Eastern Empires (TWR2 Culture)

Eastern Empires (TWR2 Culture)
Name:	Eastern Empires
From Game:	Total War: Rome II
Cultural Group:	Eastern
Playable Factions:	Yes

Overview:

Culture Traits

• Great Marksmen: +25% ammunition for all units
• Secret Police: Increased defence against agents in all provinces

Factions:

Armenia

• A Proud People: +20% morale for all units during battles in own territory
• Bridge Builders: Minor diplomatic bonus with all Hellenic and Eastern factions

Parthia

• Cavalry Masters: -25% recruitment cost for all cavalry units
• Multiculturalism: -25% public order penalties due to presence of foreign cultures

Pontus

• Philhellenes: Moderate diplomatic bonus with all Hellenic factions
• Shrewd Operators: -50% all agent action costs

In game:

• Cultural traits increase the ammunition of units, allowing ranged units to shoot at the enemy for longer, and provide additional protection against enemy agent actions.
• Eastern Empires factions start off in the eastern half of the map. Nearby factions are predominantly Eastern, Hellenic Successor States or Barbarian Nomadic, giving a variety of enemies to fight and opening up the possibility to expand your rosters with a variety of units by establishing satrapies and levying troops from them.
• 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. The exception is Pontus, which somewhat reverses this trend with the inclusion of Hellenic pikes and hoplites, at the cost of a more limited cavalry selection than other Eastern Empires.
• Of particular note in the Grand Campaign is the nearby presence of the Seleucids and their many satrapies. How the relationship between master and clients endures or breaks down may have an impact on the friends and enemies you make, and caution should be used before signing treaties or picking a fight with any of them, as it risks dragging you into multiple wars. This can of course also be used to your advantage, picking off former satrapies once they have forgone their master.

In history:

• From the ruins of the Persian Empire the warriors of the East will ride to victory once more.
• Before the British Empire, Roman Empire or even Alexander the Great's Empire, the Achaemenid Empire or First Persian Empire was the world's first true superstate, stretching across three continents from the Balkans in Europe and Egypt in North Africa to the Indus Valley in Asia. Founded by Cyrus the Great, it was truly multicultural, incorporating various peoples and faiths, and establishing many things we recognise today, such as centralised government, a road network and a postal service.
• Though quite some distance from Rome, the empires of the east nonetheless played a crucial part in their history. For example the humiliating defeat of a significantly larger Roman force by Parthian horse archers at Carrhae, including the death of the Roman commander Marcus Licinius Crassus, broke the First Triumvirate between Crassus, Pompey and Julius Caesar, directly leading to the end of the Roman Republic. Within four years Caesar would cross the Rubicon to seize power.