Preview: The Romani

[antisocialmunky]

Cool, those faces are perfect. Its nice to have a more realistic beefy looking guy rather than those 10 head tall ideal model RTW ones.

Can't wait for a HD video(If you need to fraps any massive 3v3 huge battles on the highest quality graphics for a upcomning preview, I'll be happy to do it for you.) :-D

BTW - is there a name for the celtic sword?

[darius_d]

The Equites Romani (Camilian):

I have nothing against unit cards to be composed in a fashion similar to this one. This gesture of him holding the helment in hand and his head uncovered - rocks.

[Phalanx300]

I have nothing against unit cards to be composed in a fashion similar to this one. This gesture of him holding the helment in hand and his head uncovered - rocks.

The unit cards are also going to be with them standing on a piece of land, like Sweboz units standing in the snow.

And yeah, a unit standing like that or marching would look great on a unit card.

[Skullheadhq]

Yeah, Is that possible, Soldiers marching on the unit card?

[XSamatan]

Great Models and city pics!! CA should hire you (but AFTER you finished EB II!!!)

Some questions to the elections:

1. as mentiond above, there are thoughts to increase movement for candidates, as it could be very enerving to move your FM anytime to Rome and have due to this a lack of offensive power at the frontier. Can you go in detail here?

2. Historically, in times of great need the Romans elected a "dictator", could that be integrated? (Maybe with triggers like, so and so many cities besieged, some FM died in battle or lost battles in the last round)

3. With the end of the 2.century BC and the upcoming of marius and the "Gracchen", it came common to elect people even if they were not in Rome (Sulla and Ceasar as example) Would an implemention screw up the rest? Or maybe implement it after Rome became a superpower?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

4.at last:
I want to play NOW!!!!

[Ca Putt]

wow that's one great shot, and extra credit for the face, he really looks very roman although he wears a lino thorax.

[-Praetor-]

First post updated with the correct answers and the prize.

[Atilius]

1. as mentiond above, there are thoughts to increase movement for candidates, as it could be very enerving to move your FM anytime to Rome and have due to this a lack of offensive power at the frontier. Can you go in detail here?

There are no plans to increase the movement points of candidates for office. We are considering raising movement points for newly-elected consuls.

2. Historically, in times of great need the Romans elected a "dictator", could that be integrated?

We've considered this, but it was very rare for a dictator to be appointed (they were not elected) to army commands in our time period. There are only three cases from 272 BC to 216 BC: in 249 (A. Atilius Calatinus), 217 (Q. Fabius Maximus), and 216 (M. Iunius Pera). The office was not filled again until Sulla forced the Senate to give it to him in 82 BC. Because of the short term of office, and the fact that the player is very unlikely to find himself in such a desperate position as the Romans were in 217 and 216, there really is very little point to creating such an office in EB2. We still may find a use for it if Italy is under serious threat or during the period of the civil wars.

3. With the end of the 2.century BC and the upcoming of marius and the "Gracchen", it came common to elect people even if they were not in Rome (Sulla and Ceasar as example)

Election of consuls who were not present in Rome was never common. Sulla held the office twice (88 and 80 BC) and was in Rome for elections both times. Caesar was most certainly in Rome when elected to his first term as consul in 59 BC. I'm less certain where he was immediately before his remaining 4 terms (48, 46, 45, and 44 BC), but after returning from Gaul in 48 BC his control over the Roman state was absolute and the fact that he held the office was a formality.

Consuls were occasionally elected while absent from Rome. However, it happened most often during the 2nd Punic war (with Italy under threat) when a candidate currently leading an army could not be spared without endangering the conduct of the war.

Our election mechanics can't take into account every unusual situation that took place over almost 3 centuries. We've tailored the system to faithfully reproduce Roman elections in normal operation.

[Hax]

And these are only the Camillans. Imagine, imagine...

[antisocialmunky]

The face looks familiar. Did you use an actor as a facial ref?

[Phalanx300]

And these are only the Camillans. Imagine, imagine...

Yes, the Polybian will probably be with less Greek oriented designs. Not sure which one of the two I will like more though, I prefer them both with the legionairies.

[moonburn]

pretty amazing

[joten555]

Was the face based on M A Agrippa's, or T F Vespasian's? It looks familiar, like an actor's, but I can not remember where I have seen it.

Great Job.

[Cartaphilus]

Awesome preview as usual.

The office system will be a great thing, and make a roman campaign more interesting yet.

