Total War Rome II

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Sat Sep 07, 2013 3:12 pm

Doomboy wrote:I'm going to ignore his opinion on this one, since he seems to love games I don't like, and dislike games I like. Which means I should probably get to downloading Rome II right now, I'll love it!

Before I learned he was an ass, I had this same thought. Nothing that he likes I like, and nothing that I like he likes. Which is fine except I began to notice that he would go out of his way to dislike AAA titles. That's not as OK, because if an AAA title really is good, then it should get credit for that. Now I will say I haven't read any of his reviews since April 2012, so he could have changed.

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Sat Sep 07, 2013 3:51 pm

He gave Diablo III 4 stars. That is pretty triple A. Also, I didn't care for it that much, once I realized that I wasn't getting any decent loot drops.

He hated Brave New World, which I think finally brings Civ V up to the point where it is the equal of Civ IV.

Also, he used the term "keystone kops" in both the review of Brave New World and Rome II. I guess in Civ V because there is a strict 1 unit per tile limit. I wonder if he ever brings that term up in smaller games that have the same 1 unit per tile limit? I didn't feel like checking. But he probably doesn't.

I agree that he is much harder on the bigger name titles. Which is another reason to discount his opinions for me. Also, he was a jerk to me when I wanted to sign up for his board after the big diaspora of GG. All fine reasons to ignore his opinion, in my opinion. (which everyone is free to ignore)

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Sun Sep 08, 2013 10:19 am

I caved. I bought it after cashing in a bunch of TF2 stuff and cards, got the game for about 15 bucks less than it would have been otherwise.

I got it going at least as smoothly as Shogun 2. I only had to turn down a few of the graphic effects to get it to run smoothly. This is with an old GTX 260 video card. I did upgrade earlier this year to a cheap FX AMD quad core CPU and MB when my old motherboard died. Shogun ran much better after the upgrade, and Rome II seems good too.

Smooth gameplay, only had to turn things off like depth of field and water droplets travelling down the screen during rain storms. Otherwise, unit graphics and everything else is high or ultra, and unit size is normal.

The only real problem I have seen so far is a problem in the turorial when it asked me to siege a town. The AI came out after me, before I could build any siege engines (which I think was a required trigger in the scenario), and then the game locked on the next turn when the AI tried to retake the town. I eventually got around it by walking an army all the way around to the back of the enemy forces.

Other than that problem, and trying to figure out how the new game works, it has been smooth sailing for me.

Normann · Post by **Normann** » Mon Sep 09, 2013 6:39 pm

I pre-ordered it to be able to play some of the smaller states later (at least this is what I keep telling myself), and because I am in a gaming drought.

So far I have about 13h into my campaign. I can't say I am disappointed because it is very much what I have expected. It is another TW that is almost identical to the last one. Not a thing changed for the better. So if anyone is wondering this is EXACTLY THE SAME as any other TW game. Identical. Since you guys were talking about reviews, I think the review on RPG (more like a chit chat about the game) (here http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/09 ... r-rome-ii/" target="_blank ) sums it up nicely.

Other than the fact that this game is another clone, there are some things specific to Rome II that I think they screwed up. It feels like an unfinished game. Especially the user interface seems half done. I am having a hard time getting the hang of it. For example In battle, when I select a unit I don't get much feedback, other than the name. So since the game is using original roman names (as far as I can tell), I can't tell if I selected a melee unit or a missile/melee unit. Another somewhat annoying thing is that you can't zoom out on the campaign map to the extent I would like to. It is way too close. May be this is for performance but the view is just too darn close for me. Next city management. I have no idea what I am building, or need to be building. The icons are, once again, meaningless. "Field of Mars". Yay! But what is it? Yes you do figure it out eventually. And no I did not play the tutorial. Why? Are they ever worth playing anymore?

Anyhow. I really can't recommend it for full price. Just go back to Shogun II and play that until a sale comes. Shogun II btw was good I thought, but I bought it much after release.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Mon Sep 09, 2013 11:04 pm

I am firmly on the fence on this one. For every negative post or review I see a positive one. And since my system is borderline-capable of running it anyway, I really wish there was a demo so I could see a) if it's as good as some people say, b) if it's as bad as some people say, and c) if it's even worth getting until I upgrade my rig, which won't be until the end of the year.

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Tue Sep 10, 2013 2:41 am

Well, I've put in about 7 hours, and yes, it is a lot like all the other total war games. That is not surprising to me. They have a formula, and people either like it or loathe it. I happen to like it, and nobody out there seems capable of coming close to reproducing it.

Yes, the interface, the units, and the buildings and all are a bit inscrutable. They were in the original Rome too. Admittedly, the building browser made figuring out the correct buildings easier. The encyclopedia in the game is just bad. It is slow (for some reason it is browser based and downloads stuff while you are trying to access it, which makes the tutorial videos very hard to watch).

But I am beginning to understand the concepts. If you want to know what a unit does, the unit card shows what it is. A bow means the unit is a missile unit. A sword means Melee.

The building stuff is more complicated. There are limited slots, and building dependencies, and you are allowed to make the towns how you want them to be, which can mean bad things early on, since you don't know what stuff does.

On the other hand, all this complexity will eventually go away, once you start getting a grasp on what the stuff all does. Much like some people are able to play EU and CK2 after some initial fumbling, I think this is the same. I myself have never been able to get over the learning hurdle in the EU games and CK2 is just horribly complicated as far as I'm concerned.

