Rome 2 Multiplayer Guide by Bobi

Total War: ROME II - Emperor Edition★ 4 · 87 ratings5.3k views133 favorites21 min readby BobiUpdated 22 Jun, 2023View on Steam ↗

Ardiaei

Ardiaei have the second best greek roaster.They have the cheapest slingers in the game,they got good meatshields and tanky hoplites,they got the cheapest thueros spears (Illyrian Thueros Spears are worth 360 and they got Cavalry Counter Tactics which make them maybe the best Thueros in the game)The only thing that Ardiaei lacks is cavalry,but their cavalry is not so bad as some people think (the Illyrian Cavalry are the cheapest med mass cavalry in the game)
Builds:

Tactic:use the axe warriors and celtics to block enemy charges and then follow up with hoplites
do not engage too fast with your cavalry because in late game its vital especially if you have all of the Tarantine Cavalry's ammo.

Tactic:Basicaly use the same tactic but this build got more elite hoplites no skirms and less mid tier hoplites

Tactic:This Build is extremely powerful vs eastern factions like baktria,parthia,armenia and may work vs nomads

Arevaci

Arevaci are amongst the weaker barbarians such as Nervii/Lusitani. They cannot win against top tier factions unless you do a full kite, so keep that in mind if you decide to bring them.
Builds:

Tactic:Standart Barbarian rush:Charge with meatshields then follow up with swords and cav

Tactic:This is a skirmish build and its pretty hard to master.If your Opponent went for Odryssians pick this to counter it and be patient

Tactic:charge and rek :D(it is vital that you defend your squishy mid tier swords from getting charged by cavalry)

Armenia

Armenia is Strong Eastern Faction that has access to one of the most cost effective shock cavalry in the game (Persian Cavalry).Armenia is stronger than Parthia and wins almost every time but they have much in common and the strategies of both are the same.
Builds:

Tactic:This is a complete skirmish build.Use The cavalry to distract your opponent and make him to turn and then fire with your foot skirmishers in the back or in the flank because if they fire from the front they will waste their ammo and wont kill much and you will lose.

Tactic:Use this Build vs other Eastern Factions especially vs Parthia

Strategy:Use this Build vs factions like Lusitani or Odryssians

Arverni

Arverni is a strong barbarian faction but because of their midtier swords they cant even be compared to Boii or Tylis
Builds:

Tactic:Rush with levy Freemen,tie down enemy units then kill everything with Oathsworn

Tactic:Standart Barbarian Rush

Tactic:Use this vs Easterns/Nomads

Athens

Athens is one of the weakest Greek Factions and one of the weakest in the game but they got some unique tools that they could use for their advantage
Builds:

Baktria

Baktria is an interesting faction which is pretty hard to play
Builds:

1.
2.
3.

Boii

Boii are if not the best in the game then in top 3
Builds:
1.
2.
3

Carthage

Carthage is the most adaptable faction in the game but the carthaginian player must use his tools good in order to win
Builds:

1.
Tactic:Use the Libyan Hoplites as meatshields and follow up with the rest of your infantry.It is very important that your mainline infantry won't get charged by barbarian swords 2.
Tactic:rush and wait for an opening for your ele to rek 3.
Tactic:Typican ele yolo rush

Cimmeria

Cimmeria sucks so my best advice is just not to use them but here are 2 builds that will maybe work
Builds:

1.
Tactic:Use this vs Odryssians or Lusitani 2.
Tactic:Might work vs Parthia

Colchis

Colchis is a pretty cool faction but with pretty weak melee infantry
Builds:

1.
Tactic:Rush with the Axes and follow up with the Hoplites 2.
Tactic:Basically same strategy but try to outflank the enemy with the HA
3.
Tactic:Skirmish+Heavy Cav build.Be extremely Patient and pick your engagements carefully.
PS:I have no idea if it will work vs a lot of factions but it will deff work vs lusitani and maybe Odryssians(Just dont charge your cav to Odryssian Nobles from the front)

Epirus

Epirus in my opinion is pretty hard faction to master but they are very fun to play with
Builds:

