Total War: Rome 2 Epirus Campaign #1

Total War: Rome 2. Playing as Epirus on Legendary difficulty. No mods. 1080p 60fps
Goal: Win
My Patreon: / legendtw
Twitch: / legendoftotalwar
Facebook: / legendoftotalwar
Secondary Channel: / legendoftw
Please note this is an unofficial video and is not endorsed by SEGA or the Creative Assembly in any way. For more information on Total War, please visit www.totalwar.com

[@memesfordays9608]

after 5 years im still watching this shit, and i love it

[@SWCaptainREX]

These are indeed my finest soldiers.

[@THEJaManes]

Great name my friend!

[@LuizAlexPhoenix]

You must be really letting go of your armies, where are their rifles?

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

Commission decided to replace rifles with spears and shields. Have to save money somehow. Damn embargoes.

[@Geronimo012]

Luiz Alex Phoenix

[@kostas3577]

@@fuzzydunlop7928 haha

[@jeffreythezeldafan]

I always find the first battles with the weakest units the most fun to watch and play

[@hangriat9376]

Same. My TW campaigns never seem to last more than 50 turns

[@shadowbear6894]

@@hangriat9376, even for Odrysian kingdom?)

[@DeezUp4Da3zz]

@@hangriat9376same i just wnjoy the early game slog, once the economy ramps up and ive got 3 auto resolve stacks i kinda just gg it

[@chickensforthechickengod9337]

I can just imagine in a Ep or two Nation destroyed Nation destroyed Nation destroyed Nation destroyed Nation destroyed Nation destroyed Nation destroyed Nation destroyed Message from Rome PLZ NO LEGE- Nation destroyed

[@phelanlawson8384]

Should've done an RP for this campaign. Loose %90 of every army every fight and beat the campaign.

[@camaradabr9926]

That is a really interestanting ideia.

[@tristandell]

not really accurate tho - pyrrhus took fractional losses against the romans, which of course added up. but he was doing well in greece until he took a roof tile to the head

[@lewisyeadon4046]

Phyrros never took high casualties- his problem with Rome is that he was fighting in a foreign land against an enemy that, even if they lost numerous armies, would still fight It didn't matter how many Phyrros lost, one man dead against an enemy that keeps making armies is a big loss

[@huckthatdish]

Did that guy pay you to do Epirus because he knows how much you hate pikes?

[@ericmolloy2319]

*Legend dumbass voice* YoU sPElT EPirUS WrOnG

[@drosso4956]

Eric Molloy lol I actually didn't realise that

[@LegendofTotalWar]

fixed it thanks

[@ericmolloy2319]

LegendofTotalWar No problem lol

[@Hidole555]

While I was overall disappointed by Rome 2, one of the things I looked forward to the most before it launched was building an empire out of Pyrrhus' Epirus, bringing new meaning to the term "Pyrrhic victory". Thank you for doing this campaign.

[@rlav1276]

Legend quote: "We can't beat them in head to head combat... But, we can shoot them"

[@johnn8795]

That moment when you not only outnumber an enemy but you have a better economy, and are the birthplace of western civilization and some dude up north with 12 elephants kills your entire army, and takes your city.

[@thaneofwhiterun3562]

When your entire civilization is destroyed by 12 elephants ,1200 dickeads with slingshots and some rocks

[@jackcharlton1375]

Imagine thinking "western civilization" is a thing

[@johnn8795]

Jack Charlton so out of a 38 word comment, (the comment is a joke in reference to amusing events within the video if you couldn’t figure that out) you decided that two words spoken in jest would inspire you to reply to a one year old comment. Nice. KZbin comment sections in a nutshell. Normal video, comment joking about video, and obviously a comment that wants to start debating politics. Imagine taking everything completely seriously and thinking that every tiny thing needs to suddenly be about politics. Oof.

[@jackcharlton1375]

@@johnn8795 "I can't believe this guy is so petty" >writes a reply 8 times as long, in which he counts the amount of words in a year old comment He'll yeah

[@johnn8795]

Jack Charlton first. “He’ll yeah” legendary. Second. You really don’t get it huh?

[@Robin-kp1nv]

Always when I watch a new Legend playthrough vid it just reminds me how terrible I am at Total War. Lol

[@accipiterluscus7881]

oh Epirus the first place I'd invade in Rome 1

[@Robertl-xz6yl]

Accipiter Luscus I hope this is in a dumb comments video

[@zakback9937]

Well there are the (Epirote) rebels in Apollonia which the region in the game is called Epirius.... so if your playing as the Brutii they senate will issue you that to take it first.