I haven't had any slow loading, and the turns are only long because there are so many factions. They aren't any longer than in Shogun 2 though, at least so far. After I turned off a few things I never care much about graphically (distortion effects was the main one, I think), the battles and campaign map are smooth as silk, and they still look great.

Anyway, yeah, if I had to sum it up, it is like Shogun 2 and Rome fell in love with each other, got funky, and had a baby. Rome II is that baby. It inherits more of Shogun 2 than Rome, but that is because they have come a long way since Rome, in terms of making the campaign as interesting to play as the battles.

I just wish I could settle on a side to play. My problem with all TW games. Who do I want to conquer the world with today?

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Tue Sep 10, 2013 10:39 am

I posted the following on reddit in response to someone who played the original RTW and wanted a comparison with TWR2. My caveat is that RTW may be my favorite computer game ever, and as such, I am predisposed to being a fanboi.

> Some things that are way better:

In RTW I felt like I was managing a collection of settlements; now I feel like I'm managing an empire. I think the new province system has a lot to do with this, and the family politics help (although this part of the game could use some more meat). Size of the map helps, too. The scale of the map and multitude of factions is way beyond RTW (note that this has the drawback of AI turns taking more time).

I LOVE the way armies work now - they actually feel like legions rather than a bunch of units thrown together. Assigning traits, appointing a general, attaching champions, it just gives the individual armies a personality that was completely lacking before. This has the drawback of stealing some personality from the generals, who seem kind of lackluster compared to the "personal stories" that CA was playing up in its early advertising for the game.

Overall the game feels more "sensible" if that makes sense. The many additions to the campaign layer since RTW came out give a more "realistic" treatment to the grand strategy element, managing food and provinces etc.

> Some things I miss from RTW:

Family Trees - The faction politics in TWR2 don't quite stack up. There doesn't seem to be enough going on, there's a lack of control over your family (without seeing potential heirs coming along etc.), and the one-year-per-turn means you are just getting attached to characters when they die. Again, the "humanizing" element that CA was supposedly going to deliver is lacking here.

The Music. The music is really understated in TWR2. The tracks in the original Rome were much more powerful and definitely added to the game experience.

> Some things to be aware of:

The AI was programmed by CA, so you know what to expect.

Tune your graphic settings until you are averaging FPS closer to 50 in the benchmark in order to get the best gameplay. It was years before I got a computer that could run RTW at its high settings; same will apply here.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Wed Sep 11, 2013 12:06 pm

I've been chugging away on my Rome campaign when I can the last few nights.

It's about 195 BC at the moment and I've claimed most of lower Gaul, northern Iberia, Syracuse, and now lower Greece. After expanding in the west for quite a while I recently turned my eyes east and am currently in the last stages of defeating the Spartans. Carthage is still around along with it's clients Libya and Carthago Nova. I've been trading with them since early in the game, and they haven't made any aggressive moves toward me, but it's getting to the point where I really need to consider moving against them. I've been pushing in Iberia to take everything Carthago Nova doesn't own and I'll probably invade with 3 or 4 legions there, while my remaining fleets and legions land in Africa. I'll try to post a map tonight with my updated borders.

I also finally had a few good naval battles and it's been interesting trying to figure out some tactics for them. As powerful as a lot of the ships are, all it takes to sink even the largest ship is a ship locking it in place while another rams it repeatedly, so outnumbering can be a pretty major factor. In my most successful battle so far against a Spartan fleet I went straight in with my command ship (a tower hexareme with veteran legionaries) and some assault biremes while a few artillery ships attacked their largest ships from afar, and my velite and scorpion armed ships came around their flank. Once my assault ships had locked the main enemy fleet in place I closed from all sides, peppered them with missiles as my marines went aboard, and when any boarding actions started to turn south on me I'd have my larger velite quinremes ram the enemy ships. In the end I took some hefty losses from among my assault ships, but only one bireme was sunk and the enemy fleet was completely destroyed.

Whale!

If I had to give my take on the game as a whole, I'd say it's definitely not as polished as Shogun 2 was at release, but it's really only needing a little balancing and bug fixing to be great. From what I've read the vast majority of the people complaining about the game are upset because technical problems are keeping them from playing. Understandable, but I expect those sort of problems will be fixed up soon.

Beyond that I think the next largest complaints are about the AI, which to my eye just looks a little buggy, but not unsalvageable. It's not, despite what you read, braindead, but all it takes is one or two key mistakes in a battle for people to label it "dumb". It can also be a bit hard to rate the AI as I tend to bring overwhelming force when I fight battles, and there's not a lot it can do when it's outnumbered 2 or 3 to 1. It's also much less capable with a small stack than a full army... once it has a full, balanced stack it seems to be able to move and react a little better.