1.
Tactic:Rush and tie down all of the enemy units so that the elephant could rek everything 2.
Tactic:Play defensivly and try to get flank/rear shot with the rhodians 3.
Tactic:use the levies to block enemy charges and then rush with the samnites and hoplites,Put the Royal Peltasts on the flank with the cavalry

Galatia

Galatia is one of the strongest factions in the game because of their mid-tier swords and cheap spears with good charge that have cavalry counter tactics
Builds:
1.
Tactic:I have beaten Rome many times with this build so it must be good vs other factions as well :D
2.
Tactic:This is The Meta Galatian Build so its just a standart barbarian rush

3.
Tactic:Rush with increased cav support

Getae

Getae are strong faction but not the strongest due to their lack of mid tier melee infatry
Builds:
1.
Tactic:Standart Getae Rush Build,rush with spears follow up with axe warriors with noble swords and bow horsmen on the flanks
2.
Tactic:Pretty simillar build but in this build melee cav is replaced by Spears
3.
Tactic:Snipe enemy elite units or enemy general with the heavy skirmishers and rush

Iceni

Iceni is one of the weakest barbarian factions but with a lot of unique units
Builds:
1.
Tactic:Typical Barb Rush

2.
Tactic:This is a pretty fun build to use BUT only in casual never in competetive gameplay :D.So you deploy all guerillas behind the enemy,charge with chariots and with ambushers at the same time and if you are lucky you will get awesome victory :D
3.
Tactic:Tie Down the enemy and Charge with the chariot

Lusitani

Lusitani is one of the most glass canoon factions in the game so you rush or you die :D
Builds:
1.

2.
Tactics:You just rush and hope that you get to the Opponent before he shoot you to death :D
3.
Tactic:This is a more of a balanced Lusitani Build in which you have great skirmishers okish cavalry good spears good cav supporting units(Iberian Swords)but your good swords are only 5 and if you cant keep the balearics alive untill late game you might have a serious problem

Macedon

Macedon...hmm this will be hard :D.So Macedon got only pikes and Thorax Swords and they are both ♥♥♥♥
Builds:
1.
Tactic:charge with cavalry follow up with Thracian Warriors and maybe with militia Hoplites too or keep the militia Hops behind to defend the Rhodians because if you lose the skirms you lsoe the game

2.
Tactic:Charge the Cav in the Centre and Follow up with Thorax Swords and Thracians and in the same time push the flanks with skirms and Royal Peltasts+Militia Hops
3.
Tactic:Try to Weaken The opponent seriously like removing his cav and skirms then retreat and begin to kite(turn off fire at will and try to keep all of your ammo till late game)
These are the best builds that i could make and they are ♥♥♥♥....so dont use Macedon :D

Nomads

Massagetae is maybe the Strongest Nomad Faction Because of Their Awesome Cataphracts
Builds:
1. Roxolani is really strong vs infantry heavy factions like Rome because of their cheap cavalry that can pop draco:
Builds:
2. Royal Scythia is pretty good vs other nomads because of the increased range of some of their Horse Archers but they are not good vs infantry factions
3.
Builds:

Massilia

Massilia is pretty strong Greco-Celtic Faction that is pretty cool to play as
Builds:
1.
Tactic:Split in 2 parts with tarantine cav between your 2 parts and deny the engagement with 1 wing and engage with the other(attack where the enemy is least prepared)
2.
Tactic:Rush with celtic and axe warriors and follow up with hoplites

Nervii

I already made a guide about Nervii ;P
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=610350402

Odryssian Kingdom

I already made a guide to Odryssians too :D
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=654098904

Parthia

Parthia is a rly fun faction to play with but may be a little hard because the meta in rome 2 is heavy infantry
Builds:
1.
Tactic:Yolo charge the cav(except the HA ofc)and follow up with inf,then retreat the cav and outflank,then rearcharge and win :D
2.
Here is a Screenshot for the people that think Noble HA is not OP :D
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=661601293


