sparta: They have an almost elite army 3 silver bars in the beginning and a a full gold army after a couple of turns. Once they swipe macedon is a piece of cake
Can't believe noone mentioned Pontus. They could easily be the most underrated. Start off in Bithynia et Pontus, one of the wealthiest provinces in the game with access to the sea and while being close enough to bigger states like the selucids to make the mid game interesting but also just far enough to make for a stable game at the beginning, which you can spend subjugating or conquering states in Asia Minor and around the Black Sea. Great unit and diverse roster with Cappadocian Cav, Thureos Spears and obviously, Scythed Chariots. Great blend of East and West. Diplomatically, very advantageous to have a Hellenic bonus and access to sea allows countless factions to want to trade with you and declare non aggression pacts early on. I'm still doing the Pontic campaign and I've enjoyed every bit of it. Diplomatically, Financially and Militarily.
I think the Rome 2 map should of been much larger to include more of the northern steppes, Tibet, India, Arabia and the Horn of Africa. I would loved to see Bactria fighting the Maryuans.
It would be epic but do you remember the turn times back on launch? It was literaly 5minutes... I don't think bloating the game with more factions/provinces would of been a good idea.
Divide et Empera mod adds a bunch of factions, including some in lower Russia, North and central Africa, Arab factions, and an Indian controlled province in the south of Persia (the Taxishilia(sp?))
The Best Faction: Rome Roman Legion +2 Recruitment Rome City +2 Recruitment 10 Training field/Barracks(In all Region of Italia) + 10 Recruitment 3+2+2+10= 17 Recruitment slot Per Turn
Rome is the best for me. The reason is. They fit in everywhere. Like roman soldiers fit in place in the middle east,Europe, and everywhere. But say Im playing as Egypt. It doeskin fit in that Im fighting barbarians in the north. I dont know about you but for me it basically ruins the whole game for me when its not historically accurate or fits in.
HabboElite s Agreed. They have good armor,Morale,Charge,attack, And they wont run till like they have 10 or 20 men. but they are slow thats the one bad part. Rome also lacks good ships and cav. Since the inf is slow cav is needed but sadly their cav is not the best
Epirus in my opinion is the best faction for multi-player battles, cause of the amazing unit roster (Great Cav, Pikes, Spears, Swords and decent missile units!
the reason the ai doesn't do well is because Roman units are expensive while there neighbours can just build cheap ass armies and because all auto-resolve games are fought around how many men you have and all Ai battles are auto-resolved they get crushed
Exactly! You have good starting position, lot of allies. Their infantry is great similar to Macedon. They got the best archers in the game( my opinion), Great Cavalry.
Baktria takes that spot considering how similar they are, I guess. He is correct when he says Baktria has an entire front they don't have to worry about
what about Carthage? I know its starting position sucks but the units a player is able to field early in the game are just amazing, I mean........ come on! powerful Libyan Infantry and Carthaginian Hoplites from just level one barracks! this is simply awesome. wait it gets better. with level two barracks you get an excellent melee cavalry unit, the Carthaginian Cavalry and the African Pikemen! those are serious fellows . and mercenary units! they are so cool!, especially after the player researches that technology that drops their upkeep costs by 45%!. with them you can raise entire armies to defend your cities in no time. It's not better than Rome but I simply love it.
The 20 squad Macedonian meatgrinder in the Divide et Impera campaign: 1 general on horse (150 men!), 6 Aspis companions heavy cavalry, 4 archers (Cretan or Syrian if available), 6 pike phalanx (Thorax pikemen, Foot companions, or both), 1 Hypaspists shield bearers (or Thorax spearmen later), 2 Thorax swordsmen as reserves on the flanks. Optional if available: 1 ballista, 1 or 2 elephants, 1 horse archers, heavier cavalry instead of Aspis companions (Sarmatian cataphracts or else)
I feel you base your ratings too much on the starting position and not enough on the unit roster or faction abilities. For me the Seleucids are the clear winner, they have the most diverse roster including my personal favorite: armored war elephants. They have phalanx and heavy calvary that can rival Macedon's and many types of heavy/light skirmishers from their eastern provinces. Then we have the faction bonuses. They have IMO, some of the best ones. I enjoy anything that helps with public opinion and the Seleucids have -20% resistance to foreign occupation AND -25% public opinion penalty from foreign cultures. Their negative is also one of the best ones to have, as I find diplomatic relations pointless unless you go for that victory condition. And since you seem to favor starting locations, I think the Seleucids have one of the best avalaible. You have a rich, central province with access to the coast and can easily expand in any direction. Yeah it can be more challenging to a new player but any veteran should appreciate the challenges and especially the rewards of playing the Seleucids.
