Playing campaigns with REM

[Starsmil]

Describe here your brightest (and not so) experience in campaigns with my mod!

[Hoplite of Ilis]

Aaaaand, I’m back. Done with REM Selefkides campai(g)n. Didn’t take enough notes for a proper review I’m afraid, but I’m here to give my impressions!

Where to begin? Where to begin? Oh, yeah! ROME 2 SUCKS!! Why bother then? – I think I’ll discuss this with other philosophers in the next symposium!


Real Experience Mod



Management

lots of BUILDING OPTIONS with new buildings as well – a lot of things have been rearranged. Didn’t pay much attention. Just built so I can have lots of food. But it gets confusing when I couldn’t recruit some units at certain areas. I guess I need some explanation. This was also my first time where I built lvl 4 towns.

WALLED settlements for 4-building slot towns. It was the only time where I found quite balanced the battles between walled/unwalled. I didn’t know what to expect in city battles until it loaded up, which was a nice and fresh element. They don’t show on campaign, but it doesn’t matter.

Technologies rearranged as well. But why is it that when you build better farming knowledge (lvl 4 farms) you get minuses in fighting ability? Is everybody so well-fed that they become lazy?

Great variety of units – Tons of variety. Every area has its own units. I got to see stuff until the very end! Not being bored to the end with the same units for forever-lasting-turns. Some missing textures (rarely), but the overall result is great. Even for old computers like mine.

One thing I didn’t like understand was: I’m making 15.000 drachmas () per turn, I got 390.000 already, and all of a sudden I’m losing money! And towards the end of the campaign! That was anxious. Also, I couldn’t convert/rebuild the following settlements: Brundisium, Meroe, and Aksum. Bug?

I also liked the fact that as you got stronger your relations with other factions worsened (Like Shogun 2). Alliances & enemies tend to be stable on their decisions (good work). I really felt factions would gang up



Battle

As all R2 mods, REM cannot escape the “fate” of R2 on the dried & flat battle feeling. I don’t believe that any mod can fix that, as this is how the game is made – and that’s the main reason that R2 will always be a lost cause for TW fans.

However, I think they got one the main good ingredients of RTW here. The spread of panic. Units will suffer a massive panic spread as they are surrounded OR REALISING that they will be surrounded quite soon. Units will also shatter if they deem resistance is futile (for example, single last unit defending town center). That’s a good realism element. Reminds me of RTW. But there where examples from my campaign where a much experienced enemy general infantry unit stayed to the (again futile) end (they were Ptolemies). Paly and see! It’s the way this is done.



Miscellaneous

My faction leader Antiochos, lived until campaign victory was attained!!! He fought the first AND the last battle. Now how can you beat that?!

I only got 1 Champion, 1 Spy, 1 Noblewoman through the entire campaign. Bug?


Overall

Worth it, try it out. This is quite the overhaul. And for the most part, I liked it. Might try another one as Rome.

I would catalogue this mod among Rome 2 best ones. However, people should never forget that the main element of TW games WAS the battle and it’s lively feeling – gone after Medieval 2. TW was never about micromanagement. CA cannot outclass Paradox. CA had the golden element and threw it away for a quick buck. And it worked. And the fanbase took it with thanks. Guess the fanbase is not as classy any more. A real change on modding R2 would be a true battle overhaul. However, that’s impossible. So, we mod elsewhere – where feasible. But in my book, this doesn’t save anything.

To sum it up, REM needs a small bit of fine tuning (don’t we all?), but it’s definitely worth it. It has tons of stuff. It’s not DEI, it doesn’t need to be, it brings its own elements, and that’s all it had to do. So, click on that RTW ost mod, choose a Greek faction, and pretend the good old days are back!

P.S.

RTW – obsolete graphics with never surpassed battle mechanics
R2 – half what you were promised, twice as half what you got

[Starsmil]

@Hoplite of Ilis, Thanks a lot man for your personal review! I think you should try play again as Rome on Very Hard, cause I managed to further improve CAI for last 10 days.
- About walled settlements for minor regions - you can see it at major building's icon.
- About when u lost 390.000 gold - it could be a bug. I met it couple of times (as I remember on legendary level).
- You could not convert Brundisium, Meroe, and Aksum cause these cities have other culture. So its my feature, I made it to show how important culture was in that times. Btw u can convert lvl 1 cities (cause they are small) and demolish all barbarian wooden forts to build on their spot stone walls. But this is expensive pleasure
- All agents are limited to 1 in REM. You can use sub mod to have more.
Regards!

