Rome Total War Faction Tier List
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
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Tier List explaining the strength of every faction in Rome 1 and the Barbarian Invasion campaigns.
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a Defensive Campaign for a Germania or Scythia is some of the most fun I've had playing Rome 1, especially when the romans show up at your borders.
Scythia would be SSS+ tier if the unit pathfinding properly worked half the time :D
Trueee
Armenia with their Cataphract Horse Archers and Legionaries make a really good contender for op horse archer faction, since they have great heavy infantry to support the pathfinding nerfed but still best horse archers
hey spiff!
Did not expect the Brit to roll into Rome.
Scythia is unironically OP tier. With their basic tier 1 unit you can massacre across the entire campaign map in all directions
Brutii are the best. When you hire mercenaries, they actually are part of your color scheme still.
Invincible argumentation my silver tounged friend
@@goodguyjack you wanna say they are a Seleucid
Me when I hire every unit of Samnites, peltasts, and slingers I can get my hands on
To me that's a disadvantage, when it's harder to tell where your expensive throwaway units are 🤣
Their temples are S+.
They have health (which is pop growth + happienes), law (which is happieness + reducing corruption) and the experience temple (0/1/2/3/sth to all stats).
Julii have pop growth (which is half of health), happieness (which is just dogshit, AND dionisos makes your generals drunk) and some other throwaway temple I forgor.
Don't make me even mention the Scipii sea temple.
Eastern Infantry were the OG Skavenslaves.
Id argue even skaven slaves last longer in combat which is sad
Honestly skavenslaves are just better in every single way than eastern infantry but still kind of right
@@Gritty1983 They also have the expendable trait, which means losing them won't affect the leadership of nearby units if routed or destroyed. Eastern Infantry were infamous for causing mass routs.
@@Gritty1983 If you have a general with a lot of stars nearby, they will fight near to the death. I used them to guard the flanks of hoplites.
Most important, skavenslaves are eeeextremely chep and costs u about 0-30 gold per unit.
Pijamaboyz cost u for 100 dinars((
Dude, talking about the Roman specialist units. I remember as a kid noticing that war dog instantly replace casualties as long as the dog handlers don't die. So i just had a full stack of war dogs following the army, pop a hole into the wall, and let the horde of fluffs murder everyone. Use the regular army to mop up any survivors lol
Only thing is you have to be sure to order the handlers back after the dogs charge, once the dogs start fighting the handlers try to engage again so gotta pull em back twice.
Yeah war dogs were OP as fuck if you knew how to use them. Amazing.
Always left them as garrisons, and if a town came under siege, I would sally out every turn, release the dogs, and then quit the battle with everyone inside the city. The AI always takes forever to assault cities, so you could do a lot of damage for cheap upkeep
@@goldflame3390 Learned a lot from this comment! Just started Rome 1 and I only heard that dogs were OP. Didn't get an explanation why. Didn't help that it was pricy haha. Now I know :D
Yeah also only 50 denarii upkeep and lowest manpower draw so really economically too minimise casualties. But they can't turn the tide of the battle and they happily chase a single routing entity of the map and the edge of the world.
Also they take 2 turns to recruit which is a real big dowside especially given in Rome I every city no matter the size can only recruit one unit a turn. But yeah nice unit which certainly has it's uses. I think it's the cheapest unit (together with the diplomat) which makes them a good option to put in forts (especially depleted units).
@@badonkadonk6655 - Dogs also weaken enemy morale so if you combine them with a charge from a cavalry unit or two you can pretty easily route certain units. This is especially true on normal difficulty, but I'll admit normal difficulty readily allows the player to get away with field armies comprised entirely of cavalry units.
I remember smashing entire Roman armies in the late game with light cavalry since I never went through the Marian reforms during my first global conquest run on that difficulty level. In fact, one of my most famous generals during those battles was a hypochondriac.
Is Mr. Legend currently experiencing a bout of sweet nostalgia?
Lack of cash😢
Nostalgia for that paycheck
I believe It all started when he play manor lord
he just doesn't want to cover WH3 until the DLC since he has no early access and everyone wants to see content covering the DLC so the WH3 videos wouldn't perform well.
I assumed it was desire to take a break from WH3 until the DLC comes out. But his bank account doesn't want to take a break from content creation :).
I really miss being able to just have armies without generals, so convenient
Yeah that was the good old time I agree, so much more freedom than what Rome2 did after. But there was technical reasons if I recall, and it was too easy to cheat the movement as well.
Probably would have been better to let the player decide but well, we got used to it.
Some of the features were just better in Rome and medieval mostly that casualties actually count
I dont miss the just infinite ai money cheat death stacks though
Agreed. So agreed.
