Rome: Total War / Characters

Rome: Total War Factions

open/close all folders

Roman Factions

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brutii_faction_symbol_vanilla.png

House Brutii

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/julii_faction_symbol_vanilla.png

House Julii

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scipii_faction_symbol_vanilla.png

House Scipii

The three initially playable factions, representing the Brutus, Julius, and Scipio families of ancient Rome, respectively. Each starts with two cities under their control: The Brutii at the southern end of Italy, the Julii in the northern end of Italy, and the Scipii with one just south of Rome on the Italian west coast and one in Sicily. They initially report to the Senate, but their victory conditions include the eventual overthrow of the Senate and conquest of Rome itself.

Aloof Ally: Despite starting out allied with eachother (and the Senate), it is just as difficult to get them to seriously assist you in any meaningful way as it with a faction you choose ally with yourself. This is in spite of you each having mutual interests (at least until the civil war).
Ancient Rome: Each represents a noble family from the Real Life late Roman Republic era.
Annoying Arrows: A specialty of the legionnaire units is the "Testudo" formation, which basically allows them to move (very slowly) completely unimpeded by missile fire. Even out of that formation, Roman infantry tends to be difficult to damage with missile fire due to their large shields and quality armor.
Armor Is Useless: Completely averted. The high quality of armor worn by Roman heavy infantry is what turns them into some of the best units in the game.
Badass Family: Each is based on a Real Life prominent family from the time period the game takes place.
- House Brutii = Gens Junia - Came into several high governmental positions in the late republic and early empire.
- House Julii = Gens Julia - Was one of the most prominent families in the time of the early republic. Julius Caesar is their most famous member, and it was this family which established the Julio-Claudian dynasty of the early empire.
- House Scipii = Gens Cornelia - The family of the Roman General and Consul Scipio Africanus, famous for defeating longtime Roman enemy Carthage.
Boring, but Practical: Much as it was in reality, the main battle tactic of the Roman factions is to send a line of quality heavy infantry at the opponent and overpower them. They possess skirmishers and cavalry which are useful for screening enemy forces and protecting the flanks, but are well below the quality of equivalent units in factions who specialize in them. Following the Marian Reforms, the entire unit roster of the Roman factions gets a major upgrade, but their overall strategy remains the same.
Bread and Circuses: The Roman factions are unique in that they can construct gladiatorial arenas and chariot racing tracks. Public order in cities with these structures is boosted, and can be further improved by increasing the frequency of these events (at a high cost to the city's revenue).
Call That a Formation?: Averted. Formations are key to most Roman units, and they become much less effective and more vulnerable when out of those formations.
The Clan: Each faction is based around a single influential family of the Roman Republic.
Color-Coded Armies: The Brutii are green, the Julii are red, and the Scipii are blue.
Combat Medic: Physicians are a common ancillary for Roman Generals to pick up. They increase the odds of casualties healing after a battle and improve the fertility of that General.
A Commander Is You:
- Pre-Reform - Generalist with a mix of light and heavy infantry, archers, skirmishers and light cavalry.
- Post-Reform - Brute Force with heavily armed and armored Legionary infantry, a huge array of siege weaponry, mediocre ranged units, and mediocre cavalry. Can cross over with Spammer when fighting them, since all three Houses will simultaneously wage war against you.
Cool Crown: A laurel wreath is the emblem for the Julii.
Cool Sword: A gladius is the emblem for the Brutii.
Crippling Overspecialisation: All Roman factions can recruit Flaming Pig units. They are incredible at scaring war elephants, have a very minor use to break up enemy formations, and are otherwise completely useless.
Crutch Character: The Julii get a unit of Triarii spearmen at the start of the campaign. They are a powerful unit two full tiers above what any of these factions will be able to recruit on their own for at least a couple dozen turns.
The Cycle of Empires: Together, with the Senate, they represent Stage 1 for the eventual Roman Empire.
Decapitated Army: Downplayed, along with Keystone Army, compared to most other factions. The discipline of the Roman armies, particularly after the Marian Reforms, allows them to fight on much longer and more effectively than other factions if their General dies in combat.
Deliberate Values Dissonance: Their family members can pick up traits in the "Roman Virtue" and "Roman Vice" lines, unique to the Roman factions. It is the "Virtues" that qualify for this trope. Having your Generals living a life of luxury, being deceptive and secretive, and ruling the masses with an overly authoritarian iron fist actually make you more popular with the Senate, while winning many glorious battles regardless of cost and being fans of the blood-sport gladiatorial games and chariot races will make you more popular with the people.
Easing into the Adventure: Each starts with some relatively weak Rebel cities settlements which make great targets for easy early expansion. In fact, your very first Senate missions may be to capture these Rebel settlements. Since you start the game automatically allied with the other Roman factions with trade relations established, you'll be able to get your economy up and running much more quickly as well.
Elite Mooks: Following the Marian Reforms, the Roman factions get their volunteer armies upgraded to powerful legionnaire units. With large enough cities and the proper structures, they can recruit even more powerful types of legionnaire units, such as the Praetorian Cohort.
Enemy Civil War: How the inevitable Roman Civil War will be to the non-Roman factions.
Event Flag: Along with Scripted Event.
- Once a Roman city in the Italian peninsula has built an Imperial Palace, the Marian Reforms will trigger. This will open up the extremely powerful Imperial units, including Legionnaires, for recruitment by the Roman factions.
- If a Roman city with a Gladiatorial Arena goes into revolt, it may turn into a special Gladiator Revolt instead of the usual Rebel rabble. It's largely the same, save for them having access to some better units.
- Once one of the Roman factions reaches a high enough popularity with the people, it may kick off the Roman Civil War. The former allies will turn on each other in a struggle to capture Rome itself.
Gladiator Games: The Roman factions can build Gladiatorial Arenas and, for a price, put on games that improve Public Order in the city since it makes the citizens happier.
The Government: Each nominally reports to the Senate. Influential family members can even be elected to positions within the Senate, giving them beneficial traits and improving your relations with the Senate.
Hero with Bad Publicity: The more popular one of the Roman factions becomes with the people, the more bitter the senate becomes toward them. Considering that overthrowing the Senate and ruling Rome by force is a win condition for each Roman faction, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
Jack of All Stats: Militarily, before the Marian Reforms. Virtually every faction has at least a unit or two better than the Roman equivalent, but none have as complete of roster as the Romans do. They can easily put together a balanced force of infantry, cavalry, and missile units while opposing factions who may be better in one of those areas will be weaker, if not completely deficient, in the other two.
Javelin Thrower: Velites are the most basic missile unit for the pre-Reform Roman armies. Light Auxilia are the post-Reform equivalent; they still throw javelins, but get upgrades to make them more competent in melee combat.
The Juggernaut: Militarily, following the Marian Reforms. Already possessing the most robust economy in the game, the reforms upgrade Rome's Jack of All Stats volunteer armies into the known-world-conquering juggernaut professional legions that were nearly unmatched in the ancient world.
Leeroy Jenkins: Each Roman faction can recruit a unique gladiator unit which may charge without orders in battle.
Losing the Team Spirit:
- In general, Roman forces tend to have higher morale and discipline, making them slower to "lose the team spirit" in battle than most otehr factions.
- Played straight for a faction who loses a legion standard in battle. It can actually demoralize the entire faction.
Loved by All: The closer a Roman faction comes to achieving it with the people, the more the Senate will begin to dislike the faction out of a fear that they may try to take over Rome.
McNinja: Each can recruit Arcani, a secret society of fanatics who worship Jupiter. Armed with twin gladii, they wear intimidating masks, black shrouds and well-crafted armour. They can hide practically anywhere in the wilderness, they have exceptional stamina, fighting ability, speed and morale. To round it all off, they operate with less than half the number of a more conventional unit type, perhaps invoking the law of Conservation of Ninjutsu. Their role is to flank and ambush the enemy, and perform the least capably in a straight-up fight against superior numbers.
Mighty Glacier: The Roman legions are some of the best heavy infantry in the entire game. Though slow moving, they are heavily armored and can dish out as much damage as they can take.
Money for Nothing: Once you've established a chunk of territory and set up trade relations with your neighbors, money tends to become a non-issue thanks to a snowballing economy effect. You almost have to actively try to go bankrupt by wasting money and intentionally failing to reinvest as the Romans.
Praetorian Guard: Actual units of Praetorian Guard can be recruited following the Marian Reforms. They are essentially more expensive but beefed up versions of standard legionaries.
Redshirt Army: Played with. While their units are hardly Cannon Fodder, the strength of the Roman economy will allow them to be treated in this fashion since you can replace them so readily. This actually has some historical justification for the Romans, who could use their vast population and production capacity to replace losses far faster than their enemies, as examples like King Pyrrhus and Hannibal of Carthage found out the hard way.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Implied to be coming in the Scipii intro.
Scipii Narrator: "Our dead lie in many graves, put there by Carthaginian Swords and a few Greek ones. Even Roman blades have taken Scipii lives; that we do not forget or forgive. So, now our time has come. The spirits of the dead cry out for blood! I will lead my family in this undertaking, the Gods will grant us vengeance!"
Rousing Speech: While the Generals of all factions will give one of these before battle, the Roman factions can have them be quite lengthy and varied, and occasionally quite bizarre, depending on the General's traits. One General's speech mentions he has no idea why they are even there, but his mother said he should at least put in an appearance, which is oddly appropriate to how Roman generals were often appointed.
Savage Wolves: A wolf is the emblem for the Scipii.
Space-Filling Empire: Ironically inverted. Instead of one unified empire, it was split into three houses with agendas in somewhat different areas of the map. This was done to make it easier for Rome to simultaneously expand in the areas (Gaul, North Africa, Greece) they did historically during the time period the game is set, as well as to make the "Roman Civil War" event actually work.
Starter Villain: After dealing with any nearby Rebels, the Senate will try to dictate which faction you will go to war with first. The Brutii will be directed to attack the Greek Cities, the Julii to attack Gaul, and the Scipii to attack Carthage. You can choose to ignore the Senate missions, but after repeated failed missions, the Senate may start to threaten you with financial penalties and bar your family members from being elected.
Starting Units: Each faction starts with a sampling of low-end infantry (Town Watch, Hastati), low-end missiles (Velites), and a unite of Equites or two. The Julii get a unit of Triarii spearmen as well.
Technology Marches On: In-Universe, following the Marian Reforms. Any of the pre-reform units you have can continue to be used, but they cannot be retrained, so any losses they suffer are gone for good. You'll need to construct new armies out of the post-reform units in order to continue.
Timed Mission: Missions from the Senate will come with a turn based time limit. It is typically 5 turns to blockade a port, and 10 to capture a settlement or assassinate a rival family member.
Tyrant Takes the Helm: How the Senate will view your faction leader once you've become popular enough with the people. If you go long enough without starting the civil war despite the support of the people, the Senate will demand that your faction leader commit suicide.
Video Game Historical Revisionism:
- The decision to split the Romans into three factions based around prominent families is a bit odd, but largely justifiable in order to make the Civil War mechanic work.
- Urban Cohorts and Arcani were not elite troops. The former was simply the name given to a city's police force and firefighters, being closer to Town Watch than Praetorian Cohorts. The latter are based on Roman agents in Britain during the later years of the empire who ended up being disloyal to the emperor, so they were disbanded. It's safe to say that they didn't dress like ninjas.
- Most Roman crosses had no top bars, and resembled a 'T'; the bar on the Christian cross was added to post the "King of the Jews" sign.
Unwanted Assistance: Since you'll eventually have to fight your Roman allies, "helping" them in a manner that hinders their success is strongly advised. The two most common tactics - capturing settlements they need to advance, leaving them hemmed in as they can't attack you, and having a single unit of your forces accompany their armies during major battles. Roman armies are generally over valued in auto-resolve, but will take a lot more casualties in a fight the player actually observes.
War Is Glorious: Absolutely the case for the Roman factions. Despite whatever other traits they may have, having several "conquering hero" Generals will increase your faction's popularity with the senate and the people.

The Roman Senate (SPQR)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/senate_faction_symbol_vanilla.png

The Senate faction controls Rome, and is nominally in charge of the other three Roman factions. They not designed to be playable, but can be made so by simply editing the game's text files. (Though they are far buggier than the other factions who can be made playable this way.) They will assign missions to you when playing as one of the Roman factions, and will need to be overcome in order to conquer Rome.

Note - Due to their identical unit roster, many of the military tropes under the Roman Factions above also apply to the Senate. You do not need to list them here separately unless they are exceptions.

Artificial Stupidity: Since the Senate only ever controls a single city and is destroyed when it's conquered, you'd think they would protect Rome at all costs, always keeping a full stack of their elite troops within it. Not so - the elite army often hangs out just outside reinforcement range, living the city ripe for a sudden strike with spies \ catapults to breach the gates.
Color-Coded Armies: They are purple.
Elite Mooks: Rome is the only city in which elite "First Cohort" legionaries can be recruited. And recruit them the Senate will, so be very prepared if you choose to invade.
My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Where to even begin...
- No matter how bad the unrest may become, Rome will never revolt as long as the Senate controls it.
- They can produce stacks of powerful units even if Rome is in the red in terms of income, having no issues paying recruitment or upkeep costs.
- Despite never leaving their home province, their Generals seem to grow command stars as easily as most people grow hair.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Senate tends to act as this when playing as a Roman faction. They try to dictate the direction of your faction's expansion by demanding that you take certain settlements or blockade certain ports. This can be especially annoying if your busy on one end of your empire and the Senate suddenly demands that you take action against a neutral faction on the other side. If you fail too many Senate missions, they may impose financial penalties on you and reduce your chances of having family members elected to Senate positions.
Orcus on His Throne: They appear this way when playing as a non-Roman faction. Despite being a powerhouse of quality units and high command Generals, they'll never actually attack you themselves. They'll merely declare war and send the other Roman factions to attack you. You'll only engage with them if you invade Rome itself.
Purple Is Powerful: Their color is purple and, despite having Rome as their only territory, they seem to hemorrhage powerful units and their Generals' command ratings usually grow like weeds despite them never leaving Rome's province and never actually fighting anyone. They're also technically in charge of the other three Roman factions who, combined, make for by far the most powerful force in the game.
Supporting Leader: They operate as a negative example of the trope when playing as a Roman Faction. They sit back in Rome trying to dictate your faction's military actions while never actually doing anything themselves. If you succeed in one of your missions, they'll usually throw a small bounty of denarii or a few units of troops your way. Ignore them, however, and they'll impose penalties instead.

