Let's play Total War: Rome II - Divide et Impera [Rome] [Legendary Difficulty] S2 Part 1

Hello hello my friends! You have voted, and I have listened. We dive into DEI as Rome on legendary difficulty!
Divide et Impera is probably one of the most beautiful mods I've ever played. I don't know much about, so we'll learn together. You can install the mod yourself in the steam store, it comes in 3 parts. Do check it out, it really deserves your attention haha!
Enjoy!

[@Nate77HK]

30 seconds in to this and I already wish I had found this channel months ago, cheers!

[@yourfirstspear]

Welcome my friend! Glad to hear we found each other haha!

[@KontraktWolf]

Great video and I'll be watching this playthrough till the end.

[@darkmireille5778]

Good to see you back !! hope you'll enjoy this new campaign !

[@yourfirstspear]

Good to see you back as well haha! I probably will, hope you do too!

[@VV-dn7kc]

Man I died as Rome after 130 turns only having conquered all of Italy and Illyria 😢 Whole barbarian world declared war on me. Gues I’ll play along with your videos now

[@yourfirstspear]

Oh man that sounds like a nightmare haha! Though that is DEI I guess

[@Hockey-gn2tj]

@moosecake470bro I got sacked by Epirus 10 rounds in. My fucking roarii retreated every time after 10 deaths. Same happened to my Triarii, my best unit got 15 casualties and 5 kills then dipped… every… single… battle

[@Hockey-gn2tj]

@moosecake470 I’m new to DEI ok?

[@Hockey-gn2tj]

@moosecake470 but my army runs after 10-30 deaths then their line breaks and they die more. Then they regroup but are shattered in morale and I’ll reform their ranks put up a double acies and then ut happens again. :/

[@IceniTotalWar]

I've been meaning to play this mod for a long time. Every time i install a mod for this period, whether for Rome 1, RR, Rome 2 or any other game i'll do a Rome campaign as basically a test. But honestly after watching many people play this mod it's difficulty is a bit scary, especially as i see so many people fail at it, what's it actually balanced around now ?

[@zacharystroud6682]

Hey ! Love your content! Thanks for posting

[@yourfirstspear]

Thanks! And thank you for being here!

[@republicrising2128]

New here been looking for recent DEI content glad i found you

[@yourfirstspear]

Welcome my friend!

[@lucatthedoor5391]

Just discovered your channel, seems very good !

[@yourfirstspear]

Great to hear you like it! Welcome my friend!

[@goldeneevee4984]

New viewer, after seeing your last walkthrough of this mod I got excited! Looking forward to this and was wondering if you are doing a world conquest campaign?

[@yourfirstspear]

Hello there my friend! Not sure whether I will do world conquest, but I at least want to get into a position where we cannot lose. Maybe old borders?

[@miyamotomusashi8423]

Great game. Great voice and greetings from Germany!

[@yourfirstspear]

Well hello neighbour haha! Thanks!

[@HaterJone99]

This is surprisingly entertaining

[@yourfirstspear]

Loving every bit of it haha!

[@SuperCrabCraft]

My man, Pilus, i dont know if you know this, but in battle when you have selected unit or whole army you can use arrows to move them left, right or forward and backwards And if you hold ctrl (+left And right arrows) you can rotate them on spot And ctrl + up and down arrow makes your unit denser on thinner, good day my friend.

[@yourfirstspear]

Oeh! I did know some of this, not all, thank you very much!

[@sprintxr9339]

and to make it even easier if you use alt and click and drag the units you can move them anywhere not just forward back and side to side. additionally while holding alt press control to rotate the formation while moving them into position at the same time! hope i explained this well

[@sprintxr9339]

@@yourfirstspearoops just watched the first battle and saw you using this trick 😂 i’ll leave this comment up to help some others hopefully!!

[@SuperCrabCraft]

@@sprintxr9339 Nice Tip!

[@Revens1]

Years ago one of my all time favourite campaigns was playing as either Thrace or Macedonia on very hard with a spartan mod that made them very strong lol and i spent like the whole 100 turns or so just defending my capital from Spartan invasions it was awesome.

[@yourfirstspear]

Oh god that sounds fun, I am debating going greek on the next one, or Carthage, probably will do a council vote on it.

[@Revens1]

@yourfirstspear yeah Greece area is fun to play in, just research and play defensive a few turns to let the enemies build wipe the first lot so they have access to better troops the next round if I remember correctly ai doesn't build new troops until they are wiped.

