Rome Total War.... All the factions....

With a readjustment of my last campaign to be more defensive I decided to change faction and start a new campaign from scratch.

The Armenian faction have a similar unit set as the Seleucid's (ok they are limited and a lot weaker in infantry) but they start in the area I was using as a border. This combination made me want to see if they were viable as a small holding, maybe 5 regions, Seleucid's willing. And see where I could go with them.

The Armenian faction is not a faction a player can usually select to play. Indeed they are not an unlockable faction at all. You need to change a game text file to make it happen. The change is nothing like brain science or rocket surgery. Just copy and past.

The file in question is the   descr_strat.txt   file in the:
steamapps\common\Rome Total War Gold\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign
folder within the games install location.

Before editing the file, as always make a backup copy of that file!

The text to edit is at the start of the file, and look like this:

campaign        imperial_campaign
playable
    romans_julii
    romans_brutii
    romans_scipii
end
unlockable
    egypt
    seleucid
    carthage
    parthia
    gauls
    germans
    britons
    greek_cities
end
nonplayable
    romans_senate
    macedon
    pontus
    armenia
    dacia
    numidia
    scythia
    spain
    thrace
    slave
end

You then need to rearrange (or delete/cut/paste) it to look like this:

campaign        imperial_campaign
playable
    romans_julii
    romans_brutii
    romans_scipii
    egypt
    seleucid   
    carthage
    parthia
    gauls
    germans
    britons
    greek_cities
    romans_senate
    macedon
    pontus
    armenia
    dacia
    numidia
    scythia
    spain
    thrace
    slave
end
unlockable

end
nonplayable

end

 

Starting the game up and starting a new campaign should now show you all the factions as playable.

While I'm play as the Armenians and have access to them as a faction the intro video is that of the Parthian faction. Parthia is the closest faction to Armenia in terms of units and starting location that is normally unlockable. The game is clever that way.
The map and description are blank but at least it lets you play the campaign unhindered and doesn't crash because of the edit. I'm sure there are mods that fully alter the map, description and intro movie. TWC was the best mod community site to look for information back in the day, although I think it's seen better day's it's still a great starting point for information/mods.

As always editing game files is at your own risk but if all else fails a reinstall of the game fixes all.