User:Welsh Dragon/sandbox

Overview

As well as being a unique faction, each faction in Rome 2 is part of a specific Culture, which is in turn part of one of four broad Cultural Groups. The Culture and Cultural Group of a faction effect both campaign and battle gameplay, as well as the audio and visuals of that faction.

Cultural Groups:

The Cultural Group a faction belongs to influences many aspects of the game, including:

• The general types of units and buildings it has.
• The settlement maps used in settlement battles.
• The options available after successfully attacking a settlement (Loot or Sack.)
• Access to specific diplomacy options (Client States, Satrapies or Confederations.)
• The role women will play in your society, military and politics.
• The in game voices used by characters, units and on the diplomacy screen.
• The general appearance of the faction.

There are four Cultural Groups:

Roman

The Roman Cultural Group consists of Rome herself in the Grand Campaign (and others,) as well as a number of splinter factions in the Roman Civil War themed Imperator Augustus and Empire Divided campaigns.

Roman armies generally lend themselves to a variety of styles of play, due to their access to a large and varied roster of Auxiliary units to support their many Legionary units.

Roman navies are the largest and most versatile in the game, with access to a large selection of vessels crewed by a wide variety of Roman and Auxiliary units. Because of this they lend themselves to ramming, boarding, artillery bombardment, ranged attacks and landings.

Hellenic

The Hellenic Cultural Group includes the Successor Kingdoms, Greek States, and Black Seas Colonies Cultures, as well as the Hellenic influenced Carthage Culture in the Grand Campaign.

Hellenic armies generally lend themselves to a more defensive style of play, due to their slow moving but heavily armoured spear and pike units (including the famous Hoplites,) supported by other units.

Hellenic navies generally have access to a selection of ram equipped naval vessels, including artillery, crewed by Hellenic units. Because of this they lend themselves to ramming, boarding, artillery bombardment, ranged attacks and landings.

Barbarian

The Barbarian Cultural Group includes the Britannic Tribes, Gallic Tribes, Germanic Tribes, Nomadic Tribes, Iberian Tribes, and Balkan Tribes Cultures in the Grand Campaign.

Barbarian armies generally lend themselves to a more offensive style of play, as well as strategic use of the Ambush Stance, as many of their units are lightly armoured but gain large charge bonuses. Barbarian units often excel in melee, but suffer under sustained ranged attack.

Barbarian navies generally have access to a selection of smaller, non-ram equipped naval vessels, crewed by Barbarian units. Because of this they lend themselves to boarding, ranged attacks and landings, but are not able to use ramming and only have access to artillery bombardment through captured ports or mercenaries.

Barbarian Cultural Group factions are the only factions who are able to gain special naval units from captured ports of other Cultural Groups, and only if those ports are not converted to your culture.

Eastern

The Eastern Cultural Group includes the Eastern Empires and the Desert Kingdoms Cultures in the Grand Campaign.

Eastern armies generally lend themselves to a more micromanagement focused style of play, using inferior (but cheap) infantry, agile skirmishers and skirmisher cavalry, and elite, heavily armoured (but expensive) shock cavalry, including the famous Cataphracts.

Eastern navies generally have access to a selection of ram equipped naval vessels, including artillery, crewed by Eastern infantry. Because of this they lend themselves to ramming, artillery bombardment and ranged attacks, but not boarding and landings due to their inferior quality infantry.