Official first impressions thread

[Der Phönix]

These are my cents ater four hours of playing. It's by no means a broken game. However, the huge expections after Rome I made me dissapointed about the following. The graphics presented in low and medium is worse than that of Rome I played on high grafcal settings - Several sound- and special effects are not well done. Javelins, scorpions etc. all looks and sounds wierd - Combat is too fast - The animated advisors and comanders on the campaign map look horrible - Unit cards are too abstract and minimalistic. It's harder to see the difference between the units - Music was way better in Rome I - The times new roman font on the loading screens is pathetic - Colors on th battlefield are too saturated and gloomy

[chris33]

Got home from work at about 10.30 and finally gave it a good run through, on custom battles, historical battles and then a couple of hours of the campaign, and have to say after being very worried all day due to the awful abuse on the total war forums I am loving it.

Yes the AI needs a good kick up the arse a fair number of times, like sending more or sometimes all his army after a few of my out flanking cav missile units and thus breaking up his own line etc. But I have found this more in the custom battles, in campaign battles I have had some brutally tough fights

I decided to try someone other then rome as I normally did in rome haha, so considering I got the three extra factions I plumped for Athens. Got to say its been great so far, battles have been very tough, love the pike units, a fair number of battles have lasted a good 8-10 mins or so, and the AI has done pretty well to be fair, trying to outflank and defending his citys ok. Of course it needs a boost, but for me its not game breaking at all like many have said, and though im a huge CA fan, if it was total I would say it.

My pc is also coping very well, only on a few custom 40 vs 40 units did it lag a tad to much to make it fun, but that was only when I zoomed in to have a look, mostly its been fine. I have a good rig and a fairly good card, and its been brilliant looking so far, again I fear the ones going nuts have just not got the power to try to play at extreme etc as many seem to be trying to do.

In short I love it, the combined naval/land battles are stunning, for me the graphics look great as do the units, as do many of the citys to. Yes I want to see the armys slowed down some what, so we have more time to enjoy it and plan flanking attacks better etc, but for that id say the AI needs a few patches first. Though im no gore hound, I think a blood pack would be just a no brainer for battles of this period in history, as long as its not completely ott I would use it.

Any way when and if the modders can get there hands on this, I believe it will have some quite amazing mods out for it, imagine a few of the rome mods for this with the units and graphics we now have, hell I would love to see the fourth age lord of the rings mod for this as well

[Lord Kurst]

Bye bye


Dost thou prate, rogue?

[Gaius Baltar]

Spent my first hour getting accustomed to the campaign map and exploring the various menu items. No problems with graphics, I turned banner sizes down to a bare minimum, turned off distortion effects and I have everything on ULTRA graphics now. Looks like I will have my first land and sea battle tomorrow so Ill keep you updated. Overall: I'm relieved I experienced no graphics problems and everything's running smoothly. Will try some actual battles tomorrow and see if my luck holds.

[TheChronoMaster]

First impressions are generally positive -- I've had some weirdness, mostly with interactions of navies blockading and trying to get troops off of them, but no other real, major glitches.

No opinion on battle pacing yet -- still too earlygame for me to start expecting battles that take much more than 10 minutes.

I'm generally a fan of the new province system -- I think it works better to have full separate towns connected to a central town, rather than Empire or Shogun 2's mini-towns. Dynamic city growth is another plus.

No opinion on Diplomacy yet -- I am having difficulties negotiating with the AI, but I had problems with that in Shogun 2 too, and eventually figured out the weights put on various things such that I could have constant reliable allies. Will probably work the same here.

Game seems kind of unoptimized -- I can manage 40~ fps on average on settings that look similar to my Shogun 2 settings, where I get 60. Again, probably something that will be fixed with time, new drivers, and optimization from CA.

To sum up, I don't have an intense negative reaction the way I did when I first picked up Empire, but the game's not as stable on launch as Shogun 2 was -- which is about what I expected, given the game's scale.

