BI worth getting?

[cudakite]

I know it's been out forever, but I disliked VI so much that I've shied away from this expansion. Right now I have a little extra money and I was wondering if it was worth spending the money on. I figured I can get an informed decision from you all because you've been playing it for a while now.

I just want something new to hold me over until Med 2 hits the shelves.


thanks in advance

[John I Tzimisces]

Ah, moved to the Barbarian Invasion forum.

[Agraes]

BI does add lot of new features. But skins are horribles... well, I think it depends if you plan to play mods or not. Most mods are now going to be released on BI, and at least there is already some good BI enhancement mods. So if you want to play those mods, simply go for it... if not... mmmm...

[HunKiller]

you should wait until theres a nice mod out... by itself BI pretty much sucks the campaign is boring the factiosn are unbalanced and the roman empires are no fun to play

[cudakite]

you should wait until theres a nice mod out... by itself BI pretty much sucks the campaign is boring the factiosn are unbalanced and the roman empires are no fun to play

yeah. that's what i was afraid of. thanks for the input.

[HunKiller]

dont get too discouraged vladmod is looking like the mod to save BI

[John I Tzimisces]

There are multiple mods for BI. We have an entire forum section devoted to them. I should know: I moderate that part of the forum along with this one.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=102

[Legionary Jezza]

im having a go at skinning to be more historical soldiers

[Princeps]

Yes, you should wait for a good modification to show up, but normal BI is worthy of playing as well. The skins are shining and unhistorical, but not that horrible really. The AI is improved a lot, I think and the campaign is (imho) great. Playing Romans, especially western Romans is challenging and playing the barbarians is also quite hard. Sassanids are goddamn ugly with their shiny turquoise coloured units... uh... *pukes*

Anyway, I think BI is worth of getting.

[Hullebullen]

On it's own, not really...I can't say that I played it a lot, it felt very "raw" and unpolished. Get it for mods, otherwise, no...

[Legionary Jezza]

ive almost finished the skins got a couple more factions to go

[The Alcotroll]

No, No, No, No!

I can't begin to describe how horribly disapointed I was by BI!

The campaign is too short, the game is full of bugs, the models look apalling (and that's just the ones that do work. One day I'll sit down and make an exhaustive list, with screen-shots, of all the broken models in BI. Every time I play the game I notice a new one.)

The 1.6 patch is supposed to fix the memory leak and return the game to RTW speeds, but it does nothing of the sort.

Barbarian Invasion is a deeply flawed product, and frankly it's disgusting that it was ever released. It clearly wasn't play-tested.

[Legionary Jezza]

i have not noticed any bugs in b.i

[Agraes]

Well, I think we actually have good mods for BI. There is Vlad, but also:
- Age of Darkness
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=112

- Invasio Barbarorum: Flagellum Dei 5.0
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=113

And of course most major modifications are now going to be released on BI 1.6... if you want to play ATW then it is worth buying

[Boudicca]

Barbarian invasion is a nice idea if you want to play a different time period. But the unit colours really are not that great. The factions are very repetitive. The art of rescuing the western empire consists in lots of micro management at the beginning. As the east you'll have an easy go.

The main problem often is the horde AI to me. Either they take too much time to invade my empire, so that when they come I am already too strong for them to pose any danger, or they invade straight on, take one or two provinces and stay there, so that they are easily defeated afterwards.

BI by itself hasn't kept me busy for two long. However with the nice skind mods, barbones, Attila etc...it turned into a rather decent game. So I am somewhat split here. If it would be around 15 Dollars I'd give it a go. But don't pay 30 for it.....

[Legionary Jezza]

the reason the colours and two god is they were more savage and more of a dark age

[cudakite]

Well, sounds like i should buy it for the mods if nothing else. but like you said Boudicca, i don't want to spend 30 bucks on it! Oh well I'll see what I can find


Thanks again guys.

[Gillam I]

my 5cents, the campaign is rubbish, it's almost impossible with any faction to have an empire, just alot of mis-manmangement by all settlement gov's. Most units, therefore that you face are very weak, not much development on the behalf of the AI (IMO)
The in game AI is awesome tho, the battles are the best faced, i no longer just have 5units of archers, sum form of sturdy spearmen and just let the AI attack, The AI flanks, diverts, it is actually challanging!!!t i lost a battle the other day, and convincingly. I've never lost one even with STW, MTW or RTW, i would take the mick with like 900men vs' 2000 and still have large amount of my men left after the battle (on hard)
Thats why i gotta say buy the game on the cheap, maybe steal if your a student!!!! and get a good mod. IF your expecting the actaul game your offered to be fun or interesting no, its the mod's that save the day
i would reccomend ATW, that looks good, and i downloaded one called Pax Brittina? summit like that, thats fun as well, if you dont mind the celts to be annoyingly always in your face
any way peace out!!
who here like sharpe, 2 new episodes released after 8years!!?!!? you yanks probs never heard of it..damn u, go watch you 'MTV' lol!!!

[COTLOD]

I think it is worth getting. Its not a perfect expansion pack, but I definetly don't regret buying it. The graphical and animation upgrade is very nice. The AI is also much improved. The upgrade it adds to Vanilla makes it almost worthwhile in itself. BI itself offers a nice change in time periods and a decent campaign game. Once you figure it out though, BI is just too easy!! The WRE is the only really challenging faction. Sometimes with the ERE it can be a challenge if you get slammed with a lot of hordes right away(Sarmatians, Vandals, Huns, AND Goths were attacking me once). But its easy enough to build up an effective military and push them into the west. Once you build up the ERE to get decent units you become unstoppable. The Sassanids are WAY to easy. You get to focus all of your powerful empire and vast resources on a weakened ERE. Once you take them down again you become unstoppable. The hordes I have complained about before. All were much too similar in my taste and this is where BI falls short IMO. Its supposed to be about "Barbarian Invasions" yet it seems the Barbarian factions were given the lest attention as far as units and variety goes. The Barbarian campaigns are slightly more challenging but honestly no one can match you as a horde and with Hordes its easy too cripple the Romans, who are your only real threat, too where once you settle down they won't be a threat. After you settle down as the Barbarians it becomes much more challenging, but again, you can wreak so much havoc with the hordes before you settle down that you can make the game very easy for yourself. However, RTW Vanilla probably benefits the most from this expansion. In addition to the graphical upgrade the improved AI and diplomacy make for a much more fun campaign. There are no weak opponents and the computer will use its vast resources to send army after army at you. Economically the campaigns are usually much easier in this but the constant intense warfare that I always seem to get keeps you on your toes.

[Legionary Jezza]

like i said like a dark age period and more savage and wars.