Prepare for: Total War!!!!

[MrBug708]

I played a lot more. It does get into more depth as you go on. It's def not something you can just sit and play for half an hour at a time. You might go 4 years tops, unless you are just sitting and waiting. I'm down to about 210 BC and havent been able to attack one of the other Roman families yet. I conquered Gaul and another family conquered another people, but I didn't click on who. I really enjoy the family tree line and changed my heir to a young 17 year old whose quite advanced. His father was adopted into my family line, sort of like Maximus from Gladiator, into the line as Caesar. There is a lot of side happenings with the other family and you are notified of anything that happens in the world map, which can get annoying. Automanage the Towns is very helpful and hiring Merc's helps out a lot. I just send them in waves on a full sprint. It's easier to kill a leader when you actually fight the battles as opposed to just simming the battles too.

[IwasHere]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

The closing comments from IGN's review seem very positive:

'Closing Comments
Discounting those with short attention spans, any gamers with an interest in the strategy genre owe it to themselves to buy, beg or borrow this game. I'd honestly suggest you steal it if none of those other options seem to work for you but in these days of hasty litigation, I had better refrain from actually encouraging anyone to commit a crime to get hold of this game. Still, with a game this good, it'd be a crime not to play it.
This series has always been an office favorite. We never had a problem filling eight seats for a Shogun match, and though Medieval: Total War never quite reached that level of interest, I've played it regularly since the day it came out. But Rome: Total War is such an improvement over its predecessors that it's my new strategy game of choice. The shorter, more digestible campaigns and the intense immediacy of the battles have made it hard for me to drag myself away long enough to get this review written; the more I write about it, the more I want to play it.

Personally, I've never given a score this high before but Rome Total War is without a doubt one of the best games I've ever played. The combination of subject matter, game mechanics, and outstanding visuals add up to one of the best experiences you'll have on the PC.

Now if you'll excuse me, there are some Thracians at the gate just begging for another ass-kicking."

This is without a doubt the most insane review I have ever read. How can this game not ba a dissapointment now?


Also, Anyone know the minimum specs? I know it will work on my desktop, but I am curious if it will work on my laptop.

[Ben E Lou]

I was impressed last night. After the Tucker game, I came home and installed it. It had that "just one more turn" thing goin' on definitely. I *love* that the RTS portion of the game is completely optional. (Every battle can be simmed). I've never played this series before, so right now I'm getting CREAMED. I am playing the Julii, and have two Minor Cities and one Large Town, and that is it. I'm probably goign to be conquered soon. If anyone has any general tips, it would be appreciated. For now, this game is playing for me exactly how I would have wanted an advanced Civ 2 to play. I love the little things in it, like how your faction leader has heirs who come of age, become your generals, grow old, and die-and even their portraits change over time to reflect their age.

Tips pls k thx.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by IwasHere

Also, Anyone know the minimum specs? I know it will work on my desktop, but I am curious if it will work on my laptop.

From the box:

Win 98SE/ME/2000/EXP
P3 1.0 GHz or Ahlton 1.0 GHz
256MB Ram
8x speed CD-ROM
2.9 GB HD space (plus 500 MB for Windows swap file)
DirectX 9.0b compatible 16bit sound card
Windows Keybaord and mouse
1024x768 monitor
3d hardware Accelerator card

[IwasHere]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

From the box:

Win 98SE/ME/2000/EXP
P3 1.0 GHz or Ahlton 1.0 GHz
256MB Ram
8x speed CD-ROM
2.9 GB HD space (plus 500 MB for Windows swap file)
DirectX 9.0b compatible 16bit sound card
Windows Keybaord and mouse
1024x768 monitor
3d hardware Accelerator card

Thanks

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I was impressed last night. After the Tucker game, I came home and installed it. It had that "just one more turn" thing goin' on definitely. I *love* that the RTS portion of the game is completely optional. (Every battle can be simmed). I've never played this series before, so right now I'm getting CREAMED. I am playing the Julii, and have two Minor Cities and one Large Town, and that is it. I'm probably goign to be conquered soon. If anyone has any general tips, it would be appreciated. For now, this game is playing for me exactly how I would have wanted an advanced Civ 2 to play. I love the little things in it, like how your faction leader has heirs who come of age, become your generals, grow old, and die-and even their portraits change over time to reflect their age.

