appreciating the little things in Europa Barbarorum

[fomalhaut]

what are the little touches that really make Europa Barbarorum stand out to you?

-I personally love the way the two handed spears are held by Lancers, resting on their shoulder like the tough fellows they are. I don't recall lancers using this stance in vanilla because i raised my eyebrows in 'cool' appreciation when i first saw Hetairoi.

-the HUGE distinction between levies, semi professionals, and professionals. Not just their statistical differences, but their aesthetics as well. Pandapatoi, Haploi, Akontistai and Lugoae really do look like what they are; artisans, fishermen, carpenters, etc. taking up arms for domestic defense. Essentially, the difference between Peltasts and Akontistai. In vanilla, all units seemed to kind of blend together into one big bland soup.

-The different themes! from the music to the GUI, each culture group really does feel distinct. I started a Pahlavan campaign and it honestly blew my mind! i had never played an eastern faction before, so the music at first made me literally say out loud "wow!". Just as i thought i heard and seen it all, EB throws me a curveball.

-the government systems! yes yes this is more of a big feature than a little things, but they are presented in a light that really do show their distinct advantages/dis gameplay wise, yet also are believable systems of government the respective faction would use even if the faction did not ever have a substantial empire. Just the huge amount of writing and minute change in every factions government systems is pretty astounding to me. Im just figuring out the Parthian government system as well, and its crazy cool!

[vollorix]

First of all - Roleplaying based on the EB character system - that´s actually the only thing that keeps me playing campaigns in a long terms.
Second - yes, the gouvernment system including the client rulers; it is bit too generalized, but in EB2 it´s gonna be more faction specific, and that will surely add even more depth into the game.
Third - the whole historical background; faction informations, unit descriptions, unique wonders, "the year in history", and generally the scripted events.
And, of course, there are those cool units you can play with ( and against ), and improved behaiviour of them on the battlefield due to the stats changes ( lethality, morale, etc. ).

[Skullheadhq]

The government system and of course the lorica segmentata which adds flavor to the Rhomaioi..

[Grimmy]

For me, it's the government system. I really like that. Also, the VnV system. I really enjoy working the care and feeding of my FM. It's like the sims, which I've never played, but with battles and slaughter, which I assume the sims dont have much of.

[moonburn]

well i must say initially the historical information

and eventually the client kings do make for an amazing way to play the game and they even make sence if you´re playing the lusitanii or a keltik faction and wanna make a kind of massive federation without "humilliating" the others

now if we could just tell merkel that she can´t assign client rullers to the european southern countries it would just be perfect :\

and ofc there´s all the litle tricks like proper cavarly micromanagement not the ubber tanks of before (even tough catraphacts are a pain in the buttocks)

[Ksifos]

The historic details is for me the most addictive element inside the game.
Second is the realism in the battles.Well the main RTW concepts are there, still the battles are more demanding in planning and less forgiving to mistakes.
Third the work in graphics design (units), macro-gameplay aspect (development models, building types), terrain redesign, etc.

Overall EB is what RTW franchise should offer as a historical mode campaign.

[fomalhaut]

If EB was its own franchise it would so easily overcome Total War that CA would be the team doing modding again. seriously and i truly mean that. what has CA done for the past few games... make things prettier? up the spec demands each game? I literally laughed when i played a bit of Empire, its sooo shallow and convuluted. lots of things happening=/=depth

[moonburn]

depends if those lots of things can be developed uppon and there´s a creative line of development behinde it or not

in eb i have one for each city/region since i´m a management and planing geek and the reason why i´m so pissed off about the inability to population management in mtw2 and the fallow ups (gotta love training those akontistai and move them around pity there´s no peasents training hability with 500 peasents move them to another city disband them and then the culture penalty would be diluted into oblivion)

[Ksifos]

Well it shouldn't be that hard for CA, but their goal I guess was to promote the fun side of the game.Pesonally I haven't touched ETW and even Shogun2 that played the demo, it's just not for me.
The work the EB team has done is BIG, and CA could take advantage of it.I dont think the team would mind if the developers would officially deploy their work inside the game.Yet it takes time, a lot.
And modern companies work under pressing deadlines, that's why most software comes out in premature condition and patches after patches follow.Only one company goes against this rule and every game it publishes becomes a massive hit - why dont they follow the example?

[moonburn]

when i bought mtw2 i had to buy a new pc so i´m not interested going into empire and napoleon or shogun2 until i can afford it properly