The last major sets of complaints I see are people who just seem to not like the change in scope from Shogun 2 to Rome 2. That really speaks to more of a personal preference than anything else, but I can understand why some people who loved how tight and well contained the campaigns were in Shogun 2 would be put off by the new massive map to conquer. It's really a completely different playstyle from Shogun 2... one that I love, but it's not for everyone.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 10:41 am

BIIIIG PAAATCH!!
http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Total_War_ROME_II:_Patch_2" target="_blank

Technical and Performance Issues

Campaign performance optimisations.
Campaign AI round time improvements (greatest effect during early game).
A new "Limited" option has been added to the "Show AI Player Moves" settings in Single Player an Multiplayer Campaign modes, this enables the player to see all movement of enemy factions, all movement within the players regions, and all movement within sea that the player has ports in during the AI turns.
Improved AI recruitment decisions in Campaign modes. Further improvements planned for subsequent patches.
Pathfinding optimisation on the Campaign Map.
Fix for "Level of Detail" distances scaling incorrectly when the "Field of View" is changed which reduces the chance of the "Intelligent Zoom" [N] key, causing "zombie like” low quality textures on unit faces in battles.
A new warning message has been added to loading screen to inform the player when graphics memory is running low, and the game is downgrading the players graphics settings. This can be overriden, allowing the game to use system memory for graphics (VRAM) by ticking the "Unlimited video memory" option in the graphics menu.
Increased the frame rate and reduced frame stuttering in battles on certain GPUs.
Improved compatibility for graphics cards with multiple GPUs.
Added earlier Multiplayer Campaign resyncronisation detection, upon loading save games which allows resyncronisation in more cases.
More conservative out-of-the-box graphics settings and resolution for DirectX 10 and 11 on Mobile GPUs
Improved the processing speed of the default deployment placement, reducing battle loading times on some battle maps.
Fixed battle crash bug caused by the default deployment placement.
Crash fix for when the player placed the mouse over a garrison force of a region in Campaign mode.
Fix for crash loading save games that were created on the "settlement captured" screen in Campaign modes.
Fix for a crash when holding the [SHIFT] and [CTRL] keys down, and selecting a unit card, when no unit cards where previously selected in Campaign and Battle modes.
Fix for crash caused by forming a Confederation in Campaign modes.
Some desyncronisations have been fixed in multiplayer city / port assault battles.
Crash fix for when multiple AI reinforcements arrive in a single player siege battle in Campaign mode.
Fix for crash when selecting Custom Battle mode after fighting several different Multiplayer battles.
Fix for a crash in 4v4 custom or multiplayer battles caused by the battle AI.
Fix for crash when cancelling a game request for a password protected game whilst in a Multiplayer battle lobby.
Fix some crashes in multiplayer campaign mode, when one player quit the game, it would cause the other player to crash.
Fixed a Multiplayer crash which happened when a client joined a lobby and was being allocated to the wrong slot.
Fix for a very rare crash when launching a new campaign.
Fixed rare battlefield loading lockup.
Fix for a rare crash caused by animal handlers in battles.
Fix for crash that happens when AI unit triggers raise banner special ability when no human units are selected in battles.

Gameplay Improvements

Reduced infantry run speed, charge speed and acceleration in battles.
The low level casualty moral penalties have been significantly reduced in battles.
Improved balancing for Food and Squalor in Campaign Mode.
Campaign AI is more likely to make a stand when defending its final settlement, but may still seek out another home, if they fear losing the final battle.
Encampments battles are no longer incorrectly merged with Coastal battles, which lead to forts floating in the air when a friendly navy reinforced an army in the Fortification stance.
Improved ship movement speeds in battles.
Shock cavalry run speed and charge speed have been increased in battles.
Increased flanking morale penalties.
Added icons to indicate activity in the Technology and Faction screens during a campaign.
Fix for the boarding/ramming button which showed the incorrect state in certain circumstances in battles.
Fix for a bug that sometimes made it impossible to exchange units between a transported land force and another land force on the Campaign map.
Fix for armies on the sea getting stuck in patrol stance in Campaign modes.
Fixed splitting an embedded army from a navy which sometimes caused the player to get stuck in the Prologue Campaign.
Some missions in single player and multiplayer Campaign have been fixed and now execute correctly.
When a settlement is captured via a siege battle, with a friendly naval fleet blockading its port, the ownership of the port is now changed correctly to the friendly navy fleet on capture.
Fix for AI taking inappropriate sized siege equipment into battle when the user changed the settlement wall height, via the map selection settings, in Custom Battle mode.
Fix for defending armies under AI control grouping together at the edge of their deployment zone, during Ambush battles when the player choses to wait before attacking them.
Improved AI and scripting in the Raphia Historical Battle.
Fixed a bug preventing the player from progressing in The Invasion of Samnium prologue chapter, if they had spent all of their funds before being instructed to recruit a General (and therefore having no funds to do so).
The Attribute increases for an agent accompanying an army now activate its associated effects on the general of that army in Campaign modes.
Improved AI collision detection with Deployables in battle.
In Multiplayer Campaign mode, one player can no longer cancel recruitment during the other players turn.
The order of events leading up to the Battle of Bovianum in the prologue have been re-scripted. The player now gets multiple turns to construct siege equipment.
Fixed issues with not enough time being given for certain advisor lines to play in different languages in the prologue.
Fix for units floating in the air while climbing siege towers in battle, when the tower is placed on a slope.
Attacking siege ladders will no longer clip through the gate house in the siege on Bovianum battle during The Invasion of Samnium chapter in Prologue Campaign.
The victory screen in Multiplayer Campaign mode now shows the correct title for both players.
The Basilica of Vulcan religious building now applies the correct bonus to recruitment cost reduction in Campaign Mode.
Added level indicators to the Sanctuary of Austro & Sanctuary of Fraujaz shrines in Campaign mode and the Encyclopaedia.
Fix for settlement expansion trapping / blocking units movement on the campaign map in very rare cases.
Improved the terrain in a small Barbarian city battle map.
Minor bug fixes for Roman and Barbarian siege battle maps.
During battles, players are no longer able to un-pause the game while in the options menus.

