Roxolani Faction Guide: Rome Total War Barbarian Invasion

Today we discuss strategy, tips and advice for the Roxolani Campaign campaign for Rome Total War Barbarian Invasion
Second channel: / @lugoreviews2805
Discord: / discord

[@lennydale92]

"Virgin" in the sense that they have to kill an enemy before getting married. Apparently it was a tradition in some Scythian tribes.

[@alexmalyarchuk1723]

Those custom was common mostly between nobles. Average tribe girls usually stayed home.

[@iamcleaver6854]

If that was the tradition, they would die out pretty quickly

[@peterongan9655]

@@iamcleaver6854 Or maybe got a little bit of Rape I guess when the Huns came to Europe?

[@iamcleaver6854]

@@peterongan9655 Those women would have been lucky. Whilst all men would have been killed, women would have probably been spared to be shared around the campfire

[@MithrasHorus]

@@iamcleaver6854 that’s a myth inspired mostly by the massacres of the latter Mongols. During the migration era most defeated steppe tribes were confederated, men and all, into the victorious tribe. The Huns in particular did this so many times so quickly that later after less than 2 generations of weak leadership the entire Hunnic kingdom fell apart into those constituent tribes, including formerly defeated elements of the Roxolani who settled in the Danube plain, where they would later be absorbed by the Avars, Bulgars, and Magyars, although some retained their language attested into the 18th century.

[@KingMswatiIII]

I love Barbarian Invasion! I think the Herdsmen are supposed to be the peasants of the Steppes, btw.

[@lugotorix6173]

Yeah they seem to be their version of peasants, but they seem better than the usual peasants as well which is cool

[@J4R0D]

These guys never horde for me, except the one time they got horded by Huns, then went on to horde Sarmatians, then they went onto horde Lombardii and Burgundii. My Saxon kingdom only survived because I had taken the Celts out in Britain. Mainland Europe was almost entirely rebel with hordes rampaging around. They all wanted Salona for some reason...

[@Lankyblankman]

That's because they need Salona for victory conditions.

[@J4R0D]

@@Lankyblankman the crazy thing was they all wanted Salona. No interest in Rome or Ravenna at all.

[@MithrasHorus]

Virgin does mean that, it’s based on a myth about Scythian girls having to kill a man before their wedding, and similar conflated myths about the amazons. In reality about ~20% of professional warriors on the western steppe were women, as attested by warrior burials in the region which maintained that 80-20 gender ratio over the entire historical cultural horizon.

[@lijger1]

Potential problem: In the mountains of Middle East your horse archers are not always as easy to control.

[@lugotorix6173]

That is a good point actually, really you have to monitor them very closely and avoid skirmish mode

[@hannibalburgers477]

I actually find it easier and better against an infantry based army. Just follow mounted infantry tactics. Move to a high ground, disable skirmish mode, when enemy comes dangerously cross, select the units and right click stretch on another hill. Edit: Just never enable skirmish mode and circle, never order attack, never double right click on a location. If you do those, some of your cavalry units will charge downhill to enemy spearmen and most likely trigger a full rout.

[@butterfunger5081]

Wow you’ve gotten 3k sub already. The last time I stumbled on this channel it was at 600.

[@lugotorix6173]

Thanks man, the support has been great recently from the fans!

[@witalian1]

The sarmatian virgin foot archers have long range missiles. That makes them superior to all other low tier archers.

[@iainhansen1047]

I swear I never see the roxolani hoard when the computer controls them.

[@lugotorix6173]

Yeah i don't know why, guess they're less likely to lose their settlements but retain family members

[@andrew-yk6xw]

there was an instance where the huns swung south and knocked out the rox’s one time i played BI. the rox’s then hit the Sassanids but we’re wiped out

[@thesacredlobo]

@@andrew-yk6xw - I recently started a campaign as the Franks and they ended up hording near the start of the game. They then took over the lands held by the Sarmatians causing them to horde and the Sarmatians decided to attack the Goths causing them to horde. On the plus side I'm pretty far away from most of the hordes, but I imagine I'll end up losing a few settlements to them at some point. Oh well, I'm not really interested in holding onto some of my less valuable cities at the moment.

[@witalian1]

@@thesacredlobo I played campaign with the sarmatians and the roxolani horde did fell down on me.

[@theflyingspaniard6881]

I feel like the best counter to the Sarmatians and Roxolani are vampires.

[@beelaroos7379]

Awesome video !

[@lugotorix6173]

Thank you

[@Xander77Ru]

7:00 - I swear the herdsmen are exceptionally good at catching horse archers. Either the unit size or the formation mess with skirmishing calculations. Back them up with a single heavy cav unit (and get them some experience so that they stop routing the moment they make contact) and they can become excellent HA annihilators.

[@DaddyLipinski]

I did the power play of making myself a horde, sacking the sassanids and wiping them out. Taking Antioch as my capital and fight off the eastern romans for a campaign win.

[@stephengayton5246]

Also love your channel

[@TheHelsinkiForager]

I’ve played the Berbers and had a great time each campaign, but the Roxolani are just an insane spike in difficulty if i never horde.

[@Lichtenhammer]

I've tried playing as the Roxolani several times but I never made it past 30 or so turns. I don't know why, but despite having one of the most pleasant colour schemes of any BI faction, they never clicked with my playstyle. Fun fact: The Roxolani are the faction with the most unused unit textures. Looking through the game files, you can find textures for Peasants, Sarmatian Auxilia, Steppe Lancers, Kurdish Javelinmen and Comitatenses in Roxolani colours, as well as several alt versions of existing Roxolani units.

