CAMPAIGNS

Gameplay in Rome: Total War divides neatly into Campaigns and Battles. These two parts of the game are closely linked, so actions you take in the campaign game such as constructing buildings, training units or appointing generals have major effects on the battlefield. This part of the manual concerns itself with Campaigns. Later, well discuss Battles and how to get the most out of them.
How to Get Started with the Imperial Campaign
The Imperial Campaign menu allows you to select and set all the options you might want in a campaign game: who youre controlling, how hard the game is to play and how you want to win. This screen allows you to do the following:

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Select your Advice Level for the coming campaign from the dropdown list thats displayed when you click on the down arrow in the text box. We recommend you leave this on High until youre comfortable playing the game. Select Campaign Difficulty and Battle Difficulty from the appropriate dropdown lists. You can pick the level of challenge in each part of the game, and the two dont have to be set the same. Click on the Arcade Style Battles check box if you want battles to be simplified and action-oriented. Many realism settings are turned off automatically if you choose this option. Click on the Short Campaign check box if you only want to focus on destroying or outliving certain factions rather than conquering the entire map. Click on one of the Faction Shield icons on the right to choose the people youll lead to greatness, glory and a mighty empire! The map changes to show where they start, and the text gives you a quick overview of their strengths and foibles. When you first start to play, you can only select one of the Roman factions, but others will become available in later games. Click on the arrow in the lower-right corner to start play.

How to Win

If youre playing as one of the Roman factions, the Brutii, Julli or Scipii, the basic victory condition for the game is to conquer Rome and much of the world. This isnt as easy as it sounds. Youll find yourself fighting against the forces of the Senate and the other Roman factions. If youre playing as any other non-Roman faction, the basic victory condition is very simple: conquer the world! If you dont want to play the game for quite so long, click on the Short Campaign check box. Once youve made up your mind, start playing! When you win, peasants cheer, trumpets sound and (probably) an angel gets his wings. And you have the inestimable pleasure of having crushed your enemies, seen them driven before you and heard the lamentations of their women. Cool, huh?

How to Get Started

When you start a Rome: Total War campaign, theres a lot to take in. The Advisors built into the game are there to help, but theres still a wealth of information to think about. So, where to start?

Getting to Grips with the Control Panel
In the campaign game, the control panel is an important element in controlling your empire. As you select and use different game elements, the panel changes to present you with the right options and information. Everythingthe round buttons and the tabson the control panel has an associated tool tip to explain its job. The mini-map shows the whole game world. When the cursor is on a mini-map province, the name and faction ownership of the province is displayed as a tool tip. (You need some kind of presence or you need to have diplomatically exchanged map information.)

The Review Panel Tabs

There are four tabs above the central Review Panel. These allow you to shift between elements of a settlement, army or fleet, or you can right-click on the tabs to bring up summaries for your entire empire: Right-click on the army/navy tab (the left-most one) to bring up the Military Forces Scroll. This is a list of all your forces. Right-click on any army or navy in the list to see more details. Right-click on the town/city tab (second left) to bring up the Settlements List. Right-click on any town or city in this list to see the relevant details. Right-click on the agents tab (third from the left) to bring up the Agents Scroll. Right-click on any of these characters to see their details. The fourth tab has no right-click function.

The Review Panel

The central Review Panel (along with the large building and training buttons) changes depending upon whether an army, fleet or settlement is selected. The tabs along the top of the panel allow you to look at different aspects of the selected game world item, and you can right-click on a tab to bring up faction-wide summaries. Right-click on any unit card in a review panel to bring up further information. If a tab is greyed out, theres nothing relevant to see with the selected unit, fleet, settlement or agent.

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For tabs that show military units, ships or agents, you can select an individual unit card in the review panel by left-clicking on it. You can then drag and drop a selected item onto a spot in the game world, and the forces or agents involved will move there. You can make multiple selections by holding down the CTRL key and repeatedly left-clicking on individual unit cards until you have as many as you want. You can also press Ctrl + A to select all units. You can also make multiple selections by selecting one unit card, then holding down the SHIFT key and selecting a second unit card. All the unit cards between the first and second clicks will be selected.

