Not to besmirch an otherwise much loved game, but check out this thread before you purchase it. I understand that it was probably both one-in-a-million and a false positive (as was suggested), but something odd happened.
I doubt I’ll pick it up for a while, but I’ll keep it on my list. I don’t have a lot of money for games at the moment, and I just recently got Kohan 2: Kings of War, so most of my time will be spent on that. But thanks for the recommendation. If things go the way I expect them to, I’ll probably have it before Christmas.
Well, I bought the game when it first shipped (and bought the Viking expansion also when it first shipped) and never had any problems with it with reguards to virus’s…false positive or other. I used a multi-layered virus protection scheme on my local home network including a firewall virus scan as well as a system virus scan and local virus protection on my workstations (I used Symantec Corporate AV). All my definitions are kept up to date on a weekly basis.
Its always possible to get a virus on a store bought CD, but its pretty rare…I’ve only heard about it before 2nd or even 3rd hand, and I usually buy several games a month. It wouldn’t be the game itself btw, but game makers generally send out their gold CD’s to a burner/distributer…and I suppose its always possible one of them fucked up and let a CD group out with a virus on it.
Not something I’d worry a lot about to be honest…if you have AV software and your definitions are up to date it should easily detect the virus and alert you. Simply contact the vendor if thats the case and have they send you a new one, or take your CD back to the store you bought it from and get a replacement. No worries. 
-XT
This is a silliy question, but I have to ask: does Judea appear on the map? Is it an independent province? It’s just that I’m leery of having to sack Jerusalem, even in a game.
Not a silly question at all…seeing as you are from there.
Yes, Judea is a province, and Jerusalem is the city there. Other provinces in the area (if you are curious) are: Nabataea, Sinai, Thebals, Middle Egypt, Nile Delta, Colle Syria, and Phoenicia.
My advice is either leave the province alone (you shouldn’t need to take it) or take it and occupy it…don’t sack it.
-XT
I have to agree that Total War: Rome is flat out fantastic. Just last night at 11:30p I decided to play another 30 minutes then go to bed. Next time I looked it was 2:30a.
I have also had some classic gaming moments that have been rare for me of late. Best was firing an Onager (catapult) at troops leaving through a city gate to come out and engage me. Somehow (through luck in how I was moving the camera or a game mechanic I am not sure) I got a “follow the firey ball of death” all the way to the unlucky troops I hit. The troops got squished…too cool.
Then watching calvalry charges knock soldiers in the air and out of formation is great.
Watching siege towers trundle at you inexorably is great although not a welcome sight. It seems like the AI is borked on siege towers. So far only had a few come at me but the AI troops start up the thing but never come pouring out.
Then I had a time where I was using one city to crank out archers. For some reason I had no other troops there except a pile of archers and got attacked. Was amazing to see my walls loaded with archers filling the air with arrows all the while praying the enemy never made it inside/on the walls where the archers would get massacred (some troops made it on the walls via laddrers and had started on on the archers when most of the troops lost faith and broke and ran so the day was mine).
Someone mentioned the Gauls not coming in strength to retake their cities which in general I found to be the case too till one time two armies of 1100+ troops each showed up on my doorstep. I had about 600 defenders. While they took their turn to build siege equipment my best general (who was in that city defending it) died of natural causes. I wanted to cry (loved that guy…he rocked). After that I got my ass handed to me. I reloaded a save game thankfully made just prior to their attack and this time my general did not die. I then had the hairiest battle yet in Total War:Rome with me sallying forth my general and other cavalry to harrass the enemy while fighting at the walls and so on. That time I won but it was a really close thing.
Some notes:
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I have had zero trouble with money. I am rolling in it in fact and most of my cities are set to Low tax rates. For me however I focus all my building on improving the city. Roads, shrines, etc. I get walls up and an archery range then drop in a handful of Hatasti and they seem to do ok. This means I am not rolling about with the baddest assed mofos yet and I have already taken most of Western Europe and am just finishing up Spain. My main cities are coming online as massive, got everything towns and they are starting to crank out the really good stuff to build a handful of crack armies. In short, I take a slow and easy pace to it all, nibbling here and there then consolidating what I have. Rinse and repeat.
