In the Rome II Grand Campaign, the player controls the ruling party containing the faction leader. Depending on the chosen faction, the total number of political parties can range from two to four. Note that only Rome and Carthage have multi-family politics – that is, their political parties are divided up amongst more than two groups. Total War: Rome II Factions Units Auxiliary Corps Units in Custom Battle Buildings Technologies Household Regions Mercenaries Total War: Rome II: MODs Radious Total War Mod Divide et Impera Total War: Rome II: ICONs BullGod's Unit Icons Normal's Rome IIUnits Icons.
- Rome 2 Province Guide
- Rome 2 Province Building Guide
- Rome Provinces Map
- Steam Community :: Guide :: Rome 2: Making Money
Below you'll find two sample Roman provinces: Italy focused on recruiting new troops and Magna Graecia generating high income. In the first case the expansion is very easy: you have to take care of feeding people (farms in Neapolis and Velathri - marked in green, settlement in Neapolis - orange) and public order (yellow school of gladiators being built in Rome). Emperor Edition is the definitive edition of ROME II, featuring an improved politics system, overhauled building chains, rebalanced battles and improved visuals in both campaign and battleEmperor Edition contains all free feature updates since its release in 2013, which includes bug fixes, balancing, Twitch.
ROME 2 (Work in Progress)
Rome 2 Total War is a successor of Rome Total War from 2004. It’s the 8th “big” game from the Total War series (aside the expansion packs) and the best selling TW game to date.
In this guide I’m going to present the most popular modifications (mods) for R2 along with a step-by-step instructions of installing them (if needed). I’d like to thank matbitesdog for his RTW guide which serves as an inspiration for this FAQ. This mod guide DOES NOT cover Caesar in Gaul. Maybe it will in the future, who knows? Plus, this mod guide is still in the WIP (work in progress state).
Why mod at all?
Boy, that’s simple. To make the game playable cough cough. Personal bias aside, I think that R2 is a rough diamond. And the mods smoothen and enrich the gaming experience, making Rome 2 really stand out. Most of the mods are really easy to install, for they’re available on the Steam Workshop, so you just click the big green Subscribe button and Bob’s your uncle!
But… you’re wondering which mod to choose? This is the purpose of this guide exactly. Yet before we start…
I assume that you know what Rome 2 and the Total War series in general are. I won’t assume, though, that you’re verse in the terms used in the Total War community in general. Here’s a concise glossary of the terms we’re going to use in this mod guide:
R2 – Rome 2
TW – Total War
CA – Creative Assembly
BAI – Battle AI (Artificial Intelligence), the part of the AI responsible for the tactical decisions, i.e. commanding the individual units on the battlefield when playing a single player game. This includes the infamous R2 siege AI as well!
CAI – Campaign AI, the part of the AI responsible for strategic decisions, i.e. commanding the armies on the campaign map, managing towns, diplomacy, politics etc.
RNG – Random Number Gods, a rare term that is used to describe the random element of, for example, every fight – a levy spearman may kill a heavy legionnaire because of a stroke of luck.
Vanilla – the original, unmodded game.
Hardcoded – This refers to things, like aspects of the CAI and BAI, that modder’s can’t change because they were locked (…) by the developers. These hardcoded behaviors can be Somewhat nullified or changed by scripting and careful balance (…). Don’t let that scare you—many of these mods are absolutely fantastic at mitigating them. (borrowed from matbitesdog’s RTW mod guide).
CiG – Caesar in Gaul, the first expansion (a mini campaign actually) for R2.
TTT – Traits, Talents & Toadies, a Hellbent’s mod that expands the RPG element of R2’s generals. Adds and elaborates on traits and ancillaries present.
DeI – Divide et Impera, one of the most comprehensive R2 overhauls.
STIM – Silven’s Total Improvement Mod, a (now obsolete) overhaul aiming at historical accuarcy.
TWC – Total War Center, the virtual TW modding centre.
Stack/Full Stack – A stack means an army on the campaign map. A full stack means a 20-unit army.