Armenia

Armenia is a culturally Eastern faction who starts with two territories in the Caucasus mountains to the east of the Black Sea.

Color-Coded Armies: Teal.
A Commander Is You: Generalist leaning Ranger early on, Brute Force later as they get access to Cataphracts and their own version of legionaries.
Crippling Overspecialisation: Despite having largely the same unit roster as Parthia, Armenia averts this trope thanks to the presence of one unit: Eastern Heavy Spearmen. While essentially a slightly weaker version of the Greek phalanx hoplite, they're significantly better than the low-morale, poorly armored East Infantry otherwise available.
Difficult, but Awesome: They are one of the most challenging factions to play as, but also one of the most rewarding. They start out with two perpetually poor provinces with few good options for expansion. Horse archers will be your primary unit early on, and they require serious practice and micromanagement to use effectively, are terrible at capturing cities, and count as very weak in auto-battles meaning you'll need to fight most of them yourself. Survive and expand, however, and they get access to sturdy Eastern Heavy Spearmen, powerful Cataphract heavy cavalry, and even their own version of Roman legionaries.
Elite Mooks: They get access to the same elite Cataphract heavy cavalry that makes the Parthians such a formidable force. They also get their own version of Rome's legionaries.
Fragile Speedster: Like Parthia, Armenia's strength lies in their cavalry, especially horse archers early in the game. Unlike Parthia, Armenia is slightly less fragile thanks to their ability to recruit sturdy Eastern Heavy Spearmen who can actually stand up in melee.
From Nobody to Nightmare: It is not unheard of to see Armenia, an otherwise unremarkable minor faction, sweep into Asia Minor or down into the Levant if the factions there weaken themselves by beating up on each other too much. With their surprisingly powerful upper-tier unit roster, they can be a surprisingly formidable enemy if they do this and gain access to the much more profitable territories to pay for their armies.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: Their most effective strategy early on, when they're fielding mostly horse archers and fragile light infantry units.
Horse Archer: The backbone unit of the Armenian military, particularly early in the campaign before they have access to Eastern Heavy Infantry and Cataphracts.
Lightning Bruiser: Like Parthia, Armenia can turn into this once they can recruit (and have the funds to afford) Cataphract heavy cavalry. They have the second most powerful charge in the game behind only elephants and, thanks to their heavy armor, can hold up in prolonged melee combat with all but the most elite spear infantry.
Magikarp Power: They start with financially poor provinces with very few expansion options, and will be mostly fielding horse archers and light infantry in battle early on. If they survive and capture some more valuable provinces, they get access to some high quality heavy infantry and Cataphract heavy cavalry. All the while, their homeland is able to be easily fortified and defended thanks to the mountains.
Perpetual Poverty: Their starting territories and those immediately nearby are quite poor, which can lead to them going bankrupt rather quickly.
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
Starter Villain: They seem designed to be one for Parthia, as a stepping stone between Rebels and their more powerful neighbors in Seleucia and Egypt. Despite this, if they manage to score a couple of victories and capture a few wealthier territories, they can become surprisingly powerful in late campaign.
Stone Wall: Their positioning within the Caucuses allows them to be this in the campaign. There are few paths through the mountains which can easily be blocked off by units and forts at chokepoints, making it difficult to penetrate deep into their territories.

Britannia

Britannia is a culturally Barbarian faction who starts off in control of the entire island of Britain, with one city and three small towns. They are unlockable to play once you've either wiped them out in the Imperial Campaign, or have successfully completed the entire Imperial Campaign.

Abnormal Ammo: They can recruit ahistorical Head Hurlers as a unit of missile infantry. They hurl the severed heads of fallen enemies as a form of attack, which have a very short range but severely demoralizes enemy troops.
A Commander Is You: Specialist with mediocre infantry, appallingly bad missile troops, no traditional cavalry whatsoever, but access to fearsome if fragile chariots. If you take full advantage of the myriad morale effects the Brit roster presents, they could be considered a Technical faction.
Anti-Cavalry: In addition to being Glass Cannons, chariots are also devastatingly effective against cavalry. Most importantly, Briton generals also ride chariots - which means that they can easily take out any general unit in a 1:1 (or even 2:1 against them) fight.
Armor Is Useless: They're in competition with Egypt as the factions with the most lightly armored unit rosters.
Barbarian Tribe: One of the four factions to be purely culturally barbarian.
Blood Knight: As with most barbarian factions, their Generals seem particularly inclined to develop traits along this line.
Color-Coded Armies: Light blue.
Crippling Overspecialisation: They have mediocre infantry, completely lack archers or any other kind of high end missile troops, and completely lack traditional cavalry of any kind. What they do have are enough chariots to rival even Egypt.
Decapitated Army: Along with Keystone Army, as is the case for most barbarian factions. Due to most of their units having poor discipline, they are much more prone to routing if their General dies in battle.
Disc-One Nuke: They can recruit Woad Warriors once a Shrine to Andrasta has been constructed. Shrines are the most basic religious building, and can be built in any size settlement right away. Woad Warriors are a grade above the warband rabble melee units otherwise available to the Britons, though their lack of armor makes them vulnerable to missile fire and they become outclassed once you start running into other factions with better-armored infantry.
Elite Mooks: Heavy Chariots and Chosen Swordsmen are the highest end units on their roster. While not as maneuverable as true heavy cavalry, the chariots can cut through enemy lines with ease and severely demoralize opposing troops. Chosen Swordsmen are the only decently armored infantry unit available to the Britons and will make up their main fighting force late in the campaign.
From Nobody to Nightmare: The Britons can be a surprisingly tough foe if you stumble into them after they've captured and built up a few of their mainland territories. Countering their masses of chariots typically requires very different units and tactics than you're likely used to using if you've been battling their Gallic and Germanian neighbors.
Glass Cannon: Their chariots can cut large swathes through enemy lines of all but the toughest heavy infantry like warm knives through butter, but are extremely vulnerable to quality spear infantry, getting bogged down in prolonged melee combat, and to enemy missile fire.
Grim Up North: They start in the possession of some of the northermost territories in the game. Harsh winters lead to poor farming output and sparse populations lead to a weak economy and difficultly raising higher quality units.
Hired Guns: Cavalry and missile mercenaries can help balance out the cripplingly overspecialized Briton's unit roster.
Leeroy Jenkins: As with the other barbarian factions, impetuous Briton units may charge without orders.
The Marvelous Deer: Their faction emblem is a deer.
Noble Savage: Implied in the introductory cut scene.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: As is the case for most of the barbarian factions. Their units have naturally higher morale, lower discipline, and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: As with the other barbarian factions, it is hard to sustain a robust economy. Therefore, the easiest way to scrape up money is to sack opposing settlements once captured.
Reassigned to Antarctica: An option for particularly useless Generals, as it is with all factions. However, the Britons get a special mention since you can send this General on a long boat ride recruiting mercenaries to help fill in the significant deficiencies in the faction's unit roster. This is even recommended in most strategy guides for the Britons if you can spare the General.
Religious Bruiser: They can recruit Druids, who are capable light-infantry units but their main use is to "Chant," which increases the morale of nearby friendly units.
Suffer the Slings: Slingers are the only truly long-range missile infantry available to the Britons. They're effective enough against the other poorly armored barbarian factions, but are severely outclassed against any foe with decently armored troops.
Video Game Historical Revisionism: While there is some evidence of ancient Britons taking and preserving the severed heads of enemies as trophies, there is no evidence of them having hurled the heads as a weapon.
Zerg Rush: Due to their relatively mediocre infantry and lack of support troops other than chariots, this is the most effective strategy for the Britons. It's not all that uncommon to see entire Briton armies made up of entirely of spear and sword warband, with a few chariots thrown in, with the goal of simply overwhelming enemies with sheer numbers.

Carthage

Carthage is a faction with their own unique culture. (Though elements are shared with Numidia and Spain.) They are unlockable to play once you've either wiped them out in the Imperial Campaign, or have successfully completed the entire Imperial Campaign. They start with a whopping six territories spread out over North Africa, Iberia, and on several Mediterranean Islands.

Already Done for You: Because Carthage has such spread out territories, this can easily happen when trying to wipe them out. You may have taken them down to a single city only to get the "Faction Destroyed" message between turns when Spain or Numidia deals the final blow.
Awesome, but Impractical: Their War Elephants. They can be absolutely devastating on the battlefield, but they're prohibitively expensive and can be turned against you if an opposing army frenzies them with a fire attack.
Born in the Saddle: While not quite to the extent of Parthia or Scythia, cavalry plays a huge role in the Carthaginian military. This is actually Truth in Television, as in Real Life, Hannibal beefed up the importance of cavalry in his armies to counter the Romans' reliance on heavy infantry.
Color-Coded Armies: White.
A Commander Is You: Elitist, with fantastic high-tier heavy infantry (Sacred Band), decent cavalry, and War Elephants. Their lower tier units are rather low quality however, and they are completely lacking archers.
Crippling Overspecialisation: They have great heavy infantry, reasonably good cavalry, and War Elephants as their trump card. However, their lower tier unit roster doesn't hold up against the equivalent units in other factions and they are lacking archers entirely. (Which may be due to a bug instead of balance reasons. Edit the game's text files, see Dummied Out below, to fix the bug and Carthage becomes more balanced.)
Crutch Character: They start with a single unit of Elephants. Virtually every strategy guide for Carthage emphasizes getting this unit to the front lines as soon as possible, to take advantage of their strength before your enemies can develop counters to them.
The Cycle of Empires: Carthage starts out the Imperial Campaign at the height of their ancient power, firmly in the Stage 2 area. Whether they continue to expand or if they collapse into a Vestigial Empire depends on how the campaign goes.
Early Game Hell: They compete with Greece and Gaul for starting in the most hellish of situations. They are immediate targets of the powerful and aggressively expansionist Roman factions in Sicily and Sardinia, drawing them into war and depriving them of valuable trading partners usually within the first couple of turns. Their low and middle tier unit rosters are underwhelming compared to the equivalent units of other factions, making things even tougher in the early going. Their very best units are high in the tech tree and quite costly, meaning that Carthage is often wiped out before they can recruit them in significant numbers.
Elite Mooks: Sacred Band heavy infantry, which rival even Spartan Hoplites in effectiveness, and Armoured War Elephants. Both extremely expensive but extremely powerful units that can tip the scales in any battle.
Enemy Mine: The enemies of Carthage often do this with one another. It's not uncommon to see the Roman factions, Numidians, and Spaniards allying with one another as they attack Carthage on all sides.
Hired Guns: Because Carthage's territories are spread out wide and thin, it's almost impossible to churn out enough units within each city to fend off the invaders. Most strategy guides (and the campaign AI when not playing as Carthage) make up for this by hiring as many mercenary units as they can get. Mercenaries were actually a huge part of the real life Carthaginian armies of the game's era.
Magikarp Power: They start out with scattered territories and enemies on all sides. Their low-tier units are inferior to the equivalent units of their enemies and they often die a quick death in the campaign. However, if they survive and build up their economy, they get access to some elite heavy infantry and elephant units that few other factions can match.
Money for Nothing: If you manage to survive the Early Game Hell, Carthage quite capable of turning into an economic powerhouse along the lines of the Greek successor kingdoms and eastern factions.
Not the Intended Use: While the campaign is intended to emulate Real Life historical rivalries and areas of conflict, you are perfectly free (and even encouraged in some cases) to avoid that. As Carthage, taking the Romans head on is ill advised and will probably leave you bankrupt even if you manage a few military victories. One of the more popular strategies as Carthage is, therefore, to bail out of your territories in Sicily, Sardinia, and Africa to instead focus on conquering the Iberian peninsula (where you have one starting territory to expand from) and establishing the heart of your empire there, far away from Roman expansion. You can buy yourself 30-50 in game years in an area with far weaker opponents before Rome is on your doorstep.
Overrated and Underleveled: Crossing over with Paper Tiger. Historically, Carthage at their height dominated the western Mediterranean and was an equal of the Roman Republic militarily and economically. The three Punic Wars fought between the two nations were the largest wars that had ever taken place at the time and lasted over a century. Carthaginian forces under Hannibal threatened the heart of Rome in a way no other outside force would for hundreds of years after. In-game, however, Carthage is significantly inferior to the Roman forces in just about every way. Only Carthage's highest-tier units like the Sacred Band heavy infantry beat out their Roman equivalents, and it's rather rare for Carthage to last long enough in the campaign to recruit them in significant numbers. Carthage is also lacking archer units of any sort (though this appears to be due to a bug, as they exist in the game files which can be easily modded to add them into the game). Essentially, if you're hoping to rewrite history by leading Carthage to victory over Rome, be prepared for a much tougher task than you might expect.
Starter Villain: They seem designed to be this for the Scipii Romans.
War Elephants: They can recruit three varieties, ranging from just plain Elephants with a single rider to full blown Armored War Elephants who are virtually indestructible.
Written by the Winners: The narrator of the introduction claims that others - especially Rome - spread lies about them out of envy, presumably involving Human Sacrifice and such. Whether those people will be the "winners" or not is up to you.

Dacia

Dacia is a culturally Barbarian faction who starts with two territories in the Balkans, north of Macedonia.

A Commander Is You: Generalist with a solid all-around unit roster, with a few standouts like Falxmen and Chosen Archers.
Annoying Arrows: Averted as their Chosen Archer Warband is one of the better missile units in the game. They are especially good at countering the lumbering hoplite armies of their southern neighbors.
Color-Coded Armies: Brown.
Decapitated Army: Along with Keystone Army. They, like most barbarian factions, have undisciplined units who are much more prone to fleeing if their General is killed in battle.
Elite Mooks: Falxmen and Chosen Archers. Falxmen are Glass Cannons with an extremely powerful attack, but who wear no armor and can be decimated by missile fire. Chosen Archers are among the best missile infantry in the game, and are even capable in melee thanks to wearing decent armor.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Dacia is a fairly unremarkable faction who starts with two poor territories and often never expands much beyond that. However, they have a really balanced unit roster and can wreak some havoc if they expand south into some of the valuable Greek territories or east toward the Black Sea.
Full-Frontal Assault: They can recruit Naked Fanatics who forgo armor (or clothing) to unnerve enemy troops.
Glass Cannon: Falxmen, who have one of the strongest melee infantry attacks in the game but wear no armor.
Grim Up North: Their starting territories lie north of Greece and Macedonia. They are sparsely populated and lack many valuable resources.
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: As is the case for most of the barbarian factions. Their units have naturally higher morale, lower discipline, and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits.
Rain of Arrows: Their Chosen Archers are among the best missile infantry in the game.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: As with the other barbarian factions, it is hard to sustain a robust economy. Therefore, the easiest way to scrape up money is to sack opposing settlements once captured.

