Next time you examine one of your cities and notice Unrest, then that means it probably has a spy. You can recruit your own spy to try to root out the other spy.

In my rome campaign I just used anything and everything cuz I didn't know how to prepare an army

For my parthia campaign and sassanid campaign I just used horse archers

But

As my last and best campaign yet

I started using some decent army loadout

And instead of just ambushing or rushing

I'm using mixed columns

Like

This pic

3 line of spearmen(the alemani smpearmen or soooo goooodddd) with gaps between for shock troop respons and archer retreat

Axe men at both ends for heavy infantry respons

4 tight spearmen just in case

And 4 line of archers cuz of long range and good damage

1 line of heavy infantry in the tip to absorb the shock and damage

And a dog and a light cav just in case

And one(two in this pic) generals for chasing or flanking

I'm playing Rome remastered for the first time as the Julii and.. it's not fun. The AI is just too much man, like I had a ceasefire with Britannia, only for them to go to war with me 4 turns later. Then I get jumped by Spain IMMEDIATLY after they cancel our trade rights. Battles were fine, but siegeing and fighting sieges every other turn is just annoying. Lugdunum was probably besieged 30 times at this point.

I just had enough of it I deleted all my saves (I was at turn 50 ish) and stopped playing for a few days. What am I doing wrong? I really want to get into this game, but so far my experience was.. not enjoyable.

These Greeks are just endless I keep on killing 500-1,200 Greek armies and they still don't know how to stop

my last post before i stop playing the game for a long while, my life is a mess lol

What is the best you have ever seen the AI do with Parthia or the Seleucid?

Having just started a short Parthia campaign, Armenia and Egypt decided to gang up on the Seleucid, as they do. Luckily for the Seleucians, this left the Armenian cities as easy kickstarters for my Parthian empire as their main army was down south.

Having removed this pressure from the Seleucid I started to wonder, what is the best you have ever seen the AI do with them or the Parthians for that matter?

Normally its a yellow and blue-greenish Pontus sea because auto-resolve loves chariots, but I wondered if anyone has ever seen the AI manage to make them work.

Screenshots:

1. Macedon at game start. It never decreases lower than 10% as long as you hold Corinth.
2. Greek Cities after capturing Corinth.
3. Above, but 1 turn after.
4. Above, yet another turn after.

I'm playing as the Goths, but whenever I switch to a nomadic lifestyle, my sons keep adopting random people. And that's not all — they even adopt people who are 50 years older than them without my knowledge. I'm playing in an RP-focused way, and I'd prefer it if only my blood relatives could inherit the throne, if possible..

Gather around, people!
We are here to document the greatest tour ever! THE APOLOGY TOUR!

You see, the catastrophe surrounding Shogun 2: Complete Edition in October 2026 is NOT an isolated failure of QA. What happened is just the latest in a LONG list of events showing the execution of a SYSTEMATIC business model by Creative Assembly/SEGA:

• They overpromise in marketing while cutting corners or carving out core content for DLC.
• Ship a broken or minimum-effort product at full or inflated price.
• Dismiss criticism, censor forums, or scapegoat rank-and-file developers.
• When sales decline and/or Steam reviews become negative, then make a scripted "we are sorry, but we will provide more transparency" response.
• Wait for goodwill to recover, then immediately repeat the cycle.

Over the last ten years, this same method has continued to be used: sell low quality products for too much money; dismiss consumer complaints; and only issue damage-control statements after the product's ratings drop below a certain point or after it violates the rules of a platform.

When consumer opposition stops, the studio IMMEDIATELY reverts back to the exact same methods. Below is the documented record of how Creative Assembly and SEGA view and treat their customers, supported by dates, executive statements, and direct links when possible.

BUT BEFORE THAT, please enjoy a tasty appetizer reminding you of how little CA and SEGA thinks of you:

APPETIZER: How Creative Assembly Leadership Views Customers, Critics, and Their Own Staff

Before looking at the history of broken releases, look at how CA's management operates behind the scenes and speaks to customers:

