History VideoGame / TotalWarRomeII

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: The ''Wrath of Sparta'' DLC is the only campaign of the game to not focus on Rome as it's set during the [[UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar the Peloponnesian War. Additionally, the Greek city-states are the only playable factions.

* BornInTheSaddle: The Nomadic Tribes entire lifestyle is based n their use of horses, which they use for ''everything'', ;food, clothing, transportation, and most importantly, as far as the game's concerned, warfare.

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: In the phonecian language, Carthage means "New Town". Nova Carthago means "New Carthage" which would then translate to "New New Town".

* TheQueensLatin: Unlike the previous game, the Romans and the Greeks with British RP accents instead of American and Demotic respectively.

* AncientGreece: Greek culture or Hellenism has a huge influence over the Roman Republic and the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt especially the former through its architecture and religious pantheon. The Greek city states of Sparta and Athens are also playable factions in the base game while the ''Wrath of Sparta'' DLC adds Corinth and other cities.

* AlternateHistory: As the norm for ''Total War'' games. Examples include the Carthaginians ''winning'' the Punic Wars, and becoming the dominant power in the Mediterranean instead of Rome, Mark Anthony crowning himself Caesar of Rome after destroying Octavian, Vercingetorix fighting of the Roman Legions and having Gaul remain independent, the Athenians finally bringing forth their dream; a united Athenian Empire after crushing Sparta, or the Heirs of Alexander rallying and conquering Roman Power, continuing the power of Greek Hellenism.

* AncientGreece: Greek culture or Hellenism has a huge influence over the Roman Republic and the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egyptespecially the former through its architecture and religious pantheon. The Greek city states of Sparta and Athens are also playable factions in the base game while the ''Wrath of Sparta'' DLC adds Corinth and other cities.

* AncientGreece: The Greek city states of Sparta and Athens are playable factions in the base game. The ''Wrath of Sparta'' DLC adds Corinth and other cities.

* AncientEgypt: Yes, but {{Downplayed}} in a sense, it's no longer the classic "new age" that's commonly seen in media. By now Egypt has been almost completely hellenised by the influence of Alexander, and is a Successor Kingdom; which means no [[CoolSword Khopesh's]], no armor from ''The Mummy'', and plenty of other differences. The spirit, however, remains, Ancient Egypt. They have distinctive equipment, pyramids, mummies and creepy priests in abundance!

** The Wine Amphora ancillary has flavor text that says "Last one to down theirs is a member of the Theban Sacred Band!"...which is to say, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Band_of_Thebes the last one]] [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar is gay]].

** To ''Film/{{Dune}}'':

* TemptingFate: "We've got a huge budget for the game. About 40% bigger than anything we've done before. So we're absolutely determined to make it the most epic ''Total War'' title ever." Fast forward to [[EpicFail launch day]]...

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[BadAssBoast Roma Invicta]]]]''

** ''Rise of the Republic'' is a pretty accurate representation of early 3rd Century BC Italy. Firstly, Rome is a sleepy little town wedged between the Etruscans and the Samnites, not the regional hegemon poised to expand across the Mediterranean. Her armies, true to the period, are composed of hoplites and slingers, and the manipular legion is at the very end of the military research tree. When you finally ''do'' get those units, they mostly wield spears (the "hasta" after which the ''hastati'' were named). Politically, the leader of Rome is called the Consular Tribune, because the campaign takes place during an era where boards of military tribunes with consular authority presided over the state in lieu of two consuls. For that matter, both the consulate and the dictatorship are temporary posts lasting only a few turns, and individual politicians cannot be promoted to praetor without researching it -- because the post was an innovation of the time period.

* ActionGirl:
** Several agents are female and are very much capable of assassinating and/or dueling other agents.
** The ''August Warriors'' update and ''Daughters of Mars'' Unit Pack add several units made up entirely of {{Action Girl}}s who are every bit as eager to spill the blood of their enemies as their male colleagues, if not ''[[BloodKnight more]] [[UpToEleven so]]''.
** Queen Zenobia of the Palmyrene Empire takes to the field in ''Empire Divided'' and is the first female general and faction leader.
** As of the latest update, several factions can field ''generic'' female generals, though they're still quite a bit rarer than male leaders, and are restricted to certain factions.
*** Special mention must go to the Kingdom of Kush from the upcoming 'Desert Kingdoms' DLC, which lists more female generals than other factions as a feature. They also have elite mixed gender units of armored archers, with the female models prominently shown in the marketing.
** Continuing in Zenobia's footsteps, Boudicca will be added to the Iceni per the Steam achievements.

