Expeditions: A Guide to Roman Legion Conquest and Stratagems

Expeditions: Rome Legion conquests and various stratagems are important in taking land from your enemies. Why stay confined to one corner of the world when you can conquer new lands?

While this is a big part of Expeditions: Rome, leading your army isn't as simple as moving from one territory to another. This guide will tell you what you need to know about Legion Conquests, as well as how Stratagems work.


Expeditions: Rome map features and icons explained

Since there are a lot of mechanics to discuss, we also suggest you take a look at our other Expeditions: Rome guides on Praetorian/Centurion recruitment and benefits, Outpost buildings and upgrades and peacekeeping missions.


For this particular Expeditions: Rome guide, we'll be looking at facets related to conquering the world map and various points of interest when leading Legio VI Victrix. Here's the basics on points of interest, infrastructure, and other landmarks when it comes to Legion Conquest:

  • Each campaign act in Expeditions: Rome takes place in a specific region (Act 1 in Asia Minor, Act 2 in North Africa, etc.).
  • The regions are subdivided into sectors. For the most part, you need to control these territories to advance further in the main quest.
  • Control of a sector requires you to attack the main settlement, leading to a battle (more on this concept below). There are also times when you need to complete a pacification mission.
  • An exception to the rule is a main settlement that is part of a quest. For example, Act 1 in Asia Minor sees Kyzikos besieged by Mithradates VI. There are 300 troops there, which means it's impossible to attack.
  • A fully pacified sector allows you to capture infrastructure and landmarks there if they are neutral. You will send your Legion to this location, but you should keep in mind the required resources such as denarii and slaves, as well as the minimum Legion manpower needed to undertake this task.
  • If the infrastructure is in the hands of a hostile force, then another conquest battle will take place.

Expeditions: A Guide to Roman Legion Conquest and Stratagems



Upon capturing infrastructure such as Farms, Tanneries, Lumber Mills, and Iron Mines, you will obtain tools which will be used to unlock Legion Outpost upgrades. Here are some examples:

  • Iron mine: 1 soldiers and 200 slaves
  • Farm: 1 soldiers, 200 denarii and 50 slaves
  • Sawmill: 1 soldiers, 200 deniers and 50 slaves
  • Tannery: 1 soldiers, 200 denarii and 50 slaves
  • Career: 1 soldiers, 200 deniers and 75 slaves. Quarries do not add anything to your outpost's resource pool. Capturing them will automatically build roads in a sector to speed up movement. As such, careers should not be prioritized.

Besides the infrastructure, here are the other interactive features on the Expeditions: Rome map and what their icons mean:

  • Legion Mission – Repeatable missions that allow you to send your Legion. You will get money, slaves or medicine.
  • Hunting Grounds – These can be ransacked by your legions for rations.
  • Observatory – Your party can move to this location on the world map to reveal caches.
  • Caches — Items like crates and carts. As you move near them, you get rewards such as weapons, denarii, crafting blueprints, and raw materials.
  • Well – Water is automatically replenished when you return to your base in a sector/where your Legion is garrisoned. But, if it's too far, you'll have to find wells or your characters might die of thirst.
  • Transitions – These are larger settlements that your party can visit. These are usually part of the main quests or side quests.
  • Random Events – Naturally, further exploration exposes you to various random events that can reveal important items or wreak havoc on your party.
  • Timeline Speed ​​— Don't forget to check the timeline at the top of the screen. You can also boost it up to 3x the speed, as well as press the play button or press the spacebar to advance in time without moving with your party.

Expeditions: A Guide to Roman Legion Conquest and Stratagems



Legion conquests, stratagems and defeat of enemy armies

Expeditions: Rome Legion Conquest battles are triggered once your Legion advances towards a settlement or infrastructure held by a hostile force. Ideally, you'll want your army to have higher manpower, morale, and experience.

The initial battle screen allows you to choose the leader of your army; these are the four centurions you recruited into your outpost. Check out their variables, benefits, etc., as well as the possibility of injury and chances of success before committing.

Expeditions: A Guide to Roman Legion Conquest and Stratagems

After this section, you will see a tactical map depicting a battle between the two opposing armies. These encounters have four phases, and you can safely skip the animation to speed things up:

  • Formation – This is how you start the battle. This is usually where you will get decent bonuses.
  • Engagement — The initial clash of forces.
  • Complications – The possibility of enemies getting the upper hand, quick reversals, tricky moves, or flanking maneuvers.
  • Resolution – This is how you conclude the battle and decide how to finish off the enemy force.

Expeditions: A Guide to Roman Legion Conquest and Stratagems

Each Battle Phase in Legion Conquest also has its own set of Stratagems. Stratagems in Expeditions: Rome are three randomly drawn cards. You choose an option that is most beneficial to you, even if not all of them will be. These stratagems are what happens during the confrontation.

Perks from the Centurion specialization (infantry, cavalry, logistics, etc.) enhance associated strategy upgrades. Meanwhile, the Medicus perk helps with your army's casualty replenishment.


Finally, the Reckless and Cautious perks improve attack and defense respectively, but you will incur penalties to their counterpart.


Expeditions: A Guide to Roman Legion Conquest and Stratagems

Best Legion Conquest Stratagems in Expeditions: Rome

Generally, the best Legion Conquest Stratagems in Expeditions: Rome are those that grant significant bonuses to your army with no expected downside.

For example, Complications: Maniple Swap adds 50% kill survivability, while Resolution: Tend to Your Wounded recovers 80-160 Legionnaires. Resolution: Celebrating is also decent since it adds +10 morale. Additionally, Resolution: Give Chase reduces enemy manpower by 200-500 troops.

Compare these to options like Complications: Reinforce, which gives the player +20% defense but lowers morale by -10, as well as Resolve: Scorched Earth, which increases post-battle loot at the cost of missing morale and legionnaires. .

Besides the Expedition: Rome stratagems that you have by default, you can unlock others by building the workshop. Once you give the character the Architect perk, they will research new Strategem cards over time.

Some are regular cards, while others are red, indicating one-time use. These are quite powerful Strategem cards and have higher bonuses. If you need higher/higher level cards, don't forget to upgrade the workshop building chain.

Expeditions: A Guide to Roman Legion Conquest and Stratagems

From there, you should be able to capture the infrastructure and landmarks of a given sector if the area no longer needs to be pacified. However, you may also need to undertake a pacification mission, so keep that in mind.

Additionally, the defeated hostile faction will lick their wounds, but they will still send another army to your recently captured base. This triggers the “Moving Enemies” random event, which allows you to spend denarii or send a companion to weaken enemies lined up against you before combat begins.

And that's what you need to know about the Legion's conquests and schemes in Expeditions: Rome. I hope this guide has helped you understand the different map features and icons in the game, as well as how to win battles with your legion. For more information, consider visiting our Expedition Advice page: Rome.

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