• Scapegoating Developers & Faking Internal QA Milestones (2009–2014): On June 21, 2024, former Creative Assembly programmer Julian McKinlay (who worked on Napoleon, Shogun 2, Fall of the Samurai, Rome II, and Attila) published a comprehensive primary testimony: Total War: ROME II and Creative Assembly — My Statement Ten Years On. McKinlay revealed that during Rome II's development, production leads reported milestones as completed on time even though the Quality Assurance (QA) department had refused to sign off on them. When Rome II launched in an unplayable state in 2013, management allowed McKinlay, a non-management programmer who had appeared in a pre-release promotional interview, to become the public scapegoat, just as a central CA leadership figure had publicly blamed a departed AI programmer on the forums after Empire: Total War launched broken in 2009. McKinlay led the effort to fix Rome II, pushed management to reform their production practices, and ultimately resigned during Total War: Attila because leadership refused to stop repeating the exact same mistakes.
• Cutting Features to Game Review Aggregators (April 30, 2012): In an interview with (reported by VG247 and Softpedia), Creative Assembly Studio Director Tim Heaton admitted that the studio uses a "Metacritic filter" throughout production, cutting features that might risk lowering review scores rather than fixing or fleshing them out, prioritizing aggregate critic metrics over depth.
• Implicitly Threatening Game Support to Justify a 150% Price Hike (August 17, 2023): When CA raised the price of three-lord DLC packs from $9.99 to $24.99 with Shadows of Change, CPO Rob Bartholomew published an official statement on Steam (covered by PC Gamer, IGN, and totalwar). Bartholomew told players that accepting the price hike was *"*the business reality of supporting WARHAMMER III and ensuring we're able to offer the years of extra content that are currently planned."
• "The Right to Discuss is a Privilege" (October 27, 2023): Amidst criticism over Shadows of Change, the flop of Total War: Pharaoh, and the cancellation of the live-service shooter Hyenas (bad CA, BAD), Creative Assembly began mass-banning users on the Steam forums. Community Manager CA_Evangelos posted Steam Moderation Guidelines & Maintaining Healthy Discussion, explicitly telling paying customers that participating in discussions was a privilege rather than an entitlement earned by purchasing or playing the game. The post further stated that focusing solely on criticism without offering constructive solutions to the developers did not serve the forums and would be subject to moderation.

THE MAIN DISH: THE GREAT APOLOGY TOUR

The 17-Year Chronology of Broken Releases, Cut Content, and Empty Apologies

Whenever Creative Assembly is caught shipping broken products or alienating its player base, leadership releases a scripted statement promising transparency and reform, only to repeat the exact same behavior on the next release cycle.

1. 2009–2010: Empire: Total War, Broken Launch, Abandonment, and Resold Fixes

• Released in March 2009, Empire: Total War launched with non-functional naval invasion AI, broken siege pathfinding, and severe save corruption. Prior to launch, in January 2009, CA had promoted a full multiplayer campaign mode (Empire: Total War Wikipedia).
• No formal apology was issued. Instead, CA leadership blamed their departed battle AI programmer on the forums (Julian McKinlay Statement), handed out keys to an unfinished, buggy multiplayer campaign beta in December 2009, and then abandoned support for Empire altogether (Creative Assembly Wikipedia; Total War Center Multiplayer Beta Documentation)). Instead of fixing Empire, CA packaged the engine fixes and functional multiplayer campaign into a full-priced standalone release in February 2010: Napoleon: Total War.

2. September 2013: Total War: Rome II, Fake Marketing, Day-1 DLC, and the "2%" Apology

• Ahead of the September 3, 2013 launch, CA marketed Rome II with heavily staged promotional demos (such as the Siege of Carthage) that did not reflect the actual state of the game (Julian McKinlay Statement), while carving out the Greek States (Athens, Epirus, Sparta) as Day-1 Pre-Order DLC. The game launched in a catastrophic, unplayable state.
• The Apology (September 9, 2013): Creative Director Mike Simpson posted a forum apology stating that launch issues were "totally unacceptable" and "it is clear that we have failed some of you and we will look at the way in which [we] launch games in the future" (PC Gamer; Gamereactor). However, at the same time, Simpson downplayed the disaster by claiming only 2% of players were reporting launch issues. A week later, CA promised they would implement "long open betas" for future Total War launches so this would never happen again (GamingLives Review). They never did.

3. October 2015, April 2016: Total War: Warhammer, The Chaos Warriors Day-1 Paywall

• In October 2015, CA announced that the primary antagonists of the Warhammer Fantasy setting, the Chaos Warriors, would be locked behind a Day-1 Pre-Order DLC paywall. When the reveal trailer received over 27,000 dislikes, CA began deleting the highest-upvoted negative comments on YouTube (totalwar documentation).
• The Backtrack (April 28–29, 2016): Facing months of pre-order boycotts, CA relented just before launch and made the Chaos Warriors DLC free for the first week of release. Rather than apologizing for paywalling a core base-game faction, Mike Simpson spun the backtrack as a generous gesture because "The Chaos Warriors have proven to be hugely popular" (Gamereactor; CGMagazine).

4. December 6, 2017: Total War: Warhammer II, The Norsca and Mortal Empires Failure

• CA incentivized pre-orders for Warhammer II (September 2017) with the Norsca DLC, promising it would carry over into the combined Mortal Empires map shortly after launch. Mortal Empires launched plagued with bugs, and Norsca was completely broken due to mismanaged code branches, delaying its integration by eight months until May 2018.
• The Apology (December 6, 2017): Brand Director Rob Bartholomew and Creative Director Mike Simpson published a development update (Eurogamer). Simpson wrote: "The truth is we screwed up... And so we add one more thing to the long list of dumb mistakes we're never going to make again." They would do so again.

