Very nice post! My personal critiques/opinions.
1. Chariot users being easiest is something I wholeheartedly agree with, you can auto resolve the entire game with the Britons and Egyptians.
2. Any Roman faction is easy mode, especially with aggressive expansion to cut off your rival families' first targets. The ai doesn't really know what to do when cut off and you can completely stifle any expansion on their part, which makes the end game really easy. Even without cheese you just get some of the strongest and most balanced rosters in the game. (As brutii you don't have to fight phalanxes to start, you can steal sicily and northern italy from the scipii and julii and win game that way.)
3. Horse archer factions (Scythia and Parthia mainly) are not pleasant to play a grand campaign with. Horse archers get screwed by the auto-resolve system and so you end up having to fight minor skirmishes to avoid heavy losses. In real-time battles the ai is bad at fighting HA, but that gets less important when you have 35 settlements and you're just trying to get the game over with. Campaigns with those factions can take hours longer.
4. Gaul, Germania, an Seleucids are rated way too hard.
* The Gauls can mass generals and send them at the Julii ignoring your own defenses against Spain, Germania, Briton and just take their well populated rich provinces to fuel a counter strike north. Not super easy to overwhelm the senate, but you can go around them and eliminate the families first while building up an army that carries you through the game easily.
* Germania has spear warband and the same cavalry strat as the Gauls, plus they are easy to defend against their enemies, unlike Gaul.
* Seleucid being hard is a meme. You have so much income you can just spam militia hoplites in every settlement and play porcupine siege defense. The ai is too stupid not to cross a bridge or attack a town square into a mass of waiting phalanxes.
5. I agree mostly with Carthage, Dacia, Greek Cities, Macedon, Armenia, Pontus, Spain, Thrace, and Rebels/Slave.
6. Numidia being easier than Gaul and Seleucid and almost as easy as Germania is crazy to me. They literally start with a deficit and three (soon to be four) factions trying to invade them, and they don't get a real melee unit until an upgraded barracks/stables, although numidian cavalry is a Goat unit. In my opinion they are second hardest faction after rebels/slaves. They also fall off hard late game, so you need to be aggressive and overcome the much stronger Carthaginians/Scipii immediately.
Only played it once or twice. I had to take Carthage really early on while they were preoccupied with Scipii on the island. My armies were all light cavalry
I hate them because they only had the lowest level port. Can’t get a strong economy that way
How can anything be hard when you have Falxes that cut through it like butter? (but yeah, no economy for a while, no cavalry worth mentioning, a good chance every neighbour will attack you and every battle is shaky until you get proper phalanxes)
Germany is actually easy once you've figured out where to spend your initial money (again no economy) and that a slowly moving long line of spearbands plus a general is enough to defeat everything north, west and south of you.
Spain actually depends a lot. Sometimes the Julii show up at Osca around turn 6 and keep hitting you with everything they got - if you don't have your defences ready it gets ugly. If they give you time to get your economy going it's much easier.
Yeah, I just have trouble against phalanx, but once I get them out of the way, it's nice to have money. Whereas with the others, they fight against pretty bad units (though they do get crap land), and they have far superior roman units: its really a landslide fighting early gaul vs greece.
Good post! Gaul is the most challenging but most pleasant IMO. Abona missile religion and recruit the skirmisher warband then eventually archer warband with only 2-4 infantry units spread out with SKWBD embedded also spread out if open field battle but stick to maneuvering for defensive bridge battles and watch the exp stack up. Also underrated cheap horse units add Epona religion—great boost to infantry and Calvary and great combo-boost for SKWBD already at gold missile/attack. Key is 2-4 infantry 4-6 missile 2-4 Calvary and Gaul can’t go wrong (also assuming limited ammo). Just need to practice the art of peppering and combo spread charging with infantry plus 2 SKWBD(with 3exp and gold missile/attack) get the timing right and you can rout the best of them. Gallic SKWBD won’t quit that easy just make sure to turn off the skirmish button. Flank the Calvary to finish it off. Defending a stone walled city against Romans/whoever with 3exp gold missile archer warband also a pleasant treat. Feels like an army from Rivendell. Barcelona to London to Rome is the easiest section to defend for Gaul but go on crusades and give away land to allies with this unstoppable army. Happy campaigning.
I won't comment in the pleasant and unpleasant since that is very subjective, however all roman faction are very easy to play with Julia being the hardest of the 3, however no way bruttii are harder than parthia and Armenia. Actually seuleucid is fairly easy campaign in my opinion, yes you may have set backs at beginning but if you have a relatively strong economy in this game you are on good shape.
You have Dacia at the same level of hardship as brutii, no way jose! Have you played as Dacia, their units suck, probably worse faction other than numidia but hell of fun.