@@Kilen_BE I didn't get used to it, I stopped playing Total War :P
at 12:18 correction: Macedon starts with the province with Statue of Zeus (Corinth), not Greek City States, but players with the GCS are able to very easily take said province
Yeah. The Greeks start with the Colossus of Rhodes. Which is good for them since they rely on ships a lot early game too
I was about to say same thing but then I was wait a second I am pretty sure it's not only me how notice that Error from LegendofTotalWar
Only a fool would meet The Parthian in an open field.
aka Crassus xD
The light red square can do it !
One army, a real army united behind one leader with one purpose
Corbulo did it pretty successfully. Absolute madlad.
Huns cares not.
*sighs* fine, I'll load up Rome 1 and add to my 6000+ hours
Germania gets one of the best unit rosters in the game with Chosen Archers, Chosen Axemen, Gothic Cavalry and ever hilarious but effective Berserkers. They should at least be C Tier. Also all factions in BI can reach tier 5 settlements. The Alemani and its copies get one of the best rosters in the game (i would honestly argue the best). They get chosen axemen who are an absolute wrecking ball against other all infantry in that game, their first tier archer unit Lombard Archers are a great long range units, Burgundian Lancers are one of the best fast shock cav units. The only thing they don't get is horse archers.
I was curious what he thinks about German berserkers, but then he didnt even mention them. May not be as powerful on highest difficulty, but they were the first doomstacks of my childhood. Had such a fun watching cavemen with big clubs beating up entire armies whilst rampaging and barely lose models.
D Tier for Germania ist Madness indeed, their roster is insane, Chosen axemen destroy everything and both Cav as well as archers are really good as well.
Not to mention having by far the best Spear unit of it's tier.
Yeah, the argument for C as Gauls but D for Germania doesn't make sense. Sure, Gaul starts with a bunch of territory, but it is guaranteed to fight the Julii, the Britons tend to attack you, the spaniards do too from memory, and Germania is a fourth possible enemy. Not to mention the distance to cover versus the Julii. Germania has a far easier early game by comparison, even if they're nominally weaker.
Gauls do have foresters which are better than chosen archers, and chosen swordmen are pretty good. But chosen axemen are no joke and they have far better cavalry in the gothic cavalry. And most critically, the German early game is far better thanks to phalanx warband.
So, with an arguably comparable roster and just easier time as Germania, it would be better reflected with inverted rankings in my opinion.
Also he didn't mention the fact that their spear warband are phalanx units and if I remember correctly they are the highest entity phalanx unit in the game and definitely not the worst stat wise. It means even late game they can utilise their early game units to hold the line pretty well for heavy cav or shock infantry to do the damage
@@genericcommenter1267 successor state pikes have the inflated entity size as well.
Germans just have too good of a roster to be put on D tier. Tier 1 spammable phalanx, ok axe and shield infantry, big axe bois, berserkers, good archers and even good cavalry
best barbarian cavalry :)
For battles / lategame they are definetely super beasts, but their starting location is quite terrible. If not for player advantage when you are playing them against dumb AIs, Gaul would stomp them. They have like 4 poor cities and Gaul has like 7 or 8.
I cried when he placed them at the bottom. They are my favorite ever
The German roster is overrated and their economy sucks. Their starting regions are shit, surrounded by potential enemies
@@MajkaSrajka funly enough it's the britons who come after germans first. And phalanxes are just too good at defending, no amount of warband spam can beat it. That alone gives enough time to build an offensive army.
Last comment: The Saxons also can't become a horde, like the Celts. And the Franks while not having strong cavalry, are able to build some of the highest tech buildings, and paladins from Christian abbey buildings, as you saw years ago in the "Last Frank Saving Disaster Campaign" are actually pretty good cavalry
I think the Remastered version and most mods give Saxons and Allemani horde ability, he might not have remembered what was in the vanilla og
Forgot that about saxons, but remembered about allemani
The thing is though those historically speaking weren’t horde migrating during the period, it’s a in game disadvantage but it was the design for historical purposes
@@wolfgangroddewig of them only the Celts didnt mass migrate: Anglo-Saxons had large movement across the North Sea into Britain, and Allemani had a mass movement south and west into Southern France and Switzerland (fascinating period of abandoned Romanised Germanic villas left behind in the old Alleman territory)
Man I used to love playing the Seleucid and the only non-Roman faction I did a world conquest with. Storming Egypt early game and heading up to cap Greece before the Roman’s establish a foothold gives you a massive advantage.
The Selucid Empire is amazing to play as
well obviously they are the best late game faction but very boring to play at the beginning
Armenia has decent infantry in the form of Heavy Spearmen and Legionaries. Not the best, but certainly a step up from Parthia.
