Rome: Total War
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Rome: Total War (often abbreviated to RTW or Rome) is a critically acclaimed strategy game where players fight historical and fictitious battles during the era of the Roman Republic and the reign of Augustus, from 270 BC (the final defeat of the last of Rome's Italian rivals) to 14 AD (the death of Augustus). The game was developed by Creative Assembly and released on [[September 22, 2004. A demo of the game, which features a playable version of the Battle of the Trebia, with the player taking the role of Hannibal, was released on August 23, 2004 and is freely available for downloading.
The game features large scale battles of ancient armies with thousands of warriors. The main innovation is a brand new high-quality 3D graphics engine that has the ability to render in excess of thirty thousand men on a single battlefield. Another prominent feature is the integration of the strategic and tactical views - the landscape for the battles is the same as seen on that particular spot on the strategic map where the armies meet.
The player can take roles equivalent to those of generals such as Hannibal Barca, the brilliant Carthaginian general during the Second Punic War, the Gallic warlord Vercingetorix, and Julius Caesar. Among the playable factions are three Roman families (Julii, Brutii, Scipii), which are available from the start of the game, and the free Greek city-states, Carthage, Gaul, Britannia, Germania, Parthia and the successor states of Alexander the Great's Empire: the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt, all of which must be unlocked before they can be played with. Like Medieval: Total War, there are also many non-playable factions, including the Dacians, Numidians, Scythians and Armenians. The historical setting of the game gives it an educational content, although a degree of factual inaccuracy (below) brings this into question.
The gameplay is similar to that of its predecessors, Shogun: Total War and Medieval: Total War, although there are some changes to the mechanics of sieges and city fights have been added. Most notable is that players now move their units with movement points; in previous games units were moved by territory.
Thanks to the realism of both the simulation and the graphics, even before its release a preliminary but completely workable version of the game engine was used in two series of TV programs: Decisive Battles by the History Channel where it was used to recreate famous historical battles, and Time Commanders by BBC Two, where teams of novice nongamers commanded ancient armies to replay key battles of antiquity. The game engine was fine tuned specifically for these television shows by military historians for maximum historical accuracy.
On September 27, 2005, an expansion to Rome was released, entitled Barbarian Invasion, which takes the action to the later period of the Roman Empire, beginning in 363, and ending in 476.
As a special offer for subscribers to their email newsletter, on June 16, 2006, Creative Assembly unveiled a second, downloadable expansion to Rome entitled Alexander; it was released to the general public on June 19, 2006. This expansion focuses on the campaigns of Alexander the Great.
Contents
Gameplay
The game revolves around a player, who takes control of some faction of the era. That player builds armies to conquer nearby provinces by besieging and capturing that province's capital. While doing so, players can build certain buildings within their cities to move up through the tech tree to train more advanced units, increase a province's income by building bigger and better roads and ports (if a province borders the sea) as well as farms, and keep the people happy by constructing buildings of entertainment. Fleets at sea can also ferry troops around and blockade enemy ports, thus cutting down trade income. The ultimate goal, like in previous Total War games, is to conquer a certain number of provinces. Another key objective for all the factions is to capture Rome from the Senate and become Emperor.
Roman factions
Rome includes three playable Roman factions: the Julii, the Brutii, and the Scipii, in addition to the unplayable Senate. The three factions start out allied to each other and the Senate, and may not attack each other, but can bribe each other's units throughout the game. Each Roman faction can also view the others' map information in real time, a benefit not accorded to any other alliance. Even after the inevitable civil war, all of the Roman units are visible. However, the factions generally function independently, and a player controlling a Roman faction probably won't bother lending assistance to his allies unless he himself is directly threatened.
All three factions receive missions from the Senate, but may choose to follow them at their leisure. Completing Senate missions will increase the player's standing with the Senate, and players in good standing with the Senate will receive progressively greater rewards for completing missions. If one of the Roman factions is unpopular with the Senate, however, the Senate may begin demanding that the faction complete the missions it's assigned, and penalize it if it doesn't. In addition to losing popularity within the Senate, the army of the Senate may declare war on the faction that isn't following its orders.
