Candelarius' Extended Realism Mod for Rome Total Realism Platinum Edition 1.7 - Version 2.3
NOTICE: The full mod download links are now updated to Version 2.3.
Scroll to the bottom of the page for the links and instructions.
Overview: Based on the discussion we had in my Ultimate Guide to Playing RTR Historically as the Romans thread at the RTR forums, I decided to put together this mod for RTRPE that more accurately reflects the historical composition and recruitment methods used by the Romans in the Early, Middle, and Late Republic. Currently in RTRPE, as the Roman player you can recruit Roman Infantry (hastati, principes, and triarii) from any province that has a Provincial Barracks, in or out of Italy. However, historically, during the time of the Middle Republic (prior to 95 BC), only Romans (re: citizens of Rome) were eligible for service in the legions. The Romans would conscript soldiers into their armies from their Latin allies, but these military contributions initially waged war in their native fashion (Italic Swordsmen and Spearmen). Later, as the Latin allies became more integrated into the Roman methodologies and gained greater access to Roman arms and armor, the Latin allies began to closer and closer resemble their Roman counterparts. However, there was a very distinct difference between Romans and Italian allies. This modification of RTRPE simulates that difference and more historically represents the composition of a Republican Army. In addition, when you use the optional Promethean Legion addon pack, you'll have Augustan reform Roman units. Finally, this mod introduces a number of other mods created by myself and other community members to enhance the realism of the gaming experience. I've also included two new factions to play, the Britons and the Galatians. I hope you enjoy this mod as much as I have making it.
Note: You must have Barbarian Invasion to play the Extended Realism Mod "as is". I have found the AI to be far more competitive and it really helps the Briton faction since the AI uses naval transports better. If you do not have BI, download the mod and follow the instructions at the bottom of this page to make it "non BI" compatible.
Specifics:- Three additional Mid-Republic units available for recruitment: Italic Hastati, Italian Principes, and Italian Triarii. These represent the later Romanized Italic legions that were levied from the Latin allies. The Italic Infantry will be recruitable only in Italy and only once you have completed the Provincial Barracks. Until you complete the Provincial Barracks, your allies will submit native Italic levies (see next point).
- Seven new Early Republican allied Italic troops units and the existing two units in RTR have been reskinned. All Italic units are broken into four defined Areas of Recruitment (AOR). As this chart illustrates, instead of general Italian spearman and swordsmen, you'll now have Etrurian, Marsi, and Samnite spearmen and swordsman, as well as Greek skirmishers and hoplites in the south.
- Roman Infantry (Hastati, Principes, and Triarii) are only recruitable in Roma and Capua. Historically, the Roman Infantry were only recruitable in Rome (levies from the landed citizenship of the city), but, later, Capua became a major Roman training center. I have made the Roman Infantry recruitable in both cities at the start of the game. This is a minor concession to gameplay, to better enable the player to build appropriate armies as represented in my guide.
- Both Roman and Italic Infantry are only recruitable in Italy. It wasn't until all of Italy received the Roman citizenship that Romans began to recruit for their legions outside Rome. Italic Infantry are obviously not recruitable outside Italy. You will need to maintain careful lines of supply and be careful with your expansion, as you will have to ship Roman and Italic troops from Italy to your front lines. You're going to become very dependent on mercenaries and diplomats when far from home, as was historically true at this time.
- The standard version of this mod does not effect the Marius event and does not effect post-Marius legions or recruitment, with the exception of the Roman First Cohort. I increased the unit size as was historical and increased the unit's cost accordingly. For info on the new Marius and Augustan units in the optional Promethean addon pack, see below.
- The Mid-Republican Italic Infantry have the same costs and stats as their Roman counterparts, but, suffer from slightly less morale (since they are fighting as conscripts and not for the glory of Rome!).
- This mod includes the correct triarii unit size (half from vanilla RTR). See Quintus' Guide to Conduct Becoming of a True Roman or my own guide for details on historical Republican army formations and unit compositions.
- I changed the initial buildings in Italy. In vanilla RTRPE you start with Provincial Barracks in Ancona. I changed the starting buildings to Phase III Auxilia. This was done to simulate that you need to invest in your allies (build Provincial Barracks) to get access to better Italic Infantry troops. Capua starts with a Provincial barracks like normal, but can recruit Roman Infantry, to simulate the fact that Capua was a major training center and, in game terms, to give the player one more city from which to recruit Roman legions.
