No gods, no masters, no ceasefires - The Rebel Campaign

The Rebel campaign - taking control of the various slaves, rebels and bandits littering the gameworld and guiding them until they wipe out every empire on the map - is quite possibly the hardest possible strategic campaign in RTW. With every other faction trying do destroy you, limited to only the weakest units and with limited ability to train even those, the Rebellion is the greatest possible test of your strategic and tactical acumen. This guide will describe how to unlock, play, survive and triumph as the Rebel faction.

How to unlock the rebels:

The Rebel faction is unplayable by default, until you edit the game files. This is not as hard as it sounds, and I'll walk you through the process step by step:

Right click on Rome: Total War in your steam library. Click on properties - local files - browse local files. Now navigate to Rome Total War Gold\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign. Select descr_strat.txt, and double click it. Move the "slave" faction (or every single faction except one, probably SPQR) from "unplayable" (or "unlockable") to "playable".

You can do the same for Barbarian Invasion: Rome Total War Gold\BI\data\world\maps\campaign\barbarian_invasion. descr.strat.txt.

(The BI Rebel campaign is actually a fair bit easier, not in the least because you can recruit units everywhere)

While you're at it, find "descr_sm_factions.txt" in Rome Total War Gold\data or Rome Total War Gold\BI\data, find the "Slave" faction at the bottom of the list and set "custom_battle_availability" to "yes".

(If you're using Windows Vista for some reason, make sure the files aren't set to "read only")

The generic recommendation here is to save a copy of the files you're modifying, but you can just validate RTW (right click, properties, local files, verify integrity) to restore them.

If you want to play a PROPER Rebel campaign, with the ability to recruit anywhere, a family tree and the like you need to download this mod:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=2069

It makes for a very fun, though less challenging, experience.

The basics of Rebel gameplay:

Some guides will tell you to leave the Rebels alone, as playing them is "buggy". This is not exactly correct. The Rebels have their own set of weird gameplay rules, but as long as you keep those in mind, you shouldn't encounter any more bugs than during a regular RTW session (aside from recruitment issues). Let's go over these peculiar rules:

Every single faction on the map is coded to hate your guts and prioritize attacking you over attacking other factions. As long as a rebel settlement is within reach, most factions will go straight for it, instead of starting a debilitating war with a "proper" nation. By 250 BC, the only faction I've actually seen go to war with anyone else was Carthage.

Diplomacy is useless. You can't trade, exchange map information (which you can do even with hostile factions in RTW) or call for ceasefires. All your diplomats can do is bribe enemy armies.

If that last bit made you think "hah - the rebel roster must include all enemy units, so I'll be able to bribe my way to an awesome multi-ethnic army composition" - think again. First of all, the units you get to recruit depend on the original culture of the settlement they're recruited in.

Second of all - you don't actually get to recruit units from all the cultures, and you're very strictly limited in regards to the units you DO get to recruit. It's a bit complicated (long story short - you can't recruit in barbarian areas, and most of the world counts as Greek for some reason), so there's an entire section dedicated to recruitment below.

Edit - also, note a deeper explanation posted in the comments.

You still get common rebel spawns in those areas you DON'T control that may include units you wouldn't get to recruit regularly. Also, if you destroy a faction by capturing its last city, every surviving army and family member will become a Rebel.

You don't have a proper family tree, but once you start recruiting (real or fake) rebel generals, they'll act like proper family members.

You get "rebel general" army units (not real family members, no portrait or traits) "fake generals" (a nickname, not what they're called in game - portrait and traits, but the tactical unit itself is like Eastern Infantry or something) and a few precious "real" generals.

None of your settlements can riot or rebel, no matter how upset they get.

You get no victory conditions - the game only ends when you have conquered the entire map.

Since you can't build the higher troop tiers, the rest of the world will gradually have an advantage over you, as their cities grow larger and their forces stronger. Speed is the key to victory.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly - your army is utterly wiped out every time you lose or flee from battle. What's that you say - the rebel AI at least gets to one chance fall back from battle on the strategic map? Well... you don't. Every battle is do or die. (The exception are Draws, which I believe only apply in siege sallies)

Basic Campaign Guide:

You start the game with 10000 dinarii, 37 settlements, and a whole lot of scattered and useless troops that will destroy your economy with upkeep. You'll have to quickly:

Raise taxes.

