Video Game / Total War: Rome II

Roma Invicta

"How far will you go for Rome?"

Total War: Rome II is a game in the Total War strategy series, released on September 3rd, 2013. As a sequel to Rome: Total War, it returns to classical antiquity and the rise of the Roman Republic/Empire. Several new features have been introduced, such as combined land and sea battles, an abstract "tactical" map for battlefields and the combination of territories on the turn-based strategy map into larger "provinces".

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

The player is also able to control several other factions, which present similar options for internal politics. Eight playable factions were included with the base game, with additional playable factions subsequently released as paid or free DLC. In total, over 100 factions appear on the campaign map, although most of these are not playable.

In addition to the main campaign, there is also a prologue campaign set during the early years of the Roman Republic that serves as a tutorial. The player follows the rise of Gaius Fulvius Silanus during the Samnite Wars, which would lay the foundations for the rise of Rome.

On the 16th of September, 2014, the game was updated to the Emperor Edition for all existing and future players at no additional cost. In addition, it automatically includes the new Imperator Augustus campaign, which follows the civil war between the former members of the Second Triumvirate (Gaius Octavian, Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus) and Sextus Magnus Pompey for control of the Roman Republic, while factions on the outskirts of the Republic plan to take advantage of the chaos to their own ends.

Expansion Packs

1. Caesar in Gaul, released on the 17th of December, 2013, naturally follows Julius Caesar himself during his conquest of Gaul, opposed by the various Gallic tribes (including the Arverni, led by Vercingetorix himself), the Germanic Suebi and the Belgic Nervii.
2. Hannibal at the Gates, released on the 27th of March, 2014. It follows Hannibal Barca during the Second Punic War, opposed by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, with the Hellenic city-state of Syracuse and the Arevaci and Lusitani tribes of Iberia caught up in the middle.
3. Wrath of Sparta, released on the 16th of December, 2014. It takes place during The Peloponnesian War between Sparta, Athens and their allies (including the Boiotian League and Korinthos/Corinth) ^note Of the four playable factions, only Athens represents the Delian League., while the Persian Empire watches and plots from the sidelines. Given the conflict's belligerents are all classical Greeks, factions' unit rosters are nearly all symmetrical with one another. The amount of turns it takes to recruit new units is longer (a minimum of two), making defeats more significant to their faction and raises the desirability of hiring mercenaries greatly. But, anyone that takes the capitals of the key players in the war can expect to draw the ire of all of the rest of Greece, what with its intents of empire among Greece being clear and obvious to all of them. In addition, the campaign features greater variations in conditions as the seasons rotate; players must plan their campaigns with greater care, lest they be caught flat-footed when seasonal conditions are bad.
4. Empire Divided, released on the 30th of November, 2017. Focusing on the Crisis of the Third Century ^note The campaign starts in 270 CE., it divides the Roman Empire between Rome itself under Aurelian and the breakaway Gallic and Palmyrene Empires led by Gaius Tetricus and Queen Zenobia respectively, whilst the Sassanids led by Hormizd ^note Historically, Hormizd ruled for slightly over a year before dying, while his successor/brother Bahram I ruled for slightly over 3. and various barbarian tribes (most notably the Germanic Gothi under Cannabaudes) on the edges of the empire make use of Rome's disorder to expand their own power.
5. Rise of the Republic, released on the 9th of August, 2018. It took the setting back to 399 BCE in Italy and features Rome, still in its infancy, fighting for survival and dominance at a time just before the city was sacked by Brennus and his horde of Gauls in 386. Playable factions include Rome, Brennus' Senones tribe, the Etruscans, the Samnites, and the Greeks who occupied southern Italy at that point in history.

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This game provides examples of:

