CHAPTER VI: PAX ROMANA

Guide to Chapter VI: Pax Romana in Ryse: Son of Rome. Learn how to defend the base, manage archers, destroy siege towers, and defeat tough barbarians.

The first part of this chapter is a long defend-the-base style affair where you are allowed to choose where your archers are firing in between waves. There are two choices for your archers; one, you can have them use suppressing fire on the siege towers so that they can't fire their catapults at you. The other option is to have them help you when the barbarians get on the top of the walls.

Experiment with both and figure out which way is easier for you. You can use the scorpion ballistas to shoot the archers off the siege tower, but also be sure to call for the archers to help by yelling "FIRE VOLLEY!" In addition, if you asked the archers to cover you, you can repeatedly yell "ARCHERS -- COVER ME!" whenever it pops up on the screen.

The barbarians will attempt to reach the top of the walls using the previously mentioned siege towers as well as ladders. Run along the side of the wall and kick the ladders down to avoid having to fight as many barbarians and to keep your fellow Romans as alive as possible.

When the siege towers get close enough, immediately go to work whacking away at its bearings. The poles that need to be targeted are highlighted blue, so just run up and start mashing on X to destroy them. Keep repeating this until it's time to yell for your soldiers to retreat. "SOLDIERS -- MOVE OUT!" or hold LB to accomplish this, and then kill any straggling barbarians to join up with them.

Next you will encounter a group of barbarian archers. Deal with them as you usually do, and then get ready to fight a tougher barbarian armed with a bear fur on his head and a club. Most of his moves need to be dodged, and he has a tendency to block most attacks. He's kind of like a weaker version of Glott, to be perfectly honest. Use the same strategy as with Glott to deal with these types of barbarian enemies.

Continue slaughtering your way through the enemy barbarians until you reach the burning docks. Marius will move slowly through here. Maneuver him around the and over the obstacles to the cart that is glowing yellow. Go behind the cart and press Y to kick down a ramp and through the door. This will free your people, but you'll have to keep moving through the burning building the other way due to all of the flames.

After you exit, go to the cart that you kicked before and kick it again. This will put it perfectly into place so that it can be used to climb up to the post where the barbarian archers are located. Kill them (you can kill at least one from behind with a stealth kill very easily) and then hop down to continue your battles with barbarians.

Go to the flag at the docks and use it to get into formation with your troops. Push forward, blocking the arrows, and then taking the time to toss projectiles at your enemies as you can. The objective markers will lead you to the court house, so fight your way there and then fight your way through the waves of enemies that show up.

Meet with Vitallion outside of the courthouse. Walk with him and he will lead you to the scorpion ballista that is sitting on a wagon. Man it and then use it to keep back the barbarians. Use the explosive barrels as much as possible and be sure to yell "FIRE VOLLEY!" so that your archers can even up the score a bit as your other troops drag you backwards.

Start sprinting back through the courthouse when prompted, fighting off any enemies that show up. Marius will then have a final stand on the bridge, surrounded by enemy barbarians. Slice 'em and dice 'em until Marius is inevitably defeated.