Complete Rome: Total War guide

This guide is a complete guide for a Rome Total War campaign. It cover the basics of the game, as well some tricks to get an easier campaign for new players

Introduction

Rome: Total War is a strategy game with two separated (but fundamental) modes. The first one is the management of your cities across the map. Your main objective here is get the best profit possible and get the best technologies quickly.

The second mode are the battles, where using the correct unit in the correct moment is the key.

The game can be separated in three crucial moments. In the first one, you should quickly upgrade your settlements (population growth) and also conquer near rebel settlements to expand your empire. In the second moment, your main goal should be the conquest of the weakest factions near you, so you can strong your position against possible attacks. In the third and last moment, you should conquest Rome, while trying to maintain your settlements due to rebellions and low public order

This guide will try to explain the faction starter positions and the strategies in order to expand your empire. I suggest you to watch the positions of each faction and the suggested strategy before choosing a faction

The Factions I

The House of Julii:

The Julii faction starts in northern Italy, with two settlements: Arretium and Ariminium. Their main goals are the gauls, germans, britons, spain, dacian and some little conflicts with Carthage. You first objective should be the conquest of the gauls, as their cities are often defended by some light infantry units. As the barbarian settlements cannot reach high levels and often they don't hae many population, you should quickly siege every settlement that could help you to recruit some troops (and also will prevent the apparition of strongest units). After you finished with the gauls, you'ññ be in a 2 front war, against spain in the south-west and the germans/britons in the north. Believe me, if you manage to conquer spain, you'll be in an excelent economic position due to all the mines and resources that settlements have.

After the conquest of the germans and britons settlements in the continent, you can choose to conquer the british isles or go against dacia. With one of this objectives completed, you should be able to go against rome and conquer it.

The House of Brutii:

The position of Brutii is good. They have two settlements two: Tarentum and Croton. One really interesting thing about this faction is that they have two useful temples. The temple of Mars will give your units more experience, and the temple of Mercury will give you extra trading income. Your first targets will be the greeks and the macedons. If you capture their settlements quickly, you will have a really nice income, as the greek cities are really profitable. When you finished with both of them, you can go against Thrace to the north-east, Dacia to the north-west or the Seleucid Empire to the East. My suggestion is the conquest of Dacia, at least until you have the marian units (most eastern factions have a lot of projectile cavalry units). Also, it will help you to reduce the Julii strength, as those teriories should be from them, wich can give you some advantage when the civil war begins.

The House of Scipii:

The Scipii start the game with the settements of Capua (Italy) and Messana (Sicily). Their main objectives will be Carthage, Numidia and Egypt, and also have some lesser conflicts with the greek cities. Your first objective is conquer Sicily, in orther to attack Carthage. It's a HUGE city and will allow you to get better quality units from almost the beggining of the campaign. Once Carthage is yours, you should start with the conquest of every city who has a port, as the income from this cities can be enough to creat the most powerful army in the entire game, but be careful with Egypt, as they're one of the most powerful factions in the game. Also, you can attack and conquer Spain, who will give you a good income too.

Th Scipii temples allows them to upgrade the weapons of their soldiers, and also recruit special floats, unique for the Scipii faction, so it's a good idea bild this temples, as this bonus can make a difference.

SPQR:

The Senate faction can be unlocked modifiyng a .txt file, but the game crash if you play with this faction (i haven't tested this, but I read that in every forum)

Egypt

The position of Egypt it's really good. The main reason is that they don't suffer many attacks in the early stages of the campaign, allowing them to build a prosper economy and upgrading their armies before going to war. Also, they start with the 2 most useless (in my opinion) wonders in the game. You start with the cities of Alexandria, Memphis, Thebes, Sidon, Salamis and Jerusalen. Your first objective should be the capture of the rebel settlements to the east, as it will provide a good source of income. At the same time, you should defend your position on Sidon and Jerusalen, as the Seleucid Empire will try to capture those cities. Yo could use diplomacy to keep good relationships with Numidia, as they have a settlement near Thebes and Memphis.

