Western Roman Empire (Barbarian Invasion)

For the faction in Total War: Attila, see Western Roman Empire.

The Western Roman Empire is a major playable Roman faction Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion.

Description[]

Since the death of Constantine the Great in 337 AD the Roman Empire has effectively been divided into two unequal halves, and at least nominally Christian. Other men have tried to rule everything, but their efforts have foundered. Julian the Apostate, the last man to try, had spent much of his energy in trying to make the Roman people pagan once again. In this he failed.

Now the Western Empire is the weaker part of the Roman world. Western Europe has never been as rich as the eastern end of the Mediterranean; Imperial taxes and population have been dropping and the upkeep of the army is increasingly difficult. Over the last hundred years barbarians have been allowed to settle in Roman provinces. Barbarians have been allowed to fill in the ranks of the Roman Army and now the Western Empire is vulnerable. A strong Emperor could hold the frontiers against the barbarians from the north and east. A strong Emperor could even reunite the Empire and rule the world from Rome, but this would take a very strong man to carry the title of Augustus.

Historically, the Roman Empire in the West disappeared in 476. Romulus Augustulus, the last Emperor, was so irrelevant that he was merely deposed and allowed to live out his days in retirement. Rome was ruled by a succession of barbarian kings, while learning was kept alive in the West only through the Roman Catholic Church.

Historical background[]

Western-Roman-Empire-AD395 — Map of the Western Roman Empire (in red) after the division.

By time of Barbarian Invasion, Rome has split into two separate empires. The Western Roman Empire maintains Rome and is the larger, but poorer part of the old Empire. It is most at risk from the oncoming Barbarian Hordes. The West is on a steady decline, and many barbarians have joined the ranks of the armies.

Many European countries are on land that was once part of the Western Roman Empire, including England, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Egypt, and the north coast of Africa. The language of the Western Roman Empire is Latin. Many Emperors have absolute control, and can do as they pleased. When the emperor died, his favourite friend whom he had adopted as a son often became the next emperor, since many of them never had sons of their own. After a while, the Emperors grew so weak that the military would just pick one of their generals to be the next emperor.

After Theodosius I ended his reign as emperor in 395, he divided the Roman empire, giving the eastern half to his son Arcadius (395-408), while the Western part was given to his second son, Honorius (395-423). Stability was not achieved for long in either half, as the conflicts with outside forces intensified.

After the division of the Roman Empire, the Western Empire immediately began a long and painful decline. The Western Roman Empire was less urbanized and less densely populated than the East, also experienced an economic decline throughout the late empire. The East was not so destitute, as Emperors like Constantine the Great and Constantius II had invested heavily in the eastern economy. Repeated invasions and assimilations of barbarian tribes greatly weakened the Empire's finances and cultural stability. The army was becoming less and less professional and more and more a mixture of poorly equipped and trained barbarians and Romans. Not all Western military units were pure Roman as they were in the times of the Roman Republic or earlier Empire, but instead are filled with barbarians. Famous Roman Generals at that time were almost all Romanized barbarian. The most famous of all was Aetius, remembered for his victory against Attila at the battle of Chalons in 451.

The Western Roman Empire was taken over several times by the barbarians, notably in 410 C.E. when the Goths sacked the city of Rome, followed by the Vandals in 455 C.E. The last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed in 476 C.E. The Eastern Roman Empire would last another 1,000 years as the Byzantine Empire.

Overview[]

The Western Roman Empire is one of, if not the, largest faction at the beginning of the game alongside the Eastern Roman Empire, whom it is allied with. However, this does not last for very long as the Empire is in a dire state. It is plagued by problems, not least of which is all the barbarians on its borders who hate the Empire's guts. The Empire starts off broke, with just 1,000 gold in the bank and at a net loss if nothing is done before next turn. They have a large army which can't be sustained, religious turmoil and discourse between the Pagans and Christians is adding to the already overwhelming problems of general civil unrest and squalor. Nearly every city is on the brink of rebelling against the Emperor and state while soon enough the barbarian hordes will start arriving in force. Despite being technologically advanced, the Empire can't hold them all off without much needed reforms, even if this means losing parts of the Empire to make it happen. Western Rome starts out at war with five or more barbarian factions and while the East is your ally for now, they too will turn on you. In Rome Remastered, the Empire also has debased currency which means you can't recruit merchants to give a much needed boost your trade, which is just one more problem to add to the list. This campaign is the only one classed as hard (very hard in the remaster).

Tactics[]

The Western Roman Empire is not in a good position at the start of the game. While they hold a large swathe of settlements, most of these hate them and are ready to rebel in just a few turns after starting the game. The Emperor is Christian while most of the settlements are still Pagan, causing religious tension and further unrest in those settlements already at boiling point. The army is large, but TOO large, and the debased economy can't sustain all the units. The settlements further away from Rome have even further unrest due to their distance to the capital, while others are lacking governors and all of them have squalor penalties. Almost all your settlements are also losing population as they can't sustain the amount they start with. This is just the start of the problems. Rome starts out at war with multiple different barbarian tribes, notably the Celts in Hibernia and Caledonia to the north, the Franks, Lombardi and Alemanni in Germania to the east, as well as the Berbers to the south in North Africa, all of which are at war with the Empire from turn 1. If playing in the remaster, Rome also has debased currency which prevents them training any merchants to help with income.

