Tactics and Stratagems

Initially, You want to try to use nothing but long pikes, slingers, and a few horsemen to chase those annoying missile units.A basic army set up will look like; 1 general, 3-4 horses, 3-5 slingers, at least 6 pikemen, 2 ballistas, and infantry. The ballistas will easily kill 200 units a piece per battle.In the future, you'll gradually want to upgrade to super elite archers and pikemen. Sparta has unit limits for some of their spartan limits. I do not know how the limit can be lifted. Damn you, CA. You can custom build your armies in the custom battle option to build and see your dream army.I will pass down to you, the reader, several super cheese strategems that will maximize the stupidity of Creative Assembly's god-awful suicidal artificial intelligence. Even though these stratagems are HIGHLY FROWNED UPON in multiplayer mode, don't you worry, for the single player AI aren't programmed to care, just die. And die they shall. At one point, I was using FPS view to shoot from a ballista boat onto a mass of enemy cavalry just sitting there at the shore. I was able to expend all the ammo and they just stood there and died! Also, even if you are defending, they'll probably attack you with everything if you skirmish them a little bit.Your enemy will send wave after wave of their own men to die. With a super fast replenishment rate of 3 turns, your men will gain valuable EXP and traits that will make slaughtering the enemies' new green armies a laughing matter. Unit replenishment is super fast in Rome 2 and works if you have an army with a General anywhere inside allied territory. Unlike Shogun 2 Legendary, you don't need to spend a crazy amount of time getting adequate upgrades.Listed below are the super secret single player stratagems, Use these wisely and you will laugh as you march your men straight into the heart of Rome!Fortify Stance - Whenever you move into enemy territory, you will always want to be in fortify stance. This costs 50% of your remaining movement so whenever you are moving, just click and hold and move your movement ghost to an appropriate area that will make you have at least 50% of the movement points left over then release your click. The suicidial enemy will be pour into your fortifications at specific key chokepoints filled with traps. A deadly mistake.Take the walled cities and camp in them - The enemy cannot win against you as long as you have 3 pikemen to defend the walls. The AI normally send 4 ladders even in the end game stage. Just guard the entrances to the inner gates with pikes to combat these ladder-men. This is an essential cheese strategy when combined with Gates of Oil and Gates of Arrows.In Enemy's territory and Near Yours - You can lure an enemy to attack you and then once you decimate their armies, you just move into your ally's territory to heal your entire army within 3 turns. You do not want to lose any veteran units so do this. Watch out for those agents who try to hinder your movement..One-Two Coop Punch - The first player, on his turn, will "soften" a target enemy town with agents and ballista fleets. When the first player ends his turn, the second player will immediately take over the soften town with ease.Use your allies - You can set up "war targets" through diplomacy. It's a button on the bottom of the page. Use this to tell your allies to attack certain targets.One enemy at a time - Do not declare war with everyone. Be aware of who you are declaring war with. They may have allies. Also, be aware that if you keep "killing captives" this may anger your enemies' enemy. Seeing how this is legendary, you will always have more enemies than allies. Therefore it is wise to either enslave (this may cause future rebellions) or release captives. I always release, but having slaves is good for economic development.Take Over Port Towns with Ballista Fleets - With 6-ballista ship fleet, you can go to unguarded port towns and ballita them into submission. Aim for the general first and then get the rest of the troops. They will crumble.Quell the Rebellions - In order to raise public orders, you need to research the philosophy tree and also build temples (purple buildings) and fountains (blue buildings - can only be built in region capitals and it must be initially researched). Once any possible rebellions are dead, you can advance further without any worry.Client States - Try to get a few if you can. But only a few as they may rise up and take more territories than you want.Steal all the agents - Always manipulate enemy agents and never kill. Agents have no upkeep cost and they can wreck havok. In the end game stage, enemy agents will try to cause rebeliions in your territories. Also, if you "deploy" agents in enemy areas, the enemy will be more vulnerable to attack. You can deploy agents by moving them into enemy territory and clicking the deploy button next to "unit detail". If you deploy in your own territory, you will have various bonuses. If you deploy a veteran in your army, you army will continuously gain EXP (very important). Agents can be used to slow or stop enemy forces. Before you commit an agent action, more detail will be revealed the before you hit the "do it" button. ENDGAME - Look at all of my agents! The world is revealed! Subversion everywhere!Wonders - Wonders provide amazing faction-wide bonuses. They're in certain regions. You can see if a region has a wonder by clicking on a region and looking at the region details in the bottom left corner of the map. The wonder will be displayed as a tiny circular icon. Hover over it to see details. Also, they are physically visible on the map. You can google the wonder locations list. These things are not of a high priority. Look at the appendix of this guide for more information.Mercenaries - Don't use them if necessary. Their upkeep cost is very high and will drain your funds.Weapons factories - You do not need many weapons factories. Advanced weapons factories will cause squalor. Seeing how everyone gets mad really easily, it is recommended that you instead develop your region capitals as "pleasure palaces" with fountains and temples and possibly food buildings (yellow building - as a ham icon).Sacrifice the plum tree to preserve the peach tree - One coop buddy slaughters the enemy and runs back to heal. Meanwhile, the ally will swoop in and take the territory with relative easeFinally, to defeat a faction with ease, you will want to station a massive pike army in their territory, fortify your stance, declare war (if you haven't), and wait for them to attack you. Once in battle, you will use the "Never Attack; Always Defend; Fortify Stance; Pike Box" Stratagem to overcome overwhelming odds. Then you will use the "In Enemy's territory and Near Yours" in order to heal your wounded army rapidly. Simulatenously, you will use the "Sacrifice the plum tree to preserve the peach tree" stratagem to have your ally's army move in and enslave their province.Noteworthy Techs to research:1) Public Order to quell possible rebellions.2) Siege gates with oil activated.3) Unit MoraleCivil research is for long term development. Military research is more of a short term development.