#-D

• Abnormal Ammo: The "Beasts of War" DLC features siege weapons that can throw bee hives, and pots filled with scorpions or snakes. There's also a host of special types of ammunition available to javelin throwers, and archers.
• A Commander Is You: The game is very diverse in terms of factions, each with its own host of strengths and weaknesses.
  • Illyrian Tribes: Pariah/Spammer/Gimmick. Generally very poor unit choices and one unit of sub-par cavalry Really, Illyria is considered the worst of the worst, and are usually wiped off the map by turn fifty; nothing but a tactical genius can make these guys good. To add insult to injury, their first factional bonus relies on recluting masses of mercenaries for a single or a couple of turns and disbanding them shortly after but they lack the economical groundwork to capitalize on that and their second bonus revolves around raiding other factions to stay afloat, and they are just at the doorstep of Rome.
  • Iberian Tribes: Guerrilla/Generalist mix, as they have good light infantry for ambushes as well as good medium infantry that can hold its own against even Roman soldiers, they also have good light and medium cavalry to bolster their ranks, the main drawback being that their units tend to be glass cannons. Their playable factions (the Lusitani and the Arevaci) also have an additional focus on either infantry or cavalry respectively.
  • Germanic Tribes: Guerilla/Spammer/Technical, as they get the "scare" ability for many units, making them horribly damaging to enemy morale, but their units are otherwise of unremarkable quality...with the exception of Berserkers anyway...and there will be never a shortage of troops to call upon, as most of their rooster is very cheap, and plentiful. They excel, however, in ambushes and forest combat, and many of their units have Vanguard deployment.
  • British Tribes: Brute/Technical/Spammer. Celts have a great selection of units, especially infantry, but they don't have any of the specialised units or cost-effective units of other factions. They heavily rely on their extremely good Chariot units to do much of their damage, and like the Germans, they can always rely on numbers...
  • Gallic Tribes: Brute/Spammer: Similar to the above, but with the addition of fielding several very nasty sword warriors decked out in extremely heavy armour that pound through everything that's thrown against them, making them a nightmare to fight in defensive battles. In addition, they have decent cavalry, and ranged units. Like most "Barbarians" their armies are also very plentiful.
  • Carthage: Generalist/Elitist/Economic. They have access to a large variety of high quality units (although most are mercenaries), and unlike in the first game they actually have Archers, but they lack really cost-effective soldiers, and because their fielding so many mercenaries, money will usually be an issue, as will the size of your armies. They also have access to elephants, which, if used properly, can utterly wreck armies. If they manage to survive the onslaught of Rome, they have quick access to the fruits of the entire Mediterranean, which can greatly boost their already powerful economic structure.
  • Armenia: Ranger/Elitist. Eastern rosters lack strong infantry but they make up for it with skirmishers, skirmisher cavalry, and very powerful shock cavalry, their crunch card, being a unbearably strong Lightning Bruiser.
  • Parthia: Ranger/Elitist/Technical: The armies of Parthia, much like the rest of the Eastern factions, focus more on skirmishers and missile cavalry, leaving them with subpar infantry units. If they got the late campaign on the other hand, they are able to field the fearsome Cathaphracts, be them cavalry or camel.
  • Athens: Generalist with a tinge of Elitist. Large rosters with good units in just about every category, but what they really shine in is Spearmen, both possessing powerful units of Hoplites and excellent Pikemen. They have a very powerful Badass Navy too.
  • Sparta: Elitist...with a surprising aspect of Pariah. They have extremely powerful (but generally expensive) Hoplites, such as the legendary Heroes of Sparta, to pull their weight in battles, but their lacking in almost every other category, it's very hard to use them effectively giving Sparta a serious case of Crippling Overspecialisation.
  • Epirus: Pariah. A weak selection of units, mostly militia tier in strength, and their Hoplites are nowhere close to the tops of Athens and Sparta. Their one saving grace is they have access to Elephants, but even then it really can't save them from extreme mediocrity.
  • Macedon: Elitist/Brute: The heirs of Alexander have a very solid roster, focused on strong Pike Units and solid Spear Units, backed by terrifyingly brutal Shock Calvary, including the all mighty Companion Cavalry.
  • Seleucid: Elitist/Brute/Technical: The Seleucids have some of the most powerful units in the game, from Pikes to Swords and even Elephants; however, they can only access to their best units by the late campaign.
  • Syracuse: Generalist leaning to Elitist/Research: Similarly to Athens, Syracuse has good Spear Units, as well as serviceable Pikemen and Sword infantry; however, while Athens has its Badass Navy, Syracuse can climb the Tech Tree much faster than the other factions, giving them an edge if they can get to the mid and late campaign. It is worth noting that in both factions have identical unit rosters, only differentiated in custom battle by way of mercenary options.
  • Massalia: Balanced/Generalist/Brute: While not possessing a particulary strong niche, the Massalians have access to both Gallic and Greek units, making them able to field versatile armies against their enemies with few weaknesses.
  • Cimmeria: Balanced/Generalist/Ranger: In the same vein as Massalia, Cimmeria has access to Greek and Nomadic units, allowing it to field Hoplites in tandem with Horse Archers and other Steppe Cavalry.
  • Rome: Generalist/Economic/Spammer. Rome itself is a Game-Breaker all the way. They have ungodly disciplined, and very powerful heavy infantry in the form of their many Legionnaire Units, all of which are incredibly cheap and ridiculously cost effective, along with the largest selection of artillery in the game, a selection which will annihilate anyone from afar. On the campaign, they have their special auxiliary system, a wide selection of auxiliaries that help cover any potential faults (good skirmishers, elephants, and even some javelin cavalry), and even some decent cavalry, which is practically Rome's only hole, as their native cav is medicore at best. On top of all that, since they have easy access to the entire Mediterranean, Rome's economy is supercharged; making money practically a non issue midway through the game. A nasty case of Truth in Television, as the real Rome was this strong.
• Affirmative Action Girl: As of the latest update, several factions can field generic female generals, though they're still quite a bit rarer than male leaders, and are restricted to certain factions.
  • Special mention must go to the Kingdom of Kush from the upcoming 'Desert Kingdoms' DLC, which lists more female generals than other factions as a feature. They also have elite mixed gender units of armored archers, with the female models prominently shown in the marketing.
• Alternate History: As the norm for Total War games. Examples include the Carthaginians winning the Punic Wars, and becoming the dominant power in the Mediterranean instead of Rome, Mark Anthony crowning himself Caesar of Rome after destroying Octavian, Vercingetorix fighting of the Roman legions and having Gaul remain independent, the Athenians finally bringing forth their dream; a united Athenian Empire after crushing Sparta, or the Heirs of Alexander rallying and conquering the Roman Republic thus continuing the power of Greek Hellenism.
• The Alliance: Barbarian factions have the option of creating confederations with other barbarian factions, melding their territory and units together into one super faction. A special event in Caesar in Gaul has, after a certain maount of turns, all the remaining Gaulish factions uniting under King Vercingetorix to challenge the Roman Legions and their conquest, turning subjection into all out war.
• Amazon Brigade: Several were added in the August Warriors update and Daughters of Mars DLC, including the original Amazons. Other examples include the Gladiatrices; bloodthristy female Gladiators that wear more armour than their male counterparts, Spearwomen; Germanic bands of powerful female warriors, and Gorgo’s Skirmishers: Female Spartan Women who go into battle with their husbands in desperate times. Most of them can be recruited as mercenaries by other factions.
• Anachronism Stew: The way the game implements the Marian Reforms means that it’s possible to have Manipular Roman troops fighting alongside the later Legionaries.
• Ancient Egypt: Yes, but Downplayed in a sense, it's no longer the classic "new age" that's commonly seen in media. By now Egypt has been almost completely Hellenized by the influence of Alexander the Great, and is a Successor Kingdom; which means no Khopesh's, no armor from The Mummy, and plenty of other differences. The spirit, however, remains, Ancient Egypt. They have distinctive equipment, pyramids, mummies and creepy priests in abundance!
• Ancient Greece: Greek culture or Hellenism has a huge influence over the Roman Republic and the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt especially the former through its architecture and religious pantheon. The Greek city states of Sparta and Athens are also playable factions in the base game while the Wrath of Sparta DLC adds Corinth and other cities.