[followthereaper]

So I started playing the prologue and at the 2/3 mark I completely lost interest and decided to start my Iceni Campaign. I figured it would be a good learning faction as I can gain control of the whole Island and use it as a base for further expansion. Well... I played the beginning 4 times on very hard, with my last play-though seeing me as the controller of everything but the city in Ireland. I figured I would be breezing though the other British barbarians and boy was I wrong. It took me about 25 turns to get to the point I have ended now. Some initial thoughts:

-Diplomacy: is really difficult! In one of my 4 play though I managed to get 1 of the British factions to like me and agree to a non-aggression deal. I could not replicate this and have yet to have a single other faction want to trade with me. At first I figured it was because I did not have any valuable resources as I just had my one province. Well now I own the whole British Isle and still all of these lowly single city barbarian factions on the norther coast wont agree to anything! Granted many are neutral or red but the few that are green greet me with promises of drink and women ect and then reject everything.

I then tested diplomacy further by starting campaigns with several other factions on medium difficulty and again factions that I was green with, who were my allys/clients would not trade.... Athens, Macedon, Rome I was not trying small factions. I even greased there palms with my entire treasury and the best I could do was a non-aggression pact for some. I will say even more annoying then this for me was that I needed to send an agent out to scout the world to come in contact with other factions. The problem? I am stuck with 1 of each agent. I need my agents to be active with my armies on the war campaign building skills not going for a walk... So I ended up taking my druid and scouting the barbarian tribes on the northern coast...

-Agents: A way to get around the annoying agent limit is to use your spy to manipulate agents into joining you. I was able to get 2 champions for both of my stacks this way. I usually ended up just hindering them, but it was possible. It showed up as a 2/1 on the agent menu.

-Battles:I am happy to say that in the 1 siege battle I have experienced the defenders were in fact manning the walls in a logical manner. While it was indeed 2 stacks vs 2 units the slingers were on the wall on top of the gate and the spear men were positioned on the edge of the ramp leading up from the gate. On the other hand I experienced a coastal battle in which 2 enemy ships were docked up on the shore but the unites would not jump off. My slingers and javelins could not be used against them and I was stick either waiting 40 minutes for the battle to time out or quitting... I quit after destroying the whole army aside from these 2 units and loosing my general.

-Generals:These guys level up pretty fast and you have a pool of pretty much the same starter template in stats... I found that when these guys died I really did not care which was never the case in other previous TW games. I really do not feel very invested in my generals at all...but its cool to be able to choose their unit type.

-Happiness and growth: One major thing I noticed was that tax rate did not increase or decrease growth at all.... This has been something I have always micro managed in the past. With that said do not trust your tactical map. I had quite a bit of squalor eating away at my happiness but did not notice because the map filtered for happiness will show you as green so long as you have just 1 point positive. So if you city is at 80 with a minus 20 it will only take 4 turns to turn red and you could be none the wiser.

-Squalor:I found that I was loosing about 20-25 happiness a turn due to squalor and for the life of me could not figure out why. Well the third tier fishing dock comes packed with squalor. Just watch out for buildings and what they can do. I had to knock them all down and restart.

-Iceni: You start off only being able to field light peltests and eventually slingers. This is obviously not a good army composition. First order of business should be to build a bronze workshop for spear/sword men. With that said don't worry about spear men as for some reason the rest of the British factions do nothing but field armies of slinger/javlins... Currently at turn 39 I have taken over all of the main island and have 2 stacks on their way to to Ireland... These are the first guys I have seen that have swordsmen! This is pretty frustrating and boring as my tactics have been a simple bumb rush with cavalry flanking to try and get close enough to nail them before my men become pin cushions.

-The auto resolve meter is just plain wrong. I will attack a town with 2 full stacks and the town will have half a stack plus garrison... filled with nothing but skirmishers and tell me I have like a 5% chance of winning...With that said town battles so far have been boring as well. I just set up my troops in front of the different openings and tell them to run. Turns into a big mosh pit and I win with minimal losses.

Hope some of my first day observations help some of you out. It took me a few tries to figure some of this stuff out.

[gonzo90806]

i am impressed, I am playing on legendary mode as the romans. I made one huge mistake in positioning my army. And the nation liguria took velathri and they then marched on roma which i lost.
I then i took velathri back while they were in roma.
Liguria then marched on neapolis which i lost. I took back roma and finally crushed the liguria army in Neapolis.
By the time I took all the cities back my public order was really bad. I was about 32 turns in to the campaign. I decided to restart the campaign.
Legendary mode does not allow saved games. If i played on a lower difficulty i probably could of loaded a earlier saved game and position my army correctly to stop liguria

[LaytonsCat]

My biggest concern after about 10 hours of play is the garrisons. They seem very weak, unless there is an army around there seems to be no chance of winning. That goes for the AI or the player... My biggest war so far has been against the Veneti. They defend their capital with walls with around 2 armies plus the garrison, but leave their other settlements unattended. With them unattended I was able to take them with very small armies

[Brusilov]

The base unit in my Iceni armies has been the Levy Freeman - with some slingers and peltasts.

Auto Resolve has always been a silly thing to do in TW games as it can give varying results.

[Matte979]

After about 6 hours as with Rome 2 . I do like the game. The changes on the campaign map give you more option on how to develop you cities, really like the province system. Battles and the campaign map looks very good. I get decent speed but I do have a powerful new computer with a new Haswell clocked at 4.5 GHZ, the turns are quick factions, maybe about 20-30 seconds between turns.

All graphics on max using a 7970 GHZ Edition with 3GB and large units. AI is ok on very hard, sure they might not give you an easy free trade treaty in diplomacy but maybe they should not as it would give you money so you can beat them, they do build big stacks and improve their cities. Overall not that bad, definetly somehwhat of a resonable challange on very hard.

Its hard to get an overview which improvement lead to what in the end but after playing for a while you get the idea and I like the way cities grow and you pick what to build.

Really like the army/garrison and new recruit system. I also like the 3 different attributes for generals that give diffrent bonuses when you get high values.

That said CA as usual could need somebody to improve the interface and maybe re-think the small bonuses as it would be better with a few bigger bonuses that lots of small. Make the player work get a large reward after working on it for a while is a better way in my humble opinion.

The tech system is decent and so but you cant see what the building on a tech unlock without having to go into the encyclopedia.

The mix navy and land battles are great, so is the battle landscape, looks very good love the treas and other details like houses etc. Overall the best battle maps by far.

Overall its a good game and entertaining to play. The new additions are good some could use some polish.

No problems of crashes. Solid Total War game in my humble opinion.

[Skizbot]

I would already rather than play this than Empire, Napoleon, or Shougn 2. And that's on day one-in time this will be by far the best TW title since M2.

[Doe3000]

I've been toying with the idea of abandoning my planned Roman campaign and jumping ahead to the Iceni. Sad to see that Squalor has made such an unwelcome return in Rome II, considering how annoying it was in the original Rome.

[HunterKYA]

Anyone know how to curb negative public order? I'm playing as the Cornelia (sp?) and it doesn't matter which upgrades, expansions, or edicts I use, public order is tanking everywhere.

[hollowfaith]

I'm having a lot of fun with the game. Graphics maxed out with no serious glitches or weirdness. Been playing for the last 3 hours through the prologue and finally started up a campaign as the Cornelia and fighting the Etruscans. I'll admit this, that the controls and interface takes some getting used to but I find it very intuitive once you learn the functions.

I've seen alot of ranting about units not able to move in formation and thats pure hogwash, you group your men with ctrl+g and that locks them in formation. I've also seen complaints that the battle ui takes up half the screen, theres a small + button on each panel allowing you to minimize each little window. Seems a majority of complaints are nonsense, not saying that its unwarranted in some cases as everyone's computer is different. lol

[TheChronoMaster]

Anyone know how to curb negative public order? I'm playing as the Cornelia (sp?) and it doesn't matter which upgrades, expansions, or edicts I use, public order is tanking everywhere.

Moused over it to see the cause?


There's a few obvious solutions -- destroy any slums, keep garrisons around until provincial disorder from conquest fades, amp up cultural conversion, etc.

[Honorable Poncho]

I have yet to play the campaign so I can't comment on that, but I have spent several hours playing multiplayer and have played 3 or 4 custom battles. This is what I have found:

Graphics: First thing I noticed was that the graphics aren't all that spectacular. When I checked my graphics settings, they were pre-set to "extreme." However, it really did not look as impressive as the setting suggests. Trees and other scenery still looked fuzzy, as did the faces of the soldiers and their armor.

