Rome: Total War - FAQ

[The Good]

It's come to the concern of a few here that there are many threads as of late asking questions in particular about something. It's been decided that a Rome: Total War FAQ thread had to be made.

I will post some basics, tips, strategies, and such. Another part of this FAQ, you can actually ask questions right in this thread, if it isn't already answered. Just feel free to do so, but first, please look at what is already covered, because perhaps you may find out what you need after all?


Much of the content in this guide is taken from the manual of Rome: Total War.

Meet Rome: Total War

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Rome: Total War was a serious jump from Medieval Total War and Shogun Total War. As opposed to the old risk style 2d map and 2d battlefield units, you have a tiled, and free movement 3d map and amazing and immense 3d battlefields, with hundreds of individually rendered 3d units. There are 21 factions in Rome Total War including the slave faction. They are:

1. The Julii Family
2. The Scipii Family
3. The Brutii Family
4. The Senate of Rome
5. Gaul
6. Germania
7. Brittania
8. Spain
9. Numidia
10. Carthage
11. Egypt
12. The Seleucid Empire
13. Parthia
14. Armenia
15. Pontus
16. Scythia
17. Macedon
18. The Greek Cities
19. Dacia
20. Thrace
21. Slave

Initial play is restricted to the three playable Roman factions, the Julii, Scipii and Brutii with other factions becoming accessible after successful completion of a campaign. The three playable Roman factions are allied to each other and the Senate. The Senate issues missions to each of the Roman factions, successful completion of Senate missions improves your factions standing with the Senate. A high popularity level is necessary to be able to initiate a civil war against one of the other Roman factions.

Other factions designed to be played after successful completion of your first campaign are: Egypt, Seleucid Empire, Carthage, Parthia, Gaul, Germania , Britannia and the Greek Cities.

Basics of the Imperial Campaign:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Imperial Campaign is perhaps the deepest part of the game, not only do you get to manage a Faction, and lead it to glory, but you can also fight every battle if you so desire! Here are some tips to help you out with the Imperial Campaign mode of Rome: Total War:

I. If you see a city making negative income, do not worry! It could mean that it is just simply paying off your debts, that is, of what you are spending each turn.

II. Near the name of a settlement, you will see a face, the colour depends on how pleased the citizens are of your rule, however. The green face means that they are quite happy with your empire, the yellow face just means they are content, the blue face means trouble, the red face, is the worst, the citizens may revolt from your Faction! If possible, try to keep around the green or yellow face range, and you should have little trouble at all.

III. If you set recruitment on auto manage, you will find that the AI (computer) does dumb things, for instance, the AI may recruit Peasants instead of a unit of Hastati, or Town Watch instead of Triarii, etcetera. I recommend that you manage these aspects of the cities by yourself, as the player is more capable than the AI most of the time.

IV. You probably know about Command Stars, as they appear on your General's traits, and on the campaign map next to him. But do you know what they actually do? It's been said by many players that Command Stars are good because they increase your chance of winning and Auto Resolve battle, but also, on the Battlefield mode of the game, they increase your unit's morale greatly.

V. To Ambush an army, you have to set yours on a forest, and wait, until the enemy comes. Make sure your army is facing the direction you wish for the ambush, and you may be successful, or perhaps not. Do not worry if your ambush is not successful, you could very much still win the battle, but it will be fought as an ordinary battle, instead of the enemy lined up in a column and unprepared.

Battlefield Strategies:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Battlefield is perhaps the most exciting feature in any Total War game. To choose to go into a battlefield mode when attacking an enemy, you must choose to fight the battle yourself against the AI. Once there, you will be presented with a beautiful 3D landscape. Do not be distracted too much by it's beauty, however, as you must prepare your troops, in the formations you desire for them! With this in mind, I will present a few tips regarding tactics, the way to easily win a battle, or at least defeat many foes.

I. When using javelin soldiers, such as Velites or Peltasts, I recommend that you place them in the front lines, so that they could attack first, by throwing javelins. Many javelinmen are not great hand to hand fighters, so don't expect them to hold the line for long when the enemy approaches! After they run out of javelins, it is best to send them to the back of your army, and use them to fight only for a last resort.

II. When using archers I recommend that you place them behind the infantry, as they could fire once the enemy army comes within range of them. You could of course place them up front, and order them to retreat once the enemy is near, however, it is more a matter of preference regarding their placements.

III. The best way to use slinger units, is to place them by the flanks, as they may accidentally hit your own men! If you see an enemy unit charging towards them, it would be a good time to make them retreat to the back of the army.

IV. To use cavalry most effectively, one must order them to charge towards the flanks or rear of an enemy unit. If you are up against lightly armed units, a head on charge will not be that bad, as they may rout rather quickly.