• Ancient Rome: The main focus, of course; the grand campaign and the various mini campaigns being set from the fall of the Etruscan League, all the way to the start of the Late Antiquity with the crisis of the Third Century. Spanning from the Roman Republic, all the way to the Roman Empire! The gradual erosion of Hellenism, and dominance of Latin culture is a central theme to the game as a whole.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Some new factions are little more the same as one of the existing factions with one or two new units at most. Syracuse has the exact same unit pool as Athens, and both share the same new unit, yet you must beat Hannibal at the Gates campaign to unlock them.
• Anti-Cavalry: Much more detailed than in previous games.
  • Proper formation is very important for infantry. While spear/pike infantry are still very effective against cavalry, especially when using their special formations, they must have unbroken, properly braced formations with deep enough ranks when receiving a charge, or they'll be flattened anyway even if it's from the front. If properly formed up, however, almost any infantry unit can absorb cavalry charges with (relatively) little damage. Also unless you are fielding the most powerful heavy cavalry, it is always a bad idea to charge groups of dedicated infantry from the front.
  • Spear-armed melee cavalry can be quite effective vs other cavalry, though (counter-)charging instead of receiving their charge is a must. This goes double for shock cavalry.
  • Concentrated missile fire (especially javelins) can be murderous against cavalry, though they'll rarely break an oncoming charge by themselves. Best used in support of a braced infantry line or cavalry counter-charge.
  • Under most circumstances, extended melee combat will not go well for most cavalry unless they're fighting very weak units like (most) skirmishers and mobs, so the cavalry cycle tactic^note Charge, withdraw, charge again, repeat until target is broken/dead is important.
• Anti-Infantry: Javelins and Arrows fulfil this function this time, a well timed volley can utterly wreck formations of advancing soldiers. Cavalry has been relegated to a support role, they can certainly do considerable damage to infantry...as long as their supported by other units, or their incredibly elite.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: In addition to the usual 20 unit limit per army/fleet (You can have upwards of fourty soldiers under your command if you have reinforcing armies though) and the limit of the number of armies/fleets and agents you can have simultaneously, some units also have a limit on the quantity you can field at one time, such as the extraordinarily strong Heroes of Sparta.
• Artificial Brilliance: The AI has an odd bi-polar disorder and veers between this, Artificial Stupidity, and everything in between. For example, on the campaign map, enemy armies will curtail the fog of war to remain just out of view, and the AI will always lie in wait nearby weak settlements, waiting for you to abandon them. They have also been known to lure away units on the battlefield, flank and encircle properly, and in general they are a huge leap forward even from Shogun 2's AI, which in and of itself was pretty good.
  • As of the Ancestral Update, the AI, especially on the campaign side of things, has gotten a lot smarter. Players have observed it using its fleets to escort its seabound armies and having its armies guard, with forts, roads that lead to key cities.
• Artificial Stupidity: Unfortunately, the AI is also dumb as bricks at times.
  • The AI will sometimes entirely abandon their siege weapons during a Siege battle to burn down one gate and charge right into an awaiting wall of pikes.
  • They tend to blindly rush the Victory Point in province capital sieges to the exclusion of all else.
  • They sometimes abandon their cities when you're sieging them... even when it's their last city.
  • On the campaign map prior to Patch 2, the AI would field armies consisting solely of thousands of cheap spearmen and slingers to be mowed down.
  • Weak factions will frequently make decisions not good for them diplomatically when dealing with the player (e.g satrapies and client states refusing to join wars for the player). Patches somewhat fixed this problem to be sure, but it still remains.
  • On big forest maps, the AI will almost instantly forget where your units are when they get hidden away by the forest. This means that you can easily hide away your infantry and lead entire armies into a wild goose chase through the woods with your cavalry. One army can easily take out two similar sized armies by separating the opponent's units and running down their ranged and fodder squads leaving the opponent too weak to surround your line and swarm you.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: All attacks deal both regular damage, which can be reduced or blocked entirely by armor, and armor piercing damage, which is always dealt regardless of how much armor is present. Falax's and Axes, in general, do the highest amount of it.
• Armor-Piercing Question: "How far will you go for Rome?", indeed.
• Artistic License – Geography: Players may notice oddities in the grand campaign when looking at the map of Europe (Besides the obvious such as cities being much larger so they are easily visible). The Mediterranean is much narrower, with the Italian Peninsula much wider and bigger, while France and the Iberian Peninsula are proportionally smaller. Most of these are for gameplay reasons. The smaller Mediterranean means Navies can cross it, but if they sail along coast they do not need to severely outpace land armies. Areas enlarged allow for more factions to vie for their controls and more settlements. While areas who are shrunken down allow for more ease of control by limiting how many provinces there are to conquer.
• Artistic License – History: While it mostly averts this more than its predecessor, there are still some very ahistorical aspects to the game, which were probably added for the sake of simplicity. Notably, the culture system in the Grand Campaign, like the Etruscan league having the same Latin culture as the Romans^note Etruscans had a distinct culture, language, social organization and architecture, or the Illyrians and Thracians being lumped together in the same culture. In the Rise of the Republic DLC this is taken up a notch with the Iolei faction, a Sardi tribe (as in, from the Isle of Sardinia), who the game treats as the descendants of the Sherden, one of the "Sea Peoples" of Bronze Age Collapse fame^note While there was a historical theory that the Sherden were from Sardinia and related to the Nurage building peoples like the Sardi, there is little to no actual evidence to support said theory save for the fact that "Sherden" and "Sardi" sound kind of alike.
• Arrow Cam: Thrill as your volley of arrows/artillery fire arcs into an enemy unit.
• Arrows on Fire: You can order your archers to set their projectiles alight, but doing so makes them burn through their ammo supply twice as fast, and the arrows take longer to reload, are much less accurate, and generally don't do as much damage, they however, shred morale, and have an effect of lighting people on fire, horrifying their friends as they burn in agony.
• Annoying Arrows: Zigzagged. If a unit has good armor and/or shields, they can shrug off a lot of arrow fire, since those don't deal much in the way of armor piercing damage, it really depends on how skilled the archer unit is, and when used on Cannon Fodder, arrows will generally rip through lines. They work best in conjunction with shock troops; the extra casualties and morale loss the archers inflict can be followed up by a brutal cavalry or shock infantry charge to scatter the foe.
  • Fully Averted with the Cretan Archers, some of the most famous marksmen in the entire Ancient World. Hailing from the island of Crete, they stand out as some of the best archer units in the entire series. Disciplined, fast, and above all else skilled, they might as well be ancient snipers. They shoot hard, fast, and very accurately. Only the (unplayable) faction of Crete can recruit them natively, but you can also get mercenary variants and, if you're playing as Rome, recruit them as auxiliaries. Expensive, but very much worth the investment.
• Ascended Fanon: Several of the factions and their unit rosters are based off the popular Europa Barbarorum mod for the original Rome Total War:
  • The use of the Arverni, Suebi, Getae, and Lusitani to represent the Gallic, Germanic, Dacian, and Iberian tribes from the first game came from this mod. The Arevaci as the playable Celtiberian tribe.
  • Massilia, Bactria, Pergamon, Cimmeria (the Bosphoran Kingdom), Epirus, Saba, and Nabatea as playable factions.
  • Several unit ideas in the game parallel those in Europa Barbarorum, such as the Bactrian Royal Guard, Cimmerian/Bosphoran Heavy Archers, and Socii/Pedites Extraordinarii.
• Ascended Meme: The military adviser's "This is a shameful display" when a unit routs references the Just a Stupid Accent adviser's comments in the same context in Shogun 2.
• A Taste of Power: Downplayed. From the beginning of any campaign, starting and newly recruited Generals can have Elite Mooks that aren't available for regular recruitment until later in the game as their Bodyguards.
• Attack Pattern Alpha: Units about to charge the enemy or rout will be accompanied by a trumpeting sound signalling it, probably inspired by real Roman military horn blowers.
• Attack Reflector: The Expert Charge Defense trait available to certain elite units causes damage to the charging unit proportional to how strong their charge is. However, the charged unit will still take damage from the charge and has to be stationary for it to work.