Tips pls k thx.

skydog i have Mediieval and Vikings , cant wai to get Rome

for battles , strategy comes into play with formations setting, etc....it does make a difference..i no pro, but to do well, is finding a good formation setting and flanking the side is important.....

stil learning

[Dutch]

Oh great, my wife and I will be battling for supremacy when we go to Best Buy later today. The Sims 2 vs. Rome Total War. Who will win?

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Oh great, my wife and I will be battling for supremacy when we go to Best Buy later today. The Sims 2 vs. Rome Total War. Who will win?

I guess you will be playing Sims 2 for a bit...

[gstelmack]

Tactical battle tips (from Shogun/Medieval, have not played Rome yet, birthday next weekend so I can't buy it have to hope I get it as a present):

- Basic law of ancient battles: pin the enemy down, then send cavalry around the flank. Try to keep a reserve while you engage, and then send the reserve to hit from the side or rear. Preferably cavalry.

- Archers on a hill can be DEADLY. They have longer range, and enemies tire trying to get up the slope to them. A line of infantry just in front helps a lot here. In Shogun you could massacre hundreds of troops with 2 60-man musket units on a slope... This is your best defensive option and is great at bleeding enemies dry.

- Watch for unit morale. Units that are breaking need stiffening (with a reserve unit where possible). If the enemy punches a hole in your line, you'll be flanked from the middle.

- When all looks lost, RUN! You'll need to sacrifice a rear guard to let the rest of the troops escape. But most casualties occur when a unit breaks and is mowed down from behind by cavalry.

- Which is another good use for your cavalry reserve: mowing down the enemy as they try to run. Don't let them get away to fight another day.

Without playing Rome, I don't know how elephants and other new units will affect these, but those are your basic tactics for ancient warfare.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Without playing Rome, I don't know how elephants and other new units will affect these, but those are your basic tactics for ancient warfare.

Simply put, the elephants kick ass. Send them charging into anything, and they mow everyone down. That is one of all-time great computing moments for me.

I thought they were the killer unit, until I ran across pigs that were dipped in tar and set on fire. (I'm 100% serious on this) The elephants just freaked out and didn't know what to do.

[Ben E Lou]

Ok. I want tips on econ. Of course I sim all my battles.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Ok. I want tips on econ. Of course I sim all my battles.

I'm just the opposite. Screw the strategic map, I want more tactical battles...

[LionsFan10]

SkyDog, simming all of the battles is a great way to blow off a huge, very enjoyable portion of this game. I highly, highly recommend you cease and desist. Without those battles this game is a Civ clone, let Civ be Civ ... this is Total War. Play it, love it.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by LionsFan10

SkyDog, simming all of the battles is a great way to blow off a huge, very enjoyable portion of this game. I highly, highly recommend you cease and desist. Without those battles this game is a Civ clone, let Civ be Civ ... this is Total War. Play it, love it.

So far, without the battles it is a much deeper and interesting version of Civ, which is what I'm looking for. If I get bored doing it this way, I'll re-visit the battles.

[Calis]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

So far, without the battles it is a much deeper and interesting version of Civ, which is what I'm looking for. If I get bored doing it this way, I'll re-visit the battles.

Heh, great thing about this game. I'm the exact opposite and try to breeze through the Civ part of the game as fast as I can to get back to the battles.

Nice having that option though.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by Apatheric Lurker

I guess you will be playing Sims 2 for a bit...

LMAO! Actually, Target won. Once I got the Star Wars DVD box set, the game was over....she got some lamps and a bar stool....oh well...

[jbmagic]

is the AI challenging on Rome Total war ?

how is the AI on skirmish ?

how the AI on campaign?

[Calis]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Ok. I want tips on econ. Of course I sim all my battles.

Weird thing, I was having a horrible time with econ starting off as the Julii. I was having a tough time getting ANYTHING. You'll hit a definite turning point though, as I just built roads first in every city I conquered, and then usually markets next.

