Total War: ROME 2 - Top 5 Hardest Starts 

#1 hardest start was Rome 2 on launch

5 easiest: 5. Iceni 4. Macedon 3. Bactria 2. Rome 1. Egypt

I’ve been trying Media Atropatene using Nordo’s faction unlocker and I’ve gotta say, it’s a struggle simply because of the faction trait where everyone around you hates you (even Armenia, which starts off as your only “friend”), and the moment you get someone to like you, another faction (Bactria, Parthia, Galatia, Colchis, etc.) destroys them. The whole region is such a clusterfuck

Make a 5 hardest start of all TW games please.

Epirus... ?

Playing as Massaesyli right now, finding it quite fun, However that tradition bug is making it quite annoying.

Epirus (Greeks and Romans hate you and have you sandwiched), Selucia (all your satraps hate you) and Carthage (EVERYONE hates you and you are spread out over Africa and Spain) have to be up there, and I always found the Nomad tribes hard due to their lack of siege-worthy infantry.

Its nice youre still making videos about this game and on top of that about ingame bugs and inbalance. But how about doing something about it?

All the difficulty with the Barcides goes when you open the diplomacy screen. Epirus gets a largly harder start and have no diplomatic possibility.

As someone who has completed nearly every campaign on legendary, odrysians are the hardest by far, marcomanni aren’t that hard because Octavian Just leaves his towns undefended and it’s easy to take them, you can then work up to a level 4 hall of champions and churn out units with almost 100 attack on recruitment

really no colchis? i always find it impossible to conquer my neighbours fast enough before they all gang up on me

Ardiaei on Legendary was one hell of a campaign to play!

Just getting in to this Total War game universe. I have to say its a bit of struggle for me. Still great fun! And none is more fun than Rome 2. Looking forward to future expansions, dlc and stuff for this titel.

i agree most of this, also the capadocian campaing would be in my top 10 hardest starts, not easy to expand at the begining

I consider Sparta to be the hardest because you start out in a tiny corner in Hellas with very little income and locked in by powerful neighbors such as Athens, Epirus and Knossus (and Macedon looming nearby). The good thing is that Athens is your defensive ally and will remain so as long as you don't declare war on them. But since Athens holds the capital city of your region this means you can't trade with any other faction so long as they control Athenai. This and the fact that you don't start off with much revenue means you will be severely short on cash and will thus have limited recruitment options. And that's not good when you consider how strong Epirus is on hard and the fact that your other neighbor Knossus (who live on the nearby island in your region) will most likely declare war on you within a few turns into the game and start sending wave after wave of hoplite militias at you. Plus even if you decide to take Athens out to expand your region, get more income and start trading, assuming you don't take too many losses taking Athenai (its not easy taking a walled capital early in the game without siege engines and the Athenians will likely have an army garrisoned there) you just end up making a powerful enemy out of Macedon who are Athen's overlords.

No if you BREAK your alliance with Tylis, Macedon won't attack you for a little time and if you sack their settlement (Its give more military action against Tylis and make Macedon friendly at you) Macedonian will be FRIENDLY at you and in the north Thracian Balkan Tribes Can easily have diplomatic treats with Dacian Balkan Tribes. So Odrysian Kingdom is not hard to play

I decided to play Massilia for my first shot at legendary. That did not go well. On the other hand, Macedon on legendary was quite easy, while at the same time I was playing the Getae on very hard and lost the first try a hundred turns in. Thus I am led to believe that Massilia and particularly the Getae are among the most difficult.

Can you rework some of the older faction unit rosters please? You guys did a very good job with the desert kingdoms and their unit variety is awesome. If some of the older factions had that, it would feel extremely nice and not like your playing to same faction over and over again.

Challenge accepted. (Massaesyli)

disagree with Marcomanni at number 1. I am playing it on Legendary and 5 turns in i have a full stack and a half, taken 1/2 settlements and have no war with anyone. Im building my economy (agreed units kinda suck at first) but in all honesty i dont think they are as hard as everyone makes out. Once you get a little further the unit roster is pretty good too. The Massaesyli look very hard so may have a go with them :)

I main Odrysia, and to tell you the truth it's not hard at all, if you play DEI then there is difficulty. AND DAMN am i triggered 24/7 when i hear and i read that the Odyrisian culture is BALKAN and not THRACIAN. Meanwhile the greek states in the balkan peninsula are Hellenic not Balkan, CA logic.

can u just make the KI better already ? i fought the romans as markomannes and all i got was damn vigilis and leves...why cant the KI recruit good troops? AND THAT ON LEGENDARY ! Its no fun to beat the romans without that they defend themselves...

