Wrath of Sparta! impressions and discussion

[Myth]

Got it last night. I was thinking $15 was too pricey, but then again, i spent that exact amount on lunch with a female colleague just that day. So why not?

My overall impression is good. The map is smaller but somehow I found it more immersive than Rome 2 standard. Perhaps it was the long break I took from the game, but somehow the sounds of everyday life we hear from here and there, the changing of seasons (1 turn = 1 month), the flavour text, they all fit. Ancient Greece comes alive before your eyes and it just feels so good. Upon clickng on a settlement for the first time we get historical information about it from the advisor. Now that's something that makes it even better for me.

I don't even need to lead battles to enjoy it, the strategic and diplomatic aspects of the game are what I enjoy most anyway. I didn't have much time to play, but I do have a gripe with it. Athenai has been set up as this garand "villain" of sorts. Having direct ownership over some key settlements, it is pretty much stated that we need to make leagues and allies and coallitions and whatnot to try and contest their hegemony, particualrly their incredible navy.

I was like "OK, so here's the plan. Make a fleet, make a land army of elite units, sail for Athens, capture outlying settlements, go for the Coup-de-Grace and capture Athens."

I went for a tier 3 barracks which was completely unecessary, since I can recruit Spartan Hoplites and Helot Archers from a tier 2 one. I did make a big fleet. FYI fleets offer a lot more value in this campaign as I'd say 70% of the settlements are coastal. The low movement speed and horrid combat stats of transports also play a key role in incrasing the value of warships.

Anyway, by the time I was ready to go and fight my arch nemessis for the dominance of Hellas, the Ionian Leage had gutted them. Lol. I found a starving Ionian army in Athens. I conqured some settlements with my fleet and then got oblitherated by two stacks of ships from an enemy coallition I had paid no heed to at all. My land army was stuck somewhere around Athens due to losing a lot of movement points embarking and while at sea (which is a good thing IMO, I still remember how stupid it felt at Rome 2 release when my legions could basically walk from Rome to Carthage at no extra movement cost)

Anyway, it is then when I had to stop because it was already 3 AM, and I will start a new game and have plenty of time to play during the holidays.

But please CA, when you set up this grand conflict between major players in the region, make sure they are actually powerful. This reeks of 1 province African minors destroying Egypt and Carthage in the main campaign.

And why was the Ionian league starving? It had 6 or so settlements!

As a side note, this campaign will make for a killer sucession game.

[hoom]

Honga.net has the unit stats up.


Basically only a few unique units for Sparta, unique Persia roster, Thrace very Thracian.
The other Greek factions have exactly same roster except for only 1 unit in the other 3 playable factions.

All the Greek factions get:
Picked Hoplites (Royal Spartans for Sparta) for General

Archer
Javelin
Slinger
(Helot variants for Sparta)

Heavy cav
Light cav
(+Theban cav for Boiotians)

Picked Hoplites (Royal Spartans)
Hoplites (Spartan Hoplites)
Light Hoplites (Periokoi Hoplites?)
Militia Hoplites (Skiritai & Spartan Youths?)

Armored Marine Trireme for Admiral (Spartan Marines for Sparta)
Archer Triremes
Javelin Triremes
Light Marine Triremes
Armored Marine Triremes
(Sparta only gets Spartan Marines Trireme & Archer Diere)


Same group of Mercanaries available everywhere
Agranian Axes
Rhodian Slingers
Cretan Archers
Thracian Peltasts
Ionian Cav


So not much in the way of variety in unit types.
Which is pretty much correct historically by my understanding.

But kinda boring as hell which is why I've always been pretty luke warm on the idea of Peloponnesian War as a Total War setting.

I had really expected them to manage a bit more unit variety than this.
Might be good/new skin variety & I haven't actually compared stats so it could be that there is variance in quality between factions?


Map looks to be more complex than the previews seemed to indicate, most of the islands are separate regions.
Persia has quite a lot of land on Asia Minor, as does Ionian League.
Could be interesting how they play out, whether passive or aggressively involved & how much scripting of Diplomatic status between the Greek factions goes on.

[Myth]

The map is strategically challenging due to the way movement points work. The Ionians are the hidden power of the region, similar to RTW launch Adriaei.

[Hooahguy]

Myth, how is the unit variety to your liking? I know there are a lot of complaints about this and I imagine that its a quick fix using mods, but what are your opinions on it?

[Sp4]

Poke poke poke poke.. row, row, poke poke... You'd think someone back then figured out something that works better against masses of spear armed people than... n+1 people armed with spears.

[Slaists]

Poke poke poke poke.. row, row, poke poke... You'd think someone back then figured out something that works better against masses of spear armed people than... n+1 people armed with spears.

n + 2 people armed with spears ;)

[Myth]

Myth, how is the unit variety to your liking? I know there are a lot of complaints about this and I imagine that its a quick fix using mods, but what are your opinions on it?

I haven't built all buildings yet. Got a visitor so I won't be able to play until Saturday/Sunday. I would say it is lower than R2TW standard overall, but Sparta has decent cavalry now so the fation itself has been made more diverse. I want to see if Royal Spartans have a limit on max unit numbers. Also I haven't seen if Heroes of Sparta are in the game.

[Veho Nex]

What this campaign really needed was more factions on release. I think with the zoomed in campaign map you could have some intense head to head campaigns with friends/foes. With only four factions, and ones that are all neighbors, to choose from it gets kinda boring fast. The campaign had some serious potential. I think they could have added unit variety by including "hero" or just named units for the factions as well having the ability to turn units into heroes for their actions on the field. I think that kind of setup would have worked perfectly for this campaign.