Build roads and trade boosting buildings.

Disband useless troops.

Destroy useless buildings.

Abandon worthless settlements.

Let's explain each point in detail:

Since your settlements can't riot or rebel, you generally want to keep taxes as high as possible, at least until your economy kicks in. Since you'll be relying on quick conquest rather than waiting for your cities to expand, the slower population growth doesn't really matter.

Build roads wherever possible, even in places you're planning to abandon. Roads pay for themselves very quickly, and later on, rebel troops spawning in these areas will be able to move around that much faster.

Most of your European holdings are villages with the population of 400 and no ability to recruit soldiers. You won't be able to defend them, you won't be able to expand, their tax and trade value is minimal, and you actually WANT the enemy to take them so that proper rebel armies are spawned in this area. Disband all troops that can't make it to any enemy town / friendly town you intend to keep within 1-2 turns. (Personally, I cheat a bit by checking town locations in a different save. Hey, you can't actually trade for map information, and local rebels really should know this)

Check to see whether you can recruit any peasants in a town. If you can't, destroy all the troop producing buildings, since you'll never be able to recruit anyone in this settlement. I generally don't bother to destroy trade buildings in a city you're likely to capture later, but there might be more sense in denying the enemy the profit. In any case, wait until the enemy is in sight.

You should try to save / conquer:

The greater Israel / Syria / Jordan area (Sidon, Jerusalem, Damascus, Bostra) - you have decent mounted armies nearby, so you attack at the weakest point and annihilate armies out in the open before actually sieging and taking the towns. Regular Egyptian troops / Militia Hoplites die very quickly when flanked and taking missile fire to the back. Egyptian chariot generals fall completely apart if a single hoplite pokes them, so try to engage them during sieges, when the AI is more likely to charge into a phalanx than avoid one.

Turkey - you have the armies to take over the western part from the start. If necessary, get some Hoplite production happening in Byzantium, and carry them over for reinforcements.

Greece - even though you can't recruit archers, if you wait a few turns, pirates will spawn in order to ferry over the troops from Kydonia (Crete). Guard them well (keep them away from enemy general charges) and they should be enough to conquer at least Corinth and Sparta. At the same time, send all your Illyrian etc troops on the North-West side of Greece to Apollonia. If you can manage to massacre the Brutii invasion force (defend the town square, flank with skirmishers on the far end of the street, so that they're not getting charged but are firing into charging enemy backs) you can really stall the Roman invasion.

Massilia - if you really hate disbanding all your troops in the area, save the ones who can make it there. You should be able to produce Militia Hoplites, and those are fairly good at taking down barbarian warbands and defending the settlement. It will be a while before you can take on the Romans at full force though - bottling up North Italy by defending settlements and bridges might be for the best until you get a lucky break (annihilating attacking armies and frog-leaping forward is a viable strategy)

Move your capital so that it's somewhere in the middle of the provinces you intend to keep. Unrest doesn't matter to us, but revenue losses from corruption due to distance from the capital hurt.

You should completely disband all the units in places like Dimmidi / Nepte - it will take them forever to get anywhere, and they'll only be massacred once they do.

Two exceptions - disband the warbands guarding Tara (Ireland) BUT keep the druids there - for some reason, the Britons kept sieging Tara for one turn, then buggering off somewhere else. Guess that's the awesome power of druids. It's worth trying to keep a decently developed settlement for 100 denarii per turn.

The amazon chariot troops in Themiskyra are very far away from anything important, but they can utterly annihilate Scythian units in auto-resolve battles, so they can run around causing havoc in that area.

Overall campaign goals:

Once we got our economy out of a tailspin and started conquering some territory our aims are as follows:

1. Keep building roads and economic buildings, prioritizing major settlements. You can never have too much money, and we're going to need a lot of mercs to supplement our forces. Besides, remember that the Rebels don't actually NEED public health / morale buildings, and don't get to use the higher tiers of recruitment buildings.