Lots of things need to be done to stabilise the Empire, even if that means recalling units from settlements further away from the capital that are a lost cause. Following what the Romans did in real life is not a bad idea, such as abandoning Britannia and parts of Hispania which are nearly always going to rebel, as well as the northern parts of Gaul and Amorica. Gathering up and trimming the army helps with the money situation, as the Western Empire starts out with just 1,000 gold in the bank and a net loss next turn if nothing is done. Deleting armies in settlements that are about to rebel and destroying buildings in them will help, especially military buildings in those settlements that are not saveable, as the rebels will get worse units when they rise up, making it easier for the West to eventually take it back. Moving the capital away from Rome to somewhere more central is also a good idea, such as Ravenna, the final historical capital of the West, or maybe somewhere in Gaul such as Avaricum if Rome is planning on holding Western Europe rather than north Africa. Sending out diplomats to try and make peace with some of the barbarians is also a good idea, since less enemies means less armies to fight. Getting trade deals is also a top priority, possibly selling map information for trade and gold.

Stabilising the Empire is the top priority. Any armies the Western Empire has remaining should be focussed on defence. Garrisoning settlements to prevent rebellion and to defend against invasive barbarian armies will be the early game for Western Rome, as will attempting to rebuild the economy in some capacity. A few turns in the rebel settlements will flip to the Western Roman Rebels, the 'green Romans' who will also then be at war with the West. While they won't attack right away, they will kick any Roman units out of their settlements when they break out, often taking half of those units with them. Any settlements that revolt will automatically flip to the rebels. Economic buildings are going to be the focus right now, to pay for better units to take back control of the crumbling Empire and also secure the borders against the barbarians. If playing in the remaster, to fix the debased currency and be able to recruit merchants, mines need to be built in as many settlements as it will allow. After enough have been built, a pop-up will notify of the fixed currency, giving access to the much needed merchants.

Reconquest should be slow. The Empire should not expand too much otherwise the same problems will occur again and the settlements will revolt. Any settlements taken should usually be exterminated to both gain a large amount of gold and also reduce squalor, thus reducing unrest. At this point, the religious direction the Empire will go should be decided. If going with Christianity, now is the time to destroy Pagan shrines and temples in the settlements retaken while the population is still pacified enough to not revolt again when they take a hit to their unrest. Christian shrines and churches should then be built quickly to flip the population to the desired religion, if going Christian. If Pagan is the desired religion, this only needs to be done in the few settlements that start out Christian.

Towards the mid point of the game, the Empire should be stabilised with a somewhat fixed economy and the borders of whatever was saved should be linked up. The army is the next focus for the recovering Empire as towards the middle of the game is when the hordes appear and they can easily overrun an unprepared Western Empire. Solid stone walls and good infantry with a lot of cavalry is key to defeating the horde factions, though meeting them on an open battlefield is rather unwise due to the 8 full stack (20 unit) armies they come with, though it's not impossible if the Roman Legion (preferably multiple) have a good chunk of cavalry and spearmen with some heavy infantry to counter the horde's own. Running down and killing all the horde faction leaders is the best way to remove the hordes for good. It's around this time that the Eastern Roman Empire might also look to expand into ex-Western Empire lands, likely declaring a war to go for Rome, one of their victory provinces.

If the Western Roman Empire has survived to the late game, this is where it should seek to expand more vigorously. By the late game, the Empire's economy and security should have caught up to the East and the hordes should have been mostly dealt with. The victory conditions for both the Western and Eastern Roman Empire are the largest in the expansion, with the West's being to hold 34 provinces including Tarraco in Hispania, Rome in Italia, Carthago (Carthage) in North Africa and Constantinople in Asia Minor (Anatolia). After killing off the invasive hordes and having border units to keep the other barbarians out of Roman lands, any remaining Western Roman Rebel settlements should be dealt with and retaken. Some of the smaller barbarian tribes can also be dealt with in this time, such as the Celts and Berbers (also the Romano-British if Britannia was lost and not retaken) and their settlements added to the reformed Western Empire. The final item on the checklist is to attack the Eastern Roman Empire, who will have likely already attacked multiple times before. One war to take out Constantinople and the settlements between Rome and there should be enough settlements under the Empire as well as all the victory settlements to fulfil both victory requirements, resulting in a rebirthed Roman Empire and victory!

Units[]

Trivia[]

In the original Barbarian Invasion, it was possible to win as the Western Empire by disbanding your units in mainland Italia /Africa and using your diplomat to head towards the Eastern Empire on turn 1. On turn 2, you use your diplomat to open negotiations with the East, give tribute of all your income (usually around 9-10,000 gold after disbanding your units) for 20 or so turns and requesting Constantinople along with around 7 other settlements from them. For some reason, the AI decides this is a good deal and gives you the settlements. This gives you Constantinople (the one city you need from them) and enough other settlements to give you the 34 settlements you need to fulfil the rest of your victory condition and giving you victory 2 turns in!
- This was fixed in the remaster, as even if you disband more of your units for an even higher income per turn (15,000 or more), they will refuse to give you any of their settlements, thus preventing this exploit.
Due to its size, the Western Empire starts out as the largest nation in the game, instantly gaining the Largest Faction award. It also has the Largest Army, and if you convert the nation to Christian, it becomes the dominant religion in the game instead of Paganism.