* BadassGrandpa: Agents and Generals that live to their fifties or longer tend to have racked up a lot of experience, making them much more effective than their younger counterparts, even while they wear grey beards and hair.

* EliteMooks: ''Tons and tons really'' Every playable faction usually has several, and even the non playable ones sometimes have one or two unique ones.

* The Barbarian Factions basic playstyle is to swamp the enemy armies with vast hordes of poorly equipped Barbarians in an attempt to utterly overwhelm them.

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: Not only does the player have to contend with rival factions, but also rival political parties within the player's faction. Rival political parties will occasionally target the player's political party with assassination attempts[[labelnote:note]](wounding or outright killing one of the generals or characters from the player's political party)[[/labelnote]], adoption/bribery attempts[[labelnote:note]](where a character from the player's party defects to another party if a fee isn't paid)[[/labelnote]], and blackmail[[labelnote:note]](where the gravitas/influence of a character from the player's party is reduced if a fee isn't paid)[[/labelnote]]. And if the rival political party becomes too powerful and/or becomes disloyal, it could trigger a CivilWar. [[TheAIIsACheatingBastard Of course]], [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules such inconveniences don't exist with the AI factions]].

* YouALLLookFamiliar: You're definitely going to be able to count the few character models that are randomly available for representing a faction's agents and generals considering how many of them you'll go through over the centuries.

* RunOrDie: The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest has the Romans surrounded and heavily outnumbered by the Germans, requiring them to constantly keep pushing forwards to escape.

''Four years'' after the initial release of the game, the ''Empire Divided'' expansion pack was released on November 30, 2017. Focusing on the Crisis of the Third Century [[note]]The campaign start is in 270 CE.[[/note]], it divides the Roman Empire between Rome itself under Aurelian and the breakaway Gallic and Palmyrene Empires led by Gaius Tetricus and Queen Zenobia respectively, whilst the Sassanids led by Hormizd [[note]]Historically, Hormizd ruled for slightly over a year before dying, while his successor/brother Bahram I ruled for slightly over 3.[[/note]] and various barbarian tribes (most notably the Germanic Gothi under Cannabaudes) on the edges of the empire make use of Rome's disorder to expand their own power.

''Four years'' after the initial release of the game, the ''Empire Divided'' expansion pack was released on November 30, 2017. Focusing on the Crisis of the Third Century CE, it divides the Roman Empire between Rome itself under Aurelian and the breakaway Gallic and Palmyrene Empires led by Gaius Tetricus and Queen Zenobia respectively, whilst the Sassanids led by Hormizd and various barbarian tribes (most notably the Germanic Gothi under Cannabaudes) on the edges of the empire make use of Rome's disorder to expand their own power.

As in the original ''Rome'', if the player takes control of the Roman faction, than they must choose one of several patrician houses to represent - Cornelia, Julia, or Junia - each enabling their own unique perks. Campaign goals remain the same for the player, regardless of whichever family they select, ''how'' those goals are achieved depends on personal discretion.

The third expansion pack, titled ''Wrath of Sparta'', was released on December 16th, 2014. It takes place during UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar between Sparta, Athens and their allies (including the Boiotian League and Korinthos/Corinth) [[note]]Of the four playable faction, only Athens represents the Delian League.[[/note]], while the Persian Empire watches and plots from the sidelines. Given the conflict's belligerents are all classical Greeks, factions' unit rosters are nearly all symmetrical with one another. The amount of turns it takes to recruit new units is longer (a minimum of two), making defeats of all sorts more significant to their faction and raises the desirability of hiring mercenaries greatly. But, anyone that takes the capitals of the key players in the war can expect to draw the ire of all of the rest of Greece, what with [[TallPoppySyndrome its intents of empire among Greece]] being clear and obvious to all of them. In addition, the campaign features greater variations in conditions as the seasons rotate; players must plan their campaigns with greater care, lest they be caught flat-footed when seasonal conditions are bad.

The third expansion pack, titled ''Wrath of Sparta'', was released on December 16th, 2014. It takes place during UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar between Sparta, Athens and their allies (including the Boiotian League and Korinthos/Corinth), while the Persian Empire watches and plots from the sidelines. Given the conflict's belligerents are all classical Greeks, factions' unit rosters are nearly all symmetrical with one another. The amount of turns it takes to recruit new units is longer (to a minimum of two), making defeats of all sorts more significant to their faction and raises the desirability of hiring mercenaries greatly. But, anyone that takes the capitals of the key players in the war can expect to draw the ire of all of the rest of Greece, what with [[TallPoppySyndrome its intents of empire among Greece]] being clear and obvious to all of them. In addition, the campaign features greater variations in conditions as the seasons rotate; players must plan their campaigns with greater care, lest they be caught flat-footed when seasonal conditions are bad.

* ACommanderIsYou: The game is ''very'' diverse in terms of factions, each with it's own host of strengths and weaknesses.

** Sparta. Sparta in general. You want to play the legendary Greek Soldier-State that held off them mighty of the Persian Empire? You want those badass Hoplites from ''300''? You get all of that...and not much else. A few SlaveMooks here and there, some...decent Pikes. Hoplites are the only thing Sparta has, which was becoming a terribly outdated type of soldier at this point in time. TruthInTelevision, as at this point in history, Sparta was a mere shadow of it's former self...despite having admittedly awesome hoplites.
** Raiding is a generally a wasteful action that, even if you have specializations for it and do it repeatedly without facing any retaliation, does little to help your economy in the long run. You're always better off just taking the targeted territory which would save time and make more money than with raiding.

** The Grand Campaign heralds the end of the dominance of Greek Hellenism, and it's gradual fall to Roman (Latin) culture.

* ObviousBeta: A criticism among some fans and reviewers, citing ExecutiveMeddling on Sega's part to have the game released earlier than originally intended. That said, patches moved the game along into the right direction, making significant tweaks and improvements on the gameplay. {{Averted}} By the end of ''2018''; the game has been put in an extremely stable and polished state, enough it's considered an excellent game in it's own right. Rome wasn't built in a day.

The third expansion pack, titled ''Wrath of Sparta'', was released on December 16th, 2014. It takes place during UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar between Sparta, Athens and their allies (including the Boiotian League and Korinthos/Corinth), while the Persian Empire watches and plots from the sidelines. Given the conflict's belligerents are all classical Greeks, factions' unit rosters are nearly all symmetrical with one another. The amount of turns it takes to recruit new units is longer (to a minimum of two), making defeats of all sorts more significant to their faction and raises the desirability of hiring mercenaries greatly. But, anyone that takes the capitals of the key players in the war can expect to draw the ire of all of the rest of Greece what with [[TallPoppySyndrome its intents of empire among Greece]] being clear and obvious to all of them. In addition, the campaign features greater variations in conditions as the seasons rotate; players must plan their campaigns with greater care, lest they be caught flat-footed when seasonal conditions are bad.

''Four years'' after the initial release of the game, the ''Empire Divided'' expansion pack was released on November 30, 2017. Focusing on the Crisis of the Third Century, it divides the Roman Empire between Rome itself under Aurelian and the breakaway Gallic and Palmyrene Empires led by Gaius Tetricus and Queen Zenobia respectively, whilst the Sassanids led by Hormizd and various barbarian tribes (most notably the Germanic Gothi under Cannabaudes) on the edges of the empire make use of Rome's disorder to expand their own power.

The year after, another expansion pack- ''Rise of the Republic''- was announced. It took the setting back to 399 BCE in Italy and features Rome, still in its infancy, fighting for survival and dominance at a time just before the city was sacked by Brennus and his horde of Gauls in 386. Playable factions include Rome, Brennus' Senones tribe, the Etruscans, the Samnites, and the Greeks who occupied southern Italy at that point in history. It released August 9, 2018.

The third expansion pack, titled ''Wrath of Sparta'', was released on December 16th, 2014. It takes place during UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar between Sparta, Athens and their allies (including the Boiotian League and Korinthos/Corinth), while the Persian Empire watches and plots from the sidelines. Given the conflict's belligerents are all classical Greeks, factions' unit rosters are nearly all symmetrical with one another. The amount of turns it takes to recruit new units is longer (to a minimum of two), making defeats of all sorts more significant to their faction and raises the desirability of hiring mercenaries greatly. But anyone that takes the capitals of the key players in the war can expect to draw the ire of all of the rest of Greece what with [[TallPoppySyndrome its intents of empire among Greece]] being clear and obvious to all of them.