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Welcome to this month's issue of the Eagle Standard, bringing premium Total War content to the members of Total War Center!

In this month's issue I will be doing a quick runthrough of Roma Surrectum II- hot off the presses and released on September 4th. It has a plethora of factions not in the vanilla Rome: Total War game. Some of these include the Boii, the Belgae, and everyone's favorite, Sparta. Each faction comes with its own campaign to enhance the challenge. There is a simpler 'grand campaign' with 1 turn recruitment as well. All of this can be started with the great launcher installed with the mod.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



  1. Click on the arrow on the right to choose from the scroll list which campaign to launch.
  2. Choose with which engine to launch the game.
  3. Click here to start the mod once you have selected all the options you want.
  4. Click here to quit the launcher.
  5. Click here to edit the preferences.txt. You'll have to choose the preferences file in the mod folder you are using before being able to edit it.
  6. Delete the map.rwm files, also including when launching the game. This is only useful if the mod has been modified.
  7. Choose which command lines you want to use to start the game; -show_err is automatically present. It is the same as in the target line when editing the properties of a program shortcut.



Wanting to crush my enemies with a traditional hoplite army, my first campaign was (naturally) Sparta. You start out with 15,000 denarii, but do not forget to activate the campaign script! Activating the script is crucial, or you will have bugs and crashes. Once you activate the script you gain 1 denarius, so you can see me and my 15,001 denarii in the following screenshot.



Here you can see many of the things that the mod is renowned for. First of all, in the main area and the lower left, you have the campaign map. The map is not only big, but it is well designed. You will not bump into a settlement every two seconds, but you will not have to travel for 3 turns to reach the nearest fishing village, either. I have zoomed in on the mini map in order to show Sparta's starting position more clearly.

This leads to the next aspect- the models. As you can tell by the wonderfully crafted UI cards, there are tons of brand new units in the mod. Not a single model from the original game is present. There are even new skins and models on the campaign map. Generals, captains, and agents sport their new colors fantastically.

Finally, the UI itself. As you can see, the buttons for building and recruitment are changed from Rome: Total War. The mouse cursor is also far more aesthetically pleasing than the usual plain old arrow we as players are used to. Even the loading bars are different! The RS2 team has left no stone unturned.

Seeing my options, I gather my forces and march on Sparta's age old enemy- Argos. I picked up three mercenary units on the way, setting me back 4,000 denarii.





The above is just one of the great starting campaigns that Roma Surrectum has to offer. It's a hell of a mod and it has a total of 21 different campaigns- a one turn 'grand campaign' with all factions and a 0 turn variant of all the factions with enhanced difficulty and a slightly modified beginning game.

One of the most popular factions in Roma Surrectum II is....Rome! MorganH is going to review this faction below.

MorganH:
MORGANH'S REVIEW

Start of Roman GC ;536 A.U.C (Ab Urbe Condita); settings H/H ,minimal UI and No banners(all easily editable in the RTW preference scripts,and also accessable through the Launcher)

The Main Roman army in the Italian peninsular is being shadowed by a full stack Carthaginian Army under the command of Hannibal himself,right from the start of the RS II Roman campaign!





The real time Battles;

I decided to ignore the fearsome Hannibal for a moment and moved on to another turn while the Carthage Army turned and began sieging the city of Ariminum

Reinforced by some nearby garrison units i decided to turn around and attack Hannibal head on,to relieve the city of Ariminum.


My forces immediately took the initiative and attacked the Carthaginians all along the line.








After the initial Roman charge,savage fights erupted all along the lines,and the Carthaginian center appeared to be breaking.


But the famous Carthaginian ''double envelopment'' manouvre began to take its toll on my troops;they were now being crushed in the center and also encircled from the flanks in a massive pincer movement.






Viciously attacked from all sides,men and animals went down in sprays of blood and in the mayhem the Roman commander Nepos was cut down and hacked to death.




Now with their morale allmost gone,the encircled Romans were cut to pieces where they stood,while other fleeing troops were run down by Carthaginian cavalry.




The Roman forces began to melt away;most of them dead,others running for their lives while trying to save their standards! ;The Battle was over and the Roman army defeated and allmost totally destroyed.


