army
  • (authority) decreases authority of army commander
  • (cunning) decreases cunning of army commander
  • (zeal) decreases zeal of army commander
• Enemy settlement
  • (authority) increases penalties for public order for foreign cultures
  • (cunning) hinder trade in the selected settlement
  • (zeal) extends influence of our culture in selected province
• Enemy general
  • (authority) kills designated target
  • (cunning) kills designated target
  • (zeal) kills designated target
• Enemy agent
  • (authority) persuade the target character to act in your faction’s favor
  • (cunning) persuade the target character to act in your faction’s favor
  • (zeal) persuade the target character to act in your faction’s favor

Summary

Dignitaries are perfect for both at the back of your empire, where they increase income of your provinces, as well as on the front, inciting hostile population and weakening enemy commanders. The most useful are agents developing their authority: skill associated with this attribute increase tax income and help in spreading the culture. Dignitaries with high zeal spread the culture much more efficiently than those bases on authority, but their managerial skill are limited.

Spy

Spy is the last agent available for you in the game. This character focuses mainly on detection and elimination of enemy agents and weakening entire enemy armies. The main attribute of the spy is cunning.

Below you’ll find possible actions along with the attribute associated with them.

• Friendly province
  • increases chance of discovering hidden agents and armies
  • increases settlement defense against actions that use cunning
• Friendly army
  • increases army commander cunning
  • protects army against enemy agents’ actions
• Enemy province
  • increases chance of discovering hidden agents and armies
  • decreases settlement defense against actions that use cunning
• Enemy army
  • (authority) detects hidden army, settlement or agent
  • (cunning) inflicts minor damage to all army units
  • (zeal) reduces bonuses for equipment
• Enemy settlement
  • (authority) increases civil disorder
  • (cunning) inflicts minor damage to all garrison units
  • (zeal) inflicts major damage to a single building
• Enemy general
  • (authority) kills designated target
  • (cunning) kills designated target
  • (zeal) kills designated target
• Enemy agent
  • (authority) persuade the target character to act in your faction’s favor
  • (cunning) persuade the target character to act in your faction’s favor
  • (zeal) persuade the target character to act in your faction’s favor

Summary

Spies are most valuable agents at your service. The ability of poisoning enemy armies can quickly reduce their manpower, so the battles will be much easier. Spies based on zeal are perfect for damaging enemy provinces – destroying a farm in the faction which has only one region will effectively starve enemy units, making them deserting. Least useful agents are spies based on authority, because their double their actions with those that can be performed by dignitary. Despite this, they can quickly reveal entire map, so if you do not care about sabotage actions, this type of scout can be perfect solution.

Leader

The last and most important hero available for you is commander. Often referred as commander, general or admiral, he is required during raising an army or fleet. During the strategic gameplay his main task is to take part in movement of troops – his importance increases significantly during fights, when he stops spreading of panic and uses his abilities to tip the scales in your favor.

In contrast to previous three characters, leader has no single preferred attribute. He can develop in any direction, each time gaining unique skills in the given development tree. Skill which can be gained by a leader a grouped in three categories:

• Commander (authority), increases the effectiveness of troops on the battlefield: their morale, fighting skills and the level of experience
• Strategist (cunning), oversees troops on strategic map: helps them to move faster, decreases recruitment and upkeep costs, speeds up replenishments
• Warrior (zeal), focuses on the combat capabilities of individual units: attack, defense, damage, rate of fire

Further skills, same as with other characters, increase leader’s attributes and thereby affect his secondary abilities. Below you’ll find summary table with bonuses to unlock:

Detailed leader information

To get all information about your general just move your mouse cursor over the army, select details (2 key) and then the second tab: general details.

Available information:

• General experience level, each level allows developing a new ability. You gain experience by taking part in battles and winning fights
• Traits, you can find here both information about traits of your character and his position
• Household, during the game you’ll get countless items and helpers, who serve your general. In this window you can also find information about general’s wife if he has one (this option is connected with country internal policy)
• Skills, skill gained with experience
• Age, unfortunately generals die with old age
• Ambition and Gravitas, show the influence of your hero on country policy

During the game you’ll get countless items and helpers.
In addition, there is a small portrait of your commander on the left, along with additional information:

• His attributes, authority, cunning and zeal
• Rank (stars)
• Army movement point (green bar)
• Effects affecting the hero and his army, details can be obtained by moving the mouse cursor over icons

Choosing the right leader has a great importance to your army. General, whose main attribute is authority, is doing well during recruiting troops and holding conquered terrains. When he gains several experience levels, I suggest specializing him towards one type of units and then use him every time when you raise new legion – bonuses guaranteed by him will provide you with constant stream of trained units. Such character is also perfect as a statesman sitting in the capital and appearing on the map only for recruiting new troops.