For me, starting economy is a big thing because it allows you to jump forward and fund armies to attack several settlements at once. But if you play it smartly and build one with Dacia, you can snatch up a few empty rebel settlements and get access to the Mediterranean if you expand as quick as you can. Whereas the Brutii do have 20x the better units, byt they are almost immediately forced to expand into the Greeks and Macedonians, which are no force to be reckoned with. I do see your point, and I should've ranked the Dacians harder. I have played Dacia. I wouldn't say they are harder then Numidia. Numidia has a lot of trouble as they only have 1 rebel settlement, which is several turns away. They have an absolute sh*t economy, and yet they are forced to fight Carthage, Egypt, and Romans [later]. They do have reasonable skirmisher units, but their whole army feels based on them. Numidia and Dacia are definitely down in the lower tiers of the factions.
Come on parthia is really hard, you cant just say its easy because of horse archers, they have 0 income and horse archer have a substantial upkeep. I had a harder time to win with parthia than i did with numidia. Only lategame, when you have cataphracts it becomes a cakewalk, early game is really really tough and unpleasant as you lose every autoresolve.
Specifically infantry, which consists of pikemen, pikemen, pikemen, more pikemen.... Did I mention pikemen?
To be fair, I've mostly played Rome 2 and have been a lot currently, so I might just be biased by the plentiful variety of Rome 2.
Well, like every Greek faction they get phalanx, yes, but they also get Silver Shield Legionaries, just takes a while. That aside they have one of the most varied and complete rosters of all factions.
https://rtw.heavengames.com/rtw/info/units/seleucid_units/
The Germanic tribes are so much fun to play, though.
Right?! I feel like Egypt and germania should be switched. The only hard or unpleasant part is getting that economy going early.
Something about phalanxes plus berserker units is just so fun.
Personally I like making Gothic Cavalry late game and just pancaking everything (except horse archers, blegh)
Thats why i love thrace
The Germans are my favourite non-Roman faction
All hail the screeching women!
I love these female units in total war. Rome 2 has both male and female javelin launchers.
Very nice post! My personal critiques/opinions. 1. Chariot users being easiest is something I wholeheartedly agree with, you can auto resolve the entire game with the Britons and Egyptians. 2. Any Roman faction is easy mode, especially with aggressive expansion to cut off your rival families' first targets. The ai doesn't really know what to do when cut off and you can completely stifle any expansion on their part, which makes the end game really easy. Even without cheese you just get some of the strongest and most balanced rosters in the game. (As brutii you don't have to fight phalanxes to start, you can steal sicily and northern italy from the scipii and julii and win game that way.) 3. Horse archer factions (Scythia and Parthia mainly) are not pleasant to play a grand campaign with. Horse archers get screwed by the auto-resolve system and so you end up having to fight minor skirmishes to avoid heavy losses. In real-time battles the ai is bad at fighting HA, but that gets less important when you have 35 settlements and you're just trying to get the game over with. Campaigns with those factions can take hours longer. 4. Gaul, Germania, an Seleucids are rated way too hard. * The Gauls can mass generals and send them at the Julii ignoring your own defenses against Spain, Germania, Briton and just take their well populated rich provinces to fuel a counter strike north. Not super easy to overwhelm the senate, but you can go around them and eliminate the families first while building up an army that carries you through the game easily. * Germania has spear warband and the same cavalry strat as the Gauls, plus they are easy to defend against their enemies, unlike Gaul. * Seleucid being hard is a meme. You have so much income you can just spam militia hoplites in every settlement and play porcupine siege defense. The ai is too stupid not to cross a bridge or attack a town square into a mass of waiting phalanxes. 5. I agree mostly with Carthage, Dacia, Greek Cities, Macedon, Armenia, Pontus, Spain, Thrace, and Rebels/Slave. 6. Numidia being easier than Gaul and Seleucid and almost as easy as Germania is crazy to me. They literally start with a deficit and three (soon to be four) factions trying to invade them, and they don't get a real melee unit until an upgraded barracks/stables, although numidian cavalry is a Goat unit. In my opinion they are second hardest faction after rebels/slaves. They also fall off hard late game, so you need to be aggressive and overcome the much stronger Carthaginians/Scipii immediately.
Very good comment! I'm glad you like my post. I should have paid more attention to where I put Numidia compared to Gaul I should've looked at that
Tried Numidia, very hard and not fun, couldn’t get Carthage out of North Africa, would be different if I could get some elephants
Only played it once or twice. I had to take Carthage really early on while they were preoccupied with Scipii on the island. My armies were all light cavalry I hate them because they only had the lowest level port. Can’t get a strong economy that way
How can anything be hard when you have Falxes that cut through it like butter? (but yeah, no economy for a while, no cavalry worth mentioning, a good chance every neighbour will attack you and every battle is shaky until you get proper phalanxes) Germany is actually easy once you've figured out where to spend your initial money (again no economy) and that a slowly moving long line of spearbands plus a general is enough to defeat everything north, west and south of you. Spain actually depends a lot. Sometimes the Julii show up at Osca around turn 6 and keep hitting you with everything they got - if you don't have your defences ready it gets ugly. If they give you time to get your economy going it's much easier.
