Oh. My. God.

So, this is a game I've been waiting for ever since I saw the first screenshots released in PC Gamer.
I've been a fan since the expansion of Shogun: Total War. It was a game with such depth and longevity, not to mention replayability, that I would be playing it as obsessively 6 months later as I was the first day. That's not something that happens in such a cheap, superficial market as one we're presented with these days.
When Medieval: Total War hit the shelves, I had fallen in love. Sprites the soldiers may have again been, barely recognizable over their 2d counterparts in the 90's, but yegods did it matter? Not at all. The game was beyond expectations. But my love had turned from the battlefield to the campaign mode. I would play game after game merely using the "auto-resolve" function and let computer logisitcs take care of battlefield success. I loved the campaign map, of sitting in the fortress of Constantinople, nestled on the best trading route in Europe, repelling the Turks and the Mongolians, expanding the borders of the Eastern Roman Empire, where once they were shrinking. Or using the Welsh Longbow to even more devastating effect against the French in the Hundred Years War, cutting them off from Brittany and re-gaining the lands of Aquitaine, a country with more wealth than England and Wales put together.

Then BBC2 aired a programme that used the Rome: Total War engine, to re-enact famous battles of the Roman world. Hooked for 6 episodes (yeah.. that's how long programme seasons last over here. Short and sweet), it only beefed up my mass obsession for Rome: Total War. Half Life 2 was a thing of the past, Doom 3 could wait, even Everquest II had taken a back seat. It was all about Rome, even compelling me to re-read my Tacitus and Rubicon just to familiarize myself with the exact nature of the days in which I would soon be revelling in.

And so I was more excited than a slut at a cum-fiesta when the week before last, Creative Assembly (the ingenius makers of the game who work all day long on it a mere 15 minutes from my University) announced a demo on the 20th. A demo on the 20th? Holy mother fucking shit! The days were counted like a slut waiting for a cum-fiesta (am I over-doing this phrase?).
And then RL things came in to play. Having to go back to the depressing halls of education for yet another year. Needing to find money, a house...computer-like anticipations melted away and the sobering reality of RL took its place.

Thus I awoke this morning, unaware of the date. I yawn, stretch, rub my boxer-shorts a bit to sort out my man-hood (too much info?), and slump in to the computer chair (sound familiar? :P). I look at the clock. Bugger-me. Work in 20mins. I look in to the bin, there's some cans of Carling. I remember parts of the previous night. Was she *really* 16? I'm sure she was.
I'M SURE SHE WAS DAMNIT!
When do I move in to my new house at Uni? I look at the calendar. Wow, it's the 24th today. Days go fast lately.
Wait.
The 24th?

THE TWENY-FORTH?!?!?! THIS MOTHER PUNKING DEMO HAS BEEN OUT FOR HALF A WEEK!!! WHERE HAD MY PRIORITIES BEEN?!
It was a crime of Hitler-proportion.

And so, I await the download. I'm at 37%. Life has come to a screeching halt. Will the random-shut-down-virus that has gripped my computer lately, hit at 99%? Will I be fired later when they realise I actually haven't turned up at work? Do I actually give a shit? Is that Sanchek's real hair-colour? Does Kivorn actually know much about martial arts? Is Zehn *really* gay?!

Universal truth will be available to us after...59%'s time.

The verdict's coming up kids. Homosexual download-timer belives 30mins. I predict 28. We will see.

If you mean that Zehn being gay is actually Zehn being lesbian, then yes Zehn is gay.

One question down and.....uh....many more unanswered :p

Are you on dialup? Only took me about 20 minutes to download the whole thing off an unofficial mirror. The non-tutorial battle appears to have elephants :>

Also, why is this in sandbox? (other than being a Halo post)

Well.
It was great. It's hard to sum it up any better. Outstanding works too. Breath-taking? Definately. A masterpiece? No doubt about it.
Revolutionary or genre-defining? Well, not so much. But then, I got to play one battle, the Battle of Trebia. Being a bit of a Punic War geek, I'll set the background, as well as what the game offers and has to show us.