i don't know why i don't prefer to start with a big faction with more than 2 settlements. i rather start with 1 or 2, then make my way up lol. now started a macedon campaign, seems pretty good. but i may have a made a mistake by going east, to tylis and odyrsia (?) and now have sparta declaring war against me
5.Baktria they have elephants likes good slingers and op cav they can capture stteps with slingers. 4.Boii they have sword follovers witch extremly cost effective. 3.Macedon good early cav and in later they have good to not so good skrimishers but they can do the job they have super pikes 2.Rome super infatry good cav gooc skrimishers when build axulary barracks on crete rhodos ... Aoso gooe diplomacy with greeks so they don't get war on multiple front. 1.Egypt super pikes, elephants good swords i'm not shure have they royal peltlast large teritorry hole province plenty of resources not bad diplomacy but war with Seleucid isn't treat for them cause Seleucid will get attacked from every direction Sorry for my English!
Suebi is far more scarier than iceni the fear effect alone can wreck an entire army, macedon is kinda weak when faced to seleucid as the seleucid is a mixture of eastern and hellenic
I found Macedon extremely good and its starting position isnt that bad...its preety easy to capture the Balkanian States because early in the game they dont have great armies or settlements..Personally, i have conquered Balkans, Knossos(Crete), Epirus, Athens is still my client state...Also, i got the whole Asia reaching until Baktria..With some luck I managed to have Egypt as a client state and capturing Syracuse and Italy...BTW pikemen
Playing as Rome I'm having a tough time against pikes tbh. Especially when fighting Egypt. Since what counters pikes is missile units but Egypts Missile units are superior to Rome's. Forces you to use a bunch of mercenary missile units. Also the Roman cav isn't to great. However the start of the campaign is really easy. When you still have Hastati/Principes/Triarii you beat pretty much everything that's to your North. I just made the mistake of attacking an ally of an ally and now the entire hellenic and arabian world is fighting me :D
I just build 3 ballistae per army and focus fired enemy pikes, forcing them to attack. Then your pila can finish off most of the pikes. Roman tech gets the ammunition advantage for siege and missiles earlier than hellenic tech, so it's best in the mid game.
+Pablo Aguilar Carthage just doesn't start in a good spot and they're a pain. I'd kick off the Iceni as well but I'd add on Sparta because if you can deal with the issue of taking Athens and Macedon to get yourself trading you'll have no issues.
***** Marcomanni have the best campaign starting position. I beat an campaign as them very fast, was the lowest number of turns campaign. Just steamroll Gaul and Italy
I found when playing as baktria, it was a good thing to be surrounded by eastern factions, who had 98% of armies made up of horses. I would either let them attack my province, if it had walls well gg, if no walls, rock slingers are perfect early on for killing horse riders. If I was on the offensive I would just besiege them and wait it out until I was on defensive, but that’s my play style and it may or may not work or be preferable to others. Just a thought.
when i play , i play only with armenia , when you get whole caucas you can invade to north and build big armies with big cavalry , i always ally trapezos and pontus and then take south , i always go with this tactic and then i can invade pretty much everywhere
David Roman I made the mistake of not attacking north, instead I tried going more east. Trapezos was my ally but the Galatia had expanded and ended up destroying them.