• Ambiguously Brown: The Mediterranean factions (except the noticeably darker Egyptians) all share the same olive skin tone (combined with dark brown hair and eyes) for their units, in contrast to the noticeably paler Germanic and Celtic troops, regardless of where said units were recruited. Actually fairly logical, given that the peoples of the central to southern Italy, Phoenicia, Greece, Iberia, Anatolia, etc. are not that far apart in terms of coloring, though pale light-haired light-eyed people also existed (and exist) among all of those peoples in less significant numbers.
  • The Sub-African Kingdoms are all, clearly Sub-Saharan African, however. The exception goes for the female models, which are basically the default Caucasian female model given a darker skintone; the facial features do not resemble those of Sub-Saharan African women.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Generally, the leader of an army or fleet is in the most elite unit or the biggest ship on the field, and the Elite Mooks of most factions tend to consist of nobles of some sort. Justified, as classically, it took a great deal of wealth and status for someone to get all the best equipment, especially armour.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • Carthage, Getae, and Dacia all have specialisations that rely on Mercenaries. The problem is that Mercenaries are hard to recruit and replace in any appreciable numbers for your armies, not to mention having exponentially higher rates of upkeep for their services. Mercenaries in general are this, as whilst their certainly quite cool, it's always best to quickly disband them after they've had their use because of said upkeep.
  • Sparta. Sparta in general. You want to play the legendary Greek Soldier-State that held off them mighty of the Persian Empire? You want those badass Hoplites from 300? You get all of that...and not much else. A few Slave Mooks here and there, some...decent Pikes. Hoplites are the only thing Sparta has, which was becoming a terribly outdated type of soldier at this point in time. Truth in Television, as at this point in history, Sparta was a mere shadow of its former self...despite having admittedly awesome hoplites.
  • Raiding is a generally a wasteful action that, even if you have specializations for it and do it repeatedly without facing any retaliation, does little to help your economy in the long run. You're almost always better off just taking the targeted territory which would save time and make more money than with raiding. ^note Exceptions include being too weak to take the target, being near the next level of Imperium (which would mean higher penalties in many areas), or in the Wrath of Sparta expansion where taking certain factions' capitals is more trouble than its worth.
• Badass Army: Individual armies can not only have Distinctive Appearances (different emblems, names, etc.), but they also can develop traditions that serve as a universal buff to the entire force. That's not even going into individual armies, such as the Roman Legion, the most disciplined, and mighty force that conquered the entire Ancient World, and the famous Hoplites of Sparta.
• Badass Boast: Especially common in General speeches. Then there's the Flavor Text for the Heroes of Sparta.
  "If all Spartans are heroes, how awe-inspiring are their heroes?"
• Badass Cape: Favored by Generals, unit Officers and many Elite Mooks, such as the purple caped Praetorians.
• Barbarian Tribe: Downplayed. While numerous factions are barbarians by Greco-Roman standards (which are the rather low standards of "anyone who's not us" to them, though) and are generally tribal in structure, they're a far cry from the unwashed, uneducated hordes with little culture typically depicted by the trope, having very complicated social infrastructure, governments, and fierce Independence. That being said, their military is usually depicted as a bunch of unwashed barbarian hordes.
• Bears Are Bad News: German Berserkers wear skinned bear hide when they go into battle, making their already terrifying visages even more intimidating. And yes, they're the very definition of bad news.
• Bilingual Bonus: Despite mostly speaking in English unlike say Shogun II, in battle, units sometime speak their native language when ordered around or selected.
  • Greek units occasionally shout in Greek (for example, they acknowledge orders with "Kudos!" meaning "glory"), and refer to officers by their Greek titles ("strategos", "taxiarchos"). Oddly, Parthian cataphracts also do this.
  • Romans will shout various bits of Latin like "Roma Invicta!" ("Unconquered Rome"), "Sic domine!" ("Yes, sir!") and "Oboediamus!" ("We obey!").
  • Celts will shout "katus kladiwos", ("battle swords").
  • Spears have a bonus against large units like cavalry and have moderate overall damage and armor penetration, but swords and axes generally hit more often and the former does more overall damage while the latter has higher armor penetration.
  • Pikes deal relatively little damage per strike, but can keep almost any incoming melee attackers (aside from other pike phalanxes) at a safe distance if formed up in a pike phalanx and pointed the right way.
  • Dacian/Thracian falx/rhomphaia (a cross between a polearm and a BFS) tend to have the highest attack, damage and charge bonus of all melee weapons, plus a large hidden bonus vs large units like cavalry, but their wielders have minimal melee defense and no shield protection from missile fire.
  • Lances are absolutely deadly on the charge, but are unwieldy and ineffective in close quarters, forcing their wielders to switch to their Emergency Weapon.
• Bloodier and Gorier: The Blood and Gore Pack manages to surpass its Shogun 2 counterpart, not by using more blood, but by being more realistic.
• Bloodless Carnage: Played straight with the base game, but it can be Averted if the player, as in Shogun 2, owns the Blood and Gore Pack.
• Boarding Party: One of the main naval tactics is to board enemy ships and engage their crews in melee combat. Particularly effective against missile and artillery ships, whose crews aren't very good in melee. Marines are the best units to use in these kinds of scenarios, as their trained to fight on ships, and in amphibious assaults.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: The Authority assassination method for spies, and what Arminius does to Varus in their fateful battle.
• Born in the Saddle: The Nomadic Tribes entire lifestyle is based n their use of horses, which they use for everything be it food, clothing, transportation, and most importantly, as far as the game's concerned, warfare.
• Bread and Circuses: The name of an edict available to the Romans and Hellenic factions, which boosts food output and happiness in a province.
• Breaking Old Trends: Queen Zenobia of the Palmyrene Empire takes to the field in Empire Divided and is the first female general and faction leader.
  • Averting the Smurfette Principle, Boudicca will be added to the Iceni per the Steam achievements.
• Brick Joke: A random household that can be obtained named "Eastern Turncoat" insists his treason was not just because he got paid to in his flavor text. 'Gold? Is that why you think I...? No, no. Not that.' A "Parthian Turncoat", however, says quite simply that: 'Actually, it is entirely about money…'
• But Thou Must!:
  • It's entirely possible to use clever tactics to defeat the entire Samnite army in the prologue campaign without ever entering the city you're supposed to defend, but you'll eventually trigger a scripted defeat if you don't follow directions even if the Consul still holds all three victory points and no Samnites are even in the city.
  • During the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, moving Varus' cavalry unit too far into the forest (say, to chase archers) results in his instant death and you having to restart the mission. This despite the fact that Varus deserts the army minutes later anyway.
• Call-Back: In the Imperator campaign, the various Roman factions are Palette Swap versions of each other, just like in the original Rome Total War.
• Cannon Fodder: Very basic melee Mob/Pleb infantry can be built from slums that arise from a population surplus square that isn't developed or provided as an innate garrison for many towns...they're pretty much guaranteed to inevitably die off and rout no matter where they attack any real melee units without a dramatic numeric advantage — they're essentially a basic ranged unit in effectiveness but without the actual range.
  • Basically any low tier infantry unit that you can recruit right off the bat is a trash unit with flimsy attack, little to no armor, anemic health, and brittle morale. They're so poor in fact that even a full-stack of them can't even tip the auto-resolve scale in your favor. Although to be fair, the units that require a Muster Field or cultural equivalent are only a little better.
• Carry a Big Stick: A rare melee weapon only used by the Germanic factions, it does the least overall damage of any weapon in the game, but has relatively high armor piercing capability and is the only weapon available to non-ambush units that has a vs. Infantry bonus.
• The Cavalry: The Siege of Capua in the prologue campaign is broken when a Roman-Lucanian army of horsemen rides to the rescue.
• Chariot Race: The Circus Maximus is an available building for Rome.
• Civil War:
  • A possible result if you become too politically weak or powerful in a large enough empire, where everyone that's not from your party (and possibly some that are) will rebel against you. If you're playing as Rome or Carthage, winning this will give you the option of becoming an Empire or remaining a Republic.
  • The historical civil wars that lead to the formation of The Roman Empire are also the focus of the Imperator Augustus campaign.
  • The Empire Divided campaign is set near the end of the Crisis of the Third Century, where the Roman Empire was split into three rival states vying for dominance.
• Combat, Diplomacy, Stealth: The gist of the feel to Zeal, Authority and Cunning attributes. The Champion, Dignitary and Spy agents also match the trifecta.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Whenever a computer-controlled faction captures a settlement, they will instantly convert any culture-specific building versions to their culture in just one turn, which is much faster than the player can.
• Cool Boat: Naval battles include many Slave Galley types, ranging from Hellenic triremes to "barbarian" longboats. Expect many fancy figureheads, especially on command vessels.
• Cool Helmet: The game includes a vast plethora of badass Helmets from across the ancient world, such as the Roman Galea and the Macedonian Phrygian Helm. Special mention goes to the outdated Corinthian great helms of the Spartans, which include enormous◊ horsehair crests, and the Carthaginian beard helmets.
  • The coolest, however, belongs to Emperor Aurelian from Empire Divided, which is a solid gold cross between this and a Cool Mask, complete with a spiky Solus crown.
• Cool Sword: Various kinds of swords, ranging from short blades meant for stabbing like the Roman gladius to larger blades meant for slashing like the Iberian falcata, serve as the weapon of choice for the Roman legions, among others, as well as most unit captains and generals. They also serve as Emergency Weapons for pikemen, as well as most shock cavalry and missile units. They have the least armor penetrating capability of any melee weapon, but they tend to be more accurate and do more damage overall then spears and axes.
• Crippling Overspecialisation: Some factions have rather limited native rosters. Can be subverted by hiring mercenaries, levying units from client states/satrapies and/or, specifically for Rome, recruiting auxiliaries.
  • True to life, Sparta's military options are horrendously limited: they don't get any swordsmen, elite ranged units, elite cavalry or shock cavalry. Their hoplites are the best in the game and their pikemen are decent (better than Carthage and Athens', about the same as Pontus', not nearly as good as Egypt/Seleucid/Macedon/Epirus'), but it's very easy to simply whittle them down with ranged units or surround them with units which are better in close combat.
  • The steppe nomad factions have three infantry units: basic spears, axes and archers. That's it. Everything else, bar their siege weapons, is a cavalry unit. To make it worse, their cavalry isn't even the best in the game, that honor goes to Parthia's cataphracts. A combination of pikes and long-ranged archers or slingers is enough to beat them most of the time.
  • Rome has a large variety of some of the best sword infantry in the game, but only has a few spear infantry, no missile or shock cavalry, very limited skirmisher options (just two javelin units), and mediocre melee cavalry.
  • Macedon owns some of the best pike units in the game, good spear units and the might of the Companion Cavalry, but lack sword units until mid-campaign (Thorax Swordmen) and its missile units, both infantry and cavalry, are mid-tier at best.
  • Parthia's strength relies on its cataphracts, either camel or horse ones, and it also possesses good skirmishers and missile cavalry. However, the former are only available late in the campaign and its infantry roster (be it spear or sword) is rather deplorable.
  • The Seleucids have access to some of the best units in the game (be it Silver Shields or War Elephants), but they're in the deep end of the tech tree and tend to be rather costly.
  • Egypt has a wide roster in the beginning and some good late game units (Galatian Royal Guard), but suffers in the mid game from a lack of units.
  • Athens has a wide variety of hoplite units at its disposal, some of which are quite high tier but not quite the best. Meanwhile the rest of their limited unit roster is eclipsed by every single one of their Greek neighbors, who have both a wider selection and higher quality units.
• Critical Existence Failure: Your agents will only serve you better as they age and work over the decades, up until they are wounded, killed or keel over from old age.
• Cut Himself Shaving: The Idiote ancillary took his position because: "Fortunately, this man was able to take the place of the previous returning officer when he accidentally, brutally cut his own head off whilst combing his hair."
• Darker and Edgier:
  • The overall atmosphere and tone seems to be heading for this direction in contrast to the first Rome. Compare both intros.
  • The Empire Divided campaign is bleaker than the other campaigns due to the chaotic nature of the Civil War that marked the Crisis of the Third Century, it's also considered a prequel to Attila which is the darkest game in the entire series.
• Dark Reprise: The trailer for the Empire Divided campaign features a more somber and ominous version of the main menu theme.
  • A sobering, but still beautiful rendition of the original Rome's soundtrack is played at the end of several trailers
• Dawn of an Era: A darker version can be found in the Empire Divided campaign, which marks the end of the semi-republican Principate and the beginnings of both the monarchic Dominate and Late Antiquity.
• Death from Above: Artillery, as well as Javelin, Arrow, and Stone fire provide increasingly devastating damage.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Individual strikes from a pike may not do much damage, but any attacker facing a pike phalanx head-on would be jabbed several times by multiple pikes before they can get anywhere near to the pikemen holding them.
• Department of Redundancy Department: In the Phonecian language, Carthage means "New Town". Nova Carthago means "New Carthage" which would then translate to "New New Town".
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • Sparta starts out with just one small settlement that isn't even walled^note Truth in Television, as the Spartans refused to build walls for their city. The men of Sparta were the wall that mattered.. They are lacking in cavalry selection and have no sword infantry to speak of. However, they have some of the best spear infantry in the game.
  • Carthage is easily one of the hardest factions to play as in the game. Everybody hates your guts and you go up against the chief superpower of the game (Rome) very early on. However, you also have a huge, varied unit roster, lots of land (albeit indirectly controlled by your satrapies) and the best part yet, you can re-enact Hannibal Barca's march over the Alps yourself!
  • Everybody hates the Suebi. It seems like every faction that you come into contact with will want to kill you and everything you love. However, you can get access to berserkers and you also have the opportunity to expand without harassment early on.
  • Syracuse. You start with a single unfortified town, located directly between Carthage and Rome. Neither of them like you enough not to declare war on you simultaneously. However, if you take either of them out, you'll claim the faction bonuses of holding the cities of Carthage or Rome early in the game.
  • Elephants are surprisingly fragile for their size and expense, especially against concentrated missile fire, but can wreak a lot of havoc if left unchecked.
  • Chariots are virtually useless units without being used correctly — when micromanaged and used correctly (by moving them from one side of an enemy infantry unit's flank through to its other while distracted so it can't just turn over to attack the chariots) however, they'll basically be macabre ancient lawnmowers, except the grass is men, that will make hundreds of kills.
• Dirty Coward: After the Romans break out of the initial ambush in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, Varus tells his Legions "You're on your own" and runs away when he sees Arminius leading a massive cavalry force, letting them fend for their themselves. Ironically, Varus fleeing gives them a distraction, and time to escape the cursed forest. When asked about his fate later, the narrator says "No one knows. Even fewer care." In the meantime, we're shown Varus, alone, being ambushed by Germans and killed by Arminius as he begs for his life, contrasting with his real-life death^note Upon nearing defeat, he committed suicide. Arminius then cut off his head and sent it to King Marbod of the Marcomanni tribe as a gift.
• Disc-One Nuke: The Hoplites units (and similar though slightly different hoplite units available to a few other factions) outstrips every other infantry unit available at a first-tier building in terms of melee defence and armour quite significantly, can easily resist most melee/shock cavalry units, and then these units can use Hoplite Wall to make themselves even more sturdy! They naturally might cost more than those other infantry units, but they're easily worth it once you can afford them. Factions with these units won't need to upgrade their frontline for a long time in favour of researching other technology instead of what's needed for a higher tier barracks, and players can further make due later in the game by also making heavy use of artillery in their armies to wear down high-tier melee units (the technology that is used for the highest tier of artillery also being available in half the time for the best barracks).
• Doomed Moral Victor: Emperor Aurelian in the Empire Divided campaign. Despite reuniting the fracturing Roman Empire and honestly ensuring the Empire's survival for more than another century, he was killed after just four years of rule by his generals when his secretary manipulated them into thinking they would be severely punished. All so that said secretary could cover up a minor lie. Doubles as a major Shoot the Shaggy Dog.
• Dramatic Irony: In the "Find A Way" trailer, the Roman senators speculate about how Hannibal will strike at them. The very last suggestion, that Hannibal will march on Rome from the north, is met with derision and sarcasm-loaded lines like "over the Alps, perhaps!" and "I suppose he will bring with him an army of elephants!" while he's doing exactly that.

E-L

• Earned Stripes: Units level up, and gain stripes of veterancy the longer they fight, and wage war. As they do, they get a variety of bonuses, such as increased attack, or leadership. They come in three tiers, bronze stipes, silver stripes, and gold stripes. A stack of hardened veterans is not to be taken lightly at all.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • The Goths are a playable faction in the Empire Divided campaign, long before their split between the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths that feature in Total War: Attila.
  • The Sassanids, aka the Great Persian Empire, are also present and playable on the campaign map, though there slightly less powerful then how their depicted in Attila. They still dominate the East, and are the only ones who can truly rival the might of Rome.
  • Empire Divided is really this in general to Attila; many of the units, weapons, armour, are taken straight from the game, as is it's darker atmosphere.
• Elite Mooks: Tons and tons really Every playable faction usually has several, and even the non-playable ones sometimes have one or two unique ones.
• End of an Age:
  • The Grand Campaign heralds the end of the dominance of Greek Hellenism, and its gradual fall to Roman (Latin) culture.
  • The Imperator Augustus campaign focuses on the last days of the Roman Republic, as Octavian rises amongst his contemporaries and becomes the first Emperor of Rome.
  • The Empire Divided campaign, on the other hand, is set during the twilight of the High Roman Empire that would be followed by the Low Roman Empire with Diocletian, as well as being the start of the Late Antiquity that would end in the deposition of Romulus Augustus in 476 AD.
• Enemy Chatter: Units on both sides in a battle tend to pipe up with inspirational lines, comments on their current situation and taunts directed at their opponents. Exactly what is said varies depending on the unit, the faction they belong to, the faction they're facing, what other units (friendly or enemy) are nearby, and what they're doing or having done to them at that moment.
• Enemy Exchange Program:
  • Units from other factions can be levied if said faction becomes a client state/satrapy, which can be done either by diplomacy or stomping them into the ground and sparing them. A random unit is available each turn depending on what units they can currently produce, and they're hired in the same way as mercenaries (limited number available per turn^note Unlike mercenaries, their quantity depends on how many settlements the client state/satrapy holds in the province being recruited from., but recruited instantly).
  • Rome can recruit a vast amount of special auxiliaries if they have an Auxiliary Camp in a conquered region, which are typically similar or identical to units that were used by the former owners, just with an added "auxiliary" added to their name.
• Enemy Mine: The backbone of diplomacy. Whenever faction A takes hostile actions against faction B, enemies of B think higher about A. This can lead to a situation where previously sworn enemies can become best friends after beating up enough factions they mutually hate.
• Encyclopedia Exposita: The game comes equipped with its own internal reference guide — called (duh) the Encyclopedia — which lists unit descriptions, potential strategies and tactics, campaign footnotes, historical factoids, etc. It used to be online, however during the Power and Politics Update it was changed to be accessible offline, much like how it worked in older titles.
• Foreshadowing: The Roman units in the Empire Divided campaign are starting to use an assortment of equipment that would later become the norm by the time of Total War: Attila such as the use of the Oval Shield instead of the classical Scutum or the abandonment of the Attican Helmet that was iconic to the legions.
• Follow the Leader: On a small scale, as some of the new mechanics might make several Paradox Interactive fans (Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, etc.) feel right at home.
  • The inclusion of an Encyclopedia Exposita and multiple victory conditions (military, economic and cultural) should be familiar to Civilization players.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: The Wrath of Sparta DLC is the only campaign of the game to not focus on Rome as it's set during the Peloponnesian War, an important event in Greek history.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In the intro, you are witness to various battles amongst the different factions, like the first game. However, you also get to see the slaughter and destruction in greater detail, as well as some soldiers being broken by the very battle. It ends with the factions leaders looking at you in a similar way to the general from Fall Of The Samurai at the victory cutscene and with the Latin phrase Quo usque pro Roma ibis? — "How far will you go for Rome?"
• Fragile Speedster: Lighter units may be faster moving, but they also tend to have less armor and/or HP than their heavier counterparts.
• Friendly Fireproof: Averted, projectiles will kill friendlies as readily as enemies.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Silanus from the prologue campaign goes from commanding a small garrison to controlling the entire Roman war machine. The final cutscene implies he's planning on conquering the rest of the Italian peninsula.
• Full-Frontal Assault: The barbarian Naked Spears/Swords/Warriors units don't wear anything at all. This, of course, means their only (minimal) protection comes from their shields.
• Gameplay Ally Immortality: The special generals in Caesar in Gaul (Caesar himself, Vercingetorix, Boduognatus and Ariovistus) won't die permanently if taken out in battle or by assassination, they'll simply be wounded.
• Glass Cannon:
  • Elephants are enormous units that terrify infantry and trample them with ease. However most of them are vulnerable to missile fire, even slingers can send them routing with enough concentrated fire.
  • Shock infantry and cavalry like Thracian Warriors and Companion Cavalry, respectively, tend to be very deadly on the charge but lack durability, both in prolonged melee and against missile fire.
  • Skirmishers can cause a lot of damage with their missiles, but they're generally not very tough to kill.
  • Scythed chariots can destroy entire units in a single charge but will be killed incredibly quickly if caught in melee for more than a few seconds.
• Gladiator Games: Not only can players build gladiatorial arenas in their cities, but Roman players can recruit gladiators as military units. They're exceptionally deadly in melee, but don't have much armor and health. Their female counterparts added in the Daughters of Mars DLC have better defenses and morale, at the cost of some offensive capability and health.
• Groin Attack: Several battle animations involve a soldier kicking his enemy in the crotch.
• Horse Archer: A recruitable unit and the specialty of the steppe nomad factions, particularly (Royal) Scythia, which have 4 (6 with the Daughters of Mars pack) different types.
• Hired Guns: Armies can hire anything from hoplites to horse archers to war elephants, which are recruited instantly, unlike regular troops, but cost a lot more to maintain and are subject to varying availability. Notably, this is the only way to recruit new units in enemy-held territory. There are two types of mercenaries, regional and factional. Regional mercenaries can be recruited if you're in the right region, while factional mercenaries are available anywhere as long as you're playing as a certain faction.
• Historical In-Joke: A lot of the achievement names.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Varus gets this in Teutoburg Forest, being both an incompetent and naive dunderhead who trusts Arminius and a coward who abandons most of his army and tries to flee by himself. He might have been incompetent and naively trusting of Arminius in real life, but he historically stayed with his army and committed suicide when it became obvious how it would end.
• Human Sacrifice: Played with. While the Carthaginian faction bio states that many people believe they carry out human sacrifices in their temples, it neither denies nor asserts whether this is actually true.
  • The historical record isn't completely conclusive, but it surely indicates strongly that the Carthaginians regularly practiced child sacrifice. The Romans gleefully used the practice against the Punici in their propaganda during the various Punic Wars.
• Instant-Win Condition: Victory Points replace the old central plaza from previous Total War games whilst sieging provincial capitals. Capturing a specific flag (others, if present, will simply boost morale for units from the controlling faction around it) causes the defender's point total to begin dropping, and the attacker wins after it reaches zero.
• Javelin Thrower: Javelins are one of the three missile types, and tend to deal high overall damage, have the highest armor penetration and have a bonus vs large units like cavalry and elephants, at the cost of having the shortest range and smallest ammo reserve. In addition, many melee infantry and some melee cavalry (typically those armed with swords or axes) units carry a few javelins, which they can throw while charging an enemy unit or from a stationary position with Fire At Will enabled, though they tend to not be as good as proper skirmishers or carry as much ammo.
• Legacy Army: Even if your Badass Army is wiped out, a new force can be raised up with the old army's banner. They may not have the experience, but they still retain the original traditions that buffed their predecessors.
• Lightning Bruiser: Very and Super Heavy cavalry like cataphracts tend to be very tough, hard hitting, and still faster than even the lightest infantry.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Not just the primary form of defence for most units, often a unit's only form of defence. As in the first Rome, field battles generally involve two clashing lines of shield-bearing infantry, the winner more often than not decided by flanking manoeuvres that bypass the shield-wall's defences. Shields provide a bonus to armor and melee defence, though only to attacks from the front and left. They also have a chance (depending on its type) of blocking and completely nullifying an incoming missile attack.

M-Z

• Madness Mantra: At the beginning of the Teutoburg Forest historical battle, we hear Emperor Augustus uttering his famous line "Varus, Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!", as he is claimed by Suetonius to have often muttered in the months and years following the annihilation of the Roman Legions in the forests of Germania.
• Mercy Rewarded: Diplomacy can and often will lead to sovereign nations willingly becoming your client state. Unlike previous instances of the Total War series, Client States/Satrapies also count as part of your faction for the purpose of victory objectives, and can contribute normally unusable units to your cause. With the help of some popular mods, they'll even have a diplomatic bonus, making their rebellion unlikely.
• Mighty Glacier:
  • Heavy and Very Heavy infantry in general are some of the slowest units on the battlefield, but they also tend to be the toughest and most dangerous ones around.
  • True to life, Hoplites are incredibly durable, with heavy armor, high HP and a special Hoplite Wall formation which buffs their toughness further still, but they also tend to be quite slow moving, with their special formation further reducing their speed. There's a reason they becoming increasingly obsolete as the years went by.
  • Pikemen don't have as much raw toughness and require their special formation to fit this trope, but the killing zone created by their very long pikes means that they're the hardest things to kill in melee if they're pointed in the right direction. They are also more mobile than hoplites in phalanx formation, capable of sprinting and charging.
• Morale Mechanic: Relatively unchanged from the previous games, just more dynamic in the factors that trigger morale plummets. A new feature is the disciplined trait, which several, mostly Roman, units have, which grants them immunity to the extra leadership drops a unit suffers when their general dies.
• Moveset Clone: Rare RTS examples:
  • Athens and Syracuse in the Grand Campaign have identical unit rosters. In custom battle their rosters are differentiated by way of different mercenaries for both factions.
  • All of the playable factions in Wrath of Sparta have extremely similar, if not identical unit rosters. Sparta is less so since they have a few unique units, but even then their units play a similar role to the rest.
• Multi-Melee Master: Spartan Pikemen are very adapt at fighting with their short blades.
• The Musketeer: Most ranged units are poor in melee combat, however, the Cimmerian Heavy Archers are covered in thick Lammelar armour and wield great spears, making them both effective in melee combat as well as in ranged. This makes them very dangerous against cavalry, as most mounted units can't run them down without taking massive losses from spears, and in the mean time the heavy archers can pepper them with heavy arrow fire.
• Naval Blockade: Settlements can be blockaded by fleets of any size, cutting off trade through that settlement and increasing unit recruitment time in that region. It also causes attrition to the blockading fleet, just like during land sieges.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The Carthage Battle Gameplay Demo remains infamous among the Total War fanbase for advertising Rome II inaccurately. The game's significant issues on release or Missing Trailer Scenes aside, it portrays Rome's forces manning their encirclement defenses, the city of Carthage having been worn and damaged from the siege, and the city's buildings actively breaking during the battle with civilians inside it which are all mechanics that do not actually exist in the game.
• Non-Combat EXP: Champions are useful for training your armies, increasing the experience of every unit in the stack with every turn, which can very quickly build up.
• Non-Indicative Name: Royal Peltasts are elite heavy sword infantry ^note Though they do have more javelins and use them better than most other melee infantry. while other peltasts are lightly equipped javelin-throwing skirmishers. This is not helped by their unit description ^note "The king's own skirmishers are a force to be reckoned with.", their encyclopedia entry, which is identical to every other peltast, or their unit card, which depicts a man holding a javelin instead of a sword. They don't even carry a pelte, which is where the word 'peltast' comes from.
• Older Is Better: The more elite Spartan Hoplites wear equipment, whilst not unheard of for the time period, that was increasingly becoming less and less common for Greek military units to wear, such as the super Cool Corinthian Helmets. They of course, still have much better armour and defense than the new equipment their less elite troops have.
• One-Man Army: Downplayed by Champions — they don't actually fight on the battlefield, but nonetheless the high-level ones with the Warfare skill maxed out apparently will go up and kill over 100 men by themselves. Harassing means they'll somehow harass an entire army presumed to be by themselves considering various other agents actions mention the use of hired assassins or soliciting traitors but Harass does not.
  • High Authority Generals, as well as several high tier units, however are One Unit Armies, as they can butcher lesser units by the truckload like a knife cutting through Tapioca. Especially the Heroes of Sparta, super elite Spartan Warriors that can hold city streets and flanks by their lonesome against massive hordes, also Enforced you can literally only recruit a single unit of these guys in your army.
• One-Steve Limit: Zig-Zagged. Some provinces or settlements that shared the same name with a faction received another historically used name like Roma, Carthago and Aegyptus, while others like Sparta remained unchanged.
• Praetorian Guard:
  • A General's bodyguards, especially if they're the faction leader.
  • The Trope Namers are present as Rome's strongest units in the Grand Campaign and come in infantry and cavalry flavors, as well as a household item that increases Cunning. They wear high quality, black armour, and wear regal capes of purple; a very powerful unit, but quite costly. Ironically, Praetorian Guardsmen can't be used as a General's bodyguard, probably a historical in joke about what the Praetorian Guard's favorite pastime was.
• Promoted to Playable:
  • Played straight with Pontus and Macedon, which were secondary factions in the original game (though they could be unlocked with some editing skill). The (Royal) Scythians have also been promoted from the first game as a DLC faction in the Nomadic Tribes Culture Pack, as well as the Roxolani, who featured in the Barbarian Invasion expansion. The Pirates and Raiders DLC also added the the Odrysian Kingdom and Tylis factions, who comprised the former Thrace faction.
  • Zigzagged with the Greek States, which has been divided into independent factions. Greek States Culture Pack adds Athens, Sparta, and Epirus, Hannibal at the Gates adds Syracusae, and Black Sea Colonies adds Pergamon; however, Rhodes (the last remaining city from the Rome: Total War faction) has been left out. Also zigzagged with Iberia, as the Hannibal at the Gates DLC adds the Arevaci and the Lusitani but not the rest. This is a huge deal, because in the original Rome most of these factions were collected toghter as a single faction on the campaign map for technical reasons.
  • Initially inverted with the Seleucid Empire, which was Demoted to Extra prior to being released as the second free-DLC.
  • Various mods can make all factions playable in the main campaign.
• Properly Paranoid: The paranoia chain of traits increase the character's chances of evading enemy agents.
• Proud Merchant Race: The Baktrians are a Helleno-Persian kingdom that rule a major nexus of the Silk Road, and they get a massive boost to income from Commerce buildings.
• Pun: Your characters can have a "Roman Exile" in their household. It has the flavor text "Wherever I wander, there's no place like Rome...", obviously referring to the popular phrase "There's no place like home".
• Punic Wars: Several optional objectives in Rome and Carthage's main campaigns involve reenacting the three wars to an extent. In addition, the Second is the focus of the Hannibal at the Gates campaign, and the Third is the subject of the Siege of Carthage historical battle.
• The Queen's Latin: Unlike the previous game, the Romans and the Greeks speak British RP accents.
• Rain of Arrows: Arrows are one of the three missile types, distinguished by dealing the highest overall damage and having excellent range, at the cost of armor penetration. And yes, you'll be seeing the classic effect very often, a hailstorm of piercing arrow fire!
• Ramming Always Works: Most warships (aside from barbarian ones) can ram opponents, with the ship's size relative to its target and speed on impact determining how much damage it does. Big ships going fast enough can obliterate most lesser ships with just one ramming attack, and even the smallest of patrol ships can crush transport vessels in no less then two direct hits!
• The Remnant: Taking a faction's last city won't get rid of their armies and fleets, though they'll suffer attrition since that faction no longer has any income to support their upkeep costs.
• Rousing Speech:
  • Silanus makes several in the Prologue campaign during certain battles and in the final cutscene.
  • As with most of the previous Total War games, generals will make these at the start of the battle. However, they're pretty easy to miss, since they're delivered during the battle rather than in a pre-battle cutscene. Furthermore, the speeches are really only 'rousing' about half the time. The rest of the time, they're usually insulting their enemies or talking about how awesome it is to beat them up and take their stuff.
  • Officers will occasionally give brief inspirational speeches to surrounding soldiers right before combat begins.
• Run or Die: The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest has the Romans surrounded and heavily outnumbered by the Germans, requiring them to constantly keep pushing forward to escape.
• Scary Stinging Swarm: The Beasts of War DLC introduces the Beehive Onager to Roman and Hellenic factions. It launches live beehives at enemy units. Those that survive the initial impact take an understandable hit to their morale.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: In the Wrath of Sparta campaign, completely occupying all Persian settlements on the map will spawn legions of elite Persian troops. The narration states that these troops come "from the heart of the Empire", making it clear that the Persians are finally getting serious. This is significant as the Persians will also go on the offensive once the player faction is at a certain level of Imperium, but the number of troops spawned for that scenario is significantly smaller.
• Sequel Logo in Ruins: The Empire Divided expansion pack has visible cracks on Rome II's logo, representing the Roman Empire being divided into three.
• Shield Bash: Soldiers with shields can and will use them to smack enemies in the face.
• Shout-Out:
  • A possible name for a Britannic army is "The Woad Warriors."
  • To A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Several shout-outs in the army names—"The Stonecrows" and "The Brave Companions" most evidently.
    • The description of the Champion agent type's trait "Guardsman" is "The night is dark and full of terrors".
    • "All men must die" is one of the lines repeated by Roman spy after ordering assassination.
    • Contrarily, "all men must serve" is one of the lines said by Eastern (Parthian, Egyptian, etc.) spies upon being clicked on.
  • To The Lord of the Rings:
    • While moving, the druids can occasionally be heard saying "The road goes ever on and on..."
    • The flavor text for the bonuses granted for holding the Pharos of Alexandria is "May its light be a beacon when all other lights go out."
  • One of the Iceni's political incidents is rumours about a sacred sword that's been pulled out of a stone by a long foretold leader.
  • Barbarian generals sometimes say "We will hear the lamentations of the women." when ordered to raid.
    • Apparently, a household named "Trophy Hunter" is really Dutch Schaeffer since its flavor text is "One ugly mother--"
  • Roman Veterans and Greek Heroes (their Champion Agents) sometimes say "This is madness!" if ordered to do something after all their action points are expended. The achievement for completing a campaign as Sparta is also appropriately called 'This is Sparta!' as well.
  • When a Roman general or senator dies, the event card will say he was a man of Rome, ending with "Honour Him!"
  • To Dune (1984):
    • The flavor text on the Eastern Spice Trader building is "The spice must flow."
    • The flavor text for the Human Computer ancillary is "It is by will alone I set my mind in motion..." In addition, both it and the Twisted Assassin ancillary are listed in the game files as r2_sp_anc_all_spy_mentat.
  • To Rome:
    • One personality trait has the qualifier "I like to kill my enemies, take their gold, and enjoy their women."
    • Both Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus are present as ancillaries for Roman generals.
    • The flavor text for the Centurion bonus for Roman veterans is "PULLO! FORMATION!"
  • One Exactly What It Says on the Tin achievement is "Everyday I'm not Autoresolving"
  • The Kitharodes ancillary's text says "I sing in praise of Total War!", because Creative Assembly would like an "I Am Great!" Song, apparently.
  • The Dread Cultist ancillary has the flavor text "Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!"
  • The Unwashed Trooper ancillary happens to be Baldrick's identical ancestor, who still has the same "I have a cunning plan!" Catchphrase. Said ancillary is even listed in the game files as r2_sp_anc_civilised_army_baldrick.
  • In the Caesar in Gaul campaign, the flavour text for the The Seer ancillary is "Through the Mist I forsee... giant enemy crabs... and MASSIVE DAMAGE! AIEE!".
  • A Playwright ancillary may have been the only person to do it before Shakespeare. "Hmm. Comedy. Tragedy. Historical tragedy. I know! Biographical historical comedy!"
  • The Mad For It! character trait has the flavor text "I love the smell of victory in the morning. Smells like… corpses!"
  • It's possible to have a Twisted Assassin in your household, which is described as "A human computer with the soul of a cold-eyed killer. In the wrong game."
  • Upon promoting a family general to the rank of Censor (the highest political rank possible), the description text reads "He wanks as high as any in Wome, you know."
    • And a Latin Tutor household ancillary clearly watched the "Romanes eunt domus" scene in that film as well. The people called Romanes, they do not go the house.
  • The Fugitive Carthaginian General ancillary has the flavor text "I love it when a plan comes together." Also doubles as a Historical In-Joke, when you consider that the quote is the Catchphrase of one John "Hannibal" Smith.
  • Many have noted that Aurelian's Cool Helmet is similar to that of Balthasar Gelt, doubles as a reference to Creative Assembly's work on Total War: Warhammer.
  • The marketing for the Desert Kingdoms Culture Pack prominently features the female archers of the African Kingdom of Kush, undoubtedly referencing the Dora Milaje from Black Panther (2018), which released around the same time.
  • The Trapper skill for Champions has this quote from the narrator of Darkest Dungeon.
  • A number of loading-screen graphics added with the release of Rise of the Republic have unstated-but-obvious inspirations to those aware of them, like one depicting Brennus about to drop his sword on a scale according to the legendary Vae victus tale, or another of Archytas' steam-propelled pigeon in flight.
• Shown Their Work:
  • The developers took great care about the historical accuracy of the factions, as well as making regional differences between the various barbarian tribes such as the Germanic Suebi, who are distinct from the Gallic Averni or the Britannic Iceni. The Barbarians in general, are shown as being very civilised folk, instead of the unwashed masses media tends to portray them as.
  • Roman Generals will, at the approximate time periods in which they became famous, become available for recruitment to lead your armies. You may well have Gaius Marius himself leading the legions of Rome on the Cisalpine front in 102BC. Although it's kind of weird when an agent defects and you have Herodotus as an Iceni-supporting druid.
  • Weaponry, armour and uniforms authenticity in general have been vastly improved over the original Rome, no more legions of Pink Parthians, Spartans in red robes, or Green Romans running amok!
  • Egypt, is accurately portrayed with armies that wouldn't be out of place for Alexander the Great to be fielding, being very much Hellenised and a Successor Kingdom, unlike the Mummy rejects from the first game....
  • If you fight a battle in certain well-known cities, like Rome or Carthage, instead of fighting in a generic city map, the map will be a surprisingly accurate rendition of what that city looked like, with appropriate landmarks in the right places.
  • The friezes, pediments and statues that decorate temples seen during city sieges are painted as evidence suggests they would have been in real life, rather than left bare white marble.
  • A subtler detail of the legions in the Empire Divided campaign is that they are now wearing pants, which was product of the influence of the Illyrian Emperors that appeared during this time period.
  • Rise of the Republic is a pretty accurate representation of early 3rd Century BC Italy. Firstly, Rome is a sleepy little town wedged between the Etruscans and the Samnites, not the regional hegemon poised to expand across the Mediterranean. Her armies, true to the period, are composed of hoplites and slingers, and the manipular legion is at the very end of the military research tree. When you finally do get those units, they mostly wield spears (the "hasta" after which the hastati were named). Politically, the leader of Rome is called the Consular Tribune, because the campaign takes place during an era where boards of military tribunes with consular authority presided over the state in lieu of two consuls. For that matter, both the consulate and the dictatorship are temporary posts lasting only a few turns, and individual politicians cannot be promoted to praetor without researching it — because the post was an innovation of the time period. Also, Roman men are depicted with beards — the practice of shaving daily was started by Scipio Aemilianus after the Third Punic War.
• Sound-Only Death: The ending cutscene for the Battle of Teutoberg Forest cuts to black just as Varus is killed.
• Spiked Wheels: Scythed Chariots are available to certain Eastern factions, and are devastating if allowed to run rampant.
• Stance System: Armies and navies on the overworld map can select from one of 4 stances, each with its own bonuses and penalties.
• Stealth Pun: Many armies have names such as "The Champions of X" or "The Honor of Y" for their deities. One of Egypt's is "The Pride of Sekhmet". Sekhmet is a lioness...
  • The Wine Amphora ancillary has flavor text that says "Last one to down theirs is a member of the Theban Sacred Band!"...which is to say, the last one is gay.
• Stronger with Age: Agents and Generals that live to their fifties or longer tend to have racked up a lot of experience, making them much more effective than their younger counterparts, even while they wear grey beards and hair.
• Suffer the Slings: Slings are one of the three missile types, and are characterized by having the longest range and highest rate of fire, at the cost of raw damage.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: As in Shogun 2, the agents tend to be more effective against one agent type and less effective against the other. Typically, Spies (High Cunning, low Authority) are strong against Champions (High Zeal, low Cunning), who are strong against Dignitaries (High Authority, low Zeal), who are strong against Spies. This can change depending on how the agent was developed.
• Tagline: Quo usque pro Roma ibis? ("How far will you go for Rome"?)
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: "Expansionism" is a diplomatic penalty that will increase as you capture more territory and thus become more powerful. Of course, this doesn't happen to the AI.
• Tempting Fate: "We've got a huge budget for the game. About 40% bigger than anything we've done before. So we're absolutely determined to make it the most epic Total War title ever." Fast forward to launch day...
• Tutorial Failure: In Chapter 2 of the prologue campaign, The Defence of Campania, you can automatically lose if Silanus is assassinated by the Samnites. For a scenario where you're supposed to take your time learning how to manage infrastructure, raise an army, and move across the campaign map, this is very uncharacteristic for an enemy that's supposed to lose to you, by intent and purpose, to be able to win with a cheap shot like this.
• Unstable Equilibrium: While snowballing on the strategic map is a fairly constant issue throughout the series, Rome 2 tends to be noted as a conspicuous example of the trope given there is no mechanic for creating difficulty with regards to the mid/late-game for alleviating this (unlike, say, Shogun 2's Realm Divide) unless the player specifically pumps up their political influence within their faction to cause a risk of Civil War. And given that can cause you to suddenly get an enemy faction spawning in your lands...many players would rather not deal with that. It's at least Justified in the case of Rome...because Rome actually did Snowball in real life, growing powerful and large very fast.
  • This is less of a problem in the Campaign Packs with scripted events to create more speedbumps.
• Updated Re-release: The Emperor Edition, which includes the various DLC and patches made since the original launch.
  • Another one was the Spartan Edition, which included the Greek City States and Wrath of Sparta Expansion Pack.
• Use Your Head: Some combat animations have one of the participants headbutting his opponent.
• Video Game Historical Revisionism: Largely averted in Egypt's case. Gone are the ancient Egyptians of the first Rome game, replaced by the historically accurate Ptolemaic dynasty of Greek rulers, fielding armies that would have been familiar to Alexander the Great rather than Ramses the Great.
• War Elephants: Both African and Indian variations show up, the former a pure melee unit, the latter a ranged unit that still has a deadly melee presence. Very deadly if allowed to rampage unchecked, but they're surprisingly vulnerable for their size and can run amok and become uncontrollable if they take enough damage.
• War Is Hell: Invoked by the creators, and a logical end to the ever increasing realism of the battle engine; actively reinforced now with the Blood and Gore Pack. Soldiers will talk to each other in frightened tones, men will scream out in agony after being gutted, and horses will run rampantly around the battlefield after their master is killed.
• Warrior Monk:
  • The Iceni have access to Druidic Nobles. They're very effective melee combatants — almost as good as the top-tier Heroic Nobles — and can buff the morale of nearby friendly units, but have poor armour and come in the same unit size as Berzerkers (roughly half that of standard infantry).
  • Egypt gets Sobek Cultists, who wear crocodile masks and scare the pants off everyone, practically shattering enemy units morale who have the misfortune of being around them.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Not only does the player have to contend with rival factions, but also rival political parties within the player's faction. Rival political parties will occasionally target the player's political party with assassination attempts^note (wounding or outright killing one of the generals or characters from the player's political party), adoption/bribery attempts^note (where a character from the player's party defects to another party if a fee isn't paid), and blackmail^note (where the gravitas/influence of a character from the player's party is reduced if a fee isn't paid). And if the rival political party becomes too powerful and/or becomes disloyal, it could trigger a Civil War. Of course, such inconveniences don't exist for the AI factions.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The thought of any units on the receiving end of a barrage of Carthaginian Snake Pot Ballistae, introduced in the Beasts of War DLC.
• You ALL Look Familiar: You're definitely going to be able to count the few character models that are randomly available for representing a faction's agents and generals considering how many of them you'll go through over the centuries in the Grand Campaign. ^note It doesn't help that one turn in this campaign is equivalent to one year.
• You Bastard!: A possible interpretation of the game's Tagline: How far will you go for Rome?
• Zerg Rush:
  • An endless swarm of Germans will be constantly attacking you from all directions throughout the Battle of Teutoberg Forest, forcing you to Run or Die.
  • The Barbarian factions' basic playstyle is to swamp the enemy armies with vast hordes of poorly equipped Barbarians in an attempt to utterly overwhelm them.
  • In early patches, there was a typo in the game's coding that gave the various Sub-Saharan African provinces massive income, which often resulted in the minor Sub-Saharan African factions recruiting massive armies consisting of nothing but cheap levy troops, and then overwhelming and overrunning playable historical powers like Egypt, Carthage, the Seleucids, and sometimes even Rome in the Grand Campaign.

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