In addition to Senate standing, Roman factions must keep an eye on their popular standing. In general, popular standing tends to increase as a faction gains more territory – the public likes a conqueror. On the other hand, the Senate tends to get worried when a faction accumulates too much power. At a certain point, the Senate will inevitably request that the player's faction leader commit suicide. As with any Senate demand, the faction may accept or refuse— if it accepts, the faction leader dies and the heir becomes the new faction leader, buying the faction a few more years of Senate toleration before the demand is repeated; if it refuses, the Roman factions are plunged into civil war. The player may also initiate civil war once his popular standing is high enough by simply attacking another Roman faction. Unfortunately, when playing as another faction, the Romans do not self-implode in a civil war.
Roman armies focus on superior, well-disciplined and well-armored infantry and relatively weak cavalry, as compared to the other factions. The game simulates the reforms of Gaius Marius, which tend to take place sometime between 220 and 180 B.C. (rather than the historical time of 107 B.C.). Prior to the reforms, the army is made in the traditional hastati-principes-triarii model. After the reforms the army is made up of the famous legions, and better cavalry and ranged units are unlocked.
In addition, each of the three playable Roman factions has a different starting area, as well as regions into which they expand. Each has different temples to build as well as their own type of gladiators, which can be fielded in battle:
- The Julii start out in the northern portion of the Italian peninsula, and they focus on fighting barbarian tribes to the north, especially in Gaul. They also get Samnite gladiators, and can build temples dedicated to Ceres, Bacchus and Jupiter.
- The Brutii start out in the south of the peninsula, and they usually focus on the Greek factions to the east. They have access to Velite Gladiators, and temples for Mars, Mercury and Juno.
- The Scipii begin in Sicily as well as Capua, and usually focus on fighting Carthage, Numidia and Egypt to the south. Their temples can be dedicated to Neptune, Vulcan or Saturn. They have access to Mirmillo Gladiators, and the Temple of Neptune, when upgraded, ultimately gives access to special ships, such as Corvus Quinqueremes.
If the Senate faction is manually unlocked and played by a human player, its role in Roman policy is ignored. Senate missions no longer exist, there are no Senate officers, and there is no Senate or popular standing. If the player attempts to go to the Senate screen, which normally tells Roman factions about these four things, the game crashes.
Historical inaccuracy
The three playable Roman factions are named after three of the most famous Romans, Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus, and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. There were no "Scipii" or "Brutii" families. Both were cognomina- a third name that labeled one as a member of a specific family within a larger clan. The family of Marcus Junius Brutus would have been the "Junii", while Scipio Africanus would have belonged to the "Cornelii." (NOTE: Sometimes a family had also been named after the cognomen of a famous family member. For example, the form "Scipiadae" would be plausible (cf. Vergilius Aeneis VI. 843). Using the form Brutii and Scipii also proves the developer's lack of Latin language knowledge, see below.) This stratification into specific families is difficult, however, since during the Republic there were so few noble Roman families, and they were constantly intermarrying. See Roman Naming Convention for more information.
The three-faction Roman system in the game is entirely ahistorical. In fact, the Roman Republic was ruled exclusively by the Senate (which had substantially more power than is reflected in the game) and the various assemblies. Individual families might rule small provinces, but expansions to the empire would have been assigned to new governors, not left to the generals who conquered them. Generals, too, were selected by the Senate and assemblies, and the roles of governorship and generalship were not as conflated as they are in the game. There were cases where influential politicians such as Julius Caesar could quite possibly serve as both generals and governors, but they would only occur during the later Republic.
The primary reason for the three-faction system is to simulate the civil war that ultimately resulted in the end of the Roman Republic. Furthermore, while the Julii may hypothetically be correctly said to be Imperialists because Julius Caesar became the first dictator perpetuus, the precursor to the modern understanding of Roman Emperor (which his successor, Augustus Caesar, would assume), Brutus was thoroughly Republican and is in fact famous for having killed Julius Caesar after he was granted absolute power through the office of dictator perpetuus by the Senate; theoretically speaking, the family of Brutus would not have imperial ambitions.
In addition, although perhaps more trivially, the names are declined incorrectly. While the plural of Julius is indeed Julii, the plural of Brutus is Bruti, not Brutii. Likewise, the plural of Scipio is Scipiones, instead of Scipii.
