Rome 2 Tips and un-/under-documented features

[Papewaio]

It is once you realize that your starting Admiral has 120 Assault Marines er Legionaires that are your most mobile and best troops by far.

[Quillan]

CTRL plus the left and right arrow keys make the unit turn left or right. Found that by accident earlier. CTRL plus the up or down arrows are supposed to increase or decrease unit width, but at least for me only increased it.

The benefits of having loads of excess food are not nearly as good as they were in Shogun 2, but don't get into a food shortage. It's nasty.

Before laying siege to a city, have a spy try to sabotage it by poisoning the wells. If successful, it'll damage every unit (sometimes severely) that is in the city, both garrisoned army and the free defending troops.

A champion doing an assault patrol before a battle can knock the bejesus out of a tough enemy unit. Between one sabotage and an assault patrol I managed to reduce a Helvetii noble cavalry general from 80 to 18 men before the battle began.

Speaking of champions, park one in your main armies doing military training. I have two armies of rank 6-9 troops just from champion training.

[quadalpha]

I think truces after ceasefires are back ... except now it doesn't tell you when you declare war.

Edit: Or maybe not. I have no idea now. But it does seem that your diplomatic reputation is now tracked individually for each faction.

[CaptainCrunch]

... But it does seem that your diplomatic reputation is now tracked individually for each faction.

It is, according to the printed manual.

"Every decision, every treaty made and broken, every army that pillages foreign land without consent, will be remembered when you approach another faction with diplomacy in mind. All factions will be aware of your past treatment of others, particularly their own allies. They'll assess your reputation and treat your approaches accordingly, meeting your requests as befits their opinions of you."

[quadalpha]

It is, according to the printed manual.

"Every decision, every treaty made and broken, every army that pillages foreign land without consent, will be remembered when you approach another faction with diplomacy in mind. All factions will be aware of your past treatment of others, particularly their own allies. They'll assess your reputation and treat your approaches accordingly, meeting your requests as befits their opinions of you."

That sounds like it's talking about opinion rather than reputation, which is (or ought to be) a modifier independent of opinion, like in S2.

[Wilbo]

Siege weapons are excellent at killing enemy troops before an assault. When laying siege to Syracuse, a unit of Roman Ballista accurately killed 521 enemies before I entered the city. Normal shot seems to cause more casualties than exploding shot. Scorpions are also very effective, but need a clear shot.

[Barkhorn1x]

It is once you realize that your starting Admiral has 120 Assault Marines er Legionaires that are your most mobile and best troops by far.

Well, you didn't say that the first time now did you?

[Jacque Schtrapp]

Diplomacy really works. You may find it hard to make allies, but don't hesitate to give or ask for military access from a faction you have good relations with. At 84 BC in my Roman campaign and I have two allies and a dozen factions with military access. I have lots of armies constantly moving through my territory and haven't had anyone backstab me. In fact, those armies have come in handy helping out with slave revolts and even non allies with military access will still fight on your side if they are nearby when you attack or are attacked by an enemy.

Don't forget to promote your generals/admirals as they rank up. Use the "Secure Promotion" option on the family management screen as these promotions often come with faction wide bonuses.

Stay on the roads in the desert or your troops will die quickly.

Rotate your edicts as needed. They can boost happiness or income quite nicely.

Monitor your provincial happiness and what you are choosing to build. Many higher building upgrades come with massive public order hits. It's quite easy to build yourself into constant revolts and it's very time consuming to correct the situation. I did this and it took 50 turns, where Rome was completely at peace, yet had to keep all of its armies at home to deal with 1-2 revolts per turns.

[quadalpha]

The end-of-turn hunt for that general/agent you apparently haven't promoted is solved by the 'Forces' panel (one of the four buttons above minimap).

[hoom]

Ctrl + g = locked group which will maintain unit order & formation when moved.

[Hooahguy]

Diplomacy really works. You may find it hard to make allies, but don't hesitate to give or ask for military access from a faction you have good relations with. At 84 BC in my Roman campaign and I have two allies and a dozen factions with military access. I have lots of armies constantly moving through my territory and haven't had anyone backstab me. In fact, those armies have come in handy helping out with slave revolts and even non allies with military access will still fight on your side if they are nearby when you attack or are attacked by an enemy.

Really? Ive been trying for many turns to get trade agreements with my neighbors but no luck, even with the ones I have good standing with.

[Jacque Schtrapp]

Really? Ive been trying for many turns to get trade agreements with my neighbors but no luck, even with the ones I have good standing with.

Admittedly, diplomacy is VERY slow to develop, but you will start getting offers soon. One thing I did that seems to speed the process up, is to take a fleet and sail it along the coastline of the Med, revealing factions as you go. Then, choose factions far away that you are unlikely to go to war with any time soon, and offer them non aggression pacts. It's rather like asking a bank for a loan, you have to have an established credit history before they'll risk loaning to you. The same is true with Rome II factions, you have to have some calculable interactions with other factions before the trade agreements come rolling in.

You will also likely be asked to pay for your initial trade agreements and non aggression pacts. Unfortunately, this seems to be the cost of establishing diplomacy in Rome II.

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Another feature people may not have noticed yet, is that you can use the arrow keys to move a ghostly image of your selected troop(s) and they will move to that exact location in the exact formation in which you move them. Be careful though, they will start moving the very moment you take your finger off the key.

[quadalpha]

The start of turn notification system is wonky, at best. It gets confused if you ever (I think) use the zoom to location button and forgets to display some of the notifications but they still show as 'read' in the info panel. Best to check through them yourself.

[Barkhorn1x]

Agents can sail across the sea too! Just like armies. They get their own little boat icon.