5. May 27, 2021: Total War: Three Kingdoms, Breaking Promises and Abandoning a Broken Game

• After selling multiple DLC packs for Three Kingdoms that introduced new bugs into the base campaign, and after publicly promising a Northern Steppe expansion, CA abruptly released a video titled "The Future of Total War: Three Kingdoms" announcing the immediate termination of all patches and development (Prima Games; PCGamesN).
• The Bait-and-Switch: Left with permanently broken campaign mechanics and buggy modding tools (totalwar community petition documenting unfixed bugs), players were told in the abandonment video that the team was moving on to build a new standalone Three Kingdoms sequel, a project that CA later quietly cancelled behind closed doors without ever releasing.

6. February 2022, December 2023: Warhammer III Launch, Shadows of Change, Pharaoh, and the Double Apology

• Despite Mike Simpson's 2017 promise to never repeat the mistake of Warhammer II, CA did the exact same thing with Total War: Warhammer III (February 2022), building it on an outdated branch that ignored years of Warhammer II quality-of-life fixes and delaying its roadmap for months (GameWatcher). Once Immortal Empires stabilized, CA hiked DLC prices by 150% (Shadows of Change), released a stripped-down Saga title at $59.99/$79.99 (Total War: Pharaoh), and mass-banned critics on Steam.
• Apology #1: The Moderation Backtrack (October 27, 2023): Hours after the "privilege" post caused a revolt, Head of Community Adam Freeman posted "An Apology, and clarifications on Moderation" (totalwar thread; pcgaming thread only the discussions are provided since OF COURSE CA has deleted everything). Freeman apologized only for the phrasing used by his employee, keeping the underlying moderation policies intact.
• Apology #2: The Financial Collapse Apology (December 14, 2023): Only after Warhammer III was review-bombed to "Mostly Negative," Shadows of Change revenue dropped, SEGA cancelled CA's $100M+ extraction shooter Hyenas, and Total War: Pharaoh launched to a peak of just 5,424 players did CA Vice President Roger Collum publish A Message from Total War's Leadership Team (IGN; Eurogamer; PC Gamer). Collum wrote "We are sorry" issued partial refunds on Pharaoh, promised expanded content for Shadows of Change, and pledged "a more transparent, and consistent relationship with you all." That did not last.

7. October 15–17, 2025: Warhammer III Broken Campaign AI & Tides of Torment Delay Apology

• Less than two years after Collum's December 2023 apology, CA pushed a patch that completely broke campaign AI for major factions (including Lizardmen and Tomb Kings) across a quarter of the map, despite players reporting the exact bug during the public beta. CA initially planned to leave the game broken for months.
• The Apology (October 15-17, 2025): Only after players organized another massive Steam review-bombing campaign did CA fix the bug, delay the Tides of Torment DLC again, and issue another public "apology" for "a frustrating year" (PC Gamer, Simulation Daily, and Warhammer).

PALATE CLEANSER: SHOGUN 2 COMPLETE EDITION (Still tastes like shit)

SEGA Senior Vice President Caught (apparently) Manipulating Steam Reviews (October 2026)

Yes, one single review is not manipulation, but what happened is VERY suspicious.

On October 13, 2026, the complete edition of Shogun 2 had its Steam rating plummet to "Overwhelmingly Negative" (17% positive across more than 1,500 English reviews). Rather than addressing the broken release immediately, a senior executive at SEGA allegedly attempted to artificially prop up the game's review score.

Under Valve's Steamworks User Reviews Documentation, developers and publishers are told not to manipulate review scores. While by itself, a single review does not immediately mean manipulation, the fact that said review was by a senior employee, had no achievements, was positive, etc., does raise suspicions about other positive reviews and SEGA's practices, ESPECIALLY about soliciting positive reviews.

On October 15-16, 2026, community members (I miss you so much Legend) documented on Steam Discussions and totalwar revealed that one of the few positive reviews for Shogun 2 Complete Edition (with over 100 hours logged prior to public launch) was written by the Steam account Big Eye Bubble Fish. Said account publicly belonged to Damien Mauric, Senior Vice President of Studio Business Development at SEGA, who had a history of leaving positive reviews on Creative Assembly titles.

Immediately after being exposed on October 16, 2026, Mauric scrubbed and deleted all of his Steam reviews to hide this, as documented on shogun2. Further pointing to an actual violation of Steam's rules.