[@Atilla_the_Fun]

Bitch, I'll invade Rome first as Eprius.

[@Raphael4722]

What's up with so many of Legend's fans being arrogant assholes. The OP said it was the first place he invaded (obviously Apollonia), not the first faction.

[@accipiterluscus7881]

Well yes the region, it was just Epirote Rebels, Greeks States and Macedonians in those parts. I should have clarified in the original comment, and now I'll have to live with the consequences(though they are minuscule these repercussions, just like your manhood).

[@josh8945]

"We've got elephants" always comes out as a solution 😅

[@generalediaz2391]

"mmhhh Epirus... It's so hard eeeuuu" XD That's why we love you

[@JesusJefferson]

I'm loving the amount of battles in just one episode; learning decent tactics. Cheers Lege, I know the autoresolves will be numerous and fruitful soon enough.

[@DRC85]

This is my favorite type of stuff from Legend. Not a this is total war wtf grind vs 1000 enemies, but a difficult scenario that I would really struggle with had I not just seen this.

[@The_Blackshield]

For most people, the world is their oyster. For Legend however, it's his bitch.

[@Warwolfi]

Perfect channel for morning coffee before school :)

[@sam0578]

Three battles in one day Ares smiles upon us Starting Total War games and this is really helpful

[@GuentherShadow]

Just want to share my strategies that I tried for the start. Maybe someone finds it helpful. What often worked was sabotaging the upper spartan army. They'll retreat which gives you considerably more time in the beginning. However, if you get a NAP and trade agreement with Macedon in turn 1, you'll also get the same treaties with Ardiei in turn 1 *and* sabotaging the spartan army worked in 10 of 10 cases for me. But: Getting the treaties with Macedon on turn 1 seems to be a bit random (so might need to restart). If you get the treaties on turn 1, Macedon will not join war when you declare on Athens on turn 3. Turn 1: Move Eusebios to the first crossing south, recruit 3 units (2 Pikes, 1 Slinger?) with Eusebios, transfer all troops from Pyrrhus (forced march; only use fm durin turn 1!) to Eusebios. Get the treaties. Sabotage (poison) the spartan army. Research mil-tech. Turn 2: Put Pyrrhus at the border on the right side of the mountain. Guard Eusebios' army with your spy. Recruit 3 units (2 Hoplites, 1 Slinger?) with Eusebios. Strangely, spy actions always result in a failure in turn 2, so guarding your main army is the best option. Turn 3a: If Athens moves out of the city, sabotage (poison) the first army, recruit 2 Hoplite mercs, 1 Thureos merc and 1 Tarantine merc with Pyrrhus (if you recruit more troops, Athens will retreat). Attack the second army with Pyrrhus and crush them. Attack the first army with Eusebios. Checkmate. Turn 3b: If Athens won't move out of the city, sabotage the army in the city (wreck baggage train; you might wanna pick zeal for your spy), recruit some mercs with Pyrrhus (cav is essential), move Eusebios close so he can reinforce. Attack the army outside the city with Pyrrhus, wipe if possible. Take the city with Eusebios (you might need Pyrrhus to wipe the remaining army of Athens. Disband some mercs in Pyrrhus' army (you might wanna keep the cav) and move 'em up a little so Sparta can't attack him (north of Athens?). Turn 4: Sabotage the lower Spartan army (the one without the spy; poison). Move Eusebios close to Sparta but attack with Pyrrhus. GG.

[@tomaszlosinski875]

Tante Günna I'm sure some will find this useful but to legend you just wasted a load of time.

[@GuentherShadow]

...because you know what he considers to be a waste of time, right? :-*

[@Scarheart76]

He's already completed the series. Everything has already been recorded.

[@chester021100]

OMG Günna haha nice dich hier zu sehen :D

[@GuentherShadow]

Danke. Ebenso. ;)

[@Atilla_the_Fun]

I like the Epirot starting position. It is hard (especially since I played multiplayer head to head with a human Rome player) but certainly doable. You just have to deploy a bit of cunning. I changed things up from how I usually play, I had to actively use spies (to gauge enemy troop movements) and Ambush the Roman troops in order to win. It is also IMMENSELY satisfying. Probably one of the few total war campaigns where you have to use good military campaign strategy. Most other campaings you can just bum rush the enemy cities without scouting and easily win with autoresolve..

