Wrath Of Sparta - User Reviews

[iWarsaw]

If you like playing Rome 2 and you want to play more Greek factions then its fun. Out of all the expansion this is my favorite. Actually I quit the other two after a few hours but this DLC has seemed to grab me but I purposively haven't been playing Rome 2 in the past little while so it would be a little more refreshing. Greeks are my favorite empires of the Rome era as well.

My only complaints so far is the introduction is the same for every faction and its the trailer too. :/ Oh and I don't like the festivals. It gives wrong, and poor descriptions of some events and consequences. Hoplite formation seems pretty useless though. My guys even seem to preform worse In hoplite formation I'm going to test it out a little bit more. That all sorta sucks considering how many hoplites I got. I haven't play naval battles yet but I'm just going to assume they still suck. Oh yeah I agree about the rosters they look pretty bland so far but I'm early into my campaign.

[Kraut and Tea]

Athens:

Ok... I played several hours in an Athens campain and it was very much a challenge.

As mentioned before things can get really tought and you really have to rely alot on your naval power, especialy to keep your distant colonies under control.

Being forced to use your navies to keep check on invading forces aswell as constantly harassing enemy ports is interesting and new.

The threat of non greek enemies is also very real as Athens, since you have to face off Thrace and Persia, who are both close to your borders and will actively try to take your lands.

The only faction with whom you can build a partialy relyable alliance is Makedon, but unfortunatly if not helped out, Epirus or one of these Leagues will simply march over them.

It took me almoust 2 hours until I finaly felt confident enought to send out an invasion force, and the fighting for the provinces was indeed very tought.

You often dont just face one enemy army but frequently 2 armies of allied factions. If i am not mistaken, allies seem more kean to help each other out in this campain.

meanwhile you are forced to cuddle up to the smaller city states, mainly on islands, trying to prevent them from sideing with your enemies.

That feeling of trying to protect your empire from several enemies trying to take a piece of your cake is something I really enjoyed and havent had since the realm divide in Shogun 2.

Sparta:

But then I saved the Athens campain and started a new one as Sparta....

And it was almoust ridicilous! I finished the campain in 4 hours.

All the challenges that you face as Athens are simply gone.

You and your allies simply role over the Athenian provinces and really the only thing you need worry about is squabling between your allies and minor factions freakishly taking over the world.

I didn`t even get to see the Persians in action. Instead, Rhodes, for some weird reason started invading mainland Greece and my imperium level never rose since my military allies Korinth and Boethians did all the work.

So yeah.. The Athens campain is a nice challenge, but the Sparta campain is simply to easy.

And since Korinth and the Boethian League are in the same position of alliance I believe their campains will be as overly simplistic and easy aswell.

I doubt CA will fix this, and possibly that campain was only a freak event due to some penalties given to Athens.

But if it is the norm, only the Athens campain will be worth playing since it is the only one that offers a challenge.

A shame...

It might sound boring to many but combat based mainly on the use of hoplites and skirmishers with a lack of cav does have it`s interesting sides to it. Especialy in such a potentialy awsome setting.

[von stoker]

Playing as Korinth, I took a massive diplomatic penalty when I took Athens. Even my allies are now red faced at me. (You get an event message saying you are a new threat)
Naval recruitment is faction-wide not province-wide. That is you can only recruit 4 naval units at 1 time for your entire faction.
Winter penalties are massive. 1st winter turn my income dropped from +2000 to -3000. So set something aside for winter. 2nd winter not so bad with buildings and tech upgraded but still dropped 5000.
2 turns for low and mid tier unit recruitment. 4 turns for higher tier units.
Different branches of tech tree for Navy and Army.
Campaign definitely has a different feel than Rome 2 though the mechanics are basically the same.
Enjoying it a lot.

[Lugotorix]

Haven't had time to play yet, but I geared up as Corinth, and one thing that's a really nice touch is every last city has a couple to several paragraphs description as it relates to mythology and ancient history. Playing a single culture game on a Greek map isn't bad, I've just played entirely too many hellenic factions by now. Looking forward to these naval aspects.

