Total War: Rome 2 is out now; here’s our Total War: Rome 2 review.
Creative Assembly have introduced another of Total War: Rome 2’s playable factions: this time they’ve thrust Parthia into the spotlight. Parthia is an Middle Eastern faction formed from a collection of tribes. Their distinguishing feature: their horse archers and bronze-armoured heavy cavalry. Combined, they likely make for dangerous mobile armies.
Parthia draws influence from both Persian and Greek practices, combining both culture’s gods into one pantheon. They also takes influence from Zoroastrianism and benefit from trade links that include access to the emerging Silk Road, a pan-asian trade route that could be an enormous economic advantage and a source of great profit. According to the faction entry on the Total War wiki, The Silk Road allows agents “to move easily throughout the ancient world.”
Until that Silk Road emerges, the Parthian economy relies on tracts of farmland controlled by a noble elite, while the diversity of Parthian culture gives it “tolerance for foreign cultures, but their Zoroastrian practices mean an aversion to slavery, which is detrimental to both the economy and to public order.” Their dislike of the practice of slavery may put the Parthians ahead of their time, but they won’t enjoy the same production benefits that their neighbours might.
Parthia’s infantry units include spearmen, hillmen and skirmisher units, alongside mercenary forces.
As you can see from the image above, they’re also extraordinarily well-dressed.