- This mod also makes all AOR units available in Custom Battles. Otherwise you couldn't play with the Italian Infantry in your Custom Battles! Note that this does not effect AOR units in the campaign game.
- Included a script that gives the AI a cash bonus whenever their treasury balance falls to half their starting balance. For example, if their starting treasury balance was 6,000 and their treasury at any point in the game calls to 3,000, this script would give the AI controlled faction a cash bonus on their next turn of 3,000. This is intended to help keep the AI from bankrupting itself and adds a slightly more challenging game for the human player, without letting the AI "cheat" overly much.
- Includes Stuie's AI Command Bonus trait.
- Includes the Cognomen Mod.
- Includes the Naval Reskin Mod.
- Includes Marcus Camillus' Player Formation Mod (with Typhoon's and my manipular formation tweaks).
- Includes Marcus Camillus' 4tpyr Mod (see note below).
- Included Florin80 and Sleepysmoo's tower and wall settings to eliminate the "seige tower bug".
- Added Briton AOR for all factions and made a Galatian Imitation Legionary AOR unit.
- Translated proto-Germanic unit names into English for clarification purposes. The proto-Germanic name is still in the unit description.
- Added recruitable Generals for all factions. Generals are very expensive and take two turns to recruit (except Armenian generals, which take three), and requires a stable and faction barracks building (non-auxilia, except for Parthia and Scythia, which only require auxilia3 barracks). New Roman generals are military tribunes.
- Includes new 3rd Century BC Spartan Hoplite, Hellenic Officer, pre-Marius General, and Italian Skirmisher models and skins by Caius Brittanicus.
- Includes more realistic Roman fort by lt1956.
- Removed the RTR Gold campaign map texture files and reverted back to pre-Gold textures.
- Includes Darth's AI Formations version 16 (adjusted to be compatible with my mod, since I used the two extra Roman slots for barbarian factions).
- Added two completely playable factions, the Britons and the Galatians. This was done using the romans_scipii and romans_brutii faction slots. I decided to add the Britons for mostly personal reasons, a) I've always hated that our good friends on the RTR team removed them in favor of Bactria and b) I've always been a big fan of Romano-British history. When playing with the BI.exe version of my mod, the Britons will be able to take advantage of the BI game engine and will more intelligently reinforce from Briton to mainland Europe. I have intentionally given the Britons a weak starting army and very nasty rebel armies to contend with. This was done to allow Gaul a chance to get "up to speed" in the early game before Briton is able to cross the channel. I decided to add the Kingdom of Galatia for practical reasons, a) the Seleucids need another "speed bump" faction, in addition to Pontus and Armenia, to check their early game land grab and b) um...honestly, I thought it would be a cool faction to have! The Galatians start with a good chunk of change from their recent campaign of rampaging Greece and Asia Minor, and have two very strong armies. However, with only one province and surrounded by enemies, the Galatians are going to need to put their starting units and cash to good use lest their get over-run, or go bankrupt. Each new faction has a complete unit and building list, with many new reskinned units, all based on historical research. Each faction has new victory conditions, campaign descriptions and maps, and uses appropriate DarthMod formation settings. The only thing I didn't create were new faction icons, though I did customize the scipii and brutii battle banners to look "barbarian" instead of square-Roman-style.
- Added optional Promethean Roman Legions skin pack. I feel that the Promethean skins are highly historically accurate, if not more-so than the standard RTRPE ones, but, I feel that not everyone may agree, so, they are optional. Note that when you use the Promethean skins pack that my Romanized Italic skins will be replaced with Promethean ones. Every Roman unit except the slingers and velites have been replaced with Promethean models and skins. Also, new officers and generals for the Romans are included. And finally, I have included five new units, to represent the Augustan military reform of 27bc. You have three auxilia units available outside Italy and Augustan Late Republican Legionaries, available after the Marius reform. Note the Augustan Legionaries can for the testudo formation. For realism, I suggest waiting until 27bc before you begin using the Augustan units.