3.
Tactic:The Ultimate Kiting Army :D


Pergamon

Pergamon is a legend in rome 2 because a lot of ppl think they are bad/weak,but played in a certain way they can win even vs factions like rome,boii,tylis etc
Builds:
1.
Tactic:So the tactic is this:Yolo charge with cav follow up with inf,pull back the cav when your inf is rekt try to finish the enemy army with skirmishers and with cav charges(If you got any left :D)
2.
Tactic:Try to Win the Cav Fight fast with the support of Agema Spears And Hoplites and while you are trying to do that either pike yolo(with levy pikes and Galatian Swords or pretend that you are doing it so that your opponent wont send support to the cav fight) When You win the cav fight try to rear charge but dont frontal charge because precursors will rek your cav
Maybe it will work vs factions like Baktria,Macedon and at most Seleucids but not vs stronger Factions
3.
Tactic:It will work maybe only vs Lusitani vs Odryssians it will be a suicide because Thracian Nobles Massacre Cavalry

Pontus

Pontus is one of the best factions for ''pike yolo'' strategy.Basically it means that you charge with cheap inf and follow up with pikes
Builds:
1.
Tactic:Pike Yolo
2.
Tactic:charge with cavalry,follow up with swords and hoplites and in the same time charge with Chariot,but before that try to kill all enemy HA with your HA and distract the enemy skirmishers
3.
Tactic:Harass your Opponent with HA for 1-2 mins then rotate them to go behind your opponent and in the same time cav yolo(doing this you might be able to either snipe your opponent's general or kill all of his skirms)This is pretty deadly vs Lusitani I Think but not much of a threat to other factions

Egypt

Egypt is one of the coolest units in the game because Egypt got the most unique units but they are kinda bad in competetive mp,but they are the best from all of the successor states in my opinion
Builds:
1.
Tactic:meatshield the Thorax Swordsmen with the Galatian Swords,Rek the flanks with the Galatian Royal Guards
2.
Tactic:Yolo cav charge with cav and follow up with inf then retreat the cav and outflank with 2-3 and protect the skirms with the rest
There are a lot of posible Builds for egypt with Chariot Elephent Elite Swords OR elite shock cav core.Pick the build that fits your playstyle best

Rome

Rome-The most costeffecive and easy faction to play with has a lot of possible builds,here is an example build:
Builds:
1.
Tactic:basically you must protect your mainline inf from getting charged at all cost and if you manage to do it you win
2.
Tactic:This is a meta army and you can lose rly hard with this build :D.Maybe you will lose only if you blob all units and the enemy rear charge with elephants :D
3.
Tactic:This is not a competetive build(obviously)Use this vs your friend/friends in pre-marian rome vs carthage scenario.I promiss you its a lot of fun :D

Seleucid

Seleucids got a lot of tools but all of their options are too expensive for what they can give you
Build:
1.
Tactic rish and tie down enemy units while the chariot win you the battle
2.
Tactic:Split The Army in 3 Wings and be rly patient and try to annoy your opponent and make him nervous so that he will make the mistake to rush
PS:This is a high levev/high micro build so don't use it if you think that you wont handle it well but if you use it even if you fail you will improve you micro just because this is so demanding micro tactic that soon or later you will have the micro to make it effective ;))
3.
Tactic:This is more of a ''noob friendly'' build than competetive but its pretty fun in quick battles

Sparta

Builds:
1.
Tactic:Charge with Spartan Hops and Follow up with Periokoi Pikes,protec the reat with spartan youths and periokoi spear+ the elite spartan units or outflank with them
2.
Tactic:Use it vs Greeks,because elite spartans are OP vs greeks

Sparta is the most tanky faction in Rome 2 with no cav options so some would say that Sparta is weak.Dont trust them.Sparta is one of the most OP factions.
Here is why:

Suebi

Suebi is maybe the best faction in rome 2 if you can hit the ''Fast Charge'' Ability(If you dont have the Caesar in Gaul dlc then you will prob lose a lot with suebi)
Builds:

1. 2.
If you cant hit Fast Charge you might want to pick the Noble Riders as a General unit because its mobility will allow you to pop Fast Charge easier

Syracuse

Syracuse is like copy of Athens but with some extra units like Samnite Warriors,Balearic Slingers,Campanian Cavalry and Etruscan Hoplites
Build:

Tactic:Charge with militia,light hops and follow up with the hvy inf and try to flank with slings and protect them with the cav
Tactic:Split the army into 3 groups and pretend that your will attack with 1,when the opponent tries to rush that group outflank and attack him with other 2 while kiting with the 1st
Tactic:Yolo charge with cav,follow up with the hvy inf nad in the meantime try to out flank with slingers(so that you could get flank shots)

Tylis

Tylis is maybe The second Best after Boii but even Tylis has its weaknesses.For example they dont have good melee cavalry and their midtiers dont have exceptional morale as boii or Rome
Builds:
1.