Usability improvements

In Campaign mode, exempting a province from tax will no longer incorrectly adjust the food number in the province info panel left side of the screen.
Improved multiplayer lobby discovery, reducing the chance of finding *multiplayer lobbies with the wrong battle type.
Removed the red tint from the sky in battles.
Fix for "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day" achievement failing to unlock when its requirements were met in some situations.
The "Quaestor" achievement should now unlock correctly, when completing the Prologue campaign
Fixed the inability to select the previous faction, when an army is automatically loaded due to a battle type change during battle setup.
Improved the clarity of stats displayed for Slaves Economic Effect when placing the mouse over "Slaves" in the Province Details panel on the Campaign map.
Fix for rare cases of broken save games in Campaign mode.
Fix for Campaign mode bug, where a hostile agent and the players' ship became stuck in the same position, with neither one able to move.
Fix for very rare agent pathfinding issue, which caused the game progression to become impossible in Campaign modes.
Removed the ability to loading the wrong type of units into a battle from a saved army pre-set in Custom Battle mode.
In Multiplayer battle setup, unit restrictions related to "Battle type" are no longer desynchronised between the host and client, so only the correct units can be chosen.
Defending armies in an Ambush Battle can no longer load an army containing *Fixed Artillery and other Siege Equipment.
Fixed the tooltip displayed when placing the mouse over the garrison in enemy settlements, while the settlement is under siege.
The Public Order "Change per turn" stat is now displayed as the sum of all of its "Contributing Factors" on the Province Info panel in Campaign mode.
Right-clicking on the Aggressive, Balanced and Protective stance buttons when Autoresolving a battle in campaign mode will now take the player to the Encyclopedia, where these stances are explained in more detail.
More detailed descriptions added to the tooltips for the "Occupy, Loot and Raze" buttons after successfully capturing a settlement on the Campaign map.
Improved icons for Province Effects in Campaign mode.
Fixed an error with uploading stats when a multiplayer battle was ended prematurely.
The "Force March" movement effect on the campaign map (looks like a whirlwind) are now correctly removed from the screen when the AI move their army.
Correction to the Assault Hexeres unit card in the Parthia faction during battles, which had no colour mask and appeared black.
The buttons to change pages in the Leaderboards menu have been fixed, so more players can be seen on the Leaderboards.
The Provinces list in Campaign mode can now be scrolled with the mouse wheel.
Units in a recruitment queue, in a province with its capital under siege, now have an "infinity sign" icon to indicate that the "turns to recruit" is infinite while the siege is maintained in Campaign mode.
In the "Controls" menu under the "Settings" option in the main menu, when the player modifies the keyboard controls, and saves them, the new name for these controls is now replaces the "Classic Total War" name.
Added a tooltip to say "Left-click to remove unit from recruitment queue" for units that are queued for hire in Campaign mode.
Added a tooltip to make ruined buildings more obvious in Campaign mode.
Added tooltips to "Weather" and "Time of Day" settings in the Custom Battle menu.
Fixes and corrections for text in the encyclopaedia have been made.
Minor text and grammar corrections in Campaign Modes.
Fix for some German text not fitting into the available text space in the campaign mode user interface.
Improved text formatting in the Objectives panel in Campaign mode.
Added some localisation text fixes for French, Italian, German, Spanish, Czech, Russian, Polish and Turkish.
Fixed some missing text on the Diplomacy screen in Campaign modes.
Added white outline to Armoured Legionaries unit cards in battle.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 11:32 am

tgb wrote:Tom Chick has been a highly regarded critic and columnist since the earliest days of PC gaming. His opinions on AAA titles tend to go against the grain because he is less forgiving of design flaws and bugs than most, but they are always well thought out and informed.

I don't always agree with his opinion, he tends to go easier on indie games than big budget AAA titles, and I don't care for the way he moderates his website, but he's hardly an unknown or an "ass".

I've had drinks with him before, he's a likeable guy. Back in the early days, there were few genuine reviewers -- too much pandering going on. Tom was never like that, and I endeavored to do the same when I was reviewing as well. I was always amazed how prolific he is...not only finding the time to play all of these games, but the time to play them deeply when others give then a cursory glance. I haven't read this particular review, but I imagine his grievances are well explained. But what's a deal breaker for him might not be for someone else, which is why reading it is important. I still remember the time I gave a AAA game 3-stars in CGM and explained exactly why -- the game was decent enough and polished, but it was a sequel that added nothing new to the series and was not all that challenging. The magazine was barraged by complaints from fanboys who reacted to the stars -- not one addressed any of he comments in the article. Chick's stuff was always like this.

Normann · Post by **Normann** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 4:34 pm

Played a few more hours. I am playing Rome on hard. The campaign AI makes this unplayable and I don't see anything in the patch that would change this. It seems AI armies can reinforce, move, and fight all in one turn. Not fun.

I am fighting this nation (some nomads) that controls two provinces (may be 4 cities tops) when we start our war. They attack my ally and I join in while I am in the middle of another war up north. I control about 9 cities at this time... may be more. They wield an army as large as mine, about three large armies, and a navy that is three times the size of mine. Impressive. I figure this will be fun.