GEM – the Graphic Enhancement Mod
Paid expansions/DLC for R2:
Greek States – the first DLC, featuring Athens, Sparta and Epirus as playable factions.
Nomadic Tribes – the second DLC, featuring Roxolani, Royal Scythia and Massagetae.
Blood & Gore – the third DLC, featuring blood & gore. And decapitations!
Caesar in Gaul – the first mini-campaign, similar to one of those in Napoleon’s Campaigns; CiG means a new campaign map (in Gaul, duh), a few factions and certain new cool mechanics as well as improvements to the main game.
How to install the mods?
Unless otherwise stated, find the particular mod on the Steam Workshop and click the green SUBSCRIBE button.
Off we go!
OVERHAULS
Radious Modan enhanced vanilla. And more explosions.
Links: Radious Total War Mod, Honga.net encyclopedia
Radious (and later on his team) has started modding R2 since the release day and haven’t stopped since. He’s a modding veteran, having done an outstanding job with his Shogun 2 mods. His mod for R2 is the most popular overhaul mod to date according to Steam subscribe statistics.
Radious Team has broken his mod into a few parts, allowing you to modify the game as you wish. As for the general mood of the changes, he made the game less historically accurate, but more action-packed. That means that players can field huge armies (due to a lower upkeep, +1 to the recruitment slots and extended imperium limits), more diverse units (due to a grand amount of unit packs) and basically fight bigger battles. The AI doesn’t starve and is able to manage its provinces better. The generals get more skill points at each level and the Civil War mechanism is removed. The mod also aims to make the game more of a challenge, thus increased bonuses (boni? ;) for the AI on the higher difficulty levels.
Radious mod has been criticised for it’s arcadey feel, allowing you to field historically nonexistent armies and letting one-settlement AI nations field three full stacks of decent units. Battles last longer due to an extensive rework, yet some people claim that the new flanking mechanic renders the hammer & anvil tactic ineffective.
My take: Radious is a good way to feel the game to its core. You fight bigger, 3-4 stacks battles often, don’t have to rely on levy units only during the early game and see the AI actually put up a fight – I’ve often got my ass kicked during the open field battles. I’d start with this overhaul if I was green to using mods. However, if you’re a historical accuracy freak, you’d rather should go for Divide et Impera.
Divide et Impera I try to be accurate and… I’m hard.
Links: Divide et Impera, Honga.net encyclopedia
This one is huge. Crafted and maintained by 10 people, DeI aims to be as historically accurate as possible. Battles last way longer, formations are a must (the creators recommend to keep them on at all times), there are certain new stats introduced (like weapon initiative, i.e. basically the increased effectiveness of long weapons) and the game feels harder. Resources actually matter, research times are way higher and all units appearance differs from the vanilla look.
What I like in DeI is the fact that factions do differ. Radious added loads of units to every faction, so even the steppe nomads can deploy some decent cavalry, while in DeI a Greek faction, relying on phalanx would require a different take than a barbarian mob army. In some ways DeI plays like Third Age Total War – the pace’s slower, there are more RPG-like elements (the generals FINALLY matter, yay!), due to prolonged research times your progress is seriously hampered. You’ve also really got to flank – a head-on hastati charge on a spiky hoplite phalanx is not the best of the ideas. Ah, and the factions are reworked, so Carthage is bigger (for example).
Sadly, I’ve yet to see a complete defeat of my forces, because for some reason the AI conquers me until they get all but my original settlements.
Ah! And you can avoid the civil war altogether. Yes.
DeI uses following sub mods: Hegemonia, TTT, Meaningful Resources and Ancient Colors.
My take: DeI is more sophisticated than Radious in its attempt to recreate the warfare of the antiquity. It is much less casual, the battles are more decisive and the CAI does what it can to jeopardize your plans. The field battles are an actual delight, as one reddit/r/totalwar warlord put it: ~ “I played my cards and waited frantically for the result”. That’s how DeI rolls!
CAMPAIGN
No Forced March it works better than expected
Links: No forced march
I’ve came across this just lately, fairly skeptical about cutting out features in order to enhance the AI… but it works. I’ve started with playing around 10 turns as Rome (DeI), only managed to conquer Italy when the whole Cisalpine Gaul was crushed under Ligurian jackboot. They conquered two or three provinces while I was busy mopping up the Etruscans. And, mind you, they started as a barbarian MINOR nation. How cool is that?