Egypt

Egypt is a faction with their own unique culture. They are unlockable to play once you've either wiped them out in the Imperial Campaign, or have successfully completed the entire Imperial Campaign. They start out with six territories, including all of Egypt and several in the Levant. They also start in possession of two Wonders of the Ancient World: The Lighthouse of Alexandria and the Great Pyramids of Giza.

Achilles' Heel: Its navy, which is dangerous for a faction whose heartland borders the sea. Egypt cannot recruit ships better than a trireme, which makes their navy easy to sweep away in the mid-late game for any faction that can recruit quinqueremes (Rome, Carthage, Greece, Macedon). It is a simple matter of landing armies at two or three locations to take the momentum out of the powerful Egyptian forces.
Armor Is Useless: The majority of their units are lacking in armor. This is Justified in their desert homeland, but is a crippling weakness outside of that environment.
Color-Coded Armies: Gold.
A Commander Is You: Generalist leaning Elitist. They have a solid all-around roster with few deficiencies, then get some high quality heavy infantry and chariots at the top of the tech tree.
Crippling Overspecialisation: Egypt's fairly solid unit roster gets a bonus when fighting in deserts. Outside of that terrain, however, they're fairly mediocre and their lack of armor (which helps in a hot desert) weakens them even further.
Easing into the Adventure: Being the strongest and richest non-Roman faction who doesn't share a border with Rome leads to this. These factors, plus the advantage they get fighting in the desert, makes it very easy for Egypt to expand early in the campaign.
Elite Mooks: Pharaoh's Guard phalanx spearmen, Pharaoh's Bowmen, and, of course, their Chariots. All are expensive but mighty additions to any Egyptian army.
Elite Tweak: Capturing Rhodes, and with it, the Colossus of Rhodes, will kick Egypt's already formidable economy into overdrive. The Colossus of Rhodes increases all maritime trade by a whopping 40%, and Egypt starts in the possession of several territories with highly profitable maritime trade (and several others nearby to expand into). Capturing and fortifying Rhodes essentially gives Egypt license to print money for the remainder of the campaign.
Exposed to the Elements: Most of their units wear little in the way of armor and even clothing. Justified in their desert homeland, but leaves them vulnerable in more northern climes.
Glass Cannon: Their Chariots. They're a staple of the Egyptian military where they shred enemy lines like wet tissue paper. However, they die very quickly if charged into quality spear infantry, get bogged down in close quarters fighting, or get hit by volleys of fire from missile troops.
Money for Nothing: They're in the best economic situation of any non-Roman faction.
Nepharious Pharaoh: The Faction Leader of the Egyptian faction is referred to as Pharaoh. Being the leader of the strongest and richest non-Roman faction in the game, he can come across this way when you're at war with Egypt.
Pyramid Power: Capturing Memphis also gives you possession of the Great Pyramids of Giza. They significantly increase the loyalty of all Egyptians in your territories, reducing the risk of unrest in culturally Egyptian cities.
Royally Screwed Up: Egyptian family members seem to have higher rates of acquiring various incest-related traits. Given some of the marriage practices of the ancient Egyptians (remember, their depiction in this game is closer to Old Kingdom Egypt than the Ptolemaic Dynasty actually in power at the time), this may very well be Justified as Truth in Television.
Starter Villain: Expect Egypt and Seleucia to declare war on one another within the first couple of turns.
Stone Wall: In terms of the campaign, Egypt can be a monstrously difficult opponent to actually conquer. Most of their unit roster gets a bonus to fighting in the desert, which makes up their entire homeland and quite a few territories around it. Further, they have a powerful economy and can afford to throw waves after waves of quality units at you. Finally, as long as the retain possession of Memphis and the Great Pyramids there (which give a massive bonus to Egyptian loyalty), they don't have to worry too much about unrest while every settlement of theirs that you capture will erupt into rebellion a the first possible chance.
A Thicket of Spears: Above their basic Desert Axemen, Egypt has several varieties of spear units, each of whom can form a phalanx.
Video Game Historical Revisionism: The depiction of Egypt is the worst offender in the game. At the time the game takes place, Egypt was dominated by heavy Macedonian/Greek influence and had armies similar to that used by the other Diadokhoi (Seleucid Empire, Macedonian Kingdom, etcetera). For reasons ranging from "it looks cooler" to "we don't want to make an Egypt: Total War", the game developers made the Egypt faction look like they came straight out of "The Ten Commandments" or "The Mummy Returns", complete with Pharaohs wearing makeup, chariots and soldiers wearing headdresses and armor made of gold and outdated bronze. Describing the Egypt faction in Rome: Total War as "Hollywood History" would be an understatement. At the game's release, Egypt's depiction was a heavy point of criticism by reviewers, and rightfully so, since portraying Ptolemaic Egypt as Old Kingdom-style pharaoh dudes is downright insulting, and didn't sit well with those containing even an ounce of historical knowledge and/or common sense. It's especially disappointing because Rome: Total War as a whole is applauded as being a well put together simulator of historical battles, to the point it was even used for History Channel documentaries.
We Have Reserves: While you can certainly choose to play this way as Egypt, this seems to be the campaign AI's entire Egyptian strategy. They have a well-balanced unit roster and the strongest non-Roman economy in the game. If they truly want to capture a city, they have no compunction about throwing wave after wave of armies made up of quality units at it. They turn this up a notch in defense of their homeland as well, throwing everything they have at invaders in an attempt to cause a Pyrrhic Victory for that invader if nothing else.

Gaul

Gaul is a culturally Barbarian faction. They are unlockable to play once you've either wiped them out in the Imperial Campaign, or have successfully completed the entire Imperial Campaign. They start with seven territories, the most in the game, in and around what is modern day France.

Annoying Arrows: Averted with their Forrester Warbands, who are some of the best missile units in the game.
Color-Coded Armies: Dark Green.
A Commander Is You: Spammer with a hint of Specialist in their higher tier units. They primarily Zerg Rush with weak but cheap and plentiful warband units. Once they get higher up in the tech tree, they get elite Chosen Swordsmen and Forrester Warbands.
Decapitated Army: Along with Keystone Army. They, like most barbarian factions, have mostly undisciplined units who are much more prone to fleeing if their General is killed in battle.
Early Game Hell: Gaul gets it rough in the campaign's early going. The Julii Romans will attack right out of the gate, and Gaul's scattered territories do them no favors as Spain, Germania, and Britannia often start attacking on every other side.
Elite Mooks: Chosen Swordsmen, who can hold their own against all but the very best heavy infantry, and Forrester Warbands, among the best archers in the game.
Full-Frontal Assault: They can recruit Naked Fanatics who forgo armor (or clothing) to unnerve enemy troops.
Grim Up North: Gaul represents this to the Romans, especially the Julii.
Paper Tiger: When you're playing against them. They start with a lot of territory and can be very intimidating when multiple fully-stacked armies are sent your way. However, once you get into battle with them, you realize their armies are made up mostly of low-tier, poorly armored, and undisciplined spear and sword war bands who may charge without orders and have the tendency to rout at the drop of a hat the second they realize they aren't utterly overwhelming your forces and/or they lose their General. Finally, despite having a lot of territory, they are mostly financially poor, which makes building up their economy to support their military rather challenging.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: As is the case for most of the barbarian factions. Their units have naturally higher morale, lower discipline, and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits.
Rain of Arrows: Their Forrester Warband archers are among the very best in the game.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Though Gaul has it slightly better than most of the other barbarian factions in terms of the profitability of their provinces, they'll still need to supplement their economy with pillaging in order to stand a chance against the more "civilized" factions.
Religious Bruiser: Not only can they recruit Druids like Britannia, each of their religious buildings tends to give buffs to the units trained in that city.
Starter Villain: Expect Gaul and the Julii Romans to go to war within the first few turns of the campaign.
A Thicket of Spears: As with most of the barbarian factions, their basic infantry unit is the Spear Warband, a low-discipline and lightly armored unit best used to overwhelm enemies with sheer numbers.
Zerg Rush: The campaign AI for Gaul seems to have this as its default method of attack, preferring to send waves of fully-stacked armies containing mostly low-tier "warband" units to overwhelm opponents throughout the game.

Germania

Germania is a culturally Barbarian faction. They are unlockable to play once you've either wiped them out in the Imperial Campaign, or have successfully completed the entire Imperial Campaign. They start with five territories in north/central Europe, mostly small towns and villages.

Action Girl: Screeching Women. While little better than basic Peasants in combat, their main role is to stand behind the lines and reduce enemy morale. As far fetched as it may sound, there is historical evidence of Germanic women accompanying the men to battle, though they'd boost the morale of their own men instead.
Awesome, but Impractical: Their Berserkers. They have a massive stamina pool, can take down a row of opponents with a single swing similar to an elephant unit's attack, and are the fastest infantry units in the game while berserking. They wreak havoc on enemy formations and a few units of them can almost single-handedly win a siege. However, they also come with numerous crippling flaws. To build them, your settlement requires a specific temple to be built which is an inferior version to one of your other temples. They count as light infantry, lack armor, and though they have a high "defensive skill" stat, that stat is ignored by missile fire so even low-end archers can turn them into Swiss cheese. Further, they're a high-tier unit in the tech tree, so you likely won't be able to get them until late in the campaign. Meanwhile, most of your opponents will be getting high-end heavy infantry with plenty of armor and high discipline (like legionaries or Spartan hoplites) as equivalent units in the tech tree. Finally, when they go berserk, you can no longer control them.
The Berserker: They can recruit them as top-of-the-tech-tree elite units.
Color-Coded Armies: Maroon.
A Commander Is You: Spammer/Guerilla early on, Brute Force/Specialist once they've climbed the tech tree. Like most barbarian factions, they'll get by early by throwing "warband" hordes at their foes, supplemented by morale damaging Screeching Women and Night Raiders. Later, they get access to powerful Gothic Cavalry and Berserkers.
Decapitated Army: Along with Keystone Army. They, like most barbarian factions, have mostly undisciplined units who are much more prone to fleeing if their General is killed in battle.
Elite Mooks: Powerful Gothic Cavalry, among the best cavalry the barbarian factions can field, and Berserkers, who while berserk, are more than a match for any other infantry in the game.
Grim Up North: Their starting territories lie north of Rome's sphere of influence, and like most barbarian faction territories, they are sparsely populated and relatively resource poor.
Javelin Thrower: Skirmisher Warbands are their most basic missile unit.
Pelts of the Barbarian: Berserkers ear them.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: As is the case for most of the barbarian factions. Their units have naturally higher morale, lower discipline, and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: As with the other barbarian factions, it is hard to sustain a robust economy. Therefore, the easiest way to scrape up money is to sack opposing settlements once captured.
A Thicket of Spears: Germania has the same Spear Warbands as every other barbarian faction, with one key difference - their spearmen can form a phalanx. They're good enough to handily beat other spearbands and about even with mid-tier hoplites.
Video Game Historical Revisionism: The real life Germans were light infantry fighters who usually wielded spears and emphasized maneuverability. Here, they are depicted as shirtless howling brutes who fight with giant axes and pike phalanxes. The berserkers quite literally stand a good foot or so taller than the other units in the game.

The Greek Cities

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/greek_cities_faction_symbol_vanilla.png

The Greek Cities are a culturally Greek faction. They are unlockable to play once you've either wiped them out in the Imperial Campaign, or have successfully completed the entire Imperial Campaign. They start with five territories spread out from Sicily to mainland Greece to Asia Minor.

Already Done for You: Because the Greeks have such spread out territories, this can easily happen when trying to wipe them out. You may have taken them down to a single city only to get the "Faction Destroyed" message between turns when Macedon or Seleucia deals the final blow.
Annoying Arrows: Their archers are among the worst in the game. Even with upgrades, it's not uncommon to see decently armored enemy units shrugging off volley after volley of arrow fire. This is Truth in Television, at least for mainland Greece (the Cretans were some of the best archers during the time period, and were used as auxiliaries by Sparta, Athens and eventually Rome).
Badass Army: Their Spartan hoplites. Perhaps the single greatest infantry unit in the game with nearly unshakable morale and discipline.
Call That a Formation?: Averted. Their hoplite units are at their best in the phalanx formation. While a few can still be capable fighters outside of that formation, all are significantly weakened when out of formation.
Color-Coded Armies: Beige.
A Commander Is You: Brute Force/Specialist. They have sub-par missile units and incredibly poor cavalry, but their heavy infantry hoplites get stronger and stronger as they climb the tech tree, up to the elite Spartan Hoplites.
Crippling Overspecialisation:
- They have some of the best heavy infantry in the game, but everything else on their unit roster is poor or outright terrible.
- Their cavalry in particular deserve a special mention. They're lacking in armor and their light cavalry units don't even carry a shield. Their unit description in the game even mentions that their only real uses are for chasing off skirmishers and running down fleeing enemies.
Difficult, but Awesome: Their starting territories are spread out and they'll almost instantly be attacked on all sides. (The Brutii Romans in western Greece, the Scipii Romans and Carthaginians in Sicily, the Macedonians in northern Greece, and possibly the Pontic and/or Seleucid factions in Asia Minor.) If they can survive however, they'll have access to some of the most awesome infantry in the game (particularly the Spartan hoplites,) and some of the most profitable territories as well.
Early Game Hell: The Greeks start in a very rough spot. Within the first few turns, they're likely to be attacked on all sides by the Scipii Romans in Sicily, the Brutii Romans in western Greece, the Macedonians in the north, and either Seleucia or Pontus in Asia Minor. It's not uncommon for the Greeks to be the first major faction wiped out in the campaign.
Elite Mooks: Spartan Hoplite heavy infantry. There are very few units in the game who can match their strength.
Hired Guns: Due to their lack of quality missile units or cavalry, the Greeks will often supplement their heavy infantry armies with mercenaries of all sorts.
Instant Militia: They can recruit low-cost, low-upkeep Militia Hoplite units. They lack the high morale and discipline of the "professional" hoplite units further up the tech tree, but can still use the phalanx formation, which makes them some of the best defensive "militia" units in the game.
Magikarp Power: They start with scattered territories and enemies on all sides who frequently attack within a few turns of one another. If they are able to survive deep in the campaign, however, their territories become some of the most profitable in the game and they get access to unmatched heavy infantry.
Mighty Glacier: Militarily, thanks to their hoplite armies. They tend to be some of the slowest units on the battlefield, but are also some of the toughest, being heavily armored and able to dish out as much damage as they can take. As long as their flanks are protected, even low-end Militia Hoplites can nearly invincible from the front.
Money for Nothing: If they manage to survive the Early Game Hell they start in, the Greeks are quite capable of turning into an economic powerhouse matched only by the Romans themselves.
Multi-Melee Master: Their hoplite units all carry swords as a secondary weapon should enemy units get past their wall of spears. Some of the higher quality units, like Armored Hoplites and the Spartans, are still extremely capable fighters in this situation, though all fight most effectively with their spears.
Not the Intended Use: While the campaign is intended to emulate Real Life historical rivalries and areas of conflict, you are perfectly free (and even encouraged in some cases) to avoid that. As the Greeks, taking the Romans head on is ill advised and will probably leave you bankrupt even if you manage a few military victories. Instead, many guides advise you to pull your forces out of Sicily and sometimes even mainland Greece itself to focus on establishing your base of power in Asia Minor, where you have two starting territories to expand from, far away from Roman expansion. While Seleucia and Pontus are no pushovers, you can buy yourself 30-50 in game years before Rome is back on your doorstep.
Space-Filling Empire: Along with Video Game Historical Revisionism. Though they shared a general culture, most of the Greek territories were independent city states in real life, and often warred with each other as much as they did outsiders (if not more so). They were merged into one "empire" here. Justified, however, as game engine limitations would make it exceedingly difficult to accurately represent dozens Greek states.
Starter Villain: For the Brutii Romans. It doesn’t end well for the Greeks most of the time.
A Taste of Power: They start with a single unit of elite Spartan Hoplites, quite possible the greatest infantry unit in the game. It will be many, many in-game years before their cities have advanced enough to create more.

