Total War: Rome 2 - Greek States (DLC)

This is a Culture Pack DLC for Total War: Rome II, which means no new campaign map and no new historical scenario. What you get is three playable factions unlocked for the Grand Campaign, Custom Battles, and Multiplayer: Athens, Epirus, and Sparta. Each brings its own unit roster, building chain, tech tree, cultural objectives, and a top-tier Military Tradition that meaningfully shapes late-game strategy. That framing matters before you spend anything, because a significant chunk of the mixed Steam reception (sitting around 57% positive) comes from players who wanted a full campaign experience and found a faction unlocker instead. On the numbers side, the three factions are genuinely distinct in ways that go beyond cosmetics. Athens leans into tech and culture: its Pursuit of Enlightenment grants tech and cultural bonuses, its navy can unlock the Children of the Aegaean tradition for improved ramming and raiding income, and its standard roster runs armored Hoplite phalanxes flanked by light skirmishers and noble cavalry. Athens also starts as a recently freed client state of Macedon and at war with Epirus, which creates immediate diplomatic pressure that forces you to think two or three turns ahead rather than just building up in peace. Sparta plays as the melee-defense specialist, with the Peers of Leonidas tradition cutting upkeep while boosting defensive stats, and the Monument of Leonidas building providing province-wide morale bonuses. The catch community voices consistently flag is that Sparta lacks meaningful cavalry options, and its tier-4 infantry underperform compared to eastern Hellenic factions like Seleucid or Baktria. Epirus is the sleeper pick: arguably the hardest starting position of the three, boxed in with a unique village-confederation economy and Hellenic Mistrust causing diplomatic friction with other Greek factions. Its reward is a balanced Alexandrian-style roster including war elephants, Royal Hellenic Cavalry, and Tarantine Cavalry, plus the Hounds of Molossus charge-bonus tradition that makes aggressive play viable. The shared cultural layer adds a passive strategic identity across all three. The Fierce Independence trait gives a flat +10% melee defence when fighting in own or allied territory, nudging all three factions toward defensive campaigns or careful expansion close to home before projecting power outward. Cultural conversion rates inside their borders are also elevated, which matters when you are absorbing non-Hellenic settlements and trying to avoid public order fires. New faction-specific dilemmas and historical events trigger across the campaign, giving the runs some narrative texture beyond the standard Rome II event pool. The honest reservation is the same one that was raised at launch in September 2013: this content shipped one day after the base game, which has always made it feel like content that was held back rather than built afterward. If your Rome II time is already heavy with Macedon, Pontus, or Seleucid, the Greek States pack offers familiar Hellenic mechanics with a different geopolitical starting corner rather than a fundamentally new system. The DEI (Divide et Impera) mod community has also expanded these factions considerably for free, so if you are a modded-game player you may already have much of the flavour covered. The DLC earns its place cleanest for Grand Campaign purists who want Athens, Epirus, or Sparta accessible in the full world map without mods, and for multiplayer players who want those factions in Custom Battles. Diego, Scout Team