[darius_d]

2. Historically, in times of great need the Romans elected a "dictator", could that be integrated?

We've considered this, but it was very rare for a dictator to be appointed (they were not elected) to army commands in our time period. There are only three cases from 272 BC to 216 BC: in 249 (A. Atilius Calatinus), 217 (Q. Fabius Maximus), and 216 (M. Iunius Pera). The office was not filled again until Sulla forced the Senate to give it to him in 82 BC. Because of the short term of office, and the fact that the player is very unlikely to find himself in such a desperate position as the Romans were in 217 and 216, there really is very little point to creating such an office in EB2. We still may find a use for it if Italy is under serious threat or during the period of the civil wars.

I strongly support dictator being available, it was a very important instrument of roman power system. EB is all about alternative history after all. Any succesful invasion in Italy would miss sth special without dictator taking over Rome's power.

[antisocialmunky]

I strongly support dictator being available, it was a very important instrument of roman power system. EB is all about alternative history after all. Any succesful invasion in Italy would miss sth special without dictator taking over Rome's power.

This. It would also be nice to do something for post Marian so the instability of the late republic can be simmed with people trying to seize power. Perhaps if an Ambitious character becomes dictator, you can have an option of not giving it up and causing severe loyalty problems with FMs that have different politics. Would be nice to figure out a way to cause mass rebels like spawning rebel diplomats and giving them 1 billion mnai.

[Skullheadhq]

This. It would also be nice to do something for post Marian so the instability of the late republic can be simmed with people trying to seize power. Perhaps if an Ambitious character becomes dictator, you can have an option of not giving it up and causing severe loyalty problems with FMs that have different politics. Would be nice to figure out a way to cause mass rebels like spawning rebel diplomats and giving them 1 billion mnai.

With a bodyguard of 24 lictores

[miotas]

there are thoughts to increase movement for candidates, as it could be very enerving to move your FM anytime to Rome and have due to this a lack of offensive power at the frontier.

We could move our FM's straight to rome using the move character cheat. In M2TW you can type "this" instead of "charcter name" to indicate the selected character rather than trying to get the proper name to work.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Don't shoot, it's just a suggestion

[antisocialmunky]

Fulsi mihi sursum, Scotty?

[Celtic_Punk]

I may actually play the Romani now! THANKS EB!

[Martelus Flavius]

The face looks familiar. Did you use an actor as a facial ref?

No, I did not! ;-) It is the most aged face, and probably the most "roman looking" of the whole Equites.

Yes, the Polybian will probably be with less Greek oriented designs. Not sure which one of the two I will like more though, I prefer them both with the legionairies.

Actually, this is very likely that some of the Polybians still have a greek equipment, especially in the higher "class" soldiers. But in the overhall they will be more "Celtic-Influenced". (Which means I'll have to learn to skin mail chain... )

Concerning the units cards... Hum well, you'll see by yourself!

And thanks! Glad you like the guy!

Regards

Martel

[APX]

Looks amazing! But I hope the strat map models aren't too high poly...

[Iskander 3.1]

Wow, this made my day. Keep up the great work, gentlemen

[CaesarAugustus]

Another preview!! I am looking forward to playing the new and improved Romani in EB2, but am a little concerned about the distances to be traveled to get certain offices (included those needed to have imperium)... it seems that generals will spend more time traversing the map than fighting. That being said, I have complete faith in the team and understand that this has probably all been worked out in beta testing already, so keep up the good work!! :) And thank you for the regular previews, as the previous poster said, this made my day

Oh and a question about the coloniae system, will the (limited) amount of coloniae be able to be established in any area, allowing for the recruit of Camillan and Polybian units outside of Italy?

[Macilrille]

Ye Gods...

Cursus Honorum actually happening!

Coloniae integrated...

Ooooohhhhh get it out NOW!!!

If you need help with Sweboz, I might be able to provide some.

[Atilius]

will the (limited) amount of coloniae be able to be established in any area, allowing for the recruit of Camillan and Polybian units outside of Italy?

There are no plans to restrict the construction of coloniae to Italy, though the Romans founded none outside that area until the late 2nd century BC.

[Cartaphilus]

Maybe it's possible to limit the coloniae to Italia till the 2nd century.

[Elzeda]

Or until a certain reform, as it is right now in EB1 for MICs.

[bovi]

Both of these are possible I believe.

[Antonivs Silvicola]

This looks absolutely amazing! Having to be present in Roma for election to certain offices is a great step toward more realism. I will be getting a new ultra computer early next year so I cannot wait for this to come out. Keep up the wonderful work EB team. Major kudos!