Armies

Each turn you should ask yourself whether your armies are doing something to contribute to your success. Sometimes just standing in the right place can be enough, but its always worth going around and quickly reviewing your army positions. Are there enough armies in position to counter an immediate threat from enemies? Are river crossings and mountain passes guarded? Are armies placed ready for an ambush? When youve decided on an attack: Get armies into place to mount the attack. This might mean one large force, or a couple of smaller ones. Pincer movements to attack a foe from two different directions at the same time can be very effective. Position reinforcements for battleadjacent armies can be drawn into the fight. Extra men can be a great benefit. Pick the best general to make the attack. This is usually the general with the highest Command rating. As generals wage battle, youll find that the traits and ancillaries they gain give them a personality, and some generals will become experts at certain types of warfare.

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Agents
Diplomats, spies and assassins have their uses and should be quickly reviewed each turn. Agents may be needed to carry out a mission from the Senate. Are they in the right place to be easily deployed? Spies can be sent to scope out rivals territory. They can spot armies that could threaten your own forces or spy on settlements to learn the state of the defenses. Diplomats need to be within reach of a rivals settlement or army should there be a need to talk quickly. Assassins, if you have any, can be positioned near threatening rival generals. Perhaps a single knife in the dark can neutralize a threat more effectively than many swords.
How to Deal with Messages and Events
Every turn its likely there will be a number of message notifications that drop down the left-hand side of the screen. Each kind of message has its own picture, and a tool tip appears if you move the cursor over a message notification. Left-click on any message that you want to read. A right-click dismisses the message and removes it from the queue. Clicking on the check button or pressing ESC also dismisses a message. You can close a message and leave it for later reference by clicking on the square close box in the top right-hand corner. Any message that youve already opened will be shown with a black-and-white graphic rather than a colour one.

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You can withdraw from your attack. If youre attacking a settlement or fort, see the How to Besiege a Settlement or Fort section of the manual.
Attacking with Supporting Armies
Reinforcements can join an attack. When a battle is auto-resolved, their strength is simply taken into account. When a battle is fought out in detail, their effects are more significant: When one army attacks, any other friendly army (yours, or one belonging to an ally) that is adjacent to the army or settlement under attack can become reinforcements. The army that attacks is the one you directly control. Make sure that your forces are all in the red zone of control of an enemy army, or cancel the attack and then move up another army to act as reinforcements before giving battle. Any adjacent army thats commanded by a general will always be under AI control on the battlefield. You wont be able to issue commands to units under the generals command. Any adjacent army thats commanded by a captain will reinforce your army on the battlefield on a unit-by-unit basis. Remembering that theres a limit of 20 units per army, reinforcements will appear when a slot in your army is available, either through casualties or because a unit has run away. Reinforcements on the battlefield always appear from the direction that matches their position on the campaign map. If a supporting army is behind an enemy army (but still adjacent to the enemy), itll appear on the battlefield in the enemy rear.

Multiple Attacks

As long as an army keeps winning, it can keep moving forward and attacking. Depending on casualties (and other factors), it may be able to attack two or three times during a turn.

Merging Armies

Move an army onto another friendly (same faction) army or settlement to merge the two forces. It may be useful to merge units before merging armies. You cant merge units while youre merging armies. The general with the highest Command rating is usually in charge of a merged army. When an army led by a captain is merged with a generals army, the captain is reduced to the ranks and disappears.

Building Forts and Watchtowers
Only an army under the command of a general can build watchtowers and/or forts. When this is not possible, this button is greyed out. Clicking on the Construction button while not in a settlement brings up the Field Construction scroll. From here, you can select either a watchtower or a fort. Each has a denarii cost associated with it. Watchtowers are permanent structures that extend your field of view. Forts require a garrison to remain in play. If the fort is empty when the end of turn button is pressed, it will fall into disrepair and be removed from the map. The constructing army can leave a unit to keep the fort going, or another force (or even an agent) can move in; all will preserve the fort for future use. Forts have no nationality. If one faction constructs a fort and leaves it empty, another factions forces can move into the fort and take it over.

