Easiest to hardest faction

[Oaty]

Well first state unit sizes and difficulty settings

Heres the ones I've played and all on huge settings.
A bit of the rules I play by. No bribing except rare cases such as a nice big fat rebel mercanary army. No mass cavalry except if I ever play an eastern faction.

Roman Brutii
Gauls ........ And I thought they'd be hard on huge settings.
Roman scipii
Greek cities
Roman Julii
Selucids ........ annoying surroundings, not many big towns/cities for your choosing but considering a 95 percent chance you'll get to the mercanaries first allows you to get the upper edge on your enemies. After the patch hopefully the A.I. will take a look at mercanaries before making it's move.
Carthage .......... Let me just say I went King Phyrics academy for warfare

[Lichgod]

While I have played some vanilla RTW, all these factions were played use Rome: Total Realism, various versions.

Settings were large units, VH campaign, H battles. Easy faction to Hard faction:

Julii – steam rolled everything
Macedon – once the Greeks were out of the picture, easy to crush the Brutii sea invasions
Selucid – Used money to buy cities and disband armies
Carthage – spread out and early target but Elephants are the great equalizer
Germania – lack of population and cash hurts
SPQR – by far the hardest and most challenging. No temples, you must use large garrisons. Also, you go into debt on turn two. Your starting expenses greatly exceed your income. Taking the great start army conquering is your only hope but you cannot replace any losses nor build garrisons due to debt. Tricky but possible to recover from the early game debt (sell maps) and eventually turn a profit so you can refit your army. Advantage is playing the Romans without any Senate missions. Disadvantage, the game cannot be won (no big deal as most games I stop once I dominate the map with 30+ provinces and own Rome without any major rivals on the map).

Most my games seem to be decided prior to the late units being available. In the current Selucid, RTR 4.1 game, I am trying to build up a population 24k city using enslavements and peasant transfers. I find that building the necessary infrastructure and then troop production facilities takes so many turns even with full funding that quite a bit of time is required. By then, I have 25+ provinces using just militia hoplites, archers, various mercs, and javelin horse. I did get some better infantry through defecting Greece/Macedon when bribing their armies/cities.

Side note: I accidentally found out how to build oversized units. I use this for peasant garrison units where practical, fleet units (shameless way to mass produce ships) and some militia hoplites. Note the unit maintenance costs increase to equal the number of men in the unit. Do it by retraining a under strength unit. Before hitting next turn, merge a unit of the same type to bring your under strength unit up to full strength. It will still be in the retrain queue. Hit next turn and it will be larger by the amount of troops you merged into the unit. Technically, you can get unit size to be ((2 x Size) – 1). Example: On large units, peasants are normally 120 men. Take a 100 man unit, put into retraining, merge another peasant unit onto it to bring up to 120 (adding 20 men). Hit turn and see your new peasant unit be 140 men, 20 more added during the retraining process.

[econ21]

I haven't played much RTW, mainly med/med, and have tended to focus on the very early games.

I found the Brutii the most challenging Romans in the very early game. Had to reload several times, as the Greeks and Macedonians are fairly competitive at the beginning. Julii were easy, but faced less rich lands so I suspect Scipii are the easiest Romans - they naturally take rich weak Carthage and then can cherry pick either the Julii or the Brutii natural targets (or both).

Parthians seemed surprisingly easy - at least, in battles. My horse archers felt like they were helicopter gunships - lethal and relatively invulnerable. Possibly harder than Romans, although not much.

Seleucids seemed less hard than I thought - rich and not that long a wait to get good units (e.g. elephants). Definitely harder than romans though - having to square off against a powerful neighbour (Egypt) early.

Carthage were hard in the PBM I joined in - I was struggling to keep my head above water, especially in Spain, and especially on hard campaign as my navy was in peril. So I'd rank them hardest of those I've played (I made only very limited use of ellies).

[Hellboy909]

Of the ones I've played so far (easiest to hardest)

Britons
Julii
Egypt
Seleucids

and the winner is:

Dacians.

Dirt poor territories, landlocked, surrounded on all sides by greedy bastards. The Chosen Archer Warband makes up for some of this, but I still found myself at war with 5 enemies (none of which I attacked first) on three fronts with only two cities that could make units and a negative cashflow. Fun!