Many of the units are ahistorical as well. For example, the Urban Cohorts are depicted as the highest elite of the Roman Army, but in fact were a combined fire brigade and night watch. The arcani were a group of agents provocateurs and spies, rather than the heavily armoured pseudo-ninjas they are portrayed as in the game.
The Romans are not the only factions with ahistorical units. Druids, like those used in-game by the Barbarians, were in fact excused from military service in Celtic culture, being vital to the operation of organized village life. A totally invented unit is the British Head Hurlers, who hurl decapitated heads coated in quicklime. Severed heads were a valuable trophy in Celtic culture, and would never have been used as ammunition. The phalanx formation which the Germans employ in the game is also ahistorical, since Roman authors are emphatic that the only military formation employed by the Germani was the wedge, and the idea of pikes as Germanic weapons is contradicted by archaeology as well as Tacitus (Germania Ch.6). Some units, such as wardogs and flaming pigs, were used, but never to anything like the extent depicted.
Barbarian factions
Barbarian factions have certain unique disadvantages and advantages. Unlike most "civilized" factions, they can't build stone walls nor any roads more sophisticated than dirt paths, which inhibits their strategic movement. More importantly, their technology is limited to only three city levels, as opposed to five for civilized factions, thus they tend to achieve their most advanced units quickly. Though barbarian armies are naturally disorganized, barbarian soldiers are superior fighters compared to the soldiers of other factions.
- Gaul (playable) starts out with a very large territory mainly in modern France, northern Italy and part of Spain. The Gauls have good swordsmen and archers, but little cavalry.
- Britannia (playable) starts out in control of the British Isles, with a considerable foothold in the form of Belgica in mainland Europe. Its available units include chariots, as well as frenzied swordsmen covered in intricate woad patterns, and units that hurl severed human heads covered in quicklime to demoralize enemies.
- Germania (playable) begins to the northeast of Gaul and the east of Britannia, in what today would be considered the Netherlands and northern Germany. Germanic forces include strong but wild infantry, including the only barbarian unit able to perform the phalanx formation, and a few different units of axemen, who are especially effective when fighting armored units (such as Roman infantry).
- Spain (non-playable) begins on the Iberian peninsula, and represents the Iberian tribes who fought against the Gauls and Carthaginians, and later resisted Rome. They have solid infantry units, including units which throw javelins prior to a charge, and others which are similar to Carthaginian units; but they have relatively few cavalry and ranged units.
- Dacia (non-playable) relies mainly on heavy infantry, notably the superior falx-wielding troops available early on in the game. They are located in eastern Europe around modern Romania.
- Scythia (non-playable) is overwhelmingly composed of horse archers. Historically, the Scythians were a small tribe by the time of the game's start, and the Sarmatians had largely taken over the steppes. Sarmatians do, however, appear in the form of heavy cavalry mercenaries. The Scythians control an extensive territory in Eastern Europe, corresponding roughly to modern Ukraine and the surrounding area.
Hellenic factions
The Hellenic factions are located mainly in the Balkan peninsula and around Anatolia. Hellenic armies tend to focus on extremely strong infantry which utilize the phalanx formation at the expense of cavalry and other forms of infantry.
- The Greek Cities (playable) start with a handful of colonies scattered around the Mediterranean and Aegean. Its troop selection consists of hoplites along with relatively weak cavalry and ranged units (although they are within a short distance of Crete, which provides excellent archers). Historically, the Greek cities were not unified in any sort of single state, although many were allied with each other.
- The armies of Macedon (non-playable) focus largely on the Macedonian phalanx and shock cavalry, including the Companion cavalry led by Alexander the Great. However, due to certain bugs with the game's handling of charging units, the Companion Cavalry is not as powerful as was originally intended to be. Macedon begins with territories in what is today Greece.
- The Seleucid Empire's (playable) main force is similar to that of the Macedonians, containing the same powerful Macedonian phalangites and shock cavalry (including Companion Cavalry). However, its armies can also contain hoplites, scythe-armed chariots, war elephants, cataphracts, and Roman-style legionaries, giving it the most diverse troop selection in the game. The Seleucid Empire encompasses a strip of territory running from the Aegean coast to Mesopotamia.