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A general can build as many watchtowers and/or forts as you want in a single turn, limited only by his ability to move to a new site. Forts can be extremely useful in defending strategic choke points such as mountain passes: an enemy will have to lay siege to the fort to advance. Its even possible to build a wall of forts to isolate an area.

HOW TO RUN SETTLEMENTS

Settlements are centrally important in your efforts to conquer the world. They generate income through taxes. Military units are trained there. And without taking enemy settlements, youre unlikely to win the game. Each settlement is the regional capital of the province it occupies: the faction that owns a settlement also owns the associated province. All the resourcestrade goods, for example shown on the campaign map in a province are available for use by the settlement. You can move the cursor over a resource to see a relevant tool tip. The size of a settlementwhether its a village, town, large town or a minor, large or huge cityis determined by the size of the population. The larger the population, the bigger the settlement. Settlement size and defenses are shown on the campaign map. A settlement can only take advantage of its large population if it has the right government building at its (metaphorical) centre. Without the right administration, advanced structures cannot be built. Theres a chain from population to government to building construction to training military units for each settlement. Without settlements to generate units, you wont have armies to command! Use Ctrl + T to toggle city names and details on and off. The details are a summary of the activity in the settlement: The city name and its status are shown on the top line: for example, a city that is revolting or has plague will have an appropriate icon next to its name. This is the income generated by the settlement. Its possible for a settlement to lose money every turn if the income is less than its upkeep costs. The face icon represents the overall happiness of the settlement population.

This brings up a scroll showing you the buildings in the settlement arranged according to their position on the games technology tree. This is useful for reviewing progress and planning future civic developments. Click here to ask Victoria what to construct. Shell suggest a building and give reasons for her choice. Click here to centre the campaign map view on the settlement. Frontier settlements have different priorities than those closer to the core of your empire.

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Who Gets to be Governor?
The first named character to enter a settlement will be the governor as a right. His abilities are used to modify how well the settlement is being run. His unit card is marked with a scroll to show his status. Other generals (if any) in the settlement are shown with silver stars on their unit cards. During a siege, the general with the best command rating will be treated as the commanding general (and this need not be the governor). If the faction leader is present, he always outranks any other general regardless of his actual command rating. However, when a named character (a general, not a captain) moves into a settlement, he will be appointed as the new governor if his management ability is higher than that of the current incumbent. Its possible for the governorship to change hands many times if several characters move into a settlement in a single turn.

Building Construction

All building construction work uses two resources: time and money. The number of different buildings shown as construction options depends on the size of the settlement and what youve already built. If you dont have the money, you wont be able to construct some buildings. Buildings that are beyond your means are greyed out. Left-click on a building under the Construction tab to add it to the Construction Queue. The money to pay for the building is immediately deducted from your treasury. Left-click on a building in the Construction Queue to cancel the construction order. The building will reappear under the Construction tab in case you want to construct it later. When the Construction Queue is full, buildings under the Construction tab will be greyed out. Buildings in the Construction Queue are completed in left-to-right order. You can alter the order by dragging-and-dropping the building pictures until youre happy. Right-click on a building in options or the queue to bring up the relevant Building Information Scroll.

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Shrines and Temples are special cases. You may be offered a choice of temple for construction. Once youve added a temple to the Queue, the other temples will be removed as construction choices. Each settlement can only have one temple, and they are mutually exclusive. Its possible to destroy a temple and start over with a shrine to a different god.

Repairing Buildings

Buildings can be damaged through natural disasters and during siege assaults. Its quite possible to damage a town without taking it, and the longer an assault takes, the more collateral damage is done. Left-click on the Repair tab to see which buildings need work. Repairing buildings works in a very similar fashion to new construction. The cost of repairs is usually substantially less than the cost of a new building, both in terms of cash and of time. Instead of being presented with construction options, there is a collection of buildings needing repair. Left-click on any damaged building to add it to the construction queue. It can be dragged and dropped into the queue and left-clicked to cancel the work as described above for new construction work.
The Building Information Scroll
This shows information about a given building. You can find out what each group of buildings does through the Building Browser Scroll. The Building Information Scroll allows you to destroy buildings. This is on this scroll to stop you from doing it accidentally! Click on this button to destroy the building. Youll receive a proportion around a thirdof the cost of the building as a refund into your treasury.
The Settlement Details Scroll
This scroll allows you to review the settlement in detail, and see what factors are contributing to the overall population growth, public order and settlement income. For each of these three areas, the positive factors are shown above the negative factors. Move the cursor over each icon and a tool tip appears telling you what it represents. The other important, perhaps vital, piece of information presented here is the length of time that the settlement can withstand a siege. This represents the surplus food that the settlement has stored.

