Should I buy the game without the dlc ?

[Reizei]

Hello,
There is a discount (- 86%) on Fanatical should I take the DLC or only the Emperor Edition ? Are the Rome II DLC worth getting ?

[BRAN MAC BORN]

If the dlcis on sale too the get the blood dlc and the Greek City States and The Black Sea Kingdoms and Rise of the Republic and Hannibal at the Gates and Empire Divided all those are good dlc campaigns.

[Von Hotzendorf]

None of the DLC or required but Black Sea Colonies, Desert Kingdoms and Hannibal at the Gates are the best I think.

[BolzenHolz]

I always recommend the boxed editions. They are cheaper and contain (depending on the edition) the main game and some DLCs. The Sparta Edition has the main game, the Greek States DLC, the Daughters of Mars DLC and Wrath of Sparta Campaign pack.

Personally, i think that the desert Kingdoms and Empire Divided Campaign pack are worthy DLCs.

[Reizei]

Okay thx

[kekkuli]

I don't think the additional campaigns are necessary, personally i'm not fan of any of them.

[LSD]

I personally got the Spartan edition (Wrath of Sparta campaign and Daughters of Mars pack).
Neither DLC was worth anything. The Mars pack are all pointless units that have no impact on the campaign whatsoever.
The campaign was like all TW "mini-campaigns": poorly thought out, poorly implemented, relying on a silly little gimmick. Boring.

[BRAN MAC BORN]

Well if you want to play certain factions then you have to get the dlc for them-BUT they all should have been part of the game originally. Those are just money grabs for sure. On sale they a cheap so pick them up.

[Reizei]

I can pick up Total war : Attila for 10$CAD, It's almost the price of a dlc.

[BRAN MAC BORN]

Go for it.

[David]

I recommend Attila with nearly all dlcs, but Rome2 is enough without dlcs at the beginning.

[Welsh Dragon]

Originally posted by Reizei:

Hello,
There is a discount (- 86%) on Fanatical should I take the DLC or only the Emperor Edition ? Are the Rome II DLC worth getting ?

The base game alone has the Grand Campaign with 14 playable factions, covering all the major and some of the minor players of the era, as well as the Imperator Augustus campaign which has 10 playable factions and covers the war of the Second Triumvirate (Julius Caesar's heirs fighting to become the first Emperor of Rome.) Plus Historical Battles, Custom Battles, various Multiplayer etc. Basically that's hundreds of hours of gameplay just with the base game.

Also all the Culture Pack DLC factions have been added to everyone's games in patches, for the AI to use in Grand Campaign and for multiplayer compatibility. So you don't need to buy any of the Culture Packs unless you actually want to play as those factions. You still get to fight against the fully upgraded factions, with their complete DLC rosters even without the DLC.

Similar is true of Unit Packs (AI has the niche units, you only need the DLC to use them in your own armies,) and Campaign Packs (you only need buy the DLC if you want to play the campaign, or in Caesar in Gaul and Hannibal at the Gates cases, if you want to play the campaign or play the Grand Campaign factions they add.)

All in all, there's plenty in the base game to enjoy and the DLC is completely optional. If you see one you particularly like, or there's a faction you really want to play immediately (for example Sparta, Athens or Epirus, which you'll need the Greek States Culture Pack to play,) there's no harm picking it up too. But it's by no means essential.

Long story short, the base game has plenty for you to be getting on with.

Hope that helps.

*

Originally posted by BRAN MAC BORN:

Well if you want to play certain factions then you have to get the dlc for them-BUT they all should have been part of the game originally. Those are just money grabs for sure. On sale they a cheap so pick them up.

Oh come on Bran. You really expect them to include 36 playable factions (over three times what Rome 1 had, and over twice the high water mark of the series at 17 playable factions that Medieval 2 had) all for the price of the base game? Sure, if you buy everything at full price it's expensive. But it's also a huge game with tons and tons of content, and even without any DLC it's still a big game with a lot of content.

Also you've been playing this long enough to see the factions being upgraded over time with their DLC content, which we've then all benefited from as they patched them into everyone's games. I mean I know you play mostly with mods, but still. It's not like the DLC factions are the same as they were at launch, they've each had new content added which elevates them above the non-playable minor factions they were to begin with.

Sorry, but there's no "should have been part of the game originally" here, because that would have been a completely unrealistic level of content for the price.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Lord Holland of Wessex]

Originally posted by Kevin07:

None of the DLC or required but Black Sea Colonies, Desert Kingdoms and Hannibal at the Gates are the best I think.

I have Black sea colonies, really wanted to make Kolchis work but i find it very difficult, do you have any experience/tips regarding kolchis?

[BRAN MAC BORN]

All the factions should be unlocked from the start. They are not so you you will need to use a faction unlocker mod to make them work. The price is absurd-the game was not a finished product-on release it seemed it was alpha state-now fixed a few bugs, but does not have a well thought out mechanics- the ai on the campaign barely works and the battle ai is well... is there any? I only played this game after I had to mod the hell out of it to get to the level that I could enjoy it. I have high standards. Still not to the level it could or should have been. Too many game companies promise things and never deliver..look at the disaster of Paradox Imperator Rome game..what a mess---now Paradox is reworking all the core mechanics and rethinking the game...back to the drawing board...at least they listened to the players and are going to fix their game. CA on the other hand adds some things to the game that people wanted 5 years later? They are not going to come back and revamp the entire thing and add more depth to the game. It was up to the mod community to add some depth to something as shallow as this. CA should give the mod community a map editor and other tools to take the game further and further.

[Alwyn]

Originally posted by Lord Holland of Wessex:

I have Black sea colonies, really wanted to make Kolchis work but i find it very difficult, do you have any experience/tips regarding kolchis?

Yes, this is a challenging faction to play, with a small city, a limited roster and nearby factions whose axemen are effective against your hoplites. For the campaign map, my suggestions are:

Expand slowly at first (defeat one relatively small enemy at a time, even if a larger enemy declares war). Don't be afraid to fight defensively on other fronts - your hoplites, hillmen, slingers and cavalry can be effective defenders of unwalled cities such as Phasis.

Make an ally if you can. Regions held by military allies count as yours for victory conditions, while a non-aggression pact or defensive alliance at least means you have a border you don't need to defend, if only for a while.

Make one or two client states when you capture the last region of factions with different rosters. Leave an army in their region for 10 to 20 turns, so you can recruit the most useful levy units and attach a champion/veteran to the army to give them experience. For example, if you can make Scythia into a client state, you may be able to recruit armoured horse archers and armoured lancers as levy units in their territory (I did this in a Pergamon campaign - you need to be patient, because in some turns they'll offer less useful units).

I suggest building armies designed to take on the factions you send them against, such as slingers and spearmen against horse archer factions, or axemen and skirmishers/cavalry against Hellenic factions.

I'm sorry if I'm suggesting things you already know about! Good luck!