Macedon

Macedon is a culturally Greek faction. They start with four territories in northern Greece. They, obviously, play more of a bigger role in Rome Total War: Alexanderas the only playable faction.

Annoying Arrows: Like the Greeks, their archers are quite low quality.
Ascended Extra: Macedon is the only playable faction in the Alexander expansion, a far cry from the minor faction that is Macedon in the vanilla game.
Call That a Formation?: Averted. Like the Greeks, their infantry units are primarily hoplites who fight best in the phalanx formation.
Color-Coded Armies: Black.
A Commander Is You: Brute Force leaning Elitist. They have high quality heavy infantry, just slightly inferior to the Greeks, but have significantly better cavalry to the Greeks. Also like Greece, Macedon has appallingly pathetic missile units.
Disc-One Nuke: Light Lancers. Despite being classed as light cavalry, Light Lancers have a charge strength equivalent to Roman Legionary Cavalry. Legionary Cavalry is a high-tier, post-Marian Reforms, expensive, two-turns-to-recruit heavy cavalry unit. Light Lancers are cheap, only take one turn to recruit, and can be recruited right away at the start of the campaign. Though their lack of armor leaves them vulnerable to missile fire and prolonged melee combat, they can decimate everything your opponents can throw at you save for forward-facing phalanxes in the early part of the campaign. Their weaknesses eventually make them outclassed, but they continue to have their uses even late into the campaign.
Elite Mooks: Royal Pikemen, who are phalanx hoplites only slightly behind the Spartans and Sacred Band as the best infantry units in the game, and Companion Cavalry, who have a devastating charge and can hold up in prolonged melee almost as well as Cataphracts.
Foe-Tossing Charge: A specialty of the Light Lancers and Companion Cavalry.
Glass Cannon: Light Lancers. They have the charge strength of a late-game unit, but if their initial charge fails to rout the enemy unit, they'll get cut to pieces in the ensuing melee combat due to their lack of armor. They are quite vulnerable to missile fire as well for the same reason.
Hired Guns: It is not uncommon to see Macedon hiring mercenary Cretan Archers and Rhodian Slingers to help make up for their own lack of quality missile units.
Instant Militia: They, like the Greeks, can hire low-cost, low-upkeep Militia Hoplites and Levy Pikemen.
Mighty Glacier: Like the Greeks, thanks to slow-moving but powerful phalanx units making up the backbone of their armies. Macedon is slightly "faster" militarily thanks to having better quality cavalry than the Greeks, however.
Multi-Melee Master: Like the Greeks, their higher end units are quite capable using their swords, but are at their best using their spears.
Promoted to Playable: In both Alexander and Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
Symbology Research Failure: The symbol on their faction emblem is the Greek letter Lambda, representing "L". Their units carry shields painted with a Lambda as well. It was indeed used as such in Ancient times, but only by the Spartans - the "L" stood for Lakedaimonia, the homeland of the Spartans. Even worse, Sparta is likely going to be one of the first cities Macedon contests with the Greek Cities. The symbol is changed in Alexander.

Numidia

Numidia is a culturally a mix of Carthaginian and Eastern. They start with four remote territories in north-west and north-central Africa.

Annoying Arrows: Their archers are rather low quality and can lead to this against better armored foes.
Color-Coded Armies: A sort of dark teal.
A Commander Is You: Spammer/Guerilla with some Specialist tendencies higher in the tech tree. They have a decent selection of low-tier units, especially missile units both mounted and on-foot, but a big "donut hole" in the middle tiers of their roster, which makes spamming low-tier units their primary strategy. Once they develop enough, they get access to legionaries almost as good as Rome's and unique camel cavalry.
Elite Mooks: Numidian Legionaries, heavy infantry almost as good as Rome's, and Numidian Camel Riders, who excel at desert combat and frighten enemy horse units.
Fragile Speedster: Until they get access to their legionary units. Their only infantry available before then are Desert Warriors, who are essentially higher-morale upgraded versions of Eastern Infantry. They'll need to rely on their decent quality skirmishers to dish out damage in the meantime, which means lots of Hit-and-Run Tactics.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Compared to many of the other factions in the game, Numidia isn't particularly historically significant and they seem to exist in the game to give Carthage a secondary foe besides Rome. Despite that, it isn't unheard of for Numidia to wipe Carthage right out of Africa and even move into Iberia or Sicily if the Scipii Romans are held up. Their legionaries and missile cavalry can make them a surprisingly tough late-game foe if they do manage to expand.
Hired Guns: While they cannot recruit elephant units themselves, elephant mercenaries are frequently available in their territories. It's quite common to see Numidian armies with at least one or two.
Horse Archer: Or Horse Javelinmen as the case may be. They'll be one of Numidia's better units in the early and middle portions of the campaign.
Horse of a Different Color: One of the few factions who can recruit camel units. While slower than standard horse cavalry, they get bonuses when fighting in desert areas and make horse units more prone to fleeing, as horses dislike the smell of camels.
Javelin Thrower: They have both on-foot and mounted varieties. Both are good quality versions and will be a major part of Numidia's military throughout the campaign.
Perpetual Poverty: Their Saharan territories are not especially valuable. Can be averted if they expand to some coastal cities and establish trade there.
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
Starter Villain: A secondary one to Carthage, as was the case in Real Life. They'll often ally with the Romans against Carthage, another example of Truth in Television.

Parthia

Parthia is a culturally Eastern faction. They are unlockable to play once you've either wiped them out in the Imperial Campaign, or have successfully completed the entire Imperial Campaign. They only start with three territories but they cover the greatest expanse of land at the start of the campaign, covering nearly the entire eastern portion of the map.

Born in the Saddle: Their military revolves entirely around their cavalry.
Cannon Fodder: Even among the weaker infantry units of the game, the Eastern Infantry are of little use save for dying so other units won't have to. The only way they could be more pathetic is if they were peasants, and in fact they will literally rout in a second when charged in the flank by peasants without the morale bonus of a general aiding them.
Color-Coded Armies: Pink. Yes really.
A Commander Is You: Guerilla/Ranger. They have appallingly bad infantry, but the best cavalry in the game including both horse archers and heavy cavalry.
Crippling Overspecialisation: The epitome of a "skirmish" faction. They have good cavalry and missile units, making them strong when using hit-and-run tactics, but are severely lacking in quality infantry, making them weak in a head-to-head fight. The lack of quality infantry also makes capturing and defending cities a much more daunting task. As heavy infantry rules the day, just as it did historically in this time period, they find themselves at a significant disadvantage long term in the campaign and in multiplayer battles. Further complicating matters in the campaign is that they start with some of the most financially impoverished provinces which are separated by large tracts of land.
Easing into the Adventure: Their own lagging economy is the most difficult thing Parthia will face early in the campaign. They're far enough away from expansionist Rome and have enough Rebel cities nearby to expand into to make the early parts of the campaign a breeze.
Elite Mooks: Cataphract heavy cavalry. Expensive but powerful, they hit with a strength second only to elephants and can stand in protracted melee combat against all but the very best infantry.
Fragile Speedster: They're limited to weak light infantry and will be doing most of their fighting with horse archers. Horse archers are fast and can do a lot of damage if used effectively, but they're miserable at capturing cities and require serious practice/micromanagement on the battlefield lest they get run down by enemy cavalry or shot to pieces by enemy archers. They also count as being very weak in an auto-battle.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: Their appallingly bad infantry situation means they rely on these almost exclusively, made much easier with the speed and quality of their horse archers.
Horse Archer: Their specialty.
Irony: The narrator for Parthia's intro boasts about how wealth flows through their land when in fact Parthia is so poor that it's one of the few factions in the game that you can easily go bankrupt with.
"Gold will buy a thousand warriors. And a thousand warriors... why, they are the start of an empire!"
Lightning Bruiser: Once they get access to (and the funds to pay for) Cataphracts, they become the Timurids of the 3rd century BCE.
Magikarp Power: As well as Difficult, but Awesome. Sure, they have huge tract of land, but most of it is simply miles upon miles of empty wilderness with cities few and far between. This means that corruption is very high and troop waypointing is tedious. They are also one of the most financially impoverished factions at the start of the game. Their forte are horse archers, which require practice to use effectively, are awful at capturing cities, and count as very weak in auto-battle. Their infantry is pitifully weak, among the weakest in the game in fact. As if that's not enough, they start out next to the unstoppable force that is Egypt. However, get to high-tier horse units, and Parthia will become the Timurids of 3rd century BCE.
Perpetual Poverty: Despite their opening narration talking about how rich they are, their starting provinces are incredibly poor and spread out, meaning that corruption and unrest are higher as well. They need to expand quickly or face bankruptcy within the first couple of turns.
Real Men Wear Pink: Their primary color is bright pink. Don't underestimate them though, as they have some of the best cavalry in the game and can prove to be a very tough opponent.
Starter Villain: Armenia seems designed to be a stepping stone for Parthia between the Rebels and their stronger Egyptian/Selecuid neighbors.
War Elephants: They can recruit them and they make for a fun novelty, but Parthia's real strength is in their Cataphracts.

Pontus

Pontus is a faction with a mix of Greek and Eastern cultural traits. They start with two territories south of the Black Sea, in eastern Asia Minor.

Annoying Arrows: Their standard foot archers are relatively weak, leading to this against better armored foes. Their Chariot Archers on the other hand avert it.
Bow and Sword in Accord: Their Pontic Heavy Cavalry can throw javelins in addition to being capable melee fighters.
Call That a Formation?: Averted. Above their standard Eastern Infantry, they can recruit two types of pikemen who are at their best when in a phalanx formation.
Color-Coded Armies: Sky blue.
A Commander Is You: Specialist/Brute Force. They don't have any gaping deficiencies in their roster, but everything low on the tech tree is sub-par in quality. Later, they gain access to knockoff Cataphracts (Cappadocian Cavalry), chariots, and elite Bronze Shield Pikemen.
Easing into the Adventure: They have quite possible the easiest start to the campaign of any faction. Though they only start with two territories, there are three lightly defended Rebel settlements nearby as well as the extremely valuable Rebel territories of Byzantium and Halicarnassus. If you avoid antagonizing Seleucia, your only real rival for those areas, they'll soon have their hands too full with Egypt in the Levant to be much of a threat. And with the Greeks fighting on multiple fronts, you can even capture their (valuable) cities in Asia Minor without much fear of reprisal. By the time you've climbed the tech tree into Pontus' quality high-tier units, you should have a rich empire capable of supporting large armies of them.
Elite Mooks: Cappadocian Cavalry, which are nearly as good as Cataphracts, as well as two varieties of chariot and elite Bronze Shield Pikemen.
Enemy Mine: Pontus' greatest foe early in the campaign is the Seleucid Empire. The campaign AI often allies with Egypt, another major enemy of Seleucia, to force a two-front war on the Seleucids. You can, of course, choose to do this as well.
Foe-Tossing Charge: Their Cappadocian Cavalry are nearly as good at it as Cataphracts.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Historically, Pontus was a bit of a backwater Persian-styled kingdom between the fall of Alexander the Great's empire and being annexed by Rome, where even then they were a backwater province with little direct Roman intervention. In game, because the strengths of their Eastern (good cavalry and missiles) and Greek (good heavy infantry) units cancel out each other's weaknesses, Pontus can be a surprising tough faction. It isn't uncommon to see them take over Asia Minor and down into the Levant if the other factions there beat up on each other too much.
Glass Cannon: Their chariots, as is the case for all factions who have them.
Mighty Glacier: While their early campaign armies of lower-tier units are closer to the Eastern Fragile Speedster cousins, they can field late-campaign armies of very tough if comparatively slow moving units like their Cappadocian Cavalry and Bronze Shield Pikemen.
Multi-Melee Master: Their Bronze Shield Pikemen are extremely tough whether using their pikes or their swords, but are better when using their spears in formation.
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.

Scythia

Scythia is a culturally barbarian faction. They start with four territories north of the Black Sea.