V. Your General is perhaps the most valuable unit on the battlefield, if he dies, the morale of your army greatly drops with him. To increase your chances of winning, make sure to keep him and his unit out of danger, try to only use the general's unit as a last resort, or when you are chasing down enemy routers.

VI. When sieging a settlement, I advise that you do not focus on building only one type of siege equipment. Try to use as many different kinds as you could, however, sapping points are great against enemy walls, but are obsolete if the enemy city has large stone walls, or huge stone walls.

I hope that you have learned much from the FAQ, if your question has not been answered, then always feel free to ask in this thread!

Note to Moderators: If you want to change certain parts of my post, you are welcome to go on ahead and change them, as long as it's towards the better.

[Halie Satanus]

Rome Total War Cheats

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Press the tilde (~) key to bring down the console, and input one of the following:

* bestbuy: Units are 10% cheaper.
* jericho: Walls will crumble.
* add_money X: Adds money. X = amount.
* add_population Y X: Adds population, where Y is the settlement name and X the amount.
* auto_win attacker/defender: Attacker or defender automatically wins the next auto resolved battle.
* create_unit settlement/charactername unit_ID amount exp/armour/weapon: Creates a unit in the selected settlement or characters army with the stats you input.
* toggle_fow: Toggles Fog of War.
* give_trait characternname traitname level: Gives the character the trait at the chosen level.
* process_cq settlement: Finished the building queue in the settlement.
* list_traits: Lists all traits.
* move_character Z X,Y: Moves character to location, where Z is character name and X Y are coordinates.
* give_trait_points charactername traitname points: Gives points for the character's trait.
* force_diplomacy accept/decline/off: Forces opponent to accept diplomatic proposal.
* invulnerable_general charactername: General is invulnerable in combat.
* date year: Changes date.
* kill_character charactername: Kills selected character.
* season summer/winter: Changes season.
* capture_settlement settlementname: Captures settlement.

Some of the above codes will only work once per campaign so if you do cheat, use them wisely.

[Commander_Vimes]

Unlocking all the other Factions.
This can be done by either first completing a campaign(long or short), or playing a campaign when you destroy a particular Faction they are then unlocked.
However this only applies to these factions:
egypt
seleucid
carthage
parthia
gauls
germans
britons
greek_cities

If you wish to play the rest of the factions(apart from the rebels) then you must either get a mod or simply edit the files, editing the files is easy and simple.

*Please note that the SPQR campaign can be extremely buggy and don't click the Senate tab if you do add them in.

Tutorial for Editing files to play all factions.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

First of all go to your Rome folder which is normally situated in;
Program files\Activison\Rome - Total War
Then to find the file go to:
Program files\Activison\Rome - Total War\Data\World\Maps\campaign\imperial_campaign
Then select descr_strat this will open a page where it starts off like this:

; Custom campaign script generated by Romans Campaign Map Editor

campaign imperial_campaign
playable
romans_julii
romans_brutii
romans_scipii
end
unlockable
egypt
seleucid
carthage
parthia
gauls
germans
britons
greek_cities


end
nonplayable
romans_senate
macedon
pontus
armenia
dacia
numidia
scythia
spain
thrace
slave
end

Now simply all you need to do is copy and paste these in to the top ones so it looks like this:
; Custom campaign script generated by Romans Campaign Map Editor

campaign imperial_campaign
playable
romans_julii
romans_brutii
romans_scipii
egypt
seleucid
carthage
parthia
gauls
germans
britons
greek_cities
romans_senate
macedon
pontus
armenia
dacia
numidia
scythia
spain
thrace
end
unlockable


end
nonplayable
slave
end

Then just Save as over the original descr_strat

And off you go!

descr_strat has plenty of other modable areas, you can change the date it starts and loads of other things.

This technique can also be used for the Historical Battles aswell, although they will be very buggy so do not be surprised if they don't work specifically how you wanted.

Change your Preferences!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

To make life a little easier in some cases, have a skim through your preferences file inside:
Program files\Activison\Rome - Total War\preferences\
Then select the file preferences, this has many simple options most of them you change simply by putting TRUE instead of FALSE and other way round like so;
FOG_OF_WAR:TRUE
FOG_OF_WAR:FALSE

Then you just save over it;Most of the options are pretty self-explanatory and most of the options won't matter to you but some obvious ones you may want to change are:

FOG_OF_WAR:TRUE
LIMITED_AMMO:TRUE
UNLIMITED_MEN_ON_BATTLEFIELD:FALSE
MORALE:TRUE
FATIGUE:TRUE
USE_WIDESCREEN:FALSE
SHOW_BANNERS:TRUE
AUTO_SAVE:TRUE
DISABLE_ARROW_MARKERS:FALSE
MINIMAL_UI:FALSE
BLIND_ADVISOR:FALSE
MUTE_ADVISOR:FALSE

Remember don't be afraid to experiment, just so long as you make back-up files, and more importantly have fun!

