Rome II

[Wildeybeast]

I know there will be a few people interested in this, so I thought I'd start a thread on it. Especially as I played it yesterday. I played a demo battle at Rezzed, which was awesome. It featured a combined land and naval battle. The Egyptians were encamped on top of a hill, which the Romans had to assault, while both sides were trying land reinforcements on the banks of the Nile whilst simultaneously destroying the opposing navy. There was a lot going on, from rampaging elephants to balls of burning straw rolling down hills to boarding actions. It required a lot of attention to manage (my Roman navy got smashed, but I still managed to storm the hill).

They also had a seminar where they demonstrated the campaign map and some features. It is huge, much bigger than the previous ones, and much more detailed. Some campaign features are: using provincial capitals to manage your massive empire; armies gain traits in the same way generals do, and these stay in place (so even if the 13th legion is destroyed on the battlefield, you can raise the standard again in Rome with the same traits); your 'family tree' contains competing families which you have to manage to keep your internal politics in order; armies can recruit whilst on the march, rather than building troops in a city and sending them trekking across the map; clearer breakdowns of exactly which actions are pleasing/annoying rival factions. Other things they mentioned which we didn't see were: battles featuring objectives or capture points e.g. you are ambushed on the march and have to protect your baggage train, or certain capture points in a siege and two player campaigns.

I thought it looks very promising and could well be the best Total War game yet.

And before anyone asks, everyone at Creative Assembly was keeping quiet about Total Warhammer.

[eldargal]

Neat, sounds fantastic. Glad I've got mine pre-ordered.

[Wildeybeast]

Yeah, pre-ordering was a good choice. I wasn't a fan of Shogun (though mainly as it's not my style of combat and not much interest in the historical period), so I was bit unsure about this one. They really impressed me yesterday, especially having the designers out on the show floor talking to people.

[DrLove42]

Definently looking forward to it!

[Psychosplodge]

Now I'm worried.
I don't like the sound of combined arms action. The navel battles of Empire/shogun II are a ball ache more than anything else.

[DrLove42]

Just keep your campaigns in the mainlands.

I always Autoresolved naval battles in Empire, cos I sucked at them

One of the first ones i ever played, I had succesfully captured a Galleon of the Spanish, at the time the best ship available in the early game for sheer cannon number. I repaired it and sent it out on its own against a tiny enemy ship, also on its own.

First enemy broadside with its 3 cannons hit the powder keg and my entire galleon exploded on the first shot. Sad face/rage face ensued

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah, you've just described my every navel engagement ever.

[DrLove42]

By the end of the last campaign i was playing I had a 14 ship flee made up entirely of 1st Rate Ships of the Line floating round Gibraltrer, cutting everything off

[Psychosplodge]

My current game has a fleet of 2nd rates in each theatre mopping up, I found it easier to just capture the home ports...

[Wildeybeast]

The combined battle happened because there were fleets near where the land battle took place and they got sucked in, in the same way other armies moving round the map do. You could avoid them in theory, or just do what I did on them demo, send your fleet charging in and then ignore them for the rest of the battle. If you win on the land, you win.

[Psychosplodge]

hmm
we shall have to wait and see.