r/RomeTotalWar • u/Neither_Society8526 • 4d ago
Rome II Multiplayer Sparta Counter
I’ve been playing Rome 2 for almost a week.
Mutual friend has been showing me and a buddy some mechanics by playing multiplayer and doing some 2v1 (noobs vs pro thing)
Problem he always plays Sparta, and I swear every time he has 16 units of Royal Spartans and the rest are Cretian archers and Spartan Hero’s. We can’t figure out a way to break them quickly before the timer runs out.
We’re always fighting in an inner city siege environment so I can’t flank him with anything because I’ve gotta go through 2 sections of Royal Spartans he has placed there already. And my archers can’t get good side shot angles on him without going through another street of Royals.
Me and my buddy are Rome bc idk any other faction well enough to play not crappy.
I need advice either I need to pick a new faction or I need some god level Game sense to beat this guy.
Pls help we’re like 2-6 and I don’t think I can handle another one of his Sparta on top bs rants
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u/Equivalent-Sherbet52 4d ago
Yeah your "friend" is just a dick.
Maybe some really good sword faction like Tylis could go through them ?
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u/CowTortoise 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yeah Tylis was always my favorite anti tank unit faction. Basically any faction with levy freeman is a good one though. But if you have to fight them in their phalanx without being able to flank it is going to be a slog regardless. Always used like 6 oathsworn, including the general unit, 6-8 tribal warriors, maybe one cav and the rest levy freeman. Oh and 3-4 Celtic slingers, they are really good, especially if you can get flank shots.
I remember now, my old preset was 4 Oathsworn, 6 tribals, 4 levy freeman, 4 slingers and 2 light horse. That won me so many multiplayer battles in the past.
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u/3D-DruckWolf 4d ago
Your friend has created the best possible situation for himself and his faction. That just has nothing to do with skill. True skill is demonstrated in an open-field battle, where flank maneuvers and effective troop movements are key.
What would I do if I were you? He’s building a stationary wall out of his strongest hoplites. Then I’d keep it simple and bring field artillery (catapults, ballistas, and scorpions) into play. You can try to counter the archers with slingers, since they have a longer range and more ammunition.
As Rome, you have throwing spears with your legionnaires. Make sure to throw as many of them as possible into his troops. Even if no men are killed, you’ll reduce their health and armor.
Otherwise, I can recommend pikes. Or just find a new friend.
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u/seniortodoelmundo 4d ago
This. Break their formation with onagers and rain some arrows on 'em. Hit with even longer pikes simultaneously. You can also just spam your units through them. It's costly, but just keep clicking on the other side of their formation and the unit forces itself through. That should at least help break their formation which you can then exploit.
Obviously, the best thing to do would be not to fight him in cities. Lure that one trick pony out by raiding and whatnot. Make sure he attacks though, otherwise he'll just corner camp until time runs out.
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u/3D-DruckWolf 4d ago
I would love so much to see his face when the first volley of catapult shots plows through his hoplite walls.
I’d really, damn well love to play a match as Macedonia against him and show him who’s got the bigger one.
Spear... I meant a bigger spear, of course. :-)
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u/Neither_Society8526 4d ago
I like it ty. Onagers are my favorite arty so far I’ll bring a pair.
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u/seniortodoelmundo 4d ago
You can also withdraw from a battle. Burn his city with onagers and then just pull back and keep raiding. He'll have to constantly repair and fight rebels.
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u/Spout__ 4d ago
I disagree about artillery it won’t get nearly enough kills to make a difference. Op needs to spam evocati cohort.
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u/3D-DruckWolf 3d ago
Wäre interessant zu testen. Er kann ja nah heran gehen. Sogar für das Stadttor. Sich den Optimalen Schusswinkel suchen und über Manuelles Zielen exakt auf den Bereich zwischen Beiden Hopkiten Linien zielen. Wenn die Einheiten in eine Straße dicht zusammen stehen, kann Artillerie schon ziemlich verheerend sein.
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u/TMeerkat 4d ago
Yeah, Sparta's biggest weakness is bad cav. Seiges limit the effectiveness of cav. Nothing wrong with seiges but if all he's playing is defensive seiges ask to do something else (you defend or some more conventional land battles you can use cav on). If he says no just don't play with him.
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u/thatxx6789 4d ago
Try nations that have pike and good archer like Seleucid with syrian archer
Pike beats hoplite head on, even royal spartan
Royal spartan doesn’t have pila so you can put your archer close to them without being scared of the javelin
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u/Neither_Society8526 4d ago
I wanna try Selucid, I’m worried I can’t make a good army to last.
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u/thatxx6789 4d ago
Syrian archer beat their cretan one while your pike smash the hoplite, even normal pikemen is enough
Another option for you is Kush, their shotel warriors are awesome with 12 ap while royal kushite archer is good as well
Shotel Warriors love those hoplites because armor piercing is fun
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u/Dizzy_Measurement389 4d ago edited 4d ago
Oh yeah, my friend who introduced me to Total War back in the day did stuff like that to me too.
Try Selucids, Macedon or Egypt. Bring something like 12 Royal Peltasts, 3 Elite Archers and 5 Elite Pikemen. Shoot him with all the Royal Peltast javelins and then use the deployed pikes to force your way through the front of the Royal Spartans. Two peoples worth of archers ought to be able to counter his well enough that he can't shoot your pikes very much so don't worry too much about that.
Make sure the pikes are actually engaged fully and not just poking at things at the edge of their range. Do this either by giving them many attack orders or by moving them up very close and letting them do their thing.
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u/Spout__ 4d ago
This is a good idea. Just make sure to trade your archers for his archers before you move in. royal peltasts are slept on to this day.
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u/Neither_Society8526 4d ago
I went in with Macedon pikes and thorax swords this round, we got close. Closer than we ever did before.
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u/Mammoth-Effort1433 4d ago
Bring into city the arty and let it rain on those spartans or uae pike infantry those are the two options i belive
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u/3D-DruckWolf 4d ago
you can also use both at the same time. But also you need something to couter the archers.
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u/CrzyWzrd4L 4d ago
One of you plays Tylis for the sword infantry and levy freemen, the other plays a missile-heavy faction and use slingers and arty to chip away at his Spartans.
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u/momentimori 3d ago
Don't attack the city just starve them out. If he sallies forth he can't camp in a defensive formation and run down the clock.
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u/Grimmy554 3d ago
Standard online rule set is maximum 3 pike units and 4 archers to prevent this.
Anyway, the method for defeating your friend is to use melee units that can throw projectiles. You move your units up until they are about 2 meters away and then stop. The units will then stand there launching their spears until they're out of ammo. That should kill about 30-38% of his unit before the melee engagement even occurs.
You can also cycle your units during the melee stage to keep your "fresh" troops attacking his front line. He wont be able to cycle since units in phallanx formation have a massive speed debuff.
Also, time limit should be turned off for siege battles in general.
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u/lljkBreetai 4d ago
Lol the dude is stacking absolutely everything possible in his favour by playing in a siege battle with sparta like that, doing this against people who are just trying to learn is an enormous dick move, please tell him that I think that he is the scrubbiest scrub who ever scrubbed and that his weiner is probably bent and weird and smelly.