Total War Rome II Tips

How can I serve Rome?

Though it’s unlikely that I will play through the whole campaign again, I still want to write down these tips that I wish I knew earlier. Some of these are based on playing Rome in the Grand Campaign but the philosophy of playing any faction should be similar.

Provincial Management

1. The way I played provincial management is the same as how I played Shogun 2. That is to maximize commerce while keeping the public order and food supply afloat. I don’t think slaves, industry, culture and even technology are that useful in this game.
2. You can build duplicate buildings in the same province but not in the same region.
3. For provinces with at least three ports or three regions, especially those with Wine resource, I built as many Market Colonias, Trading Ports and Shops as possible.
4. Because the food supply applies at the factional level, so I dedicated provinces with only one port or only two regions to food supply. Build Forum Piscarium (Fishing Port) and Latifundiums (Farms) as many as possible.
5. When playing Rome, I usually pick a few provinces with good local auxillary units to put all my military buildings. Build as many Basilica of Mars as possible. Also build corresponding Practice Fileds even though I don’t think it’s that useful.
6. If you are playing Rome, pick provinces with good auxiliary units for military buildings, like Hellas with Cretan archers, Aquitania and Celtica with Noble Horse, Phazania with African Elephants (African forest elephant, smallest of the three elephant species on the planet.) and Numidian Cavalry (ranged Cav). Check out the auxiliary map.
7. Forums can only be built in the provincial capital region and they are more powerful than other buildings, I always try to build them as many as possible. Circus is a must because it brings most public order and allows me to maximize tax rate.
8. Besides Circus, Delicatessen/Taberna/Forum Cuppedinis is a top prioity to keep food abundant. Additional Latifundiums (Farms) in minor settlements are also needed. Exempt tax for high negative food supply province when your faction is low on food.
9. Cattle Trader/Slaughterhouse/Forum Boarium provides a good commerce output and Library/Archives/Scriptorium helps with technology development. The rest Forums are really not that useful in my way of play.
10. Basilica of Jupiter have all good buffs. It increases wealth from all sources, helps with public order, and boosts Tax Harvesting Edict. Build one or two in minor settlements. I decide not to build any other type of Basilica because it hurts my brain to do all the calculation and I don’t see anything amazing happens. I am happy with the Jupiter.
11. Sanitation buildings are really not that useful to me. It brings little benefit.

Politics and Houses

1. Use the generals from other houses to increase their loyalties. Personally I think avoiding civil war is much more important than those buffs from influence. But it really depends on your play style, if you like beating the hell out of other houses, only use your own generals.
2. One way to manage loyalty is to engineer some deaths for those with bad traits and are becoming house leaders. Charge them alone to the enemy.
3. Don’t hire idle politician for other houses. It increases their influence. Just make them generals or admirals and let them do transport or patrol work.
4. Hire candidates from your house and arrange marriage for them as soon as possible.
5. Household are not that important. Except for those with global benefits, I didn’t even bother to put them on.

Agents

1. Dignitaries decrease army upkeep or increase provincial tax rate. In the late game I use them only for increasing loyalty from generals.
2. Champions train your army or increase provincial public order. They also increase provincial loyalty when they have a certain high-rank skill. I usually put them in provinces controlled by other houses after they rank up just for the loyalty.
3. I never choose skills upgrades other than those related to the usage above.
4. Spies have many useful skills but I mostly use them for scouting.
5. I seldom use agents to counter other agents or use skills on other factions, because it is often more trouble than joy to me.

Army and Fleet

1. Faction income determines your armies and fleets size. Always keep an eye out on the income balance. I once recruited multiple full-sized armies and marched out, only to be sneaked attacked in the back at Rome and lose half of my income. I had to go through disarmament and cut down half of my military and fight back.
2. House of Conelia has half auxiliary upkeep so it is very powerful especially in the early game when you are short on coins. The rest factions and houses are really not that different. At least not as different as the Civlization series.
3. Units from your faction are cheap to keep while the mercenary is cheap to hire but has high upkeep. You can hire and fire them fast.
4. In the late game when your army is far from home, mercenary is a must.
5. Army and fleet traditions are really not that important. I usually go with the ones that bring immediate benefits like increase campaign movement range and plus public order, which may be considered useless to some people.
6. Shockingly I beat the game without using any of the fancy siege units or engines except basic ladder, ram and tower.
7. The general skills are a little bit complicated and didn’t really bring much benefits. You can actually pick whatever you want. Second wind and group inspire can be useful combat skills. Plus ranks for new recruits can also be useful. You can disband the general and raise the army again at the military provinces.

Combat Tactics

1. Spear man has high defense and sword man has high attack. They are the core of the army. Think of them as walls. Always try to flank the others to keep the effective contact size as much as possible.
2. Circle your archers and shoot your enemies in the back is very effective and causes less friendly fire, but is very dangerous to your archers. That’s why mounted missile units are handy.
3. Sneak around and charge your cavalry to enemies missile units, or to flank melee units in the back.
4. Generals can die very fast.
5. Ships are very dumb when they are squeezed together. So keep some space.
6. Melee ships are much more effective than missile and artillery ships to me.

Final Words

1. The order of technology really does not matter that much. It all depends on your play style.
2. Choosing skills for army/fleet/agents/generals can be very tiring and brings little benefits. So I only choose those related to my play style and ignore others.
3. Dipomacy is quite easy. Get trade agreements as more as you can. Use non-aggression pact to protect your rear. Military alliances and client states also count toward victory condition so use that.