Seeking a specific experience..

[Jakkar]

Allo folks =)

I'm a newcomer to the Total War world - I began with Medieval, the first rather than the second - and have just moved over to Rome.

I'm having trouble getting into it - The prologue campaign seemed unreasonably difficult after doing well with Medieval. The costs of maintaining an army sizable enough to effectively besiege opposing cities ensured decades of debt before balancing out, and that was while sacrificing any hope of defending my towns, relying on luck and good diplomacy.

Furthermore, I had this much difficulty just maintaining basic order over 2-3 towns, and those few attempts at completing the prologue campaign would end in failure while still struggling to hold.

That's not my focus though, my queries span the whole series - I'm wondering, should I stick with Rome despite my difficulties getting into it? I've installed Rome: Total Realism and am enjoying the battles more as a result of the added realism and the fact missile troops actually have a purpose now, but on the other hand the rougher presentation and larger scale leave me feeling out of place and the game feels unrewarding, as is often sadly the case with mod projects.

I'm inclined to reinstall and begin afresh, but some of the Medieval magic just seems to be missing here. Less sense of freedom. Less creativity in how I deal with threats. I feel trapped by the smaller world, and the deeper economic side results in me spending 80% of my time ending turn after turn slowly trying to build enough money to assemble sufficient forces to expand.

Am I missing something? I'm basically looking for encouragement.

Or on the other hand, do you think I'd enjoy Medieval 2 more? Shall I move over to that? =)

And lastly, most importantly; my personal taste for the series is starting very small and developing via tight management into a larger entity. My chosen empire in Medieval was Denmark, consolidating my hold on the surrounding small landmass then setting out to sea, claiming the British Isles, establishing a foothold in Northern France then cutting up from the Mediterranean to link up with the Northern line and cut off Spain/France from the mainstay of Europe.

It was deeply satisfying, and allowed a comfortable grasp of the game for a newcomer - In Rome Total Realism, I feel slightly overwhelmed, or simply bored by the size of most Empires, and the way they specialise. It's a hardcore mod for hardcore players, it seems - it lacks the comfortable fun of the core games in favour of a sharper experience, too sharp for me to fully appreciate as a novice.

So what I'm looking for is either a faction in any of the games or a mod that allows me to begin as a single warband or village, choose where to start and spread out. Bugger history, I'm writing it as I go along.

Thanks for any responses =)


- Jack

[Halie Satanus]

Blatant plugging here.

Perhaps your just not happy with the scale of most mods, it's long been the number one request of modders 'add more factions''''!!!. When actually most of the best mods have fewer factions and are more localised. I made Sicilia specifically to give players a much smaller (and fun) game experience, it's not 'easy' but I can't imagine anyone finding it a bore. If you like the classical age I also made 'Warlords of Sparta,' which is heavily scripted, and only has two factions, Greek and Persian.

If you want to try something really different then End of Days, or Lycan Rising" might be up your ally, or Gods and Fighting men.

I suspect what you really want is MTW on the Rome engine, in which case you should check out Viking Invasion.

Have fun.

[Jakkar]

So Medieval 2 doesn't count as Medieval on the Rome engine? =P

Plugging forgiven, but to update - I reinstalled and am playing pure, and managed to find my flow - Enjoying it immensely.

Obsessively, I'm afraid - I've not much to do at the moment, and somehow.. Well.. 26 or more hours of the last 50 have been spent taking over Gaul. I spend far too long on each turn, micromanaging every one of my 50+ diplomats and spies. I found the 'lists' button last night, allowing me to check which units I haven't moved in a given turn.. Ooh, that was a wonderful discovery.

I've had some amazing moments, crashed just after killing Lugotorix, King of the Gauls in hand to hand combat, put down peasant uprisings so brutally I wanted to cry, and have killed the lord of spain. Twice.

And those bloody Britons.. I attempted to exchange map information with one very arrogant family member, and he immediately counter-offered a demand for money or he'd declare war o.O I couldn't, upon principle, accept that.

.. Then I learned just how bad an idea it is to send Hastati against chariots.

... Anyway, I'm clearly having too much fun here. And there's about 240 years of the campaign left, assuming the Scipii don't grow too large and eat me by then.

Any diplomatic advice for how I can slow their advance across North Africa without declaring war? =D

[Halie Satanus]

Assuming your playing the Julii?. It's a long long time since I played vanilla RTW, but if iirc the Scipii don't expand much beyond North Africa, I don't remember them ever challenging Eygypt and never venture into Iberia. The Brutii can become a threat if they take out Macedon and Greece, those are extremely rich lands. If you've taken Gaul and Iberia it's time to head north to take out the Birts before moving east, remember to keep at least one good army in Italy though, once civil war comes you don't want to get caught defenseless.