[@lugotorix6173]

Yeah that's fair enough, this faction certainly doesn't suit everyone. I never knew about the textures thing, that's very interesting

[@thesacredlobo]

@@lugotorix6173 - I tend to play on normal difficulty, but it appears your best option is just to focus on either large numbers of horse archers or massive cavalry charges with a few general units in the stack to help utterly smash the enemies center line. The latter strategy usually results in mass routes that allow a thousand or so cavalry units to utterly decimate infantry heavy armies that are twice their size.

[@BraydenLondon88]

First I liked btw

[@lugotorix6173]

Thank you

[@thesacredlobo]

I'll admit my M/M campaign as this faction has been a bit weird to say the least. The Huns and Vandals still haven't settled anywhere and I'm 40 turns in. In fact, I just took Constantinople and learned that the Huns are located near the Southern portion of the Gothic's starting border and have lost about half their strength or more while having failed to cause any of the other factions in the region to horde. I have no idea where the Vandals are at, but it appears they've also failed to trigger any of the other horde factions so far as well. So I'm guessing they've also been weakened quite a bit. Though I'd say the weirdest aspect of the campaign is that the Western Roman Empire has apparently rebounded. In fact, they appear to have only lost a single territory at this point and have managed to rebuild their economy and have military strength almost on par with my own. At least based on how the game calculates military strength. And I'm currently allied with the Eastern Roman Empire Rebels so I can use them as a buffer state since they control Jerusalem and Philadelphia while the Eastern Roman Empire still controls Alexandria and Petra to my South. Thankfully my Western border with the Eastern Roman Empire at this point is located in Greece. So I'm at least closing in on my final two target cities. Though one of them is currently garrisoned by an entire army stack. So maybe the Vandals have been getting torn to pieces by the Western Roman Empire at Salona.

[@user-ox7ob6fm7e]

Kotais is in Georgia (NOT THE US, it's Caucassus region) nowadays and it called Kutaisi.

[@michaelaburns734]

Just a heads up you have to get Aquincum as well (West Roman Empire Territory)

[@mariosoto2588]

I have never play with this faction but have gotten crush several times with the Sarmathians. And it sucks but several times when playing with other factions they beat the vandals and the hunts. But I will try your sugestion and take the fight to the Persians

[@mrra4651]

Hey Lugo, why don't you also do faction guides for popular mods? Like stainless steel and Third age, and those which are really popular. By the way I apologize for any grammar mistake that I could have made, since I'm not sure that my question is correctly structured

[@lugotorix6173]

Hey man. The main reason is because I've never played those mods and therefore I don't feel qualified to talk about the factions in detail. If I ever get to learn about those factions in the future, I would consider making videos on them :)

[@mrra4651]

@@lugotorix6173 Oh, no worries, but anyway i suggest you to try them if you want, they are great

[@robland3253]

I think the virgin bit is a reference to them not being married

[@paullowman9131]

What buildings can this faction produce (other than those seen here)?

[@imstride3872]

Thx man I'mma do a roxalony campaign next it like u no wut I'mma do

[@Lankyblankman]

When the game says 'virgin' while yes it means what you think it means - but what the game is trying to get across is that these women have devoted their entire lives to war instead of child bearing. Infact these women have cut off their left breast so it does not hinder them when shooting their bow. Again this refers to how they are warriors and not meant to be mothers.

[@arthurbuder]

Kotais is a modern day Georgia, city Kutaisi

[@riperroxd7664]

11:23 may be a tradition for women in the army needing to be virgin, who knows?

[@lennydale92]

According to ancient historians there were Scythian tribes whose women had to kill on the battlefield before they married. Hence "virgin".

[@riperroxd7664]

@@lennydale92 sounds plausible 🙂🤔

[@ryanc4033]

It does mean virgin in ya know they fight for marriage

[@couchpotatoe91]

Not playing this game, more of a fan of the classical mediterranean. Would it be viable to "horde on purpose" (leaving your settlement to revolt) in order to get enough troops to crush the eastern nation?

[@mariosoto2588]

If I'm not mistaken u do have an option to leave your settlement but when I have done that with the goths I find myself loosing armies that I have recruited when I take other cities and not just the horde troops. Might have been just a bug tho

[@r4v3nh0od3]

a horse archer spammers wet dream. Mmm!

[@aldeen9190]

Do video about editing file cause there is not one video in HD about that

[@TristandeRobillard]

He has done it already, actually. Must have recorded this video before he did that.

[@lugotorix6173]

Laki PC Do you mean editing the files to unlock factions like the roxolani?

[@lugotorix6173]

I did one for the vanilla base game of Rome Total War, but not for barbarian invasion. Although the process is similar

[@aldeen9190]

@@lugotorix6173 yeah mate

[@lugotorix6173]

Ok awesome I'm going to try and get a video on it soon then

[@paulusrafaelis4337]

Hey i need help, Rome total war lags a fuck lot, help

[@Jordan67145]

Try lowering the graphics quality and the resolution (it won't make a huge difference in the gameplay but it'll make it faster, it's worth it), lower the units quantity so there will be less soldiers in each unit, and delete anything than you don't need/use very often from your computer. It should work.

[@hankcyrus9776]

I think it does mean what you think ot means, last thing you want is that your warriors get pregnant.

[@johnirby8847]

I just made a boat and sacked Constantinople with the 4 family members they give you and a couple of spearmen.

[@thesacredlobo]

Well that's one way to start the campaign. I went the potentially harder route of taking down the Sassanid Empire than conquered Anatolia. I just recently took Constantinople on turn 40 as my 16th territory.