When your army is better, attack te seleucid empire, who will be surrounded by other factions, also take the city of Siwa, as you will avoid a 2 front attack, forcing you to create an army or to send back one. If you have success, Asia would be under your control

When both empires have fallen, you can choose either your expasion by Africa or Greece. Both objectives could give you great benefits

After you've created a powerful army, navigate to Italy and attack Rome. Remember to look for ani region with one of the 7 wonders that you could capture quickly, as they're really useful

Seleucid:

The starter position of the Seleucid Empire could be a problem. They start with 6 cities, but surrounded by enemies. At the first moment, you have as possible enemies:

- Pontus and Armenia to the north
-Parthia to the east
-Egypt to the south
-Greece to the west

The first thing you should do is to create A LOT of units and upgrades for them at least from one city to reinforce the other regions, and the other ones supporting that city with funds. Try to get a good army to attack Egypt quickly, as they're the biggest danger for you. Don't forget to use the diplomacy in your favor, as it's really difficult if you have 4 battle fronts. After that, you could take greece and Egypt to get a really good economy. Don't even think in a naval army until your economy is really good and your armies are enough to defend your cities.

Carthage

Carthage situation can be a really good, as they're geographically dispersed, so you can have a quick expansion strategy. They have some regions in Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, Africa and Baliares. They don't have many large cities. But the ones who are large, are REALLY LARGE. Carthage have a lot of population and an amazing growth, so yu can test your new units soon. They start with Corduba in Spain, Carthage and Thapsus in Africa, Caralis in Sardinia, Palma in Baliares and Lilybaeum in Sicily.

As the dispersion of its cities can be good, this is true only if you are capable of defend all those positions for the same reason.

The first step should be de conquest of Sicily. The key is wait for the Scipii faction to take Syracuse, so you don't have to face the greek phalanx. With the conquest of Sicily, your eternal war with Rome will begun. So you gonna need a lot of ships to dominate the Mediterranean Sea. You should get a strong position in Spain, as the cities there can give you a good income, and will help you to stop the Julii from getting good position over Europe, so your armies will have less troubles when enter Rome from Sicily

Parthia

The position of Parthia can be good, as they only have 2 possible fronts against enemies. They start with Campus Sakae, Arsakia and Susa. Your possible enemies from the beggining are Scythia and the Seleucid Empire, but, due to the large distance between Campus Sakae and Scythia, you sholudn't worry too much about that. You first target should be the rebel cities to the south of Susa, and also Babylon, as you will get one of the seven wonders. The main units for Parthia are the projectile cavalry and the heavy cavalry, soy you should destroy the seleucid's spearman with your projectile cavalry, and destroy them with your cavalry when they have low morale (don't even think in a frontal attack). After that, quickly take the seleucid regions and prepare yourself against egypt, who will try to take those regions too.

The Factions II

Gauls

The gauls are the most extense barbarian faction of the game, with 7 starting regions. They start with Patavium, Mediolanum, Narbo Maritus, Alesia, Condate Redonum, Lemonum and Numantia.But they have enemies surrounding them. Numantia is in the Iberian Peninsula, the central europe is also taken by germans and britons, and far to the east is Dacia. Also, at the south stands te Roman Empire. Your first goal should be the re-unification of you regions, taking Massalia and Lugdunum and, if you can, Segesta before Rome take it. After this, prepare yourself, as the Julii will attack both Mediolanum and Patavium. Defend this cities and upgrade both cities into military, as Rome doesn't have heavy infantry in the early stages of the game, so your swordmen can take ot their infantry. If you're brave, you can even advance and capture Italy (be prepared, as the romans have strong armies there). Also, be careful, as Spain will try to take Numantia, and the britons and germans maybe try to conquer some of your cities. Create an army and defend yourself until your pwer is enough to conquer both factions

Britons

The britons have an outstanding position in the early stages of the game. The main british isle is totally occupied by your faction, so you will have to take Ireland to get them in your control. Also, they have a continental region, that should be your entrance to the domination of Central Europe. The britons have some lethal units against other barbarian factions: Chariots and head hurlers. Both units can give a good advantage in a battle, but you have to be careful, as the head hurlers can also kill your own troops and destroy his morale. Also, the chariots are useless if they engage the enemy en melee combat.

Once you conquered the british isles, the next step should be a war against the germans, as they can be very dangerous if you let them get better units. The gauls probably will have their effort in protecting his cities from the Roman Empire. After the germans, attack an conquest the gauls. Later, yo straight aganist rome, as they don't have spearman units to stop your chariots until marian reforms.