2. Consolidate and unify our territories so that we don't have to defend from threats coming from several directions at once. The AI isn't keen on naval invasions (unless they have a designated landing zone, like the Brutii), and the many free-spawning pirate fleets should help patrol the Greece - Italy - Sicily area to drown any adventurous Romans. The result is that the Turkey army will only need to face east, while the Greek army will be facing north.

The Judea situation is a bit more volitile, as you'll be attacked on all sides. Don't be afraid to garrison your towns with expendable Militia Hoplites (who can still be effective during a siege) and move your mobile cavalry army around, waiting for a good chance to catch the enemy divided and to take back your cities. Patience and the willingless to sustain losses are Rebel virtues.

3. Try to get any Rebel Generals spawning out in the wilderness evacuated back to civilization to lead your armies. You should have enough spare $$$ to get them to hire a few mercs and fight their way to the nearest coast. The morale effect and the ability to neutralize enemy generals are amazing for campaign-deciding battles. Even fake generals work well enough to stop disastrous chain-routs as a result of a single heavy cav charge.

4. Whenever an army spawns out on the other side of the world, rush them towards the nearest (and weakest) enemy army / city. Every enemy they manage to take down is one you won't have to kill. If they manage to take the city, enslave the population and destroy every building. If you can actually recruit troops there, you may try holding on, but otherwise just loot and move on to the next one (always destroy shrines regardless). If you gain control of a commercially profitable settlement, you can leave the trade buildings alone, and leave a purely nominal garrison in place. Even a single peasant will stop the enemy armies from just walking in and taking over on the spot.

5. Conversely, once your expendable settlement DOES get sieged, just sally forth and suicide your troops into the enemy. The sooner you do, the sooner more rebels are likely to spawn there.

6. You can still recruit diplomats, assassins and spies all over the map. We don't have much use for diplomats, but once you have the spare cash, flooding the map with expert spies to open enemy gates and assassins to take out family members can help even random spawns do some damage.

In particular, if you ever catch the SPQR army guarding Rome too far away to reinforce it, a spy-aided sneak attack is a golden opportunity to acquire a huge army for free.

7. Whenever you can, try to destroy a faction by sieging their last town while they still have armies out in the field. You can get some excellent troops and faction members under your control.

8. As I noted above, the longer you dawdle, the farther the enemy pulls ahead of you. Ideally, you should finish the campaign long before enemy cities would grow big enough to consider revolting to your side. I wouldn't bother with farms anywhere outside your conquered territories. Then again, every bit helps, whether with revolts or with having a profitable city once you DO conquer it back. Besides, you'll eventually have more money than you can reasonably spend.

My overall campaign progress was as follows - slowly expanding northwards from Greece, while also linking Turkey and the Judean / Syrian provinces. I also took over Rhodes, Salamis (Cyprus) and Caralis (Sardinia). Just as the Egyptians were headed out to reconquer Israel, I landed at Alexanderia and quickly took all three cities, with the help of spies. This netted me a few (not great, but numerous) Egyptian armies.

Once Macedon, Thrace, Pontus and Egypt were gone I surged east and north, taking out Parthia, Armenia, Seleucia and a large portion of Scythian territories. Once my rear was secure and my economy in great shape, I sent my generals on a merc recruiting expedition while I ferried several armies near Italy. Once again, I focused on quickly taking out vulnerable and poorly garrisoned towns with the help of spies, leaving a few expendable units in each town and striking at the next target of opportunity. Since even those cities they managed to take back had no recruiting buildings, the Romans were steadily worn down before being defeated in a series of epic battles. At that point, mopping up the rest of Europe, Spain and Carthage was purely a technical affair.

Recruitment oddities:

The difficulties Rebels experience in recruiting units is the biggest result of the fact they were never meant to be played, and the biggest obstacle to your campaign. For the most part, which units you can recruit in each settlement is set in stone, and depends upon which culture controlled the settlement to begin with.