So far a first impression of the Roman Army fighting a campaign battle in Roma Surrectum II

Part II ;The settlements and economy;



The settlements browsers are totally revamped as well.

For economy;






And military affairs(recruitment and colonization);



Unique to the Romans,Government,Colonial and Military structures will be mixed, so to recruit, buildings will have to constructed throughout the Empire

In all, RS II will provide the player with an unique and realistic Military and Economical Empire building set-up.

Continuation of Roman GC; ''Rebels and Invaders''.



New Graphical options for RS II;

RS II comes,as pointed out before,with a seperate launcher.
This launcher enables the player to choose from a variety of options.
One of the new graphical options is to play with ''Bloom''enabled in several degrees;Dark,Light and Custom.
This new Bloom feature will add inmensly to the Battlefield immersion.


The following battles were played with Dark(a), Light(b) and Custom(c) Bloom.

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Fueled by the fact that the Carthaginian Army is rampaging through the northern parts of the peninsular,several Rebellions occur,mainly in the south and mid eastern part of Italy.

(a)


Many efforts have gone into the remodelling of ''rebel'' units by the RS team as well.

Rebel forces anxiously waiting for the Romans to attack.




After a short but bloody clash,the Rebel forces break and are swiflty hunted down by the victorious Romans.




Bloodied,but not defeated,the Rebel forces retreat westward,to the rebellious city of Capua where they turned and attacked the pursuing Romans.
(b)


With nothing to loose but their lives,they fell upon the Romans in a massive attack.












After ferocious fighting,which left the Romans somewhat victorious,the Roman commander decided not to pursue the fleeing Rebels,but instead let them retreat into the city of Capua to deal with them there once and for all.

Spurred on by initial Rebel successes south of Rome,the Carthage army headed for the mighty City itself.
To turn the tide,they were opposed by the main Roman Army just outside of the city.



(b)




Impressed by the sight of the advancing Romans,the Carthaginian Army retreated swiftly under the succesfull protection of the rearguard.


The Carthage army retreated to Ariminum where the Romans layed siege.
There the Carthaginians forces who had been laying the surrounding countryside to waste,were massing to break the siege.
Another smaller Roman army marched to repel the Carthaginian relief force and clashed with them east of the city.
(c)






Amidst the carnage,both sides attacked and retreated,attacked and retreated and no side really came out on top.








While the sun was allready fading,all of a sudden the Romans started to crumble,very likely because of the sight of the Roman commander and his staff routing,and the troops retreated in great dissaray.


Many Roman lives were spilled,but at least the Roman sieging of Ariminum was allowed to continue.

For now at least.......................


So far this latest summary impression on playing as the Romans in the early stages of RS II.
The Roman campaign is by no means a ''walk-over'' and the player literaly has to fight for his life amidst the brutal Carthaginian invaders and the backstabbing Rebel forces,let alone expand their Empire.
For highly skilled players H/H or higher(VH) may be an option,but for newcommers M/M or lower is highly recommendable.

Exe.options;

RS II also gives the player the option to choose from the different exe's to start playing with.
The normal RTW exe. and the BI and/or Alex exe.,which provides swimming units,night battles(BI exe) and better falanx and naval invasions AI(Alex exe)


Increased demand on Pc systems;

Because of the revamped RS II graphics and the added ''Bloom'' options,the demand on the players Pc systems will be higher then what vanilla RTW and the elder RS did.
However,turning off Anti aliasing and lowering the vegetation and grass options ingame,also made possible through the Launcher,the player will still be able to enjoy the mighty new graphics of the game in all their glory.

Flaws;
At the time of writing this report, not that many bugs or flaws were known.
The occasional ctds can be reported to the Roma Surrectum technical help forum,and most,if not all, can be treated successfully;
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=420

On some occasions there is the socalled ''No walls'' bug,where men and equipment will be able to walk through them;


But this a notorious RTW bug which never was adressed properly by the Creative Assembly


Summarized,Roma Surrectum II offers even More Indepth Gameplay,More Historical Correct units and buildings allover,and a totally Redone Graphical Design as Never seen before !

Start waging War all over Europe with this Epic Mod;Roma Surrectum II

Good Luck,have Fun and Vae Victis !!


Wow, seems like MorganH is having a cracking campaign!

Please, do try out the mod, which can be downloaded here.