Rome + Barb. Exp. What do I install?!

[marcelteaching]

Hi,

I have rome total war and the expansion, barbarian invasion. I am confused as to all the options for what I should be installing. Standard? Extended?! Version VII (but it is only half done?!) I am completely lost.

I played the original Total Realism before, and LOVED it, so I am hoping to get back into it. I also wanted to use the barbarian invasion features, so I was hoping for a version that ran with that.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Marcel

Edit : I just typo'd 'barb' (barbarian) as bab - Great. Now I look like an even worse noob!

[Caesar Augustus]

Hi there, welcome to the boards!

You have several options open to you playing with RTW and BI patched to the latest versions:

RTR: PE v1.9 - This is a good base to build experience playing across a "traditional" grand campaign format. By that I mean there's a map that stretches from Scotland to India, with all the major powers you'd expect included. It's a good romp to play through, though it's considered a completed mod and as far as I am aware no-one is developing it any further.

ExRM 3.5.3c - This is a further development of the gameplay in RTR: PE. The team has done some astounding work improving the gameplay experience and challenge. There is a severely tweaked economic system, the full complement of factions and highly tweaked unit stats, amongst other features. There is also a new version in the works, ExRM 4.0, which further develops the concepts in 3.5, introduces several superfactions to represent some of the minor powers and improve gameplay more than merely having vast swathes of rebel territories.

RTR VII TIC - This mod is focused on Hamilcar Barca's (alas not the beloved historian of the RTR team ) conquest of the Iberian peninsula in the aftermath of the First Punic War. As Carthage you play through a higly scripted, mission based campaign. The Iberian faction is much closer to the traditional mode of TW gameplay. The game itself lasts in the region of 80 turns. This was the first project of the current RTR team.

RTR VII FOE - This mod is is based around the Western Mediterranean from 280 BC onwards. From what I recall there are 6 playable factions (could be wrong here), and the mod places a strong emphasis on Rome's struggle against Pyrrhus, and the later wars against Carthage. There are of course several other scenarios featured in the mod, and there is no strong focus on any particular faction. The game features mini regions (representing the minor towns and cities), and major regions. Mini regions cannot be developed any further than how they are set up at the campaign start, not can they be used to recruit troops. Major regions can be developed and can recruit troops. The economy and battle stats have also been very heavily tweaked in this entry in the RTR series.

Some upcoming mods to look forward to in the RTR family:

ExRM 4.0

Fortuna Orbis

Another entry in the RTR family is AqD's mod. I haven't mentioned it here in detail though as I believe it requires the Alexander expansion.

Hope this helps!

[marcelteaching]

Thank you so much! Sounds like ExRM 3.5.3c is for me!

[Caesar Augustus]

Thank you so much! Sounds like ExRM 3.5.3c is for me!

No worries man. They're all good fun to play through, and I'd definitely recommend you check out the entries in the VII series that are currently out at some point. Some fantastic work has been done there

[Arkaeyn]

Be sure to give Fate of Empires a try as well. It's really good, and as in-depth as the so-called "grand campaigns." And I said that before I joined the team!

[Carados]

You could always get them all??

[Pat89]

You could always get them all??

Exactly what I was thinking

Each mod listed in that post above will be installed in its own modfolder, so you can have them all installed at the same time and even keep playing vanilla