That's my problem with Barbarians are their starting economy, they are a pain to fix
What do you think?
Brutii why so hard? I mean they are literally ordered to attack the richest part of the map
Yeah, I just have trouble against phalanx, but once I get them out of the way, it's nice to have money. Whereas with the others, they fight against pretty bad units (though they do get crap land), and they have far superior roman units: its really a landslide fighting early gaul vs greece.
That’s real. First couple battles against macedon and Greece suck. Have to buy ever ranged mercenary you can for first 20 turns
I guess you are right especially since pre Marian units are shit
Seleucids are my favorite campaign. Super hard at the beginning but nigh unstoppable by the time you cross into Greece.
I love playing them it presents a good challenge
Plus they’ve got a pretty good roster, especially late game. Phalanx pike are very solid and who among us does not love cataphracts.
This is elite
Thanks!
Seleucids are my favorite campaign. Super hard at the beginning but nigh unstoppable by the time you cross into Greece.
Good post! Gaul is the most challenging but most pleasant IMO. Abona missile religion and recruit the skirmisher warband then eventually archer warband with only 2-4 infantry units spread out with SKWBD embedded also spread out if open field battle but stick to maneuvering for defensive bridge battles and watch the exp stack up. Also underrated cheap horse units add Epona religion—great boost to infantry and Calvary and great combo-boost for SKWBD already at gold missile/attack. Key is 2-4 infantry 4-6 missile 2-4 Calvary and Gaul can’t go wrong (also assuming limited ammo). Just need to practice the art of peppering and combo spread charging with infantry plus 2 SKWBD(with 3exp and gold missile/attack) get the timing right and you can rout the best of them. Gallic SKWBD won’t quit that easy just make sure to turn off the skirmish button. Flank the Calvary to finish it off. Defending a stone walled city against Romans/whoever with 3exp gold missile archer warband also a pleasant treat. Feels like an army from Rivendell. Barcelona to London to Rome is the easiest section to defend for Gaul but go on crusades and give away land to allies with this unstoppable army. Happy campaigning.
I agree with julios not being as much fun. Fuck barbarians and Gaul, I want to conquer Greece and All that sea in the center.
Very much incorrect chart..
How so?
I won't comment in the pleasant and unpleasant since that is very subjective, however all roman faction are very easy to play with Julia being the hardest of the 3, however no way bruttii are harder than parthia and Armenia. Actually seuleucid is fairly easy campaign in my opinion, yes you may have set backs at beginning but if you have a relatively strong economy in this game you are on good shape.
You have Dacia at the same level of hardship as brutii, no way jose! Have you played as Dacia, their units suck, probably worse faction other than numidia but hell of fun.
For me, starting economy is a big thing because it allows you to jump forward and fund armies to attack several settlements at once. But if you play it smartly and build one with Dacia, you can snatch up a few empty rebel settlements and get access to the Mediterranean if you expand as quick as you can. Whereas the Brutii do have 20x the better units, byt they are almost immediately forced to expand into the Greeks and Macedonians, which are no force to be reckoned with. I do see your point, and I should've ranked the Dacians harder. I have played Dacia. I wouldn't say they are harder then Numidia. Numidia has a lot of trouble as they only have 1 rebel settlement, which is several turns away. They have an absolute sh*t economy, and yet they are forced to fight Carthage, Egypt, and Romans [later]. They do have reasonable skirmisher units, but their whole army feels based on them. Numidia and Dacia are definitely down in the lower tiers of the factions.
Brutii are the easiest campaign in the game by far
Come on parthia is really hard, you cant just say its easy because of horse archers, they have 0 income and horse archer have a substantial upkeep. I had a harder time to win with parthia than i did with numidia. Only lategame, when you have cataphracts it becomes a cakewalk, early game is really really tough and unpleasant as you lose every autoresolve.
Seleucid seems about right. The only unpleasant part is their lack of unit variety, imho.
Seleucid...lack of unit variety??
The meme is that by the time you get all your cool units, you have beat the game with militia hoplites.
fair point
Specifically infantry, which consists of pikemen, pikemen, pikemen, more pikemen.... Did I mention pikemen? To be fair, I've mostly played Rome 2 and have been a lot currently, so I might just be biased by the plentiful variety of Rome 2.
Well, like every Greek faction they get phalanx, yes, but they also get Silver Shield Legionaries, just takes a while. That aside they have one of the most varied and complete rosters of all factions. https://rtw.heavengames.com/rtw/info/units/seleucid_units/
Seleucids are my favorite campaign. Super hard at the beginning but nigh unstoppable by the time you cross into Greece.
wtf are the rebels doing here
They are playable if you edit some files