Action Girl: Along with Amazon Brigade. They can recruit two loosely historical units of female cavalry - axe-armed Head-Hunting Maidens and Horse Archer Noble Women.
Annoying Arrows: Averted. They are an archer-focused faction, especially their horse archers, and can dish out a lot of damage with them.
A Commander Is You: Ranger/Specialist to an extreme degree. They're focused on missile cavalry to such a point that their basic unit isn't an infantry warband like most other barbarian factions, but horse archers. Can also count for Spammer once they've built their territory up, as basal horse archers are cheap with low upkeep, so it's viable to have large armies of them.
Born in the Saddle: So much so that, of the 12 units they can recruit, seven are cavalry units.
Color-Coded Armies: Orange.
Crippling Overspecialisation: Their base roster is the epitome of a "skirmish" faction. They have good cavalry and missile units, making them strong when using hit-and-run tactics, but are severely lacking in quality infantry, making them weak in a head-to-head fight, and necessitating lots of micro-managing. The lack of quality infantry also makes capturing and defending cities a much more daunting task. As heavy infantry rules the day, just as it did historically in this time period, they find themselves at a significant disadvantage long term in the campaign and in multiplayer battles. Further complicating matters in the campaign is that they start with some of the most financially impoverished provinces which are separated by large tracts of land.
Decapitated Army: Along with Keystone Army. They, like most barbarian factions, have undisciplined units who are much more prone to fleeing if their General is killed in battle.
Difficult, but Awesome: Being a Horse Archer-heavy faction, Scythian units tend to require a lot of micro-managing to use properly. IF used properly, however, even the basal horse archers can be very, very deadly thanks to their damaging arrows and high speed, with only the likes of Roman Legionnaires able to last long against them.
Easing into the Adventure: Might be surprising, considering some of the other tropes here, but their western front is full of weak rebel settlements ripe for the taking, and most of the factions that they will initially be facing on that front are other barbarian factions with lots and lots of weak infantry - which get ''slaughtered'' by Horse Archers. By the time you face the Roman factions, you'll have a sizable empire and can eventually just swarm them with thousands of horsemen.
Elite Mooks: Noble Archers, horse archers who have a powerful missile attack and are capable melee combatants as well.
Fragile Speedster: In the running with Parthia as the most fragile speedster faction in the game. They rely almost exclusively on horse archers, who can decimate slower foes on the open field, but get shredded easily by melee opponents or (to a lesser extent) enemy missile fire. They're also not the best for city sieges, necessitating the recruitment of mercenary infantry.
From Nobody to Nightmare:
- Subverted in the original game, which can be surprising if you've read the rest of the entries for less historically significant factions on this page. Scythia is so heavily focused on their horse archers, who count as very weak in auto-battle, which leaves them unable to win all but the most lopsided computer-simulated battles. Since their territories aren't particularly valuable, few other factions bother to invade, leaving Scythia just sort of stalled in the north of the map.
- However, the above is mainly true with the AI, which tend to be a lot less capable than a human player, ''especially'' in the original. The AI is more competent in the remastered version, but a human player is the one who can truly play the trope straight, as their cavalry, while needing a fair bit of micromanaging, can slaughter the barbarian factions like Dacia, Germania, Gaul, Thrace, Britannia, and Spain, and can even do a lot of damage to Greek, Roman, and Eastern armies. The key is playing offensively on the campaign and then CONTINUING with playing offensively, as well as hiring lots of mercenary units.
Grim Up North: They start with four sparsely populated and economically poor territories north of the Black Sea.
Hired Guns: An important party of your strategy as Scythia will be hiring Greek Mercenary units, which patch up the weakness of poor infantry that Scythia has. Thankfully, the Greek Rebel City of Chersonessus is very nearby, and Thrace, a hybrid Greek-Barbarian faction, isn't too far away either.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: Their most effective battle strategy, thanks to their reliance on horse archers.
Horse Archer: Their specialty. And damn, are they good at it.
Perpetual Poverty: Like most barbarian factions, they don't start with many valuable territories. Though, they can fix this if they conquer surrounding Greek Cities, (like Chersonessus, for example), as well as other surrounding rebel settlements to their west.
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: As is the case for most of the barbarian factions. Their units have naturally higher morale, lower discipline, and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits.
Rain of Arrows: They have some of the best missile units in the game, particularly their Noble Archers.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Exterminating captured cities IS a good strategy for them, as it is for the other barbarian factions stuck in Perpetual Poverty, but Scythia's horse archer focused armies are miserable for capturing cities, so you'll need to hire some mercenaries to play this strategy effectively.
Zerg Rush: Like with other "Barbarian" factions, they can do this...though theirs is even deadlier due to horse archers being able to do a lot more damage and move a lot faster than a light infantry rush.

Seleucia

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/seleucid_faction_symbol_vanilla.png

The Seleucid Empire is primarily a culturally Greek faction, with a few Eastern influences. They are unlockable to play once you've either wiped them out in the Imperial Campaign, or have successfully completed the entire Imperial Campaign. They start with five territories ranging from Asia Minor, down into the Levant, to Babylon in the east.

Already Done for You: Trying to wipe them out can be difficult due to how spread out their territories are. You may have taken away all of their territories in one area only to find out they've been defeated when you get the "Faction Destroyed" message as a far away faction deals the finishing blow.
Annoying Arrows: Like the other culturally Greek factions, they have sub-par archers which can lead to this.
Awesome, but Impractical: War Elephants, as they are for every faction who can recruit them. They can be absolutely devastating on the battlefield, but they're prohibitively expensive and can be turned against you if an opposing army frenzies them with a fire attack.
Born in the Saddle: Not quite to the extent of the likes of Parthia or Scythia, but their cavalry roster is one of the most well rounded and deepest in the game.
Call That a Formation?: Like the other Greek factions, their infantry units are primarily hoplites and pikemen who fight best in the phalanx formation.
Color-Coded Armies: Silver.
A Commander Is You: Generalist/Elitist. They have a balanced unit roster with few holes, though their missile troops are rather weak. High in the tech tree, they get excellent heavy infantry, heavy cavalry, chariots, and elephant units.
Difficult, but Awesome: Much like their Greek cousins, the Seleucids start with scattered territories and tough, expansionist enemies on nearly all sides. You'll struggle early as you desperately put together armies of any units you can spare to slow the advance of your many enemies, all the while your economy goes into the tank due to a lack of trade partners. If you manage to survive, however, the Seleucids get access to a number of excellent heavy infantry and heavy cavalry units that few other factions can match.
Early Game Hell: While they don't have it quite as bad as the "hellish" factions who start next to Rome, their spread out territories and propensity for getting attacked by multiple factions on all sides usually leads to this. If the first faction eliminated isn't Greece or Carthage, it's probably going to be the Seleucids.
Elite Mooks: Silver Shield Pikemen and Legionaries, who are a match for the very best heavy infantry units Greece and Rome can throw at you. They also get the same Cataphracts, Companion Cavalry, Scythed Chariots, and War Elephants that represent the elite units of many other factions. The difference is that the Seleucids get access to them all.
Enemy Mine: The enemies of the Seleucids frequently do this with one another. It isn't uncommon to see some or all of Egypt, Pontus, Parthia, and Armenia ally with one another as they attack the Seleucids on multiple fronts.
Foe-Tossing Charge: All of their high end cavalry units and elephants are quite good at these.
Glass Cannon: Their chariots, as is the case for all factions who can recruit.
Instant Militia: Like the other Greek factions, they get low cost, low upkeep Militia Hoplites and Levy Pikemen in this role.
Jack of All Stats: They easily have the broadest range of units that can be recruited, but all of them fall slightly short (stat-wise) in a direct comparison with other factions. However, the flexibility afforded by their varied roster allows them to overcome any deficiencies.
- The Seleucids can recruit elephants, but their elephant units are slightly inferior to those recruited by the Carthaginians.
- They can recruit archers (unlike the Carthaginians), but they are the weakest archers in the game.
- They can recruit scythed chariots, which tear cavalry apart, but their unit sizes are smaller than those recruited by the Britons, the Egyptians, and the Pontics.
- They can recruit phalanx pikemen, but their stats are slightly inferior to those of the phalanx pikemen of the Macedonians.
- They are able to recruit legionnaires, but these legionnaires are inferior to the post-Marian Roman infantry.
- They can create onagers but these are inferior to the Roman siege units.
Magikarp Power: They start with scattered territories and enemies on all sides who frequently attack within a few turns of one another. If they are able to survive deep in the campaign, however, they may very well have the best high tier unit roster in the game and have access to enough valuable territories to pay for those units.
Mighty Glacier: Speed isn't really their forte as their armies are built around phalanx heavy infantry units, heavy cavalry, and elephants. However, they can both dish it out and take it as well as any faction in the game.
Multi-Melee Master: Their high end hoplites and pikemen units are still very capable fighters with their swords, but are at their best with their spears in phalanx formation.
Starter Villain: Expect they and Egypt to go to war within the first few turns of the campaign.
War Elephants: They can recruit three varieties, ranging from just plain Elephants with a single rider to full blown Armored War Elephants who are virtually indestructible.

Spain

Spain is a faction with mixed barbarian and Carthaginian influences. They start with four territories are the edges of the Iberian peninsula.

Armor Is Useless: None of their units are particularly heavily armored.
Color-Coded Armies: Dark tan.
A Commander Is You: Guerilla. They have excellent light infantry and decent skirmishers, but a severe lack of heavy infantry which makes protracted melee combat difficult for them.
Crippling Overspecialisation: Their Scutarii are essentially a light infantry version of Roman Legionaries, pila throwing and all. They also have decent skirmisher units. However, they lack archers of any kind and their only true heavy infantry are the expensive Bull Warriors who are high in the tech tree.
Decapitated Army: Along with Keystone Army, as is the case for most barbarian factions. Due to most of their units having poor discipline, they are much more prone to routing if their General dies in battle.
Easing into the Adventure: While they don't have many nearby Rebel territories to expand into, they do start out essentially surrounding the back end territories of Carthage and Gaul. Those factions will almost immediately have bigger fish to fry when they are attacked by the Romans, making them easy pickings for the Spanish.
Elite Mooks: Their Bull Warriors are capable of routing Roman Legionary Cohort in a one-on-one fight. With experience and upgraded equipment, they can fight on the level of Urban Cohort. They also have a fairly low upkeep cost relative to their quality.
Enemy Mine: You can almost bet on them allying with the Romans as they double team Carthage.
Fragile Speedster: Their entire unit roster other than Bull Warriors.
Full-Frontal Assault: They can recruit Naked Fanatics who forgo armor (or clothing) to unnerve enemy troops.
Hired Guns: Balearic Slingers are commonly available as mercenaries in Spain's eastern territories. They make a great addition to Spain's arsenal, and even the campaign AI will hire them whenever available.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: An infantry version. The only heavy infantry unit they have that is capable in protracted melee are their expensive, high-tier Bull Warriors. Therefore, their best strategy is to engage with their light infantry, pepper the enemy lines with missile fire, fall back, repeat.
Javelin Thrower: Their Skirmishers throw javelins as their main attack.
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: As is the case for most of the barbarian factions. Their units have naturally higher morale, lower discipline, and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: As with the other barbarian factions, it is hard to sustain a robust economy. Therefore, the easiest way to scrape up money is to sack opposing settlements once captured.
Religious Bruiser: Their elite Bull Warriors are recruited from the Sacred Circle of Esus.
Starter Villain: They serve as a secondary one to Carthage, as it was in Real Life. They'll often ally with the Romans against Carthage, another example of Truth in Television.
Suffer the Slings: Slingers are their most basic missile unit.

Thrace

Thrace is a faction with mixed barbarian and Greek cultural influences. They start with two territories on the western coast of the Black Sea.

Annoying Arrows: As with the other Greek influenced factions, their archers are sub-par, leading to this.

A Commander Is You: Brute force. They combine Greek phalanx units with barbarian shock infantry to create a formidable front-line fighting force, but have sub-par cavalry and missile units.
Crippling Overspecialisation: While not quite as extreme as some other factions, their quality infantry is offset by their sub-par cavalry and missile units.
Decapitated Army: Along with Keystone Army. While they do have some more discipled Greek-style units, their barbarian units have low discipline and are still prone to routing if the General falls in battle.
Easing into the Adventure: They have several nearby Rebel settlements to move into, including the extremely valuable Byzantium. Further, their neighboring factions typically have bigger fish to fry, so they leave Thrace alone.
Elite Mooks: Their Bastarnae. They can shred all but the heaviest infantry in combat.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Thrace was a backwater during the Classical era, probably best known as the homeland of Spartacus. In game, however, they can become a real menace to any heavy infantry focused army. They start near some valuable territories and can often capture them as they aren't usually distracted by a Starter Villain like most other factions. With the extra income, they can tech to Falxmen and Bastarnae surprisingly quick. Those units are anti-armor at its finest, and can absolutely devastate the slow-moving heavy infantry of the Romans and culturally Greek factions.
Glass Cannon: Their Bastarnae and Falxmen units. They are devastating in close combat, but wear little armor and can be picked apart by opposing missile fire with ease.
Instant Militia: They can recruit low-cost, low-upkeep Militia Hoplite units. They lack the high morale and discipline of the "professional" hoplite units further up the tech tree, but can still use the phalanx formation, which makes them some of the best defensive "militia" units in the game.
Javelin Thrower: Peltasts are their basic missile unit.
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: Something they get from their barbarian cultural influences. Most of their units have naturally higher morale, lower discipline, and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits.

Rebels

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rebel_faction_symbol_vanilla.png

Any army, character, or city that does not belong to one of the other factions is part of the "Rebel" ("Slave" in the game's text files) faction. The Rebels have the largest unit roster in the game, dependent on the region the city doing the recruiting is in. They don't have a ruling family per se, but do get access to Generals which are the same as any other faction's. Despite not being a "faction" in the traditional sense, they can be made playable with a text edit. They start with dozens of territories as well as scattered rebel armies all across the map. Their cities cannot rebel and they also gain control of any Rebel armies that spawn.