AND cataphract archers, which are the game's tanks, killing every other missile they can't catch, and destroying almost any melee unit when correctly used (unless egiptyan light axe horses appear, those guys are a pain in the ...)
This is a blast from the past…I played Rome as a kid. I remember using commands to cheat more money, and the spartan phalanxes being insane LOL. It’s the only total war I played from then until Warhammer 2
The remastered version has a great version, called RTR Imperium Surrectum, go check it out if you dont know about it.
If you like the total war formula theres some real gems in the interum but i think the only one your missing that maxes out the fun is medieval 2 total war and fall of the samurai
I couldn't play that game pass Marian Reform. Once I got it I already became invincible... There was no challenge. But at the same time, I didn't feel like playing Barbarians because it doesn't make sense to me to go backwards on things.
No Med2?
Oh no, step horde, what are you doing?
Steppe daddy right from Mongolia 😆
Well, if a horde can settle down, than they are definitely a step horde. And it's going to do funny things with your back door.
I normally put the Seleucids into S tier, simply because it cannot be understated just how powerful it is overlapping a unit of their legion units with a unit of pikemen covering them. The legionary shields mixed amongst the pikes plus the slight overlap of legions covering the pike's flanks is extremely hard for the enemy factions to overcome. Specially with cavalry in the mix.
Dacia's Falx troops absolutely wreck for the price. Germania was always the best Barbarian faction. Their infantry is incredibly powerful and varied... I mean their Spear Warband is a phalanx and OP AND cheaper than Hoplites. German Chosen Axemen have proven to slice trough even heavy Roman Infantry and one unit of Berserkers will smash most weak infantry. Seleucid were always my favorite Greek faction. They are a challenge for the location, but have the most amazing roster potential and money making location.
Yeah, their placement is kinda weird. Spear Warband can hold the line much better than other basic barbarian Warband, they have access to decent heavy cav in the form of Gothic Cavalry (although if i recall correctly they are a temple unit, not a stable one) and Chosen Axemen is the only infantry unit in the game along with Spartans that can beat Urbans 1 to 1. Strictly tactically, the best "orthodox" barbarian roster.
@@StavrosGiol You are correct. Germania is at least a B in my opinion. I conquered the whole world as Germania once lol.
@@Vandelberger Yeah, Germanic cataclysm of Western Europe 600 years early is always fun!
I'm not sure about B though, more inclined towards best of C. A lot of trash territories, so the player has to beeline towards Italy to get going, which means a lot of ongoing wars.
@@StavrosGiol Ah, I try and conquer all of Gaul and British before I ever push south. England has the Stone hedge buff but it has been so long since I played. It’s true the buildings and technical development are meh. I feel like they should all get access to level 4 buildings just make Barbarians take longer.
Gotta disagree about Macedon. Their infantry can punch way above their tier and you never have to actually lose a settlement because you have tier zero and tier one units. Ready access to steal all the world’s wonders is a nice touch, and can be really strong to get early. I don’t think they’re S tier but I think they’re better than Carthage
Macedon is like Greece+
Longer spears
Better cav
Centralized location
Actual heirs of Alexander
@@J4R0D pretty much. Basically unite Greece simulator
Light Lancer spam is insane ngl
Legends been absolutely killing it recently, mans a reverse Samson, the more hair he loses the greater he becomes
11:45 I will never forget your Europa Babaoreum Seleucid playthrough!
Good times.
14:00 Surprising pick
21:20 Finsih
24:45 Yeah, I remember how frightened you were when dealing with Clibernarii in your western Roman Empire campaign.
28:20 Legend confused
33:25 When I played the Romans, my super expensive army got smashed by babarians. After that, I only used my only cav armies to conquer Germania:D
Surely, it was my fast time playing a TW game but I still think that pikes are just more intuitiv and beginner friendly. Therefore, I would give Greeks S tier because they are easy to handle.
Never forget my first total war epic campaign painting the map glorious silver with the selucids! Thanks for the memories and nostalgia Legend!
I must protest, Armenia has their own legionaries and also cataphracts and cataphract archers. Pretty good roster
PS The best Britannian unit are head hurlers, I just anihilated whole legions with them on my road to Italy
AFAIK they're the only ones who get Cataphract Archers.
Head hurlers are great because of armor penetration, but they have really low number of shots to give IIRC
Yea I love playing Armenia because of its roster. It's basically an i.oroved Parthia with a worst starting position.
Armenia is probably strongest faction in the game if you stack full horse archers, you can win almost every battle without losses
And bribing the parthian cataphracts into your service early on 😂, an expensive way, but you cripple your main threat right away
The Julii have a bug where the pantheon has worse modifier then the previous building level... Brutii has a pantheon that grants health that increases both population growth and happiness.