I also kept sending my ambassadors all over the place to get trade agreements with everyone I could, excluding the Gauls of course who I'm busy slaughtering by the thousands.

I basically would ransack a town, pick the option to kill off about the whole population which gives you a nice income boost, and it would give me enough to prepare an invasion of the next city. I was always cutting it REAL close though.

Not to mention the amount of time it takes to repopulate those towns, ughh.

I hit the turning point though somewhere, and now I'm rolling in an extra 4-5k every turn.

Did I mention I have frigging WAR DOGS? Man those are cool.

I'm starting to like the Romans however. I was a bit annoyed that you HAD to start with one of the Roman factions and beat the game to unlock the other factions, but now I'm glad actually. This'll make me try out a lot more factions for real than I would have otherwise.

As you could probably guess, I'm loving this game.

[Havok]

death to gogamers!!! i still don't have my game.

This blows!

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Anyone know how I can mod the number of soldiers in a unit. I hate just staring with 40-60 soldiers in a company. Want at least 100-120 per so I could have the huge battles. If anyone could help it would be great thanks.

[MrBug708]

I don't think you can, it goes by what they use. Obviously the more technical the unit is, the harder it is to produce that unit. I think you can have up to 20 full units in each troop

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Calis

Weird thing, I was having a horrible time with econ starting off as the Julii. I was having a tough time getting ANYTHING. You'll hit a definite turning point though, as I just built roads first in every city I conquered, and then usually markets next.

I also kept sending my ambassadors all over the place to get trade agreements with everyone I could, excluding the Gauls of course who I'm busy slaughtering by the thousands.

I basically would ransack a town, pick the option to kill off about the whole population which gives you a nice income boost, and it would give me enough to prepare an invasion of the next city. I was always cutting it REAL close though.

Not to mention the amount of time it takes to repopulate those towns, ughh.

I hit the turning point though somewhere, and now I'm rolling in an extra 4-5k every turn.

Did I mention I have frigging WAR DOGS? Man those are cool.

I'm starting to like the Romans however. I was a bit annoyed that you HAD to start with one of the Roman factions and beat the game to unlock the other factions, but now I'm glad actually. This'll make me try out a lot more factions for real than I would have otherwise.

As you could probably guess, I'm loving this game.

Thanks. This helps a ton. I had no trade agreements in the first game I played (which I lost miserably--never got more than four cities at any point). I'm doing much better the second go-round with the Scipii.

OK. That's *REALLY* cool to know about being able to play with any faction once I win a game!

Yes, I confess that I haven't read the whole manual yet. For a game like this, I like to skim the manual, play a game or two to get familiar with everything, then read it through and through when I can understand the significance of stuff in there.

Actually, in the learning campaign, I did fight the first two or three battles out, but that was before getting war dogs. I will probably fight at least one battle out just to see those suckers in action!

[Calis]

Yeah, I can't vouch for which portion of the above actually caused me to start rolling in the cash, but something did.

As far as I know on the faction thing, if you win the whole campaign you unlock everyone. If you play the shorter campaign(which I'm doing now), you just unlock that factions rivals. In the case of Julii it's the Gauls. The short campaign is pretty nice, you just have to eradicate your rival and control so much territory. The large campaign was just a little too uhh..large for me to tackle first time. I think that sucker is going to take a long time to play through.

I actually really like the War Dogs so far. They're expensive as hell but are great morale crushers. It's basically a one shot deal though, as you ain't getting the dogs back under control in the same battle...so pick targets wisely. I like to lump them in with the cavalry and have them tear into the archers and other backlines. It's nice to have the enemy retreat right through them.

CHEMICAL- I swear there's an option to set units to large, and it'll change the size from 60 to 120 or thereabouts for default. I'm not sure where it is exactly though, I'll have to fire up the game again and check. The bad news is I've heard that the AI falls apart if you do this. They have no idea how to manage their population with the bigger armies and wind up converting their whole population to units, basically killing off their entire economy. Hopefully this will be patched up soon.

[GrantDawg]

You guys are killing me. Maybe I can sell a kidney or something.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Originally Posted by Calis

Yeah, I can't vouch for which portion of the above actually caused me to start rolling in the cash, but something did.

As far as I know on the faction thing, if you win the whole campaign you unlock everyone. If you play the shorter campaign(which I'm doing now), you just unlock that factions rivals. In the case of Julii it's the Gauls. The short campaign is pretty nice, you just have to eradicate your rival and control so much territory. The large campaign was just a little too uhh..large for me to tackle first time. I think that sucker is going to take a long time to play through.

I actually really like the War Dogs so far. They're expensive as hell but are great morale crushers. It's basically a one shot deal though, as you ain't getting the dogs back under control in the same battle...so pick targets wisely. I like to lump them in with the cavalry and have them tear into the archers and other backlines. It's nice to have the enemy retreat right through them.

CHEMICAL- I swear there's an option to set units to large, and it'll change the size from 60 to 120 or thereabouts for default. I'm not sure where it is exactly though, I'll have to fire up the game again and check. The bad news is I've heard that the AI falls apart if you do this. They have no idea how to manage their population with the bigger armies and wind up converting their whole population to units, basically killing off their entire economy. Hopefully this will be patched up soon.

I heard something like this too on Total War .com but can't find the post. Oh well It might take time to mod but we'll get there.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by CHEMICAL SOLDIER

Anyone know how I can mod the number of soldiers in a unit. I hate just staring with 40-60 soldiers in a company. Want at least 100-120 per so I could have the huge battles. If anyone could help it would be great thanks.

I believie you can do it the same way M:tw did it. There is a slider in options I do believe. Never tried it as my system is a big pile of "ancient"

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by Calis

Yeah, I can't vouch for which portion of the above actually caused me to start rolling in the cash, but something did.

As far as I know on the faction thing, if you win the whole campaign you unlock everyone. If you play the shorter campaign(which I'm doing now), you just unlock that factions rivals. In the case of Julii it's the Gauls. The short campaign is pretty nice, you just have to eradicate your rival and control so much territory. The large campaign was just a little too uhh..large for me to tackle first time. I think that sucker is going to take a long time to play through.

I actually really like the War Dogs so far. They're expensive as hell but are great morale crushers. It's basically a one shot deal though, as you ain't getting the dogs back under control in the same battle...so pick targets wisely. I like to lump them in with the cavalry and have them tear into the archers and other backlines. It's nice to have the enemy retreat right through them.

CHEMICAL- I swear there's an option to set units to large, and it'll change the size from 60 to 120 or thereabouts for default. I'm not sure where it is exactly though, I'll have to fire up the game again and check. The bad news is I've heard that the AI falls apart if you do this. They have no idea how to manage their population with the bigger armies and wind up converting their whole population to units, basically killing off their entire economy. Hopefully this will be patched up soon.

If you play the short campaign and win you will unlock all factions which have deen killed. Even if another faction knocked them off you can then play them. As the Julii I only knocked off the Spanish and Guals but have just started one with the Greek Cities.

[valhalla]

I would HIGHLY recommend this game especially if you enjoyed the civilization games. I spent 11 straight hours sunday (i missed all the football games, and im a football junkie) playing this game and would have kept playing all night but my eyeballs were stinging. Very immersive, best game IMO since Knights of the old republic on xbox.

[Izulde]

While I liked Medieval:Total War better, I have to say that this game is *extremely* addicting.

I haven't played that much yet... but I've started a large campaign as the Scipii... Right now I control all of Sicily and just conquered one of the Carthaginian cities in North Africa. The Julii and Brutii are beating me in terms of Senate Offices, but since I just conquered that North African city, the Senate promised me special consideration for an office next go round.

I'm also on my second generation leader, Gaius Scipio whose been totally kicking ass in battles and just tearing things up. Ironically enough, the guy I just appointed as my Faction Heir is one who was adopted into the family after he married one of my daughters.

Question: Is it possible to move your capital? I really want to move it from Capua to Syracuse so I have less travel time for sending out my family members to govern provinces. Moving it to Syracuse would also give me a more central base from which to launch invasions into North Africa.

[Apathetic Lurker]

No . I don't believe you can move your capitol.It will move(no control where) if your original was captured, as I found out the hard way

[henry296]

I read on the Total War home page that you can move your capital. I don't have the game so I don't know how.

Todd

[MrBug708]

I read too that you could move your capital. I'm assuming you'd probably would look at the city zoom in that city, this being Syracuse in this instance, to find out where you can change it.

My favorite part is looking at the family tree and figuring out heirs and who is going to be it. I had an "original heir" who was referred to as "Titus the Mad" and an attribute he had was that he scared small children on sight.

[sabotai]

I'm very disappointed in all of you...

This game has been out for over a DAY and I STILL don't see any dynasties. What the hell?

[hukarez]

Finally decided to get this game - seeing as I was able to pick it up used at the local EB here. In any case - it's been a headache getting this sorted out.

It seems the box I had didn't include Disc 1 and 2, which was pretty much on an identical case and still back at the store. So I ended up having to double back and get the case left behind - which wasn't too bad, seeing as it's just practically down the street.

Went ahead and defragged the old hard disk, since re-installing as well as uninstalling some old games seems to have put things out of whack. Then, I went ahead and tried to install, where I received a "Error 1305" in regards to the Voice1.DAT file. I thought, "What the hell?" and retried, and rebooted, and retried the installation procedure. No such dice.

When I went to the TotalWar.com page, and checked out the Forum boards, there seems to be a stickied thread about the Error 1305, where one of the board administrators stated that there could possibly have been a bad batch of CDs that resulted in the error.

Needless to say - I was pretty pissed. There have been a couple of games in the past, where I received a "bad batch" of sorts, but this has been the first for me this year. In any case, I was going to double back and return the game (couldn't complain too much, since I got this used), when I noticed another post stating that some folks upgraded their DVD drive's firmware.

I figured I'd go right ahead and make some comparisons - and sure enough, there's a later firmware revision for my Pioneer DVD drive. In any case, I downloaded it...and realized I'm going to need to update the firmware via MS-DOS - and not the DOS prompt you get with WinXP or 2000. In any case...

It was a pain in the ass to get my firmware updated, with a few searches of old floppies for a working Windows 98 Startup disk - not to mention editing the autoexec file to read the CD-ROM drive, etc...etc...

Finally got through with that - and luckily, I was able to install the game. Whew...now I think I'm too tired to try playing it. What a frickin' day...

[jbmagic]

for people that play MTW and rome total war, whats better?

[Aylmar]

You can move your capital by going into the 'Settlement Details' screen. On the left side of that screen (IIRC), there is a button called 'Declare Capital' or 'Make Capital'. Words may be slightly off, but you get the ponit.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by Aylmar

You can move your capital by going into the 'Settlement Details' screen. On the left side of that screen (IIRC), there is a button called 'Declare Capital' or 'Make Capital'. Words may be slightly off, but you get the ponit.

I did not know that.... I thought we couldn't do it ourselves. I guess I SHOULD crack open the manual

[bamcgee]

Rome Total War is a significant improvement over Medieval, particularly the battles. I spent all weekend on it, and I think I got carpal tunnel as a result. Beware attacking the cities with AI reinforcements though - your AI controlled general of your other troops likes to do suicidal mad dashes to the town square. Lost a 6 star general that way, among others.

After two full, long days, I was ecstatic to finally take Rome. However, I was a little disappointed to realize that I only had 15 provinces out of a required 30+ for victory. Oye. That's a lot of gaming left.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Originally Posted by bamcgee

Rome Total War is a significant improvement over Medieval, particularly the battles. I spent all weekend on it, and I think I got carpal tunnel as a result. Beware attacking the cities with AI reinforcements though - your AI controlled general of your other troops likes to do suicidal mad dashes to the town square. Lost a 6 star general that way, among others.

After two full, long days, I was ecstatic to finally take Rome. However, I was a little disappointed to realize that I only had 15 provinces out of a required 30+ for victory. Oye. That's a lot of gaming left.

With the Julii family Im taking it slowly. Conquering Gaul until I a certain general by the name of Gauius Julius is born.

[Coffee Warlord]

Couple questions for all you assholes who had the money to pick this up.

1) Is naval combat still that god awful 'roll the dice and pray to god you win' deal?

2) How much CAN you do diplomatically? One of my biggest wishes with M:TW was being severly limited on what I could negotiate with other nations.

3) What's the timespan the longest 'open' campaign covers?

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Couple questions for all you assholes who had the money to pick this up.

1) Is naval combat still that god awful 'roll the dice and pray to god you win' deal?

2) How much CAN you do diplomatically? One of my biggest wishes with M:TW was being severly limited on what I could negotiate with other nations.

3) What's the timespan the longest 'open' campaign covers?

1 - Weak stuff. Lookingat my current game though, The Greeks have about 40 ships around their city states. Looks like it'll be a land battle. I had a Naval Battle where I had 30 ships to their 120 and it was a draw, while another time I had 40 ships to their 20 and it was a defeat, so it's not very good. The manuel said that Naval Combat wasn't as popular in those times so they didn't spend a lot of time on making it a key part.

2 - Depends on what you call "Diplomatic". You can make alliances, trade map information, bride regions to yourside, demand tribute, et al, but it didn't really go that indepth. Most of the time it was rejected and the few times it did work, the Senate would ask me to invade that city 2 years later then change its mind the next turn because I'm allied to them. I haven't seen an Allied country help me invade or just invade another country for land, but if the army is in the vicinity, it did help my battle.

3 - For some reason the year 1400 stands out, but I have no idea why and it doesnt make sense. I'm in year 208BC and it seems like I have been playing forever. I'm on my third leader, but he's in his late 50's

[Coffee Warlord]

I guess one of the key diplomatic points is...is there a troop passage agreement? I wanna sign a treaty that lets the Empire move their troops through places to invade outlying shit, dammit. Always sucked to have to basically attack anyone if they were in your path in MTW.

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

I guess one of the key diplomatic points is...is there a troop passage agreement?

Yes, there is.

And the diplomatic (influence) skill of your diplomat has a definite bearing on the success of your diplomatic ventures.

The manual said that Naval Combat wasn't as popular in those times so they didn't spend a lot of time on making it a key part.

Wow, they actually said that? Kind of an ignorant statement on their part...

[mgadfly]

Anyone know how to tell if a computer has the specs needed to play this game? Specifically, I'm worried that I don't have the "3D hardware Accelerater Card" and "latest drivers"

[MrBug708]

I noticed the best and most challenging aspect thus far. When a town gets the plague, the Governor can also get infected. I havent seen them die, but it seems to turn them into a host for the plague. I've moved one of my more higher officials out of Rome (I assasinated a captain and had war declared on me) all the way up to Britian where he is fighting there. Every town he passes through has a brush with the plague and I had to assign him to help fight in a battle with another of my leaders and that leader is also a host now and is up in Britian. Outside of a suicide attack into some enemy troops, these guys are lifers with it.

On downer is how large your family tree can get and once you add a few adotped kids, it dilutes the natural line a bit.

[WSUCougar]

You might try the demo and see if it works for you.

[mgadfly]

I actually already bought the game, but the graphic quality is a bit sketchy (lines across the screen where the clouds should be, etc...) and the sound is a little messed up at times. I'm trying to figure out what the problem might be.

[hukarez]

Originally Posted by mgadfly

I actually already bought the game, but the graphic quality is a bit sketchy (lines across the screen where the clouds should be, etc...) and the sound is a little messed up at times. I'm trying to figure out what the problem might be.

Running on the latest drivers for your videocard, by chance?

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by mgadfly

Anyone know how to tell if a computer has the specs needed to play this game? Specifically, I'm worried that I don't have the "3D hardware Accelerater Card" and "latest drivers"

I have a NVidia 440 mx w/64meg ram with original drivers. Game works fine

[Pumpy Tudors]

Does the tactical battle mode have, of all things, a USEFUL MINI-MAP? I hatedhatedhated the mini-map in M:TW. The orientation was all screwy, I had no idea where all of my troops were, and it was just a disaster. Honestly, that map ruined the entire game for me. I'll never play it again. Is the map in R:TW any better?