Total War: ROME II - Emperor Edition: Complete Guide

A campaign and battle guide for ROME II Emperor Edition: provinces and economy, public order and food, armies and agents, politics, faction picks, battle tactics, and the 2026 "Pantheon Updates" beta and crossplay patch.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the Crossplay Update (17 September 2026) and the first Pantheon Updates "MARS" beta (10 September 2026). Check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

Start with Rome or Egypt on Normal. They're forgiving, well-documented, and teach every system.
Build economy before armies. Early turns should improve farms, markets, and ports; one strong army with a good general beats three weak ones.
Complete provinces. Owning every region in a province lets you set an edict, a strong bonus such as extra income or public order.
Watch food and public order every turn. A food deficit causes attrition and unrest; low public order causes rebellions.
Use army stances. Forced March to cover ground, Ambush to trap enemies, Raid for income at the cost of public order in enemy land.
Recruit agents. Champions, Dignitaries, and Spies boost your armies and cities and sabotage enemies.
Don't declare war on everyone. Trade agreements and non-aggression pacts keep your borders quiet while you focus on one enemy.
Autoresolve only easy fights. Autoresolve favours numbers; you'll win many close battles by fighting them yourself.

Campaign Systems

Provinces and regions

Each province has a capital region (with walls and more building slots) and one to three minor regions (unwalled, fewer slots). Building choices in a province share food and public order, so plan the province as a unit.

Building chain	Purpose
Farms and livestock	Food (critical for army upkeep and growth)
Markets and trade	Income
Ports	Trade, fishing food, naval recruitment
Temples	Public order and faction-wide bonuses
Military	Unit recruitment and upgrades
Culture/entertainment	Public order and research

Squalor rises with higher-tier buildings; offset it with sanitation buildings (such as aqueducts) and public order buildings like temples.

Imperium

Imperium grows as you conquer regions and gather wealth. Higher Imperium raises your army and navy limits and the number of agents you can field, but a bigger empire also brings growing public order and political pressure. Expanding fast without temples and garrisons leads to rebellions.

Food

Armies and some buildings consume food. A negative food balance causes attrition on armies and public order penalties. Build farms in minor regions and use food edicts where needed. Capturing fertile regions (Egypt, Sicily, the Po valley) is a common food fix.

Technology

Research is split into military and civil trees. Civil tech unlocks better economy buildings; military tech unlocks units and army bonuses. For Rome, researching the Cohort Organisation military tech triggers the Marian Reforms, replacing the Hastati/Principes/Triarii line with Legionaries. The later Professional Soldiery tech brings the Imperial (post-Marian) reforms, unlocking Legionary Cohorts and Evocati Cohorts. Plan on fighting the early game with the Hastati/Principes/Triarii line; the reform is a mid-game power spike, so don't delay other research just to rush it.

Politics (Emperor Edition)

Emperor Edition reworked politics: your faction's political parties have influence, and characters have gravitas. Political actions (e.g., securing loyalty, assassinations, spreading rumours) shift the balance. If your party's influence falls too low, or rivals become too powerful, a civil war can erupt. Keep your party's influence healthy, give powerful rivals positions to keep them loyal, and don't let one general build too much gravitas unchecked.

Agents

Agent	Key uses
Champion	Train armies (experience), assassinate, sabotage, defend cities
Dignitary	Boost public order and cultural conversion, bribe armies and settlements
Spy	Reveal enemies, poison supplies, sabotage gates, incite unrest

Embed agents in armies for passive bonuses when you don't need them on missions.

Army stances

Stance	Effect
Normal	Standard movement
Forced March	More movement, can't attack, vulnerable if attacked
Ambush	Hidden trap for enemies that walk into you (terrain-dependent success)
Raid	Gain income from enemy or neutral land; hurts local public order
Fortify	Defensive bonuses; army can't move
Set Siege	Besiege a settlement; build siege equipment over turns

Armies also gain traditions as they level, which persist even when the general changes.

Diplomacy

Deal	Why it matters
Trade agreement	Income every turn for both sides; the single best early deal
Non-aggression pact	Keeps a border quiet while you fight elsewhere
Defensive / military alliance	Allies join your wars; can drag you into theirs
Client state	A subordinate faction that buffers a border and pays tribute
Payments and gifts	Sweeten deals or improve relations with a faction you need

Diplomatic attitude is driven by shared culture, shared enemies, borders, and your past behaviour. Breaking treaties makes everyone trust you less, so avoid stacking betrayals early. Big empires attract coalitions; keep friends on the far side of your main enemy.

Settlements, garrisons and growth

Capital regions have walls and a garrison that scales with buildings, so a well-developed capital can hold against a small raid on its own.
Minor regions have no walls. Garrison them with a nearby army or accept that raiders will take them.
Growth is what lets settlements upgrade to higher tiers, and those tiers unlock better buildings. Food surplus and growth-boosting buildings speed it up.
Cultural conversion matters: foreign-culture regions have lower public order until you convert them with buildings, dignitaries, and time.

Difficulty choices

Setting	Effect
Campaign difficulty	Easy to Legendary; higher settings make the AI more aggressive and give it bonuses
Battle difficulty	Separate setting for the AI's battle performance
Legendary	Forces a single save slot and harder battles; a separate challenge

For a first campaign, Normal campaign and Normal battle difficulty lets you learn without the AI snowballing.

Faction Picks

Faction	Difficulty	Why play it
Rome	Easy	Balanced, strong infantry, clear expansion paths
Carthage	Medium	Rich coastal economy, elephants, naval power
Macedon	Medium	Pike phalanx and companion cavalry; surrounded by Greek city-states
Egypt	Easy to medium	Rich food and income; mixed Hellenistic and native units
Iceni / Arverni / Suebi	Medium	Barbarian confederations; fast, aggressive infantry
Parthia	Hard	Horse archers, eastern steppe style
Pontus	Medium	Eastern kingdom with a flexible roster

DLC culture packs add more playable factions: Greek States (Athens, Sparta, Epirus), Nomadic Tribes, Pirates and Raiders, Black Sea Colonies, and Desert Kingdoms. Armenia became playable in the Grand Campaign with Emperor Edition. Check the in-game faction list for exactly which factions your copy includes.

Campaign packs

Campaign	Released (Steam)	Setting
Caesar in Gaul	2013	Caesar's Gallic Wars, a smaller focused map
Hannibal at the Gates	27 Mar 2014	The Second Punic War
Imperator Augustus	16 Sep 2014	42 BC, the Second Triumvirate after Caesar's murder (free to all owners with Emperor Edition)
Wrath of Sparta	16 Dec 2014	The Peloponnesian War
Empire Divided	30 Nov 2017	The Crisis of the Third Century
Rise of the Republic	9 Aug 2018	Early Rome in Italy, before the Grand Campaign's start date

Imperator Augustus playable factions are Octavian, Marc Antony, Lepidus, Pompey, the Iceni, Marcomanni, Dacia, Egypt, Parthia and Armenia. It rivals the Grand Campaign in scope and is the best "second campaign" once you know the basics.

Unit packs (Beasts of War, Daughters of Mars) add units rather than factions.

Opening Build Order (Rome example)

Take the remaining regions of Italy to complete your home province and set an edict.
Upgrade Roma's economy buildings; add farms in minor regions.
Raise a second army once you can support its upkeep.
Choose one direction: Carthage (Sicily, then Africa), Gaul (north), or Greece and Illyria (east). Don't split into all three.
Get trade agreements with every neutral faction you can; trade income is huge early.

Battle Tactics

Unit roles

Unit type	Job
Line infantry	Hold the centre, pin the enemy
Spearmen/pikes	Stop cavalry, hold flanks
Missile infantry	Weaken enemies before the clash, target exposed flanks
Cavalry	Flank, charge rears, chase routing units, kill missile units
Elephants and chariots	Shock troops; can panic and damage your own lines
Artillery	Sieges and softening dense formations

Core tactics

Hammer and anvil: Pin enemies with infantry, then charge cavalry into their rear. Pull cavalry out and recharge (cycle charging) for repeated shock damage.
Protect your flanks. Anchor your line on terrain (rivers, forests, cliffs) or put spearmen at the ends.
Use formations: Testudo against missile fire, phalanx with pikes, shield wall for barbarians.
Kill the general or break enemy morale with flanking and charging; routing units trigger cascading routs.
Watch fatigue. Running everywhere tires units, reducing their combat stats.
Hold the high ground. Units fighting uphill are disadvantaged.

Sieges

Build siege equipment (ladders, rams, towers) during siege turns. Attack multiple gates or walls at once so the defender has to split, and use missile troops to thin wall defenders. Starving out a settlement (waiting several turns) can be cheaper than assaulting.

Naval battles

Ramming and boarding dominate. Keep ships moving; rammed ships sink fast. Transport fleets (armies at sea) are very weak in combat, so escort them.

Recent Updates (2023-2026)

Pantheon Updates MARS Beta (10 September 2026): Creative Assembly released the first beta of the Pantheon Updates for ROME II on a Steam beta branch. To opt in: Steam Library, right-click ROME II, Properties, Game Versions and Betas, select pantheon (about 19.6 MB). Mods may break with the beta. Feedback on the official forums shapes a second MARS beta (no date yet).
Earlier: 2023 Game Update (22 June 2023): a compiler upgrade for better performance on modern hardware, a fix for crashes on CPUs with more than 32 logical processors, and removal of the old in-game chat (use Discord or Steam chat for multiplayer campaigns).
Crossplay Update (17 September 2026): a small update to make ROME II cross-play work correctly across platforms. If you have problems after updating, verify game files first.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Expanding faster than your public order can handle. Imperium penalties rise with size.
Running food negative. Attrition quietly destroys your armies.
Too many small armies. Each army needs a general and upkeep; fewer full stacks work better.
Ignoring politics. A neglected civil war can split your empire in half.
Fighting on open plains against cavalry-heavy enemies with no spearmen.
Autoresolving every battle. You lose units and experience unnecessarily.

Advanced Tips

Plan provinces as a unit: one high-tier income city, supported by food and public order buildings in minor regions.
Use client states and defensive alliances to buffer borders.
Stack army traditions that match your army's role (e.g., melee infantry traditions for your frontline legion).
Trade is king. Every trade agreement adds income; guard ports and trade routes.
Mods: ROME II has a large modding scene on the Steam Workshop, including overhauls like Divide et Impera. Disable mods when testing the Pantheon beta.
Legendary difficulty disables manual saves; treat it as a separate challenge after learning the systems.

FAQ

What's the difference between ROME II and Emperor Edition? Emperor Edition is the definitive version with reworked politics, building chains, battle balance, visuals, and the Imperator Augustus campaign. It released on 16 September 2014, and existing owners received it for free as an automatic update.

Is ROME II still getting updates? Yes. Creative Assembly released a crossplay fix and the Pantheon Updates beta in September 2026.

How do I join the Pantheon beta? Steam, Properties, Game Versions and Betas, select "pantheon."

What's the best starting faction? Rome or Egypt for beginners; Macedon and Parthia for more challenge.

How do I trigger the Marian Reforms? Research the Cohort Organisation military technology as Rome (a Roman faction). Professional Soldiery comes later and unlocks the Imperial-era cohorts.

Does ROME II have crossplay? Creative Assembly shipped a "Crossplay Update" on 17 September 2026 to make ROME II cross-play work correctly across platforms. If anything breaks after it, verify game files through Steam first.

Why are my armies losing men every turn? Attrition from food shortages, harsh terrain, winter, or disease. Fix food and avoid attrition zones.