They start out by zigzagging the map and laying siege to some of my coastal cities. Since this war was not planned, my main forces are up North. So it takes me some time to move them South.

Next turn they take out one of my larger cities (Southeast tip of Italy, where Bari is now... forgot the game name). I defend with levies and cause major losses to their large army (20+ units with reinforcement) but I lose. They must be down to 40% strength. No worries. I will take it back. In that turn I march down a large army to attack their only close city, the one that they just took from my ally a turn or two prior. I attack that city in the same turn and take it no problem but now that army of mine is down to 60% strength. That is my top army by the way. Next turn their Army (the one that took my city which is just across the sea) boards a ship, sails over, and attacks this city I just took. They are reinforced nicely. Definitely not 40% like I left them. But my army is not. I defend hard, and lose again, but now all they have left is 3 units in that army. Well...WTF. I figure it is so hard to follow what is going on during the AI turn (since the camera is jumping all over) that may be I missed when they reinforced? May be they had another force nearby on a ship that joined forces? Hmmm...

Next turn. Guess what? That army that just took that city back from me (the one that should be down to 3 units), jumps once again into a ship, onto the sea, lands on the other side and it is almost full flag. Something like 80% flag, and it has 20 units!!!!!!! WTF???????? I have a medium size army in the area and try to engage them but I am big time outgunned. Next turn they take another city from me.

So is this fun or what? I forgot to mention they have this ballista that does more damage than the laser form the Death Star and routes legions after three shots. Sweet. I guess I am shelving this for a few weeks. Also, this was the last time I bought anything from Creative Assembly on day one. They just slid down to the level of Paradox. The lowest in my book.

JonathanStrange · Post by **JonathanStrange** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 5:23 pm

Actually it did sound fun! Well, except that I dislike an AI that apparently cheats so dramatically! Absent any explanation of unseen reinforcement, I can see how the fun of being challenged by the AI would drain away: it's one thing to be out-thunk, it's another for the AI to seem to be playing with another set of rules.

Thanks, though, for your post. AI issues are sort of a big deal for me. It's always been like a pebble in the shoe - playing a strategy game against opponents with little or no strategy. I've often felt it's the grown-up version of a child's playing with plastic army men, setting them up in elaborate battles, and then knockin' 'em all down with rocks.

I still will buy Rome though because one can play around for a long time before getting bored and throwing rocks. It's been fun before.

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 10:26 pm

It sounds like if you bump up the difficulty, the AI gets to cheat like it did in Shogun II. I remember the first time I discovered that happening. It pissed me off and I quit playing Shogun II until the actually made the AI play by the same rules.

I took a city from my neighbor, he is almost dead, he retreats off into the fog of war. I need to sit in the town and rebuild my army, and at the same time suppress the rebels. Then the next turn the same general comes back with a full stack and attacks. I lose, but I hurt him bad. I have built another stack and send it over on my turn. The army that just won a Pyrrhic victory a turn or two ago, is now back at full strength!

I tested it, and it seemed like if the AI ever got out of sight in the fog of war or whatever, he would be given a full stack.

I am not playing Rome II on hard. I am not playing Rome II on medium. I am having lots of fun on easy. The AI is not cheating, and I am not having a complete cake walk of it either. Of course, I am winning so far. But I have lost some major battles. Probably because I didn't know what kind of units I should have, or because I accidentally committed my troop ships to a sea battle.

I may get bored and bump up the difficulty. But I think not knowing what I am doing makes it hard enough for the first game or two.

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 10:41 am

Doomboy wrote:It sounds like if you bump up the difficulty, the AI gets to cheat like it did in Shogun II. I remember the first time I discovered that happening. It pissed me off and I quit playing Shogun II until the actually made the AI play by the same rules.

I took a city from my neighbor, he is almost dead, he retreats off into the fog of war. I need to sit in the town and rebuild my army, and at the same time suppress the rebels. Then the next turn the same general comes back with a full stack and attacks. I lose, but I hurt him bad. I have built another stack and send it over on my turn. The army that just won a Pyrrhic victory a turn or two ago, is now back at full strength!

I tested it, and it seemed like if the AI ever got out of sight in the fog of war or whatever, he would be given a full stack.

I am not playing Rome II on hard. I am not playing Rome II on medium. I am having lots of fun on easy. The AI is not cheating, and I am not having a complete cake walk of it either. Of course, I am winning so far. But I have lost some major battles. Probably because I didn't know what kind of units I should have, or because I accidentally committed my troop ships to a sea battle.

I may get bored and bump up the difficulty. But I think not knowing what I am doing makes it hard enough for the first game or two.

I only recently realized that very recently, in most games i dont know rules at, i should start with easy first game (not just TW but almost any strategy). Then its more fun, learn the rules and then can turn up difficulty. I used hardcore it and put Ai on hard in many games, but often would get wooped badly and just not come back to the game. I think i passed on many good games because i would try be competitive not even knowing the rules.

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:11 pm

Another reason I am playing it on easy is that I just don't have as much time as I used to for getting my but kicked.

When I get a little time for gaming in, I don't want that precious commodity wasted on being frustrated. It isn't like anyone else cares if I get my ass kicked or if I pull off amazing victories against the hardest AI.