Straight off the bat, you're shown your army and the enemies. In this case, it's set during the Second Punic War, 218, with Hannibal Barca leading the Carthaginians, famous for their elephants and mountain climbing. Opposing is a Roman army, led by Sempronius Longus (who, funnily enough, was in Sicily when Hannibal emerged from the Alps, preparing to invade Carthage..). Rushing up the coast of Italy with speed almost matching Hannibal, Longus (one of two Consuls at the time, the other being Publius Scipio - Africanus, the guy who eventually beat Hannibal on his home turf, and kicked the Carthaginians out of Spain, and grandfather of the general who burnt Carthage to the ground). In this demo, you can only play the Carthaginians, but with Elephants in the line-up, I certainly wasn't complaining. Dusting off my copy of The Fall of Carthage, I glazed again over the Battle of Trebia, to double-check my Hannibal line-up. The game gets it pretty much bang-on, even down to Hannibal's unique Gallic allies he managed to secure through the Alps and the Po Valley, an area notoriously rebellious to Roman rule in the early days, and only too happy to join Hannibal on his invasion. Accompanying Elephants and Gallic allies were the superior Numidian Cavalary from North Africa, also present in Creative Assembly's line up. These guys know their shit, there's no denying that. A quick peak at the Roman troops shows the typical - and accurate - Roman legions that would later define Roman warfare. What made me smile was the really great detail represented in the army configuration. Hannibal always maintained superior cavalary numbers in the Second Punic War, and this is clearly shown, with the Romans only possessing two small contiginents of heavy cavalary, while the Carthaginians in this demo had five seperate squads at their command.
A quick line to let us know where we are, what the date is, and what the terrain is like, and we're in.
Unfortunately, we're introduced to a rather crap cut-scene to explain the context of the battle. Now, this *is* necessary, as it's trying to be historically accurate, and ancient warfare was notoriously anti-climatic and drab at times, but the cut-scene was kinda boring, and a little slow. Still, it was, again, deadly accurate, and leads up to your army formations, which are pretty much exactly like they were. The terrain is also idential to the plains of Trebia, with the frozen river being crossed by Numidian cavalary, a ploy to bring the Roman legions over and thus past Hannibal's hidden cavalary in the flanks. It worked like a charm, and here is when the cut-scene stops, and I'm in the driving seat. Crappy scene graphics melt away and long-camera pans cease to exist.
This is total war.

The sceneario is fantastic. Snow drifts brilliantly, the distance runs off, and almost everything you see is reachable. These maps are almost five times the size of Medieval maps. Those mountains and forests in the background? They just aren't for show. The first thing I notice, though, is the rather awkward camera movement and angles. Well, they're not *bad*, they are just rather different from Medieval's. To look left or right, you have to use your mouse. To pan out or down, or to zoom, you have to use the keyboard. And I couldn't, for the life of me, find out how you employ the notorious zoom-camera, that lets you *follow* arrows or a cavalary charge. I started to get used to get, but I still feel that the previous camera work from Medieval was far more efficient. But not for me the furrow-brow.
The Battle of Trebia in real life was quite long and tedius. Neither armies, though both eager, were ready to deploy and face-up for a few days. Hannibal, sending out his Numidian cavalary to ravage and loot the plains, lured the Romans across the river en-force. Though Hannibal's cavalary got a-whoopin', the plan had worked. Both armies drew up and advanced, with Hannibal emerging victorious with the use of his cavalary and ambushing contiginents hidden in the wings. And, of course, the elephant charges that spread mass-panic throughout Longus' legions.
This, I attempted to mirrage.

