Overview
This guide shows the unit composition that each Tradition group uses and how to counter it. Each culture group uses a unique unit composition to reflect their historical roots.
Introduction
In Imperator Rome, each military tradition group comes with a predefined unit composition that the AI will always try to stick to. You may have noticed this during gameplay, but mercenaries do the same thing based on the culture of the province they’re from. Typically, this is made up of 3 different types of units to fill the Primary, Secondary and Flanking cohorts. If you follow the recommended counter, you should be able to crush whatever culture group you’re facing.
If you want to mod any of these values, you can find them stored in “ImperatorRomegamecommonmilitary_traditions”.
Romano-Italic Traditions
Culture Groups
- Italic
Levy Composition
Roman:
55% Light Infantry
30% Heavy Infantry
15% Light Cavalry
Italic:
60% Light Infantry
25% Heavy Infantry
10% Light Cavalry
5% Chariots
Best Tactics
Bottleneck
Shock Action
Triplex Acies
Overview
Romans boast some of the best Heavy Infantry in the game. With full Roman traditions they are an absolute powerhouse and will churn through hordes of anything.
They also have reasonably powerful bonuses for their Light Infantry and their Light Cavalry, so it’s possible to use exclusively Roman levies for a long time.
If you do switch to Legions, be sure to make them mostly Heavy Infantry with at least 4 Heavy Cavalry on the flanks!
Be sure to get the capital resource bonuses when you can!
When fighting Romans
Exotic units are the only true way to counter Romans if they’re bringing their Heavy Infantry to the table. That means you need either Horse Archers or Elephants.
Otherwise if it’s the AI and it’s throwing hordes of Light Infantry/Archer levies at you, just use your own Heavy Infantry against them.
Trees
Carpet Siege Tree
Heavy Infantry + Strong army tree
Cavalry + Barbarian Traditions Tree
Light Infantry + Hill bonus tree
Navy tree
Greek Traditions
Levy Composition
Greek Minor:
50% Light Infantry
10% Archers
40% Heavy Infantry
Cretan: (Crete)
75% Archers
25% Heavy Infantry
Macedonian: (All the major Greek states are Macedonian)
50% Light Infantry
35% Heavy Infantry
15% Heavy Cavalry
Epirote: (West Greece)
40% Light Infantry
40% Heavy Infantry
20% Light Cavalry
Thessalian: (Central Greece)
50% Light Infantry
25% Light Cavalry
25% Heavy Cavalry
Spartan/Argolian (Southern Greece)
50% Light Infantry
50% Heavy Infantry
Bosporan: (Crimean)
60% Light Infantry
30% Light Cavalry
10% Heavy Cavalry
Cyrene: (West Egyptian)
40% Light Infantry
20% Heavy Infantry
40% Camels
Magna Graecian: (South Italian)
50% Light Infantry
35% Heavy Infantry
15% Light Cavalry
Dacian:
55% Light Infantry
15% Archers
20% Heavy Infantry
10% Light/Heavy Cavalry
Best Tactics
Bottleneck
Shock Action
Phalanx
Overview
Greeks levies are similar to Roman levies, except they get access to Heavy Cavalry which IMO are a lot more fun! Use Heavy Infantry + Heavy Cavalry in your Legions to have the best time.
You can get access to some of the best heavy cavalry in the game by mixing the Cavalry tree with the Persian Rural Tradition heavy cavalry tree.
+40% offense and +25% discipline is not to be scoffed at!
When fighting Greeks
The best stack to use when fighting Greeks is usually your own Heavy Infantry + Heavy Cavalry/Horse Archer stacks. If you’re running Legions with only those two units you should be able to blast your way through most Greek levy armies.
If you have access to War Elephants, consider placing a few in your primary or secondary rank.
If you’re playing as a Persian nation, especially consider bringing a pure heavy cav + horse archer stack.
Trees
Cavalry + Light Infantry tree (Gives you access to Persian traditions which can stack to give you extremely powerful heavy cavalry!)
Fortress + Cavalry tree
Heavy Infantry tree
Hill fighting tree
Slave raid navy + levantine tree
Heavy ship tree
Barbarian Traditions
Levy Composition
Iberic: (Spain)
20% Light Infantry
40% Archers
20% Heavy Infantry
20% Light cavalry
Celt-Iberic: (Spain)
25% Light Infantry
30% Archers
20% Heavy Infantry
5% Heavy Cavalry
15% Light Cavalry
Gallic: (France / North Italy)
40% Archers
35% Heavy Infantry
10% Chariots
10% Light Cavalry
5% Heavy Cavalry
Belgae: (Northern France)
35% Light Infantry
40% Heavy Infantry
15% Chariots
10% Light Cavalry
Britannic: (Britain)
55% Light Infantry
20% Heavy Infantry
25% Chariots
Pannonian: (Central Europe)
40% Light Infantry
40% Heavy Infantry
15% Light Cavalry
5% Chariots
Illyrian: (Balkans)
60% Light Infantry
25% Heavy Infantry
15% Light Cavalry
Germanic:
50% Light Infantry
25% Heavy Infantry
25% Light Cavalry
Overview
Barbarians get access to a very powerful +25% combat bonus in forests very early in their tradition tree.