- Changed campaign end date to 14 AD, the death of Augustus.
- Added Pinarius' Horse Mod, which includes new highly detailed horse models and skins for all factions.
- The Senate faction is playable in Custom Battles to enable the player to recreate Roman vs. Roman battles. Therefore the Senate faction has an identical unit selection to the in-game Roman faction (also known as the romans_julii faction).
Note on Marcus Camillus' 4tpyr Mod: I have modified the Roman Leadership element of Marcus' 4tpyr Mod. With his permission, I essentially made a few small tweaks to make the mod, in my humble opinion, a bit more realistic. I have made it so that, under Marcus' Roman Leadership Banner rules, your two consuls will always carry the Consular Army Banners, and nobody else. I did this for two reasons. (1) Since there are always going to be two senior ranking men, the Faction Leader and Heir, it makes sense to have them named after the two senior military roles: the consuls. (2) When playing by Quintus Sertorius' roleplaying guide, you can only have two "full stack" consular armies at a time. This makes it easier to track who and where your consuls are. Keep in mind that historically a consul only "ruled" for a single year, so, this position in the game is a representation, or abstraction, of who the current consuls presently are.
Suggested play tips:- Do not build Provincial Barracks in Italy until you have completed the First Punic War, at least (captured all of Sicily) and control all of Italy south of Arrentium. Indeed, I suggest waiting till the Second Punic War, or approximately 200 BC. I know it will be tempting to build Provincial Barracks immediately to start playing with the new Italic Infantry, but, they are meant to simulate the "Romanization" of your Latin allies.
- Also, once you grant Roman citizenship to your provinces (assuming you don't have the Marius event by that time), I suggest disbanding all your Italic troops in those enfranchised cities. That will represent they have returned home to put their affairs in order and are now ready to be recruited as new Roman Infantry. This will add a bit of roleplaying fun and also is a good explanation why you can't retrain Italic Infantry after the Citizen Barracks. I leave up to the player, however.
- I strongly suggest not building the final barracks teir when playing as the Romans in Italy, known as the Citizenship Barracks, until the Marius reforms. Historically, the Romans relied heavily on Italic conscripts until the time of Marius, and no city outside Rome and Capua would have “produced” fully Romanized infantry until Marius and the end of the Social War.
- If playing with the Promethean Legion optional add-on pack, you'll notice I've introduced a Late Republican Legionary and Auxillary troops. Historically, these were not introduced until Augustus reformed the army in approximately 27 BC. I suggest waiting until that time to recruit those unit types, but of course, it's up to you. You could always "re-write" history!
- Of course, review my Ultimate Guide to Playing RTR Historically as the Romans thread. B-) .
- Galatian players: Your faction starts out with a large treasury (afterall, you just sacked Macedonia!), but, don't be greedy. I strongly suggest you use your two starting standing armies, and capture the two independent (rebel) cities to the northwest. Also, build your economic infrastructure as fast as you can, and be prepared for the Seluecid's eventual evasion.
- Briton players: Your faction starts our very weak, but, in a great defensive position. Start by taking Caledonia and Hiberia from the rebels, but, be warned, they are tough nuts to crack!
Screenshots: Check out the screenshots post for in-game images of all the units added by this mod.
Roman AOR Units
Map of Area of Recruitment
Samnite, Marsi, and Etrurian Units. Also generic Italic Units.
Italic Romanized Infantry, available anywhere in Italy at Provincial Barracks.
Roman Infantry, available only in Rome and Capua until Roman Citizenship Barracks.
Optional Promethean Legions pack.
Note: Immitation legionary models and skins are by Prometheus. The shield designs of the Armenian, Pontic, and Numidian units are by the RTR Team. All skins are used with permission. Thanks to Prometheus for making the Promethean Legions pack available for this mod.
Compatibility: This mini-mod is for RTRPE 1.7, and is not compatible with any other mod. It is currently up to date to version 1.7. The mod also includes Marcus Camillus' 4tpyr Mod, so it is not necessary to install it again. Thanks to Marcus for permission to integrate his mod into mine. You must have Barbarian Invasion to play the Extended Realism Mod "as is". I have found the AI to be far more competitive and it really helps the Briton faction since the AI uses naval transports better. If you do not have BI, download the mod and follow the instructions at the bottom of this page to make it "non BI" compatible.
