Rome Campaign Guides

[Omnipotent-Q]

Rome Campaign Guides

Post yours here!

At the top of your post (preferably in bold print) please put the name of the roman house you're playing as. Cornelia, Julia, Junia.

[Imber Pluvia]

Rome, Julia. Take down the Etruscan League completely. Declare war on Epirus and try sending an army to Epirus capital and take it over for a place in Greece. I kinda like the Spartans and how they are loyal so I make them my military allies and save them for when I am done conquering everything. Destroy Syracuse, ignore their proposals of alliance and aggression. Declare war on Carthage early so that you only fight their extremely weak early game units. Ignore Barbarian alliance requests from the North. Destroy Carthage and once you are done with that expand further to the West by taking over all of Iberia (no alliances with them). Kill the Africans to the South. If you feel confident while expanding in Iberia and Africa, you can either expand to the East in Greece (spare the Spartans if you are allies) by killing Macedon, or expand to the North by killing the Barbarians (they should not have any allies or a confederation). Maybe do both at the same time if you are that good. Prepare for civil war from the senate loyalists by destroying the military buildings in the capital to prevent them from having elite units, and keep an army or two stationed nearby to keep them from taking too many regions. Become an Empire or stay a Republic, choice is yours. Keep expanding and expanding and take it from there.

[Zizzurry]

Prepare for civil war from the senate loyalists by destroying the military buildings in the capital to prevent them from having elite units, and keep an army or two stationed nearby to keep them from taking too many regions.

My military buildings are in Magna Grecia, I do not building any of these in Rome. So, when civil war erupts (in Rome???), I'll need to destroy my miitary buildings too?...

[jlasit00]

Cornelia: (Radious mod but most of this is the same in vanilla)

1. Move Legio I to Rome's north border and recruit 4 hastate, move Legio II into cosentia for Public order, get a non-agro pact with Athens and ArdiaeI, and finally set the research to Naval maneuvers.
2. Take Velathri, raise a third legion in neopolis, recruit 3 hastati and 1 velites (vanilla recruit 3 hastati and 3 levy ships)
3. Move legio I to the east border of Velathri, embark legio III towards Alalia with the fleet on forced march
4. Take Arminium, land legio III on Alalia, initiate the attack with the fleet

With these four turns you secure Italia, eliminate the Etruscans, and have friendly relations to you east. After this usually play by the diplomatic situation. Usually I either take Sicily or Cisalpine Gaul. I recommend Turtling a bit once you secure the peninsula.

[magraev]

Julia vanilla (normal).

Not much action on these guide threads, but I'll put in my two cents.

I had a hard time finishing off the Etruscans, mainly because Carthage and Veneto declared on me when I had thrown the Etruscans out of Italia. I eventually got them by sneaking an army onto Sardinia, and then marching up to attack from the south. I lost a navy with a great admiral in the process though. The Veneti attack Ariminum, but I just managed to get a general with fresh troops into range from Rome, and he barely won the battle. I could then easily wipe out the Veneti a few turns later. In that time Carthage had destroyed my ally Syracuse, but had trouble controlling the city. I marched in and liberated Sicily with one army from Italy and the other from Sardinia.

I then signed a cease-fire with Carthage (they had to pay 5k for it) and I now want to turtle a bit. Next up is reuniting northern Italy with the rest of Rome. I've befriended everybody east of me and have plenty of trade with Greece and the balkans.

I must say I'm having a great time just jumping into the game. I don't really understand the political side of the game, I guess that might come back and bite me in the a** later...

[Slaists]

All these starting guides need some updating. Starting army setups and layouts have changed with patches. Also, Etruscans now do not get a minor faction cash bonus which allowed them to recruit a lot of troops earlier. Now Etruscans are complete pushovers.

Here are my first 2 turns with Junia on legendary difficulty, game version 13.1, vanilla, no mods:

Turn 1:

- Classis I beelines for Corsica, blockades the port [this stops Etruscans from recruiting there].
- Classis II (freshly hired in Napoli) hires levy boats to the hilt
- Legio II moves into Brundisi
- Legio I hires whatever mercs available and attacks the Etruscan army; Etruscans retreat into the hills; Legio I takes Velathiri
- Legio III, freshly raised in Rome, hires hastati to the max

Turn 2:

- Etruscan army retreats into Ariminium
- Classis II dumps freshly raised levy boats into Classis I
- Classis I & II take Corsica in a naval assault
- Legio III besieges Ariminium
- Legio I drops troops into Legio III (this takes away the forced march morale penalty from all troops except the general of Legio I)
- Legio III and the legate from Legio I take Ariminium spelling the end for Etruscans

On the same turn I joined Sparta, Athens and Syracuse in their war on Etruscans. This leads to securing NAP's and, eventually, alliances with all 3 factions.

Junia situation a few turns down the road (around turn 10):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Action is brewing with Carthage [Syracuse has had the best of the them in Sicily though] and Ligurians in Northern Italy start to look threatening.

[ss11955]

To Slaists-------want to follow your Guide-----------do you have a continuation ? Eagerly starting your guide ! Thank you.

[Slaists]

To Slaists-------want to follow your Guide-----------do you have a continuation ? Eagerly starting your guide ! Thank you.

I wanted to leave it open for later turns. Once you have secured Italy, there are many possible courses of further expansion. It all depends on one's preferences such as fast expansion/steamroll [for example, bee-lining for Spain occupying everything on sight along the way] versus roleplaying and trying to stick to more historical dates and directions, etc. For the latter case, Rome did not take Syracuse until 212 BC; Mediolanum: 222 BC; Patavium was still not fully Roman in mid 100s BC; Massalia was still semi-independent at the time of Caesar's Gallic wars, etc.

[illathid]

Turn 2:

- Etruscan army retreats into Ariminium
- Classis II dumps freshly raised levy boats into Classis I
- Classis I & II take Corsica in a naval assault
- Legio III besieges Ariminium
- Legio I drops troops into Legio III (this takes away the forced march morale penalty from all troops except the general of Legio I)
- Legio III and the legate from Legio I take Ariminium spelling the end for Etruscans

So I just got back into Rome 2 with the EE, and I tried following this plan, but I can't get Legio III all the way to Ariminium on turn 2. Is there some trick to it? Or did movement values get changed since this guide was released?

[Slaists]

So I just got back into Rome 2 with the EE, and I tried following this plan, but I can't get Legio III to to get all the way to Ariminium on turn 2. Is there some trick to it? Or did movement values get changed since this guide was released?

The latter. Movement points seem to have been slightly reduced with patch 15 and EE.

One trick (a tad expensive one) is to raise 2 armies in Rome. Recruit hastati in one, but leave the other army as a pure cavalry general. 100% cavalry armies have more move points. Attack with cavalry, bring the other army as reinforcements.

[illathid]

The latter. Movement points seem to have been slightly reduced with patch 15 and EE.

One trick (a tad expensive one) is to raise 2 armies in Rome. Recruit hastati in one, but leave the other army as a pure cavalry general. 100% cavalry armies have more move points. Attack with cavalry, bring the other army as reinforcements.

Thanks! I'll try that.

[illathid]

The latter. Movement points seem to have been slightly reduced with patch 15 and EE.

One trick (a tad expensive one) is to raise 2 armies in Rome. Recruit hastati in one, but leave the other army as a pure cavalry general. 100% cavalry armies have more move points. Attack with cavalry, bring the other army as reinforcements.

Found a better way to do this. In turn 1, you should still create Legio III as normal but don't recruit any troops with it. Instead have Legio I recruit troops after it takes Velathiri. That way you don't need to spend extra money on a general.


Also, I've got another question as well. With the changes that have occurred to buildings in EE, how are people structuring their provinces as Rome? Are there any go to set ups for military/wealth/food provinces?

Part of me thinks Italia should be the military center because of the additional recruitment slots it gets now, but the history major in me wants to put all the unique buildings in Rome. So as you can see I'm kinda conflicted.

[Forward Observer]

Also, I've got another question as well. With the changes that have occurred to buildings in EE, how are people structuring their provinces as Rome? Are there any go to set ups for military/wealth/food provinces?

Part of me thinks Italia should be the military center because of the additional recruitment slots it gets now, but the history major in me wants to put all the unique buildings in Rome. So as you can see I'm kinda conflicted.

I don't think you have a choice now.

Having just started a regular grand campaign today, I was having some issues with building recruitment buildings. I had just gotten the tech for the workshop and went to build it in the first available province in Italia, which was Ariminum. I had started with a field of Mars already in Rome. However, the building appeared to not be available to build. After a little searching on line, I found out why on the official forum.

It turns out that with the new building chain, one can only build their military recruitment buildings (at least for Rome) in the province capital now. Before, one could construct them in any town with an open slot. That means that I have to wait until a slot opens up in Rome.

I always build ballistae early in the game and structure my armies around them. Now, unless I restart the game or tear something down, I will have to wait for enough population growth to get the slot and then wait more turns for it to build and recruit.

Anyway, just a warning about this new twist, so people don't spend time trying to figure this out. Most of the new unique buildings are also not in the Encyclopedia yet either.

Oh, well--drat!

[illathid]

Most of the new unique buildings are also not in the Encyclopedia yet either.

There are new unique buildings? What are they? The only ones I know for Rome are the Pantheon, Coliseum, etc.

[Forward Observer]

With the Emperor Edition, the building chains for cities have been revised and this applies to the regular grand campaign also. I've only played as Rome so far, so I do not know how this applies to other factions. For Roman smaller cities that do not have a specialized commodity, you have three branches of city type to choose from---civil, farming, or market type. For province capitals you have a choice of civil or garrison type. Each one of these choices has different growth rates and income bases. You can no longer build forums in anything but province capitals. For the lessor settlement, you now build what they call "meeting places". It's sort of a lower grade forum. Minor settlements can also build a quarry now. There may be more I haven't seen yet, but these are the main ones for Rome.

I was wrong about only being able to build recruitment buildings in other than province capitals. This only applies to the workshop and it's chain. You can still build a "Field of Mars" building anywhere.

Almost all have public order or food effects now at each level although the changes are less for each. Happiness levels also change with the seasons like it did in FOTS except it makes less sense with 1 turn per year.

Like I said, I am just basing this on a Roman campaign, so I don't know how other factions are affected.

Cheers

[illathid]

I think there was some confusion. The unique buildings I was wondering about were the level 5 ones, as far as I know there's only 4 of them for Rome. Also, apparently you can't build the Coliseum and Circus Maximus in the same city.

My other question still stands, with the new buildings and building chains what are the best province builds for Rome?

[Slaists]

Found a better way to do this. In turn 1, you should still create Legio III as normal but don't recruit any troops with it. Instead have Legio I recruit troops after it takes Velathiri. That way you don't need to spend extra money on a general.


Also, I've got another question as well. With the changes that have occurred to buildings in EE, how are people structuring their provinces as Rome? Are there any go to set ups for military/wealth/food provinces?

Part of me thinks Italia should be the military center because of the additional recruitment slots it gets now, but the history major in me wants to put all the unique buildings in Rome. So as you can see I'm kinda conflicted.

The good part about not using the army in Velathiri to take Ariminium is that it can bee-line for Liguria or Veneti on turn 2.

I personally use Italy as a military province. Temples of Mars everywhere (>100% xp bonus, practically free troops with Bread and Circus edics), both types of barracks, training fields in Rome itself. Even with that build Rome still gives nice cash income thanks to its resources and commerce bonus.

[illathid]

The good part about not using the army in Velathiri to take Ariminium is that it can bee-line for Liguria or Veneti on turn 2.

That's a really good point. This was more focused on how to do the same thing in the two turn guide you made above, as you had the army in Velathiri go to Ariminium regardless.

I personally use Italy as a military province. Temples of Mars everywhere (>100% xp bonus, practically free troops with Bread and Circus edics), both types of barracks, training fields in Rome itself. Even with that build Rome still gives nice cash income thanks to its resources and commerce bonus.

Yeah, that's probably the right choice, it just seem wrong to build the Colosseum anywhere but in Rome. :'(

If you did make italy into a military province would you put all 4 training variants fields in Rome? or or have it be 3 and another temple of mars ? I'm thinking having another temple would be best and you could leave out the missile training field. I could be wrong though.

[Slaists]

That's a really good point. This was more focused on how to do the same thing in the two turn guide you made above, as you had the army in Velathiri go to Ariminium regardless.

yes, sometimes I get mixed up between role-play (slow development) and efficiency also, it's all different between SP and MPC, LOL.

For efficiency, yes, the Velathiri army should proceed into Northern Italy.

[Apocalyptic Knight]

Hello guys!
I recently started a Let's Play in youtube with Macedonia (or as the game funnily calls it, Macedon). Feel free to check it on my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV1q-aWvWkE
It seems to be going pretty well at the moment, but I would welcome any help, especially with city building strategies, because I'm really worried I'm gonna screw things up in the future rounds.
Of course, combat tactics are also very welcome at any time.