yeah , there is always mess on east , my best run with armenia was taking whole turkey , all nomad tribes on north and then taking all baltic tribes , then taking whole syria and then Egypt , after that i invaded into arabia and took all of arabia, after that i had just twho rat fronts : in europe against germans and on east against parthia and bactria
Can anyone recommend me a faction best for light infantry spams with a moderate-strength heavy infantry (basically light archers and a mass infantry charge). The Nubians in Rome1 kind of had this. But basically what I'm looking for is something like Persia in Empire Total War (sadly, unplayable)
I wanted to watch a top 5 based on the army units instead of starting positions... To conquer provinces and build a strong defense might not be easy but its definitly possible. But ur stuck with the units u get throug out the whole game, I think its more important to consider that.
the main reason macedon is OP in campaign are not their units , but their bonus. 20% extra charge to all cav units , means that shock cav for macedon is the most deadly thing on the campaign map , and also a bonus to meele power against barbarian factions , which makes exapnding north against barbarian tribes extremly easy.
+Eduardo Borges the generals shock cav unit breaks literally everything i charge it against. the way to play macedon is get a bunch of hoplites use them to hold the enemy in place then break their morale with archers and shock cav
I got lucky on my first playthrough in Grand Campaign as Egypt. I took over Parthia and Persia who at the time controlled everything east of Greece so by the time I was ready to attack Rome I controlled Turkey, the Middle East, Arabia, and virtually all of North Africa while Rome was busy civil warring itself and fighting its neighbors in Europe. Rome was stronger on a unit by unit basis but I was an industrial juggernaut so i could field multiple armies on my own, fight Rome 1 on 1, then bring a backup army to replace my first army and exterminate Roman stragglers. Then I take my wounded army and combine the surfing units together and reinforce them almost immediately with all mid tier units. I love pikes and the AI has a hard time fighting them, they try to flank but if you have someone strong to guard your flanks you're invincible. I got all mid tier pikes, then used high tier units to guard my flanks, and used peltast to thin out the roman lines and a couple cavalry units to run down any enemy archers. If you're smart or lucky you can even use your pikes to flank the roman lines and envelope roman army while slowly pricking them all to death with your pikes. I mostly disregard cavalry since nothing but elephants can punch through roman infantry, I mostly use them to hit enemy cavalry or run down archers. I like my general to be on elephants since it's the same cost and upkeep in campaign and you get the scare ability which helps their lines to break early.
@Tiny Rick when I play as Macedon, I usually spend 10 turns building armies and resources, then the next thing I always do is invade Athens, then I always subjugate Sparta out of respect. Both are good factions, Athens can make a ton of money and Sparta has very strong troops. But Sparta doesnt tend to invade other territories so I always spare them, that and they are usually just too strong to finish off entirely.
I love playing the Selucids, for the challenge precisely, I love how much more diplomatic you have to be plus with just how much variation they have with their units.
Genghis Khan Yeah sure. Look at how many times Persians tried to conquer all the roman oriental part and they've failed. Rome never claim the Persian territories as its own except for Mesopotamia and that s funny because Rome sacked Mesopotamia and its capital so many times.
Haha, if you can survive warring against 10 different states - including motherfucking Egypt by the south - for about 50 turns then yes, it's steamrolling. But the mere act of surviving, jesus christ....
But thats not hard at all, I always attack Egypt and Cyprus first to knock them out. If you can do that the campaign is easy. That said thats what makes the Seleucids rewarding is that you have to be strong to survive.
maybe if you play "easy"/ "normal" difficulty. in other cases you only have to fight Egypt, Cyprus, all your ex satrapies(except sardes and media), and most of the eastern factions that don't qualify for previous categories.
How is kush not in this list? They have high armour piercing. Their starting position is insanely good they start of with 2 provinces, and good economy and only border egypt Kush easily takes number 2 the only down fall is that kushite units are expensive but their units can easily get their money's worth. They have great archers decent spears but insanely good cav and swords.
Armenia in my opinion is extremely strong. They start off surrounded by mountains, in a simple war, with a full province, and very good room for expansion. They also have extremely strong cavalry that I find overpowers everyone else. For example, in one fight I nearly lost the battle. But, I had some horse skirmishers laying around. Then I ended up almost winning with two battalions of skirmishers.