Permission: Anyone may use this mini-mod in their mods or games. You don't have to ask. Please make sure you credit myself as the author of the mini-mod and credit RTR for the unit models. You must credit Prometheus if you use the Promethean Legion skin pack that I use in my mod in your own mod.
Credits: Thanks to Quintus Sertorius and DaVinci for their excellent gameplay guides and historical research. Thanks to Crymson for brainstorming ideas and suggestions. Special thanks to Marcus Camillus for his 4tpyr Mod. Also, thanks to the RTR Team for the unit models and skins. Thanks to Dark89 for his permission to use the RTR files for this mod. Additional thanks to Dominus for his historical advice on early Republican army compositions. And thanks to Cheexsta, Ryman, Macedonn, and Stuie for all their modding advice. Thanks to Darth for his AI formations mod. Thanks also to lt1956 for his Roman fort. Additional credit to Caius Britannicus and Warspite for the new Spartan and eastern officer unit models and skins. Thank you very much to Prometheus for his Promethean Roman Legion skins pack, which is used here with permission. Thanks to Pinarius for his excellent horse models and skins. Also thank you to AngryTitusPullo and Salvor Hardin for their help with the "add money script". And finally thank you to the rest of the fan community, and those I forgot, that have made this mod possible.
NOTICE: Step-by-Step illustrated installation instructions can be found here.
Download Candelarius' Extended Realism Mod for RTRPE 1.7, Version 2.3:
>>> DOWNLOAD LINK <<<
Installation Instructions:
1. Have Rome Total Realism Platinum Edition 1.7 installed over Barbarian Invasion*.
2. Download my mod and copy the DATA folder in the rar file to your RTRPE 1.7 folder. That's it!
*Instructions for how to install RTRPE 1.7 over BI:
1. Install vanilla RTW-BI and patch to BI version 1.6.
2. Copy RTRPE over your BI installation. Note: Copy the "data" folder of RTRPE 1.7 over the "data" folder in your root Rome Total War folder. See
this image if you are unclear.
3. Create a shortcut to your BI.exe, and add "-mod:" to the end of the command line. For example, if you installed BI over the default directory, your command line would look like this:
"C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW-BI.exe" -show_err -mod:
Download Promethean Roman Legion Pack for Version 2.3:
>>> DOWNLOAD LINK <<<
Instructions for how to install the Promethean Roman Legion skin pack:
1. Install the Extended Realism Mod for RTRPE 1.7 Version 2.3 as per the instructions above.
2. Copy the "data" folder from the Promethean Pack into your Rome Total War folder. Just like above, it should go into \Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data
Note: You MUST install my mod first, and then the Promethean Legion Pack.
Known Issues:
1. Galatian and Britons start out at war with the Romans. There is no known way to fix this, just make peace with each other.
2. Galatians cannot recruit chariots. A fix for this is located here.
Notice: My mod is compatible with vanilla RTW 1.5 and with standard non-BI RTRPE. But, you will need to follow these instructions:
If your NOT using the Promethean Legion skin pack...
1. Download my mod.
2. BEFORE installing, open the rar archive and locate the folder in \data called \packs, and DELETE IT.
3. Install the mod. After installing, locate and open the file called "export_descr_units.txt" in \data, and remove the words "can_swim" and "shield_wall" each time they appear in that file. Just use the "find" tool in Windows and delete each instance of those words, being sure to remove the comma (,) at the end of the line as well. Save your changes. Now, you can play my mod over the 1.5 RTW engine rather than the BI engine.
If your ARE using the Promethean Legion skin pack...
1. Download my mod.
2. BEFORE installing, locate the folder in \data called \packs, and DELETE IT.
3. Install my mod.
4. Download the Promethean Legion addon pack and install it as per the readme.
5. After installed, open the file called "export_descr_units.txt" in \data, and remove the words "can_swim" and "shield_wall" each time they appear in that file. Just use the "find" tool in Windows and delete each instance of those words, being sure to remove the comma (,) at the end of the line as well. Save your changes. Now, you can play my mod over the 1.5 RTW engine rather than the BI engine.