And goddamn did it work.
The graphics are incredible, sweeping in on a charge is fabulous, and watching fire-arrows rain down on the enemy will make you tingle like a slut at a cum-fiesta.
Army deployment is easy, and everything is much faster than previous Total War games. Sending in my elephants first - yes, they are the coolest thing you've ever seen - I slammed in to the enemy from either flank. The elphants are WILD! Their charge sends men by the dozen flying in to the air and running in panic. In a cool way, you then loose control over them for a period of time while they run around plundering anyone in their way. EVEN YOU!
I laughed like a biatch as they eventually did a 180 through the Roman army and came running back up the hill, plunging in to my archers who were subsequently sent running for their lives - much like what happened throughout the Punic Wars.
With my elephants on the loose, causing Roman formation to break up, I let loose my archers. These guys no longer suck. They are lethal. And well deployed, can be a battle-winning element. Slowly the ranks of the front-legions begun to dwindle, through coming ever closer to my army half way on a shallow hill facing the river. It was time. I fanned my Gallic barbarians and Spanish light infantry out and sent them down the hill - at a scary pace. The charges are brilliant, zoomed in or out, though in for best effect. At the same time, I let loose my hiding cavalary, who out-flanked the Legions on both sides, while saving two squads to deal with the minor Roman cavalary threat. Zooming out with a smile on my face, I watched an almost artistic performance unfold.
At no time was the performance slugging or too hard on my comp. Neither the graphics or gameplay ever suffered on my Athalon 2gz, 512mb, Radeon 9200 machine. Troops swept across the plain and collided, slogging it out to the death.
But plans, of course, never go as well as they should. The two squads of cavalary I had kept behind to deal with the Roman heavy cavalary were being beaten, and my elephants had collided in to the back of my army, scattering my javelin throwers and a group of archers. Without that kind of support, my light infantry begun to suffer against the massive Roman legions. The only squad holding up was my heavy infantry, keeping the Roman's with shot swords at bay - literally, it was hillarious to watch them unable to reach my troops becaue of their 10 feet long spears.
And slowly, it went down hill. My four main infantry squads were being enveloped and slowly surrounded. Sending in Hannibal and his personal guard relieved the pressure on my right flank - and a general's charge kicks butt (the zoom-in feature for the General is superb. He kicks serious arse), but the left begun to crumble. And then, I regained control of my elephants at the same time my Cavalary had over-come the enemies and charged the rear of the now roman-mass. Two elephant charges later and it was all over. The corpse-strewn battle-field had become an opera theatre.

This game is simply brilliant. The depth, the tactics. Troops suffer from weather, morale (on an unprecidented scale), expectation, terrain, all of it. Plans can really be put in to motion, and what troops you use, where, and when, really do matter. The graphics are brilliant, the AI incredible, and the guy is everything I expected.
However, it is nothing more than that from the demo. It was, in effect, the same old forumla, just done better. But that's something I'm content with, and combined with the campaign mode, I've no doubt this is gonna be the best game of its genre, for years to come.

Demo was great. Loved the delicious sound of elephants trampling legionaires. Attention to detail is great, with each javelin or arrow independently plotted and rendered, thunking individually off a phalanx' shields.

Only complaints I have were the annoying battle announcer voice (guy in M:TW was really annoying too, we about cracked up when we realized he was the guy that played Televised Father in Equilibrium. They need to get the Shogun guy back. The shame in his voice when he said "Your taisho is running away like a coward!" was palpable) and that it crashed when I tried to screenshot my 1364 to 75 kills against the Roman army at Trebia. They don't fight too well when Captain Sempronius gets it in the back of the head from some cavalry right at the start :>

>Only complaints I have was the annoying battle announcer voice

sounds like some retard on some shitty speaker system

this game doth rocketh, plays well, looks good, great sound effects and isn't complicated to get the jist of it down ... all the makings of a great game

After playing it a few more times, I must say, the game being faster isn't necessarily that much of a plus.
Watching the battles close-up is one of the best parts, and yet a group usually routes within a minute or so. And with everything sped up, it means less time to watch something happen, before missing another, or having to do too much at once.
Where-as Medieval allowed me to put ambushing or flanking cavalary in to position while I charged the enemy with my infantry, it seems to all happen too quickly, which means FAR more pausing than usual.

But the game is still cracking. And I'm only just getting used to it. A spot-on cavalary charge (they are so goddamn overpowered..much like RL I guess) is beautiful to watch.

I just cannot wait for the full game. It's going to be a life-drainer.

Routs usually happened in the first minute or two of Shogun and Medeival combat too. The Trebia battle went fast because you started out set up in a perfect position with the enemy already rushing into skirmish range. I'm assuming campaign battles will follow the old TW model of 3-10 minutes of maneuvering followed by 2-5 minutes of fighting once the commit happens, and then 5-15 of mopping up depending on the situation. Maybe that's just how I play, but it was usually decisively over very shortly after the killing started.

Although I did have a few Shogun battles go on for over an hour. One great one was the rescue of Musashi, in which I killed off an entire enemy faction in a nearly two hour mauling bridge assault. A couple of the historical campaign battles were fairly extended too. Those were the exception, not the rule, though.