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Left-click this button to bring you down into a battlefield view of your
settlement. It can be a great help in letting you get a feel for the streets and defenses.
Left-click this button to bring up the Trade Summary Scroll and see
how your settlement is generating taxable income.
Left-click on this button to make this settlement your capital.
This is where all new Generals and reward units from the Senate will appear.

The Trade Scroll and Province Resources
There are two ways to raise the income from a settlement: One is to change the tax rate (through the Settlement Scroll); The other is to improve the economic structures in a settlement. There are three potential generators of taxable income: trade, farming and mining. All of these can be improved by constructing buildings, although all rely on resources in the province. Any resources in the surrounding province will be traded automatically, if only within the local settlement. Slaves and grain are moved between settlements automatically as required. Mines are needed to extract mineral wealth from a province. These need to be constructed like any other building. Farming improvements increase the income from farming and the growth rate of a settlement as more food is generated. However, not all provinces are equally fertile, so dont expect farms to have the same affect in all parts of the world. That said, a settlement always benefits from farming improvements. Trader-type buildings in a settlement improve the efficiency of trade and the amount of money it generates. A port (and its subsequent upgrades) allows trade goods to be moved more efficiently and in greater numbers. Ports always appear on the coastline of the province, although theyre part of the settlement. They also help train naval units. Landlocked provinces cannot have ports. Roads allow trade goods to be carried to neighboring settlements automatically. They also allow the faster movement of armies.

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The Rome: Total War package includes a printed technology tree for the Roman factions in the game. All factions, however, follow a technology tree, some of which are very different from that of the Romans. The Building Browser Scroll allows you to review a settlements progress through the technology tree. Buildings in full colour have been completed. Greyed-out buildings are either not yet built or unavailable for the settlement. The Building Browser shows the government building you need before you can construct other buildings at the same level. Right-click on any building (including those not yet built) to bring up the relevant Building Information Scroll. All buildings keep, or improve on, the abilities of earlier structures.

The Building Browser and the Technology Tree

Wonders of the World

Some provinces contain wonders of the ancient world. Capturing the settlement in the province gives you control of the wonder, and these grant empire-wide benefits. If you lose control of the settlement (and the province), you lose the benefit for owning the wonder.

Trouble in Settlements

Settlements are not always good places to live, and sometimes the people will make their feelings clear by revolting. Victoria, your advisor, will warn you that problems are developing and suggest solutions, but prevention is sometimes better than cure. You can reduce the tax rate, send troops to quell dissent, send a better (or indeed any) governor and, if time permits, construct buildings that have a positive effect on public order. Sieges have to be endured or broken. See the section on How to Break a Siege on page 36 for more information. Plague is, perhaps, the worst thing that can happen to a settlement, and a sign of the gods disfavour! A settlement thats a squalid place to live is more likely to suffer plague than somewhere thats wholesome. Again, some buildingssuch as sewershave a positive effect on public health and lessen the likelihood of a plague.

Changing Your Mind

Construction orders are only executed when the end of turn button is pressed. Before then, you can undo any changes you have made.

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HOW TO TRAIN UNITS
Armies in Rome: Total War are made up of one or more military units under the command of a general (a member of the ruling family) or a lesser captain (a commander drawn from the ranks). One class of units can never be trained: generals bodyguard units. These are given free with every new member of the ruling family of a faction. They can, however, be retrained and equipped with better quality weapons. A generals bodyguard is disbanded when the general dies. Training all other units uses three resources: time, money and men. Every unit takes at least one turn to train, has a cash cost and uses population from the settlement where its trained. Units also cost money for salary, supplies and equipment after they have been trained. This upkeep cost is automatically paid, and can become a significant expenditure each turn! The military buildings in a settlement determine what units can be trained there. The Building Browser Scroll shows what buildings produce units. Barbarian factions have a different set of buildings in their technology tree, but the principle remains the same. A left-click on one of your settlements selects the settlement, and the Control Panel at the bottom of the screen changes to reflect the contents of the selected settlement. Click on the left-most tab above the central Review Panel to show the settlement garrison. This allows you to review the troops already present in the settlement. (A right-click on this tab produces the Military Forces Scroll: a list of all your existing armies). On the right-hand side of the Control Panel are two large buttons. Click on the lower recruitment button to open the Settlement Scroll with the Recruitment tab selected.

Family Tree Scroll

The family tree scroll shows all the important characters in your factionthe men who can be generals and governors. It also allows you to decide wholl be the faction leaders heir. Portraits in colour are living characters. Characters shown in grey are dead. The most important characters are the faction leader and the faction heir; their status is marked on their portraits. All the larger portraits are generals and governors in your faction. Move the cursor over a portrait to see the characters name and abilities. The smaller portraits are sisters, wives and children. Left-click on any large portrait, and two buttons in the lower left of the screen become available. The Set Faction Heir button allows you to designate the heir to your faction leader. The Show Me button displays the characters location on the current campaign map.
New Members of the Family
In the normal course of events, sons and daughters will be born to various members of the family. As sons come of age, theyll become available for use as generals and governors. All new characters (including adopted sons and those who marry into the ruling family) always appear in the faction capital. Daughters become available for marriage when they come of age.

Adoptions and Marriages

Unmarried sons in your family will find wives and, hopefully, start producing a new generation of leaders without you having to worry about it. From time to timewhen theres an eligible woman in the familya suitable husband will appear. If you accept him for marriage into your family, hes adopted, too, and treated like any other male family member.

Attributes

All family characters have three attributes that affect their performance in the game. These are command, management and influence, and theyre measured on a scale of 0 (poor) to 10 (almost divinely inspired):

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Command is the ability the character has to lead and inspire men in battle. High command has a positive effect on the morale and fighting quality of soldiers. A low command rating has some effect, and is definitely better than no command rating at all. Management is the ability of the character to run a settlement and conduct the business of government. Influence is the ability of the character to sway others by argument and the force of personality. This has an effect on public order when a character with influence is a governor. Other characters in the game also have attributes: Admirals have command ratings, but only for sea battles. Diplomats have influence, and this affects their chances of successfully negotiating with another faction. Spies and assassins have subterfuge ratings. Subterfuge is a measure of sneakiness, double-dealing and underhandedness.
Retinues: Ancillary Characters

How to Get Help

In many places youll see a ? button. Click on it to get help. If the advisor is already on-screen and highlighted, youll have to read the current advice or dismiss the advisor to see the help information. Victoria is pretty clever, but she can only tell you one thing at a time!
How to Change Game Options During Play
Pressing ESC when no scroll is visible brings up the Game Options menu. For game, audio and video options, use the sliders and check boxes to alter the settings to suit your personal preferences. Load Game and Save Game allow you to save your position and reload it later (or even undo some terrible calamity by stepping back to an earlier game date, not that youd ever cheat like this, oh no).

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BATTLES
This part of the manual concerns itself exclusively with the battle side of play and how to get the most out of commanding your troops. The two halves of the game are linked on many levels. The campaign game determines where a battle takes place and the units present; results in the battle game affect the campaign. Generals can earn traits as a result of their behavior in battle. Cities can be won and lost, and a brilliant victory in the field can mean the conquest of new lands!
The Battle Deployment Scroll
When you have an army selected on the campaign map, right-click on a non-allied army or settlement to attack. This brings up the Battle Deployment Scroll: The strength comparison bar in the centre of the scroll gives you the overall battle odds. Move the cursor over the crossed swords to see the exact odds. Reinforcements are also listed (and taken into account in the odds calculation). These are drawn from armies that are adjacent to the site of the battle or siege. Click here to take control of your units on the battlefield. What happens after you click this button is whats covered in this part of the manual! You can have the game work out the battle result. Autoresolving a battle is speedy, but casualties may be heavy and you cant protect valuable generals. Click here to cancel the battle. When you do this, your army will withdraw some distance to a safe location.