[@shlokvenkat9479]

Attila the Fun I know it’s been a year but which other campaigns would you recommend that are similar?

[@Justheory11b]

@@shlokvenkat9479 the suebi is constant battles from turn 1. public order problems, food problems, rebellions, and your neighbors will constantly watch you for a weakness. Carthage gets quite tough the higher the difficulty.

[@shlokvenkat9479]

Bradley Trogdon thanks a lot! Fired up a suebi campaign and i’m already being challenged left and right. Had to abandon 3 settlements in true LegendofTotalWar fashion cuz they were too expensive

[@Justheory11b]

@@shlokvenkat9479 awesome!

[@bt15443]

I love how this dude is blunt af

[@EmhyrvarSpice]

Lol. first you talk about how Elephants are too expensive, then they kill half an army.

[@jackthemapper]

If he had 7 units of militia hoplites instead of the elephants (same upkeep) he couldve just auto-resolved. The only reason he didnt get 7 units of militia hoplites instead is because recruitment time is more precious than upkeep within the first 2-4 turns. After killing sparta and athens getting rid of the elephants to get hoplites instead is a good idea. Not only do they perform 100x better in autoresolve, they also add much more to your power ranking giving a boost to all diplomatic options. This prevents random declarations of war from other factions, makes small factions more likely to trade with you and big factions more likely to agree to non-aggression pacts. It also increases the amount of money factions are willing to give you for diplomatic stuff.

[@daniellipko710]

Epirus was the first Legendary campaign I ever tried, after a quick Rome campaign on Hard. Took me a few tries to figure things out, but I was able to make some friends and bribe Athens so they wouldn’t attack me while I took out Sparta, and once I took Sparta and then Athens, I was set. That’s how Legendary is, a tense first 10-20 turns and then it’s alright

[@deeznoots6241]

“I’m not a big fan of pikemen” heresy

[@airhead5683]

Epirus is my favourite Faction in the game! ;)

[@DovahKanye]

I tried Epirus with the DEI mod, you actually start out at war with Rome, and have one city in Italy, I made friends with the all the other greek states. It was my first campaign in years so I only played it on normal, I think DEI changes a lot though, including the fatigue in battle.

[@tariq9755]

You gotta be fn kidding me

[@king_of_sin7494]

Dude!! Ive been waiting for you too do an epirus campingn I love your videos

[@the3rdid485]

Some of these manual battles are so painful for the watch, because you do some things so much better than I ever could regarding their missile units and with so much more skill. Then other stuff just absolutely astounds my mind when you just have your guys running around exhausting themselves and letting your units get picked off one by one from the rear for no reason. They had no missile units left and no cavalry, just line your dudes up in a row of Spears with slingers behind them elephants and cavalry from the rear and you have an easy almost zero casualty victory.

[@FLEMNMable]

Great heroic victory man, always have loved watching you micro enemies into dust!

[@ImperatortotiusHispaniae]

Never seen a Epirus campaign, glad your playing it Legend

[@breaden4381]

I like that generous subscriber. Epirus is very fun.

[@joeroganpodfantasy42]

A tactic for this hellenic factions is hire all the cretan archers set them on heavy arrows and melt anything. Cretan archers are better than slingers damage wise then add the heavy arrows and they melt units away fast.

[@mercurius1877]

You are so lucky that the nearest Illyrian tribe to the north did not declare war and seize Apollonia. This always happens on my attempts at 'legendary' Epirus campaigns, even if I compromise my invasion of Hellas by leaving a moderate garrison in the north. Also, Macedon may sometimes declare war and take Larissa. The result of this potentiality coming into play means that you end up hopelessly sandwiched - regardless of how successful your campaigns to the south are

[@joeroganpodfantasy42]

In the second battle why not put the slingers on skirmish and let them do their thing and put the hotplits at some corner , eventually when slingers have retreated enough and the enemy is weak your hoplites clean up whats left, you sent your slingers to some corner protecting them without using them.

[@todalio9238]

It's refreshing to see cheese without archers checkerboard corner camping. I love cheese, but would you eat the same one-and-only type of cheese everyday?

[@perseus6107]

legend was bribed lmao

[@PhonkElement]

i learned alot from these battles, i used to fight in a line formation even with light spear units which never ended well for me

[@zinkgames9276]

Thanks Legend and donator who made this happen. :)

[@samothhamsvoord9868]

I like this Lets play as Epirus alot. Thnx for the awsome content!

[@Kevindtong]

Do Carthage legendary campain again. Its a lot harder nowadays.