[@user-of1tp5rr8e]

youll lose your mind as carthatge - every one of your capital provice cities gets taken by pirates unless you garrison every single one which when you're fighting rome and iberia with max 2.5 stacks and cant afford a navy this isnt exaclty fair or fun @@yourfirstspear

[@user-of1tp5rr8e]

also itll be the navy with the 120 man ships - the 500+ upkeep oness you definitley cant afford and dont have unlocked 0-they just spawn ur best navy and expect you to deal with them + multiple pirate navies

[@Vlad-wl3fw]

guys why don't you record and upload these campaigns? I'd love to watch it!

[@tglake2894]

Seeing the warning about Syracusae and Carthage spiked my heart rate. The First Punic War is such a slog, even on normal. I've been struggling mightily against Carthage and its allies into the 250s BCE now, mastering naval war on the fly (accidentally perfect RP for Rome haha) and just grinding away at them while using the money from their ransomed prisoners to keep improving Rome. Carthago delenda est!

[@yourfirstspear]

That first punic war is such a bizarre one, i think it lasted like 30 episodes haha!

[@ariabagheri9840]

I focus replenishment and campaign movement range on my generals. Campaign movement range is critical, especially when your empire expands out of Italy

[@yourfirstspear]

Agreed 100%

[@brinorodriguez]

Great video

[@jaywall4591]

Hi, just about to start the series and excited to watch! I wonder, have you got a mod list for what you used on this run? Thanks!

[@yourfirstspear]

This is actually just the DEI mods, nothing else. So you could say DEI vanilla i gues haha

[@jaywall4591]

@yourfirstspear ah, fair enough! Nothing like the 30 or so I'm running, heh. Realistic charges; realistic missiles; particle enhancement [x2]; bettrt water III HD; AAA (aging); no negative PO for armies garrisoned; vox populi; HD textures and lighting; Improved Environments; HD cities darker; sacking and diplo all options for DEI; plus a couple icon mods are those that I'd recommend taking a peek at! Hope the recent work on the house went well 🙏🏻

[@ayneayne1726]

Hello! It's me Ayne!! Ahh that's very sad. Very sad indeed that you abandoned your little campaign :(

[@yourfirstspear]

Well hello there! Yeah I didn't like it, wasn't done struggling yet!

[@elmerelles9542]

I’m feeling better about my load times…. What difficulty is recommended by mod authors? I play without agents mod as they seem like a unbalanced distraction..imo. But yeah, gorgeous artwork….those unit cards…nice!

[@chrisyotas5854]

Heyo, reccomended difficulty is normal, for both camp and battle as the mod is balanced around that. I dont really see how agents are broken, and they do help you a lot in terms of movement range and training, or just boosting income and stuff. If you want, i could reccomend some strategies, tips etc depending on your faction. Cheers

[@carlroy]

Fun fact: i wasn't 0laying mod for a while because the loading between batrle was too long even on my ssd (and because i played in the night i was always falling asleep.) I discovered that when you take your mos from the workshop conten directly in your data pack the load game is really fast.

[@yourfirstspear]

Oeh i might fiddle around with that! Thanks!

[@yourfirstspear]

Though i am afraid to break things haha

[@SaintMeran]

Hello Pillus! which battle difficulty are playing on? Great campaign, keep it going!

[@yourfirstspear]

Everything is on Legendary! And it is.. well.. very challenging haha! Thanks!

[@DunceCapSyndrome]

I have a question. When you're shifting troops is there a reason you hit reform the line? What does it do?

[@yourfirstspear]

Sorry for the late reply; it makes it so that the first row swaps out for the second row of soldiers, first row moves to the back. that way they can catch their breath and stamina will deplete slower. Stamina is key haha

[@DunceCapSyndrome]

@@yourfirstspear OH MY GOD, like the tactic they actually did??? D.E.I is crazy & thanks for the response.

[@Mike-lc2tq]

I try to follow this video as a basic template when I start now. Peace Dealing Epirus definitely makes it easier but like everything in DEI you never know what you’re going to get. One play through and Taras is left undefended, the next I’m nearly crushed by a 3 stack Epirus army.

[@yourfirstspear]

DEI really throws some unexpected stuff towards us sometimes haha! It’s a challenge indeed!

[@Spectification]

I would advise to spec generals towards replenishment. Combat skills usually do not benefit the whole army while having 20%+ replenishment extra can make the difference.

[@docdesastro1019]

Remember, that the replenishment seems to be taken from the province manpower pool. So...no plebs left and certain units will not replenish if I understand correctly. I would rather advise traits giving unit XP and buffs for your army. If they fight harder, they will inflict more damage than taking it, which means less units to replenish.