You can get access to some extremely powerful Heavy Infantry if you instantly go down the Heavy Infantry/Roman tradition tree.
Barbarians are also one of the few cultures to field chariots. Chariots aren’t great and are only good as a cheap counter to archers & light infantry. If you do go down the chariot tree, consider only placing them in your primary rank in your Legions.
When fighting Barbarians
Most Barbarian levies tend to be trash units, so you should be able to get away with using cheaper unit stacks against them. The only ones you need to watch out for are the Gauls and Belgae.
Trees
Heavy Infantry + Roman tradition tree
Light Infantry + Archers + Terrain combat tree
Chariot Tree
Light Cavalry + North African Tree
Manpower Tree
North African Traditions
Levy Composition
Punic:
30% Light Infantry
10% Archers
20% Heavy Infantry
25% Light Cavalry
15% War Elephants
Numidian:
45% Light Infantry
10% Heavy Infantry
40% Light Cavalry
5% War Elephants
Overview
North Africans have access to one of the most powerful naval trees in the game. Their naval tree gives them access to Levantine traditions which also has a multitude of naval bonuses.
They also can maintain extremely cheap mercenary stacks.
Troop wise they can have extremely powerful Light Cavalry, with good Heavy Infantry and strong War Elephants.
War Elephants are an amazing troop and can counter most of what Europe has to offer. Be careful of the supply weight though.
When fighting North Africans
Most North African levy compositions are weak to stacks of Heavy Infantry and Heavy Cavalry.
Trees
Heavy Infantry + Elephant + Mercenary tree
Naval + Levantine traditions tree
Diplomacy + Latin traditions tree
Light Cavalry tree
Persian Traditions
Culture Groups
- Persia
- Bactrian
- Scythia
- Aramaic
Default AI Unit Composition
Primary: Heavy Cavalry
Second: Heavy Infantry
Flank: Horse Archers
Favourite Tactics
Bottleneck
Envelopment
Shock Action
How to counter
Heavy infantry or War Elephants in the primary cohort. Bring anything other than those two and expect to get punished big time.
Heavy Infantry, War Elephants or Horse Archers in the secondary cohort, depending on what’s available and what buffs you have.
Light Cavalry and Camels work well on the flank. If you have enough buffs horse archers can also work.
Stacks I’ve used against them:
2WE-4HI-4LC
6HI-4LC
6HI-4CA
6HI-4HA
Military Traditions
Cultural Tradition: Horse Archer Maintenance – 15%
Left Tree (Cavalry Assault Tree)
Horse Archer Damage Dealt + 10%
Monthly War Exhaustion – 0.01
Horse Archer Morale + 10%
Cavalry Skirmish Tactic
Heavy Cavalry Maintenance – 20%
Army Weight – 20%
Light Infantry Damage Received – 10%
Heavy Cavalry Damage Dealt + 10%
Horse Archer Discipline + 10%
This tree lets you field some phenomenal all cavalry armies. The bonuses to army weight and maintenance means you can bring a lot more heavy cavalry to the battle than other civs can.
Centre Tree (Reliable Tree)
Manpower + 10%
Heavy Infantry Damage Received – 10%
Raise Levies (2 tyranny and +2 unrest for 1 light cav per owned territory in province)
Morale + 5%
Archers Damage Dealt + 10%
Heavy Infantry Maintenance – 15%
Siege Ability + 10%
This tree is more of a generalist, allowing you to work with a variety of unit compositions. There are bonuses to heavy infantry in case you need a more reliable backbone.
Right Tree (Mercenary Assault Tree)
Light Cavalry Damage Dealt + 10%
Fort Defense + 15%
Heavy Infantry Damage Dealt + 10%
Military Colonies (3k Manpower and -15 province loyalty for 1 new freeman pop & adds new cohort loyalty)
War Elephant Damage Received – 10%
Horse Archer Damage Received – 10%
Attrition – 15%
Mercenary Maintenance – 15%
This tree is clearly intended for you to field large mercenary armies alongside your own personal armies.
Levantine and Arabian Traditions
Culture Groups
- Levantine
- Arabian
- Aksumite
- Nilotic
Default AI Unit Composition
Primary: Light Infantry
Second: Heavy Cavalry
Flank: Camels
Favourite Tactics
Can be very random, look at the stack with the highest level general and decide from there.
