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Total War: Arena

Total War: Arena > Guides > Jagg's Guides
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Everything I Wish I Knew Sooner
By Jagg
Lot's of Total War Arena guides are popping up, but nobody is doing a great job of consolidating the info. Wisdom is power in Total War Arena, and this guide will be a brain dump of all the things I wish I new when I first started.
   
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Created by
Jagg
In-Game
DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT
Category: Characters, Classes, Game Modes, Gameplay Basics, Maps or Levels, Multiplayer, Secrets, Walkthroughs, Weapons
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
15 Nov, 2015 @ 9:51pm
16 Nov, 2015 @ 12:23pm
3,523 Unique Visitors
26 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Intro & Change Log 
Commanders 
User Interface 
Economy 
Match Making 
Unit & Commander Abilities 
Winning Matches 
Gameplay & Strategy 
Conclusion & Feedback 
Comments
Intro & Change Log
If there is something I missed please comment and I will add it in! I will also keep a change log here so you can easily see what has changed since you last visited this guide. Please rate by giving a thumbs up and favorite if you like this guide!

Updates:
  • 11/16/2015 - Organized tips into categories and added a handful of new ones (mostly around UI and commanders). Lots of formatting tweaks.

Commanders
  • Your commander is an actual person on the battlefield when you are fighting. The commander is always assigned to the left most unit in your army when you are selecting units in the main menu.
  • The last ability you unlock for each commander is considered their ult, get this unlocked asap so you can wreck people.
  • You can upgrade units with Commander exp if you don't have enough unit exp. HOWEVER, I don't recommend doing this, as commander exp is harder to come by.
  • If at all possible win 1 round with each commander each day since you get free gold and huge bonuses for the 1st victory with each commander for the day.
User Interface
  • The little arrows on unit icons indicate light/medium/heavy units.
  • You can press 'm' by default to open a performance monitor (ping, FPS, etc.)
  • You can hit the tab key to open a strategic map. You can also change how units are displayed in the strategic map via the dropdown menu in the top left.
  • You can hit the buttons in the very very top left/right to open up player scoreboards. You can also expand them using the arrow to see a more detailed breakdown.
  • Some gear on units can be 'Forged'. This serves as a purely cosmetic upgrade for your unit. If you see gear listed but cannot buy it, that means it was an exclusive item that is probably no longer available IE - the humble shield.
Economy
More details coming soon...
Match Making
  • (still verifying) The Tier you are put in the match maker in is based off your highest rank unit in your army, NOT your commander rank. This means you could take a t10 commander into a t1 match if you equipped t1 units in your army. This is very important because most players won't have all their commander abilities at lower tiers.
  • Generally you are placed in matches with players that are within 1-3 tiers of you. As more players enter beta you will see less gaps between tiers in match making. Just remember, even if you see a way higher tier commander, they might be fielding lower rank units.
Unit & Commander Abilities
More coming soon...

  • The small ballistas that Romans/Greeks get have an ability to deconstruct/reassemble them. Use this to run your unit to a good position (ideally hidden) and re-deploy.
Winning Matches
More details coming...

  • Capture enemy base (caps faster the more units you have on it).
  • Wipe out enemy troops
  • Point victory after timer runs out
Gameplay & Strategy
  • FRIENDLY FIRE IS REAL. Never fire into a melee engagement unless your friendly unit is about to be wiped out. Seriously, this is huge.
  • With range units you should generally prioritize taking out other range units first.
  • Some swordsman and barbarians have range attacks built in. Just hold alt and you can see your cursor change. Note there are limited shots.
  • Some unit abilities are commander specific. If your commander dies during battle you will no longer be able to use those abilities.
  • When you order a unit to charge they will charge in the direction they are currently running, so it is critical that you 'align' them to the target first.
  • Watch towers are super important. You capture them by simply having a unit sit on the flag. Once you capture it you get vision in a radius around the tower. This allows you to easily know what the enemy is up to AND you can hit their units with range troops much easier from the increased vision. IE - your archers can be bush wookies :)
  • If you have light units, you should always be trying to fight in forests due to the terrain bonus. Conversely, if you have heavy infantry or any cavalry you should be fighting on roads/grass. See the terrain guide for more details.
  • Tall grass and forest areas limit your vision. Use this to your advantage both offensively and defensively. This is especially fun when combined with the watch towers.
  • Units that route when their morale breaks will always run back towards their base.
  • Routing units still passively attack units that run by them, so keep this in mind if you are attacking routing units.
Conclusion & Feedback
If you liked this guide or found it useful please rate it by giving it a thumbs up and favorite it (at the top of the page)!