[RexJayden]

I have been playing a campaign as Sparta and I am enjoying the campaign very much. I have noticed that my allies, once they see I am about to take a settlement, rush in to steal the glory. My army that marched out of Sparta has had to invade Thessaly since my allies seem to be pounding Athens and its nearby provinces. Diplomacy seems to be good and the AI is making sense with its decisions. The map is huge and there are so many faction interactants that I know there will be plenty of conquering to be done. I have yet to fight a naval battle but from what I am seeing, they too will be better and I am glad to see transports got the attention they deserved. Finally a real navy will make a difference in naval combat. All-in-all, I am glad that I bought this DLC.

[EmperorBatman999]

I'm getting the impression that this DLC really was only about Sparta and for their fanboys. I mean, the intro is about Sparta (because we couldn't get an Athenian debate in the Acropolis over going to war it could switch back and forth to, or to advisers talking to the Theban and Corinthian tyrants?), the name is about Sparta. I find this absurd.

Where are the Theban hoplites? What about their Sacred Band? What about the famous Thespian hoplites too? Where are they? Korinthos and Athens must've had elite famous troops as well, different from all other hoplites.

[spiderknight]

I'm getting the impression that this DLC really was only about Sparta and for their fanboys. I mean, the intro is about Sparta (because we couldn't get an Athenian debate in the Acropolis over going to war it could switch back and forth to, or to advisers talking to the Theban and Corinthian tyrants?), the name is about Sparta. I find this absurd.

Where are the Theban hoplites? What about their Sacred Band? What about the famous Thespian hoplites too? Where are they? Korinthos and Athens must've had elite famous troops as well, different from all other hoplites.

Sparta =300=fanboys = $$$$ CA dont give a crap about history or the actual things that make it better than fiction.

[♔Old Dragoon♔]

They must be at Karnea again eh?

[D E C]

Parts of the intro come right out of "300"

[iWarsaw]

I looked at the build chains and the rosters are boring. All you have is hoplites and skrimishers. The roster wouldn't be so bad if the hoplite formation worked so I could see my hoplites fighting in a line rather then blobbing. Its just a cluster of spears and missles. It also means once I finish the campaign I'm on I probably wont replay this. The units do look great though.

And yeah the new factions armies aren't unique enough to warrant custom/multiplayer factions with. Which I don't really have a problem with 'cause its already a cluster of clone armies. Seriously there are waaay to many armies for multiplayer.

Hopefully I as expand mercenaries open up in range which will give my armies more flavor.

I'm getting the impression that this DLC really was only about Sparta and for their fanboys. I mean, the intro is about Sparta (because we couldn't get an Athenian debate in the Acropolis over going to war it could switch back and forth to, or to advisers talking to the Theban and Corinthian tyrants?), the name is about Sparta. I find this absurd.

Where are the Theban hoplites? What about their Sacred Band? What about the famous Thespian hoplites too? Where are they? Korinthos and Athens must've had elite famous troops as well, different from all other hoplites.

Yeah something like that.

I just saw Crusader Kings 2 released new DLC today as well. The reviews on it are HILARIOUS.

Rome 2 also has some reviews... not so hilarious.

[Hoplite of Ilis]

I started yesterday as Sparta.

Things I liked so far: Enlarged Greek & Asia Minor map, factions declaring war on you AND the more cities you conquer, the more uneasy your friends become (that should come to the grand campaign), Panhellenic Games.

Things I didn't like so far: The map should have included Sicily, walls for Sparta, does Athens has the Makra Teixeia (long walls)?, cities are the same, hoplite phalanx is not proper (and I don't think it will ever be).

As a resume, it's not that bad, but it is also not as good as one would expect. Barefooting units and unsaddling horses doesn't make this archaic, it's just not convincing. And I think I saw some beards get stuck on the armor. Rise of the samurai, now there you go! That's what I'm talking about! New map, new units, new cities! REAL WOOOOOOORK!!! There are some minor misspellings, and I also think the dlc is bugged. I was defending a city, and I had naval garrison. As I pressed start battle, one of the ships started moving on its own in a real funny direction. I clicked and moved it to the coast, as it was going into the dockyard graphics. Have the old bugs returned? This was - like Rome 2 - rushed
That's it for now.