Nobody but me is going to see it, so why frustrate myself?

triggercut · Post by **triggercut** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:25 pm

Lorini wrote:
tgb wrote:Tom Chick has been a highly regarded critic and columnist since the earliest days of PC gaming. His opinions on AAA titles tend to go against the grain because he is less forgiving of design flaws and bugs than most, but they are always well thought out and informed.

I don't always agree with his opinion, he tends to go easier on indie games than big budget AAA titles, and I don't care for the way he moderates his website, but he's hardly an unknown or an "ass".
Trust me, he's an ass. If you want to discuss that, PM me.

Edited because I don't need the grief.

Tom's not an ass, and I'll leave it there.

Canuck · Post by **Canuck** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 8:19 pm

Normann wrote:Also, this was the last time I bought anything from Creative Assembly on day one. They just slid down to the level of Paradox. The lowest in my book.

The ironic thing is that Paradox puts out really solid releases these days. They're one of the most trusted companies now. Crusader Kings 2 was rock solid on release.

Normann · Post by **Normann** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 8:24 am

Canuck wrote:
Normann wrote:Also, this was the last time I bought anything from Creative Assembly on day one. They just slid down to the level of Paradox. The lowest in my book.
The ironic thing is that Paradox puts out really solid releases these days. They're one of the most trusted companies now. Crusader Kings 2 was rock solid on release.

Hard to fix a tarnished reputation. CK2 was good and I don't remember major issues. But HOI3? 2? Anyways. I did not want to turn this into a Paradox thread.

Patch for Rome II is downloading now on my steam.

JonathanStrange · Post by **JonathanStrange** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 9:58 am

sepiche need more screenshots captured city noble villa stat screen somethin

Rowdy · Post by **Rowdy** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 2:09 pm

The biggest issue I have is not being able to attack a city which is being blockaded by an enemy fleet. All the cities I have targeted to take over (in order to preserve my supply lines and complete provinces to get the bonus edicts) are under blockade by distant AI factions, which means I am unable to do anything with my army but stand off to the side and wait, or attack the beseiging force and start a war with someone I have no interest in starting a war with (yet). Did they fix that?

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 2:24 pm

Rowdy wrote:Did they fix that?

Naval blockades are just sieges from the water now and it's first come, first served in the world of territorial conquest. If the blockading forces are small you could argue they need to make sure the AI knows when to sally and break a siege, but otherwise that's working as intended.

JonathanStrange wrote: sepiche need more screenshots captured city noble villa stat screen somethin

hehe I haven't been able to play on my Rome game much the last couple of days, but here's a relatively recent screenshot of the world map, and a shot to show the scale of giant ballistas. I'm currently gearing up to finally invade Carthage.

JonathanStrange · Post by **JonathanStrange** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 9:40 pm

That's what I'm talking about! I probably have to play the game to internalize the differences between this version and the earlier Total War Rome I. There's so much that looks the same.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:04 am

Interesting post from the developers about what they are planning on working on:
http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.p ... working-on" target="_blank?

I managed to get in a few hours with my Romans last night and started my war against Carthage. I had to spend a few turns moving my legions from Greece to positions off the coast of all of Carthage's coastal cities, but it turns out I was cutting things close. Just as I was preparing to make my move, Carthage's cities in the west started falling to one of the Iberian tribes that had managed to get pretty powerful by holding Portugal for most of the game. I still managed to seize a number of their cities, but once I finish off Carthage I'll probably need to declare on the Iberians just to keep them from getting uppity once I turn my legions to the east.

My surprise attack against Carthage worked wonders though and thanks to the Iberians they didn't even have a lot of ground troops left (still a couple of full stacks, but nothing like what they had earlier). I positioned 3 legions off the coast of Iberia backed with one of my smaller fleets with the goal of taking Iberia for me. I also had another 2 legions backed with a large fleet to secure the west coast of Sicily. Finally I had a legion and a fleet stationed off the coast of Carthage itself who would attack a few Carthaginian fleets near there before waiting for other legions to aid them as they get freed up.

Of Carthage's two main battle fleets... one was in port in Sicily, and I was able to catch them in harbour when my siege there started, while the other was off the coast of Carthage. The first battle of the war was one of my fleets engaging the 2nd Carthage fleet with a legion of infantry for backup.

Here's my fleet before battle. That's the hexareme command ship loaded with veteran legionaries in the foreground. The first line of ships on the left are my 6 siege ships. And behind that a line of assault biremes with velite quadriremes and scorpion ships to protect the flanks.

My plan was to use my siege ships to thin out the largest Carthaginian ships before they reach me, and then rush forward with my assault ships to lock them in place, while my command ship, velites, and scorpions move around the flanks and start boarding and ramming.

Things went mostly according to plan with my siege ships taking a pretty hefty toll on the main line of Carthaginian ships, but a small squadron of enemy reinforcements came in on the flank near my command ship, and I had to engage them with a hastily built group of ships... my command ship, a couple velite quadriremes, and a couple assault biremes.

That's my command ship in back who is in the process of backing up after ramming that smaller ship. In the foreground that's marines from one of my assault ships boarding the Carthaginian command ship while my velites rake them with fire. By that point it had slipped beneath the waves, but I did lose a quadrireme in that fight to a Carthaginian fire pot ship that I didn't notice mixed in. Those things are pretty much one shot, but they can be excellent at taking out key, large enemy ships.

