From a newbie: this mod is like a whole new (much-improved) RTW!
Just to give you a background... I started playing CIV V after it was released and was disappointed, I was glad they got rid of killer stacks, but putting tactical battles across hundreds of miles doesn't work either.
So I did some research and came across the Total War games. I ordered RTW gold, Medieval II gold, and Total War: Empire from Amazon, and got them a couple of weeks back. I started playing the campaign on RTW (M/M difficulty) which started off really fun and quickly got boring: it seemed that the battles were highly repetitive and, frankly, boring after awhile, and there was nothing stopping me from steam rolling everyone. Essentially, taking over a town was: siege, walk in where the computer opponent was just standing in the center of town, pick them apart with my archery, then finally at the end, charge in with infantry and cavalry.... battles where I killed 1000 of them and they killed less than 10 of my men were commonplace.
Before giving up and going to Medieval War II, I downloaded RS2 last week, and started a Roman campaign ---- all I can say is Wow... wow... Some of the things that I noticed:
1. The graphics were like 100 times better... and terrain matters, I try to beat my opponent to the top of the hill and then looking around takes my breath away.
2. Much more complex and interesting economy.
3. Battles got challenging again... the AI is actually aggressive, in campaign and in battle! What a shock when Hannibal ambushed me on turn one and he actually trounced me! What fun when the rebellions occurred and I had to teach them what happens to traitors (I shouted out in victory when every single one of them was squashed!)
4. It got so frustrating to me in vanilla that every single battle I had to go into the Roman infantry and set them to auto fire on, by default they were off... but not in your mod! It seems small, but that micromanagement gets really boring after awhile.
5. They come knocking on your door on isolated islands... in so many of these types of games, the computer attacks islands poorly if at all... not in this game. Also it does things that amaze me at times... For example, Hanno came and attacked a city on one of my islands. I quickly brought over a big force and attacked him... interestingly, we started the battle, and he just started his troops marching backwards. At the end of the battle, they all retreated with no casualties on either side, and jumped into a waiting ship so I couldn't get at them again... now that was smart!
I am now about 26 years into it and have about 20 provinces. I do want to mention a few frustrations though:
1. Battles take a loooooong time... when I have 2000 troops and the opponent has 3000 quite often the 45 minutes expires before I am able to take a town. I have to attack it again.
2. Money comes SOOO easy in this game, I can't spend it all. I have Rome creating a full slate of new troops every turn, and every city has a construction project going every turn, and I still just keep accumulating wealth, I am getting close to 200,000 and going up every turn. Taxes make up about 90% of it.
3. Since there is such a penalty for leaving a city without a governor, my generals are no longer named characters, just meaningless horsemen... and I still have several cities without governors. There just aren't enough named general/governors to go around. Are there any tricks for recruiting more of these?
4. It's hard to know what buildings lead to what. I have used the building browser, but trying to follow the thread of what leads to what that leads to what is quite difficult. But there is fun in trying to figure it out.
The last four are minor concerns, to be sure. What amazes me is that you have been working on this for three years, without monetary compensation, just purely to give something back to the community of players. I am in awe of such dedication. All I can say is thank you.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by allenciox