[wealthmonger]

Some negatives. I'm finding diplomacy makes it to easy to form a powerful alliance early on for both sides but especially for Sparta. The rosters could use a few more unique units for each faction. AI Athens is to weak or maybe just unfocused, could be all the sea territory confuses them, it's to easy to roll over their southern mainland holdings.

Some positives. Island hopping is kind of fun, Korinthos is interesting because their territory starts in 3 separate areas, Athens can be a challenge if you don't fully utilize diplomacy. diplomacy penalty for taking the 4 main faction capitols makes for some different approaches in dealing with it.

The only faction with whom you can build a partialy relyable alliance is Makedon, but unfortunatly if not helped out, Epirus or one of these Leagues will simply march over them.

Athens diplomacy tip: ask for a combined agreement on turn 1, here's a couple examples.

Aitolian: Ask for trade/NAP/demand money 500
Argos: Ask for trade/NAP/demand money 1000
Melos: Ask for trade/defensive alliance/demand money 500

You can also do some variations of those. With the money you get from the Aitolians and Melos, Offer Argos trade/defensive alliance/pay them 800. Just offer trade in conjunction with other agreements. After you get the ball rolling you can slowly build those up to a full alliance. *the above amounts may vary somewhat*

[=ANTiKES=]

another thing about the copy/paste discussion, I just fought an army from Elis which was called 'pericles' pride' and I am playing as athens . Second thing, read the text for 'coin maker' it says "These drachma will bear the face of alexander himself.".

[SirRobin]

It is really slow.

Ages are spent before you have finaly built a formidable army, and once you have it you must take care of it to not be destroyed.

losing an army through a battle means that you are forced to build another one over a period of several turn.

Something your enemies take advantage of and you`ll end up losing up to 3 settlements.

I like how the new imperium mechanic works.

Enemies hesitate before attacking your capital and instead focuse on slowly nibbling down your overseas terretories and outer most provinces.

I hope we can implement this mechanic in the Grand campain.

All that sounds really good to me I must admit..

[SirRobin]

So yeah.. The Athens campain is a nice challenge, but the Sparta campain is simply to easy.

Reminds me of the old "viking expansion" for the original MTW. I love vikings, but I don't like winning without a challenge. It was just ridiculously easy because the vikings were overpowered, or because their combat strength wasn't balanced in any way on the strategic map.

[AnonMilwaukean]

Wrath of Sparta is the second worst DLC for R2, behind only Beasts of War.

Yet, Wrath of Sparta is a much bigger disappointment because I could see what the new units were for BoW and knew it was mostly just artillery with new graphics. WoS, on the other hand, has hardly any new units at all if you happen to own the Greek States DLC, probably fewer than BoW, yet there is no mention on the store-page that Greek States owners should expect 5 new units at most. And, worse, several are Persian units you can't play as. While BoW is actually worse content-wise, WoS sort of had more potential. Honestly, while I expected some overlap of rosters between Greek States and WoS, I was not prepared for the almost total overlap that there happens to be. And I find he omission of saying anything about Greek States owners getting less new content to be startling given how obvious it should have been that a vast majority of WoS purchasers likely already would own the Greek States.

Appalling, really.

I can't recommend WoS on almost any level. Only if you are somehow a Sparta enthusiast who never bought Greek States could I suggest that you might get something out of this... and how many Sparta enthusiasts, as I said before, would buy this without already owning Greek States?

Terrible. I mean, I wasn't expecting 50 new units since I owned Greek States, but I was at least expecting 10-15, and this really has maybe a couple new playable units and a couple new Persian units. And no new mercenaries at all if you consider that the Ionian Hippieus is just the Hippeus Lancer or Sarissa Cavalry unit of old (forgetting exactly which one's stats it duplicates or nearly duplicates).

Terrible.