Roster: I played some custom battles just to test out a few different factions and to check out the roster. First thing I noticed was how limited the roster seemed despite the huge "700" number CA was throwing around. There are a lot of units that are shared between the factions and some appear to be simply renamed with a few stat and price changes. This makes many of the factions play basically the same. Also, it is hard to tell your units apart seeing as they all pretty much look the same unless you compare the cheapest unit to the most expensive.

AI: Another thing I noticed was that the AI is still very incompetent. They would often march a few units at a time towards me while the majority of their army just stood there and watched me slaughter them. The AI was also fond of running half of their army in pursuit of a single unit of my cavalry. However, one positive change I found in regards to the AI was that they are actually using coherent formations for a change rather than just blobbing up. In addition, the AI has been using the forests to ambush me with some pretty decent success. Other than that though, the AI has not changed much from previous total war titles.

Multiplayer: Honestly I am really relieved that CA ditched the avatar system of Shogun 2. The new system is basically the same as it was in Napoleon, Empire, etc, with a few tweaks here and there that improve gameplay a bit. One thing worth mentioning is the fact that there is no longer a ranking system. Also, there aren't nearly enough maps and they all are incredibly similar, some even indistinguishable from each other. Furthermore, what happened to the new multiplayer system that CA was so hesitant to release information on? I recall them saying "we have big plans for multiplayer", but I have yet to see anything spectacular. In hindsight that's probably why they kept their lips sealed. Perhaps they'll release a patch with a new multiplayer mode or something down the road?

Overall gameplay: Battles are far too fast, in fact, they play very similar to Shogun 2. Skirmishing is non-existent, which doesn't really matter because skirmishers are basically useless now anyways. It doesn't help that the default maps are small, some of which have you deploying incredibly close to one another. One change I do really like though is that units are much more responsive than ever before. Your units will actually follow your commands with haste. For instance, skirmishers will run away like they are actually being chased down by a bunch of dudes on horses who are trying to kill them, unlike previous total war games.

Final verdict: I'm somewhere between satisfied and disappointed, if that makes any sense, which I'm certain it doesn't. The game is very addicting seeing as I already clocked 5ish hours on multiplayer alone. Still, the game does feel unfinished (a good number of glitches)and a bit like a rehash of Shogun 2 with a few improvements and changes here and there. It wouldn't be such a big deal if CA hadn't talked themselves up as much as they had.

[adamove]

i dont like how this game looks, it looks like shogun 2 fall of samurai after patches, boring and flat just as i predicted, uninspiring

the armour dont shine even in full sun, they look like beggers not top roman army

the only new effect this game ads its alpha global light, it would look nice if it dont create an error on vegetetion as u move, it also kills performance

so yeah SOS

NOTHING NEW HERE, u ALL ARE REALLY GREAT AT HYPE

[Colonel Dax]

What's this? Rome II didn't live up to the ungodly expectations players had created in the past decade?

I hate to say "I told you so," but... (er...well, I had a post somewhere, but I can't for the life of me find it.)

That being said, I'm quite enjoying it thus far. I'll agree that battles seem to end far too quickly, but that sort of thing can be rectified via patches or mods.

Oh, and Javelins...Javelins...Velites with flaming javs are death-incarnate, I tell you what. I could be wrong here, but shouldn't I need to rely on more than skirmishers and cav-scouts to win a battle?

[WarlordZ]

After about 4 hours of playing I find the game to be quite good and entertaining. Not sure what all the extreme whining is about. Yes, there are some issues that need some fixing and tweaking like battle speed and stats, but that is something that i am sure several mods will do over the next few weeks. Graphics are great, everything runs smoothly, but then again, I have a monster of a rig. Overall quiet impressed, is it perfect? No, but it is still a tonne of fun and the potential for modding is there and I can see great things happening with all the skillful modders we have here

[Narog]

After about 4 hours of playing I find the game to be quite good and entertaining. Not sure what all the extreme whining is about. Yes, there are some issues that need some fixing and tweaking like battle speed and stats, but that is something that i am sure several mods will do over the next few weeks. Graphics are great, everything runs smoothly, but then again, I have a monster of a rig. Overall quiet impressed, is it perfect? No, but it is still a tonne of fun and the potential for modding is there and I can see great things happening with all the skillful modders we have here

I agree. Gameplay-wise this is a lot better than Rome was at release.
And for the people complaining that units don't keep formation, Ctrl+G will do that for you. Took me 10 seconds with google to find out.