Rome 2 Tips and un-/under-documented features

[Slaists]

I thought I saw the answer to this previously but I cannot find it. How do I force the army to stay in a formation without creating one large group? I want to be able to have in effect sub groups (eg right center and left) that move in a coordinated fashion. I think this has always been possible but I never learned how.

@Seyavash

1. Arrange your army the way you want it.
2. Select all (CTRL + A would do it)
3. In the field (not on unit cards), left click-hold on one unit in that army (while everybody is selected)
4. while holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor to where you want your army to go; you will see a ghost of your army in the formation you selected moving there
5. upon releasing the cursor, the army will move to the target place and arrange themselves in the original formation
6. if you pres CTRL while doing #4, you'll be able to change the rotation of the army
7. while your army is marching (looking all messy) you can select everyone again (not waiting for them to stop) and give them a new location; they will still remember their original formation from step 1.

[Sp4]

@Seyavash

1. Arrange your army the way you want it.
2. Select all (CTRL + A would do it)
3. In the field (not on unit cards), left click-hold on one unit in that army (while everybody is selected)
4. while holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor to where you want your army to go; you will see a ghost of your army in the formation you selected moving there
5. upon releasing the cursor, the army will move to the target place and arrange themselves in the original formation
6. if you pres CTRL while doing #4, you'll be able to change the rotation of the army
7. while your army is marching (looking all messy) you can select everyone again (not waiting for them to stop) and give them a new location; they will still remember their original formation from step 1.

I actually really liked the way they made this work. I was a little annoyed by the removal of the movement compass at first but this is nice.

[Seyavash]

@Seyavash

1. Arrange your army the way you want it.
2. Select all (CTRL + A would do it)
3. In the field (not on unit cards), left click-hold on one unit in that army (while everybody is selected)
4. while holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor to where you want your army to go; you will see a ghost of your army in the formation you selected moving there
5. upon releasing the cursor, the army will move to the target place and arrange themselves in the original formation
6. if you pres CTRL while doing #4, you'll be able to change the rotation of the army
7. while your army is marching (looking all messy) you can select everyone again (not waiting for them to stop) and give them a new location; they will still remember their original formation from step 1.

Finally got a chance to try it out, but cannot get it to work. All it does is create a single line of troops. If I make 4 groups it does not line them up according to the layout I set. Instead it makes 1 line of my 4 groups. Basically what I was hoping to do is create army formations that combine various groups. Say a one group 3 line left wing, a one group 5 line center, a one group 3 line right wing and a 2 line reserve wing in the back. when I move the entire army the left, center, right and back groups stay in their individual group formations and maintain their order in relation to each other.

[Slaists]

@Seyavash from what you are telling it seems you are using right click drag; you should be using LEFT click hold drag as per my original post.

[Seyavash]

@Seyavash from what you are telling it seems you are using right click drag; you should be using LEFT click hold drag as per my original post.

Hi Slaists, I had tried left but wasn't getting it to work so tried right which as you noted was not correct and got the results I mentioned in my 2nd post. However, I tried a few more times and I have figured out what I was doing wrong. I was not properly holding the mouse button down while dragging the cursor as outlined in step 4 but inadvertantly releasing it. Your steps work perfectly. Thanks for the assistance.

[Monthar]

While on your global rampage, always check the diplomacy screen to see your next target's allies and enemies. Then check each of the enemies to see which one will pay the most for joining them in the war against your target just before you intend to declare war on the target. That way you gain some extra cash and boost your relationship with the enemies of your target at the same time.

You can also join wars against those AI you haven't met yet to gain a bunch of cash from those you have met. In my current campaign I manged to earn close to 10k (1-2k per AI) several times from this by turn 40 or 50. I think the first time I tried this was around turn 15-20 and I raked in about 6-8k just from selling my joining their wars.

Once you've done all the "join war" for profit bit, you can generally make even more lump sum cash from signing NAPs and setting up trade routes. In some cases you might have to pay 500-1000 for the NAP, but can then either re-coop that cash or even more more when signing the trade agreement. For instance I might pay 500 for the NAP, which then boosts our relationship enough to get them to pay 1000 for the trade agreement.

Doing all this from the beginning can go a long way towards helping you afford to buy all your buildings and troops fairly quickly.

[Slaists]

Suebi unit longbow hunters has the ability to remain hidden while firing. On the field, the feature is not really working since enemy notices longbows as soon as they crawl within firing distance [simply the sight distance seems to be set longer than the firing distance]. This, of course, mutes the usefulness of the feature on the battlefield.

The fun part starts when you try longbows against defending city fortifications. As long as there are no enemy units nearby the longbows stay hidden to enemy towers and gates. They can even fire torches while hidden and take over whole sections of city defenses without losing a man.

Sounds like an exploit, then again, this is exactly the sort of thing that a stealth/special ops unit is supposed to do.

[edyzmedieval]

A little tip if it's not well known already - culture researches give a massive income boost. 20% in wealth from culture can ramp up income considerably.