Europa Barbarorum

Europa Barbarorum (or EB) is a Mod of the computer game Rome: Total War (RTW) based on the desire to provide RTW players with a more historically accurate game experience, without sacrificing fun. Europa Barbarorum is a total conversion—replacing all unit and building stats, for instance, and all unit models—though it covers roughly the same time period as the campaign included with RTW.

History and goal

EB was originally founded in January 2004, eight months before RTW's release, when several individuals following the game's development became concerned that barbarian factions such as Gaul and Germania were being portrayed as stereotypical hordes of unwashed savages. These individuals felt that such representations conformed more to a sensationalist Hollywood stereotype than historical fact, maintaining (as many modern historians do) that the ancient "barbarian" cultures are often viewed through the paradigm of Greco-Roman bias. The true nature of these civilizations, says EB, is better revealed through archaeological evidence and what remains of their own ancient texts.

These individuals, concerned as they were for the “barbarians”, were joined by others with concerns for other ancient cultures / factions. Together, these EB members tried to convince the Creative Assembly to alter their depiction of the period to make the whole game more historically accurate. Whilst some suggestions were taken on board and adopted in the final release of RTW, most were disregarded by CA due to publisher pressures / financial expediency. Some EB members continued to offer their services as historical advisers but due to inherent concerns over intellectual property rights, CA declined the offer.

Having exhausted this avenue for change, the EB members then resolved to modify the game themselves upon its release. To these ends they began what ended up being several thousands of hours of research and preliminary work.

On released, EB immediately began work on the modification, recruiting a large team of volunteer Texture mapping|skinners, 3D model|modelers, coders, and historians to make the game better reflect historical reality. EB’s vision of edutainment was endorsed by CA, who offered limited help when able.

Slightly over a year after its release, the EB team finally made their initial open beta public on December 2005#27 December 2005|December 27, 2005. Almost 50,000 tracked downloads have been recorded since then, and many other untracked sites also host the mod. The mod has also been included with demos and mods on PC Format, a computer magazine published in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Even though EB gives the players the opportunity to experience the same age and (roughly) place as original RTW, this mod is a total conversion, which offers a completely new feel / gaming experience. All units, buildings, map features and other modable parameters of the game have been reworked from scratch and many new features added.

Features

Factions

• All existing units have been removed and replaced
• Unit recruitment has been changed to a new system based on governments and assimilation, set up at region-by-region basis

New factions

• The Arverni, a new faction of Gauls
• Baktria, the central asian Hellenic empire
• Pyrrhos and his Epeirotes are now playable
• Saka-Rauka, a heavily cavalry-based faction based in central Asia

Faction changes

• The Egyptian army has been changed to correspond to the Ptolemaic period in history
• Sauromatae takes over as the regional superpower in ancient Russia, instead of the Scythians whose power was in decline
• The Gauls are split into two factions, the Aedui and the Arverni
• The Koinon Hellenon represents the Chremonidean League of Athens, Sparta and Rhodes, instead of the Greek Cities which were made up of cities who only shared being called Greeks
• New families for all factions with members' ages and relationships accurate (as far as modern scholarship is able to reconstruct) to current knowledge of the year 272 BC
• Diplomatic relationships between factions are accurately mapped out for the game's start in 272BC, accurately representing the state of diplomacy for the start date.
• Unrealistic "fog-of-war" constraints partially lifted at the game's start to show a more realistic understanding of political geography specialized for each individual faction's point of view
• More than 4,900 new names for generals and family members of Hellenic factions, transliterated from ancient Greek
• Faction-specific alerts and messages for the capture of the most important unique buildings for those peoples
• Diplomatic relationships of rebel cities with existing factions accurately represented, with severe consequences for AI and human players who violate those alliances.
• Rebel forces now have accurate ethnic names and strengths.
• No more fantasy units.
• Procedures and goals for attaining a Roman triumph
• Special alerts and graphics representing the major stages of the breakup of the Seleukid empire, if the collapse occurs
• A new faction-specific and historically based faction victory condition system, with each faction required to achieve goals as diverse as conquering provinces, raiding cities, capturing unique buildings, and destroying other specific factions
• Nomadic, desert, and steppe cultures much more accurately represented in government types and resource development

Cartography

• A new map as the base for our campaign mode, with greatly expanded eastern and southern regions, and with Arabia, India, Central Asia, and the Upper Nile all receiving many new territories.
• Faction specific naming practices with accurate unit names and accurate province names in the language of the controlling peoples at the game's start
• Accurate terrain reconstructions, snow boundaries, vegetation types, and coastlines
• The Nile-Red Sea canal linking the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
• Province boundaries carefully reconstructed to represent the political geography of 272BC
• New campaign map vegetation models include palms and denser forests.
• Ancient trade routes (such as the Amber and Silk Roads) which can be captured and used

Traits

• A new trait system based on and including a complex interaction of genetics, aging, family members, and health, affecting trait acquisition and development over the life of your characters. The number of new traits themselves is greatly increased and faction specific.
• Hellenic trait system based on ancient Greek perceptions of personalities.
• Roman trait system partially based on the moral tales of Valerius Maximus.
• All starting generals' personalities and traits mirror their historical personalities.
• Special Events Traits, like the Olympics where a Hellenic general can compete and even win them gaining a significant Influence boost.

Buildings

• A complex new government system to more accurately reflect the choices of government types available within factions for the provinces they begin with and conquer. For example, Sparta's government is much different from Athens at the game's start, providing different benefits and unit recruitment capabilities, as well as different disadvantages.
• Many new faction specific buildings, including colonies, shrines, clinics, granaries, new barbarian governmental structures, new theater trees, stupas, and many, many more.
• Over 50 new unique buildings or "wonders" for the map, present at the game's start, and affecting everything from trade and population growth to generals' traits and faction recruitment abilities, bonuses of which many are specifically tailored for and limited to certain factions.
• Temple systems representing the most popular temple types of each of the depicted factions, not just a sampling for variety. New descriptions of the numerous deities.
• No more fantasy bonuses, like equipment upgrades from temples of Vulcan.
• Capes, straits, mountains, and other terrain "unique buildings" provide bonuses to represent their historical importance

Non-Unit Graphics

• All new faction specific special graphics for the faction selection menu
• New campaign map minimap and faction starting point maps in the campaign selection menu
• New faction icons, selection buttons, campaign map standards, and battle map banners
• A new campaign map siege, ship, unit, general, watchtower, and resource graphics
• Culture-specific advisors.
• New faction-defeated graphics for every faction.

Game Mechanics

• A fleet system with many more new ships and more accurate strengths and weaknesses in battle
• Custom designed formations give the AI greater flexibility and incentive to perform actual battlefield maneuvers
• Four turns per year gameplay, with the winter months limited to one of the four seasons.
• New animations created, like two-handed lancers and better horse archer animations.

Music

• As of August 2006, EB features its own music, composed by Morgan Casey & Nick Wylie
• New classical Latin battle map voice recordings

Awards and reviews

Europa Barbarorum has won numerous community awards, including Total War Center Best Mod 2006, Best Modding Team 2006, Best Gameplay 2006 and Best Map 2006, and Total War Org Most Promising Mod 2006

Europa Barbarorum was featured and reviewed in the April 2005 edition of the Italian PC Gaming magazine Giochi per Il Mio Computer, French PC Gaming magazine Canard PC in 2005, and PC Gamer (UK), March 2005.

External links

• Official Rome: Total War Game Website
• Official Europa Barbarorum Website
• Official Europa Barbarorum Discussion Forum
• EB review on Heavengames.com