Proposal of a new type of custom battle : the EXPEDITION

[panzerschreck]

-I propose a second type of custom battle, the expedition.

something between the campaign and the custom battle: that would be longer to do than a custom battle but much less long than a campaign. The difference would be that you will always stay on the battlefield. I think that now we have 40 vs 40 units possible in custom, all that I will describe here is possible. We could imagine that expedition can be 60 vs 60 or with a possibility of 20 units of reinforcements max.




In Antiquity, a lot of war began with the thirst of wealth, and there were a lot of raids against the ennemy territories.
So I think capturing, taking spoils, making prisonners must be a central feature in Rome 2.


a very large map where you have for example, far one from an other:

1/One city/one village/ one city with port
2/One military camp/one village with port/ one city
3/three little cities with ports.

You attack one objective or two at the same moment with your army, from sea or from land. When you take one objective, you can use the spoils:

A/ prisonners to push your siege weapons (quicker movements), to put in your galleys (quicker movement), you can also exchange them for your own men (in that new type of custom battle, when you see that some of your troops will be slaughtered, you could push a button and make them surrendered with the hope of taking them back after).
B/ All the ennemy siege weapons that have been taken can be repaired and re-used by your army.

C/All the projectile units of the army that won can be re-armed with javelins and arrows.

D/ you can use gold to make:

- siege improvements (wood etc, engineers can come by sea after if orders are sent), repair the walls of the city in case that AI ennemy comes back.

- to recruit troops (but they will take a long time to be recruited and come: you have to send orders with you general and wait for these new troops)

E/ Capturing weapons and taking ships:

-we should be able to take with simple soldiers the control of a siege weapon: they will quit their unit, for example 10 men and use it but they will be less accurate than ingeneers.

-during a naval battle, we always see ships that surrender: but nothing happen, when a ship is surrendering, the soldiers in it, should throw their weapons on the floor, ennemy boards it, the prisonners enter into the ship and you can use the ship for the rest of the naval battle or the military operation. We could imagine that a surrendered ship, that has not been taken by the ennemy, could be rallied if the general of its fleet came along. So it would be really interesting to capture surrendered ships to prevent them to be rallied and to use them after.

So taking an objective will be a great advantage before taking an other and you could reinforce your army before passing to an other objective. The other thing could be that you don't know exactly where the best forces of your ennemy are on the map. AI would be obliged to defend each point. There could be also a question of time: you are on the ennemy's territory, so if you take too much time after having taken an objective, AI could receive reinforcements for the 2 others point or even receive enough reinforcement to attack again the objective that has been taken by you.
Before beginning the battle, you could choose the number of objectives (3, 4, 5), the limit of time (ingame days, not real days), the amount of gold or forces of the AI forces etc.
I think the possibility of saving the battle must be done, because it would take much more time than a simple custom battle (1 to 3 hours).

1/You will loose: if you don't take the three objectives or if your fleet is destroyed without any possibility of reinforcements, blocked in the ennemy territory.
2/ you will win if you take the three objectives or come back with more than 60% of your troops with enough gold, ships, slaves for the glory of Rome!!!

MULTIPLAYER:
we can imagine exactly the same for multiplayer, this would be more challenging than a simple custom battle.

For campaigns:

capturing cities, territories, weapons, ships, ennemy engineers, slaves or prisoners should be central.

-cities, territories, same system as always.
-ennemy engineers bring you new type of siege weapons
-soldiers prisonners: you can put them in your army (example german cavalry...)
-slaves stay slaves but can be put part in your marine as rowers, part to enhance your economy.

[Hyzoran]

Sins of Total War FTW Imagine if they had the entire Europe in a gamemode like this (Just wait till 2030 it will be possible)

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

Your idea sucks becuase I want a whole campaign map like that!

[panzerschreck]

Your idea sucks becuase I want a whole campaign map like that!

campaign can be like that, but you can have also a new type of custom battle, more strategical than a custom one and that's take less time than a campaign. And with that type of custom battle, expedition, your men will remain always on the field fighting or protecting, expecting reinforcement etc. It would be like a mission for king or senate to fulfill.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

campaign can be like that, but you can have also a new type of custom battle, more strategical than a custom one and that's take less time than a campaign. And with that type of custom battle, expedition, your men will remain always on the field fighting or protecting, expecting reinforcement etc. It would be like a mission for king or senate to fulfill.

Well hopefully if CA starts with something like this it could in the future be whole campaigns of it once they got it right. Would for sure be a great scenario for multiplayer.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

I really like this idea. I wouldn't want the whole campaign like this however, but one or two scenarios would be great.

Added to the Index.

[panzerschreck]

I really like this idea. I wouldn't want the whole campaign like this however, but one or two scenarios would be great.

Added to the Index.

I didn't think to the scenarios but indeed that's a possibility. Campaigns can be improved of course in TW games but I think they are mostly well done. What could be improved is custom battles and multiplayer, this type of expeditions could allow more diversity to what you can do during a custom battle, specially if you can choose in a menu before, the conditions of the expedition. If it was in multiplayer too, it would be more challenging than a simple custom battle.
a lot of players in TW games plays only custom battles, others more multiplayer, others campaigns, few play all the three types... This type of custom battle, expedition, because it's a mix between custom and campaign could be interesting and attractive.
besides CA told that in the battle of Carthage they have several capture points in the city, so we are not far from this idea, the difference here is that objective can be far one from an other and that you have all the possibilities I described above.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

I didn't think to the scenarios but indeed that's a possibility. Campaigns can be improved of course in TW games but I think they are mostly well done. What could be improved is custom battles and multiplayer, this type of expeditions could allow more diversity to what you can do during a custom battle, specially if you can choose in a menu before, the conditions of the expedition. If it was in multiplayer too, it would be more challenging than a simple custom battle.
a lot of players in TW games plays only custom battles, others more multiplayer, others campaigns, few play all the three types... This type of custom battle, expedition, because it's a mix between custom and campaign could be interesting and attractive.
besides CA told that in the battle of Carthage they have several capture points in the city, so we are not far from this idea, the difference here is that objective can be far one from an other and that you have all the possibilities I described above.

Now that is something I am looking forward. Yeah, having them far away on a big map would be pretty awesome.

[♠ Thomas Cochrane ♠]

what's that WWII strategy game where you have the zoomed out view, but you can zoom all the way in to battle map view? That is the end point of Total War development IMO, that would be amazing.

[Biggieboy]

what's that WWII strategy game where you have the zoomed out view, but you can zoom all the way in to battle map view? That is the end point of Total War development IMO, that would be amazing.

Are you thinking about Wargame: European Escalation? it's like that, but it's set in the Cold War era (70's - 80's). It's a pretty cool game, but a bit hard imo

[Legionary Jezza]

I think he's talking about R..U.S.E

[♠ Thomas Cochrane ♠]

R.U.S.E rings a bell.

But for the time being, I personally don't like the idea of the OP.

[bangell99]

I like this idea. Too arcade-like to be put in the campaign, but as a type of custom battle this would be really fun. Good thinking.