Appreciated, I dabbled with the franchise as back as the first Shogun, but I don't have the playtime you do by any means, so really appreciating the chance to hear your thoughts!
LEGEND MAKING HISTORICAL TIER LIST??? HELL YEAH!!!
I so wish to see you play some Greek or Macedon RTW 1 campaign utilizing those long spears and pikes instead of usual cavalry... that would be really a heroic victory on your channel in my eyes!
Honestly Scipii is favourite: Greece is almost exactly as close as for Brutii, and your military bonuses start at temple level 1 and add up quickly, even your early game fresh recruit hastati wipe the floor because of the weapons bonus, and by the Marian Reforms and Civil War your Legionaries will come out with buffs so big they'll take on Urbans and Praetorians
Is it the Vulcan buffs that are better than the Mars ones?
@@thomasriccio4873 yeah Vulcan temples give blacksmith upgrades starting at tier 1 temples, its pretty sweet
Watching this list and the Medieval II one despite not playing either game. I watch because he clearly knows his stuff and highlights the differences between each faction very well.
He did undervalue Germainia and the Franks in my opinion.
Ze Gemania are always awesome in mowing down cavalery with their uber cheap pikemen. And the fact they use phalanx will not stop being funny :)
Great list.
I would only make 2 modifications. The Franks do have heavy cavalry, Paladins! I think they can get some stronger buildings by converting too. Bump to at least B.
The second is the Alemanni because the berserkers are sooo broken for sieges. If you can get them blood thirst on the walls they will kill anything. Top tier roman units, dead, for a fraction of the cost. I've charged my own heavy Calvary into the backs of the berserks and then they turn around they just mow down heavy cavalry. Of course their weakness is archers. Their starting position is brutal also. I would bump to C at least.
Fun stuff, I adored the o.g. RTW + Barbarian Invasion back in the day. With the powerhouse S & A tier factions you had, the Seleucids had the rough start with a crisis that can easily pile up. The Seleucids can make some good money, have a good roster, but they're in a central position with rivals at every major compass direction.
This game was my childhood and got me into history.
Ohh buddy some old school Total War tier lists? I'm so down for that
5:01 Scipii had the best navy because they can build Neptun temple, god of oceans.
That parthia bias lol
Thought cant blame him, pink pajama guys is just too good to not blatantly uptier them
So Parthia's pink pyjama-wearing infantry are no good? Who would have guessed?
19:12 British irl strategy for world domination
I played this game for like an hour but I'm watching because I just love tier lists and your vids.
Armenia has access to mid tier phalanx units, and medium infantry, which in my opinion makes them comparable to parthia because you at least get access to units that can do things in sieges and phalanx units allow for an actual anvil to hammer. I feel like it's a worthy trade off compared to elephants when you already have top level calv handled.
Was nodding along until you got to Germania. Armor piercing chosen axemen, wrecking ball berserkers, long range archers, even their warbands ability to form a phalanx gives them a massive advantage over early game Gaul, Britain and even Hastati.
Clear A tier faction.
Tier 3 max just mean you get the good stuff faster too.
Go play a Germania campaign and come back to me.
Edit: How did i forget Gothic cav??
All that, but you will be struggling with either money or population for most of the campaign. No point in mentioning awesome units if you won't be able to afford them on the campaingn map.
Why would anyone think the Greek Cities are S tier? They have a completely one dimensional army roster. Sure it's strong, but you WILL discover the limits of what Hoplites are able to do once you play a full Greek Cities campaign. The Romans are definitely a tier above them just because of how much more versatile their unit roster is. If any of the Hellenic factions have an argument for being S tier, it would be the Seleucids.
Scipii is strongest since you can speedrun to gold equipment upgrades very early to steamroll the other roman factions. Along with water control
I've never liked chariots outside of their busted auto-resolve. They're fragile and rampage too easily for my liking. I can't stand Britannia for that reason. Cavalry generals are where it's at
Also, I feel like Germania is being underrated a bit here. They're the only barbarians to get pikes, which gives them a massive edge over their barbarian neighbors in the early game. Plus, considering that Legend factors start position into the tierlist, Germania has a secure start position with its north front completely closed and its east front safe for quite a while (eventually Scythians come for you, but they give you plenty of time to build up). Finally, Berserkers. I know I complained about chariots rampaging, but boy is it satisfying to unleash Berserkers and just watch them obliterate the enemy. In all, I'd put Germania in B tier; they're certainly way better than destitute Dacia or stale Spain
I sense a Rome total war campaign in the future
Romans stuck in the walls be like: What are you doing step-horde?
the thing with scythia, their entire playstyle is about being fast, your cavalry is fast in campaign and in battle, you develop fast and you recruit fast. it is better to bring strong tier 3(the roster level would be 4 and the settlement is the value of 2) in masses against tier 4/5 or 1:1 against tier 2 than to bring tier 5 against tier 5. a battle between high level units is costly and not what you would want, and with scythia’s speed in easy mode you can win the campaign before your faction leader dies(he is starts fifty years old or so) without much effort.