[spykid55]

I have 2 question

1st i took pictures of my game but i dont know where to find it?

and 2nd what does protectorate do?

[Roman_Man#3]

One, a tga file of the image you took using the print screen button can be found in the TGA folder of the Rome Total War directory.

[Ephialtes The Dog]

Protectorates are better than allies and they also give you all there extra cash.

[spykid55]

It doesnt show anything i went to TGAs there are about 63 pics i captured

but when i double clicked it said its empty

[Prince_of_Macedon]

It doesnt show anything i went to TGAs there are about 63 pics i captured

but when i double clicked it said its empty

After I hit "Print Screen," I open Paint. After I open Paint, then I Paste the screenshot there. It's pretty time-consuming doing it my way, but it gets the job done.

Another way to do is it use FRAPS (which is free). You can take multiple pictures, and it'll convert the picture for you into a .jpg or .bmp format (not that .tga crap that R:TW uses).

[Roman_Man#3]

Turn off Anti-Aliasing in the video options in-game control and see if the pics come out better. Anti-Aliasing will mess them up.

[Pescado]

thx for the guide.. but I have a major question that I've been workin on for around 2-3hours? maybe more..
UNLOCKING all factions.
Ok first I have Rome total war Barbarian Invasion Gold Edition.. (everyone had told me that this was vanilla which = ver 1.5) so I dled a 1.5 mod (Hader's) to unlcok all factions. It didnt work. Frusturated I checked options and found out my version was actually 1.3. Idk why but I decided maybe thats y the mod didnt work. So i updated w/ a patch to 1.5 and then reran haders mod. Still didn't work... so then I decided to try to unlock the manual way. Followed direcs (Ill try to get screenshots) and found that everything was modified as should be. (under descr_strat) (from hader's 1.5 mod? im guessing) SO WHY DOESn't it work!!! Maybe its working and I don't know? I go to the imperial campaign screen and the original unlockables are just there\ : Oh and then I read this post and resaved the alrdy modified descr_strat from save as and still doesn't work! im going to try to post some screenshots if anyone can see what I did wrong. Help would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thx in advance

[IMG]<a href="http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/gg221/Ausome-o/?action=view&current=Gay.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg221/Ausome-o/Gay.jpg" border="0" alt="Gay"></a>[/IMG]
Dont think it worked lol

http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/g...urrent=Gay.jpg
http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/g...rsModsWork.jpg
http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/g...vendidthis.jpg

... It seems to have done everything - post if I forgot anything that could explain y its not working

[Commander_Vimes]

I'm slightly confused are you trying to get all factions, for the expansion,Barbarian Invasion or Just Rome total war?

I think that you've most probably had a corrupted installation, so It looks like your going to have to Reinstall it, go to options as soon as you've installed it all and check which version it is there, I think another problem you may have had was then messing around with a mod and then oversaving with patches and messing around with files, this is assuming for Rome total war, So It looks like a reinstallation is your best bet, I've had random problems where certain things just don't work and a reinstallation usually fixes it.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[Pescado]

Hmm.. Yeah I've already tried reinstalling (and this is for just rome total war). And when I reinstalled it was already at 1.5 and the files were already adjusted from the mod. \ : thx for replying all

[Commander_Vimes]

Maybe It's a dodgy mod then, check that you haven't done anything irregular from what the installation process from the mod has told you to do, maybe you didn't unpack it or something like that.

[Pescado]

Well it seems to have done everything correct.. and reviews/ other comments have said it worked. I think I messed up when trying to install a 1.3 mod in the wrong folder earlier. any idea how to start completly over as though i had just installed it? I alrdy tried uninstalling and reinstalling \ :.

[Roman_Man#3]

Go one folder up from campaign, and open the folder called "base". If there is a file called map.rwm, delete that.

[Wanted]

is there anyway to increase a generals influence with buildings or something (not cheats)??

[Medicus]

is there anyway to increase a generals influence with buildings or something (not cheats)??

Build an Academy, that's what I normally do.

[Scutarii]

Influence is easily gotten by the 'Victor' traits, so most successful generals will have good influence. Academies work, but to a lesser extent as they are more for management, I find. But either or will work. Combine them both and you'll get a competent administrator as well as a general with decent influence (eg: have new generals spend some time (a few years) in a city with an Academy.)

[Flavius Maccus Opium]

how can I implement ,let's say, skins,terrain,light and skybox from a ROME total war mod to another mod ? I liked a mod which have good AI etc but I liked the skins form another mod...

[Xavier Dragnesi]

I was just reading the thread on how to unlock all the factions in R:TW written by Commander_Vimes. Then I tried it out, but every time I tried to save it, it said something about 'file and path lines not correct' and then it doesn't save. Does anyone have a solution to this problem?