Which reminds me of how I liked the Shogun display better. The Rome tool-tip unit information is a lot harder to read than the old Shogun HUD, but I guess I'll get used to it.


Ha, was just reading a demo comments thread, someone was talking about the relative power of Generals versus their MTW or STW counterparts. On guy had a humorous anecdote about how he managed to lose Trebia because his elephants were routed ... and ran over Hannibal.

LOL.

Well... they do like to route. Infact, it seems they almost purposely route with a path set to collide with my bloody missle troops every time, who don't have the balls to stand and take it like my heavy infantry do.

Still, the game seems faster some how. I modded the demo and played as the Gauls on the Training scenario, which included deployment and all. Everything moves faster, the cavalary at bulletspeed. I chased down some light Roman skirmishers, and for a while they were out-running the lightning cavalary.
Perhaps the entire lack of game-speed changing means that the entire thing runs at a constant pace, where-as previously I could slow it down to enjoy the head-on-fighting, or speed it up during deployment.

It's not much of a complaint, just an observation. It's almost like arcade speed.

And damn, those cavalary sure are over-powered.

anyone know if there's going to be a "playback" option in this?

Took some screenshots of a brilliant game I just had.

So, here's how it looks at the start. I'm on the hill, my heavy infantry lined up on the ridge, protected by my javelin skirmishers and a group of flame-archers. Cavalry and Elephants are on the wing, with 2 squads hidden and out-flanked on either side of the Romans by the river.

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/1397/deployment.jpg

Let loose the dogs of war! The archers have a menacing range, unlike previously. And these flame-arrows do some serious damage, igniting on impact and burning people to crisp.

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/2912/hillfire.jpg

Instead of flanking the light and heavy infantry with a suprise attack during the fight, I used my hidden cavalry to take out the weak Roman horse early on. They don't put up much of a fight, but the Romans easily outnumber me, and have the tendancy to flank me with irritating and devastating charges when my men are all occupied. So I use my range horses to harass the enemy cavalry and rear-charge them with my second squad. I tear them apart (White flags are retreating/routing troops, and so in this screenshot, the Romans, who can also be identified by the standard red colour).

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/3294/cavalaryambush.jpg

With my cavalry finishing off the last Roman horses in the rear, the Roman legions begin to advance uphill, pelting my solid defense with puny, feeble arrows and javelins. Muahah!

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/5345/romanadvance.jpg

And it's game-on. The begin a charge and fly in to my wall of pikes and spears, though craftily, they're bouting round to my right flank. Which would usually spell danger for their own right flank, if they didn't have a second line of heavy infantry at hand to fill in the gap. Bastards (sorry about the crappy screenshot on that one).

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/2858/romanengage.jpg

A zoom in on the beautiful action. I managed to keep them off for a good long time, with the pikes and spears being devastating to any Roman stupid enough to charge them at the top of the hill. There's a unique and awsome minature-physics engine in place, allowing bodies to fly in the air, or mutilate and flip when they clash with objects such as protuding weapons or to stumble and bounce off charging cavalary.

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/3950/hilldefense.jpg

Meanwhile, with the frontline holding on the top of the ridge, my cavalry are free from their crushing ambushes to hit the rear of the second line of the Roman advance, occupying and hopefully inflicting serious losses enough to prevent the Romans from putting too much pressure upon my hilltop troops. A well places cavalry charge is a sight to behold, and an absolute crushing blow to any enemy. The AI is good enough to find the best weak spots and do likewise. With a strong enough cavalry unit (such as the Carthaginian's Sacred Band) a single charge can route an entire unit.

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/8073/rearcharge.jpg

With the second line of the Roman advance engaged and occupied, the pressure on my right flank became a bit too much, so I decided to put my, as yet, unused elephants to good use. After a few more games of this demo, I came to realise that they were, usually, more of a hindrance than not. But well placed, and out of harms way, they can be quite good. I put a group of 12 elephants down the side of the hill and brought them on to the Roman left flank, in an effort to relieve my right flank. Goddamn, did it work. Elephants, with a clear path, downhill, and not too many odds stacked against them, can spread panic and death through hunderds of troops. Beautiful.