Germania at D tier is criminal- Gothic cav, berserkers, good archers, a good spear unit in early game, etc. Should be bottom of B. Good vid tho
4 cities with 200 pop, no eco and a spear infantry that whilst good, it costs 520, IIRC has high upkeep and has no warcry (warcry buffs your attack by 10 for like a minute, which is why barbs can slap).
1. Pikemen have longer reach than spearmen/hoplites. Macedon and Seleucids have pikemen, Greeks have spearmen (including Spartan hoplites).
2. Germania actually has a really good roster with barbarian phalanxes, axemen, night raiders, berserkers, and gothic cavalry. Their settlements are crap though and very poor economically.
Pikeman are really strong offensive units. Put some low quality pikeman with proffesional ones on top of each other and they beat almost every unit in the game. It demands some micromanagemnt, but in M2 which is the same engine I could beat every fullstack with my 4 militia pikeman and 4 royal pikeman. They just need support from other unit but man, they rule battlefield
Germania should really be in Weird 🤣
I distinctly recall them being absolutely broken in the campaign if you can rush berserkers and train their experience up fast. Cause at that point they shred early armies from Gaul and Rome. I'm pretty sure I claimed Rome from SPQR before they even reached the point they get their updated unit roster. You just roll over everything and can snowball hard across the map so long as your replenishment is good enough.
IDK how you'd rush T3 temple with a villages starting with 200 pop but you do you lol
@@MajkaSrajka My friend, it is called enslaving everyone you fight and shunting the population back to you, or taking a bigger settlement from someone else 🤣
Sleeping on Thrace getting Bastarnae which have 2 hitpoints per model, the only faction that can natively recruit them, and one of the few infantry units with 2 hitpoints. Way tougher than they seem, as well as having greek cultural buildings
Thrace really seems to be a faction ahead of it's time, since the player is supposed to use shock infantry as flankers instead of cav (falxmen with war cry are just brutal). A shame cav is so prevalent in RTW.
Bastarne have really shit like 6 defence and they build 2 turns. Falxmen basically outperform them two tiers lower.
Germania is definitely at least C tier, if not B tier. Having Phalanx units in the early game against civilizations that do not (IE Gaul and Britannia and Julii primarily for early game) is an immense advantage. Not to mention their higher tear units dominating in categories of infantry with Berserkers, Cavalry with Gothic Cavalry, and Archers with their Archer Warband.
HELL YES MORE ROME TOTAL WAR CONTENT I JUST STARTED PLAYING IT AGAIN ITS VERY HARDER THAN MEDEIVAL 2 ON VERY HARD DIFICULTY IN MY OPINION
Rome 2 faction tier list next! Would be awesome.
Romano-brittish livestream when?
Egypt: "They've got the best archers in the game"
Forester Warband: Am I a joke to you?
Honestly though great video, well explained. Enjoyed this a lot
So i think there are a couple of missplaces here, and that’s mainly because of one or two missed factors.
Things to factor are
So legend considers Economy, roster, building options (especially city size and public order maintenance)
However, i think there are 3 other factors that have been missed out, that would personally have me downgrade the seleucids, gaul, and maybe carthage; and push up germania
Proximity to rome:
In general there are 3 phases to how you would fight the roman factions, based on when you encounter them, so I’ve categorised factions by these phases, but with an a and b based on whether i think, if you expand towards them quickly enough, you can encounter them in an earlier phase.
1-early game- hastati, velites and equites are almost all you’ll encounter, with a few principes thrown in. The easiest time to fight rome though also when you’re at your weakest: carthage, greek cities, gaul
2- Rome’s getting into it’s stride, principes, cavalry auxilia, archers and a smattering of siege weapons and triarii. More importantly they can throw multiple full stacks your way, so it can get pretty sloggy
2a: numidia, spain, germania, dacia, macedon, thrace
2b: britannia, egypt
3- Final form, full roster, whichever faction/s you’re not fighting probably own most of the far side of the map. Legionary cohorts, archer auxilia. Whichever faction you’re playing, this is pain. Hopefully you’ve met them at the start of this point and most of their frontier armies are the old model, or you’re strong enough to match their multiple stacks with yours
3a: pontus, scythia,
3b- seleucids, parthia, armenia
This is important because rome is the biggest challenge of the game, and whether what you’ve got matches up to what they’ve got at the point when you meet is a massive factor in the difficulty of the game.