The Greek Cities

Like Carthage, the greeks are dispersed. They start with Syracuse in Sicily, Sparta and Thermon in Greece, Rhodes and Pergamum in Asia Minor. Their main units are spearman who can use the "phalanx" formation, a solid spear wall, capable of destroy almost any enemy unit who try to engage in a frontal attack, but they're weak if are attacked by the flanks or the rear. Basically, a strong defensive faction.

The main advantage of Greece is the Temples of Hermes, who improves your trading profits. Also, they have the Temple of Artemis, the Temple of Zeus and the Mausoleum near, so they can have some awesome benefits to the temple construction. Also, they have the Colossus, who improves the commerce by sea. The first thing you should do is take all the cities in Greece, as they will make you rich (this cities provide huge quantities of money). Use a diplomat to bribe some greek type troops (macedonian, seleucid, etc) and eliminate possible invasions, and also growing up your army. Use the mountains in your favor, as the phalanx formation is even more lethal if also used when you're in high position. If you can, create quickly a dangerous army and attack the Brutii and enter in Italy in the south, as you can later destroy both Brutii and Scipii (do this AFTER taking Greece). Another option is an attack to Asia, conquering the seleucid regions

Macedon

Similar to the greeks with some cavalry changes, Macedon occupies the north of Greece, near Thrace and Dacia. They are a little bit more versatile than the Greeks. You should conquer Greece and Thrace, and later going into Asia or Italy. My suggestion is the attack on Italy, as it's better not face the romans with the marian reforms.

Pontus

Pontus start with only two regions, Sinope and Mazaka, almost surrounded by factions. The main objective, as you are a small faction, is the conquest of the near rebel settlements, Ancyra, Bithynia and Halicarnassus. Across the sea you have Chersonesos and, if you think you can handle it, Crete in the Mediterranean. Also you can take Byzantium if Thrace didn't do that yet.

After that, you wil have to reinforce your cities and upgrade your army, until you're strong enough to attack and conquer Asia Minor. Repeat this and be prepared to engage in combat against Egypt, the Seleucid Empire and Parthia. Once you control Asia, you can either take your expansion to Africa, or go straight to Greece and Italy

Armenia

The first steps with Armenia should be the conquest of every rebel region near. Their units are "roman styed". As they start with just two regions, a strategy about expansion should be wise. Also, the position is excelent, as they can´t be attacked from the rear. So your main target should be the conquest of the nearby rebel regions in order to attack later the Seleucid empire and, from there, conquest Asia Minor

Spain

The Spain start is good. The Peninsula can give you really good benefits, and can be a good base to start you expansion. First, you should try to conquest Numantia, so you can join both parts of your empire. After that, attack Corduba, so you take control of Iberia.

After that, you should try to have good relationships with Numidia, as they can help you to take down Carthage. So you should concentrate in the conquer of the gauls and your expansion in europe.

Like the roman soldiers, the iberian units use a javelin before they engage in close combat. Also, there's a game error that don't allow Spain to create the best cavalry units (even when you have the building at max level).

Missing Factions

-Thrace
-Numidia
-Dacia

Reason: I haven't played with those factions, so i don't really know a good strategy for them. If someone want to give me his strategy, i can put it and give him the credit for the help

Agents

There are three types of agents in Rome Total War. They are the diplomats, the spies and the assassins.

Diplomats

Their job is contact another faction and make offers. Those offers can be a peace agreement, an alliance, trade rights, map information and more. Also they can try to bribe an army, so they will disband (or join you if they are from the same culture type than you). For them, the influence is the most important thing, as it will the factor who decides if the other faction accept or decline a deal. Their influence can be improved getting accepted offers with advantage for us. Also, the ancillary can give you extra influence. A good idea is send a diplomat all over the map, to get information and trade rights form all the factions. You should have just some few diplomats, but high-skilled, so the negotiations don't fail. A good trick in harder levels is send a high-skilled diplomat to speak to the faction A and ask them to attack the faction B. Go to the faction B and ask him to attack the faction C. And the same with the faction C with the faction A. With this you can create a great conflict, so then you can wait and, when thee factions are weak enough, attack them and take their regions. A diplomat die around the 65 years. When he's about to die, transfer the ancillary to another young diplomat . Also can be assassinated

Spies:

The functions of a spy are many, and their main attribute is the subterfuge. The first thing, they shall go one turn advanced that our army, to detect assassins, armies and cities. They're like mobile watchtowers. Also, when you detect an enemy army, you can see the composition of the army, letting you create a battle plan and choose the battlefield to fight against that army, or just avoid him. A spy can infiltrate in a city. When this happens, you can see the garrison, income, puclic order... Everything. Also, there's a chance that the spy successfully open the doors of the city for your army in a siege, so you can fight without giving the enemy the chance of bring reinforcements. Obviously, this chance is bigger if the spy have a better subterfuge. Also, when they get into a city, reduce the public order due to propaganda. When you join your spy with one of your armies or cities, they reduce the success rate of an enemy agent in infiltrating, assassinating and sabotage missions, so can be a good idea have one spy in every city of your own.

Also, there's a "dirty trick". When a plague appears in one of your cities, you can train LOTS of spies and send them to cities from other faction. This will make the plague appear in those cities, lowering the population and restricting a lot of movements of the troops there

They die around the 65 years or in a failed mission (most probably)

Assassins:

The assassins have two main functions. The first is to assassinate a character or agent from another faction. It's really useful perform some assassinations, as you can take out dangerous generals from the enemy's army. Aso you can killl diplomats attempting to bribe your troops, other assassins and spies. They also have subterfuge, and, again, it's the most important attribute for them. The other function is sabotage. When you reach a city, you can try to sabotage some buildings, in order to slow the enemy troops production or a temple to start a rebellion. The sabotage it's easier than the assasination, but doesn't give subterfuge to the assassin. The best option is have only two o three assassin's, as they're very expensive. One should be "cleaning the house". killing diplomats attempting to bribe your troops and rebel generals. The other should be with your army, taking down generals and sabotaging the main buildings of the city we want to siege.

Like the spies, they die around the 65 years or in a failed mission

Managers and generals

As I said in the beggining, Rome Total War have two different modes. The managment and the battle. In your family, the male members can be generals, who will lead your armies into battle, or city managers, making huge profits for the empire as the governors of a city. It's important that the roles are properly distributed. But let's start with the basics. More family members you have, better capacity of covering the roles properly. How can I get family members?

-They are already assigned at the start of the campaign: THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. Some traits of those members are unique and will not appear again. So don't lose those generals, as they sons have a good chance of getting those traits when reach 16 years

-Be adopted: If a captain (not member of the family) wins 3 o 4 times in battle, you will receive a message telling that the captain could be a great family member, and ask you about the adoption. But beware, as the other childrens of the father can generate negative traits due to adoption

-Born in the family

-Marry one of your daughters. Reject every character that is older than 30 years, as they have a lot less of time to use their stars to command an army or to manage a city.

-Bribe an enemy general



Character attributes:

- Command: This attribute help your army in battle, increasing the morale of the troops, and also their performance in battle.

-Management: This directly affects the income of a city. It's important to use our best administrators in the biggest cities, as in those you can really see the differences. For example, if you take Syracuse and let a bad administrator manage it, you will have to pay a great quantity of denarii to maintain the city (-2000). But if you send someone with high management skills, the city can give 0 income, or even positive income

-Influence: The influence helps to maintain public order in a city, increasing our income too (with more happy citizens, you can raise the tax rate without have a rebellion). Also, in the roman factions the influence give you more opportunities to get a position in the Senate.

How to get good generals:

The easiest way is to win battles. When you win a battle with a ratio minor than 2:1, your general can improve. also he can get the traits "good attacker" or "good defender". An academy and the temple's ancillary can boost your command attribute. Avoid the defeats and the retreats, as both will reduce you traits

How to get good managers

The main way is an academy. The temple's ancillary can help you too. Constructing buildings can help you to improve some traits, also destroying them. If you detect spies and assassins, you can get good traits too. Avoid finishing a turn with more than 50.000 denarii in your account, as every 50.000 denarii there's a chance of 3% that the character members become corrupt and steal from the treasury.

FAQ

Q: I've saw that you created a strategy for a faction that can't be played. Why?
A: Editing the descr_strat.txt you can unlock all the factioons and make them playable. Just cut the names of the factions and paste it below "playable"

Q: Can you recommend me a battle formation?
A: No. Because a formation must be flexible. You should adapt a new formation for a battle in mountains, forests, plains, rainy weather, etc. AND you should adapt to win against the enemy army

Q: My cities are a financial disaster. What can I do?
A: Try to send better managers to the city. Raise the tax rate to the highest possible. If this doesn't solve the problem, take all your units out, set the tax rate to the maxe and let them have a rebellion. Conquer the settlement again and exterminate the population. The city should be giving you positive income again.

