Infantry

Learn how to use Infantry, your primary close-combat fighters, in Total War: Rome II. Understand their strengths and weaknesses for effective battlefield tactics.

Infantry are your best and almost always only close-combat fighters. Lined up, they effectively make a wall to protect your missile units. They are great killers when the enemy stays still for them to slaughter. Infantry can take Cavalry head on and, if they can catch up, kill missile units efficiently.

But, that brings me to the weakness of Infantry. They have good overall defense and attack ability, but very poor speed. Cavalry can quickly get out of a jam with infantry if they have an opening to run. Missile units can usually out-skirmish them. Infantry, basically, only get a chance to duke it out against enemy infantry or the occasional moment when the AI makes a mistake.

To make up for the lack of speed, a player needs to make sure that, when in close-combat range, the enemy does not move. If you have two infantry units near an enemy Cavalry, try to attack from different sides and effectively block the Cavalry in. That's really the only way you can take out faster units; when you don't block them in, they will run away.