By the time the flank was secure what was left of the main line of Carthaginian ships met up with my assault ships, but a lot of them had turned toward the transports of my reinforcing legion probably to try to make a quick kill, but my troops were more than a match for them:

In the foreground that's two transports loaded with legionnaires defeating another Carthaginian command ship. In the background you can see the remains of some of the Carthaginian ships burning and in the very back you can see the last Carthaginian reinforcement ship getting boarded.

I think by far the hardest part of naval battles is how quickly even a powerful ship can get taken down if it gets rammed or hit with artillery or anything. Standard legions do work very well for boarding, but their transports are made of plywood, and in the later assault on the Carthaginian fleet at anchor I lost more than a few veteran legionnaires when their ships went down, but they did manage to keep the fleet too busy to land reinforcements while my main legions stormed the city center.

All in all I've pretty much broken Carthage now. I should be storming Carthage itself in a turn or two, and then there are a few more cities along the North African coast to take over, but that's just mopping up. As I mentioned I'll probably regroup my now 8 legions and take Iberia from the tribes there before they get too much more powerful, and then I'll either head east into Egypt, or north into Gaul.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 1:24 am

Huge new beta patch available:
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/total-war ... 100-fixes/" target="_blank

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 2:18 pm

Gameholds.com (which research shows to be reliable and legit) has region-free keys for $35, which is the price point I've been waiting for. So my question is how much have patches improved the game, particularly in terms of performance on lower-end systems?

For the record I have an Intel i3-3220 3.3 GHz processor with 6Gb RAM. My bottleneck is integrated Intel HD graphics, and I won't have the money to upgrade that until my end-of-year bonus.

For what it's worth, Shogun 2 runs fine with lowered settings. I just don't want to spend money on a game that's going to run like crap.

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 2:32 pm

Shogun II ran pretty well on my system with medium settings, and Rome II is doing the same. There were a couple of sites I went to to compare my system with the requirements of Rome II, and I was reassured that it could run, and after a bunch of graphic tweaking, I have it running well, and looking decent too.

Not as good as someone with a new video card (mine is from 2009).

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com is my first place to go to see if a new game can run on my system, and so far they have never let me down. It will analyze it and tell you where there might be problems. It shows required and recommended specs, and shows how your computer stacks up for both.

I can't remember where the other place was, but it did something similar and the results were the same, so I pulled the trigger and got Rome II.

The patches have made it better, but they are beta patches, so some people have been complaining about it working worse for them, for me, the game works better. Also, I downloaded a mod that removes clouds and godrays from the campaign map, and that has become smooth as a result.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 4:12 pm

systemrequirementslab.com does not work well with Intel HD graphics, because it only counts the dedicated VRAM (usually less than 256Mb), and doesn't account for the shared RAM the chip uses. As a result it told me that several games that run fine (EU 4, CK 2) would not run at all.

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Mon Sep 23, 2013 5:11 pm

Admitted fanboi that I am, I am loving this game! Patch 3 does wonders for it... and I've really gotten into the political/character system in my current playthrough. I think this (politics/character rpg aspect) could still use some love, but if you want it, it's there. I guess it's a shame that the politics/characters piece feels like it can be ignored with no real detriment. Also loving the missions/bonus objectives as these are directing my conquests in a way that gives the game more of a story. Good times, good times.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Oct 03, 2013 11:33 am

Can someone please explain the political game to me? Not how it works - I get that promoting family members and hindering rivals increases influence in the senate or the tribe, but so what? What does having more influence actually do and why would I want it?

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Thu Oct 03, 2013 1:10 pm

I think if you have too much of it, or too little of it, the civil war breaks out. I've never had too much or too little, and I haven't yet conquered enough territory with one civ to trigger it (I keep starting new games to see how the other sides play).

From what I can gather on the forums where the game is discussed (between crazy rants about how evil Creative Assembly are), that seems to be what people are saying about it.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Oct 03, 2013 1:15 pm

I've also read where civil wars are hardocded to your faction prestige, or whatever it's called. Kind of like the realm divide in Shogun 2. In that case, it really makes no difference.

I've been avoiding the official forums for obvious reasons.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:53 am

Just FYI, there's a new free DLC out with the latest patch that adds 3 steppe tribes as playable nations, but you have to actually install it from the Steam store to add it to your game and it's only free until Oct. 29th.

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 1:47 pm

Anyone still play it? I been dabling into it, still on my old comp, but it runs ok on high setting.

Freyland · Post by **Freyland** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 2:33 pm

If someone can magically donate 35 gigs of bandwidth to me, I would be right now!

Really sucks to have satellite 'net with tight bandwidth caps.

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:02 pm

I like some small touches that this one adds to the series. The cinematic camera i have seen before, but this one a bit more polished, was pretty awesome in one of the battles. I normaly micro a bit too much in my battles, but this time around i had no chance other then play heavy defense. I used buildings to bottle myself in and had some hoplietes to create a wall. My only advantage i had javeline vs his slingers, and i had more of them. Hence i boxed in and then sat in systematic view on my hoplites that were blocking path between 2 houses. First came wave of cavalry, earth is shaken and we easily broke the charge , then came waves of their chieftain heavy infantry and that was a long fight there. Surprisingly since this were (levi hoplites on my side) they held amazing, on the other hand on my other flank i had other hoplites (but not with long spears) and they got much worse of a brunt vs chieftain infantry. My javeline man were really heroes of the battle, since each one behind my shield wall killed about 120-150. Thats about half the kills of the battle, finally we held of their assault, then warped around their flank and smashed them. I am playing Pontus and enemy some Gallic tribe. Unfortunately this bottle just meant i stabilized my flank, since prior to that i couldn't beat them in even one battle as they units were superior to mine. Finally with some new units hoplites and levy hoplites it changed the battle. We both have 3 provinces and so far battle has been feirs. My only advantage that they are sandwiched between me and everyone else, hence sooner or later somebody going to declare war on them. Since at the rate my spendings/earnings are moving, i am wont be able to master another offense for a while.