2.

Tactics:Standart Barbarian Rush

General Abilities info

Commander:Pretty good for Romans,Carthaginians,Successors,Greeks
Strategist:Always go for Strategist gen when you pick barbs or when you pick a shock cav that got trample ability
Warrior:Excellent for countering Headhunt-Second Wind ,Trample-Second Wind or Stampede-Second Wind combos
Personal Choice:I almost always go with Strategist because its vital for late game,i pick Commander pretty much only when i play as Rome
And i pick Warrior to counter Strategist General
Ariovistus:The Most OP Ability in the game.I think that its pretty hard to play suebi if you go with any other general.
Vercingetorix:Pretty Weak in my Opinion i go with Strategist General when i play as Arverni
Julius Caesar:Kinda the same as Commander but a bit weirder.You can pop the abilities only 1 time and one of the abilities is completely useless to rome.I prefer to go with Commander because even if your General dies you can still pop up the Raise Banner Ability and give your men ncreased melee defence

Unit Abilities Info

Headhunt:This ability is pretty good but don't use it too early because your guys will be tired and you will lose the combat.Also when you can always pop second wind after headhunt ends.
Frensy:Frensy gives you bonus weapon damage and bonus charge,personally i always use frensy right before i charge.If you charge fierce swords into something like evocati without frensy you will get slaughtered,but if you activate frensy before charging you will probably kill like half of the unit.
Trample:Same as Headhunt,This ability is awesome but using it too reckless might lose you the battle.
Stampede:Stampede is only available to elephents so dont be afraid to lose it.Elephents just charge and try to get max kills before they die and the impact damage is more important than charge/melee attack/melee defence so exhaustion doesnt hurt elephants much.
Frensied Charge:This ability sucks,its probably the weakest unit ability but using it right before an unit routs will make your unit UNBREAKABLE and this is insane :D
Hoplite Wall:Hoplite Wall is beast,without it Hoplites will get absolutely rekt by Swords but with it they stand a chance and often beat swords.Always Use it on Hoplites but AFTER the combat has started and DISABLE Formation attack because if its on the hops will reform into a little blob and they will be rekt.
Shield Wall:Shield Wall is kinda weird.Sometimes it helps other times not so much.There is a glitch in which your guys are turning their backs to the enemy so when you pop shield wall/hoplite wall click 1 attack order on the enemy unit.Keep in mind that with Shield Wall on you will probably kill less but survive for longer.
Pike Wall:It sucks if you cant micro properly,it works like with chariots you just spam attack orders.But Pikes are always risky i dont recomment them if you dont have units that could tie down enemy units (like naked swords)
Shield Screen:Kinda Like Shield wall but even more buggy
Precision Shot:Always Use it Its great because there is a bug that when you activate second precision shot your unit is fresh again
Quick Reload:Always Use it,your skirms will rek everything with this ability on
Use the Whip:Use it only when your guys are tired or on strategist general because when headhunt ends your guys are only tired and when ''Use the Wip'' ends your guys are exhausted!
Rapid Advance:Never use it unless your units are very tired/exhausted
Wedge:Always use it when your melee cavalry is charging a shock cavalry because when you are in wedge less guys will be charged and the melee cav will be able to beat the shock cav or at least hold for a while.BUT don't use it in any other case.

Archers or Slingers? and How to use Javelinmen/Peltasts

Archers:Skirmish units with medium ammo,medium damage,without any missile block chance but have the Heavy Shot,Flaming Shot,Whistling Shot abilities
How to use them:Try to keep some ammo late game because they can rout units ez because they can stack flaming shot+whistling especially if you can reduce the enemy morale with the ''Warcry'' anility
Slingers:Very Good Range,Low Damage,Low Missile Block Chance,elite slingers have the ability ''Quick Reload''
Personal Choice:I prefer Slingers to Archers because Slingers got smaller arc of fire(this means that they are more accurate) Slingers fire faster and have more ammo.If same priced Slingers and Archers fight slingers always win(maybe the only exception is cretans vs balearics) because of the missile block chance of the slingers.Archers Have the ability to rout units faster and they cause damage faster so if you think that you lack the micro to keep skirmishers alive go with Archers but if you think that your micro is good enough always go with Slingers.