Q: Can I play with SPQR?
A: Yes, you can, but there's a LOT of CTD's. I think that you can't enter the "Senate" Tab, and also i don't know what happen when the senate members are elected.

Q: What is the civil war?
A: Is the war between the three roman families when they try to take Rome

Q: What is "Arcade Mode"?
A: In the arcade mode, al projectile units have unlimited ammo, the troops doesn't get tired and don't are affected by low morale

Q: Wich differences are between normal ammo and incendiary ammunition?
A: The incendiary ammo kills more troops and reduces morale, but the fire rate is reduced to 1/2 and it's less accurate

Q: Where can I recruit the First Cohort?
A: Only in Rome

Q: How can I start the civil war?
A: Failing an assassination against a roman famili member, attacking a roman faction, canceling your alliance with the Senate or reject a suicide petition

Q: What is the unit scale and how can I change it?
A: The unit scale determines the amount of soldiers per unit
-Small: 20 per unit
-Normal: 40 soldiers per unit
-Large: 80 soldiers per unit
-Huge 160 soldiers per unit

Remember that a larger scale means that you need mor population to recruit troops, and in a siege the great amount of units can create a bottleneck in the doors.

Q: How can I give the ancillary of one general to another?
A: Join them in a city or army, click and hold in the one you wish to give to the general and drag the cursor to the general portrait that you want to give that ancillary

Q: When appear the marian reforms?
A: When you finished your first Imperial Palace

Q: How can I get the romang eagles without stealing them from a roman army?
A: Recruit the First Cohort in Rome, or the senate can give you one

Q: How can I fight battles during the night?
A: You can't, that's available in Barbarian Invasion

Q: How can I recruit Spartan hoplites?
A: You can only recruit them in Sparta with max level barracks

Q: Why I can't join two fleets?
A: If both have an admiral with one star or more, it's impossible

Q: Why the reinforcements doesn't reach the battle in time?
A: Because your PC can't handle so many soldiers. The reinforcements will appear when the number of soldiers in the battlefield is low enough to handle all the soldiers

Updates and credits

Version: v1.0

[Turnepic13]

The marian reforms require the imperial place to be on the Italian peninsula or Sicily

[Annoyance.]

Also, if a fresh admiral loses and gets a negative command trait, he will also count as a admiral unable to be switched and honestly, the best thing to do is to give him some battered up ship and scuttle it to get rid of him

Also also: if a game decides reinforcements exceed the game’s limits, it will specifically tell you so, reinforcements can also arrive late completely at random, since ancient world didn’t exactly have GPS, telephones or clocks, people DID get late often.

In conclusion, your strategies are alright, but Q&A section is half bullshit

[Annoyance.]

City income is profit minus army upkeep proportional to its population, if you haven’t noticed
Thus, biggest ones WILL have negative income because they are picking up all the bills. You should still have best managers there to maximize their impact, but negative numbers are irrelevant for your empire.
Which brings me to the most idiotic thing you said: allowing cities to rebel only to raze them is a valid tactic, but for managing UNREST. Who do you think earns all the money in the city for you to collect? It’s people, ones you just killed, you imbecile, and all other of your cities will dip in income to pick up the bill graveyard cannot anymore

[Heystraw]

Good stuff!

[Deadly4U]

bruh nice guide, 1 thing wrong though, you can also recruit spartan hoplites in syracuse as well as sparta

[Zaraline]

You can't. That feature become available on later games. The only thing you can do is automatically resolve battles, so it's a good idea to have a couple of 10-ship fleets to control the sea (the AI won't have so many ships on their fleets, so you should win battle pretty easitly)

[juancg1512]

how can i play a sea battle in the campaign?

[Kami]

ok, thanks!

[Zaraline]

It' also impossible. Creating a city implies also creating a province. If you're interested in a larger map you could try Mundus Magnus. The older versions keep the same vanilla units and factions and add a LOT of cities. Also, it expands the map

[Kami]

also, is there any way to BUILD citys? i haven't found any ways, but im thinking about the forts and that you could possibly build citys using them.