[@Spectification]

@@docdesastro1019 Yeah, irrelevant. Armies fight so much, they get a TON of XP and general does not really have XP skills anyways, since that is limited mostly to champions. 2nd: if your regions are running out of population, you have much bigger problems 3rd: Replenishment is MORE important on Legend, since enemy troops already field units that are 2 tiers higher than you (ever noticed militia fights like legionaries?), so you will take losses no matter what you do, especially with their stupid buffs to morale. So, replenishment, merc, ammo, night fighting and some zeal skills all day, every day.

[@docdesastro1019]

@@Spectification Right. Did not consider the fact legendary allows the AI to cheat in such an amount it isn't funny. I guess under 'normal' conditions I would be right in that case. I also am under the impression that units (not armies) gain XP slower. I do not see the chevrons change significantly (or maybe this is because of the fact the units get hammered every time they make contact). Army XP is fine and the permanent buffs they give for fighting units are quite well. Night fighting, that one I agree wholeheartedly. This can mean fighting one army piecemeal and not two at the same times. From what I have seen in the last campaign and in this one starting, Pilus tends to sack settlements upon conquest and this seems to harm recruitable population and damages buildings just for the sake for a quick buy of new units. I see a downward spiral in the long term. I this was Warhammer II or similar then replenishment is king. But here? Manpower seems to be a resource not to be squandered or wasted.

[@Spectification]

@@docdesastro1019 FYI, sacking does not do anything to the population. It only affects the prisoners you take during the battle and sends them into slavery. Unit XP is nice to have but that comes from the champion, so general can focus on other skills.

[@docdesastro1019]

@@Spectification DYI guide says something contrary. Looting a settlement will hurt population growth in a whole region - and a lot. So...rebuilding armies ad nauseam to win back settlements overrun and loot them for gold for more units seems to hurt in the long run. Also it states that without proper population in the region, replenishment won't work. Same is true for the turn a region was captured. So yes, replenishment does drain the pool.

[@naufalnaufal125]

Bruh I just got into Divide et Impera and fkn struggling in Normal mode. Clapping continents was so easy in the Vanilla version even on the hardest difficulty. Boi did I underestimate the difficulty spike.

[@yourfirstspear]

Welcome to the fight haha! DEI is no joke, but i am loving the struggle

[@fenrur26]

the only total war game i played is Warhammer 3 and i am pretty good at it. I wanted something historical and tried to play as Rome with this mode, lost 2 of my cities in less then 15 turns. So here i am :p

[@yourfirstspear]

DEI can be hell. Welcome to hell my friend haha

[@geraltgrey-mane695]

Any tips or ways you know of, to avoid the punic war forever or long as possible? I can mostly only last from 7 turns or up to maby 13-20 turns. :D So annoying, as I find it so boring to take over africa and all. Everytime I wanna play as Rome, so annoying they force it via script..... give us a choice!

[@yourfirstspear]

Really not sure what triggers it, but avoiding it early game is something i’d do as well indeed haha

[@malice9830]

Does anyone know about gaming pc specs mind if i show you anyone tell me ur thoughts if my pc can run rome2 empire edition on my ryzen5 5600 rtx geforce 3060 16gb n other half of the specs

[@SuperCrabCraft]

You can surely run Rome 2 with this i have ryzen 5 3600 And 750 ti And can run in on medium

[@yourfirstspear]

Sorry I was away for a bit; but I think it has already been answered haha! That being said, I use shadow, don't know too much about specs honestly

[@Ajee02]

You can literally run any game with that PC, not even exaggerating either.

[@malice9830]

@@Ajee02 how about would you recommend ultra army size or huge idc about graphics so

[@ayneayne1726]

Hey!! It's me again! I just would like to let you know that you are not paying attention to characters' stats! For example, if you want to make a general govern a region - some characters might fit better for a certain role like agriculture or ..or public order and whatnot haha

[@Spectification]

Base general stats really dont matter. Correct ability build is the most important

[@yourfirstspear]

Though I have to take the subtle details into account more, I can be too much of a brute sometimes. In any case, thank you both!

[@borisilic1583]

​@@yourfirstspear you have been warned, pay more attention next time big boy

[@PickledShark]

Man bummer that the first campaign crashed. It was a great ride, and I’m bummed that it’s at an end, especially so unceremonious an end. I’m a bit surprised that you’re basically just rebooting the campaign, not changing your faction or even your house. Still, should be entertaining. My recommendation would be to expand to Syracuse and Medhlan. Both cities make excellent defensive positions from which to take on enemy stacks and launch counter offensives. I wouldn’t even necessarily try to take the rest of Sicily at first. Also, hopefully this time you can avoid the rebellions that crippled your Punic war last time.

