Rome II Praise Thread (2)

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

This thread is a replacement of the old R2TW Praise Thread. In order to facilitate reasonable discussion and keep the forums clean, Moderation Staff is opening a Total War: Rome II praise thread. Moderation Staff will use its discretion to merge 'praise threads' with this larger thread. Moderation Staff can and will remove any posts that it deems necessary to prevent disruption, derailment, and other unsuitable behavior. Questions and concerns about should be directed to a Moderator or Administrator, or posted in the Moderation Commentary Thread.

Regards,
Total War Center Moderation Staff

Numida Lets play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvcfMyNtpPs

[Welsh Dragon]

Here are the recent Blog Posts from the Total War site on Desert Kingdoms:

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-...esert-kingdoms

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/kush-roster-reveal

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/masaesyli-roster-reveal

As well as the trailer and Steam Store Page:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhKhntVPbZ0

http://store.steampowered.com/app/79..._Culture_Pack/

Between them they cover most of what we know so far.

The live stream yesterday did bring with it the interesting titbit that Masaesyli have cavalry that is (slightly) faster than any other cavalry in the game, as well as showing off various events and dilemmas that seem to be themed to the Desert Kingdoms (things like Lost Caravans and Swarms of Locusts.

Also, the Guard Mode button is returning!

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

...

The live stream yesterday did bring with it the interesting titbit that Masaesyli have cavalry that is (slightly) faster than any other cavalry in the game, as well as showing off various events and dilemmas that seem to be themed to the Desert Kingdoms (things like Lost Caravans and Swarms of Locusts.


All the Best,

Welsh Dragon

That is, what i´m personally been interested the most: new dilemmas, which differentiate them from other "eastern" factions.

[Welsh Dragon]

That is, what i´m personally been interested the most: new dilemmas, which differentiate them from other "eastern" factions.

I'm a fan of these sorts of events too. They may not have a huge impact, but they just add something to the campaign which makes you feel a bit more immersed in what's going on.

Especially when they offer a variety of viable options where which one you choose may depend on what your plans are and what's going on in that campaign, rather than some where it's basically Good Choice/Bad Choice, so once you know the choice you need to avoid it becomes a lot easier.

Another thing I'm liking about these factions is that they are basically the underdogs. Sooner or later they're going to come up against stronger opposition (e.g. Kush and Egypt, Masaesyli and Carthage/Rome etc,) so how you decide to deal with that (diplomacy, sneak attack, ally with neighbours etc) could have a big effect on how the campaign develops.

Plus they're in areas I tend not to visit that often because of the factions I tend to play. Except for when I've had a go at Bactria that whole South Eastern portion of the map around the Arabian Sea is somewhere I've barely touched, and I've never managed to get a Carthage campaign going so the western part of North Africa is another area I haven't really done much in.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

Yeah, you have a good cav with Masesyli or good archers with Kush, but you are no Jack of all trades. You have to adopt your tactics.

[Welsh Dragon]

Yeah, you have a good cav with Masesyli or good archers with Kush, but you are no Jack of all trades. You have to adopt your tactics.

Masaesyli are an interesting one, because I generally don't like cavalry heavy factions... probably because I'm rubbish with them. But something about these guys just "clicks" for me and makes me want to play them, much like the Lusitani, the Nervii and the Saxoni in ED.

I also tend to find Jack of all trades factions get boring because you can do everything with them. Probably why I've found I have more fun with the little factions than the big ones like Rome.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

The Saba-Roster:

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/saba-roster-reveal

[Welsh Dragon]

The Saba-Roster:

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/saba-roster-reveal

Well they certainly weren't kidding about the camels!

Will have a proper look later.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Theramines]

Thanks for the thread, Marcus_Iunius. It's very much appreciated.

I've recently started my first campaign in Empire Divided as the Aurelians and it has been fun fighting multi-front wars and juggling PO because of all the slaves. I needed a break from Attila and its intensity and I kind of just jumped right in with a bare minimum of mods (camera, better weather and slightly slower battles) with the intention of just going with the flow and spirit of the game. Eventually had to hit the workshop for an anti-agent spam mod, but other than that it has been refreshing and that one-more-turn thing has been happening to me.

I'd forgotten just how fun Total War is without getting my knickers in a knot over 'balance" and "depth" and other things. Just go with the flow.

Something else I've tried which has had a big effect: Unit sizes. I've always been a huge units player as I considered that to be more "realistic" (whatever that means). I'd got used to my computer chugging in big battles and other side-effects of that choice. Recently, I switched to large unit sizes to see what would happen. Massive difference. Not only have I suddenly gained an appreciation for better fps, but the AI is so much better in its decision making and pathfinding. Battles are more difficult because the AI seems to respond better to situations and because there's less of a buffer for taking casualties. Much more fun.

I'm going to get the latest DLC a little after it's released and look forward to trying out one or two things.

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

Yes i missed such a thread too, thats because i started it.