Bribing Your Way to Victory: While they can recruit Diplomats, they can't engage in any sort of diplomacy except for bribing opposing armies.
Color-Coded Armies: Dull gray.
A Commander Is You: Spammer/Pariah. Can be Game Breaker if you play as them. They start with dozens of territories and random armies around the map, and every turn can randomly have more armies spawn in non-Rebel territories. They're constantly at war with every other faction and cannot engage in diplomacy of any kind. However, when controlled by the AI, they're unable to put any of these advantages to use.
Amazon Brigade: They can recruit Amazons in Themiskyra. They are powerful all-female chariot archers.
Cannon Fodder: The vast majority of their units are equivalent to the low-end units able to be recruited by the actual factions that inhabit nearby lands.
Do Well, But Not Perfect: When playing as them, try to eliminate other factions by conquering their last city without destroying their armies. Any surviving armies will become Rebels that you gain control over if the faction is otherwise wiped out.
Early Game Hell: They WILL be attacked in territories all over the map, seemingly every turn, early in the game. If you are trying to play as them, expect to lose significant territories in the early going.
Elite Mook: They get access to two unique and powerful units: Judean Zealots and Amazon Chariots. Judean Zealots can only be recruited in Jerusalem, but are high-morale spearmen with a terrific attack and charge bonus. Amazon Chariots are can only be recruited in Themiskyra, but are high-tier chariot archers will all of the advantages that confers. Both units have some Glass Cannon tendencies, however, so be wary.
Elite Tweak: When playing as the Rebels, be sure to capture the Babylon and, with it, the Hanging Gardens Ancient Wonder. Since the Rebels cannot engage in trade relations with the other factions, the boost to farming income will be a major help.
Event Flag: The Rebel armies that spawn between turns belong to them.
Hated by All: Averted. Their cities can never riot or rebel, even if unrest reaches max levels.
Have a Gay Old Time: Rebel armies which spawn in Greece may be called "Lesbian Rebels." (As in, rebels from Lesbos.)
Gladiator Revolt: If a Roman city with a Gladiatorial Arena goes into revolt, it may spawn a revolt army with more powerful gladiator units instead of the usual rebel rabble.
Hard-Coded Hostility: They are permanently hostile to every other faction with no option for diplomacy.
Jack of All Stats: Because of the sheer breadth of the units they can recruit from, they have one of the most balanced unit rosters in the game. Want an army of barbarian war band backed by eastern horse archers and north African elephant units? You can do that.
Last Stand: Rebel armies can't retreat from combat - they are annihilated whenever they lose. Turns every battle that favors the enemy into a glorious Last Stand.
Perpetual Poverty: They will go deep into the red in terms of income due to their massive scattered armies and cities.
Rebel Leader: Their randomly spawning armies may, rarely, spawn with a Rebel General unit.
Space-Filling Empire: The cities belonging to the Rebel faction at the start of the game actually represent dozens of independent territories, states, and kingdoms who had no relation to one another at the time.
Starting Units: They star with by far the most in the game, scattered all over the map.
Warm-Up Boss: Along with Starter Villain, for every faction. Every other faction starts with at least one nearby Rebel city who will be their first target for expansion. For players, this will give them experience in capturing a city. The Rebel armies which randomly spawn also give good experience in open-field battle.
Zerg Rush: Because the vast majority of their units are low-end Cannon Fodder, this will become their default campaign strategy.

Barbarian Invasion Factions

Eastern Roman Empire

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ere_faction_symbol_bi.png

Eastern Roman Empire

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/err_faction_symbol_bi.png

Eastern Roman Rebels

By the time of Barbarian Invasion, the Roman Empire is well and truly in decline. The Eastern Roman Empire is the more wealthy and stable part of the Roman Empire. Due to its location, it has developed a unique culture and military. It combines the power of eastern cataphracts and horse archers with the heavy infantry and discipline of Rome's legions. The Eastern Roman Empire starts the game with much of the Balkans under her control, while also holding Asia Minor, the Levant, and Egypt.

A Commander Is You: Balanced/Economist. Has the biggest economic potential in the game: its' naval trade can generate massive amounts of wealth, which can be only topped by hordes sacking wealthy cities. Their unit roster contains pretty much everything, from heavy infantry and siege to super heavy cataphracts and horse-archers.
Aloof Ally: Enforced. The western and eastern parts of the Empire start allied. But the victory conditions for the East are to control Rome and Carthage. So, if the West manages to keep those under their control, East has to take them by force. AI will also often break the alliance over something petty like declaring war on allied barbarian tribe or control of low-value border province.
Civil War: When a city controlled by the Eastern Roman Empire rebels and it doesn't join another existing faction, it does not switch to a rebel faction. Instead a new faction, called Eastern Roman Rebels emerges. If the Eastern Roman Empire loses all of her provinces while Eastern Roman Rebels exist, they become the new Eastern Roman Empire.
Color-Coded Armies: Purple.
Easing into the Adventure: They start with a good amount of cash and stable provinces. While they are initially at war with Sassanids and Sarmatians, they are stronger than both of them at the start and can slowly but surely wipe Sassanids out, while Sarmatians don't even share a border with them and usually accept white peace. The rampaging hordes may come knocking at the gates of Constantinople, but the barbarians almost never cross the sea and the Eastern Rome can survive without her mainland European provinces.
Glass Cannon: Carriage Ballistae. A mobile artillery platform that will easily tear apart heavy infantry (and even heavy cav that can't catch them) but will die the moment the enemy actually touches them. Also prone to Friendly Fire incidents.
Going Native: The culture and army of Eastern Roman Empire is a blend of Roman and Greek, with noticable eastern influence.
Horse Archer: Their Hippo-toxotai are not the best missle cavalry out there, but they get the job done.
Money for Nothing: Just like their vanilla predecessors, money tends to become a non-issue for them once they establish their economy and snowball. Especially their maritime trade and mines can generate massive amounts of wealth.
Shining City: Several, actually. Constantinople is the most prominent example, being almost fully developed at the start of the game. There's also Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria, with many other Eastern Roman settlements having the potential to become this.
Warrior Monk: If they own a province with a hermitage (or a higher tier of it), they can train orthodox christian priests, who function as a support unit, but can still fight to a degree.

Western Roman Empire

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wre_faction_symbol_bi.png

Western Roman Empire

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wrr_faction_symbol_bi.png

Western Roman Rebels

By the time of Barbarian Invasion, the Roman Empire is well and truly in decline. The Western Roman Empire is the larger, but poorer part of the old Empire. It is most at risk from the oncoming Barbarian Hordes. The shine of Roman legions is long gone, the western army now employs many barbarian units in her ranks. However, it can still field strong heavy infantry, crossbows, siege and supporting cavalry. The Western Roman Empire starts the game as a largest faction, controlling half of British Isles, Gaul, Iberia, Italy and northern Africa. Though that is bound to change very soon.

A Commander Is You: Balanced/Generalist, but plays like a Pariah. Despite its' well-rounded unit roster with some great late-game units, it starts the game dirt-poor and undermanned. It takes a lot of strategy, micromanagement, calculated losses and luck to bring the Western empire back from the brink of collapse.
Aloof Ally: Enforced. The western and eastern parts of the Roman Empire start allied. But the victory conditions of West require control of Constantinople. A resurgent West will eventually have to attack their eastern brothers to claim total victory (if the East does not lose said province to rebellion or other factions). AI will also often break the alliance over something petty, like an undermanned border province.
Cadre of Foreign Bodyguards: Their Generals' bodyguard, the Imperial German Bodyguard, consists of barbarians employed precisely because they are foreign and seen as savage, and as such, cannot hope to usurp power from their employers.
Civil War: Considering the starting conditions, this is a regular occurence in the West. When a city controlled by the Western Roman Empire rebels and it doesn't join another existing faction, it does not switch to a rebel faction. Instead a new faction, called Western Roman Rebels emerges. If the Western Roman Empire loses all of her provinces while Western Roman Rebels exist, they become the new Western Roman Empire.
Color-Coded Armies: Red.
Early Game Hell: Rightfully considered the hardest faction to play in the campaign. They start with virtually no cash, their income is low and their army upkeep high, half of their provinces are bound to rebel in a few turns, their people are split between paganism and christianity, which causes even more unrest, and to top it all of, ALL of the barbarian factions have provinces required for victory in their territory. However, if they manage to stabilize their territory and economy, they can become a powerhouse comparable to the Eastern Roman Empire.
Glass Cannon: Carriage Ballistae. A mobile artillery platform that will easily tear apart heavy infantry (and even heavy cav that can't catch them) but will die the moment the enemy actually touches them. Also prone to Friendly Fire incidents.
Joke Character: The Western Roman Empire starts with a general called Gratianus the Lily-livered who has every negative morale trait that a general can have. His retinue contains a mother-in-law, who decreases his influence and morale of troops on the battlefield. He's not even married.
Shining City: Several, actually. Rome is the most obvious example, there's also Ravenna and Carthage. How long will they stay that way varies.
Warrior Monk: If they own a province with a hermitage (or a higher tier of it), they can train catholic christian priests, who function as a support unit, but can still fight to a degree.

Huns

The Huns are perhaps the most fearsome horde that ever descended upon the world of antiquity. Even the great Goths and viscious Vandals are terrified of them. Led by a cunning and cruel leader Attila, the Hunnic horde is ready to claim the riches of Rome for their own. Being a nomadic people, Huns posses the best cavalry in the world, supported by mobile horse archers. They start the game with 9 armies, ready to plunder the weak nations of Europe.

A Commander Is You: Spammer/Ranger, with shades of Brute in the late game. Huns start with the biggest army in the game, composed of high-quality horse archers and superb light and heavy cavalry. Their initial infantry is however very weak and as such, their armies fair poorly in auto-resolve. Therefore, fighting battles hands-on and a lot of micromanagement is required for Huns to truly be the scourge they were historically. Once they acquire advanced production buildings, they can field even heavier cavalry and some usable infantry.
Born in the Saddle: Their gameplay is centered around cavalry, with sub-par infantry and no foot archers. Due to the decline of quality heavy infantry who can stand up to elite cavalry throughout the region, this makes them one of the toughest factions to face in real-time battles.
Color-Coded Armies: Black.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: Their most effective battle strategy, thanks to their reliance on mobile troops.
Outside-Context Problem: They are this to the whole Europe, but especially to the Roman Empire. Before the arrival of the Huns, the Romans were fighting their known enemies with old tactics and were able to keep them in check. But the steppe horde came with a new style of mobile warfare and caused mass migration that threatens to tear the Roman Empire apart.
The Horde: The original one. The brutal horse riders from the steppes who kickstarted the Migration Period, which led to the fall of Rome.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Their modus operandi, and what are they historically most known for. Encouraged and pretty much enforced gameplay-wise for Huns to prosper, since their technology and city management is very poor.

Vandals

The Vandals are a group of east germanic people that were forced from their original homeland by Huns. In order to survive, they have to establish a new home in rich lands of the Western Roman Empire. Similarly to the Huns, Vandals are considered nomadic people and start the game as a horde. Their army emphasises speed and cavalry, although they can train some germanic infantry to back up their horses.

A Commander Is You: Spammer/Ranger, with the possibility to switch to Balanced/Generalist in late game. They start as a large horde, composed mostly of horse archers, light cavalry and low-tier infantry. Their initial armies fair poorly in auto-resolve and the player has to fight their battles hands-on and micromanage their units to be successful. However, if the Vandals acquire advanced production buildings, they get access to heavy infantry, elite spears, foot archers, ships and heavy cavalry, which makes them much more well-rounded.
A Lighter Shade of Black: The Vandals start the game in the exact same situation as the Huns; they are a rampaging horde ready to descend on the civilized world. However, they are the first victims of the Huns and are simply running away to save themselves. The Vandals can adopt Christianity and have better building technologies, which allows them to settle down and adopt sedentary, territory-control based playstyle of the civilized factions. This generally means far less pillage and slaughter.
Born in the Saddle: A lot, but not to the extend of the Huns. Their early game is centered around cavalry, and even when they capture land, their mounted troops will be the main answer to Roman infantry. They do have some other options though.
Color-Coded Armies: Brown.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: Initially their preferred strategy, until they get some heavy troops.
The Horde: They start as one, but unlike the Huns, their playstyle can become more sedentary.
Race Lift: The character portraits of Vandals look very Asiatic, because their faction is in the "Nomad" category. This is despite the fact they are historically Germanic people originating from Scandinavia.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: It's what they were known to do and need to do to prosper in game. The term "vandalism" comes from their sacking of Rome.
Warrior Monk: If Vandals own a province with a hermitage (or a higher tier of it), they can train mounted arian christian priests, who effectively function as a support cavalry, but can still fight to a degree.

Goths

The Goths start the game as a settled faction in Dacia, with ties to the Roman Empire. However, their people are split between christianity and old pagan ways and they are the frontier of the civilized world, which means the hordes will be coming. Their main strength lies in their cavalry, although their advanced germanic infantry is of high quality as well.

A Commander Is You: Elitist/Brute, with a possible switch to Spammer/Ranger. In an inversion to the Vandals, they start as a settled barbarian faction that relies on strong heavy infantry and cavalry, without big numbers. But more often than not, they will be forced out of their land by incoming hordes, which will give them several armies composed of horse archers, light cavalry and low-tier infantry, that they have to use to find a new home.
Color-Coded Armies: Orange.
Human Sacrifice: The game description says the Goths sacrifice captured enemies to their pagan god Tyz and his shrine is available as a building in-game. However, there is no game mechanic to actually do this and Goths can convert to christianity.
The Horde: They become one if they get forced out of Dacia, which happens a lot.
Race Lift: The character portraits of Goths look very Asiatic, because their faction is in the "Nomad" category. This is despite the fact they are historically Germanic people originating from Scandinavia.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: If they become a horde, they are encouraged to do this to acquire wealth for establishment of their new homeland. Even if they don't become a horde, sacking the conquered cities is the most reasonable thing to do, because barbarians have issues keeping the public order.
Warrior Monk: If Goths own a province with a hermitage (or a higher tier of it), they can train arian christian priests, who function as a support unit, but can still fight to a degree.

Sarmatians

The Sarmatians start the game settled in present-day Ukraine and at war with the Roman Empire. However, the Romans are the least of their problems as the hordes are coming from the north and Sarmatians will have to fight tooth and nail to survive...or run away. They are a continuation of the Scythians from the vanilla, and as such, their main focus is archery. They don't however suffer from the Crippling Overspecialization their predecessors had.