This is my second start, prior one was with horse archer civ and i got totally destroyed with it. I think it requires a lot more experience before i can go all cavalry civ. I wanted to use elephants, but i would never survive long enough to see them. So far game has been challenging on hard, which i cant say about a lot of other TWs.

Normann · Post by **Normann** » Fri Apr 11, 2014 10:37 am

So this has like 8 patches already. I was wondering if I should give it another go. I bought this day one, and I was turned down by a few thing like chasing tiny enemy fleets blockading my ports...

So what do you guys think? Did they make significant improvements between now and release?

Thanks!

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Fri Apr 11, 2014 4:19 pm

I didnt play at Launch, so i dont know. I had a lot of fun, and will still go back to it pretty soon. I am waiting for new comp, as Rome 2 is a bit too tough for my old comp so my graphic level is pretty crappy.

Even with that, i had a lot of fun.

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:46 am

Normann wrote:So this has like 8 patches already. I was wondering if I should give it another go. I bought this day one, and I was turned down by a few thing like chasing tiny enemy fleets blockading my ports...

So what do you guys think? Did they make significant improvements between now and release?

Thanks!

I just finished a campaign and it was fun for the most part. The tiny fleet blockade thing didn't happen to me once.

I was using a few mods: Guaranteed Major Faction Empires by Mitch, Longer Land Battles Mod by Volcano467, Populares vs. Optimates by Boicote, and my own Magna Carthago and Pauciores Agentia Mods. So my experience was shaped in part by those.

Overall I had a good time. The battles were enjoyable and the AI seemed to hold its own at first; toward the latter stages of the campaign the AI armies rarely matched the quality of the armies I was fielding, so the last 30 turns or so felt very much like tying-up loose ends. I also ended up with a ton of client states (18 I think) and they were all fighting amongst themselves. That didn't really bother me as long as they all remained in my fold. Money and food were non-issues toward the end as well. I really don't like the way food is modeled in the game, but I guess that's another story. I still think the scale of the game feels so much better than RTW - like I mentioned above at some point, I feel like I'm managing an Empire, not a bunch of city-states. One aspect where this didn't really happen though was post-civil war when I chose to actually become an Empire. The "Emperor" had little impact on the game that I could see - the leader of my faction got the title and things went on as normal with a few new bonuses to stuff. Meh.

So yeah... despite the game still lacking in a couple areas, I would say give it another try.

Normann · Post by **Normann** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 8:02 pm

Stuie wrote:
Normann wrote:So this has like 8 patches already. I was wondering if I should give it another go. I bought this day one, and I was turned down by a few thing like chasing tiny enemy fleets blockading my ports...

So what do you guys think? Did they make significant improvements between now and release?

Thanks!
I just finished a campaign and it was fun for the most part. The tiny fleet blockade thing didn't happen to me once.

I was using a few mods: Guaranteed Major Faction Empires by Mitch, Longer Land Battles Mod by Volcano467, Populares vs. Optimates by Boicote, and my own Magna Carthago and Pauciores Agentia Mods. So my experience was shaped in part by those.

Overall I had a good time. The battles were enjoyable and the AI seemed to hold its own at first; toward the latter stages of the campaign the AI armies rarely matched the quality of the armies I was fielding, so the last 30 turns or so felt very much like tying-up loose ends. I also ended up with a ton of client states (18 I think) and they were all fighting amongst themselves. That didn't really bother me as long as they all remained in my fold. Money and food were non-issues toward the end as well. I really don't like the way food is modeled in the game, but I guess that's another story. I still think the scale of the game feels so much better than RTW - like I mentioned above at some point, I feel like I'm managing an Empire, not a bunch of city-states. One aspect where this didn't really happen though was post-civil war when I chose to actually become an Empire. The "Emperor" had little impact on the game that I could see - the leader of my faction got the title and things went on as normal with a few new bonuses to stuff. Meh.

So yeah... despite the game still lacking in a couple areas, I would say give it another try.

Thanks Stui. I did fire it up again and continued my campaign. I might finish it too. Still not really blown away but interested enough to continue. It feels difficult to expand so that keeps me interested. I have put in another 10 hours so I guess I got some game time for my money. Too bad this game could be so much more.

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 10:52 am

The new (and completely free to anyone who owns the game) Emperor Edition upgrade is available in Beta. I'm so excited to see the overhaul of both politics and civil war mechanics... just finished loading up the beta patch so I'll try to get around to impressions by the weekend.

The beta only has the changes for the main campaign. The final version of the "Emperor Edition" will include a new Second Triumvirate campaign. That's something I always meant to work on for RTW but never got around to it, so I hope CA has done it justice.

Patch 15 Beta notes in the spoiler:

Spoiler: