Rome: Total War

[Aliath]

Rome: Total War is the physical embodiment of win. It is the single-most epic strategy game I've ever played, and it doesn't give my computer seizures. The game is composed of a mix of real-time (when you're on the battlefield!) and turn-based (when you're taxing the plebs) strategy. You can spend hours simply conquering the Mediterranean from your strategy map, or you can live and command every battle with stunning realism. Strategy is essential to winning a battle, unlike in other strategy games I've played.

 

[sarg1010]

I could've sworn you said the silenced SCAR was the physical embodiment of win....

 

I've played all of the total war games, except medieval II and Napoleon. I like the Shogun one the most. Can't find it anywhere now though <_<

[Aliath]

I could've sworn you said the silenced SCAR was the physical embodiment of win....

 

I've played all of the total war games, except medieval II and Napoleon. I like the Shogun one the most. Can't find it anywhere now though <_<

 

Pretty much anything that has both violence and win in it is the physical embodiment of win in my book.

[indy500fan]

Hours conquering the strategy map? You need to play with mods. My current campaign has been going for three months, and I've only got around half the territories. I actually just turned on my computer to play that campaign when I got sidetracked by this topic :smile: .

 

The Total War series is just awesome. I've played a full vanilla campaign in RTW around 10 times, a few of those conquering the entire map. Around 5 in BI, one or two conquering the entire map. RTW was the first I tried so I have played it the most. Shogun and Medieval 1 I've only played once, conquering the entire map for both games. Medieval 2 I've played twice, conquering the entire map once. Then I played each of the Kingdoms expansions conquering their entire maps at least once each. Empire I attempted to conquer the entire map on, but it is so fricking buggy that I just got sick of all the game ending bugs (requiring going back a few saves) that I gave up. I had all of India and west to the Mediterranean, starting as the Maratha Confederacy. Then before my current campaign in Europa Barbarorum modded RTW Macedonian campaign I played an EB Briton campaign, in which I just completed the objective (UK, Ireland, France, Northern Spain).

 

So I've put hundreds, possibly over a thousand of hours into these games. And now I get to the part most people who play the series don't understand, all those campaigns up to my most recent Macedonian campaign? Yeah, never played the battles. Auto-resolved them all. Then when I started this campaign (damn, that was all the way back before Christmas) it was rather hard (playing on VH of course), and I read many complaints from people about auto-resolve results over the years and decided to finally try playing a battle that I really need to win, but auto-resolving kept losing. The result? An overwhelming victory and all the sudden around hundreds of hours of gameplay seemed wasted. So many of those campaigns would have been much much easier. I still auto-resolve fairly regularly though just to speed things along, but sometimes I just get pissed at it. For example a battle I had the other day auto-resolved results: Clear Defeat, myArmy1 200 kills myArmy2 0 kills myArmy3 400 kills enemyArmy 2,200 kills. My battle results: Clear Victory: myArmy1 1500 kills myArmy2,3 0 kills enemyArmy 300 kills. Went from losing around 1,600 more than the enemy to killing around 1,200 more than the enemy. So now I am definitely on the playing battles bandwagon. Many defending bridge battles are just crazy, like me killing 1,000 and the enemy killing 5. Hellenic Elite Phalanx for the win!

[Dizzle229]

I got it from Steam, but whenever I try to play it says "Game is currently unavailable." Apparently it's been unavailable for about 3 months <_<

[Lenticular_J]

I've played Shogun, never knew it was part of the series. That was my single favorite game when I was a kid, and may yet be today. I loved making armies of crappy spearmen and hiding the most elite swordsmen (the samurais that could kill like five whole armies before dying) inside the ranks.

 

The Mongol campaign was complete [cabbage] if you played the Japanese, though. [bleep] you all, Korean fire-throwers.

 

I'd always be Uesugi, though. And my early battles were generally piles upon piles of the greatest archers with one or two samurai spearmen units thrown in, and I'd always force the enemies to attack the province with the two bridges. They would be destroyed. I always got really pissed when I lost guys.

[Aliath]

indy500fan, i luv u lolz

 

I normally try to micromanage as much as possible, but that becomes impossible after awhile. Normally I fight all my battles on the battlefield when they're huge sieges which require my expertise ( :wink: ). I auto-resolve anything not worth my time.

 

Too bad you can't play RTR online, but in a campaign-like game-type.

 

I tried a LOTR mod, but it [bleep]ed up the game. Any good mods you know I should try? I've had my eyes of Rome Total Realism for awhile.

[TheValeyard]

I love RTW. I play it pretty much constantly, not in the same way as say MW2 but every few nights I'll play for a couple of hours.

 

However now I can't play it without mods. The default skins are just too bright and kind of stupid, and whilst the attempt to recreate the civil wars by having 4 Roman factions was a good idea I remember it didn't work very well. You had to build up support mainly by carrying out missions from the senate, and this was not only annoying but led you into wars with people you didn't want. In the end I think I managed to start a civil war by assassinating another Roman guy or something like that.

 

Any good mods you know I should try?

I definately reccomend Terrae Expugnandae. Personally I feel RTR changes the game too drastically. The main changes in TE are that the map is twice as big, Rome is unified as one faction, and the skins are far far better. The campaign map also looks the best out of any mod I've seen, like the Medieval 2 map in many ways.

 

but auto-resolving kept losing. The result? An overwhelming victory and all the sudden around hundreds of hours of gameplay seemed wasted.

 

Yeah you will drastically reduce your own casualties if you play out the battles. If you time cavalry charges right then you can end battles with very few men lost. I can keep a legion in the field for like 15 turns before it needs retraining.

 

Some weird glitches occasionally come up. Like this one, which i think was caused by putting a legionary cohort into testudo formation in one battle, then fighting another battle in the same turn.

 

 

[indy500fan]

indy500fan, i luv u lolz

 

I normally try to micromanage as much as possible, but that becomes impossible after awhile. Normally I fight all my battles on the battlefield when they're huge sieges which require my expertise ( :wink: ). I auto-resolve anything not worth my time.

 

Too bad you can't play RTR online, but in a campaign-like game-type.

 

I tried a LOTR mod, but it [bleep]ed up the game. Any good mods you know I should try? I've had my eyes of Rome Total Realism for awhile.

 

Europa Barbarorum is actually the only mod I have tried so far, which is another reason that those hundreds of hours seemed wasted. Vanilla is OK, but the mods make it so much better. Mods can be troublesome which is why I originally never tried them. EB worked just fine on my last computer, never any crashes at all. Then I built this one a month or two ago and I've had frequent regular crashes using EB on it. WinXP 32bit vs Win7 64bit is probably the reason. I can only play around 2 battles before it CTD's at the start of the next battle.

 

I have heard great things about DarthMod, if you want to check that out. I'd like to know what other mods people use also, EB is great but 3 months of trying to clear the map is starting to get a little old :smile: .

 

@TheValeyard: Yeah cavalry charges are great. I'm fighting the Ptolemaic right now and they love to have stacks of phalanxes even out in the open fields. They also like to separate individual phalanx units out into the open if you "bait" them with another unit. Cavalry charge to the side or back and they pretty much start routing right then and there. Also got some territories to recruit Scythian Foot Archers (the units with the longest range), love having a full stack of them vs a typical Ptolemaic full stack. Can get hundreds of kills with no casualties.

[Alg]

Isn't there a Napoleon one coming out soon?

Never tried the game personally, but know a guy who plays it do death and back.

[Bouwzie]

I love this game. Played it for so long and sitll enjoy it. Too bad I can't really get it to run on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit :/

[indy500fan]

I love this game. Played it for so long and sitll enjoy it. Too bad I can't really get it to run on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit :/

 

That's what I am using. Haven't tried the game on it without mods yet though. Except for the CTDs mentioned in my last post it plays fine.

 

Anyone know why screenshots wouldn't be working? I hit print screen in game, exit/alt-tab out, paste it into paint and instead of the in game screen I get a screenshot of my desktop.

[Giordano]

Oh, it's using the Medieval Total War 2 mechanics (or Medieval's using Rome). I don't like that mechanic for some reason...I loved Medieval Total War 1 but not the mechanics of two. The idea's great, as with all the total war games, but I can't get into the mechanic...plus I suck at military strategy.

[Necromagus]

I'm really looking forward to Napoleon, especially with the increased importance of ranged units and the two week turn system.

[Bouwzie]

Strange, it works now. Oh well. I only play the vanilla version btw.

 

Just started a campaign with the Brutii, mainly because I don't have the other factions unlocked yet :) Difficulty is hard for both options. Wonder how much resistance I'll get when taking over The Greeks. Don't think my alliance with Macedon will last very long either, so it won't be easy :( :D

[indy500fan]

The very first time playing the game it would be good to play one of the Roman factions, complete the game and unlock the others. However if you have played before there is no reason you shouldn't just unlock all the factions from the beginning. It's a simple .ini edit.

[Bouwzie]

The very first time playing the game it would be good to play one of the Roman factions, complete the game and unlock the others. However if you have played before there is no reason you shouldn't just unlock all the factions from the beginning. It's a simple .ini edit.

 

Yea, if I want I can edit the descr_strat file, but that's no fun :) I don't cheat :)

[indy500fan]

It's not cheating if you have already done it before, that was my point. Also once you play the game enough then you will want to play the factions that aren't unlockable but still playable, only from editing the file.

[Faux]

playing as rome is basically cheating. their best soldiers forgot the name are like having marines in that century. beasts

 

my fave faction has to be the greeks. i play spartans in loose formation just because i can

[Bouwzie]

It's not cheating if you have already done it before, that was my point. Also once you play the game enough then you will want to play the factions that aren't unlockable but still playable, only from editing the file.

 

I know. I've played the game for years now. Let's drop this.

[indy500fan]

It's not cheating if you have already done it before, that was my point. Also once you play the game enough then you will want to play the factions that aren't unlockable but still playable, only from editing the file.

 

I know. I've played the game for years now. Let's drop this.

 

Then what is the problem with editing the file? The only reason you didn't have them unlocked was due to installing it on a new OS.