(However, note the comments below the guide, seemingly explaining the process: The different rebel "tribes" you command (you'll see names like Sithones, Galatians, Athenians, Amazons etc.) are each tied to a culture (e.g. Athenians to "Greek" culture), and the armies you make from your settlements retain that culture (e.g. if you move the garrison of Athens into the field and hover the mouse over it, the description says "Athenian Rebels"). Any settlement you take with each army automatically changes to the culture of that army. Be warned - if you combine armies from different settlements, they'll all adopt the same culture; if you want to keep a good culture going - like say, Greek over barbarian - move your Greek army first and then merge your barbarian army into it; they should all carry Greek culture from then on. If you want to change the culture of a settlement after you've already captured it, move its garrison out and then move a unit with the culture you want into the city; after one turn (during which any recruitment options in the settlement change to a glitchy Greek/Roman Peasants icon, but you can still recruit), the settlement's culture will change to the new culture.)

Any settlement that was in territories controlled by the Gauls, Britons, Germans and Dacians will not allow you to recruit any troops, ever. Pretty much any non-Spanish / Carthaginian settlement you can recruit from will allow you to recruit peasants and the usual naval vessels (Bireme, Trireme etc. No way to recruit or retrain your Large Boats). Checking to see whether you can produce peasants is a good way to see whether you will be able to recruit ANY units in this settlement.

Spanish and Carthaginian settlements share a recruitable units roster (each unit is followed by the building required to recruit them in brackets):
Town watch (Barracks)
Iberian Infantry (Militia Barracks / Meeting Hall)
Skirmishers: (Practice Range)
Round shield cavalry (Stables)
Long Shield Cavalry (Cavalry Stables / Warlord's Stables)

You can produce these in Scallabis, Thapsus, Asturica, Osca, Carthage, Carthago Nova, Lepcis Magna and Lilybaeum, but NOT in Corduba, Numantia, Palma and Cirta, which count as barbarian.


The Numidian roster is similar, but a bit more limited:
Numidian Javelin Men (Practice Range)
Numidian Cavalry (Stables):
Long Shield Cavalry (Cavalry Stables)
You can produce these in Dimmidi, Nepte, and Tingi


Egyptian Settlements (Siwa, Alexandria, Memphis, Thebes, NOT Salamis) can produce:
Skirmishers (Practice Range)
Bowmen (Archery Range)
Egyptian Chariots (Blacksmith)


Eastern Settlements (the whole Palestine / Jordan area as well as Pontus and parts of Armenia / Parthia) produce:
Eastern Infantry (Barracks):
Archers (Archery Range):

You can recruit these in Sinope, Mazaka, Bostra, Petra, Jerusalem, Dumatha, Palmyra and Kotais.

You recruit Horse Archers (Stables) in Jerusalem, Petra, Susa, Bostra, Dumatha, Palmyra and Kotais. Sinope and Mazaka don't produce Horse Archers, but do allow you to recruit Pontic Heavy Cavalry (Cavalry Stables).

Much of the world (Italy, Greece, Thrace, west-Turkey, Seleucid and Scythian lands) is covered by "Greek" settlements. In every single one of these, you'll be able to recruit:
Militia Hoplites (Barracks)
Peltasts (Practice Range)
Greek Cavalry (Cavalry Stables).

You can recruit these and ONLY these in:
Messana, Syracuse, Massilia, Segesta, Arretium, Rome, Capua, Tarentum, Croton, Apollonia, Thermon, Larissa, Athens, Sparta, Thessalonica, Bylazora, Chersonesos, Rhodes, Nicomedia and Hatra.

Other settlements allow you to recruit the above, and some other units:
Segestica, Salona, Corinth, Byzantium, Tylis, Campus Getae, Campus Scythii, Themiskyra, Tanais, Halicarnassus, Sardis, Salamis, Tarsus, Damascus, Sidon, Antioch, Seleucia, Campus Sarmatae, Campus Alanni, Campus Sakae, Arsakia, Phraaspa and Artaxarta.

You can recruit Militia Cavalry (Stables) in:
Corinth, Kydonia, Byzantium, Tylis, Sardis, Halicarnassus, Tanais, Segestica, Campus Getae, Campus Scythii, Themiskyra, Campus Sarmatae, Campus Alanni, Campus Sakae, Antioch, Damascus, Salamis, Tarentum, Croton, Seleucia, Tarsus, Sidon, Arsakia, Phraaspa, Araxarta.

Hoplites (Militia Barracks / Meeting Hall):
Corinth, Kydonia, Byzantium, Tylis, Sardis, Halicarnassus, Tanais, Segestica, Campus Getae, Campus Scythii, Themiskyra, Campus Sarmatae, Campus Alanni, Campus Sakae.

Heavy Peltasts (Catapult Range):
Corinth, Kydonia, Byzantium, Sardis, Halicarnassus, Tanais, Segestica, Campus Getae, Campus Scythii, Themiskyra, Campus Sarmatae, Campus Alanni, Campus Sakae.

Besides that, sometimes a recruitment roster will just... bug out, for reasons I'm not entirely clear about. Something to do with the settlement changing hands several times? Auto-resolve battles? Damaged buildings? In any case, sometimes you will be able to temporarily recruit units (still from the rosters above) in seemingly barbarian settlements. Sometimes settlements like Campus Sarmatae, which start out as barbarian, will suddenly switch to Greek. No idea what the actual trigger is.

You can recruit units everywhere in BI, and the Barbarian / Berber settlements actually have more unit diversity than the Roman ones. You can expect to recruit everything on the custom battle roster and then some.

Barbarian Invasion:

BI is slightly easier because you get a lot generals spawning in central Europe, whom you can use as a battering ram to conquer some territories out of the way of the hordes \ to trigger horde migration and watch the chaos.

Unlike the base game, you don't have decent infantry \ militia hoplites that can stand up to much of anything, so you need to get good at cavalry micro. Your general baiting the enemy general into chasing him while a cav archer unit chases the enemy general and shoots him in the back can cheese a lot of battles.

For some early sieges, remember that the enemy cav will generally sally out from the far entrance to the settlement - which means that you can rush the infantry as they leave from the main entrance, rout them, and follow them back into the settlement as the gate opens. Capture all the gates, and now the enemy cav are stuck outside. (Only works for wood walls - cav can't capture stone wall gates and will only get shot to pieces on the streets anyway).

For some reason, Rebel merchants don't seem to generate any income. I use them as free spies with limited vision.

Finally, recruitment. There are a few main "cultures" which influence what you can recruit as rebels in BI. Unlike the base game (?) it seems as though the settlement "reverts" to its original culture shortly after being captured? For instance, Antioch is owned by ER at the start of the game, but shifts to the Sassanid recruitment list after a few turns? Here's an approximate list:

Western Rome:
Base unit you can always recruit - Peasants
Barracks – Limitanei
Militia Barracks – Foederati Infantry
Stables – Foederati Cavalry, Sarmatian Auxilia
Settlements: Lepcis Magna, Acquincum, Augusta Treverorum, Ravenna, Salona, Carthage, Londinium, Eburacum, Syracuse, Tarentum, Rome, Mediolanum, Augusta Vendilicorum, Carnutum, Samarobriva, Avaricum, Burdigala, Massila, Arles, Tarraco, Carthago Nova, Corduba, Salamantica

Eastern Rome:
Peasants
Barracks – Limitanei
Stables – Equites Auxilia
(Yes, that's everything you can recruit, ER territory sucks to conquer)
Thessalonica, Alexandria, Sirmium, Constantinople, Salamis, Tarsus, Caesaria, Sinope, Ancyra, Apheus, Kydonia, Athens, Cyrene

Sassanids:
Peasants
Militia Barracks – Levy Spearmen
Stables – Camel Raiders, Nomad Archer Cavalry
Practice Range – Kurdish Javelinemen, Mountain Slingers
Artaxarta, Ctesiphon, Phraaspa, Antioch, Hatra, Arsakia.

Judea \ desert:
Peasants
Barracks – Berber Axmen
Meeting Hall – Hillmen
City Barracks – Mountain Men
Practice Range – Desert Archers
Stables – Camel Raiders, Moorish Raiders, Berber Lancers
Cavalry Stables – Desert Cavalry, Desert Chieftain
Jerusalem, Philadelphia, Petra, Sidon, Dimmidi, Tingi

Alanni (upper right part of the map)
Herdsmen.
Runaway Slaves (Muster field)
Warlord (Warlord’s Stables)
Royal Stables – Alanni Horse Archers
Campus Alanni, Campus Sakae, Campus Sarmatae, Campus Dacia, Campus Iazyges, Campus Roxolani, Vicus Sarmatae, Kotais – Same, but with bonus xp


Vandals
Peasants
Meeting Hall – Steppe Spearmen
Practice Range – Steppe Raiders
Hall of Heroes – Steppe Swordsmen
Warlord’s Stables – Warlord, Steppe Horse Archers
Vicus Vanadli, Campus Barbaricum


Lombards:
Peasants
Practice range – Lombard Archers
Barracks – Spear Warband
Hundredmen Hall – Chosen Axemen
Stables – Barbarian Cavalry
Great King’s Stables – Chosen Warlord
Campus Lombardi, Campus Burgundii, Campus Marcomanni, Campus Chatii, Vicus Alemanni

Huns:
Herdsmen
Stables - Tribal Cavalry
Great Kings Stables - Warlord
Practice Range - Hunnic Archers
Barracks - Steppe Spearmen
Hall of Heroes - Steppe Swordsmen
Er... can't seem to find any settlements that have this culture by default. Certain rebel spawns will have it, particularly if the hordes blunder into the upper right corner of the map and replace the default rebel culture there.

Saxons:
Peasants
Muster field – Levy Spearmen
Meeting Hall – Saxon Keel
Hundredmen Hall – Chosen Axemen
Stables – Saxon Sea Raiders
Great King’s Stables - Warlord
Practice Range – Hunters
Vicus Saxones, Campus Frisii, Colonia Agrippina

Franks:
Vicus Franki and only Vicus Franki.
Peasants
Stables – Raiders
Barracks – Levy Spearmen
Hall of Heros – Axe Heerbann, Sword Heerbann
Practice Range - Hunters

Picts
Peasants
Muster Field – Pictish Spearmen
Hall of Heroes - Gallowglasses
Practice Range – Slingers, Kerns
Archery Range – Pictish Crossbowmen
Dal Raida, Tara

I hope this information was of some use to you. Share your impressions of any Rebel campaigns you play, and any important tips you may have to offer. Like this guide if it helped you out.

[Xander77]

Interesting if true. Thanks.

[Golden_Stasis]

(3/3) If you want to change the culture of a settlement after you've already captured it, move its garrison out and then move a unit with the culture you want into the city; after one turn (during which any recruitment options in the settlement change to a glitchy Greek/Roman Peasants icon, but you can still recruit), the settlement's culture will change to the new culture.
Hope this helps! I found all this out the hard way - I accidentally merged my west Anatolian field army into the Galatian starting rebels and ended up conquering the whole peninsula as useless barbarian settlements, which was very frustrating.

[Golden_Stasis]

(2/3) Any settlement you take with each army automatically changes to the culture of that army. Be warned - if you combine armies from different settlements, they'll all adopt the same culture; if you want to keep a good culture going - like say, Greek over barbarian - move your Greek army first and then merge your barbarian army into it; they should all carry Greek culture from then on.

[Golden_Stasis]

(1/3) One thing to add regarding cultures - you actually can change a settlement's culture during the game. The different rebel "tribes" you command (you'll see names like Sithones, Galatians, Athenians, Amazons etc.) are each tied to a culture (e.g. Athenians to "Greek" culture), and the armies you make from your settlements retain that culture (e.g. if you move the garrison of Athens into the field and hover the mouse over it, the description says "Athenian Rebels").

[Xander77]

You can try. It's buggy af though, and you can't order the other Romans around.

[Callipos]

can you also unlock SPQR with this? I know you said don't make SPQR playable in the guide but...

[Zewps]

@TotallyGnarGnar same, I can see all other factions but not rebels, I put them in playable and changed the custom battle thing to yes

[Nielsfest]

This is awesome. No gods! No masters! #ProletarianRevolt ftw

[Moonman]

Ive always loved playing as the rebels, and ive done what you said for the first bit. I got a really lucky spawn in Egypt, with 13 units and I was able to take them out. But other than that, I got like Northern Italy (That the Gauls control) And Sparta, but that was really it. I didnt get great unit spawns, and i accidentally clicked the Withdraw button on my biggest army, forgetting that it did that

[TommyFortress]

Just a warning to anyone reading. do not click on Senate or Senate office as SPQR. You Crash :)