[@yourfirstspear]

I hope it will be entertaining! I'm already having a lot of fun honestly haha! One thing is for sure though, we both know I am going to need you here! I prerecorded some episodes because I had to leave for work for a bit. We will run into issues soon enough.

[@LatifKhosravi-it3eq]

For generals yellow slot have better attributs.movement range.ammunition.replenishment

[@user-ml1ow7nk8i]

Sons of Mars!

[@movieviewing]

ROME 2 DEI is a great mod where more in depth for politics, population, supplies for army, weather factor etc where wish was more indepth for these factors. however for me doesn't address two of the most fundamental issues in the grand campaign. this being the lack of towns and cities in the grand campaign map. there are keys towns and cities that need to be added. they are in certain campaigns like caser and gaul, rise of the republic and wrath of Sparta/ Greece but this those campaigns only deal with a small part of the known world. i know what the response going to be that the game only allows a certain amount of town and cities but still it needs to be sorted. the other factors that ties into the amount of town and cities is the deck of units in each army. where can only recruit 20 units in a pack. with the pack being in effect a legion and we all know how big a legion was. the standard thing is to increase the amount in each unit but with that you lose maneuver, there is a mod i used a while ago where you could increase the units from 20 to 70 units or more in a pack but with that due to the lack of cities and towns you cant support multiple legions that size.

[@yourfirstspear]

My goodness i feel like when i handle two legions the 40 units is already a lot to handle haha! Imagine 140 or something, we’d have to make battles slower somehow, or maybe have some kind of “delayed command” system in place haha! I’d be open for it though. As for more cities, i think there needs to be a balance there because things can very easily become tedious, but maybe moving back to a system like med2 might work better with that? Not sure haha

[@tonybands1165]

🤠🔥👏

[@yigittok7015]

Why are you using house cornelia members for a general? Isnt someone from your dynasty better?

[@yourfirstspear]

I figured giving them some decent victories will keep their loyalty up, this is a while back but my guess is that that is why? Not sure though

[@yigittok7015]

Thank you my guy, keep up your divide et impera videos please!​@@yourfirstspear

[@nightwarrior5759]

I think you should play on normal battle difficulty since the AI gets so many bonuses that don't really make the battles any fun but a pain to play. The mod is only balanced at normal battle difficulty anyway. I recommend you to consider still playing on campaign legendary but having battles on normal. Another thing - you can increase your loading times by doing the following: - Copy all .PACK files of the mods own subfolders, usually found at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\214950 - To the game's Data folder, usually found at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Total War Rome II\data This is from a guide. It makes a HUGE difference in loading times. I hope you can find this useful. I am going to watch no matter what! Good luck and have an enjoyable campaign!

[@hadrianus7918]

You cannot set battles on normal difficulty if you play legendary..

[@nightwarrior5759]

@@hadrianus7918 Oh yeah, my bad. I forgot... Well let's watch him struggle xD

[@yourfirstspear]

Oeh! Thank you for the loading tip! And indeed, I can not set the battle difficulty, we are in for a struggle haha!

[@Rambo2point0]

Which guide is that from could you comment the link?

[@thomashazlewood4658]

First time seeing this mod. The strategic terrain is great to look at. I like the artwork for the units, too. Sadly, the units do not show their condition at a glance (ie. how many troops in the unit) so, when they are taking missile fire, I can't see the damage without cursoring over the unit. It seems odd that the attacking Etruscans take so long to decide their action. Is that a factor of simply too much processing required?

[@yourfirstspear]

Not sure why that is to be honest, i’ve had this with DEI on a lot of occasions. yeah DEI is amazing, really no going back to vanilla now haha

[@frankseu]

Are you running the game on an SSD? Your first loading screen seams a bit too long.

[@yourfirstspear]

Not sure, i play via Shadow, should take a look at the specs

[@frankseu]

@@yourfirstspear I see, that might also explain why the stream is somewhat blurry compared to when I have played the game myself on my local desktop. I think you lose some quality when you cloud game and stream to KZbin.

[@kelk0998]

is there anyway to play this mod with a pirated version? i desprately want to play it😢

[@yourfirstspear]

Not sure about that, i honestly have no experience as a pirate

[@IceniTotalWar]

@@yourfirstspear Try it, who knows the pirate life might just be for you 😁😁

[@legatuslegionarii2284]

Good to see you back! I commend your bravery to start the campaign again on legendary…. Well, that is your choice. But especially as you play DEI on legendary, you should, no, you must look at all subtleties of this game because you will need it, as you experienced in your last campaign. For example, I saw how you recruited your agents… you did not look at their specs and there are really differences between a governor who can raise high taxes or one who is good at cultural conversion. Same for spies and champions. Same for generals. And please look at politics, do not let a general die in battle, look also at the specific resources in your regions, I have the feeling you are building a bit randomly. Anyway, good luck and looking forward to the next episode.