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Putting a family member in as Governor of a town really makes a difference in the town’s happiness usually as well as the towns profitability. Keep 1-3 out int he field kicking ass and use the rest to manage. Some suck as commanders anyway. The worst is getting a good-for-nothing relative that can actually make things worse in a town. Be sure to go back and check the governors as they gain virtues and vices their whole lives and manage accordingly.
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As to keeping the populace happy if you take a foreign town you might consider smashing the local temple/shrine that maybe gives their warriors a bonus and replacing it with a Roman shrine such as the one to Jupiter. This way you can then upgrade that temple as well. I think (not sure) if you leave their pagan alatars there you cannot upgrade it. Just note that for a turn or two the populace will get particularly crankly while there is no shrine…be sure to have a hefty garrison and build a new shrine immediatley.
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Again with the money I am sure to upgrade roads and ports ASAP. Even if you do not use ports to build many ships they are trade generators and better ports generate more trade so don’t skimp on them because you are thinking you don’t care about building ships there. Roads of course also allows more efficient movement of your troops.
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Don’t forget your diplomats. Have them run around making at least a Trade Agreement with any and every empire you can. It may mean nothing or help a lot but costs you next to nothing to do.
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Kill enemy Diplomats every chance you get. I learned that the hard way when relief troops were nearly at the city that was getting hammered and a diplomat bribed the lot of them. Get a bunch of assassins out and about.
Sorry for the length…just a very cool game.
I meant to add…
The disposition of your family members is a game unto itself and one I am still trying to get a handle on. Each and every one is unique but using them efficiently seems to help a lot. Naturally the commanders are easy to spot. The guys who run the cities tend to be a bit more in the gray areas. Still, for me, I like to keep 2-3 of the best ones in my best money making cities to really crank up the money machines there. Those mitigate the few low earners or even money losers I have more than enough.
Also do not forget troops have an upkeep cost. If you like to empty your town in previous Total War games that were pretty safe then the best thing to do here is use Town Watch. Not very good troops but cheap to maintain. Just watch out for bandits that can pop-up anywhere and get rid of them right away. Even if bandits do not attack they damage the area they are in (you’ll see a blackened portion of the map appear where they are and it grows) thus damaging your trade and such. Town Watch plus a set of at least basic stone walls for 3-4 Archers seems to work great for me. Enough to hold down the populace while being fairly cheap to run. Only lost one town like that and that was to Carthage and their damn elephants.
I think I’m finally going to have to immerse myself in the Total War series this time out. I play alot of complex strategy games but this one has overwhelmed me ever since trying out the demos of shogun and medieval. I still find manuever warfare perplexing.
Just a quick note. You did know you can uncheck the ‘recruit’ box and the auto governor won’t build units unless you tell them didn’t you? The same with buildings. The only thing you can’t control is the taxes.
Yes I know. You can also control the taxes by setting Build Policy to Growth (for low taxes). You’ll notice if your people are unhappy and you change that policy the tax rate goes down, the town makes less money and the people usually go up a notch in happiness (e.g. yellow face to green face).
If you dislike the RTS part of the game you can have the computer autoresolve battles for you. The turn based part of the game is good enough now I think to still make the game worth it played like this but of course you are missing out on a huge part of the game. Also, I find the computer does a terrible job in the autoresolve compared to if I fight but if that part is not for you then you can skip it.
No the tactical battles is practically my only interest in it. I just find it a bit overwhelming and can’t get over the hump to immerse myself in it.
I agree that the tactical battles really are the meat of the Total War series although in this case the strategy map is fun unto itself as well…more than any of the previous games I think.
I find the battles in Total War:Rome to be the best yet personally. For a change the differences and various bonuses of troops really feels noticeable so you know when something is working like it should and not just assuming the game is getting right in the underlying math. For instance charging your Heavy Calvary through the backside of some archers has a dramatic and immediately apparent effect. Soldiers go flying, the troop gets creamed and your calvary will actually charge right through them then wheel back to do it again. 95% of the time the troop that just got hit panics and runs.
If you give this one a try again remember that the battles here happen at a more stately pace than many RTS games. Except in very large battles I find the need to engage in a click-fest rare. Once troops are engaged they pretty much have to duke it out so it is the pre-positioning and maneuver where you do most of the work and that progresses rather slowly (usually) and I find myself going to triple speed just to pass those long idle spots. About the only troops I really actively micromanage are my calvalry. Of course if things start getting to be a lot to manage all at once (and that happens) there is always the pause button where you can still give orders.