For example Carthage has an excellent roster. Lots of heavy cavalry, elephants, a strong high tier infantry unit, and some ok skirmishers, as well as economy that can maintain expensive stacks. But you’re at war with Rome on turn 5 at the latest. What you actually have are iberian infantry, round shield cavalry and any mercenaries you can scrounge up. You start with one elephant unit and you *cannot* be wasting your mobile battering ram on some hastati. Once you’ve passed the hurdle and strangled rome in its cradle then it’s mostly plain sailing but your big difficulty spike is right at the start of the game.
By contrast Egypt and the Seleucids get to deploy their best units against Rome, but by then you’re probably going to be fighting a queue of blue/green full stacks in libya/greece that will each take a good bite out of even your best doomstack.
Who you’re up against at the start is also important. I think Gaul needs a downgrade and germania an upgrade for 2 reasons. 1 is that germania’s standard infantry are basically militia hoplites, and will steamroll early, mainly melee, gaulish and britannian armies with little fuss (in my gaul playthrough i was having to manoeuvre skirmish running battles with warbands, defeating a full stack took me the better part of an hour and a half). The other is that germania starts off with one front, 2 enemies that it can fight, and eventually a third that is also easy (dacia). In a gaul playthrough you are at war on 3 fronts against 8 enemies (4 of which are rome) by turn 10. Keeping that empire together takes a lot more skill imo. The same goes for seleucia. Fighting 4-5 pretty strong factions almost immediately, when more than half of your settlements can only produce militia hoplites, is challenging. In my playthrough it took me about 20 turns before I’d stabilised enough to actually expand (this is why imo the seleucids cannot get to rome until the late game. I actually maintain, though I’ve yet to manage it, that destroying all the romans before the marian reforms is possible as parthia or armenia).
So IMO the Seleucids should be a B or even a C class. And, more controversially, i think germania should be a B.
I can't really say that I agree with these ratings.
Gaul has forester warbands and those are fucking broken. You have to get the experience temple where you recruit and then gold weapon them afterwards, but at that point they're absolute murder. And that's their main weapon. They have an unlisted secondary weapon that is, of course, a frapping spear, so super light cavalry can sod right off as well. Sure, post-Marian Romans can turtle and resist that, armoured hoplites from the front can resist it, and cataphracts are not the easiest targets either, but that doesn't really matter because of how early you get the foresters.
And Armenia starts with horse archers, which are very good, but then get cataphracts, which just roll over everything except chariots and elephants. Even better, their family members also upgrade to cataphract bodyguards post-Marian, so even if Rome lives that long, you just get stronger. And frankly, once you get the cataphract production going, everything else just does not matter too much. Garbage infantry? Nah, heavy spearmen aren't that bad. Certainly better than Parthia's eastern inf. And they have legionaries, don't they?
Then there's Greece. It's a sort of weird thing, because their roster is so limited, but they do the infantry thing so ridiculously well. And they have militia cavalry, which you can do crazy things with, if you take the time. Spartans are the shiny unit but they're not really the thing that breaks the game for GCS. It's the regular hoplite and the armoured hoplite, both of which you'll get fairly early. Much, much earlier than the Romans get their "good stuff". And you can spam those units like crazy. The idea that GCS are defensive is not really true. The record for fastest full map completion was set, at least at one point, with GCS.
Last thing, Pontic capadoccian cavalry looks like cataphracts but they're not. Cataphracts have a secondary attack that has AP, which is why you don't just throw them into a fight and forget about them, you charge them in and then after the charge, you alt+ right click to make them use their mace attacks. Pontic cav does not have that ability. Rating them at the same tier as a cataphract faction is, in my nerdy opinion, a bit unreasonable. Cataphracts are just that good in the original RTW.
Bro didn't include rebels. So fun to play with them and u get to combine different units from all around the map.
The Greeks, Seleciud, Macedon can recruit the merc Creten archers from their start cities. The Creten Archers are just so massive start and you get the so early on in the campagin.
Get a city you can recruit merc creten archers such as Rhodes or Crete and you will have a better eco.
I'm still annoyed with myself in a VH/H campaign I'm working on as the Brutii. I took too long capturing Carthage and Thapsus. As a result the Scipii managed to take Corinth and secure the Temple of Zeus for themselves. Oh well, I hold the rest of Greece. So I can't complain too much I suppose.
Still a bit annoyed with Pontus for offering me an alliance then immediately attacking me as well. After all, I was hoping that would hold long enough for me to secure some holdings in the Middle East in order to weaken the Egyptians a bit.