- Thrace (non-playable) is a Greco-Barbarian faction, with both Greek and Barbarian troops; they begin the game north of modern Greece, along the western coast of the Black Sea. Perhaps the strongest Thracian troops are Falxmen, who wield the rhomphaia or falx, however, the Thracians also have access to powerful phalanx infantry. Like both the Greeks and Barbarians in general, Thrace has little in the way of cavalry.
Carthaginian factions
The Carthaginian factions are found in northern Africa, led by Carthage. Their armies tend to rely on speedy but good cavalry and various types of infantry of varying quality.
- Carthage (playable) has a variety of units which include a good mixture of infantry, high quality cavalry and powerful elephants, but a poor selection of ranged troops, including a notable lack of archers. They begin with territory in modern Tunisia and the surrounding area, along with colonies in southern Spain, Sicily and Sardinia.
- Numidia (non-playable) has speedy javelin-throwing light cavalry and other javelin-based units, as well as some light spear-armed infantry and their own legionaries. Their small kingdom lies west of Carthage's African lands.
Eastern factions
The Eastern factions represent the major states of the Middle East not ruled by the Diadochi (Hellenistic successor states). Their armies tend to heavily rely on high quality cavalry, and sometimes evince some Greek influence due to Alexander's recent conquest of the area (which occurred some 50 years prior to the start of the game).
- Parthia's (playable) specialty lies with mounted units, particularly the fearsome cataphract-horse archer combination which often dominates multiplayer battles in Rome. While their cavalry is extremely powerful, they have virtually no infantry of value, which can make sieges difficult. Historically the Parthians inhabited central Asia east of the Caspian Sea; in Rome, they still do, but also start with territory north of the sea.
- Armenia (non-playable), like Parthia, focuses mainly on cavalry. Armenia is the only faction with cataphract archers and Eastern heavy infantry, the latter being capable of the Macedonian phalanx. They also have their own copies of Roman legionaries. Armenia, in the game, is located in the mountains of what is today eastern Turkey.
- Pontus' (non-playable) troops include fast-moving, javelin-armed cavalry as well as phalanx troops and chariots. Pontus begins with most of Anatolia.
Egyptian faction
Egypt's (playable) troops tend to be lightly armored due to the climate of the area. While historically the armies of Ptolemaic Egypt should be quite similar to those of the Greek factions (consisting mainly of phalanx troops), the game presents a more anachronistic Egyptian army consisting primarily of large units of bowmen, spearmen and various types of chariots. Egypt begins controlling Egypt and some of the coast of the eastern Mediterranean.
Miscellaneous
The Rebels are a unique faction. Rebels can be informally divided into three groupings based on how they operate on the campaign map: Brigands or Pirates, Deserters or Freed Slaves and Independent Kingdoms or Rebel Cities.
- Brigands and Pirates will attack and rob factions for money in one or more ways; Brigands will sit on roads, blocking trade there and ambushing armies that walk by. Pirates will attempt to cut sea-trade routes and blockade ports. Brigands and Pirates will grow in strength the longer they are allowed to operate unmolested, so it is usually a good idea to put them down as soon as they crop up, because stronger rebels or pirates will threaten larger targets, with some of the strongest rebel groups sometimes looting major cities, although such events as this happening are rather rare.
- Deserters or Freed Slaves are troops or slaves previously belonging to a faction which abandon their homes, subtracting from the total population of civilians or soldiers living in a given city. They tend to hide out in the countryside and do not usually rob factions for money, although this is not a rule. Freed slaves usually consist of large numbers of peasant units, along with some basic non-military or quasi-military fighting units such as gladiators or town-watchmen. Deserters tend to be more dangerous and well-organized, with many professional military units; they move in formation and are not quick to flee or back down when threatened; sometimes Deserters may have a Rebel General with them, a non-faction member military leader, and when one is present, Deserter armies tend to be much larger and much more dangerous, sometimes attempting to burn cities.
- Independent Kingdoms or Rebel Cities are Rebel-faction cities, and the only two differences between them are their origin and their military capabilities. Independent kingdoms are independent, non-faction cities which have existed independently since the beginning of the game and have never been conquered; they usually have some very basic military units like Militia Hoplites or Town Watch, although if left unconquered, they may grow and develop a stronger military presence. Examples of Independent Kingdoms are Athens, Petra in Sinai, and Tara, a town in Hibernia (Ireland). Rebel cities, on the other hand, are cities which once were run by a faction, but which have revolted and come under their own management.