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/9030/elephantcharge.jpg

The right flank was relieved, and many of the Romans routing in panic, and those who hadn't yet ran for their lives, were wavering under the pressure of my wall of spears. The time was right. I sent my light skirmishers in, usually best for javelin throwing, for some finish-off melee. I brought them round the safe path the elephants used and slammed them in to the flank of the Romans. They cracked. Scurrying down the hill in a messy route, the battle had swung my way. Freeing up a unit of heavy infantry, I allowed my Gallic skirmishers to chase them off down the hill and over the river.

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/6273/rightflankretreat.jpg

Things were looking good. The Roman left flank had broken and routed, my cavalary was beating - though only just - the second line of Roman advance, and my elephants, having done their job, were running off in an opposite direction.

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/9978/rightflankzoomout.jpg

But there was a problem, my wall of spears on the hillside were becoming weaker and weaker under brute Roman numbers. In some places, it was down to its last line, and to the left of the hill, were even becoming fractured, allowing Romans to slip between my men and start to encircle parts. My entire plan depended on this wall holding, so I could free up the battlefield and engage them in a circle. Though that was happening, it seemed imminent that the wall would break completely. My heavy infantry were doing a good job of fighting to the last man, though. Spartan blood, perhaps?

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/4476/thindefense.jpg

And then it happened. They broke through, en mass. White flags went up everywhere, and my once impenetrable wall of spears begun to waver and route. The Romans begun to enricle them completely, cutting off retreat to create a space of masacre.

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/7350/romanbreakthrough.jpg

And then, it happened. I had been bringing my light skirmishers back from their chase across the river, while witnessing my Sacred Band cavalry crush the second line of Roman advance in the rear. At the exact same time, I brought both up on each flank, while using Hannibal and his bodyguard of horses, supported by archer fire, to attack from the hill. Several of my heavy infantry units stopped routing, and turned to join.
The Romans were crushed between a game-winning cavalry charge and the javelins and short swords of my skirmishers.
White flags erupted, and they fled and fell in their hunderds.

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/9457/squash.jpg

Just like in real life, Victory belonged to Hannibal and a battle that would define his Italian campaign.
Viva la Carthaginians!

http://img19.exs.cx/img19/6638/victory.jpg

You should have cast magic missle. Less messy.

I'll be downloading this. I ran roughshod over Europe as the English. I loved a good highlander CHARGE! early in the game. However, the frequency that the Irish and Scots decided to rebel (even with all kinds of medium grade troops sitting in fortified castels) always made me abandon them later on in the game and concentrate on North Africa.

Will this sucker have a head to head mode?

is this a real time game or is it turn based? I will definately be buying this one.... Halo sold me on that cool play by play :)

It's a combination of both. The campaign mode (a highly detailed 3rd version of a "Risk" type table-top map) is turn based, and when a confrontation between two armies happens, the game switches to real time mode (above).


Im glad I sold ya. It's a really great game for strategy peeps.

Wow... if you can manage to get the elephants flanking another unit, they really mess them up.

Big time. An elephant charge is almost as lethal as a cavalry-rear charge.

Ok. What the HELL kind of accent is the announcer trying to use? Is that supposed to be Charthage?

Ze Romans are fleeeing!

Someone needs to put the boot in on that guy. Unreal.

This one sold me:

http://www.totalwar.com/community/images/br5.jpg

And that's exactly how it looks :P

See, now all I'd need to counter that is a Legolas on my team.

I';ve been waiting for elephants in this game since SHOGUN:Total War... Its so freaking sweat what the elephants can do..Carnagians ROCK!.. never mess with something that could quite literally rip you a new A.sshole!

I tried to play the game and it said " CD/DVD emulation software has been detected. Please disable all CD/DVD emulation software and re-start game". WTF is that?

Urgh, really?
It's a new thing a lot of recent games are trying, pretty much you have to get rid of any illegal programmes from your harddrive (things like dvd rippers, kazaa, etc).
But after the disaster that was Painkiller, I thought no one did anymore.
twcenter.net is a good place for any help. But the only problem's people have encountered so far is difficulty installing from certain dvd drives.

Grats on yer copy. Imported mine from you Yanks :)

I tried to play the game and it said " CD/DVD emulation software has been detected. Please disable all CD/DVD emulation software and re-start game". WTF is that?
Disable the virtual drive on Alcohol 120% or Nero ImageDrive, if you have either of those (or something similar).