A few tips…
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Use your skirmishers (missile troops) first if possible. I forget the setting but you can make it so they autorun away when something gets too close. I have one battles merely by tiring out the enemy while he chased away my skirmishers (not to mention they killed a fair number on their own). My skirmishers would run back to my formed up army and the enemy would break off. Then the skirmishers would go back, shoot once or twice and get chased away again. By the time they were out of missiles half the opposing army was “very tired” and a little banged up while my melee troops were fresh and ready to go. Just need patience to let this play out. NOTE: Skirmishers have a nasty habit of shooting each other in the back…I’ve actually killed more of my own troops with that than the enemy. Put them in “Loose” formation and string them out no more than three ranks deep (I prefer two) to minimize this. Skirmishers shooting into a bunched up melee of your troops and the enemy hit you about as much as they hit the enemy so avoid this.
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Use your Light melee troops up first…the wimpier (read cheaper) the better. Yes they get chewed up but the do some damage and tire the enemy. Then your heavy melee troops can wade in and kick ass. There are certainly some exceptions to this. For instance clearing the gates of a city or crossing a bridge may need to see you move heavy troops in first to smash a hole to allow follow-on troops to get in the mix.
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Keep calvary in the rear ready to plug holes or exploit openings. They are fast so maneuver well. When your melee troops are engaged they generally have the enemy pinned. This allows you to swing calvary to the side and hit the flanks or rear which is devastating. In a piled up bunch of fighters the cavalry will not charge through the ranks so it is best to let them hit the rear, peel them off and then turn them around to hit with a charge again. Rinse and repeat.
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Walk everyone everywhere. Only run when you have to. Tired troops are noticeably worse troops.
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Remember follow-on troops to a battle need not be “right” there to jump in. Holding them back so as not to prompt an attack on them is fine. This goes to the more “stately” pace of the game. When needed charge replacement troops forward. Usually your troops needing help can hang on awhile longer till they get there (“usually” being the operative word).
I mention all this not because I think you lack tactical thinking ability but more experience advice for this particular game so you can get “into” this wonderful game. Do the tutorial and fight some random battles till you get the feel for it. Give it 10 or so battles till you make a final judgement. There is a learning curve but by then I think you’d have the hang of it enough to know that if dislike still existed for you it wasn’t due to missing the mechanics of the game.
Ok, I caved and bought it. I just have one tiny nitpick gripe that has bothered me since Shogun: Can’t they polish up that damn loading progress bar to look like something other than a dos prompt? It’s so minor but makes you wonder where else the game lacks polish.
I’ve tried switching it to growth (even before you mentioned it) and never noticed a difference in happiness or income…ahh well maybe I should check a few more.
I restarted my campaign though I wasn’t happy with how things were going (I wasn’t loosing but I was spread out and didn’t feel I had any momentum) so I started over and this time operated more like I did in previous games.
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AI the Gaul fought a little smarter and annoyed me much more. I still wiped the floor with them but at least I felt they were defending themselves. Occasionally the still attacked a city with inferior forces and early in my campaign against them they didn’t attack my interior that was virtually undefended for a little bit but it wasn’t totally idiotic like they did before.
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Taxes this time I said screw it and taxed the hell out of people. It really helped early game I had tons of money and it only took a few more turns for cities to grow. All in all it was a great trade off.
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Temples before I used Ceres to get the population bonus this time I went with Jupiter. What a difference. I’m trying out Baccus in a few cities right now but either one is so much better then Ceres in keeping the peace.
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I’m exterminating large cities I conquer now. I feel bad about lining the road with crosses and all that but nothing is more annoying then taking a city having a HUGE army in it and low taxes yet getting kicked out next turn because of rebellion.
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I’m still not having problems with money. It’s 200,000 and climbing I have all the buildings being build I have conquered most of Spain (other Romans took the tip of it one turn before my troops got there), France, and a row of countries leading to the Zeus Statue
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The military reforms hit me pretty hard. I had three major armies and two minor ones that I suddenly couldn’t retrain. I lost tons of elite troops when the stacks got down to 20 or so I’d just disband them.
