Hello everyone!
I've been reading about some new players that having problems with the grand campaign. Some says it is difficult to play.
So here I am, gonna try to give you some very basic tips and tricks for dominating the world with any faction on the legendary difficulty.
And hopefully at the end of this guide, you will say: rome 2 is the easiest game in total war series.
My first guide, first time on this forum, I hope you like it.
I've complete the grand campaign with some of the factions and based on this guide.
(This guide made by myself. If you have better ideas, please share it!)
Kartli;
https://imgur.com/F0iy2Jk
https://imgur.com/v98XX2h
https://imgur.com/OjyFu2S
Suebi;
https://imgur.com/0lyKXrA
https://imgur.com/1N4Y1St
https://imgur.com/a3rUeeQ
Aracosia;
https://imgur.com/k0bQWdD
https://imgur.com/foKK78i
https://imgur.com/OuJiXyi
Arachosia TimeLapse:
Here starts the guide:
Almost everyone hates slow passing turns. So I'm gonna give you 2 tips in order to prevent slow passing turns.
1-Before starting a campaign, open the options on the faction-selection screen(where you arrange battle time, advisor help etc.). On the top of that options, you can see ''Show AI moves'' selection. Don't select it! Because then you have to watch your opponent's generals, admirals etc. in every turn. (You can chase your opponents by sending them agents, champions.)
2-Don't make any trade agreement! Wha? What a weird diplomat, right? Hell yeah! Because it will open roads between you and your trading factions. And every turn you have to watch any general-admiral passing by that roads. (Anyway on legendary difficulty nobody will ask you to trade. Who cares? You are dominating the world!)
Diplomacy:
Even If you conquer half of the map, there is a faction with single city and on diplomatic screen the game shows you are equal to them. I think it is based on economy. The more strong economy you have, the more effective diplomacy you have.
https://imgur.com/nZh2qTH
https://imgur.com/Q9o5BqA
https://imgur.com/EPALUag
Economy:
There are small towns and big cities in this game. You should know how to modify them in order to get good taxes. Edicts are depends to you.
Cities: You have to upgrade all your Cities to level 2. You should build military buildings just in the cities. And if you still can build something in the city, that should be something gives you +public order. (I dont recommend you level 3 upgrade because you will need more food and more public order. You should use that extra food and public order in order to upgrade military buildings. Remember, you need best fighters of that faction.)
Towns: You have to upgrade all your Towns to level 2. You should build farm and religious(spreads religion and provides +public order) buildings.
With this way; you can avoid food minus which coming from city/town upgrades. And that much public order will let you to maximize taxes from provinces. And each province which have 2 town 1 city = 2k income. And with 2k income you can build 1 full stack qualified army.
Finally it should be something like this: https://imgur.com/T6fcEha
Military:
1-When you attack or defend city/town/army; you can make automatic-battle and let the computer command your troops(if you want to move fast on campaign). It depends on the casualties. For me %70 and above is ok.
2-And there is some cases in which the enemy shows superiority to your army. Something like %90. Don't be panic. Just fight manually.
Suebi 1k vs 3k Namnetes: https://imgur.com/PRspwcO
Result: https://imgur.com/Ox3xjeL
Suebi 1k vs 4k Namnetes: https://imgur.com/YK1Yjm6
Result: https://imgur.com/G5ZbMCp
Suebi 2k vs 1k Athens + 2k Pontus: https://imgur.com/b2cObS4
I'm using 8 cavalries, 4 spear units, 4 sword or mace units and 4 missile unit on (almost)every faction.
War Tactics:
1-If you are attacking to town/army, send your infantries and cavalries from different sides. Try to make a sandwich. Bread is your army, and the enemy is in between.
2-If you are defending town/army, check the AI deployment and know the attacking front. Mostly the AI using only 1 entry of the city/town. Rarely AI may send some cavalries from another entrance.
All you have to do is: make a 3 line ''Shield-Wall'' formation to your infantries. Sides weak(2 unit), center strong. In the center put your infantries back to back. And put the missile units back of the center units. The AI is not going to attack your shield wall. Well, what then? The AI will be trying to pass by your units and reach the victory point. So your units will just stand there and take down whoever trying to pass. Even If one of them made it and pass from the center units, they will be weavering. So leave half of your cavalries to give them last punch and leave other half in order to avoid any enemy flanking cavalries.
3-If you are fighting more than 2 army, get rid of first army immediately. If you are attacking to town, get rid of garrison units and leave your infantries in the victory point center. Even if the enemy reinforcements arrive, infantries move slow so cavalries will come early and they will be undefended easy targets. Send your cavalries to get rid of them while your infantries gets victory point. Their infantry will come too but they're running from the edge of the map so even tho they're spear units, you can get them with your cavalries believe me.
And Last: BE PATIENT
*As you can see on my Kartli campaign, you can dominate the map in 400 turns without losing any city/town.
*I was rushing a bit on my Suebi campaign so I did complete campaign in 350 turns but during the campaign I've lost 11 city/town and get them back. Since its legendary difficulty, you cant load from last save. There will be only 1 save and the game will save automatically.
*Before attacking make sure that your cities/towns has constat public order, even If you take your army from that city/town.
*Upgrade your military buildings and try to get full stack army consisting from best fighters of the faction that you are playing. First 50-100 turn its difficult I know. But even 1 full stack qualified army can change everything. As you can see on ''Military'' part of the guide, qualified army makes huge difference on 1k vs 4k battles.
*After that you can start to conquest. (Beware; our economy based on provinces. So make sure that you are attacking to city/town in the same province.)
Good luck to you!