Undisclosed AI Upscaling and Delisting the Original Game (September - October 2026)

The launch of Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition shows how little quality control or transparency Creative Assembly and SEGA apply to their legacy titles:

Deceptive Delisting: In mid-September 2026, SEGA and CA delisted the original 2011 version of Shogun 2 ($29.99) from standalone purchase on Steam ahead of the $39.99 Complete Edition launch. Despite initially claiming the early delisting was an error, they left the original unavailable for standalone purchase for weeks, forcing new buyers toward the more expensive version, as tracked in this October 4, 2026 Reddit thread and this October 13, 2026 thread.

Undisclosed Generative/AI Upscaled Assets: Co-developed by MATABOO, the Complete Edition was marketed as featuring enhanced visuals. Upon launch, players immediately uncovered mangled, processed AI-upscaled unit cards and even cutscene art, including Portuguese Terco soldiers with six fingers, thumbs fusing into matchlocks, distorted faces, and cities displaced into lakes. These artifacts are documented across Video Games Chronicle, Dot Esports, Digital Citizen, and community comparisons on totalwar and this AI analysis thread.

Violation of Steam AI Disclosure Rules: Despite Valve requiring mandatory disclosure of AI-generated or AI-modified assets on Steam store pages, the Shogun 2 Complete Edition store page contained zero AI disclosure at launch, prompting community compliance reports documented on shogun2.

DO NOT FALL FOR THEIR NEXT APOLOGY

Look at the dates: 2009, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021, August 2023, October 2023, December 2023, October 2025, and October 2026.

In 2013, Mike Simpson promised Creative Assembly would change how they launch games. In 2017, he promised they would add their failures to "the long list of dumb mistakes we're never going to make again." In December 2023, Roger Collum said "We are sorry" and promised transparency. Less than two years later, they ignored beta bug reports until review-bombed in 2025, and in 2026 they delisted a classic game to sell undisclosed AI-upscaled slop backed by a SEGA executive's Steam review.

Creative Assembly and SEGA will only back off if reviews are poor, and sales are low. Once people forget about the controversy, they will go right back to what they were doing before. Remember this timeline when Creative Assembly and SEGA try to get you to buy Total War: Medieval III or Total War: Warhammer 40,000.

I've started the campaign so many times but always quit out of frustration.

I hate the mass bankruptcy, mass civil disorder, mass invasions from the start. I know that this is entirely the point of the WRE campaign but I'm struggling to find a way to make it enjoyable to play.

My latest idea is to withdraw ALL troops to the Italian peninsula, cranking every tax code to very high as I do and letting all the settlements rebel, then starting again from scratch.

I'll .... let you know how that goes. Has anyone found a way to make it fun yet?

Which means doesn't change much, only is adding factions, units, fixing bugs and improving a little few things.
Mod for Rome Total War, normal, not remastered.

Is there any such mod?

im playing as athens and had liberated the boii from another tribe and they had somehow gone to war on the lugii

My friend is playing rome remastered, haven't try the rex patch and asked me this Question. For me, i nvr try remastered, so when i found that in rex patch, console change_'faction' is a brand new playing style experience because i always wish to have a very strong AI, that always attack me and giving me a lot of pressure. Now i can control other AI to develop faster, seize settlements quicker, train higher level units instead of moderate units, build barracks and wall for them, attack my main faction kill my general, sabotage ally and etc. But this is also the rome remastered feature, so this question me...... maybe another question, remastered vs rex, what rex additionally does? except the remastered awful UI hehe, he alrdy get used to it.

I was playing as Sparta and have defeated all the enemies' main army and reinforcements and somehow got the remaining troops stuck on the sea. How is this possible to resolve?

Edit: I've made them rout already jsut have to trigger one of the AI units to break.

Mahaha bug turned to Spartan massacre.

Using `create_unit City/General "roman princeps" X`, I tested this out:

In the 1st screenshot, I gave both starting Brutii cities enough Principes to be powerful, yet not too powerful

In the 2nd screenshot, I filled up the cities

In the 3rd screenshot, I also filled up the 2 generals on the map

Existe alguien, algún moder que haya extraído de los ficheros del rome 2 total war, todos los nombres de los generales de todas las facciones del juego ?

It’s a little difficult to play on the phone, but it seems fairly manageable. So far I’m in like 4000 debt and I just started the game lol. I thought I was building some things that we’re gonna help the population but apparently I just put us all into debt and now everybody hates me.

I’m thinking of starting over should I just do easy mode? I’m on regular. Also, how do I learn all the basic stuff without having to spend too much time on tutorials cause I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing

I've finished the og game as Julie and parthia....and the Bi as sassanids

Any recommendations for playing sonthing new and interesting before I go for medival 2?

Is the Gallo Thracian Infantry a good unit in general? Like compared to the other units?

I have a 9070XT so it should be able to do 4K for this game fine but whenever I try select it in the options or even 1440P I get a black screen, any idea why this is happening and how to fix it? I’m on Linux btw, steam os specifically