- Amazon Rebels are exclusively situated in the province of Hyperboria, which, in the game, is located far to the north (in what is now Russia) and is difficult to reach due to intervening terrain. They have their own very powerful unique units, including Amazon chariots and gigantic war elephants called "Yubsteb elephants".
- The Gladiator Uprising are units independent of region/location and may appear in revolting settlements that have an Arena or above. Gladiator Uprising armies are comprised mainly of gladiator units and are noticeably more difficult to defeat in comparison with standard Rebel armies.
- Note that all civilized factions can build paved roads, but only Roman factions can build highways.
Reviews and awards
Rome: Total War has been critically acclaimed by many reviewers and is generally regarded as one of the best strategy games of 2004, winning numerous awards and high scores from both gaming websites and magazines alike.
- PC Gamer(UK): All time 2nd best PC game "95%"
- IGN: Editor's Choice Award
- PC Gamer(US): Editor's Choice, Best Strategy Game of 2004
- GameSpot: Editor's Choice, Strategy Game of 2004
- Adrenaline Vault: Seal of Excellence
- GameSpy: Editor's Choice
- E3 2003 Game Critics Awards: Best Strategy Game
Music
The original music soundtrack for the game was composed by Jeff van Dyck, who received a BAFTA (British Academy) Interactive Awards nomination for his work. His wife Angela van Dyck features in some of the vocals; Angela also wrote the lyrics for the song Divinitus, whose lyrics are in Latin. The game's most notable collaboration between Jeff and Angela van Dyck is the song Forever, which plays while the game's credits are rolling. Forever was originally meant to be the game's main menu song.
See also
Expansions
Barbarian Invasion
- See main article Rome Total War: Barbarian Invasion
Barbarian Invasion was the first expansion pack for Rome Total War. It was released on Sep 30, 2005. It allowed the player to take part in the fall of the Roman Empire, and the events which came after it. There were also alot of new features in the game such as general loyalty, hordes & sacking cities. It was also commended for the fact that it did not have any unlockable factions, all the playable factions were availiable from the start.
"Alexander" expansion
The Alexander expansion puts the player in the role of Alexander the Great himself. It begins with Alexander's ascension to the Macedonian throne in 336 B.C.; it lasts for 100 turns, each of which, unlike the original game and Barbarian Invasion, do not represent six months (assuming it follows Alexander's actual reign of thirteen years, each turn would represent nearly seven weeks). The game is much the same as the original Rome, but with fewer factions, different units and a different map. The player's goal is to conquer 30 provinces, including key cities such as Tyre, Halicarnassus and Babylon, within the 100 turn limit.
There are only four factions in Alexander. Of these, only one, Macedon, is playable in the campaign mode. There are also Rebels, who fulfill the same role as the Rebels in the original version and Barbarian Invasion. The four factions are:
- Macedon: Macedon begins with most of Greece under its control. The army is similar to that of Macedon in the original game, consisting of various hoplites and phalanges, and powerful cavalry, including the Companions; the army lacks archer units, although it can field javelin-throwing units. Macedon also has a unique unit representing Alexander's personal unit of elite Companion cavalry led by the king himself. Unlike Rome and Barbarian Invasion, if the player's king is killed, the campaign ends in defeat.
- Persia: The Persian army of Darius III is made up of a variety of troops, from poorly equipped masses of infantry and archers, to quality cavalry and elite units like the Immortals (also known as "Apple-bearers", from the apple-shaped ornaments on their spears), as well as mercenaries from Greece and Phrygia. The army also has access to chariots, which the Persian generals also ride. The Persian Empire of the Achaemenid dynasty is vast, controlling all of Anatolia, Egypt, modern day Iraq and Iran, and even as far east as western India- and everything in between.
- Dahae: Representing neighbouring, barbarian peoples like the Illyrians, Thracians, Sarmatians and Scythians, as well as independent cities like Byzantium. They are similar to the barbarian factions in the original game; their armies consist of large groups of poorly equipped warriors, including warriors wielding scythe-like swords. They control various territories on the northern edges of the map.
- India: Far from being a unified nation-state, the Indian kingdoms were nonetheless capable of sending awe-inspiring armies into the battlefield. Their armies consist of large units of lightly armored troops, chariots and painted war elephants. The Indians do not appear in the single-player campaign.
Criticism of Rome Total War
Historical inaccuracy
While no computer game can claim to be entirely historically accurate many within the established Total War fanbase took issue with some of the blatant historical inaccuracies in Rome: Total War'. Criticisms range from the obvious mistakes to the downright picky (certain players have complained about such things as small differences in the names of provinces or tiny deviations in armor or helmets). Some fans stipulated that the Creative Assembly was attempting to sacrifice historical accuracy to reach a wider market of gamers, and others accused the company of sacrificing strategic and tactical depth for eye candy and bigger battles to reach out to the gaming masses. The game, however, was never marketed as being edutainment.
The major faction inaccuracies presented by the community stem from the portrayal of the Roman Republic as consisting of four separate political and military bodies, the New Kingdom style of the Egyptian units and buildings, and the unification of the barbarian tribes and the "Greek Cities" into single entities with one ruler as opposed to separate tribes or at most a loose alliance. In fact, Rome was more unified than any of the other factions portrayed in the game and certainly more centralized than the Gallic tribes or Greek city states. The Egyptians were a coherent faction during the time period of the game, but their armies would have been outfitted much like the Seleucid or Macedonian forces, owing to the Ptolemaic dynasty's descendancy from the Macedonian generals of Alexander the Great. Although the ruler was still referred to as Pharaoh, the Zulu-like Nubian Spearmen and the New Kingdom headdresses of the Nile Spearmen would have been considered anachronisms on the battlefields of the day, while chariots had disappeared from the battlefields of Egypt some 1,000 years before.
Certain units have also been criticized for being too fantastic and geared towards the younger RTS demographic as opposed to the traditional fanbase of Medieval: Total War and Shogun: Total War. "Incendiary pigs", for example, were indeed used to counter elephant troops, but it is grossly inaccurate to suggest that an entire unit was trained for that purpose; the only recorded use of such a tactic was by the defenders of Megara during the Wars of the Diadochi (see for example Aelian, de Natura Animalium book XVI, ch. 36). As mentioned above, eyebrows were raised over the inclusion of "Head Hurlers" as actual British ranged troops, Arcani as groups of elite, ninja-like fighters and the "Urban Cohort" (who in reality were just a combined night watch and fire brigade in Rome) as a superior force to the Praetorian Guard in terms of fighting skill. The impeccable organization of the German "Spear Warband" (a unit that can form a phalanx) also stirred a bit of protest from accuracy-minded gamers and history buffs.
The two main mods for Rome, Rome: Total Realism and Europa Barbarorum, dealt with a number of these issues and historical inaccuracies. Changes included the removal of the Brutii and Scipii factions from the game completely, unifying the Italian peninsula under a single faction, "Rome." Patches were released to increase the number of provinces and cities, to remove certain ahistorical units and to modify existing units to look more realistic; for example, the Egyptian army has been completely revamped, and is now quite similar to the Seleucid and Macedonian armies, rather than the previous pharonic armies. The names of some other units were changed to promote both realism and variance (for example, "Greek Archers" were changed to "Toxotes").
Gameplay
Units
Aside from historical inaccuracy, there were other criticisms of the units in Rome: Total War. One of them was the fact that all the members of one unit type looked exactly the same. They also all moved in the same way and stood in the same way. This received some critical responses. koll
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Siege
During a siege, many of the pieces of equipment (siege towers, battering rams, ladders & sap points) were not used properly by the units in the game. For instance - a unit of men would bunch up and get stuck at the bottom of a seige tower, and be completely unable to move, easy targets for enemy archers. This problem was fixed in patch 1.5. Also, the AI was criticized for its stupidity when using catapults in a siege - it would continue to fire catapults with flaming ammunition into a city even when its own men walked the streets, making it liable for them to be hit and killed.
AI
The enemy AI was criticized as being too basic. This was because it wouldn't take advantage of terrain and it would fall for easy traps. This however has been improved by patches, but is still not perfect.