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I planned a new strategy of making peasant armies in my large cities to slow population growth and when I took a new city that was undersized I’d march the peasants there and disband them to crank up the population. I unfortunately didn’t really use it. I still think it’s a good idea if someone else is annoyed at the slow growth of small new cities they might want to try it and tell me how it works out.
Actually I think this is one of the most polished games I have seen in a very long time. All sorts of little fiddly details are covered an covered well along with little touches (like I just saw my first volcano go off…thankfully in someone else’s territory).
The only thing I think it falls totally flat on are the opening FMV sequences. Looks like it was done in 640x480 only so when it is expanded on my screen it is artifacted all to hell and gone. Looks really crappy.
The loading progress bar never bothered me one way or the other. Just a utilitarian thing to me but if that is the worst you can say about this game then it would seem money well spent.
Well, I picked it up a day or so ago and spent all day yesterday ( a day off ) blowing off my errands and messing with this newest nasty addiction ;). Played a short Julii campaign, taking most of Gaul and Iberia to unlock the other factions, then started and stopped a half dozen different campaigns to get a feel for various groups - I have taken none of them real deep yet. Some quick thoughts, none terribly profound:
I like the short ( 15 provinces + a faction to outlast/eliminate ) campaigns in general, which are a nice option. However I have to say I think the goal-oriented crusader campaigns of M:TW was a slightly better system.
I think the naval system is definitely superior to M:TW, though I still would have liked a troop transport limit based on fleet size. Though I suppose that is slightly offset by possibility of having a huge army lost to an enemy fleet. which will often inspire a fairly strong flotilla anyway, if only for safety’s sake.
Cash was only occasionally a pressing issue with the developed nations, if carefully managed. Still haven’t played long enough to decide if it is broken or not ( i.e. in the developed endgame it ceases to be a factor ), but I imagine given the build system they have, it almost certainly has to be. Still all of these games are most fun in the early to mid-game single player anyway, for AI reasons if nothing else,so that is hardly a crippling flaw. And at least this simpler system in TW avoids the AI state implosion problem that plagues the more strategic Paradox games like Crusader Kings.
The tactical engine is an evolutionary improvement. Not much to say there - the best there is, obviously, bar none.
The strategic map is a significant upgrade, though I would have really liked a switchable second strategic province map a la M:TW, only with more detasiled vital stats added ( better econmic summary, etc. ).
Pretty stable so far, with only one crash to screen in many hours of play.
The Roman factions are all fun and it’s neat having all these pila-throwing units ( helps if you liked playing the Irish in the Viking expansion, which I did ). The Julii definitely have the best starting position - it being much easier to expand out of Etruria into Cisalpine Gaul, than it is for the Brutii to expand from Campania into Epirus and mainland Greece or for the Scipii to expand into Sicily.
Tried only one barbarian nation so far - the Germans. Decent units ( the screeching women are a hoot, the early barbarian calvary pack quite a punch against other unarmored barbarian units and the Germans, surprisingly enough, have a long-spear unit ), but here cash WAS more of an issue. Again probably cleared by end game, but the lack of early development really does hurt staring out, especially as just about everybody gets DOWed pretty early on. It was a bitch scraping up the cash to handle the Britons, while still trying to at least develop the capital. Haven’t played far into that one, but it looks like the Gauls are about to join their new allies the Britons and start kicking my so far successful, but now very thinly spread ass.
Carthage is fun. Cash flow is good, rarely a major issue ( it can get tight, but never to the point of desperation yet, as with my German campaign ). Very spread-out state, which makes it imperative to develop a powerful navy and try to get an alliance or two in the west, because it is damn sure you’re going to have trouble in the east. I got sucked into a war with Rome very quickly and quite naturally 
- the Scipii, given their position, are probably almost always going to make a grab for Syracuse and you can’t allow that to succeed. Nicely modeled imperative, that.
Anyway that long ongoing war has been just as grinding as I expected and fleets ( as in the actual first Punic War ) have been key. Taking Sicily isn’t overwhelmingly difficult. Keeping the allied Roman factions ( who almost always DOW as a group ) from landing an endless procession of fresh armies in Sardinia and Sicily is tougher. God bless elephants though. That one early elephant unit I got to start the game ( not sure if that is tied to difficulty setting, I wasn’t playing on hard ) was worth its weight in gold. It absolutely thrashes early Roman infantry units like hastati and principes that otherwise have a solid advantage over the Carthaginan infantry and weakish early calvary. It repeatedly won battles almost by itself. The AI isn’t completely stupid though - I notice that given the opportunity, AI archers will try to panic them with fire arrows ( which is a neat option, but I haven’t decided if they are useful ). Hasn’t turned the tide yet, but it might under the right circumstances ( say masses of archers ).