Attackers and Defenders

In every campaign battle, theres an attacking army and a defending army. During sieges, the besieging army is usually the attacker. The only exception to this is when the defenders sally out or a relief force attacks the besiegers. In this case, the besieging army is the defender. Attacking and defending armies use different victory conditions and deployment rules.

Once a battle is over, any surviving reinforcements and allies return to their original position on the campaign map.

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Going to the Aid of Allies
When one of your armies is adjacent (on the campaign map) to a battle involving one of your allies, youll be given the option of going to your allys aid. Youll be in control of your army during the battle.
Settlement Assaults and Allies
If you and an ally are assaulting an enemy settlement and conquer it, the new owner of the settlement is the faction that initiated the assault. If you attacked the settlement on the campaign map during a siege, you become the new owner. If your forces go to the aid of your ally, then you have the satisfaction of having helped your friends gain some new lands!

CUSTOM BATTLES

A custom battle gives you the opportunity to command any army you want in battle. This is a sandbox mode that allows you to try any kind of combination of terrain, armies, units, allies and enemies you want. Custom battles are an excellent way of learning the battle game and an ideal way to hone your skills before trying your command abilities online! Select Custom Battle from the Single Player menu to begin the process of setting up and fighting your own battle. Youll be given the option of saving away your custom battle setup during the creation process.

Choosing Conditions

Initially, this screen appears in the express setup version that only allows you to select a limited number of variables for your custom battle: Game type determines the victory conditions for the battle. For example, Last Man Standing is a fight to the death. Difficulty sets the behaviour of your opponents. At easier difficulty levels, youll find that enemies tend to have lower morale, for instance, while high difficulty levels present you with a greater threat. Terrain allows you to choose the landscape for your battle. As you might expect, troops tire more quickly in hot, dry conditions such as a desert. Some armies are not at their best in some terrainusually an army fights best on its home ground.

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The check box for Arcade Style Battles turns off many of the realistic features of the battle system. The emphasis in arcade battles is on action and excitement, not on clever tactics and command skill. The Show Advanced Conditions tick box brings up more options so you can precisely tailor the battlefield and the conditions youll face. As youll see, these can let you practice sieges, face different weather conditions and even practice fighting at night!
Season allows you to choose the time of year for your battle. This has an influence on how much (if at all) the weather changes during the course of battle. Fighting in the depths of winter can affect how tired your troops become. Weather allows you to set the initial weather for the battle (but you probably guessed that!). Rain and snow have negative effects on bowarmed troops. Time of Day sets the starting light conditions for the battle. Time Limit sets the timer for the battle. Its entirely possible to run out of time before achieving victory when attacking, or deliberately run out the clock to achieve a defensive victory. Advice Level determines how active Centurion Marcus (your battlefield advisor) will be in giving you information and tactical hints during the battle. Settlement Level runs from none to Huge City. If you want to fight a siege or sally battle, youll need to include a settlement on the map. Settlement Culture only applies if theres a settlement present. This allows you to choose the look and layout of the settlement from the six cultures in the game. Barbarian settlements can be no larger than a minor city. Settlement Defenses only applies if a settlement is present. This allows you to choose the type and size of the walls around a settlement. A settlement without walls is pretty unlikely in the ancient world, and not much of a challenge to any besieging army.
When youre happy with your choices, click on the continue arrow. Return to the Single Player menu at any time by clicking on the U-shaped arrow.

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Customise Battle
This screen allows you to select the faction armies you want in the battle, and assign them to different sides for the coming struggle: Team Denarii allows you to set a purchasing budget for each team (side) in the battle. This money is used to purchase individual units. Its also used to purchase equipment and experience upgrades for units. If theres more than one army on a team, the money is split equally between the whole team; each army does not get the full budget! Indirectly, the amount of money sets the maximum size for each army in the battle (theres still the option to have lots of cheap units or a few expensive ones). The first army in the central list is always controlled by a human playeryou! All other armies are shown as CPU player and are controlled by the game or are empty and not in use. The list in the centre of the screen shows the armies that have been selected. There are a couple of methods for choosing an army for each slot on this list: