How to Unlock Non-Roman Factions in RTW

This is my 1st RTW guide, so please leave some feedback! Rome: Total War mainly focuses on the 4 roman factions: S.P.Q.R (The Senate), The House of Julii, the House of Scipii, and the House of Brutii. What a lot of people don't know is that you can actually get other factions to play as by beating the game as any roman faction.I'll teach you how to do that in this guide.

Objectives

In order to unlock other factions in RTW, you must win the game as any roman faction. The easiest way to do this is to conquer Gaul as the House of Julii. The short campaign will give you some of the factions, (All roman factions except S.P.Q.R, Egypt, Gaul, Carthage, Britannia, Germania, The Greek Cities, and Parthia) The short campaign is what we will go with today. In order to win as the House of Julii you must: a) conquer or outlast Gaul, b) control at least 15 provinces, and c) do that before your Roman brothers complete their objectives. You can unlock the rest of the factions by altering your game's files.

Starting Out

At the very beginning, you own 2 cities: your capital, Arretium, and another one, Arminium. The latter will be losing money, so get a suitable governor there right away. Make any building in Arminium that will gain you money, preferably farms, as they help the city grow and produce lots of money. Arretium, on the other hand, is pretty well off, so start making military buildings there. Combine any and all armies that you might have (with the exception of good governors and town watch, who will keep order). Recruit plenty of Hastati, as they are the backbone of any roman army. Your target is Segesta, because it is easy to take, a senate mission will give you 5000 denarii for taking it, and you need the extra province. After you take Segesta and put a proper governor there, your next target is the Gallic city of Patavium, to your north. Don't take any trade agreements, map info, or alliances from Gaul. This town will grow fast, and by the time I completed the game, it was a large city, and it was growing fast. If you get attacked while besieging this settlement, try to kill the enemy family member, so the faction is weakened. Kill a Gallic family member every chance that you have, in fact. After Patavium is taken, produce military buildings there as well.

Challenging Gaul

When you have a sizable treasury, it is time to turn Rome into a military machine. Make barracks in all your cities, and be spitting out armies like clockwork. Mediolanium should be pretty easy to take. By now, senate missions will be telling you to take a Carthaginian town on Sardinia, but you can decide if you should or not. Massilia is the next city. Then Narbo Martius. By this time, Britannia will take notice of you. Sooner or later, they will attack, no matter how long an alliance is held, so keep Massilia and Narbo Martius heavily garrisoned. After you take Narbo Martius, you have 2 options. A) Go south to Gallic possesions in Spain, or B) Turn north towards the Gallic capital, which will either be Lemonum or Alesia, depending on the Briton's Progress. Sending one army north and another south is a good idea. After you have exiled Gaul from the map, you have 3 problems: a) your treasury is low. b) any time your armies leave a settlement, it revolts, and c) even though Gaul is gone, you have 10 provinces, not 15. At this point, take time to lick your wounds. Send new governors from Italy to your Gallic possesions. Build traders, farms, mines, and markets. Send new armies to the front. When your treasury has recovered, make tons of town watch, to keep an eye on the place when you're out on the hunt. Now, you have 2 choices.

Winning

A) Turn south and try to conquer the Iberian peninsula (which includes a Carthaginian possession), or B) Turn norht towards Brittania and Germania. The britons will be attacking you at this point, whereas the Spanish are content with screwing with Carthage. So Britannia would be the obvious choice. Usually, the Britons will have worked their way south by taking Alesia and Lugdunum. Take these towns, and push on the the Briton's last remaining settlment on the Continent: Samarobriva. Since the Britons are unable to retreat to England, they will have stockpiled all their armies into this last city. It is pretty hard to take, but you can if you have a big enough army. Now you should only have 1 province to conquer, if you did not capture that Carthaginian settlement on Sardinia that I was talking about earlier. If you didn't do that, don't worry. Germania has a lightly garrisoned settlement, Luvavum, near Patavium, now the military center of your empire. send an army to conquer that, and you have your settlement. Congratulations! You have won the game as a roman faction! You can now play as The Seleucids, Egypt, Carthage, Parthia, Greek Cities, Gaul, Germania, and Britannia as well as the roman factions!

Extras

Heres some extra stuff that can also help you win a little easier.

-Later in the game, you get a senate mission ordering you to blockade Londinium, a Briton port on the south side of England (Londinium is present day London). Ship a navy there, but don't blockade just yet. The Senate will offer generous rewards for blockading it, so just wait for one that you like before doing anything.

-The House of Brutii will be conquering Greece and Macedon, so it starts to be a race between you and them as you both start to get close to completing your objecties for the short campaign.

-NEVER EVER ATTACK BARBARIAN WARLORDS HEAD ON. EVER. They have amazing morale, and good charge bonus, especially chariots. I once lost 4 units of Equites to a Briton chariot general because i charged him head on. Instead, try surrounding them, or better, use spearmen, like Triarii.

-You can lure cav out of a settlement by sending a weak unit in, and when the cav come to kill them, run them out of the gate to a waiting mass of legions, who, upon arrival of the cav, will attack from all sides.

[Derp]

Julii sucks fat ligma, we all know that the Brutii are best

[El Mattador]

Good tip on countering the barbarian horses - I came up with something similar. Baiting an enemy charge has won me a lot of battles I shouldn't have won because I had inferior units by number or quality (terrain + tactics x timing & patience = VICTORY).

[Lord of the Lemmings]

It is taking me forever. And I own half the known world.

[DecentFeedz]

i used console commands to beat the long campaign but i never got all the factions. when it asked if i wanted to continue i said no. did i do something wrong? (I just wanna play as Thrace or Pontus)

[Aracano]

wow. i expected you to tell us about editing the files instead of doing it legitemetly.......i have faith in you silly humans again

[Rickrokyfy]

Can you do this with any faction? (Ulocked Greece and im playing a campaign right now with them. Wondered if ill need to start a new campaign to unlock all factions.)

[Knight]

Beat the game!

[Krill YT]

cool

[maplesyrup]

so only rome can unlock factions or and faction you play as you can unlock ppl

[Karpe Noktem]

i'm a bit confused: how do you appoint a governor? :)