The AI can be competent. Some months ago i had a combined naval / land attack, where the AI positioned a choke point with som iberian nobles, i tried to go around them, the unit moved and closed the other choke point. I had to wait till my romans cleaned the walls and i could win by brutal force. Wonderful.

[Theramines]

The AI can be competent. Some months ago i had a combined naval / land attack, where the AI positioned a choke point with som iberian nobles, i tried to go around them, the unit moved and closed the other choke point. I had to wait till my romans cleaned the walls and i could win by brutal force. Wonderful.

I actually think the AI in Rome 2 is better at defending cities than the AI in Attila. I've had more than a few tough city assaults where the AI blocks off passageways and fights clever like you describe. It defends the walls and then positions units in various chokepoints. The battles in my ED campaign have been tougher than I've had in a while and often go down to the wire. Great fun.

I had to restart my ED Aurelian campaign: it became one of those campaigns where the AI kills off your allies early on and dog-piles you with war declarations. I was collapsing badly when I pulled the plug. Tried again and was more careful with economy and PO, but allowed the Gallic Empire to swallow Italy and become an unstoppable force while my eastern front collapsed for want of decent defences. Restarted again. This time I've had improved luck with AI war decs and things are going better.

[Daruwind]

I had quite a lot success with increasing line of sight for units http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=388154068 Looks like battle AI is short sighted so basically i cannot react properly to player...

[Welsh Dragon]

Something else I've tried which has had a big effect: Unit sizes. I've always been a huge units player as I considered that to be more "realistic" (whatever that means). I'd got used to my computer chugging in big battles and other side-effects of that choice. Recently, I switched to large unit sizes to see what would happen. Massive difference. Not only have I suddenly gained an appreciation for better fps, but the AI is so much better in its decision making and pathfinding. Battles are more difficult because the AI seems to respond better to situations and because there's less of a buffer for taking casualties. Much more fun.

I had a similar experience when I switched from huge to large. These days I wonder if large is the level it was more designed for, and huge is there for people that like the really big battles. (The fact that they've apparently taken everything down a step in Warhammer kind of supports this, as I hear huge in that was what was large in this.)

The AI can be competent. Some months ago i had a combined naval / land attack, where the AI positioned a choke point with som iberian nobles, i tried to go around them, the unit moved and closed the other choke point. I had to wait till my romans cleaned the walls and i could win by brutal force. Wonderful.

I actually think the AI in Rome 2 is better at defending cities than the AI in Attila. I've had more than a few tough city assaults where the AI blocks off passageways and fights clever like you describe. It defends the walls and then positions units in various chokepoints. The battles in my ED campaign have been tougher than I've had in a while and often go down to the wire. Great fun.

I find the AI can be surprisingly clever. I've seen it do things like using hills to mask its flanking manoeuvres (it's better at flanking than I am,) using a weak unit as bait, using terrain to its advantage, hitting my lines at their weakest points etc. It's also a lot better at keeping its generals alive than it was in earlier games I find. Sure a skilled human will beat it in a fair fight, but then again it is only an AI, not Skynet.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

The Nabatean Roster:

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/nabatae-roster-reveal

[Welsh Dragon]

The Nabatean Roster:

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/nabatae-roster-reveal

Thanks.

I'm particularly intrigued by these two mentioned key features:

Hellenic influence: may recruit Hellenic-themed units for battle
Roman tactics: some native units may use Roman army formations/abilities

Sounds like they could be a real hybrid of Eastern, Desert, Hellenic and Roman styles, which sounds interesting. Masaeysli are going to be my first play, but Nabatea could well be my second after reading this.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Welsh Dragon]

New updates:

Improving game and mod interaction with Desert Kingdoms

Desert Kingdoms Achievements

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

The mod detection could be a nice tool to detect outdated mods and for me as modder to update them.

[Daruwind]

New Patch notes for Desert Kingdoms - https://www.totalwar.com/blog/desert...ms-patch-notes

There is a good amount of things...guard mode, fixes to diplomatic mission to get critical success,AI responding to wall/gate breaches...I´m pretty happy. :-)

[Hev E Metal]

I'm glad this thread was started. TW receives way too much flak from some players but I absolutely love these games. They aren't perfect but still provide hours and hours of fun.

Currently, I am playing the Parthians with a Parthian Extended mod for the first time and am in a real brawl with virtually everyone in Anatolia as I expand westward.

Galatia, Colchis, Cimmeria , t

hey're all coming at me and I am having a blast. Love the horse armies of the Parthians! Real fun stuff.

In one of the latest battles my horde of horsemen stormed into some light infantry and archer formations, shattering them almost instantly. Then I watched as the Children of the Parni rode down and slaughtered the remaining foot soldiers as they ran away. It reminded me of the scene in Game of Thrones, Season 7, not sure which episode, when the Dothraki horsemen smashed into the Lannister army of spear and archers and sent them fleeing.

Pretty much the same thing just without the dragons! LOL! No other game provides this much fun...except other TW games.

[Welsh Dragon]

HAPPY LAUNCH DAY EVERYONE!

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.