Egypt is annoyingly ahistorical. Yeah the Lagids played at going native, but played] is the operative word. It was mostly for show, with only the last member of the dynasty ( the famous Cleopatra ) ever bothering to learn a language other than Greek. Alexandria was a Greek island in an Egyptian sea and Ptolemaic armies were pretty similar in construction to that of other Diadochi states - a large body of native troops were raised exactly ONCE, under desperate circumstances, and even then was trained and equipped to hoplite standards.
Anyway, good starting position, good cash flow, less interesting troop mix. Conflict with Seleucids is inevitable once the rebels in the Sinai and Nabatea have been cleared away, so expect it early. Haven’t gotten very far on this one.
Seleucids on the other hand were much more enjoyable for me. Great cash flow. If you’re having money woes, you might want to try these guys - they generate tons of income. Good troop mix. Not such a great strategic position, though, which is fun. I’ve tried two different campaign starts with them to see how different things would evolve. In the first I found myself in a five-front war against the Greeks, Pontines, Armenians, Egyptians and Parthians. That stupendous cash flow was a life-saver. While I slowly throttled the Ptolemies, fended off the Parthians and Pontines and tried desperately to hold distant Sardis with an ever-diminishing garrison against a constant procession of Greek besiegers, I was buying off a large Armenian army led by a prince every turn to keep it from crushing Hatra. I’d give them a bribe to make peace, they would, and next turn they’d break it and attack the city again - I was their pet ATM :p.
Next start I got an alliance with Greeks, Pontines, and Parthians which has made life vastly easier :).
Tried the Greek faction only very briefly. That quasi-historical grouping is wayyyy spread out and very exposed - worse than Carthage. Have to give that one some more thought.
I am very annoyed at not being able to play Antigonid Macedonia, but I guess they had to save something for the expansion.
That annoyed me as well. Sloppy.
- Tamerlane
I am still undecided on fire arrows versus regular arrows as well but have a an observation recently made.
Fire anything is noticeably less accurate than regular projectiles.
Last night I was using heavy onagers and having fun flinging them over the wall onto the city defenders. I was testing them out and while normal onager shots were innaccurate the flaming onager shots were truly all over the place. That said they are a helluva lot more fun to watch and they did seem to cause significantly more damage to troops. I dropped a boulder on a troop formation and naturally squished a few. Then later I dropped a flaming shot on a troop formation and wiped up seemingly 3/4 of the unit. The game even models the little guys kinda burning then turning into a blackened crisp so certainly the graphic engine knows it is a flaming shot which would imply that the damage modelling knows it too.
Of course, flaming shots can set a city ablaze as well. I have not yet but have considered a terrorist Onager unit to run around and set cities on fire then run away thus economically hurting my enemies till my regular army can get to them (naturally the Onagers need to be protected but the AI seems unwilling to sally if you have a credible defense with them).
I had hoped you could set grass ablaze but it doesn’t seem to work (or hasn;t so far for me). I have also wondered if I can set the occasional wheat field afire as they are a distinct graphic element but have yet to test that out.
I see on more careful reading that Rabid_Squirrel and I are equally tickled about the Germanic shrieking/screeching women ;).
Anyway another semi-random thought in terms of Campaigning 101 for the neophyte.
If you are in a tough war ( say my aforementioned five-front obscenity ) where you really want to make your victories count, always press “continue battle”, not “end battle”. If you have any sort of reasonably speedy calvary, it can make a huge difference as you can run down and slaughter a good bit of the routing enemy army ( something which is perfectly historical ). Otherwise you get a less favorable autocalc’ed result that leaves a larger chunk of the enemy army to retreat, regroup, and fight another day.
As for the automanage functions, I’ve yet to use them. I like to micromanage. Do they do a good job?
And like Darkhold I’m uncertain just what are the reprecussions of not completing Senate assignments. How does Senate ranking translate into real world impact on your Roman faction? Does your Prima guide touch on that xtisme?
- Tamerlane
I am going to have to print up this thread wen I cna finally sit down and play.