I Think That Sparta Is The Strongest Faction In The Game Because I Was Trying To Capture A Settlement And They Only Have 350 Men And I Have 6000 Men And I Still Lose! It Took Me 3 Days To Capture That Settlement!!!!!!!
I think Egypt is the best faction. Good start with big economy. And all of the best hellenic troops.. And as roman you have in a really late game only strong swords man. The roman cavalry is trash and the havent pike units and the last spear unit is the triarii. Against a cavalary army baf chances
I think the Selucids should rank above all hellenistic factions and quite possibly number 1 overall. Their starting point is excellent, given the fact that u control Syria which is one of the richest province in the game, u get 3 client states and only Egypt as an early threat. Their unit roster is amazing with access to supreme pikes (Silvershield Pikes), elite eastern and hellenistic cavalry (Azats, Cataphracts, Companion Cav) and also eastern skirmishers (Heavy Syrian Archers). The access to eastern skirmishers pretty much makes the Selucids a more complete version of Macedonians. I cant see why no 1 mentions them!
I just started playing Rome 2 and not much as changed since Rome 1. In Rome 1, the top tier factions were also Rome, Egypt, and Macedon/Greece. Seleucids had the most unit variety in Rome 1. In Rome 2, I believe this falls on Egypt.
2 factions I had the most fun playing as in campaign were Massilia and Cimmeria but most of this top 5 checks out purely for how effortless progressing in campaigns as each one felt
I don't understand why you put Sparta is the 5th worst when I played campaign as Macedon I mostly just sat back and did nothing I Mainly wanted to see what each AI faction would do after about 200 turns Sparta Egypt and Athens seemed to be the dominate factions rome started out ok constantly going back and forth capturing and loosing city's against ectrucian leauge ( I know I spelled that wrong don't judge) but after a while got conquered as did the ectrucian leauge by Sparta and after 300 turns they were mainly the only 3 factions left
I don't know my buddy tried to spam a list of an oath-sworn on me but my elephants easily bested his Swordsmen and I know they have the best Swordsmen in the game
@@slickdickdaddy Elephants and ranged cav are the 2 units that somewhat counter sword infantry (not sure about chariot), so no real surprise there. In an Averni campaign you have to fight very few of both of them in the late game, so that isn't a big issue. Elephants also cost a lot more. If you take enough swords to equal the elephant cost it will be a close fight and that is when base stats are used. Barbarians can get the most upgrades so in campaign their swords should trade well against elephants if you look at the unit cost.
also I had about 10 enemies and 7 or so millitary/defensive alliances, and with their help, minorly, I daughter off the selucids who'd had Egypt and some others conquered
I just started my first campaign as the Iceni and gotta say the only challenge I've had is fighting the tribe that spawns in Ireland. They kept repelling my invasions over and over.
5.Boii oatswprn and other units 4.Carthage exellent infatry missiles elephants and other 3.Egypt chariots,elephants 2.Seleucid i think best roster in game if they boost Thorax swords attack to about 45 it would be great 1.Rome super infatry javelins are ok Evocati cohort are op and armored legionares are op Sorry for my english gys!
I just make sure I have a surplus of at least 20 food, that way I get the maximum growth and replenishment bonus and I have some to fall back on if I need to. House of Julia is very good for converting, and I make sure I have at least one level 2/3 Temple of Jupiter and every freshly conquered territory.
Personal favorites: 1. Carthago Carthago has a lot of really good cavalry and legitimate infantry which can hold off against any attacker. Also, proximity ot Rome means you can beat the strongest faction BEFORE they become too powerful. Also, the use of war elephants
I only started playing this game a few days ago, it'sthe newest Total War Game I've played so far. I didn't do well initially as rome as I had to get used to the new building and food system. But switching to Egypt I had a lot more fun. Insane economic potential and amazing unit diversity.
I think Egypt is the easiest faction in the game. Your western and southern neighbors are weak as fuck, your Eastern neighbors are a little better off, but the only real threat starting off are the Seulucids. But the power Egyptian roster makes the Seleucids nothing more than Egypt's own little Etruscan League to a good player.