How to use Javelinmen/Peltasts
Javelinmen/Peltasts have extremely limited range,Extremely High Damage so the best way to use them is to snipe enemy general,elite infantry,elephants,chariots and Cavalry.(If you can get point blank rear shots with them they will rek enemy infantry in seconds)

Missile Baiting and Cantabrian Circle


I could explain it but it will be better for you guys to see how it actually works ;)

Tactics(by culture groups)

Barbarians:I think most of you already know that barbs are OP in rushing your opponent and this is the way to use them.The only barb factions that could use kiting builds are:Odryssian Kingdom,Arevaci and Lusitani
Greeks:The Greeks got a little bit of everything awesome hoplites great skirms good cav.
So they are rly diverse.You can spam hoplites (with celtic/axe warrior support for Ardiaei and Massilia).You could go with cav yolo
Or you could bring elite skirms + pikes and good cav support
Successors:I don't play successors because they are pretty bad :D.With them you could go with ele yolo,chariot yolo,(with egypt you could bring galatian royals and support them with galatian swords and good cav) and with Baktria you could kite.
Easterns:When you go with easterns you should never spam inf(i have seen ppl to spam like 9 parthian swords).You should always pick kiting builds or you could go with ele yolo with parthia to suprise your opponent
Eastern Greeks:You could cav yolo with Pergamon
Go with hoplite core with Cimmeria or spam skirms citizen cav and horse archers and kite to win
Same with Colchis but Colchis are a bit better than Cimmeria
Nomads:When you are playing with nomads make sure that you kill the enemy skirmishers and cav first,once you do that you pretty much already won(if you aren't rly unlucky)

Example Video of how to Kite and how to defend from Kiting(the battles are from a russsian tournament)

Ways of beating Boii,Rome sword spams with lesser barbs





Charge with levy free,spears then follow up with elite swords.Retreat them when the enemy is about to charge sword followers/Oathsworn(or roman OP mid tier inf),wait for 10 sec and then charge again(wait untill the charge bonus of the enemy is gone)*if you are vs rome just retreat and immediately charge again because romans have ♥♥♥♥ charge.Use your cav defensively because if your oaths get rearcharged its over.
Here is a screenshot of win vs boii spam:

How to improve your micro/skill

  1. You need to practice A LOT.When you practice a lot you will discover which playstyle and factions suit you best.
  2. Don't spam OP stuff like all hillmen,eles and chars or 20 swords with OP barbs/rome because if you do that your micro will most likely even decrease,because you won't have to micro.
  3. Practice with hard factions like Parthia,Odryssians,Armenia,Nomads,Cimmeria and Pergamon

Playstyles

There are 3 major playstyles in rome 2(the are many sub playstyles, like semi-kite, semi-rush etc)

  1. Kiting-best use with eastern/nomad factions
  2. Rushing-best use with barbs/rome
  3. Defensive- Best used with greeks:)
    1.1 Kiting is not only running for 20 minutes with skirms+cav.It is about to get the right engagements and not mindlessly charge the enemy.One of my personal favourite tactics is to split my army in groups(almost always in 3) and pretend that i will attack with 1 and use the rest as fixing force,but in reality i am using the 1st group as bait to make the enemy rush mindlessly into it,and thus become weak to my other 2 groups.As Sun Tzu said:Avoid the enemy where they are strong,attack where they are weak
    2.1 Rushing is the most used tactic in rome 2,the essential thing is to get uninterrupted charges(if you are barb) and to interrupt enemy charges(if you play vs barbs)
  4. Greeks have to get rly good engagements, especially vs barbs/rome and thus are forced to either play defensively or try to get good plays with pikes, which is extremely hard, due to the buggy nature of pikes.

How to play defensively smartly(dumb defensive play is just boxing)

How to join Tournaments?