The exact opposite of him is a commander based on cunning. Such character is perfect for constant raids onto areas controlled by enemy, thanks to constant stream of mercenaries and lower costs of their recruitment and upkeep, strategist will be able to stay years on the enemy territory. If you plan to fight wars far from home I suggest using this skills tree branch.

Zeal will make out commander perfect character for the battlefield. Such general will increase effectiveness of all troops under his command, so that even barbarian units will be able to defeat Roman legionnaires. Bonuses to damage also affect projectile units, so this option is a great choice for all generals from the East.

Interface (Battle)

In the bottom left corner of the display you can find information panel showing detailed statistics of the selected unit. Under it you can see the balance of power bar, presenting your chances of winning. When it gets completely red, your military survivors start mass escape from the battlefield and when it is yellow, it is your enemy who tries to save himself. The camera icon (Insert key) switches on the cinematic mode, a great opportunity to take some interesting photos, but useless in commanding the army.

In the bottom right corner of the display you can find a pictorial map of the closest area. Under it there is a battle timer showing the time left to the end of the battle and a series of icons for changing the game speed. A button located here switches on a tactical map (TAB key), allowing you to easier orientation in the situation on the battlefield.

In the central part of the screen you see an army panel, each tile represents a unit. In case when you also command a fleet or war machines on city walls, there will be a switch in the upper right corner of this window. Under the tiles you can see different icons allowing you to command your troops:

• Movement speed (R key), this is equivalent of RMB doubleclick. The unit moves faster but also gets fatigued.
• Melee mode (F key), allows projectile units to attack enemy with swords. Another way to turn on this option is to use ALT+RMB on enemy unit.
• Halt (Backspace key), stops the unit
• Group controlling, after selecting several units and grouping them (Ctrl+G) they will be moving in the formation chosen by you. Simplified group (G key or CTRL+1-9) won’t keep in formation but you will be still able to select it with one key.
• Formations, these are basic settings of the army. They can be useful for beginners but in the long run your own ranks are more convenient.
• Withdraw, this option is useful when you want to save the unit from being destroyed: for example run your archers away when in a melee fight. If the opponent has no possibility to catch your troops (he is fighting with another unit), your survivors will be able to re-join the battle.
• Highlight all (SPACE key), this is probably most important option available in this panel. Thanks to that you’ll see all marching destinations of your troops, which greatly simplifies the control over the battlefield.

In case when you are in the sea battle, you’ll find here one more button switching between ramming and boarding.

Managing your troops

Controls

Control over units in Total War: Rome II is very simple. LMB selects the unit and RMB moves it. RMB doubleclick makes the unit to run.

If you want to select several units at one, you can drag the mouse cursor with LMB pressed or to select them one by one with CTRL key pressed. In the same way you can select unit tiles in the army list. With SHIFT key and LMB you can select units from-to in the army list.

Dragging RMB when the unit is selected will allows you to form a rank with desired width and depth.

Groups can be selected with CTRL key and numbers 1-9. In case when you set several units in the formation and you want to keep it during the battle, just press CTRL+G.

Besides, do not forget about using pause under P key and full battlefield view under SPACE key.

Unit statistics

Each unit is described with a number of statistics that can be seen in the information panel on the left side of the screen.

These are:

• Number of troops in the unit (along with the maximum number of troops), the less losses the more effective will be your unit
• Number of killed enemies
• Experience, the higher the more powerful are your troops
• Missile damage, the ability of a projectile to cause damage to the opponent
• Range, distance at which your unit can attack your opponent
• Shots per minute, how fast your unit shoots
• Ammunition, after running out of ammunition, the unit may melee fight or withdraw
• Melee attack, the ability to hit the target
• Weapon damage, the amount of damage
• Charge bonus, increases chance to hit and damage done during the charge and this value is the highest in the cavalry, chariots and war elephants.
• Melee defense, a chance to avoid hit in melee
• Armor, a chance to eliminate dealt damage
• Health, health points of your troops
• Base morale, unit morale; the higher the smaller the chance that it will run away from the battlefield
• Abilities (presented as icons), each unit has a number of different abilities or characteristics that can be used in combat. When you move the mouse over them will get more detailed information.

When you move the mouse cursor over the missile damage or melee damage you’ll learn further how effective is your weapon in piercing enemy armor. Some damage dealt will be eliminated by the armor and some will always get to the target, taking certain number of health points of your opponent.

Both defense in close order and armor include additional information on the effectiveness of shields in battle. In the former case, you learn by how much your chances to avoid an attack increase, and in the latter, you get to know by how much the damage from ranged weapons is decreased. Shields are affective only against attacks aimed at the front of the formation, due to which charges from behind and attacks at the flanks are more effective than a frontal attack.

Abilities

Both the general and most of units in the game has access to various abilities. It could be flaming ammunition, special formation, temporary strengthening unit’s attack or shooting ratio or improving morale of certain unit.