[Sam Adams]

how do you unlock factions... I want to play as armenia and use their elite cav.

[GFX707]

Personally I don't like or see the point of giving the computer stat bonuses because that's not realistic. I wish the AI would get more cunning on harder difficulties, but it doesn't, so I play the game on normal/normal because that's the way it was intended to be played, and I am confident about the size of my penis

Anyway, I found that Carthage and the Greek Cities were pretty easy. It's a good challenge at first dealing with the romans but when that's done the rest is piss easy, as the Greeks you just use phalanxes around archers and as carthage you just use your elephants to bulldoze enemy formations and then longshields or sacred bands to clean up, you barely need any line infantry. In my experience the hardest faction would have to be Parthia and the easiest the Julii

[RusaHGPATX1821]

how do you unlock factions... I want to play as armenia and use their elite cav.

You have to find the descr_strat file in the game files and CP Armenia from non-playable to playable and then delete the name from the non-playable roster.

[GFX707]

Dirt poor territories, landlocked, surrounded on all sides by greedy bastards. The Chosen Archer Warband makes up for some of this, but I still found myself at war with 5 enemies (none of which I attacked first) on three fronts with only two cities that could make units and a negative cashflow. Fun!

Sounds almost exactly like Parthia except for the landlocked thing....plus you have almost no chance of defending cities with those worthless Eastern Infantry! Not to mention how gay your units look

[RusaHGPATX1821]

If I were to assign a difficulty (to extend on my earlier post) to each faction, then I would do as follows, based on the estimation scales that you see in Barbarian Invasion:

I will guess on the factions I haven't played (not inc. Senate and Rebels):

Estimated Easy (in order from easiest to hardest):
1. Julii
2. Macedon
3. Egpyt
4. Brutii
5. Britons (nice island starting territory! Easily defense-able. Plus your the only barb faction to get chariots and have the advantage of territory security. I'm not big on the unit roster overall though. The only reason they are higher than Scythia is that your homeland is secure in the early game)
6. Scythia (the best Barbarian unit Roster in regular Rome Total War, once you get Nobles and Noble Archer Cav you can be proficient even against the Romans, but you are unbelievably spread out. However, most of your early game neighbors aren't much of a threat)

Estimated Moderate:
1. Scipii (put them here because the late game gets challenging compared to the other Roman factions)
2. Pontus (you can subjugate Anatolia easily enough, but your unit roster might be inferior to the Egyptians and definitely to any late game Seleucid and Armenian army). Your hope rests in a good economy, which is easy enough to attain, however.
3. Germania (berserkers are great, but other than that your unit roster is not incredibly great. It's inferior to Britannia and Scythia, but your overall territory grab possibilities are great and your stronger infantry will help you stand up to Rome better than most of the other barbarian factions.) Your economy won't stand up to Pontus and that's why playing as Pontus is easier.
4. Spain (you have a nice defense-able position, should you take the Gallic settlement and the Carthaginian settlement in central and southern Spain, but your unit roster isn't incredibly great here. I'm not very high on the Barbarian unit rosters overall. The only one I really like is the Scythian roster)
5. Carthage
6. Greece
7. Parthia

Estimated Hard:
1. Thrace (your unit roster is limited, and your early expansion is limited, but you at least start with two cities on the Black Sea) Dacia is easy to take out though. You do have some options. You are also not under immediate attack from any really powerful factions, save Macedon, who will most likely attack you if you are able to take Byzantium.
2. Gauls (your best cities are about to be attacked by the Julii, and your unit roster is way inferior to them. Also its slightly inferior to Britannia and Germania, but maybe you could beat Spain. But you do start off strong. You have easier enemies than the Seleucids though overall, and that's why this campaign is slightly easier than the Seleucids. I'm guessing here :P) The hope you need to have is that you hold the Britons in check and can overwhelm the Julii with numbers early on.
3. Seleucids
4. Armenia

