Rome 2 battles, fun?

[total relism]

I am just wondering how people are enjoying the battles of Rome 2 so far, compared to previous tw games. To me the best in the series was medevil 1 than empire than medevil 2. I for one am not enjoying the battles in rome 2 at all. They are not based on strategy at all, but pushing magic button buffs than they last all of 5 minutes, 1 minute after first engagement. To me im not able to plan come up with strategies or enjoy the great graphics of the game, as i spend my time hitting magic button buffs and watching units run around like cheetahs than retreat as soon as battle started. I feel the campaign map is great, the battles are just terrible i fond myself auto-resolving them 90% of the time.

[mattebubben]

way waaay to short battles...
I also autoresolve most battles since its not even worth fighting them urself most of the time...

[Bethencourt]

WHAT A STORM! WHAT A JOKE! WHAT A FRAUD! WHAT A SIEGE!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Look at the clock. And look at the red army, the enemy attacking me. I am deffending Carthage.

And the high speed clock was not working, the AI decides not to attack passed five minutes from the start so almost an hour of a game not having fun at all. What the hell are the doors capture points? Apart from this battle? I had one in Kortuba, and once I had destroyed the door I could not go further despite I controlled the capture point.

[talljoe]

I am just wondering how people are enjoying the battles of Rome 2 so far, compared to previous tw games. To me the best in the series was medevil 1 than empire than medevil 2. I for one am not enjoying the battles in rome 2 at all. They are not based on strategy at all, but pushing magic button buffs than they last all of 5 minutes, 1 minute after first engagement. To me im not able to plan come up with strategies or enjoy the great graphics of the game, as i spend my time hitting magic button buffs and watching units run around like cheetahs than retreat as soon as battle started. I feel the campaign map is great, the battles are just terrible i fond myself auto-resolving them 90% of the time.

I am sad to say that there is just something way off about the battles. Units look tiny, dark, and move at light speed. I like to zoom in and watch key fights, but in R2 there aren't any. Units just blob into a meaningless scrum like an anthill, by the time I tell units to do this or that, or try to have cavalry flank... the battle's already over. I didn't get to see anything because it's just over too fast. Reducting battle speed by 25% - 40% will help, but that's not the only thing wrong. I don't know, it's hard to put your finger on. A full 20 stack army just looks very small compared to other TW games.

[total relism]

I think maybe the magic buffs take away from the "feel" and immersion of the game. Its clear were playing a arcade game with clicking and no strategy, so it just takes away the immersion of game, well at least for me. The units look very good for a vanilla rome,but with all the bright colors from buff ups etc ruined it.

[Teloriun]

Agree with the OP and additional comments so far.. makes me a sad panda

[Igor85]

Because of this arcadish battle-speed I prefer to just auto-resolve, just fighting no-chance-to-win-battles by my own (and then win easily against the stupid AI^^).

[waidizss]

Plainly horrible. Played a lot of Rome TW Roma Surrectum mod and their battles were very much "line" based with roman tactics at their best. Now, it just is havoc and chaos amongst my cohorts. I am auto-resolving or alt+f4ing from battles. Really, CA implemented Shogun II battles in a period that was dominated by Rome and as we know, Rome used tactics, not chaos, to win battles.

[TuranianGhazi]

CA implemented Shogun II battles in a period that was dominated by Rome and as we know, Rome used tactics, not chaos, to win battles.

While I agree with the general gist of your message, this particular statement rubs off me the wrong way. You come off as being very arrogant, Eurocentric. I'm sure you don't mean it like you said it.

By how you worded it (maybe just English translation), it seems to imply that Shogun, or Sengoku Jidai Japanese, fought chaotically... when that was far from the truth.

What you meant to say, I think ... was that Rome 2 utilize misfitting Warscape melee mechanics which are better suited for more ranged combat like Empire, Napoleon, Shogun 2, and especially Fall of the Samurai.

Just correction, that's all.

[total relism]

It is said that even after a few days of play, many agree with me and auto resolve already. It just to me, seems a job to fight a battle now, no fun, no strategy, just clickfest.

[total relism]

bump

[hots_towel]

im not sure what is it, but something dosent feel right about it (im not a gaming expert, so i dont know terms or how to put my finger on directly whats going on)
Shogun 2 and rome 1 were imo the best feeling battles. everything died so easily in M2 andempire would have been alot better if the units DIDNT RUN SO SLOW. but this game.......idk. the units move too fast, so there goes tactical thinking. i cant double click a spot for my units to run to (it ends up doing that thing where you can toggle how you want your units spread out. you normally click and drag with a unit selected to use it, that thing.) and the soldiers dont move.

also, i know this isnt exactly the right thead for this, but is anyone else having problems with the campaign? theres no way to satisfy captured territories and food is a CONSTANT issue

[Moustik]

+1000

Start battle, select units, charge, done.

[Raikou]

+1000

Start battle, select units, charge, done.

This.

The only thing that baffles me is the battle speed. It's clearly atleast 25% FASTER not SLOWER than Shogun 2's speed even though they said it'd be 25% slower for Rome II

Also the men died way too fast and battle animations are very bad when the units all fuse into 1 big man blob so u cant even see the animations...

[Cadian Guardsman]

This.

The only thing that baffles me is the battle speed. It's clearly atleast 25% FASTER not SLOWER than Shogun 2's speed even though they said it'd be 25% slower for Rome II

Also the men died way too fast and battle animations are very bad when the units all fuse into 1 big man blob so u cant even see the animations...

So damn true, the battles between say Hastati and Italian Spear men end faster than I can click, what's the point of having amazing animation (when they do play which the majority of kills they don't) when the battles end faster than anything between unmatched units. It seems the only time I saw a long fight was dicking around in custom battle throwing 1 unit of oathsworn against praetorians, the battle lasted for a good 5 mintes of swords clashing and every kill was animated.... I don't see why you can't do this for regular units ....I'm sure hastatai are more skilled than mobs CA but Mob members can stick block...

[krisslanza]

Very satsifiying watching my Roman infantry smash through barbarians and the like. Don't see why people complain about historical inaccuracies in a game that has never been designed to be historically accurate.

[Hresvelgr]

Very satsifiying watching my Roman infantry smash through barbarians and the like. Don't see why people complain about historical inaccuracies in a game that has never been designed to be historically accurate.

I haven't seen many accurate complaints about historical accuracy. Mostly I just see people projecting myths, preconceptions, and stereotypes onto the game and complaining about how they're present or not. Like how the Greeks don't have anachronistic helmets or why some battles take place near one side's camp and so on so forth.

In any case, I'm having a blast with the battles right now. Game runs well enough on my computer to set on extreme detail and still run smooth, so that goes some way to it I guess. In any case, it's even rather fun to watch what with the immersion and atmosphere being so much better than previous games, especially when it comes to being historically authentic. It's a simple sort of fun to just form a giant army of pikemen and watch them stomp forth toward their enemy and impale them by the thousands.

[Metallistic]

The battles are extremely well done and fun, but unit/army cohesion are lacking and they are over way too soon. If those issues are adressed, it will be spot on.

[Gerleman]

I like them actually. And I am defintely not new to the series. Play on Legendary and my battles last normal (20-30 minutes if evenly matched). Had some bugs though (Enemies not getting out of boats or just standing somewhere) but those were just exceptions. I think most people just read too much and then don't have an own opinion.

@hots_towel

I played about 20h now (Campaign) and didn't have such issues. Playing as Sparta, captured Italy and some parts of Europe. At first your captured regions are unhappy, but this usually only lasts 2-3 rounds. You should build stuff that reduces the influence of other cultures and should definitely not construct buildings over the level of "II" (2) since they have a huge impact on your public order (Destroy them if AI built them before). I recommend you to have an own region for one resource. For example: You captured a province with 3 regions, in the first region you just build buildings that give you food, the second is for your military and the third for your public order and culture influence. That way you don't have to construct higher leveld buildings and don't get negative effects on your public order. If you didn't know (I didn't at first) the effects take place in every region of one province so sometimes it is NECESSARY to capture a whole province, if you want to have enough food and public order. I personally think this is a really challenging and good system which provided me good fun so far.

Good luck to you. If you figured it all out once, it's just as fun as all the other TW titels, I can tell you .

P.S: Sorry, it's almost 4am over here so probably not all of my senteces will make sense !

[baldrick13]

i enjoy them the majority of the time (i never noticed any huge ai bugs or the like) but i do see how improvements can be made (hopefully through patches).