YMMV / Total War: Rome II

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• Adored by the Network: CA loves Rome II. If one is not convinced by the herculean efforts to patch the game, consider the fact that the fourth and fifth expansion DLCs came four and five years after initial release respectively; Empire Divided even has the sanitation mechanic from Attila, and its setting can be seen as a prequel to Attila's grand campaign.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Some people have complained about the "magical" unit special abilities, the most common target being the flaming javelins. The Falarica, however, was a common javelin variant that was occasionally wrapped in oil-soaked rags and ignited before being thrown.
• Broken Base: Whilst the Empire Divided Expansion was somewhat well-received, and is considered a solid piece of content, the African Tribes Culture pack unveiled in Feb 2018...has divided alot of people.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: No matter which faction is chosen, the player's first strategic goal is to make a break for the sea, and to secure a seazone. Securing a seazone dramatically reduces the monetary losses due to piracy within the zone to around 10%, which provides a steady source of income. Securing seazones are also vital in the next game (Attila).
  • Co-ordinating expansion such that entire provinces are under your control. Edicts can only be issued when an entire province is under your control, and expansion without consideration can increase Imperium to such an extent that the player may be overwhelmed by the various penalties.
  • Researching technologies which reduce either corruption or upkeep costs are a priority, as these costs ramp up as the player faction expands.
  • In the Wrath of Sparta campaign, as the player faction reaches Imperium level 6, most players will prepare for an invasion on the Persian Empire, as the Persians are programmed to attack the player faction once they hit Imperium level 6.
• Demonic Spiders: Oathsworn. A very powerful sword infantry unit of the barbarian tribes that only other late-game infantry might stand a remote chance against head-on and makes any artillery you have worth its salt just for withering them down a bit beforehand. The thing is though, Oathsworn are a general's bodyguard unit right from the start of the game, meaning you might end up seeing at least one in any given barbarian army. Many players have found a desperate or early battle against barbarians ending in tears as the Oathsworn tear apart their troops, or shock as the final general's bodyguard unit pulls off a very good Taking You with Me moment and heavily damages all comers despite being surrounded on all sides. In the absence of the aforementioned counter units, trying to hold them off with hoplites/pikemen/toughest infantry unit you have before filling their unshielded end with javelins or sling bullets/cycle-charging them with shock cavalry is highly advised to not see "Losing combat decisively" over all of your units fighting with the Oathsworn.
• Good Bad Bugs: Play a siege defense. Spread out the line of a pike unit somewhere in the city streets and put them in their pike formation. Spread out another melee unit directly in front of them, preferably as tough a unit you can have as possible. Laugh as the pikemen murderlate the attackers from their pikes passing through their allied unit in front of them while being immune to the enemy attackers because of the allied unit. Hundreds of kills from the pike unit are about guaranteed.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: Longtime fans have complained that the game is "dumbed down for the casuals" due to things like the flag capture mode and the lack of a family tree. By 2018, most of these issues have been fixed.
• Loads and Loads of Loading: One of the largest complaints about the game is due to the rather long time it takes when cycling through a turn. This is probably due in large part to the many factions that exist in this game, far in excess of any previous Total War game. Patch 2 speeds this up quite a bit, especially early on.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Rome wasn't patched in a day. ^Explanation  When it was first released, the game suffered from a lot of serious technical issues, with criticism particularly lobbied against the game's Artificial Stupidity. Over time, however, patches were released which managed to address these issues. This then led to this phrase.
  • "I don't want to play as Pontus!"◊, referring to a very disproportionate outcry prior to the game's release when the last faction revealed was Pontus rather than another fan-favorite, such as the Seleucids...especially since the Seleucids were the first new faction released for free after launch. This picture is actually framed within Creative Assembly's office. Later became an achievement in Rome: Total War Remastered, called "Bu-But I Do Want To Play As Pontus!" earned when you win a short campaign with Pontus.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • The Realm Divide Scripted Event introduced in Shogun 2 as the endgame event has been tweaked into a much less penalizing Civil War mechanic. Gain enough political power in your faction, and the other political factions will rebel against you, instead of having every other faction in the game become hostile.
  • In a sense, the entire game can be considered this, as numerous bugfixes, balance patches, and free DLC has gone a long way in redeeming the game for some fans. (It doesn't hurt that an optimization bugbear plagued its successor Attila and was never fixed.)
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Right after release, the flag-capturing mechanic in field battles proved to be incredibly unpopular, with many players claiming it ruined the tactical depth of battles.
  • The aforementioned Civil War has its detractors, as multiple fully sized advanced armies are spawned in wherever the Civil War begins, usually your capital. Depending on how late in the campaign it happens, this can go up to 15 armies and fleets ready to ravage your core provinces. It doesn't help that the chance of happening is completely random.
    • With the changes in the Emperor Edition, now the dislike is generally from the fact that the defecting units are drawn from your existing armies and fleets, accompanying agents and the regions they're stationed in, which can be painful when a prized 10-star army and/or general leaves and all their traditions and skills are lost to you.
    • The internal politics mechanics by proxy are disliked given how a player has to outright intend to increase their political power for its bonuses at the cost of causing the risk of Civil War. To a lot of players, there's not really any point to getting very involved with it unless you happen to get unlucky enough that you're so unpopular it's causing penalties. But the worst thing about this mechanic is that it doesn't even apply to computer factions which means they will NEVER go through civil wars. LegendOfTotalWar, a highly distinguished veteran on the Total War series, says that this mechanic ruins the campaign mode because it only exists to inconveniently divert a player's attention, money, and military units on having to deal with it.
  • Transport ships, which at least before the patches, could easily beat real naval units.
  • The interface as a whole was this to some people, but what most people agree on is that the pottery-like unit cards are hard to distinguish from one another, unlike Shogun 2's which get the trifecta of being beautiful, thematic and distinctive.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Almost all non-bug related complaints about the game usually come down to how the detractors believe the first Rome did it better, ranging from major mechanics like the economy to minor things like faction colours or the way roads are handled.
  • The UI's change to how the tech tree works caused some fans to complain, as well as the "flag capture" mode alienating longtime fans.
  • The campaign map is now changed slightly to appeal to fans of Paradox Interactive's games.
  • The family tree has been replaced with a senate system, listing only the surviving adult males of your own faction (either the family you chose as Rome or Carthage, or the royal bloodline, or the Elder Chiefs for barbarian factions), and those of the other families. Although a family tree's not quite as relevant in Rome II as it was for Rome and Medieval II, the change is a major overhaul which takes a while to get used to. Plus, it was really useful to see how many potential generals or marriageable family members you had at your disposal, while the current system feels rather random. Much to the pleasure of the fanbase, the family tree was finally added in the Ancestral Update.
  • The fact that there's only one turn per year, rather than two like in Rome or even four as in Shogun 2 ^note In this regard, Rome II was not the worst offender; that will be Medieval II, where one turn represented two years. However, Medieval II was more lenient in character aging, as characters over there age at a slower rate (the same rate as the original Rome). A common complaint was that it meant agents and generals expired from old age long before they were able to gain a useful level of skill, as well as making high-end structures take a comically long time to upgrade. Tellingly, none of Rome II's expansion campaigns had the "a turn per year" system.
• Tough Act to Follow: While the game clearly aimed for greatness, in its early state it fell short of what Total War: Shogun 2 (or for its fandom, the original Rome) achieved. It didn't help that the game was heavily hyped by Creative Assembly and being made for years with a massive budget, leading to over-the-top expectations from players. By now, patches and DLCs have managed to fix almost all of the technical issues (the design issues are a matter of debate) and greatly expanded the replay value, but the title's reputation has already been tarnished by its initial problems.
• Unconventional Learning Experience: The game serves as a good guide to learn about the cultures and nations of the ancient world. It also helps that it's about 95-99% accurate to the historical records.

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