If this man tier listed rome total war and Medieval 2 to DEATH I would be so happy, there's so much to talk about...especially the units
Couldnt a faction like Parthia just siege any place, and either wait for an army to reinforce or wait out the siege, which would force the defending army to fight in open field anyways ? I’ve beaten entire factions just doing that lol
Pikemen are definitely not bad at assaulting settlements, much the opposite. Unless the enemy has comparable phalanx units defending, you can just clog the street with spears and walk to the town center easy. Even just basic hoplites will usually work. It’s practically a hack, even on VH difficulty.
I would put the Britons at C; the enemies they will tend to face don't have a lot of great anti-heavy calvary options, and I've seen a *ton* of games where their AI paints the north of the map, and even sometimes push to northern Italy. Yes, poor settlement choices and weak infantry in general, but having good Heavy Calvary makes a *lot* of other problems go away.
The only reason Bitons sometimes slap is because autobattle (which all AI vs AI is) overvalues Chairiots (which is all their Generals).
I miss the original Rome TW. The cavalry were absolutely devastating when they crashed into infantry. I remember when Medieval 2 TW came out and the cavalry charges were such a let down compared to RTW.
Same! Though I still love Medieval 2 despite all its faults its still a fantastic game
Honestly the saxons should be in D tier cause they can’t turn into a horde and they really only have like 1 good unit that isnt the bodyguard unit and it isn’t even a cavalry unit which means it’s super prone to being shot down before doing anything
I actually like Pontus, they have good pikemen phalanx and horse archers + cataphracts. And also they are pretty challenging to start as you are gonna fight endless stacks of Seleucids, so they are very fun to play. Also I’m a bit biased towards macedonian’ish factions as I like long pike phalanx much more then spear phalanx that Greece offers
I've always liked Seleucid Empire. They have pretty much every unit in the game. Silver Shield Pikemen (great long pike infantry), Silver Shield Legionary (the only other faction other than Rome to make legionary heavy infantry), elephants, companion cavalry, cataphract cavalry, even chariots. Their archers are mid, but that's about it imo.
At first I was outraged to see the Hellenic Factions on A tier, as they have the freaking amazing Phalanxes and some great archers too. However.... Legend's argument that attacking settlements with them is a pain in the ass, and that's very true XD
A well deserved A tier, indeed.
You just break wall and slowly walk forward watching thousands of enemies controlled by the AI impale themselves on the pikes there is not much skill needed.
@@AdamSchadow Yes, but the pathfinder issues often f*ck up the phalanx formation. So what I usually did was station a phalanx just in front of the wall and bring a ton of archers to kill whatever they brought to hold that gap. Once the ammo was spent I walk the phalanx forward, praying it doesn't fall apart on the way XD
@@thaliatherasdotter9175 You could just move them in slow increments instead.
Scythia, the best barbarian tribe in the game, archer cavalry units function very well. Can defeat most armies by hit and run
Are Pharao Bowmen better than Cretan Archers? I always thought cretans were the best archers.
Sassanid empire should be on S+ strongest faction in RTW
Pontus scythed chariots tho literally murder everything in auto resolve
And you only need a blacksmith
My reasoning on which roman faction is better-
Scipii is better because they are blue.
You put us into "D" Tier? Might I invite you to a stroll in the Teutoburg Forest?
Is remastered RTW different then the original cause every faction in Barbarian Invasion can go to tier 5
The thing about the 3 roman factions is where those are heading from the start. Julii go west into gaul and germania, scipio go south to carthage and africa and the brutii go east to, in my opinion, more exciting regions and then there are the seven world wonders in the east.
That's what he mentioned, nothing is stopping Julii/Scipii from racing the Brutii to Greece/Macedon.
I’ve got to disagree on Dacia. I think they are the best Barbarian faction because of Chosen archers that can be built in 1 turn. And they have solid Calvary until late game but, by then you can have hordes of Calvary that’s easy to replace. So armies with 6+ Chosen Archers the rest Chosen Swordsmen and Cav you can beat most armies semi easy. There start position does suck tho it’s hard to make money for awhile there.
You seem to overvalue lategame a lot. "Can't build up beyond T3" is not an issue if you just won the game by that point - something that factions like Scythia and Britannia can mostly do. Not beeing able to build up beyond T3 can even be a big advantage: It means you unlock your good units a lot earlier, and you can actually reinforce your good units deep into enemy territory. Germanic spear-warbands can be replenished basicially everywhere and they pack an absurd punch; they are no match for roman t5 units but you will never see roman t5 units. Britannias chariots are a bit more complicated to get to, but even just a handfull of them can wipe out entire armies if you know how to micro them; and without even loosing units, so you will be ready for the next battle right away (and thats without abusing the siege mechanic, where they just wipe entire armies solo).
