Rome: Total War

[Darth Viscera]

Gamespot Review (9.1 / 10) (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/rometotalwar/review.html)
IGN Review ( 9.4 / 10 ) (http://pc.ign.com/articles/550/550373p1.html)
FiringSquad Review ( 9.3 / 10 ) (http://www.firingsquad.com/games/rome_total_war_review/)
Gamespy Review ( 9 / 10 ) (http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/rome-total-war/550385p1.html?fromint=1)

I think it's safe to say that Rome: Total War is my favorite game of all time. I am ecstatically in love with it. This is the kind of game that, if you had enough time, you could wake up early in the morning, start playing, skip breakfast, and go non-stop till bedtime.

You start the game off as one of the 3 most prominent houses of the Roman Republic, Julii (pronounced Julee-eye), Scipii (pronounced Skippy-eye), or Brutii (i think you get the picture). It's 270 BC, and the Senate wants your house to expand the territory of Rome. It's a turn-based game, like Axis & Allies, only 1000x more detailed.

I picked the house of Julii, so I got to take on the Gauls, who in 270 BC controlled northern Italy, modern-day France, and a small chunk of Spain. By 265 BC, through bribery, cajolery and ruthless invasion I've reduced them to just a single small province in the northwest of France, and that same chunk of Spain, but those two won't last long either. I've also killed the leader of the Gauls and his heir on the battlefield. Oh yeah, and I've expanded Rome at least 1000 miles in every direction. Eat your heart out, Alexander the Not-As-Great-As-Flavius-Julius!

I had loads of fun doing battle with the Gaullic armies outside their capital of Alesia. I placed my army in the forest, so that the left wing of my frontline infantry was not concealed by the trees, and my right wing was. I had 740 troops, the Gauls 1000. Then, I just waited for them to attack. Their entire force crashed upon the left wing of my army, with desperate fighting ensuing. I immediately noticed that they had sent no force to assail my right wing, so I took that wing and used it to roll up the Gauls' left flank, and finally doubly enveloped them. The surrounded Gauls had no choice but to fight to the bitter end, with only 18 of them escaping, and my army was reduced to 520 men and barbarian mercenaries. The principle army of the Gauls was now lying dead in the forests, and there was much rejoicing in Rome. The Senate gave my general, Vicius Julius, the keys to the palace of the vestal virgins, which must have been a wild night indeed because the next day all six of them were ordered buried alive in the Campus Sceleratus for having broken their vows of chastity, and the common voters of Rome stopped throwing rats at me and questioning my mother's virtues, which was definitely a plus.

By 200 BC, I plan to have conquered all the known world, and been the cause of many more vestal virgins being put to death.

Demo (http://pc.ign.com/articles/541/541272p1.html)

[Dasquian Belargic]

Anyone who is wanting to try out the demo, I'd recommend this site (http://www.3dgamers.com/dlselect/games/rome/rometw_demo_5.5.zip.html) instead, as it doesn't have quite so large waiting queues, and offers a bittorrent version of the download (which I am getting right now!)

[Charley]

I love this kind of stuff. I'll probably buy it within a year or so.

[Drake Shadowstalker]

I downloaded the demo. That is some fun stuff. I'll probably buy it when it goes down to 30 bucks.

[Darth Viscera]

http://www.gogamer.com

take that! for the next 26 hours rome is $29.90 from there.

[Sarr Koon]

Wish I had a credit card... My parents don't let me buy stuff from the internet. I do not know why.

[Darth Viscera]

go to the grocery store, give them $35 or so, they'll give you a $35 prepaid mastercard or something like that. Many grocery stores have a service like this, I'm told.

[Gurney Devries]

I don't think I've ever said this about a game before, but Rome: Total War is a little too complex for my tastes. It's incredibly realistic, but I don't particularly feel like juggling taxes, worrying about whether or not my subjects are happy, figuring out how far I can travel in a turn, what kind of assault to use, where to deploy my troops, what formation to use, what time of year to attack in... et cetera, et cetera.

Maybe it becomes more manageable once you have your empire well under way and you're accustomed to playing the game, but it's all just too much for me to take in at once.

It's an excellent game and incredibly deep, but I think that it's just too much for me right now.

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Gurney Devries
I don't think I've ever said this about a game before, but Rome: Total War is a little too complex for my tastes. It's incredibly realistic, but I don't particularly feel like juggling taxes, worrying about whether or not my subjects are happy, figuring out how far I can travel in a turn, what kind of assault to use, where to deploy my troops, what formation to use, what time of year to attack in... et cetera, et cetera.

Maybe it becomes more manageable once you have your empire well under way and you're accustomed to playing the game, but it's all just too much for me to take in at once.

It's an excellent game and incredibly deep, but I think that it's just too much for me right now.


From visc's review it sounded great. Like a game I'd play, but after reading what Shawn just said, I think I'll pass- as from the reviews I've read from him I tend to follow, and trust.

I might look later, but I'm kinda glad I saved time now.

[Gurney Devries]

Why not give the demo a try? It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. It just had too much micromanagement for my tastes.

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by Gurney Devries
Why not give the demo a try? It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. It just had too much micromanagement for my tastes.


I dislike games that go that far, unless I really feel like dealing with it.

[Yog]

After trying the demo for a while, I cant wait to try the full game. Looks like it could be a classic. Besides, I rather fancy the idea of playing a brutish Roman dictator sending his army to plunder and conquer the world :)

[Yog]

Ok, after playing the full game for a couple of days, I cant put into words how incredible addictive it is. In short, if you dont want to lose your job, your girlfriend, drop out of college or been declared "missing" by the police after your family lost contact with you, DONT PLAY THIS GAME! :lol

[Drake Shadowstalker]

I'm finally going to buy it this friday or saturday. I'm trading in a few games. Probably PoP2 and KOTOR2.