This mod is not compatible with Radious’ mod and is savegame compatible.
Rome 2 Province Guide
My take: Definitely worth trying, at least until the patch 9 notes hit. Makes the AI factions a little bit like S2 clans – I’ve trembled around turn 5 when notified of the MIGHTY SUEBI, HELLO! wiped out from the map.
GRAPHIC
Graphic Enhancement Mod (GEM)it looks almost like in the previews!
Links: Graphic Enhancement Mod.
This mod makes R2 look like in the preview videos. Well, the colours, at least. Not only does it make your warmongering look grim and brutal, but also it doesn’t make your GPU go wonky. Seriously!
On a more serious note, GEM adds much to the new buzzword feature, i.e. immersion. Battlefields look less like a wildlife preserve, sky is less shiny, everything is more down to earth. Plus, mayhaps GEM also adds a bit to the historical accuracy? Barbarian tribes couldn’t really wear fancy, saturated dresses (think about the Volcae for a moment), for the dye was so expensive back then.
My take: use it. It has a few shaders to choose from and would make you more immersed in the game than Moby Dick in the ocean (duh).
How to install: use the instructions from the TWC.
No HDR Mod for patch 8 why so stiff, Biggus Dickus?
Links: No HDR mod
I never liked the lightning in Shogun 2. R2 did the same thing – your warriors were dark as hell, seemingly always with the sun at their backs. The work of Mech_Donald, a renowned graphic modder finally lets us drool at the beautiful 3D models R2 sports.
My take: use it in conjunction with GEM. It’ll work wonders for your immershun.
Special Effect Enhancement Mod theexploding pots have never exploded better!
Links: v 1.5 (super effects), v 1.6 (super duper effects)
Better explosions, fire, blood and smoke. A particle effects overhaul, basically plus some extra, how would you call it… post-explosions? This mods may exhaust your rig, especially the v 1.6 version.
My take: GEM, No HDR & Special Effect Enhancemet Mod make R2 an even tastier eye candy. If you can afford running it, of course.
Rome 2 Province Building Guide
Better siege weapons, equipment and fort walls HQ textures immersion incoming!
Better Horses, elephants and dogs HQ texture v2 there’s a battle to win here…
Links: Better equipment textures, Better animals
This is why we can have nice things! Look at the siege towers, rams and the absolutely gorgeous onagers! The animal kingdom gets its fair share too, with nicer and fluffier… wait, wrong game. The animals just look better!
Rome Provinces Map
My take: yum yum!
Rome 2 Main Menu BackgroundI hate golden boars on green backgrounds
Links: R2 Main Menu Background
For some reason CA switched the main menu background (and a few other graphic elements) for everyone, despite the fact that not everyone bought CiG. This mods reverts R2 to the original state. Please do note that DeI and (I think) Radious have their own bg/loading screen, so this mod might cause conflicts with them.
My take: meh. I mean, what’s the ruckus? Nobody’s exactly shoving CiG down your throat. For the purists.
RPG
Traits, Talents & Toadies (TTT)I think I can’t lose this general
Links: TTT
TTT basically empowers all generals by adding loads of new skills and allowing the generals to become city governors. Thus, your general may not only be a bloodthirsty overzealous dreadlord, but also a thinker (+% to research), logistician (more rocks for your slingers) or a bureaucrat (it’s a positive trait here!). The ancillary train system also got its due, with some tough choices here and there, e.g. with the executioner who gives you a calmer populace due to your soldiers on the ground but stalls your growth. You start to babysit your generals and recognize them by name, because…
It hurts to lose a general! Truly! Isn’t it a step towards some fledgling family tree?
Steam Community :: Guide :: Rome 2: Making Money
My take: play the game for a bit and then try this mod. It’s implemented in some overhauls (DeI, for example) and does a good job there. I think that if you’re a game purist you could try a vanilla version with TTT and see how it goes.