The Western Roman Rebels are a major non-playable emergent Roman faction in Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion. They come about when a settlement revolts against the Western Roman Empire and becomes independent.
Tactics[]
The Western Roman Rebels are not playable in the campaign without using mods. As such, the Western Rebels have no victory conditions and not much aim other than surviving the campaign to the end. Since they are an emergent faction, the date that they appear on and what settlements they start with are also completely random based on the unrest level of settlements in the Western Roman Empire. Their starting armies are also random, based on the units in those settlements that revolt which decide to support the rebels.
If playing as the Western Roman Empire, the Rebels will prove a big problem. They not only take away both units and settlements from the Western Empire, but they are also immediately at war with them. Not only that, but they will often take away some of the units already in that settlement when they revolt as well as generating new units based on the buildings currently built in the settlement. It's also likely that the Rebels will have a better economy than the Western Empire at the start of the game, allowing them to upkeep their new armies and settlements.
Thankfully, the Rebels seem to be more passive than offensive. Any settlements they do take will only join them from a revolt, not by conquest. The armies they get and manage to field will tend to remain within the territory of their respective settlement and focus on defending from attacks rather than trying to expand their land. Again, since they are rebels, they're trying to focus on staying alive rather than rapidly expanding. The Rebels also do not train any agents of any kind, so any diplomacy that happens with them for trade deals, alliances, etc, happen because one of the other factions opens the diplomacy themselves.
If playing as a different faction to the Western Empire, such as one of the barbarian factions like the Franks or Alemanni who border the Western Roman Empire, the Western Rebels may be an unlikely ally. Because they start neutral to all factions other than the Western and Eastern Roman Empire, they can be traded with or allied to, which helps to weaken the Western Roman Empire who will be dealing with the rebels on top of all their other problems. They can also be an easy source of settlements to take as attacking them will not unnecessarily anger the Western Roman Empire, though they may declare war on the faction who takes the settlement as it used to belong to them. Many of the Rebel settlements will be disconnected from each other, so if a faction is bordering a Rebel settlement, taking it can be quite easy without any repercussions.
The strategy for wiping out the Rebels is the same as taking out the Western Roman Empire. Because they share the same unit roster, buildings and sometimes faith, they have the same weaknesses as the Empire. They field strong infantry in the form of Comitatenses and Auxilia Palatina but lack good cavalry units. This means that some solid barbarian units (or Roman units if playing as the Western Empire) can hold the line while cavalry outflanks to charge in from the rear. They're also quite weak in terms of land and units they can field at once. Depending on the size of the settlement, an army can be anywhere from three or four units to a near full stack army, comprising of whatever was to hand when the settlement rebelled, so their army could well comprise of mostly cheap units that are easy to deal with, like peasants or Foederati Infantry.
The Rebels can be wiped out, and a message will appear when their last settlement is taken, saying that the faction has been destroyed. However, like the Eastern Roman Rebels, they can rise up as many times as they want so long as the Western Roman Empire still has settlements. Because of this, they can never be truly defeated unless the Western Roman Empire is also wiped out, as their fates are sort of intertwined. So long as a Western settlement rebels, the Rebels will respawn along with it, making them a constant hazard/annoyance rather than a faction to be wiped out.
Units[]
- Peasants
- Catholic Priests
- Praeventores
- Comitatenses
- Limitanei
- Plumbatarii
- Foederati Infantry
- Auxilia Palatina
- Comitatenses First Cohort
- Archers
- Bucellarii
- Foederati Cavalry
- Sarmatian Auxilia
- Scholae Palatinae
- Imperial German Bodyguard
- Equites Sagittarii
- Carriage Balistae
- Ballistae
- Scorpions
- Repeating Ballistae
- Onagers
- Heavy Onagers
Trivia[]
- They, along with the Eastern Roman Rebels, were the only factions to not be made playable in the Rome Remastered version of Barbarian Invasion.
- This is not the case with skirmish battles, as you can play as both the Western and Eastern Rebels in skirmish battles.
Gallery[]