[JediBoricua]

For some reason I can't play the demo...*sigh*

Sounds fun.

[General Dan]

Originally posted by Master Yoghurt
Ok, after playing the full game for a couple of days, I cant put into words how incredible addictive it is. In short, if you dont want to lose your job, your girlfriend, drop out of college or been declared "missing" by the police after your family lost contact with you, DONT PLAY THIS GAME! :lol

:(

I guess I'll live vicariously through you then.

[AmazonBabe]

Originally posted by Master Yoghurt
Ok, after playing the full game for a couple of days, I cant put into words how incredible addictive it is. In short, if you dont want to lose your job, your girlfriend, drop out of college or been declared "missing" by the police after your family lost contact with you, DONT PLAY THIS GAME! :lol

:lol!!!

Joe got this game for Christmas. I think he's gonna play it next now that he finished Sid Meiers Pirtates. It really looks awesome!

[Anuis Ma'artra]

He's had this game since X-Mas and still hasn't played it? Good Josh All-mighty! It is a very great game, I conquered the world a few times, had fun with each one.

[Lady Vader]

:lol Well, you have to understand he got like 4 games for christmas, and he played one all the way through, and he's playing another one a few hours a night (and it's an MMORPG, so it takes time and can potentially go on forever)... but I'll be sure he gets to Rome: Total War. He was excited in getting it, and I know some ppl here that have played it and loved it and raved about it... so... yeah, I'll make him start it. :)

[Drake Shadowstalker]

I just bought it yesterday and so far I am really enjoying it. :) Best RTS I've played, but I don't play many so that isn't saying much.

[Darth Viscera]

As the Gauls, I took Rome in 265 B.C. :D (didn't even cheat, either). My army of Gauls attacked the huge Roman army in 266, and we were outnumbered 5:8. We both had 700 or so men, but Rome's were far, far better equipped and more experienced. In the battle, the army of the SPQR charged my center line of infantry with the Roman General (and faction leader) in the lead. The line held, and I sent my own General and 4 cohorts to counter-charge the Roman leader, who was now exposed. We cut him down, demoralizing the Roman army, and then my entire center counterattacked. A bloody melee ensued, and after a few minutes the Romans turned and retreated, and my cavalry chased them down to the last man and killed them. Rome lost 4 General characters in that one battle, as well as 90% of their army. I lost 200 guys out of my original 700. Next turn, I besieged Rome, which had like 100 defenders now. The turn after that, my battering ram almost lit on fire as it was crashing down the gates, and I lost nearly all my (already much depleted) cavalry cohorts due to boiling oil from the gates, raced my army to the central plaza, and killed the remainder of the Roman army, then exterminated the population of Rome, which was 11,000 before I came along. My army only has 300 dudes left in it now, but I'll turn Rome into a barbarian stronghold and rebuild from there, then strike out for Capua. I think it's safe to say that the currently untouched Julii, Brutii and Scipii are going to be shocked when they hear the news :D.

oy, i could tell you a few things about my experiences in this game. It's very fun. The later game, though, where you have to manage 20+ settlements each turn, can get to be too much for the human brain to manage all at once and still do lots of turns, so a good thing to do is start a fresh new imperial campaign when the last one is getting drawn-out.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

I just got the demo and it was great. I can't wait to get the full version. I've had the original total war games, Shogun, and medieval, and each one is better than the one before. Big reason i like these games are they actually require strategy unlike games such as Command and Conquer where whoever builds the most tanks wins.

[Darth Viscera]

http://img195.exs.cx/img195/1503/romejuliispain8jq.th.jpg (http://img195.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img195&image=romejuliispain8jq.jpg)

The veteran army of Marcus Julius (the wildly popular Pontifex Maximus of Rome), marches on an enemy settlement in northern Spain in 221 B.C. The last holdout of the Kingdom of Spain is about to fall.

[Drake Shadowstalker]

did you purposely make it so each unit only had 40?

[Darth Viscera]

That's the game's default unit size. It's called "normal" in the video options in the main menu.

[Darth Viscera]

With the conquest of Spain complete, in 220 B.C. Marcus Julius prepares the invasion of Palma, an island in the western mediterannean and the last outpost of the Carthaginians. The Roman fleet blockades Palma's port, and Marcus Julius's army, veterans of Spain all, disembark and confront the ill-trained and hastily assembled army of Carthage.

http://img172.exs.cx/img172/4919/palma13sl.th.jpg (http://img172.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img172&image=palma13sl.jpg)

http://img190.exs.cx/img190/7603/palma26hn.th.jpg (http://img190.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img190&image=palma26hn.jpg)

http://img190.exs.cx/img190/9272/palma33kh.th.jpg (http://img190.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img190&image=palma33kh.jpg)

(some skirmishing too)

The Roman army attacks, and Carthage's flanks crumble. The bulk of Carthage's forces retreat to their center, but the nimble Roman cavalry ride around to their rear and complete a double envelopment of their army.

http://img190.exs.cx/img190/578/palma40fs.th.jpg (http://img190.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img190&image=palma40fs.jpg)

The Roman cavalry charges, and the Carthaginians are quickly cut down where they stand. The Roman army marches on.

http://img193.exs.cx/img193/7118/palma57bx.th.jpg (http://img193.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img193&image=palma57bx.jpg)

Victory! Next stop, Mauretania.

http://img174.exs.cx/img174/1221/palma66yk.th.jpg (http://img174.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img174&image=palma66yk.jpg)

[TieFighterPilot181st]

lol, i think you're getting a little too much into this game Visc.

[Darth Viscera]

well this thread needs screenshots