[@jackryan4938]

Epirus and Legendary is hard good luck mate let’s see if you can take on Rome Apollo did

[@Bismarckii]

Thought I watching a Rome 1 or Medieval 2 let's play with all the played battles been most enjoyable let's play start for Rome 2 in long time

[@SkillaWillits]

The beginnings of the Pyrrhic empire... with a few strategic victories the king took Greece.

[@MTCoblivsicas12345]

Unfortunately history wasn't so kind to King Pyrus. He was killed when attempting to take a city. A women watching the fight recognised him for killing her son in a previous battle so she threw a roof tile at him which killed him.

[@MTCoblivsicas12345]

That is the Roman version of events some historians say the women with the roof tile was made up and he was probably killed by a slinger.

[@afeminist5110]

Fuckin yes finally some challenge for you

[@enldd]

You got some next gen harddrive, it literally takes you 5 sec lo load a battle. I have to wait for a good 20 sec or more D:

[@garrow12225]

My favorite campaign, took a while to get established but after I just rolled over the other factions.

[@andreasbaldauf1610]

I've got 1000 hours and never thought about tacticts like this

[@lokenontherange]

Epirus is hard if you can't use elephants or if you get your elephants killed. It's also difficult if you're an autoresolver because elephants aren't 1000+ kill units on autoresolve. Just kill Athens and Sparta, then dominate everyone with one of the most powerful unit rosters behind Bactria and the Seleucids. Mostly because the AI is too stupid to walk around pike walls, the cavalry is fantastic, and the melee infantry have good stats. Also as a thing. Narrow frontage on cavalry is generally a very poor plan in Rome 2. Keeping a broad frontage is almost always better as the impact of a charge is calculated almost entirely based on how many cavalry hit the unit in the frontal charge. The second or third lines are basically irrelevant because they stop charging in contact with no enemies. This is why the slingers didn't instantly break when sandwiched. In regards to the use of elephants the most effective way I've found to use elephants against competent infantry is to engage that unit with a unit of pikes and then attack them in the rear with elephants. This severely increases the damage of the elephant's charge, deals a usually decisive blow to morale, and allows you to avoid the charge resistances most spear equipped units have.

[@mikeymike4879]

521 in chicago so got it up in less than 12 hrs nice job lol

[@mikeymike4879]

And manual thank u legend hell yea

[@jamescampbell965]

Thunder thunder thunder

[@jamescampbell965]

Thunder cats oooooooooooooo

[@veljkoangelovski5349]

"so the first reason for this campaign is (speaks latin for a second there)"

[@MrMatroos1]

Thanks for this Campaign !

[@Praetorian1995]

Good campaing! Good luck legend!

[@calinrazvan8502]

Yesss!!! Exactly what I wanted to see !!

[@alverygrissom2544]

this is the most hardcore campaign you've ever done, no doubt about it

[@generalbinks123]

i think that spot goes to the WRE legendary This is Total War in Attila, or Carthage: This is Total War in Rome 2

[@justinwilcox7230]

general binks I'm going to go with the WRE, that shit was intense.

[@jackwhite1454]

Speaking of that aggressive game style

[@claytonwright6166]

@LegendofTotalWar pikes are really good and very simple to use, i would really suggest using them because they are pretty much the backbone of epirus's army

[@wizardcat7654]

Poor Pyrrhus, remembered for winning poorly.

[@edwardrh8800]

YEEEEEEEEES THE TIME HAS COME! where is the guy that said that he is ready in the ERE Legendary campaign? XD we need him!

[@tramrant]

it was a cool battle however no military genius in history could've possibly micromanaged his army and every single unit this way))

[@RahulDevanarayanan]

Brah you snoozing on that cav micro

[@multedyr5164]

When you enemy blobs up like that 4 units on one pike unit.. it would have been more cost effective to use the 4 slingers to shoot at there backs than have them all 4 waste time on shooting one unit chasing a cav. The beginning of the fight against Athes was great... well managed to get the two slingers.. but then you lost cohesion of your army running around.. and lost to many men getting caught and not capitalising on it

[@janfarkas8953]

yes!!!! You are the best Legend

[@distilledwater8871]

15:15 spoken like a true Athenian

[@kjvr_kurt3171]

Nice vid

[@12345Granada]

EPIRUS! BLESS THAT GUY!