[@yourfirstspear]

Damn it you are right, I agree! Already a couple of subtle things I should have paid more attention to.. This is a learning experience, thanks a million for bringing it up! I hope I am making progress haha! I'd love to also get some advice on building if you have any ideas, Rome should become a money maker eventually I think, not sure how yet though

[@docdesastro1019]

I guess this is a better start than the last one. I think it is a good thing the Etruscans are already gone although you might beware of a Corsica/Sardina under Cathargenian control. I disagree with two actions you made: First, razing Arretium seems wrong to me. The settlement will belong to your core province in Italia so why damage buildings, get unrest and diminish population there? Not worth the money in my book. Raze, what you do not want to conquer. Everything else, integrate. Second: demolishing mustering fields. Since your legions cannot be everywhere and the situation with your neighbors is not settled yet, you are wasting garrison units and recruitment options. You go for standardized Triarii/Principes/Hastatii armies as you told so why destroy the buildings where you can recruit them? Also, they give 2 Hastatii for garrison when settlement is attacked. You got unfriendlies all around you and certainly do not want to run your few legions up and down Italia all the time to play whack-a-mole with Carthage, Rebels and Epirus popping up in Magna Grecia. Last point, these defenders are for free. If you were to hire a legion to cope with threats, you would need to buy and pay for the same 2 Hastatii when defending the settlement to get same numbers (which I think, you couldn't do anyways since you demlished their recruitment building) . Border Settlements need garrisons able to deter a half-stack until borders are pushed. I think, there is a watchtower building that would bolster this strategy. General with 3 units patrolling could be enough for bandit reduction and keeping peace. Or have him fortify near the city so he will be reinforced with stuff not trash by definition.

[@yourfirstspear]

I like the idea of having more of a garrison, I agree! Thanks for all the thoughts and advice here, it always gives me good things to think about! Thank you

[@PoloDavey]

What all sub mods you using?

[@yourfirstspear]

None! Just the three parts of DEI

[@PoloDavey]

@@yourfirstspear cool. I'm a returning total war player and am rusty AF lol at the risk of sounding old back in my day you had to install the mods yourself lol

[@matheusmterra]

I absolutely LOVE Rome 2, however Divide et Impera always turned me off because of the amount of changes it makes to the game. However I decided to give it a chance, however I'm checking it here to see if I would actually enjoy the mod at all.

[@yourfirstspear]

Hope you like it as well! I was sceptic at first since the line between depth and tedium can be thin sometimes haha! Though i don’t think that’s the case with DEI, loving every bit of it at the moment! If it’s for you, great! If not, also great haha! Hope you find out in the series my friend!

[@matheusmterra]

@@yourfirstspear so far I'm finding it interesting, I'm eager to see late period gameplay to see how the campaign with the mod evolves

[@pandemic_diesel]

Mate i was getting conquered after round 3 lmao thought i was going to have time, nope.

[@yourfirstspear]

Yeah this is difficult haha! At least we suffer together

[@marekmagdziak5916]

How do you keep those damn civil wars from happening? Had 2 in first 100 turns and it destryed my game! This mod is super but politics is broken and over complicated as for TW game :(

[@peshka96024]

Sending them to the diplomatic mission and bribes my go to personally.

[@marekmagdziak5916]

@@peshka96024 Thanks man! I just installed submod for No Secession, 0% Secession chance at all times!

[@yourfirstspear]

Modding it out helps indeed haha! For me it’s also diplomatic missions, make sure to keep them above -11. If the feces hit the ventilator then reducing taxes for a turn or two can help as well

[@ConsulTW]

try potestas ultima ratio. very good mod

[@yourfirstspear]

Oeh might take a look

[@OsseusTheDJ]

That was the longest loading screen ever. Invest in an m.2ssd

[@yourfirstspear]

Using Shadow, not sure why the loading screens are so long, don’t have that with any other game

[@inconmensurablearte3697]

How u know before start? how u know Taras is not a good option to take? this is cheating for youtube.

[@yourfirstspear]

Welllll this is season 2 my friend haha! I’m not going into this blind and deaf, And also, i think you can make an educated strategic decision there right?

[@Smaug2b]

Wtf dei on legendary

[@yourfirstspear]

Indeed haha

[@Smaug2b]

@@yourfirstspear you are mad ^^

[@anoniemegt]

Are you that undecided in real life also?

[@yourfirstspear]

I don’t know, maybe? I think so. Sometimes i’m not though i think