Total war eras

[TheStinger]

I've just bought this.

I went straight to Total War and am enjoying my 1st game as the Scipi. I've just taken Carthage.

What I would like to konw is, should I try Medeival war aswell, or is it rubbish compared to Rome. Also is Barbarion Invasion any good.

[DrSpike]

They tend to add more without changing the underlying gameplay, so just playing the most recent game is sensible unless you really want a different setting.

[Verrucosus]

I only have Rome and Shogun. I think overall Rome is the better game, but the battles pass too quickly for my taste.

Are there printed manuals included in the "Eras" edition?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DrSpike
They tend to add more without changing the underlying gameplay, so just playing the most recent game is sensible unless you really want a different setting.

Or unless youre a tad OCD. I intend to get Eras, and my expectation is that Id play them through in order of release.

[DrSpike]

Seems a bit silly.

[TheStinger]

I've justbeen looking on various site, there are loads of Mods out there.

Looks like the game will have a long life on my HD

[Quillan]

Yeah, I've been playing with the Rome: Total Realism mod lately, and HOLY %$*&%! It's an entirely different ballgame. Enjoy the Scipiones for now, and once it starts feeling stale, try giving RTR or Europa Barbarorum a shot. Eras includes Barbarian Invasion, doesn't it? You may also want to try that one, as it's completly different from the Imperial Campaign in RTW.

[Proteus_MST]

Re: Total war eras

Originally posted by TheStinger
I've just bought this.

I went straight to Total War and am enjoying my 1st game as the Scipi. I've just taken Carthage.

What I would like to konw is, should I try Medeival war aswell, or is it rubbish compared to Rome. Also is Barbarion Invasion any good.

Bringing this thread up as I´m currently playing RTW and MTW.
(Yes, I know it is 2 months old but I hope that not everyone who played RTW and MTW has already switched to MTW2 )

IMHO MTW is worth playing even if you already played RTW.
The strategic map isn´t as good as for RTW, but it has nice elements that are missing in RTW.
For example Princesses (which youi can marry to your generals (which increases their loyality) or to heirs of other realms (thereby astablishing an alliance between the two realms))
Or Prisoners of War, which you get if the enemy routs and your forces attack the fleeing troops. You can either slay the prisoners (as long as the battle is still going) or can, after the battle, release them for ransom (Something which I often do in my current war as spain against the Almohades (the muslim clan that held the southern tip off spain, as well as tunis and marocco), they attack marocco every 2-4 years (which was taken by my forces years before) and I normally catch around 500 prisoners which are sold back to the almohades for 1200 gold (which is around 1/4 of the amount of gold my proviinces produce every year))

As for RTW:
After finishing the game with the scipiones
I started a game as the greek cities and now I know for sure: Phalanxes rock
I conquered all of roman mainland (with the Brutii being the first to fall, after they annoyed me by constantly trying to invade Apollonia and now only the Scipiones remain, which possess a few islands and parts of the former carthagian empire (and have Carthago as their capital, which is why now I normally refer to the scipiones as the new carthagians )

btw. which changes are introduced by the Total Realism Mod?

[Quillan]

Far, far too many to list. Just some examples: while the city size is still dependant on the governmental building, the troops aren't tied to city size. Instead, it's a different series of buildings. When you take a city that's outside your region, you have to build a series of Auxiliary Bases there, in sequence. After the third base, you can build a provincial barracks, and only then can you start recruiting your own troops. With some factions, the auxiliary bases allow you to recruit some of their troops. Specific example, if you play as Rome (no families in the mod) and take Mediolanum from the gauls, you can't build any troops there. Auxiliary base 1 lets you recruit gallic warband. Base 2 lets you recruit swordsmen, gallic light cavalry if you have a stable, and if you have a range, gallic slingers. At base 3 you can recruit gallic noble cavalry with a stable. Once you build the provincial barracks, you can recruit hastati, principes and triarii there, and funditores if you have a range. You need to build roman citizenship (the final barracks building) before you can build equites in that city. Only the provicial barracks and citizenship require a city size 2 or larger.

A lot of new provinces and cities got added to the map, and the map itself changed some. Unit stats changed, a LOT. Romans can't build archers, only slingers (funditores). The Seleucid empire starts with 35 or so provinces (!). Egypt doesn't exist, it's now the Ptolemaic empire, with greek troops instead of middle kingdom egyptian junk. The economy got toned down a lot. Sea trade doesn't seem to be worth nearly what it used to, or at least owning the Agean no longer rakes in the denarii. Mercenaries sometimes include native troops, and these can be retrained to replenish losses in any city that could produce them. I've hired gallic cavalry in Carthage and retrained them in Mediolanum.

I could probably go on for an hour listing changes made in that one mod, but I'm posting from work, and I keep getting interrupted by customers and phone calls. Inconsiderate bastids!

[Proteus_MST]

Wow,
sounds like RTW with RTR mod compared to RTW vanilla is just as Call to Power with Ages of Man is compared to CtP vanilla.

Especially being able to recruit native units if you possess the lands of another civilization sounds great. I always found it strange that (aside from mercenaries) you weren´t able to build any units that were characteristic for certain provinces.

I think after finishing my game with the greeks I will give it a try

[Jamski]

To be honest M:TW2 knocks R:TW off the top-spot as far as TW games go. The game is really really slick, combining the best features of M:TW and R:TW.

[Proteus_MST]

Does MTW2 have Princesses and Prisoners of War?

[Kassiopeia]

Yes, and yes. I put them to the sword, usually, they wouldn't afford it anyway.

[DrSpike]

I will definitely play the new game when I get chance, especially as I never really got around to RTW. I will get two generations of improvement in one go.

[Stuie]

They don't get my money for the new one until they provide something to un-pak all the files for modding.

Supposedly the first patch will include something to do this.