On the flipside, the roman factions start of with a very incomplete unit roaster until the finally get Marian Reforms - even if you rush them, it still takes ages. They get bad cavalry and no archers. Hastati are decent, but if I have to choose between conquering territory with hastati and conquering with Scythian horse archers, I know what i would choose...
The Frank's can go deeper than other barbarians.
greek gigachad spartan 300 pikeman ftw, killing thousands of units parked at the city gate
The sad thing about the Seleucids is that they have arguably the coolest roster with many shiny toys, but have to fight their most decisive battles with milita hoplites, milita cavalry and some forced levy pikemen.
Using the Franks to horde, sack Gaul, and then settle in Spain is a powerful combo. Not only does it give you a place to safely convert to Christianity for paladins, but it borders water on 3 sides allowing you to convert faster. They’ve gotta at least be a tier with the Huns.
Parthia is my favourite, horse archers will carry you across the world, cataphracts and elephants are a bonus
I'm glad to see the Selucids at their rightful place. Definitely my favorite faction in the game, and I stand by them having the best roster in the game, with the Romans being second of course. They can just do everything really well. Very challenging start, so yeah they don't belong in S but for me that's a positive, very fun.
It's all fun and games till SPQR enters the list...
Playing as Julii and going up against bull warriors for the first time was a shock
Oh God Egypt, I remember my first ever Rome campaign as the Julii. Egypt sent army after army against me, it was two superpowers colliding.
Britannia is at least B tear for me. Train chariots and you're on your way to auto resolving to victory.
You ever done a Top 10 Best Total War Units. Break it down into an infantry, a cavalry, and a skirmisher video. Been playing Attila and the Varangian for the ERE so op
I think he has a whole series from a few years ago!
Cav:
Generals, Egyptian Cav (AP), Scythian HA and general Heavy Cavlike Catraphacts/Ghotic Cav/Roman Cav)
Infantry:
Roman post-reform Legions, Chosen Axemen, Berserkers, rest is a tier below or interesting but falls off - like Thracian Falxmen
Skirmishers:
They suck, with the exception of HA (scythia, mby some eastern factions) and few archers (Cretans/Foresters). An extra point here goes to Brutti/Macedon that have decent archery temples, that you can get something like +4 archer damage with.
If it were up to me I’d put Macedon above Carthage. Carthage is too spread out, and you’ll lose the small islands of Sardinia and the Balearic Islands pretty quickly and your larger cities are all separated by water. Even if Macedon doesn’t have elephants their cities are close together and you can defend them easily.
Also Macedon is so close to a lot of Monuments like the Colossus of Rhodes and the temple of Zeus
As a Dacian apologist I have to push back on D tier. They have an excellent roster, Chosen Swordsmen have the stats of Arcanii
and the moral of Urban Cohort. Combonied with Warcry they are a top tier melee force. Wile they are not as good as ellite tier 5 infantry, they cost much less and are available much earlier. Similarly, Barbarian Noble Cavalry are excellent, punching way above their tier 3 recruit rank. Wile there are better cavalry, Barbarian Noble Cavalry recruit in one turn and there are no better cavalry that also recruit in one turn. I value great stats, pennies cost and one turn recruitment a lot more than huge numbers huge cost two turn recruitment. But wait there is more! Level three range gives Ballistae! As well as Onagers and Chosen Archers. These are powerhouse units obtained a low low levels.
What brings this all together is their start. They have two shit useless settlements and a bunch of armies. You can take the armies south and hit their southern neighbor Macedon before they get set up and take Macedon's tier 3 settlements right at the start if the game. Sure you can't go above tier 3, but all that talk about tier three units that fight comparably to high tier stuff and you get it all at the very start of the campaign. This gives a crazy power spike and low and behold you are in the richest part of the map so you can seamlessly turn your military power into economic power and snowball like no one else.
They defiantly have their weakness and I don't think one could put them above someone like Scythia but they are much much better than people give them credit for. Having quality cheep units from the very start of the campaign is something not to be underestimated. When I play Daciamy solution to overpopulation is just conscript as many people as possible from settlements into more armies to get more land to conscript more armies and the snowball never ends.
Can saxons turn into a horde though? I only played the original, but I kinda remember them dying on the spot when they lost their last city
The Franks of BI are actually able to reach Tier 5, giving them an edge in that regard
I find Spain the most difficult faction to use. Especially starting out.
Seleucids should really be an S tier faction. Their roster lets them defeat every faction in the game militarily. The only difficult part is the beginning but the fact that they have phalanx units means that you’ll easily be able to defend if you’re struggling
Scythia is the strongest and easiest faction with their horse archers. Most difficult faction is Numidia but with their Numidian Cavalry it's possible to overcome Carthage and Egypt.