Lol, Massagetae are my favorite faction to play as.

hardest campaign : Finish "The Sanada Saga" historical campaign with victory at Sekigahara and/or Osaka castle Ł0Ł..

All the native American factions from Empire: Total War Warpath. Out numbered, out gunned, out resourced.

Who's reading the comment section after seeing Legend of total war's video. Keep killing and swearing legend. You're awesome.

#2 at least is the Ardiaie, EVEN 120 TURNS IN I HAD TO FIELD LEVIES AS THE BULK OF MY ARMY

Ardiaei and colchis hard too

These are the hardest? Barcid is one of my favs. I have not played Masaesyli yet tho, so I cannot speak for that one, nor any of the rest bar the Marcomani...... They are hard, believe me, they are.

wow epic video!

inb4 "OMG TIS NOT HARD I DID IT ON LEGENDARY!!!11!!" comments.

Top 1 hardest start was Total war: Rome 2 at launch hahaha

Carthago delenda est!

Can you please let me play as any faction in the campaign

I say Colchis

I want to play Rome 2 again but the problem is that the AI was really dumb when i played it the last time, i played Attila and the AI is a bit better but i didn't like the Time in history of that world, so i wonder, did they update the AI to become more challenging or not?

Massagetae? Lies man, I've run 3 legendary campaigns with them. They are easy start to finish imho. Now carthage? Yeah, especially as of this latest patch it can be a bitch.But Massagetae? Dude they dont even need a strong economy, they live off the land. Build up some farms and get yourself some good early, swift, horse archers with elite missile damage. In late game the Saka Cataphracts are so OP that you can destroy just about anything on the open field. I will grant you that it is hard to deal with some of the Greek factions if they have pikes in the city but there are ways around that. You just have to pick your time to attack and have artillery ready to recruit in a pinch. Bactria went down like a sack of potatoes and Parthia didn't hold a candle next to me with these guys. In a few years I had all of the far eastern provinces and nothing stood in my way. AI is very stupid and will often attack you to your benefit, in the opened.

Pompey was hard af but I beated it!

How in hell is Gatae not here????!!!!!

What about the Getae? Weak capital city, some of the weakest units during early game... You got a good endgame with them, but the start is definitely awful.

Colchis has also hard start

I once started as the Odrysians. Defeated on turn 7.

Hardest total war campaign, Western Roman Empire at legendary difficulty during the release patch of total war Attila.

CA PLEASE MAKE AN ALEXANDER DLC CAMPAIGN! You have Hannibal. You have Caesar. You have Octavian and Aurelian. There is only one person missing. ALEXANDER. I can imagine a campaign where the player starts off playing as Alexander. Once establishing an empire there would be a cut-scene showing Alexanders death and the player would then have to choose to play as one of 5 successors (Lysimachus, Antigonus, Seuleukos, Ptolemy and Cassander). At that point the player would have to reconquer vast lands, fight large Hellenistic battles with hybrid armies, and try to establish their dominance as Alexanders successor! This would make it into a unique campaign. With this DLC I would at least expect there to be two of Alexanders most epic battles as historical battles: The Battle of Gaugamela and the Battle of the Hydaspes River. I would also expect an addition of a Hindu based faction or access to mercenary Hindu units for factions such as Bactria and Parthia. CA please make this a reality!

macaroni does definitely sound the hardest

I played marcomanni. Up to 2 early defeats. 3rd attempt i conquered pretty much everything up to rome to the west. This was on legendary. The biggest factor was using diplomacy. I literally overtaxed and raised big armies just to survive from 5 factions all at once. Befriended one of them (technically there was no pacts or alliances but they liked me and helped me in battles from time to time) and destroyed 3 of them. The last one is very far to the east

LegendofTotalWar beats all starts easily

Playing as Carthage and Rome declaring war on turn 1 is always fun.

The hardest start I had was in day 1 when the ships started gliding across the land during battles

I heard the hardest start, is developing a 'new' historical title on the same old Atila engine

Should have guessed they would mention 90% dlc factions

Carthage is NOT hard at all. It's just that most people don't know how to play it. You gotta abandon your Spanish holdings and focus on consolidating power in Africa. Betray Libya and take all their settlements. This allows you full control of Carthago, which is among the best provinces in game (others being Britannia and Aegyptus). Afterwards, take all the African tribes and you're pretty much set for world domination. You'll probably lose all your non-African settlements, but that's ok, they are worthless early game anyways. If Rome or Syracuse declares war on you, then get half a stack of ballista ships (with a few fodder ships). With that navy, you can destroy any transport fleet they send at you.

I really love all the new content,nice work! I know is just a hollow hope,but would be awesome if Attila get's new content too.

Marcomanni and Massagetae were hard, but Odrysian Kingdom is way beyond that.

Carthage are actually still super easy, what about getae and ardieiei? They have bad units, no economy and are surrounded by op factions and you have Balkan culture who everyone hates

I'm really enjoying the return of Rome 2 content! Keep up the good work guys!

I'd still love a Alexander the Great dlc...

No. Except for marcomanni. The biggest challenge : Ardiaie - Colchis.

So you ever play as Tylis ? This is superhard start. Tougher then any fraction you have in your top 5. You are in begining at war with Macedon, superior enemy in every way. Noone likes you , and it is a matter of time when Sparta and Athens join to war against you. In their fotsteps come usualy Royal Scytians and Bitinians. Thouse fracction whould snowboling you to submition in no time.

The ardieiei are possibly the hardest campaign in the game. Weak economy, one of the weakest cavalries in the game, they get decent spears very late and their melee infantry are also terrible. Although they are considered more of a "naval" faction, their fleet is also terrible. Never seen a faction in more need of some help, its not very hard just to give them a little boost in unit variety. The odrysians are not really very hard, they have very good melee infantry, and played smartly, you can take down the rest of the thracian factions in a heartbeat and then you can contest the macedonians and the greeks, but once you take down macedonia, you should have the economy and manpower to stomp the greeks. C´mon guys, carthage is very easy, for some reason they are even harder to play in the hannibal campaign. I agree that massagetae and marcomanni are very hard. but not impossible.

Massagetae is my favorite faction : it's easy to expand in south and east ; despite your poor economy, you can build a great army of mounted archers (the basic unit, low cost) ; For sieges, just wait and defeat all armies who try breakthrough. In fact its so funny to play !

Make the top 5 vídeo easier to start

I've played over 2000 hours on Rome 2. I bought this game twice, it's my favorite. Winning with mounted units on legendary was very hard. The one that jumps out to me as a beast to win was Carthage on legendary. I had to get used to not leaning on one type of unit for the win. Playing this game for years I must say the updates and expansion packs added were outstanding, the entire game is more than just a game and more like a destination, a way for me to command an entire nation. Making just one mistake on Carthage legendary would cost me the game, I can't tell you how many times I had to start over. Rome and nations in Spain would double team me, WOW.

Massalia is pretty hard on higher difficulties as well. Its hard to expand with four angry Gaulish tribes invading you every four turns.

Why is everyone saying epirus? They are literally one of the easiest, you have the best pikes in the game, best wardogs, some of the best cav, elephants as mercs anywhere on the map, the richest and easiest to keep happy towns in the game, you start with wine and horse breeders, your only rivals are athens and sparta and they are worse in every way compared to epirus it’s possible to take them both out on legendary by turn 7

Ardiei-the most difficult faction in the game

Tylis is the hardest to me

Listening to player feedback and giving us walled minor cities! This has to be the most difficulty thing!!!!!

Start with Carthage is hard? laughs....... perhaps you don't know how to play properly. Sounds absolute crazy to me find difficulties in manage the carthaginian empire, with lots of usefull allies, a not exaggerated terrritorial extension and a very rich economic powerhouse. In fact, there is no complex and hard faction to play at Rome II than certain factions from Attila and Medieval II Stainless Steel. No one faction can be compared to Crusaders States (MII: Stainless Steel) or Tanukhids (Attila), far example

The one thing I hated about Rome II is that Rome was not a late-game superpower.