I do have nero type stuff... I will remove it and see what happens.

never had a problem with painkiller, loved the game

Oh my gosh, how did I miss this thread? I've been looking for another strategy game for months (I've been so desperate lately that I've been replaying MoO2 and Civ 2) and this looks... incredible. Thanks for posting the screenshots! I'm out to watch this bog my system this afternoon... :)

Regards,
Nydia

Wow Nydia - do so. If you're in to strategy games, this is the perfect choice. Not only does it have the much publicized beautiful 3d battles, but now Rome: Total War has the campaign-top depth of Civ, but again, far more beautiful.

Senate missions, extensive diplomacy, civil wars, Roman factions.. a perfect combination.

This game blows my mind (and yes, I'm well aware that I'm starting to sound like an advert).

Got it working :) having fun )

The little sleep I use to get is NO MORE! :D

'The little sleep I use to get is NO MORE!'

- Sleep?
DIE MACEDONIAN SCUMBAGS!

Okay after removing nero it worked.... I played it about 20 hours of the last 48 :) So far its pretty fun )

Okay, I managed to scrape enough HD space clean on my system to install this last night and am waiting with baited breath to actually play it today after work. Btw, did anyone see gucomics today? :) And how is the conquest going, everyone?

http://www.gucomics.com/

Regards,
Nydia

Okey okey it's good :p
I installed it and got stuck for a couple of hours. Or four.
6am right now, heading to bed :p

Though the game experience was completely ruined by how it asked for a port blockade on ravonna all the time, and I couldn't fricking find it. The senate is sorta out for my head by now.

Ha! Told you it was good Kiv :P

'And how is the conquest going, everyone?'

- Well, I consider myself a seasoned Total War player, but damn, this is far more of a challenge, even on medium campaign setting. Which is absolutely brilliant, the challenge makes the game far more enjoyable.
Though I found the basic controls and keys easy to pick up, there is a very new style of play in Rome, compared to the others.
I used to spend ages building my provinces in to rich, rewarding places, that I defended dedicatingly.
Now cities are almost a burden, hardly ever producing more money than they consume. Garrisons, games, temples, it all costs so much. So I've adapted my gameplay accordingly, finding myself on the attack far more, burning down or enslaving populations.
I also absolutely love the micro-management, the family tree *means* something, and appointing a bad general to a city may mean terrible rebellions and management, or at a head of the army could mean certain death. Knowing who to put where is a good challenge, and call me odd, but I've grown attatched to some of these little pixel guys.
Anywho, after some hard work, I've managed to subdue Macedonia and the Greek City States (ouch.. those buggering phalanx and hopilities). I've decided to head up to the Danube next, and then down through Byzantium and over in to the east. Hoping to make Byzantium the great city it was, and change it to my capital. I'm figuring trade routes through there will reap some serious cash.

How are you folks doing?

Okey okey it's good :p
I installed it and got stuck for a couple of hours. Or four.
6am right now, heading to bed :p

Though the game experience was completely ruined by how it asked for a port blockade on ravonna all the time, and I couldn't fricking find it. The senate is sorta out for my head by now.
When they ask you to do stuff like that ... click on the little magnifying glass at the bottom of the request and it will take you to it..... or where it is supposed to be if you haven't ventured there yet...

Also, the main problem I have found is that I can't keep up with my spy/agent/etc because there is no "Agent" summary list. I usually find them when I get the repot that they died of old age..... Has anyone found a way around this?

Alas, I'm afraid you'd have to ask Faervas, as he inherited the game upon my being confronted with the following message upon installation:

"Win 95/NT/98 is not supported".

Now when I checked the box, I would have *sworn* it supported '98. Upon closer examination, it read '98 SE...

Yeah, yeah, I need a new OS. Actually, I need a new computer (have an *under*clocked AMD 1.4 GHz chip in my antiquated motherboard because it will only allow me to clock it to 1100), but seeing that I'm just coming off my summer poverty break, it's going to have to wait. What I saw over Faervas' shoulder last night was absolutely stunning though and I plan to try it out when I can pry him away from it...

Regards,
Nydia

Yeah on medium difficulty is pretty challenging... one of the biggest challenges I have is where to make money ! .. its nice that if you ever get bored with doing taxes and building on your land you can have the computer do it so you can just work on conqering if ya wanted to. It's pretty easy to get lost in this game, oh btw the roman senate is annoying but once you conquer some people and decide to start a new campaign you can play other factions an dyou wont have some annoying roman Empire to annoy you every turn.


I think its whoever you have wiped out of the game on your inital "Campaign" is who you will have access to in a new campaign.. SO if you want to play as germans go wipe them out on the Roman campaign and you can play them on a different one.. I believe not positive.

Conquered Gaul & Spain with zero resistance.
I hope the game gets more challenging when I attempt Rome.

what difficulty are you working on?


Some empires are easy to take out... and when you think about it .. if your good at strategies it doesnt mattter how much for extra men they h ave over you.. You can win.. you could me Macediona and take out all of ROME in one battle if you know strategy and *cough* glitches and stuff.


Like once I played my roman and beat out the greeks I was able to use them in there own Campaign.. SO I started a campaign with them and I was getting attacked by a roman nation right off the bat on a island.. SO I couldnt send reinforcements in a one days notice.. anyways I ended up fighting the b attle and beating the romans... and I had crap for armies there.. I mean i was like 50 percent peasants and the romans had a very well created ARMY not to mention they way outnumbered me like 15/1. But I won because my army was defending a FORT. and the ROMANS had no way of breaking down my wall or getgting into the fort... SO what i did was send out my calvary so they could lure in the romans closer to my fort.. once they came forward I ran my calvary back into the fort and just like that I WON. BECAUSE they had no way of knocking down my fort walls... they JUST SAT there as my fort/and flamer archers knocked off one roman militant after another. Yeah the battle took awhile cause after awhile my archer ran out of ammo and I let the 2 arrows that shoot out from the fort do all the killing.. anways the romans just sat there and let them get picked off . Once it got close to when they time was going to run out.. I took out my calvary through a side ent and ran a suprised attack on the remaining militants and LEADER that was trying to fleee.. So before I actually ever fought hand to hand with the romans with the odds of 15/1 .. I waited till the odds where in my favor 1/5....anyways my rant is just to prove if you arent antsy doesnt matter how big tghe other army is in that game you can win... just wait till you see the whites of there eyes!

I tried to attack Rome and it wouldn't let me :(

On the first campaign you arent allowed to try to take over rome till you have enough land conquered or have approval from the senate.

Okay, I finally got to play this in the wee hours of the morning (my poor students this morning!) and... wow. The amount of detail was incredible, and I found the battles completely nervewracking :)

It's also interesting having to make decisions about which family member is going to do which job, based on their strengths and weaknesses. I was pleased to see, once I elected to send one son home to govern, that he promptly married and popped out a couple of heirs... ;)

The highlight of my evening, though, was watching Faervas take out a major Gaul town where he was heavily outnumbered, but had his best General on the job. The opposing general was eaten by the war dogs, with a great closeup graphic :). I wonder what 'Commander killed by dogs' does to the morale of the opposing army? ;)

He got his comeuppance trying to take out a Carthaginian town later though, and the elephants trampled him to jelly, while his flaming pigs panicked and ran all over the place, taking out his own ground troops....

Great fun it is. He has a night class tonight so I'll be eschewing grading for more glory...

Regards,
Nydia

Actually, I find it incredible that someone came up with the idea of 'flaming pigs' as a valid battle tactic to begin with. I can just imagine the scene where such a scheme was hatched might have looked like:

Unit Commander: "General, the enemy's elephants are trampling us to jelly! Morale is terrible, our Triarii are taking terrible losses, and the mercenaries are routing..."

Field Engineer: "Sir, what if we got some pigs, and smeared them in grease, and set them on fire, and ran them at the enemy?"

Just imagine the field tests while they worked the, erm, 'kinks' out of the system... Did they test out different types of flammables? Tying rags soaked in oil to the pigs, as opposed to just smearing fat on them, in hopes of keeping them alight longer? What is the ideal distance for deploying said flaming pigs to ensure they ended up anywhere near the target, and how did one optimize the flame intensity/duration vs survival time on the pigs? Did they get to eat the results of the test runs :)? The sounds, not to mention the smells, of flaming pigs and panicked elephants careening around the battlefield must have been... amazing...

Regards,
Nydia