Estimated NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE: (factions only go here if there seems to be no redeeming possibilities for them or incredibly limited late-game potential, only masters of the game should attempt these. They could also just be mediocre factions as well) It might be better to attempt these using the "short campaign" track first.
1. Numidia (you have disadvantages to every neighbor you face, even though your troops have a desert combat bonus. Your spread out and face two far more powerful neighbors with superior unit rosters. You may have a decent shot at an early game economy, but your late game isn't very good at all, not even close to being as good as the Armenians and Seleucids. Otherwise, they would be above the aforementioned two. Again, I'm guessing here) You might benefit from Carthage and Egypt being occupied by more challenging enemies. I totally forgot about them in my other post, insinuating that the Dacians might be the only faction more challenging than Armenia.
2. Dacia (not a hard choice here for the hardest faction. Your landlocked. The only faction that starts out that way, might I mention. Even Armenia probably has a better economy and they go broke about 5 turns in. Your only hope is that you can take out Thrace early. You have a significant disadvantage to almost everyone you face, even Germania has a better unit roster than you. Berserkers are the main reason) Playing as the Rebels or Senate is probably easier IMHO.

[ReluctantSamurai]

berserkers are great, but other than that your unit roster is not incredibly great. It's inferior to Britannia and Scythia

I would have to respectfully disagree with this...IMHO, Germania has the best unit roster of any barbarian culture.

The only barbarian culture to get spears (ahistorical, IIRC) which obviously do not compare to phalanx units, but a huge help at the start of a campaign when fighting warbands; arguably the best heavy infantry units (outside of Chosen Swordsmen) with Zerkers, Chosen Axemen, and Night Raiders; and without any question (in my mind, anyways) the best barbarian cavalry in Noble Cavalry and Gothic Cavalry (which can go toe-to-toe with nearly any other cav unit in the game). And the Chosen Archer is one of the top three foot archer units in the game.

Economy is a problem (what barbarian culture isn't!?), but once Britannia and Gaul are eliminated, and the mines in Iberia are brought into production, the only serious challenger remaining are the Romans. The difficulty with them depends on whether "Uncle Marius" has shown up yet. Dacia and/or Scythia are only annoyances to be slapped into place or conquered.

As to your list.

Not sure why you rate the Julii as easier to play than the Brutii or the Scipii IMHO, the Brutii are the easiest as their early expansion into Greece gives them the more robust economy than the other two Roman factions; the Scipii would be next on my list...and if a player ignores Carthage for awhile after conquering Sicily, and sends expeditions to Greece, a player can stifle Brutii expansion (and the Temple of Neptune assures you dominate the seas with the Corvus and the Decere)---plus you are in a better position to eliminate the other Roman factions when the civil war comes; Julii expansion is the hardest if the traditional direction into Gaul is taken, as the lands are poor in comparison to what the Brutii and Scipii can dominate.

Also not sure why you rate the Seleucids as difficult as I think they are one of the easiest. Marvelous unit roster...excellent phalanx units, chariots, two of the best cav units in the game with Companions and Heavy Cats, and of course, Ellies. A bit weak in the archer department, but access to Cretan mercs alleviates that. The difficulty here is surviving the start of the game with enemies on all sides. Parthia and Armenia are one-time threats...once their initial Cataphract units are gone, they become nothing more than an annoyance. Once you start cranking out Phalanx Pike, the writing is on the wall even for Egypt.

Personally, I would put Parthia into the "Nearly Impossible" category because you never, ever, get any decent infantry...money will always be a problem, and you get only a single, mediocre temple to work with. Taking on Seleucia and Egypt requires one to be an absolute master at horse archer tactics, and the player has to be willing to use hit-and-run tactics on the strategic map to whittle down the huge stacks both of those factions can produce. It's almost impossible to go toe-to-toe until you can get to Ellies and Cataphracts.

Numidia certainly belongs in the same category, IMO, but the secret to playing them is jumping Carthage early with everything you have. In the few Numidian campaigns I've played, I abandon Siwa on turn 1 (Egypt will capture it easily anyway), and use those troops to help take out Carthage.

I've not played Dacia very many times, but I didn't find them extra-ordinarily difficult. Taking out Thrace is #1 on the list, along with capturing Campus Scythii next...port problem solved. Their unit roster is meager, but solid. Once you can start cranking out Chosen Swords, Chosen Archers, and Noble Cavalry, you can put together army stacks capable of going head-to-head with just about anybody. Surviving Macedon is another story.....