[Hoplite of Ilis]

- You could not convert Brundisium, Meroe, and Aksum cause these cities have other culture.

I couldn't demolish them either! They stayed as such until the end. I should be able to do as much, right?

Yeah, I might Rome a try. However, as you saw in my review, the main aspect I care about is the battle itself. Still, I enjoyed your mod.

[Starsmil]

You could not demolish them, cause there are no rational need to demolish existing stone walls. Carthago city was maybe the one sad example
Btw game engine don't allow to make city's conversion much longer (like 20-30 turns) for other culture. So I made it how I could.

[Hoplite of Ilis]

Time for another piece of mind. Played as Rome this time. Once again, I point out that this mod reminds me a lot of the good old day of TW games – if that’s what you’re looking for. One well-calculated massive hit where it counts, and victory is yours. Especially in open field battles, and even against much larger armies! Really good battle mechanics.

The Romans get tons of units from all areas, so you never get bored. You get to utilize everything – just like Jack Skellington. REM is the only mod I ever went to get the final barracks just to see the choices of units. In no other mod so far did I needed (or enjoyed) that.


My Roman campaign was both better and worse than my first Selefkidai one. It was better, because of the overall feeling, the unit roster, the enjoyable battles (don’t get your hopes up CA…), and the sense of accomplishment. Really liked the expansionism factor, and that the AI presents some challenge – as much as needed! The AI seems really stable in diplomacy, though the fear of expansion may shatter some treaties – for a while. I don’t need to repeat on the battle as I already have on my Selefkidai review. It’s quite good in my book, and it makes sense that other factions will attack you out of fear as you grow stronger.

However, I ended up quitting the campaign. The reason: At some point, I got about 900.000 gold. Seems good, and why not? I’m gaining areas, expanding everywhere. But for unknown reason, at some point, I’m losing money! I quit at 85 settlements (with treaties), 6 full armies, because of bankruptcy!!! I had the same issue with my Selefkidai campaign, but that seemed to heal itself at some point. But not this time. Lost all my money, couldn’t muster any more armies for the final push, case closed! Now that’s somewhat unfair. So, Starsmil, you might want to check that out.



Also, it’s annoying that you cannot dismantle some cities. In case of an attack there’s little or inadequate garrison. I think that should change. I really love the option that you can build some cities from the start into lots of city choices. Why can’t we have that for all settlements? You conquer it, right? You should be able to do whatever you want. No way around that?

That’s all I can remember for now. Starsmil, please advise on the money issue.

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Starsmil
Nice work! We're getting very positive reviews for your mod. I'll make sure to maintain your thread regularly. Also feel free to reach me for any issue you may have.

@Hoplite of Ilis
Are you on Rome 2 old boy ?

[Hoplite of Ilis]

@Hoplite of Ilis
Are you on Rome 2 old boy ?

What can I say, this mod is much to my liking. If it somewhat brought me back, it should be praised.

And yes, Rome 2 sucks for so many reasons no mod can heal

[Starsmil]

@Hoplite of Ilis, Thanks for more reviews man! I hope you will strart next campaign on Hard difficulty and for faction with 1 or 2 regions. Its completely another feeling when u need think more about how to survive against agressive CAI, not expand! About when you got minus 900.000 gold - I think its a game or mod's bug. For the whole year you wrote me about it twice and another man once - from 3000+ mod's subscribers. Maybe people just don't survive to turn 300? In your savefile which u gave me, I saw minus 10000 income and its ok (solves by taxes increasing). Try again to verify game cashe and delete all other mods from data folder.

@Greek Strategos, Thanks man! I appreciate it! About issues: have you ever faced sudden huge income drop (for many thousands of gold) in your Rome 2 campaigns? If so, maybe it could be a bug with game reading some db tables?
Regards!

[Hoplite of Ilis]

@Hoplite of Ilis, Thanks for more reviews man! I hope you will strart next campaign on Hard difficulty and for faction with 1 or 2 regions. Its completely another feeling when u need think more about how to survive against agressive CAI, not expand! About when you got minus 900.000 gold - I think its a game or mod's bug. For the whole year you wrote me about it twice and another man once - from 3000+ mod's subscribers. Maybe people just don't survive to turn 300? In your savefile which u gave me, I saw minus 10000 income and its ok (solves by taxes increasing). Try again to verify game cashe and delete all other mods from data folder.

Maybe it is (diferent feeling) but expnding has to happen. The game has to end some time I'm sure I got no other (interfering) mods running at the same time

I never got minus 900.000. I reached up to that amount, and at some point I got less and less, until it became minus

I'll try later on another campaign. Need a break now