[St. Nietzsche]

I started a Korinth & Sparta campaign on VH and to me it felt very bland. Both games I did absolutely nothing to Athens and they were kicked out of mainland Greece in no time.

Battles / Units: Battles are pretty boring in my opinion. You have hoplites, archers, slings, javelin, light cav, and lancers and everyone you face has the exact same units. It gets very boring and repetitive very quickly. While some might argue its ancient Greece so what did you expect, they advertised the 50 units it in such a way that I thought they would sacrifice historic accuracy for gameplay, but that's not the case. If in your book reskinning a unit and tweeking stats in a new and unique unit, then you shouldn't be disappointed. But in my book, a hoplite is a hoplite is a hoplite. Light, heavy, picked, militia, Spartan, its a hoplite with different stats, it does nothing different and adds nothing to the gameplay. BAI does seem to have gotten an upgrade though, and plays a lot better. Not sure if its because of the limitation of the units or not.

Map / Campaign. The map itself is pretty nice I must admit, and really forces navy to play an important role, which is a welcomed change. In my Korithian campaign it just seemed too chaotic for my taste. Random declarations for war. The AIs would just go back and forth exchanging provinces and changing allegiances. So I decided to start a Spartan campaign so I could be a little more focused, except it was way too easy to steamroll.

Conclusions: I was personally pretty disappointed, and I had been looking forward to it for some time. After 10 hours I put it aside and went back to GC/IA. I felt no compelling reason to continue playing.

[crawe1]

I looked at the build chains and the rosters are boring. All you have is hoplites and skrimishers.

I noticed this too. Okay, I understand this was the era of the hoplite. But based upon this DLC, it would seem that the sword was totally unknown in Greece, which I find hard to believe. I think I read somewhere, for instance, that the skiritai often served in the Spartan army as light guerrilla-style swordsmen. But here they seem to be just another hoplite, albeit lighter and more agile. Also, why not make more use of the Thracians and Illyrians to spice up the rosters and offer a slightly different option? Right now, the former offers only the same generic units from the GC, while the latter appears to be totally absent.

[St. Nietzsche]

A few positive points I neglected to mention tho, sorry the negativity overwhelmed.

Seasons: The seasons were a very welcomed addition. Besides a slower pace meaning your agents and generals live longer, the changing of the seasons and the effects on strategy is substantial and rewarding. More then a few times was I forced to recall my army during winter because the attrition was just too much. I actually found myself getting ready for the battling season, which was kinda nice. The fluctuations of economy and recruitment rates was nice too, though the economic changes were WAYYYY too drastic. I would go from -1000 in winters to positive 4000-5000 in fall, which meant financial planning was very difficult and annoying.

Expansionist: Again a welcome change, but when you have all three capitals sitting right next to each other and you're not suppose to take it, it kinda defeats the purpose. And I never really saw or experienced the penalty to full effect either. Once someone lost their capital, it would just go from one AI to another.

I can't help but feel like this DLC was in a way a test project for some of the new features they want to implement Attila. The Persian invasion, the winter mechanic, a more robust expansion penalty.

[Tyso3]

A few positive points I neglected to mention tho, sorry the negativity overwhelmed.

Seasons: The seasons were a very welcomed addition. Besides a slower pace meaning your agents and generals live longer, the changing of the seasons and the effects on strategy is substantial and rewarding. More then a few times was I forced to recall my army during winter because the attrition was just too much. I actually found myself getting ready for the battling season, which was kinda nice. The fluctuations of economy and recruitment rates was nice too, though the economic changes were WAYYYY too drastic. I would go from -1000 in winters to positive 4000-5000 in fall, which meant financial planning was very difficult and annoying.

Expansionist: Again a welcome change, but when you have all three capitals sitting right next to each other and you're not suppose to take it, it kinda defeats the purpose. And I never really saw or experienced the penalty to full effect either. Once someone lost their capital, it would just go from one AI to another.

I can't help but feel like this DLC was in a way a test project for some of the new features they want to implement Attila. The Persian invasion, the winter mechanic, a more robust expansion penalty.

Lol it sounds like your two turns away from getting nuked by ghandi for being a warmonger!