I've always found that player preferences also factor into difficulty. Some are very good at infantry tactics but poor at using horse archers. This player will find any of the phalanx factions to be easy(er), and horse archer factions difficult to impossible. And the reverse (like me) who come much easier to horse archer and cavalry tactics (honed my skills in these from day 1 in the original Shogun) will find factions like Armenia, Pontus, Parthia, etc., much easier to play.

Anyway, just a few thoughts from an old warhorse

[RusaHGPATX1821]

I'm better with Cavalry, so I naturally would pick a faction like Scythia or Armenia over Germania as far as easiness. But I digress you are right- in the case of the German infantry. Still, anything mounted and with a bow is a major advantage to me. Armor added is just a plus honestly. When I can move around I have a better advantage. With Scythia you have the advantage of space and a whole lot of nice rebel settlements you can take. Defeat the Thracians and take Byzantium and you are well on your way.

I put the Julii as the easiest because its the most boring campaign in the game. I'm not the best at a more infantry (although I love Pikes and Spears) focused faction, but it's literally so easy to beat your enemies. Yes, the Civil War might bring complications, but beside that there really is not much of a challenge. The others are more challenging because the Scipii have less terrritory to exploit to the south and east than the others and therefore will have a tougher time than the other Romans when the CW breaks out and the Brutii have a wonderfully rich amount of land to take but face the toughest enemies overall of the Romans. Still, it's a relatively easy campaign.

I might want to reconsider on Parthia. I don't like their infantry roster. It's the worst, easily the worst in the game. What units will man their siege towers in the time of war? Hillmen? Couldn't even beat basic Hastati on the walls. I almost believe the game meant for Armenia to be playable and Parthia to be non-playable. Yes, I love mounted archers. But those aren't good in a siege.

As for Dacia, the reason I would keep them in the nearly impossible category is the fact that all your neighbors have a superior unit roster to you and you are going broke. The Seleucids would overwhelm any lesser experienced player because of the diplomacy. I don't doubt that experienced players such as you or I would have any trouble with them. The Seleucids are the most balanced faction in the game, more than the Romans because of superior Heavy Cav, Elephants, and spearmen, plus you get the equivalent of Early Legionary Cohort in the form of Silver Shield Legionaires. Your early game army is no better than Macedon though and the Diplomacy is far tougher than Macedon's, so that's why they aren't easy for sure, but maybe Moderate difficulty. However, I still think its hard because you need to clean the Mid-East, Anatolia, and Egypt out quickly in order to avoid facing the Romans when they are far more powerful. It's the same problem your facing as Armenia in particular, but harder because Armenia have superior cavalry because Cat Archers are unbelievably broken. Maybe the Seleucids belong in the spot I put Parthia. The most challenging moderate campaign. With your help, you got me to make a few changes.

Est. Easy:
1. Julii
2. Macedon
3. Brutii
4. Egypt
5. Britons
6. Germans
7. Scythia (I still much prefer their cav to any other Barbarian faction)

Est. Moderate:
1. Scipii
2. Pontus
3. Greece (moved them up because just like Armenia, they have access to not great cav, but great infantry early on, plus you have the best scattered faction of them all, and you make a pile of cash too)
4. Spain
5. Carthage
6. Seleucids (moved them here because of their good early economy plus the potential late game. Still, your diplomacy won't make you any friends)

Est. Hard:
1. Thrace
2. Gaul
3. Armenia (I've considered putting them in Nigh-impossible, but that late game unit roster is so good)