In most cases special abilities affect only the unit using them. Increasing the reload speed will allow projectiles units to shoot more missiles before the charge while using a whip will improve attack of legionnaires. The more effective ability, the longer time is required to use it again. Usually you have to wait 1-2 minutes before you can use the ability again, but most powerful ones needs even 3-5 minutes to recharge and use them again.
In contract, general abilities usually have to be “aimed” in one of the units – you use LMB to do it. Such abilities are usually used to increase morale of fighting units or improve their attack and defense.

Deploying forces

When it comes to the battle as a result of movement of troops on the strategic map, you’ll be transferred to the battlefield, which is a part of the main map. Regardless of the type of the fight, controlling the units remains unchanged in most of cases. If it is your forces which attacked enemy, you’ll get a possibility to choose a convenient weather conditions. Rain or snow makes the troops more fatigued and you won’t be able to use fire arrows. Fog limits the range of sights, giving you less time to react to enemy movements and decreasing the effectiveness of projectile troops. So if it is you who has an edge in projectile units, it would be best to fight under the clear sky, otherwise you should use worse weather conditions.

Regardless of the weather, the next step is to deploy troops. Despite the fact, that it takes few minutes until the first fight takes place, you should predict enemy settings right now and properly form your ranks. Usually you set your units in lines: spearmen, followed by infantry, secured by cavalry on sides. On back of your army you should have war machines, capable to attack enemy from a greater distance. Your general should be located behind infantry, so he won’t be exposed to the direct attack.

Terrain

The terrain where the fight takes place is crucial both during the troops’ deployment and planning the coming battle. Dense forests are perfect place to hide flanking cavalry or infantry, at the same time they cover your soldiers against enemy projectile units.

Uphill are also important points on the battlefield. Since your troops’ line of sight is straight, deploying them behind the hill will make them invisible for the enemy. Hilltops are also excellent defensive positions. Projectile units placed there will be able to attack enemy more effectively and infantry and cavalry will have better position to charge on enemy, when his troops are ascending the hill.

The most dangerous places on the map are so called “cirques”, locations surrounded by hills or forests on all sides. The unit located in its center has a limited line of sight and maneuver and the enemy can attack from any direction and quickly kill your troops.

The last most common type of terrain is buildings and fortifications. During the siege of the settlement you’ll often come across narrow streets delimited by houses walls, there are excellent places to deploy spearmen or pikemen phalanx. Heavy infantry will be both safe from the enemy fire and it will be impossible to flank it.

In case of siege the province capital you’ll come across thick walls surrounding the city. This time you’ll have to use war machines in order to make a breakthrough or damage the walls, so your projectile units can shoot enemy. In case when you have no war machines, infantry with fire projectiles can make the gates open after intense bombardment, but such attack is risky, because enemy projectile units will certainly try to stop you.

In order to make sieges easier, I recommend equipping army with appropriate equipment or create it on sire, by spending one or two turns for creating rams and ladders you could significantly reduce your casualties.

Naval battles

Both the interface and controls during naval battles are almost the same as in case of battles fought on the land. The biggest change is replacement of the run button with the one allowing you to switch between ramming and boarding.

Diplomacy

Interface

Diplomacy panel (9 key) allows you to establish diplomatic relations with encountered factions. After selecting any country, you’ll see on the map its provinces and its current allies and enemies.

An information panel on the right will give you some more information: current diplomatic relations with the faction, aggressiveness and reliability and more accurate list of enemies and allies. You’ll also find there a list of goods which a given country can export thanks to the commercial treaty.

Diplomatic talks

After pressing an appropriate button you’ll start negotiations. You can add here further offers or demands and depending on the balance of power and current relations with the given faction, you can achieve consensus or your proposal will be immediately rejected.

List of proposals looks like this:

• Payments & State Gifts, gifts improve diplomatic relations between factions and make your offer more favorable. It is good to use this option from time to time, so that the target faction will have more respect for you, which will make future negotiations easier.
• Military access, it allows your troops to enter another faction’s territory without any repercussions. This option is useful when you want to attack distant enemy.
• Non-aggression pact, it improves relations between factions. This is the first step for future alliances.
• Defensive alliance it guarantees support from a faction when you gets attacked.
• Military alliance it allows you to attack another faction together with your ally. After declaring the war you can ask your ally to join the war.
• Declaration of war as the name suggests it starts the war between factions.
• Satrapies & Client States a faction which becomes a protectorate pays a tribute every turn and is connected with you by a defensive alliance. If the treasure is empty, you won’t get any money. Protectorates are a good way to conquer the land without the need to monitor its expansion.
• Form confederation this option is available for barbarian tribes. You can join your forces with another tribe with common past – its land and army will become yours. This option is often available only in case of tribe which is much weaker than yours.
• Trade agreement it starts trading with given faction. Profits depend mainly on raw materials you have, if you do not have enough marble for example to build V level temple, trade agreement with appropriate country will allow you to import this material. In order to start trade with another faction, there must be a connection to it by land or sea. Due to lack of such a path, some countries are not able to establish trade relations in early turns of the game.