Amazon Brigade. They are one of two factions that can recruit two loosely historical units of female warriors: Sarmatian archers and Virgin cavalry.
Annoying Arrows: Averted. They are an archer-focused faction and can dish out a lot of damage with them, especially with their horse archers.
A Commander Is You: Balanced/Ranger. They're heavily focused on missile troops, with only basic melee cavalry and a single infantry unit, bar the standard peasant trash unit. While they only start with one holding, they are able to form a horde and flood their army with cheap troops.
Born in the Saddle: Of all their trainable troops, only three of them fight on foot.
Color-Coded Armies: Yellow.
Elite Mooks: Sarmatian Armoured Archers, who are horse archers with heavy armor, capable of fighting in melee as well.
Grim Up North: They start in a large, sparsely populated and economically poor territory north of the Black Sea.
Horse Archer: Their core gameplay units.
The Horde: They become one if they become displaced by the Huns or Vandals, which almost always happens.
Rain of Arrows: They have some of the best missile units in the game, particularly their Sarmatian Armoured Archers.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: If they become a horde, they are encouraged to do this to acquire wealth for establishment of their new homeland. Even if they don't become a horde, sacking the conquered cities is the most reasonable thing to do, because barbarians have issues keeping the public order.
Stone Wall: Unlike their Scythian predecessors, the Sarmatians can field a single unit of heavy infantry. This unit, the Bosphoran Infantry, has heavy armor, good defense and can stand ground against both infantry and cavalry; which gives Sarmatians the much needed frontline unit the Scythians never had.

Saxons

Up north, near the Baltic sea, live the Saxon tribes. While not in an any immediate danger from the hordes, they see that the Western Roman Empire is weak and their lands are ripe for plunder and conquest. They might soon take their ships to the shores of Britannia and Gaul. The Saxons continue the germanic tradition of strong infantry, carrying axe, spear and sword into battle, while having a limited range of support units.

A Commander Is You: Elitist/Brute. The Saxons have some of the best shock troops availible to any faction. Even their basic spearmen can make a shield wall, they also have armor-piercing axemen and elite heavy infantry, the Saxon Hearth Troops. Their heavy cavalry is also decent. However, their numbers are few as they start with only one province and they can't form a horde.
Barbarian Tribe: One of the six "barbarian" factions in the expansion and three playable ones.
Color-Coded Armies: Gold.
Elite Mooks: Saxon Hearth Troops, their top tier infantry. Good morale, good stamina, heavy armor, and they have a combat bonus in snow and woods (a.k.a. the natural habitat of Saxons).
Grim Up North: They start in modern day Denmark with their victory conditions laying exclusively in the north.
Horny Vikings: While their helmets are accurately hornless, they still have that typical viking feel, with advanced naval tech, Longboats, Saxon Keel - a unit specifically described as "raiders and sea-scum", and a goal to invade the British Isles.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: As is the case for settled barbarian factions. Their units have naturally higher morale, lower discipline, may charge into battle without an order and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Played with. The Saxons were historically known as sea-raiders and plunderers of the coastline. However, this is not represented in the game mechanics in any way. They cannot become a horde, so the playstyle of constant moving and pillage is not available to them. Sacking the conquered cities is still the reasonable thing to do, because they have issues keeping the public order, but a Saxon player should strive to hold the land they conquer.
Stone Wall: The Saxon infantry is one of the best at holding the line, especially their Saxon Hearth Troops, who can sap.

Franks

The Franks are a germanic tribe that lives on the eastern bank of Rhine, near the Roman borders. Their proximity to Rome has led to many advancements in their technology and culture, which is almost on par with the "civilized" world. As the Western Roman Empire falls to pillaging hordes, rebellions and decadence, it might be the Franks who'll carry the torch of civilization in the west. They fight in the style of early Roman legions and Germanic tribes, emphasizing strong heavy infantry, with limited support troops. They start the game in a single province next to Roman borders.

A Commander Is You: Balanced/Brute. Frankish heavy infantry is comparable to the Roman legions, and better in some aspects. They can field basic spearmen, strong armored swordsmen, armor-piercing axemen and more. They have only basic archers and little in the way of cavalry, but they can unlock powerful Paladins and siege if they acquire advanced military buildings.
Barbarian Tribe: One of the six "barbarian" factions in the expansion and three playable ones. However they are decidedly less barbarian than their neighbours, which is evident from their fighting style and build tree.
Color-Coded Armies: Blue.
Elite Mooks: Paladins. Super heavy cavalry comparable to cataphracts. The have excellent morale, very good stamina, and their charge can break even spear lines. These are however a bit of a Secret Character since they can only be trained in a city with a high-tier hermitage and a high-tier stable. This is something that Franks do not have at the start nor usually encounter in their conquest of Roman Gaul, whose provinces start squarely pagan, meaning no hermitages.
Grim Up North: Not to the extend of the Saxons, but they are still portrayed as northern barbarians.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: Downplayed. They are still barbarian; their units have naturally higher morale and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits. But their better troops suffer little to no malus to discipline and rarely charge into battle without an order.
Mighty Glacier: The Frankish armies are slow, since they rely mainly on foot troops and their heavy cavalry is only viable in the late game. However, when their axemen finally get to melee, they can beat even Roman troops one-on-one. Because of their focus on heavy infantry, their auto-resolve is also very strong.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: If they are displaced from their last settlement, they will become a horde (the player can decide to form a horde themselves if they have only one settlement). As with any horde, they are encouraged to do this to acquire wealth for establishment of their new homeland. Even if they don't become a horde, sacking the conquered cities is the most reasonable thing to do, because it keeps public order high.
Religious Bruiser: Their two pagan temple buildings give bonuses to morale or battle experience to all units trained in the city with a specific building.
Warrior Monk: If Franks own a province with a hermitage (or a higher tier of it), they can train christian priests, who function as a support unit, but can still fight to a degree.

Alemanni

The Alemanni are a confederation of germanic tribes on the Upper Rhine River. Their goal is to move south into the rich heartlands of Western Roman Empire and take Rome itself. They continue the Germanic barbarian traditions of battle, fighting with undisciplined but strong warriors. They start the game in a single province next to Roman borders, in modern-day southern Germany.

A Commander Is You: Balanced/Generalist, with shades of Specialist. The Alemanni combine the best of barbarian warfare in their army, while having several specialized troops. They can train spear and axe infantry, as well as the mighty Golden Band. They have a strong archer line, with Lombard archers being the best foot archers in the western part of the map. Their melee cavalry is on par with the Western Roman Empire. Their special units consist of Lombard Berserkers, warhounds and Night Raiders, that all accomplish their specific tasks like no-one else.
Awesome, but Impractical: Their Berserkers. They have a massive stamina pool, can take down a row of opponents with a single swing similar to an elephant unit's attack, and are the fastest infantry units in the game while berserking. They wreak havoc on enemy formations and a few units of them can almost single-handedly win a siege. However, they also come with numerous crippling flaws. They count as light infantry, lack armor, and although they have a high "defensive skill" stat, that stat is ignored by missile fire so even low-end archers can kill them quickly. Furthermore, they're a high-tier unit in the tech tree, so you likely won't be able to get them until late in the campaign, when their usefulness drops, since both you and your opponents will be getting high-end heavy infantry and cavalry with plenty of armor and high discipline as equivalent units in the tech tree. Finally, when they go berserk, you can no longer control them until the rage wars off.
Barbarian Hero: They can train whole units of them, the mighty, axe dual wielding, shirtless Golden bands.
Barbarian Tribe: One of the six "barbarian" factions in the expansion and three playable ones.
Color-Coded Armies: Saxe blue.
Crutch Character: Suomar. The Alemanni faction leader at the start, who has 4 command, 5 management and 3 influence, but, due to the retinue and traits, has 7 command when fighting Romans. This helps ofset the early onslaught from Western Roman Empire, but Alemanni need to get stronger fast while Suomar still lives: he is 40 at the start of the game.
Decapitated Army: Along with Keystone Army. Downplayed. Just like their Germanic ancestors, their units can be prone to fleeing once the general gets killed. The high-tier units however, don't tend to do this as often.
Early Game Hell: Despite their impressive unit roster, the Alemanni start in a very weak position. They are surrounded by stronger neighbours and start already at war with the Western Roman Empire. Their single province is poor and their initial army small. They also can't form a horde. All it takes is one stack of Western Roman army or a Frankish horde to wipe Alemanni from the map.
Elite Mooks: With powerful Gothic Cavalry, Lombard Archers and Sacred Band, the Alemanni have arguably the best units of all playable barbarian factions.
Grim Up North: Not to the extend of, say, Saxons, but they are still your standard barbarians.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: Some of their units have naturally higher morale, lower discipline, and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits.
Rain of Arrows: Their Lombard archers are the very best in the western half of the map.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Despite their inability to become a horde, this is still a thing Alemanni should do, as it is hard to maintain public order in captured big cities. Sacking a city improves public order, removes squalor and gives the faction a big cash reward.
The Berserker: They can recruit them as late game elite units.

Sassanids

The Sassanids became a ruling dynasty of Persia after the Parthians, whom they've deposed. Sassanids are a culturally Eastern faction, the last one on the map. They are an arch-nemesis of the Roman Empire and their campaign centers around destroying its' eastern half. Their army continues the Parthian tradition, relying on cavalry supported by light foot troops. They are also the only faction in Barbarian invasion that is still able to train elephants.

A Commander Is You: Balanced/Specialist, verging strongly into Brute provided they have access to their late-game troops. Many of their unit types counter a specific type of unit, but their units have lesser stats overall. They have very bad infantry, but they can use skirmishers and horse archers to harass the slow Roman heavy infantry. They can train camels, who are a hard counter to cavalry. In late game, they get access to armored horse archers, super-heavy cavalry and elephants.
Arch-Enemy: To the Eastern Roman Empire and vice-versa. Their entire campaign is usually spent fighting the East Rome since all their provinces required for victory are in their territory.
Awesome, but Impractical: Their Sughdian Warriors. These are elite heavy infantry comparable to Roman comitatenses. However, they require the highest-tier barracks to be trainable, they take two turns to train, can only be trained in Sassanid starting regions and are quite expensive. It is far more reasonable to invest into heavy cavalry instead of these.
Beast of Battle: Their elephants.
Born in the Saddle: Their military revolves around their cavalry, with only meager foot troops.
Bow and Sword in Accord: Or bow and mace, to be precise. Their Clibinarii and Generals' bodyguard are a hybrid cavalry unit that can use bows, and function as both horse archers and shock troops.
Color-Coded Armies: Teal.
Elite Mooks: Clibinarii heavy cavalry. Expensive but armored and powerful, they are a late antiquity equivalent of a tank and can hold their ground in protracted melee combat against everything the Eastern Roman Empire can throw at them, including spears.
Foe-Tossing Charge: Their Cataphracts, Clibinarii and elephants are all able to do this.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: Their bad infantry and expensive heavy cavalry means they rely on these almost exclusively in early-game battles, made much easier with the speed and quality of their horse archers.
Horse Archer: Their specialty.
Public Execution: The Sassanids practice this, as evident by their "Execution square" building. It has positive effect on public order.
War Elephants: They are the only faction that can recruit them and they are far less counterable, since Romans have stopped using flaming pigs.

Berbers

The Berbers are a faction that represents various people of northern Africa, that managed to stay independent from the Roman Empire. As the strength of Rome wanes, they might be able to push them out of the black continent entirely. The Berbers are warriors accustomed to desert warfare, using light troops and ranged tactics.

A Commander Is You: Balanced/Technical. The Berbers rely completely on light troops that can't hold up in long combat. They can train solid units in every category, but none of them are armored, so hit-and-run tactics and fighting from distance is their preferred way of warfare. Most of their units have combat bonuses in desert, so choosing the right battlefield the first step to victory for the Berbers.
Arch-Enemy: They see the Western Roman Empire as this and will usually spend their campaign fighting only them. The Western Roman Empire sees them as a nuisance at most.
Armor Is Useless: Out of their ten trainable units, exactly zero wear heavy armor.
Color-Coded Armies: Light green.
Crippling Overspecialisation: When it comes to fighting with light troops, they are the best. However, they have no other option, since they can field no heavy troops, if you don't count mercenaries. They are excellent in open desert warfare, but once they have to capture a city, or expand out of Africa (which is necessary, since Africa does not have enough provinces for Berbers to achieve victory), they will be outclassed by pretty much any faction they can encounter.
Fragile Speedster: Their infantry is not bad, but because of their light armor, it doesn't stand a chance in protracted melee fight. The Berbers need to rely on their archers and light cavalry charges to do damage, while their infantry distracts the enemy.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: This is what Berbers' fast, lightly armored units are best at and it is the only way they can reasonably beat Western Roman armies in equal numbers.
Horse Archer: They can recruit them, and these are one of their strongest units, especially in open battles.
Perpetual Poverty: Their two starting territories are not especially valuable. Even if they capture the rest of African provinces, they will generate little to none maritime trade income, since their only viable trade partner, the Western Roman Empire, will almost always be at war with them.
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
Zerg Rush: Due to their cheap troops, solid starting army and relatively weak Roman presence in Africa, this is an effective strategy for Berbers. It is possible to amass an army of mediocre troops and simply overwhelm Roman Carthage and Leptis Magna with sheer numbers.

Burgundii

The Burgundii tribes live in the eastern lands of the germanic peoples, in modern day Poland. They are a settled faction, but they may be driven out of their homeland and seek richer pastures in Roman Gaul. They continue the Germanic barbarian traditions of battle, fighting with undisciplined but strong warriors.

A Commander Is You: Balanced/Generalist, with shades of Specialist. The Burgundii combine the best of barbarian warfare in their army, while having several special troops. They can train spear and axe infantry, as well as the mighty Golden Band. They have a strong archer line, with Lombard archers being the best foot archers in the western part of the map. Their melee cavalry is on par with the Western Roman Empire. Their special units are Lombard Berserkers, warhounds and Night Raiders, which all serve a specific task, that they can accomplish like no-one else.
Awesome, but Impractical: Their Berserkers. They have a massive stamina pool, can take down a row of opponents with a single swing similar to an elephant unit's attack, and are the fastest infantry units in the game while berserking. They wreak havoc on enemy formations and a few units of them can almost single-handedly win a siege. However, they also come with numerous crippling flaws. They count as light infantry, lack armor, and although they have a high "defensive skill" stat, that stat is ignored by missile fire so even low-end archers can turn them into Burgundian cheese. Furthermore, they're a high-tier unit in the tech tree, so you likely won't be able to get them until late in the campaign, when their usefulness drops, since both you and your opponents will be getting high-end heavy infantry and cavalry with plenty of armor and high discipline as equivalent units in the tech tree. Finally, when they go berserk, you can no longer control them until their rage wars off.
Barbarian Tribe: One of the six "barbarian" factions in the expansion.
Color-Coded Armies: Dark pink.
Decapitated Army: Along with Keystone Army. Downplayed. Just like their Germanic ancestors, their units can be prone to fleeing once the general gets killed. The high-tier units however, don't tend to do this as often.
Elite Mooks: As the copy of the Alemanni, they share their all-around excellent unit roster.
Grim Up North: Not to the extend of the Saxons, but they are still your standard non-Roman barbarians.
Palette Swap: Along with a bit of a Composite Character. The Burgundii are an exact copy of the Alemanni, both in the units and buildings. They are, however, able to form a horde and their horde troops are copied from the Franks. Both their regular and horde troops are also an *exact* Palette Swap of the Lombardi... or is it the other way around?
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: Some of their units have naturally higher morale, lower discipline, and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits.
Rain of Arrows: Their Lombard archers are the very best in the western half of the map.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: If they are displaced from their last settlement, they will become a horde (the player can decide to form a horde themselves if they have only one settlement). As with any horde, they are encouraged to do this to acquire wealth for establishment of their new homeland. Even if they don't become a horde, sacking the conquered cities is the most reasonable thing to do, because it keeps public order high.
The Berserker: They can recruit them as late game elite units.
The Unfought: Historically and gameplay-wise they are supposed to be another barbarian tribe that descends upon the weak Western Roman Empire: their provinces required for victory are in southern Gaul and they can be effortlessly displaced from their single settlement by nearby Hunnic and Vandal hordes. However, these hordes almost always move straight south upon Sarmatians and Goths, so the Burgundii never leave their homeland (the AI never forms a horde by choice). So they usually end up just slowly expanding into vacant eastern provinces of the map, only clashing ocassionally with their barbarian neighbours.