All rome 2 campaigns suffer from the same problems. Once you get a 10-12 setlements , you start a snowball that cant be stopped. Player the macromani recently , and yes , it is a hard start. But octavian rome will usualy ignore you for a while , giving some time to consolidate and conquer some of your germanic neighbours. Your neighbours are tough but not that tough. And once you get rid of them , octavian rome wont stop you. They will be ocupied most likely whith wars in iberia or in nort africa. Depending if they hate lepidus rome or pompeys rome. They rarely go for antonys rome.

Rome 2

the hardst one for me, was 100% pompeii, simply beacuse, u got little land, an okay economy! but almost every time i play on hard, Either octavian and Anthony declare war! or Lepidus and Octavian! or all 3, its a simple war i cannot win

You call that "hard"? Play the Etruscans with the "Divide et Impera" Mod. THATS HARD! ^^ And yeah, in Vanilla they are not the easiest Faction too ^^ Btw: i wanna see the Etrsucans as official playable Faction. I would even pay for them XD But i wanna see them in a high Quality DLC only. That means: special Culture (italic), new Buildings (especially religious Buildings), more Units (roman-hellenic hybrid) and a own Soundset (atm they are talking like romans on the battlefield and use the barabrian soundset at Diplomacy, thats strange)

Adding Rome: Total War (2004) feature will be wonderful to watch especially the tips and tricks +cheats and hacks.

The graphics of the total war do not need much improvement. The new britannia thrones look like caricatures, the games are already perfect, just add content and performance that makes the graphics feel solid, since they are the most beautiful works of art. Take a survey and you will see.perform

Ardiaei easily outranks Carthage, their roster is too poor and weak and so is their economy, with nowhere to expand to, and so close to Rome and 4 Greek factions with heavy phalanx units.

I got a faction unlocked mod for grand campaign and started as suebi first. Macromanni declared war on me and I thought I was in huge trouble. I guess I'm not but I am against boii.

If Carthage is so difficult then why is it hard for the Masaesyli to deal with them?

"Gaps in their unit roster makes for weaker armies" that's your fault ...

every 1 who says rome 2 is a crap game ! watching a video about a game u dona like is kinda sad geta life

Fall of the Samurai Legendary Republic Campaigns Hardest of all time?? Aizu - Legendary- Republic - Traditionalist (Tech Level 1 Only)

1) Cumans in late era Stainless Steel mod

suebi isnt on this list with their shite units and getting pounded within 2-3 rounds after starting depending on the difficulity? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AXzEcwYs8Eo.html

I’ve had the hardest time with Parthia honestly

It took me a solid 4 months of constantly restarting, to finally win with the marcomanni on legendary

Remnants of Angmar is tough my dude

Hardest campaign in my opinion is Carthage in Rome II. I found it nigh impossible. Your starting provinces are virtually worthless in terms of income, public order is horrible, and you are immediately attacked by Syracuse and Rome. Expanding in Sicily is extremely difficult, and your unit roster is severely limited. All your provinces are fragmented, and even conquering your ally to gain more land doesn't work as the income of provinces is too low and it costs too much to upgrade them. I had a look more recently and it seems significantly easier than it used to be in 2013 - 15. Presumably some things were tweaked in a patch at some point but the way it was before was virtually unwinnable on Very Hard difficulty.

You forgot Tylis.Even harder than odrysian kingdom

To... Total war Victoria?

Unfortunately the new rome 2 dlc basically broke my hannibal at the gates campaign. Both barcid brothers started their own factions, and just rebelled over and over. Dumb

Also Epirus, war with Almost all Greek states and a few Balkan tribes

Cute, but Carthage is never hard, just backstab Libya through breaking clientstate(Diplo) and insta declare war/join war suffer moderate to none diplomatic penalties and enjoy.

Yeah, of course the ones requiring DLC. :)

Ardiaei: no progression Bad cav Bad skirmishers

I'm not buying any totalwar games anymore until u come with a new engine.

Can total war rome 2 be installed on Windows 10 and what i could do if it can not?? Im trying a few weeks on Windows 10 and it won't work...

knowing how dissapointing is the ia at battles, there is no hard campaing

Screw this list, Sparta...idk why, Sparta is the hardest for me, even with unit mods, I seem to be hit with spies, assassins and everything in between, with no trade port and most units are limited I tend to be stuck into sparta for 30 turns or so

I destroyed the world as Massagetae if you do it right it is really easy.