Choosing allies

When choosing allies, you should first pay attention to their loyalty. The higher it is, the bigger the chance that given faction will act honorably and won’t stab you on your back. For this reason I do not recommend negotiating with uncertain neighbors, you can be sure that they will break previous pacts or attack you when you least expect it. In case of loyal factions you can regularly send them gifts in order to slowly win over them.

But you should remember that regardless of relations between factions, the most important is the one, who is the strongest. The stronger your army is, the greater impact you have on your neighbors – you can even convince your fiercest enemies to sign a trade agreement or make them into protectorate. In extreme cases it is you who can be a protectorate

Protectorates and confederation

It is not always easy to convince another faction to join up with your empire. Not only should you make sure that diplomatic relations with that nations are on a sufficiently high level: a prosperous neighbor will usually see no reasons to become your protégé. Most often, factions that are at the brink of extinction that ask for your help, their armies are weak, they have one region and they are besieged by the enemy. Not only do protectorates pay tribute, but they also allow you to recruit in the area, which diversifies the units available to you and replenish your losses.

Convincing a given tribe to join your confederacy is similar, but you can sometimes speed this process up. Declaring a war to a former ally, destroying his armies and besieging his cities will often be a sufficient stimulus for the faction to join up.

Strategic resources

Both during the trade and conquest you’ll need to gather sufficient strategic resources which are required to build your most powerful constructions.

Politics

Faction politics in Total War: Rome II Emperor Edition is a constant power struggle between the different families which make up a faction.

This menu is divided into several parts: Politics, Character, Summary, Records, and Stats. On the left side you can see the various important characters from the various families which shape your faction’s politics.

At the top of the menu you can navigate between each of these sub-menu screens.

Politics gives a visual depiction of the influence of your governing family as well as the risk of a civil war breaking out.

Character shows key information about the character you have selected from the list of characters on the left of the screen. This menu is divided into three parts: at the top you will see the general’s rank, age, ambition, and gravitas, as well as his authority, cunning, and zeal attribute points.

Below this you will see the characters traits, abilities, and the household he has been assigned.

Finally, you will see a list of actions which you can carry out for the general, all of which will affect faction politics.

Summary will show you an overall summary of the faction, and is divided into Details, Traits, Imperium, and Diplomacy.

Details shows information about your culture, the regions and provinces you control, your treasury, capital, and your prosperity. Right below this, under Traits, you will see the characteristics unique to your faction, as well as any temporary benefits caused by random events in the game.

Imperium contains information about your faction’s global influence: the higher your imperium, the more advantages and disadvantages you will have. This screen will show the number of armies, fleets, edicts, and agents you can train. You can also see a summary of the bonuses you are receiving as a result of your imperium level. As you control more regions, you will be able to recruit more agents, armies, and fleets, and issue more edicts. Faction-wide bonuses and penalties will also become greater as your imperium increases.

Diplomacy contains information about diplomatic relations between you and other factions. Military and defensive allies, trading partners, and factions with whom you are at war are shown here.

The Records screen lists recent actions taken by your faction.

The Stats screen contains a detailed list of campaign accomplishments.

Mechanics

Throughout your campaign, your main political goal should be to maintain a balance of power in the Senate. You can secure the support of the Senate passively through your generals’ ambition and gravitas: characters with higher ambition and gravitas will influence the Senate more (influence is ambition multiplied by gravitas)

You can also improve support within the Senate by completing the missions which they assign you throughout the campaign, by conquering regions, and by securing promotions for your family members. Your family’s influence over the Senate can be viewed as a percentage in the Politics screen or next to your family’s name.

Keep in mind that your faction’s rival families will not sit twiddling their thumbs. Like your family, they will carry out political intrigue actions to secure promotions. Keep in mind also that using rival families’ characters as generals will also have repercussions, including raising their family’s influence. You can reduce rival families’ influence in several ways: by ordering a rival character’s assassination, spreading rumors, or through marrying or adopting another family’s characters. Keep in mind that all of these actions carry an immediate Senate influence penalty.

Characters can also receive specific traits which will reduce or increase their family’s control over the Senate.

To summarize, support in the Senate is obtained for your family and for rival families through the following methods:

• Completing missions
• Conquest
• Adoption
• Marriage
• Random events

Ideally, you should maintain a balance of about 60% influence in the Senate, to limit possible resistance from rival families: if a family has too high or too low an influence in the Senate, a civil war can break out which will sidetrack you from the main goals of your campaign.