EU:Rome

[Stuie]

The demo is out at Gamestop. Any impressions?

I'm d/l'd now. Only two hours to go!

[Nikolai]

I recommend gamershell.com to DL the demo, much faster. I was finished DLing after half an hour.

[Stuie]

Thanks Nikolai - I'll have to try that tonight. My download quit part-way through.

[Kinjiru]

A really interesting write-up of the game is available at:

http://www.quartertothree.com/inhouse/news/411/

I would love to hear some impressions from you guys here though.

[Dinner]

It's based on EU 3, right? I bought EU 3 because I loved EU 2 so much but I found 3 to be a pale shadow of 2.

[Nikolai]

It's based on EU3's engine. Gameplay wise, it has taken some from Vicky, some from CK and some from the EU series. The responses from the demo over at PI's place is mostly very good.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

ive tinkered with the demo, it is nice but i find it somewhat difficult to grasp everything.

shame we dont have a tutorial yet.

looks like it will be an epic game.

[Stuie]

Yeah - the demo is fun to poke around at, but I want the full thing. I also think they picked a poor start date for the demo if they wanted to attract new customers; anyone that has never played a Paradox game would be quickly overwhelmed with managing a large empire AND being at war. Luckily I've played enough EU2 that it feels pretty comfortable to me.

Anyway, enough demo already! I'm looking forward to the 280bc start date, and building a Roman Empire of my own.

[Nikolai]

Yeah, even I, who have played PI games since oblivion, had problems. Never been a very good player at computer games though. I've just come across a small walkthrough for how to beat the crap out of Carthage in the demo however, and think I'll try it later today:

To ANNIHILATE Carthage.

1. Don't involve your allies.
2. Get your armies from Iberia and all other territories back to Rome proper, aka Italian Penninsula, just march them back, your fleet has a different job to do.
3. FIRTS THING TO DO WITH YOUR MILITARY. Put an admiral on your fleet, the 8 military guy and send him to the Malta Sea. This will prevent your enemies from wipping out your cohorts in Malta and Sicily. Load up your troops and take them back to Rome then go and pick up your cohort in Sardinia if you can.
4. Make sure you get the most out of trading, which means you let the Masillians offer you some trade routes. (More money from foreign trade routes than regular TRs.) Make sure the regular TRs, are still being used after Massillia has run out of their TRs.
5. Now that you have cash coming in and while you are picking up troops, build. Make armies of 10 units each. 8 Heavy Infantry and 2 archers per army. Make sure to assign generals. Have 5 or 6 armies ready to go and leave 1 or 2 in the north to fight off barbarians.
6. While the armies are building, set up for the final invasion. Bring one army to Malta. One to Sicily. Now wait till you have 4 armies in Italy. Go pick up your third and drop it in the province on the border of Egypt and Carthage. Now stop droping the armies one at a time into each province. Now you have 30,000 men on the mainland of Carthage. Now go pick up the last 3 armies from Rome 1 at a time and keep advancing the provinces under siege. Make sure the Front Line army has 2 armies going together and crush the hell out of the Carthaginians. You will take some loses from attrition, but the Carthaginians can't beat 20k siege armies.

FYI: Your 3 ideas should be +10% to trade income. +50 to defense, I think its called Civic Duty and Professional Soldiers for a +10% to discipline. Make sure you put them in the right order, I don't remember what it is now, since I'm at work.

Pointers: Annihilate the Carthaginian fleet, whenever possible. Your mad dash for the Malta Sea, in the beginning, should have accomplished most of it. Carthage has **** for manpower at least in comparison to you, as the battles progress and you keep taking their provinces they won't be able to resupply their armies even if they have many units. Also, remember this. Carthage can build a lot of stuff, but they can't build Heavy Inf., in their home provinces, since they don't have access to iron, except for the Iberian Peninsula, which makes them **** out of luck. Your manpower, rules, rocks, kicks ass. You have it and Carthage blows chunks. If you grind them out, they will loose, because as they loose provinces, there will be fewer and fewer reinforcements coming in, which means you get to rock their world.

Soon enough you will own N. Africa and push as far as you please, since Carthage can't do jack to stop you, when they have a bunch of undermanned units, that can't be resupplied. And you will be building 2 more armies as taxes come in from Carthage provinces you captured. You've just won your first Rome game, how's it feel?

[Kinjiru]

Now that this one is out in the wild, any further impressions?

Good buy? Maybe buy? Wait until it's patched? Don't go near this buggy mess?

[Stuie]

I'm picking it up tomorrow or Thursday. But my impressions will be totally biased because I love all things Roman.

[Kinjiru]

Originally posted by Stuie
I'm picking it up tomorrow or Thursday. But my impressions will be totally biased because I love all things Roman.

Really? Even...

http://www.cnr.edu/home/araia/sebesta_girlpraetexta.jpg

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Kinjiru
Really? Even...
http://www.cnr.edu/home/araia/sebesta_girlpraetexta.jpg

Ok - that I would not pick up.

WTH happened to the Paradox forum? These site admins - we need a freakin' Spore forum but Paradox gets the boot...

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Stuie
WTH happened to the Paradox forum? These site admins - we need a freakin' Spore forum but Paradox gets the boot...

Sorry, we had a vote and even the few people who did use the forum agreed that it wasn't worth keeping around. We can't please everyone but at least you can still use this forum for Paradox talk, and the old threads are still in the archives (I know, not what you want but there you go...)

More info/discussion:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=176434

[asleepathewheel]

this looks interesting, might be the first pc game I've picked up in a long while. Rather, wait until the first patch comes and then purchase. But, I love roman history, so should be fun.