[@thaneofwhiterun3562]

Epirus is a province in Greece (it was also an ancient greek kingdom and then a byzantine despote state) , the guy you're looking for is Pyrrhus

[@AguhEad13]

I was thinking like will there be another Rome II campaign perchance ,even I don't know why I was thinking about that but I was, then I got a notification from KZbin...

[@henrysmith4907]

Legend! I think you might like bullgod style unit cards, probably my favorite art style in any total war!

[@marksargeant1019]

Reminds me I've never played as Epirus in EU:Rome

[@LuizAlexPhoenix]

I wonder if the guy knows what he paid for. Either he knows, making him a sadist, or he is oblivious to how Legend's play style is the opposite to the Greek defensive one.

[@skeletstone6782]

Ppl saying epirus is hard... Idk what you are doing but 8f you don't mess up the first 5 turns you basically have the whole Greek world and everything is open

[@zembii33]

[@aleksjamnik5360]

Thundercats could be warhammer 40k, Thundercats wear the first space marins, who wear used by the emporer to unife terra aka earth, but could be some other thing

[@HAL-cp4mt]

Efficient as fuck .

[@Plaak]

Oh nice! I like greek states in Rome 2. Played as Epirus twice. Not the best unit roster, but not bad either.

[@Fish4Man61]

Idk. The fact they have and can recruit elephants right off the bat is a huge boon compared to some other Greek choices.

[@Plaak]

I don't think elephants are that good overall. Too expensive in early game, not very effective in all those auto-resolve that happen in late game. In my campaign i disbanded them as soon as i conquered Sparta, and i never recruited more afterwards. Greek culture's strength is spear and pike infantry, and Epirus gets access to pretty mediocre units for tier 4. Generally speaking, Successor Kingdoms > Greek States in terms of late game units.

[@phillipwise940]

Favourite fraction by far just so hard at the start

[@ars6572]

great battle against athens

[@user-cq5sn5hq4m]

Thanks

[@JoshuaKevinPerry]

LEGEND are you planning to play Oriental Empires on Channel 2? It drops soon, seems to be your type of game, and Bob Smith of Total War, medieval 2 is the lead designer

[@dannyshadbolt229]

Legend do you use graphics mods or do you play pure vanilla ? id love it if you made a major empires modded campaign , then play as a minor one. Its really hard and a lot more realistic

[@charleswilson1583]

dude your micro is hella good

[@jonathanjohnson7743]

lOVE THE VIDS MAN AND YOUR OVERAL LEGENDOFTOTALWAR GIVE NO FUCKS ATTITUDE ABOOUT HOW YOU DO SHIT BRUH

[@Reparky1]

Congrats Most Impossible campaing on Legendary

[@wizardcat7654]

"gods, I hate gauls......I mean dumb campaign diplomacy mechanics"

[@mcglynn20]

Just starting this. I expect every victory to be pyrrhic, or I will be very disappointed.

[@gerapelmeshamletovich1942]

Хорошо играешь.

[@msf47]

If u dont play good the first few moves with Epirus is game over .First time when i was playing with Epirus Rome ,Sparta Athens and Adriel declared war on me and it was game over

[@andrewthibodeau8962]

Been waiting for this shit you fucker

[@ninjutsugrandmaster]

Go pikes! :)

[@RyKuuPL]

I start watch this . OP ! I am Happy ! Play please much manual fight you can .

[@matth523]

Underpowered Classical Graeco faction? No problem. Slingers and Elephants

[@theforealestchannel]

WHENS THE SEQUIL?!?

[@Vekhh]

3:13 Not a big fan of pikeman. So why u play Epirus in the first place?

[@retrohaggis7969]

how the fuck can you not know what thundercats is!!!! :0

[@luketinkler9723]

Ever thought of doing a dei campaign would like to see you do one

[@grandstrategos1144]

Luke Tinkler He does not do it because it takes longer. Maybe one day.....

[@lj4339]

Thunder cats

[@MasonicadaM]

lol I would say Epirus is one of the easiest factions on legendary in the whole game once Sparta and Athens are dead you've pretty much won and Epirus also has one of the best rosters in the whole game and is super rich and you can get elephants as mercs anywhere

[@enyalios316]

Their Aspis Cavalry is so op. I think only cataphracts can beat 'em

[@Sanctor]

Leave Rome alone and let them build up until it's just the 2 of you. That would be sweet

[@__MaReX__]

Sanctor: Total Warrior rome can really fuck up factions if you leave it to grow to a super power with it's its latest troops in legendary . now Legend can make it work but it could really screw him over

[@James-sk4db]

As epirus on legendary rome attacks you pretty quick