How to counter
The big boy of this group is Egypt, who loves to ignore camels. Instead they’ll pack lots of archers and light cavalry, with the occasional war elephant thrown in. They’ll also have great morale because Egypt usually turns out to be a technological powerhouse with money to burn. Be careful not to attrition into their deserts.
Heavy Cavalry, Heavy Infantry or War Elephants in the Primary Cohort
Heavy Infantry or War Elephants in the secondary cohort.
Heavy Cavalry in the flanks.
Military Traditions
Cultural Tradition: Land Attrition – 15%
Left Tree (Defense in depth Tree)
Hostile Attrition + 1% base
Light Infantry Discipline + 10%
Camel Cavalry Damage Dealt + 10%
Camel Cavalry Desert + 15%
Heavy Cavalry Desert + 15%
Light Cavalry Desert + 15%
Camel Cavalry Maintenance – 15%
Heavy Cavalry Maintenance – 15%
Light Cavalry Maintenance – 15%
Camel Cavalry Discipline + 10%
The devs clearly intend for the player to field large cavalry armies who can retreat from enemy units easily and bait them into taking a lot of attrition in the Arabian deserts. This tree also gets an additional building slot.
Centre Tree (Ship Tree)
Fort Defense + 15%
Military Colonies (3k Manpower and -15 province loyalty for 1 new freeman pop & adds new cohort loyalty)
Camel Cavalry Damage Received – 10%
Manpower + 10%
Light Infantry Damage Dealt + 10%
Light Infantry Damage Received – 10%
This tree is clearly the ship tree. It has some bonuses for light infantry and their manpower so you can raid more effectively. Nothing too amazing here aside from the manpower boost.
Right Tree (Heavy Infantry Tree)
Heavy Infantry Maintenance – 15%
Light Infantry Damage Dealt + 10%
Heavy Infantry Damage Dealt + 10%
Phalanx Tactic
Mercenary Maintenance – 15%
Heavy Infantry Damage Dealt + 10%
Heavy Infantry Damage Received – 10%
This tree clearly has only one intention in mind, field lots of heavy infantry. Not so useful in the deserts because Heavy Infantry weigh 50% more, so this is more of an expansionist focused tree, intended to be used outside of Africa and Arabia.
Indian Traditions
Culture Groups
- Aryan
- Indian
- Tibetan
Default AI Unit Compositions
Primary: War Elephants
Second: Heavy Infantry
Flank: Light Cavalry
Favourite Tactics
Shock Action
Padma Vyuha
How to counter
“India is my favourite place to fight” – said nobody
Playing as the Seleucids, these boys will come knocking on your door every so often and it’s up to you to tell them to GTFO. Strategy is much more important here than unit compositions, because the indian ai should win most straight up fights. Use terrain and tactics to win. Often I won’t bother engaging these guys in direct battle and instead run around them with stacks of cavalry sieging down their provinces. But if you do want to go into a straight up fight, see below.
Heavy Infantry or War Elephants in the Primary Cohort. Buff these units as much as possible.
Heavy Infantry, War Elephants, or Horse Archers in the Secondary Cohort.
Heavy Cavalry on the flank.
Recommended stacks:
2WE-6HI-2HC
8HI-2HC
4HI-4HA-2HC
Military Traditions
Cultural Tradition: Can build Chariots
Left Tree (Tribal Indian Tree)
Archers Offense + 10%
War Elephant Defense + 10%
Light Infantry Morale + 10%
War Elephant Jungle + 15%
War Elephant Forest + 15%
Archers Discipline + 10%
Heavy Infantry Jungle + 15%
Heavy Infantry Forest + 15%
Light Infantry Jungle + 15%
Light Infantry Forest + 15%
Monthly War Exhaustion – 0.01
This tree is great for fighting in India, most of the time. Not so great every where else. Archers in this tree do a lot of damage so probably intended for you to attack and retreat, but I’ve never really seen that work.
Centre Tree (Diverse Unit & Ship Tree)
Archers Morale + 10%
Morale + 10%
Fort Defense + 10%
Archers Cost – 10%
Chariot Cost – 10%
This tree has multiple ship buffs. The morale buff is also nice as it lets you field a variety of different armies.
Right Tree (Chariots and Mercenaries Tree)
Chariot Defense + 15%
War Elephant Discipline + 10%
Archers Defense + 10%
Padma Vyuha Tactic
Chariot Discipline + 15%
War Elephant Cost – 15%
Mercenary Maintenance – 15%
War Elephant Morale + 10%
This tree clearly expects you to buy lots of mercs and back them up with your own personal chariots. Otherwise it’d be a war elephant, chariot, and archer mix.