Celts

The Celtic people of western Europe have been steadily conquered by Romans for decades. The last vestiges of independent Celts survive in northern Britannia, still at war with Rome. But now their eternal foe is weak, so Celts might have a chance to finally reclaim their ancestral lands. Their fighting style has changed little over the centuries, however they've adapted some advanced technology and tactics of the civilized world.

A Commander Is You: Spammer/Specialist. Their units are cheap and mostly mediocre in stats, but many of them have a specific skill, which can be used to great effect. Special mention goes to devastating but fragile chariots, armor-piercing Gallowglass, bersekering Hounds of Culann, morale-boosting Druids and warhounds.
Armor Is Useless: Not to the extremes of vanilla Britannia, but their units still fight mostly lightly armored.
Barbarian Tribe: One of the six "barbarian" factions in the expansion.
Blood Knight: As with most barbarian factions, their Generals seem particularly inclined to develop traits along this line. Their berserkering unit, the Hounds of Culann, are definitely this.
Color-Coded Armies: Dark green.
From Nobody to Nightmare: For a poor barbarian faction that starts in two remote settlements, the Celts can become surprisingly big and strong. If they manage to take Britannia, which isn't hard, since the Roman garrisons there are not strong, their income will flourish from maritime trade and they can field big armies and press onto the mainland.
Glass Cannon: Their chariots can cut large swathes through enemy lines of all but the toughest heavy infantry and cavalry like warm knives through butter, but are extremely vulnerable to quality spear infantry, getting bogged down in prolonged melee combat, and to enemy missile fire.
Grim Up North: They start in the possession of the northermost territories in the game. Downplayed, since this has no effect on gameplay and the British Isles are decidedly less grim than Saxon Denmark.
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: As is the case for most of the barbarian factions. Their units have naturally higher morale, lower discipline, and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Despite their inability to become a horde, this is still their best strategy, as it is hard to maintain public order in captured big cities. Sacking a city improves public order, removes squalor and gives a big cash reward.
Religious Bruiser: One of their pagan shrines gives bonus battle experience to all units trained in the city with said shrine.
Suffer the Slings: Slingers and javelins are the main ranged troops of Celts, until they get advanced ranged production buildings with crossbowmen. They're effective enough against light troops, but are severely outclassed against any decently armored troops.
The Berserker: They can recruit Hounds of Culann if they build a specific pagan shrine.
Warrior Monk: They can recruit Druids, provided they build a specific pagan shrine. These are capable light-infantry units, but their main purpose is to increase morale of nearby friendly units.

Lombardi

The Lombardi tribes live in the east near the Baltic sea, in modern day Poland. They are a settled faction, but they may be driven out of their homeland and seek a new homeland in Italy. They continue the Germanic barbarian traditions of battle, fighting with undisciplined but strong warriors.

A Commander Is You: Balanced/Generalist, with shades of Specialist. The Lombardi combine the best of barbarian warfare in their army, while having several special troops. They can train spear and axe infantry, as well as the mighty Golden Band. They have a strong archer line, with Lombard archers being the best foot archers in the western part of the map. Their melee cavalry is on par with the Western Roman Empire. Their special units are Lombard Berserkers, warhounds and Night Raiders, which all serve a specific task, that they can accomplish like no-one else.
Awesome, but Impractical: Their Berserkers. They have a massive stamina pool, can take down a row of opponents with a single swing similar to an elephant unit's attack, and are the fastest infantry units in the game while berserking. They wreak havoc on enemy formations and a few units of them can almost single-handedly win a siege. However, they also come with numerous crippling flaws. They count as light infantry, lack armor, and although they have a high "defensive skill" stat, that stat is ignored by missile fire so even low-end archers can turn them into Lombard cheese. Furthermore, they're a high-tier unit in the tech tree, so you likely won't be able to get them until late in the campaign, when their usefulness drops, since both you and your opponents will be getting high-end heavy infantry and cavalry with plenty of armor and high discipline as equivalent units in the tech tree. Finally, when they go berserk, you can no longer control them until their rage wears off.
Barbarian Tribe: One of the six "barbarian" factions in the expansion.
Color-Coded Armies: Magenta.
Decapitated Army: Along with Keystone Army. Downplayed. Just like their Germanic ancestors, their units can be prone to fleeing once the general gets killed. The high-tier units however, don't tend to do this as often.
Elite Mooks: As the copy of the Alemanni, they share their all-around powerful unit roster.
Grim Up North: Very much so, with their homeland being the second closest to Scandinavia, apart from Saxons.
Palette Swap: Along with a bit of a Composite Character. The Lombardi are an exact copy of the Alemanni, both in the units and buildings. They are, however, able to form a horde and their horde troops are copied from the Franks. Both their regular and horde troops are also an *exact* Palette Swap of the Burgundii... or is it the other way around?
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: Some of their units have naturally higher morale, lower discipline, and their Generals have a tendency to acquire Blood Knight type traits.
Rain of Arrows: Their Lombard archers are the very best in the western part of the map.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: If they are displaced from their last settlement, they will become a horde (the player can decide to form a horde themselves if they have only one settlement). As with any horde, they are encouraged to do this to acquire wealth for establishment of their new homeland. Even if they don't become a horde, sacking the conquered cities is the most reasonable thing to do, because it keeps public order high.
The Berserker: They can recruit them as late game elite units.
The Unfought: Historically and gameplay-wise they are supposed to be another barbarian tribe that descends upon the weak Western Roman Empire: their provinces required for victory are in northern Italy and they can be effortlessly displaced from their single settlement by nearby Hunnic and Vandal hordes. However, these hordes almost always move straight south to Sarmatian and Gothic lands, so the Lombardi are never forced out of their homeland (the AI never forms a horde by choice). Therefore, they usually end up just slowly expanding into vacant eastern provinces of the map, only clashing with their barbarian neighbours.

Roxolani

The Roxolani start the game settled in lands north of Crimea. Their remote location and a single poor starting province leaves them out of interest of their neighbours and rampaging hordes. They are a continuation of the Scythians from the vanilla, and as such, their main focus is archery. They don't however suffer from the Crippling Overspecialization their predecessors had.

Amazon Brigade. They are one of two factions that can recruit two loosely historical units of female warriors: Sarmatian archers and Virgin cavalry.
Annoying Arrows: Averted. They are an archer-focused faction, especially their horse archers, and can dish out a lot of damage with them.
A Commander Is You: Balanced/Ranger. They're heavily focused on missile troops, with only basic melee cavalry and a single infantry unit, bar the standard peasant trash unit. While they only start with one holding, they are able to form a horde and flood their army with cheap troops.
Born in the Saddle: Of all their trainable troops, only three of them fight on foot.
Color-Coded Armies: Dark Blue.
Elite Mooks: Sarmatian Armoured Archers, who are horse archers with heavy armor, capable of fighting melee as well.
Grim Up North: They start in a large, sparsely populated and economically poor territory north of the Black Sea.
Horse Archer: Their core gameplay units.
Palette Swap: As far as units and buildings go, the Roxolani are an exact copy of the Sarmatians.
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
The Horde: They become one if they lose their last settlement. The player can form a horde by choice, if they have only one settlement left.
Rain of Arrows: They have some of the best missile units in the game, particularly their Sarmatian Armoured Archers.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: As with any horde, they are encouraged to do this to acquire wealth for establishment of their new homeland. Even if they don't become a horde, sacking the conquered cities is the most reasonable thing to do, because barbarians have issues keeping the public order.
Stone Wall: Unlike their Scythian predecessors, the Roxolani can field a single unit of heavy infantry. This unit, the Bosphoran Infantry, has heavy armor, good defense and can stand ground against both infantry and cavalry; which gives Roxolani the much needed frontline unit the Scythians never had.

Ostrogoths

The Ostrogoths are an emergent faction that does not exist at the start of the game. They are a splinter group that appears if a settlement owned by the Goths rebels and doesn't join an existing faction. Like their Gothic brothers, the Ostrogoths' strength lies in their cavalry, although their advanced Germanic infantry is of high quality as well.

A Commander Is You: Elitist/Brute, with a possible switch to Spammer/Ranger. They always appear in game as a settled barbarian faction in one or more settlements, and will field strong heavy infantry and cavalry, without big numbers. However, they might be forced out of their land by their enemies, which will give them several armies composed of horse archers, light cavalry and low-tier infantry, that they have to use to find a new home.
Civil War: Similarly to Western Roman Rebels and Eastern Roman Rebels, the Ostrogoths appear only if a province owned by the Goths rebels and doesn't join an existing faction. They will start immediately at war with their Gothic brothers. However, if the original Goths get destroyed, the Ostrogoths will not take their place and will remain their own faction.
Color-Coded Armies: Beige.
Human Sacrifice: The game description says all the Goths sacrifice captured enemies to their pagan god Tyz and his shrine is available as a building in-game. However, there is no game mechanic to actually do this and Ostrogoths can convert to christianity.
Palette Swap: As far as units and buildings go, the Ostrogoths are an exact copy of the Goths.
Promoted to Playable: In Remastered, after only being playable in the base game with a text edit.
The Horde: They become one if they get forced out of their last settlement.
Race Lift: The character portraits of Ostrogoths look very Asiatic, because their faction is in the "Nomad" category. This is despite the fact they are historically Germanic people originating from Scandinavia.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: If they become a horde, it is most reasonable to do this to acquire wealth for establishment of their new homeland. Even if they don't become a horde, sacking the conquered cities is the safest thing to do, because barbarians have issues keeping the public order.
Warrior Monk: If Ostrogoths own a province with a hermitage (or a higher tier of it), they can train arian christian priests, who function as a support unit, but can still fight to a degree.

Romano-British

The Romano-British are an emergent faction that does not exist at the start of the game. They are a coalition of romanized people of Brittania that want to rule themselves and perserve Roman way of life. They show up as an army without a city once the Western Roman Empire is pushed out of Britannia. Like their Western Roman forebearers, the Romano-British possess a well-rounded unit roster with strong Roman infantry, advanced siege and barbarian support troops.

A Commander Is You: Balanced/Generalist. Their armies are very similar to the Western Roman Empire, having no particularly overpowered units but also no weaknesses. They can field Roman auxiliary light infantry, heavy infantry, crossbows, siege and heavy cavalry.
Color-Coded Armies: Light Blue.
Elite Mooks: Graal Knights, the super-heavy cavalry comparable to cataphracts, available only to them. They are the only cavalry in the game that has a fighting bonus in snow.
Home Guard: Their initial army is a collection of former Roman soldiers, romanized barbarians and British people in general, who were happy under Roman rule and want to preserve the civilized Roman ways. Their Limitanei equivalent is even called Coastal Levies.
Palette Swap: Most of their units and their building options are copied from the Western Roman Empire.
Outside-Context Problem: They are this to anyone who manages to drive out the Western Roman Empire out of Britannia. Once the Empire is gone, the conqueror will have to fight against another army assembled by the locals who formed their own Roman faction. This does not happen anywhere else in the game.
Warrior Monk: If Romano-British own a city with a hermitage (or a higher tier of it), they can train monks, who function as a support unit that increases morale of other friendly units, but can still fight to a degree.

Slavs

The Slavic faction represents people who setttled the vacant lands in eastern Europe after the Mass Migration was over. They are an emergent faction that will appear as a horde in northeastern Europe in the late game. Their army emphasises speed and cavalry, although they can train some foot troops as well.

A Commander Is You: Spammer/Ranger, with the possibility to switch to Balanced/Generalist in late game. They start as a horde, composed mostly of horse archers, light cavalry and low-tier infantry. However, if they acquire advanced production buildings, they get access to heavy infantry, elite spears, foot archers, ships and heavy cavalry, which makes them much more well-rounded.
Born in the Saddle: A lot, but not to the extend of the Huns. Their early game is centered around cavalry, and even when they capture land, their mounted troops will be their core units. They do have some other options though.
Color-Coded Armies: White.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: Initially their preferred strategy, until they get some heavy troops.
Palette Swap: As far as units and buildings go, the Slavs are an exact copy of the Vandals.
Perpetual Poverty: Unless they move southward and take rich coastal provinces (which happens rarely), they will fall into this, since inland eastern Europe is very poor.
The Horde: They start as one, but they usually settle quickly in nearby provinces.
Race Lift: The character portraits of Slavs look very Asiatic, because their faction is in the "Nomad" category. This is despite the fact they are historically people of European origin.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: To truly prosper in game, they need to do this early to get funds for when they settle. Even after they abandon their nomadic ways, sacking the conquered cities is the safest thing to do, because barbarians have issues keeping the public order.
Warrior Monk: If Slavs own a province with a hermitage (or a higher tier of it), they can train mounted christian priests, who effectively function as a support cavalry, but can still fight to a degree.

Rebels

See above.

Characters / Rome: Total War

Rome: Total War Factions

Barbarian Invasion Factions

Previous

Index

Next

Characters / Rome: Total War

Edit Locked

Rome: Total War Factions

Barbarian Invasion Factions

Previous

Index

Next