Hopefully you can take your new found knowledge and own some noobs! If I missed something or you discover something please comment below so I can add it in and keep this guide updated.

Check back soon to stay updated on any new tips & tricks. I will always post the latest updates in the change log.
20 Comments
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Ninja Gaijin 21 Feb, 2016 @ 10:52am 
edit out the free gold
Moon 17 Feb, 2016 @ 4:29pm 
you might add that you can be seen in the grass from a watch tower. learned that the hard way
BottomFeeder 26 Jan, 2016 @ 12:36am 
Hey nice guid man.
Yonky 15 Jan, 2016 @ 5:30am 
Sabotage, if i'm not mistaken, you can set up buttons for control groups in the commands options
Yonky 15 Jan, 2016 @ 5:29am 
You could also add that you can focus an enemy to shoot while moving with ranged cavalry by holding CTRL and right clicking the enemy. Note that you can't cancel this lock, so if you want to stop shooting you have to lock into a far away enemy, or else you'll deal tons of FF
Riku 10 Jan, 2016 @ 10:23am 
Thanks for noting that there is friendly fire! :D
Sabotage 4 Dec, 2015 @ 7:33am 
Well, this is an amazing total war game, just got my key and thinking about the vast possibilities as a MOBA/RPG/RTS? Very new to me and looking for people to group with. From brazil, but have decent english. Feel free to add me. on steam or curse, im trying to assemble some players and make a group on curse, arthurolcoelho is my ID from Curse voice.
Thanks for the guide, hope i could give some good feedback.

feel free to add me ! Im in need of real tatics
part 4
Sabotage 4 Dec, 2015 @ 7:32am 
There is a lot to say about strategy and cooperating with your other NINE fellas, formations, terrains, ambushes, and true war, can't remember everything.
-GOLD, CA have workers to make this game, and they are still making it, if you like the effect gold have on your gameplay, buy it, otherwise you can find some really nice custom battles on TW SHogun 2 for example, support the developers, feedback them, it's a BETA game, can think about they expanding factions like HUNS, NORDICS, EGYPCIANS and many ohter, this game dont have a chronological purpose, They may add game modes like sieges and etc.. Do you work for free? (Gold its overpriced now, thats why we should feedback them). Sorry if said something that doesnt belong here.

part 3
Sabotage 4 Dec, 2015 @ 7:32am 
-DEBRIEF SCREEN IS NOT A PAINT A DICK APP, use F1 and F2 wise, and coordinate, with audio tools this is another game, and you can VOTE for a commander, that will be placing orders in the middle of your screen (nice move CA), learning tatics, ambushes, lures its real strategy. (Check for the vote thing, guess is /poll or /vote)
-KNOW your role on the match and do it, are u a scout? Stealth? Flanks? Heavys? Long, mid, or short art?
- I haven’t figured out how to make control 1 etc groups, but really miss it, binding keys is not working for me, if you have something about formations, lock groups and etc.. would be something to say to begginers.

part 2
Sabotage 4 Dec, 2015 @ 7:31am 
Think I can help u adding something to your guide.
-FRIENDLY FIRE is very intense, watch that, hit H to stop actions, FOCUS FIRE can have some impact when you are not behind your ally. Archer are very precise, slingers will hit everyone, sometimes you will end your ally game and lose even high tier troops.
-KNOW YOUR ENEMY, spend sometime learning about units, purposes, abilities and generals, terrains you should engage or not.
-COMMUNICATION, you are playing a 10vs 10 QUICK MATCH, CA just made avaible the CURSE VOICE wich will auto join you with your team in game, on REDDIT they made a teamspeak and everyone is welcome. Try playing togheter, too much people on a match, im starting to lure enemies on ally archers cause they are killing my t5 raiding barbs.

(part 1)