Unit Guide
Archers
– Usually in the primary cohort
– Very cheap & light weight
– Weak morale, will disengage before taking too much damage
– Useful to weaken enemy infantry before the secondary cohort comes in
– Counter with any cavalry, but especially Heavy Cavalry
Camels
– Usually in the flank
– Expensive, but low weight for a cavalry unit, making it good in low supply areas
– Fast by itself
– Great at flanking when you have a numerical advantage
– Useful if enemy is using Heavy Infantry in the secondary cohort
– Counter with Heavy Cavalry
Chariots
– Usually in the secondary cohort
– Good against Light Infantry and Archers
– Cheap
– If you grab all the buffs for barbarians in the left tree, can be used against Heavy Infantry
– Counter with Heavy Infantry, Heavy Cavalry, Horse Archers or War Elephants
Heavy Cavalry
– Usually in the flank
– Expensive & very heavy
– Weak to attrition
– Fast by itself
– Great against Archers, Light Infantry and other Cavalry
– Okay at flanking when you have a numerical advantage
– Counter with Heavy Infantry or War Elephants
Heavy Infantry
– Usually in the secondary cohort
– Expensive & heavy
– Strong morale, can stay in fights for a long time
– Counter with war elephants, archers, or your own heavy infantry
Horse Archers
– Usually in the flank
– Expensive & heavy
– Very fast by itself
– Weak morale, will disengage before taking too much damage
– Amazing at flanking when you have a numerical advantage
– Counter with any cavalry
Light Cavalry
– Usually in the flank
– Cheap & heavy
– Very fast by itself
– Good at flanking when you have a numerical advantage
– Amazing against Archers, Light Infantry, Horse Archers, and Chariots
– Counter with Heavy Cavalry
Light Infantry
– Usually in the Primary Cohort
– Very cheap & extremely light
– Fantastic morale, with enough morale buffs they will stay in the fight until the last man is dead.
– Use to fill out your combat width so the rest of your army can deal the real damage
– Terrible damage
– Counter with almost anything, but cavalry and elephants work best
War Elephants
– Can be found in almost any cohort
– Rare, only four civs use them.
– Extremely expensive & extremely heavy
– Very weak to attrition
– Takes HALF strength damage (still full morale damage)
– Fantastic against heavy infantry, archers, chariots, and light infantry
– Takes half damage from most cavalry
– Counter with better morale
Glossary
Cohort = Any sort of military unit you can move around the map in armies
Army = Collection of cohorts. Every cohort belongs to an army, and every army has at least one cohort.
Morale = How long a cohort will fight before retreating. Cohorts with damaged morale will deal proportionately less damage.
Strength = How many men are fighting fit in a cohort. Full strength is always 1000 men. Cohorts with less strength will deal proportionately less damage.
Damage = When a cohort attacks, it reduces the enemies morale and strength until the enemy cohort either retreats or is destroyed.
[Unit Type] Discipline = A country modifier that increases how much damage a cohort deals, while reducing how much damage they take.
[Unit Type] Offense = A country modifier that increases how much damage a cohort deals. Stacks with discipline.
[Unit Type] Defense = A country modifier that decreases how much damage a cohort receives. Stacks with discipline and cohort experience.
Cohort Experience = A modifier that decreases how much damage a cohort receives. Stacks with discipline and defense ability. The amount of experience a cohort has is determined by how much combat they’ve seen or how much drilling they’ve done.
[Unit Type] Jungle/Forest/Desert/Hills/Etc = A modifier that gives bonus damage depending on where the battle takes place.
Fort Defense = Increases the amount of time between siege phases, increasing how long it takes to siege.
Siege Ability = Decreases the amount of time between siege phases, decreasing how long it takes to siege.
Siege Dice = Gives you better odds to roll a favourable outcome during a siege, decreasing how long it takes to siege.
[Unit Type] Maintenance = A modifier that changes the maintenance of a cohort. Stacks with [Unit Type] cost.
[Unit Type] Recruitment cost = A modifier that changes how much it costs to make a new cohort of that type. Stacks with [Unit Type] cost.
[Unit Type] Cost = A modifier that changes both the maintenance and recruitment cost of a cohort. Stacks with [Unit Type] maintenance and [Unit Type] recruitment cost.
Attrition = A modifier to how much attrition your army takes. Most territories have a base attrition of 5% of your armies strength a month if you exceed the territories weight. So a -15% attrition modifier will reduce that 5% base to 4.25%
Manpower = A country modifier that changes how much manpower you can have stored, and how quickly it recovers.
Manpower Recovery = A modifier that affects how quickly you regain manpower.
Additional Notes
Most of this guide was written while playing on Very Hard, where the AI will send monstrous hordes of units at you. So as a result most of the compositions here are based on constant and intense fights. The compositions start to struggle on the strategic level if you don’t have the resources to pour into them. If you’re fighting deep into low supply territory, swap most of the compositions out for light infantry and you should be fine.
Light infantry are great for stalling fights so your main force can arrive and deal damage.
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them below or message me directly. Thanks for reading my guide.
20/10/2019 – updated for 1.2
26/10/2019 – updated counters