Est. NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE:
1. Dacia (limitations on unit roster, maybe not the hardest in terms of conquering Rome, but you will have to use the numbers game to your advantage. You don't have the strength overall to measure up to virtually anyone when outnumbered. You have the worst early game of any faction IMO. The late game potential is only average to be nice at best)
2. Parthia (don't even have the best Horse Archers in the game, Scythia and Armenia both have better, plus both have better infantry, despite the limitations of the Scythian inf roster as well). The only strength in this faction is the dominant Heavy Cav. Camels have one use and that is scaring enemy generals, but it's so hard to even get to that stage in the first place. You won't do very well against anything other than Wooden Walls when you siege as well, Hillmen couldn't even stand up to Iberian infantry, which are below average infantry) (Plus, you start off at the edge of the map. Public Order is going to become a massive issue as you advance west, and like you said, you only have one measly temple, at least it can be advanced to level 5 though) I love Armenia so much more than Parthia as well. A much better overall unit composition.
3. Numidia (limited late game potential)

[ReluctantSamurai]

the Scipii have less terrritory to exploit to the south and east than the others and therefore will have a tougher time than the other Romans when the CW breaks out

Which is why I made the suggestion to have an eye for that eventuality by putting expansion into Africa on hold, landing in Greece, thereby stifling the robust economy the Brutii would otherwise enjoy

It's the worst, easily the worst in the game. What units will man their siege towers in the time of war? Hillmen? Couldn't even beat basic Hastati on the walls

Agreed. A Parthian campaign has to depend on merc infantry, adding to the economic woes.

As for Dacia, the reason I would keep them in the nearly impossible category is the fact that all your neighbors have a superior unit roster to you and you are going broke

Which is why it's imperative to eliminate Thrace ASAP, and take Scythia's best city, Campus Scythii. In my Dacian campaigns, the biggest threat is always Macedon. The AI loves to build scads of Light Lancers and countering them early on is not easy. Barbarian Cavalry is adequate (barely), but you need to bait the Lancers into the AI's preferred wedge attack, and hit them on the flanks. Falxmen are lethal to militia hoplites and other lower tier infantry, but once you get to Chosen Swords, they become the mainstay of your battle line. Like Germania, Dacia gets Chosen Archers, which, unlike other foot archers (excepting Gauls Forester's) can engage in melee combat.

I've never found Dacia to be overly difficult except in dealing with Macedon's cavalry, so we'll have to agree to disagree there

However, I still think its hard because you need to clean the Mid-East, Anatolia, and Egypt out quickly in order to avoid facing the Romans when they are far more powerful

In a players hands, the Seleucid roster crushes anything (even post-Marian) the Romans can muster up, IMHO.

I'm better with Cavalry

And like I suggested, this influences your list as far as difficulty is concerned. 4 of your top 7 get excellent cavalry

[weejonnie]

Which is why I made the suggestion to have an eye for that eventuality by putting expansion into Africa on hold, landing in Greece, thereby stifling the robust economy the Brutii would otherwise enjoy



Agreed. A Parthian campaign has to depend on merc infantry, adding to the economic woes.



Which is why it's imperative to eliminate Thrace ASAP, and take Scythia's best city, Campus Scythii. In my Dacian campaigns, the biggest threat is always Macedon. The AI loves to build scads of Light Lancers and countering them early on is not easy. Barbarian Cavalry is adequate (barely), but you need to bait the Lancers into the AI's preferred wedge attack, and hit them on the flanks. Falxmen are lethal to militia hoplites and other lower tier infantry, but once you get to Chosen Swords, they become the mainstay of your battle line. Like Germania, Dacia gets Chosen Archers, which, unlike other foot archers (excepting Gauls Forester's) can engage in melee combat.

I've never found Dacia to be overly difficult except in dealing with Macedon's cavalry, so we'll have to agree to disagree there



In a players hands, the Seleucid roster crushes anything (even post-Marian) the Romans can muster up, IMHO.



And like I suggested, this influences your list as far as difficulty is concerned. 4 of your top 7 get excellent cavalry

Have now worked my way up to VH/M and playing Parthia.

Basically I formed an alliance with Scythia, moved all my generals (by sea, debarking at the end of each turn) from Campus Sakae to the South and sacrificed everything to get Persian Cavalry at Souza. Then took out Seleucia and Armenia. After that Egypt was worn down , Pontus killed off (main advantage is that you attack the two large cities in their East.) and Rhodes/ Pergamum captured (the latter by starvation as there was no obliging force available to come to their rescue. Game is practically won (30 provinces, basically the South East) as the cavalry/ cataphracts/ elephants will murder the Romans.