There aren't a lot of tournaments anymore. I used to host events quite often, but now I lack the time to do so. Also a lot of tournament hosts are unreliable. Many would try to cheat in some way in order to win. The only reliable hosts are VM and their russian website: Clancommunity, Zeva and AC clan.
Russian website: There are 2 types of tournaments- International and National.
In national tournaments only ppl knowing the language can participate. For example you have to know Russian in order to participate in Russian national tournaments.
In international tournaments everyone can join and ppl have to use English.
http://clancommunity.ru/index.php

What you should/shouldn't do in beginning/ending stages in the battle

  1. Always say good luck/have fun
  2. NEVER insta ready up,instead ask your opponent/opponents if they are ready,if they say no then wait for them
  3. NEVER cheat(like drophacking,pullthrough,unit glitch,controling berserk eles,berserkers etc)
  4. Always say good game,well played
  5. If you destroyed your opponent give him some tips on how to improve or give him link to guides(mine is the most detailed but deff not the best) instead of just trashtalking him

How to know what pullthrough is


This video shows the diffrence between ''charge through'' and ''pull through''
Basically going through a fully knocked down and charging skirmishers is completely ok and fine.But spamming move orders to get to skirmishers or spam move orders to get a rear attack penalty is game braking anda cheat.
PS:Not including elephants/chariots because you must spam move orders in order to make them work

Youtubers that i recommend watching

There are not a lot of active youtubers in Rome 2. And most of the good ones are inactive/dead from a while.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWIUGePT8RMSE3UPrJptQsg
This guy was amongst the best in Rome 2, his vids are 1y+ old but still a good watch.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZlnshKh_exh1WBP9P-yPdQ
You probably know already of Heir of Carthage ;P
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_q-1AjyFCs0XPAE5Kx11g
This is a nice Russian youtube channel(all of the vids are in russian so i don't recommend it if you are not russian)
I would also suggest watching Wolftotalwar and MaximusDecimusMeridius

Practicing/Improving Micro Builds

The fastest way to improve your micro is to use rly hard /micro requiring builds and make them work
Here are some builds that are excellent for improving micro

You could also split your army into several groups and try to micro them all(this will most likely cause you to lose a lot but your micro will improve significantly)

How to use pikemen

How to use Hoplites

Shield Wall Glitch

Why you shouldnt care about leaderboards in tw(leaderboard is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ in atilla and warhammer too) and NEVER play quick battles

Cost effective statistic of swords in rome 2

Elite Swords:

  1. Oathsworn
  2. Noble Swords
  3. Thracian Nobles
  4. Noble Fighters
  5. Lusitani Nobles
  6. Heroic Nobles
  7. Praetorians/Praetorian Guard
  8. Galatian Royal Guard

Mid Tier Swords:

  1. Gallo-Thracian Infantry
  2. Sword Followers
  3. Tribal Warriors
  4. Galatian Legionaires
    5..Evocati/Veteran Legionaires
    6..Chosen Swords
  5. Veteran Shield Warriors
  6. Mercenary Samnites
  7. Fierce Swords
  8. Legionary Cohort
  9. Chosen Sword Band
  10. Parthian Swordsmen
  11. Kartli Axemen
  12. Pontic Swordsmen
  13. Thorax Swordsmen
  14. Axemen

Low tier Swords:

  1. Thracian Warriors
  2. Naked Warriors(for pontus)
  3. Celtic Warriors
  4. Axe Warriors
  5. Hastati
  6. Galatian Swordsmen
  7. Falxmen
  8. Sword Band
  9. Italian Swordsmen
  10. Hillmen
  11. Egyptian Infantry

Making your own builds/tactics

The builds that i shared with you are great for me but might not be good for everyone.All depends on the playstyle.If you have diffrent plastyle than mine you might find them difficult to play with.The builds that i suggested are only for beginners,when you are experienced enough make your own builds and dont listen to anybody about builds(except elite players maybe),because only you know your playstyle and you know the best how you play the game.

Empire Divided Faction Videos

Alani
Armenia
Caledonii
Gallic Rome
Gothi
Marcomanni
Palmyra
Rome
Sassanids
Saxons
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