Campaign Idea

[quadalpha]

As a quick example, off the top of my head, let's say you start as a minor landholder under Roman rule. You have smithy skills and one of your neighbors is a shipping mandate, and another has extensive farm holdings. You set up trade with those holdings, with the express intent of taking them over at some point. So the beginning of your campaign is rather quiet while you build up your army(s) and acquire money to finance a war. Your faction leader (and let's have a young man this time instead of one that's ready to croak) has certain traits or skills that help (or hinder) your ambitions and he can acquire new ones as the campaign progresses. At some point you begin to attract the attention of the Senate (can be both good and bad), and so the intrigue deepens. Bribery, assassination, and all of those kinds of things that went on are afoot. Perhaps you seek marriage into a powerful political family...thereby raising your faction's strength and prestige, etc.......

I do agree there is a great potential for more role-playing and more depth to the characters, but I think it would have to be done carefully and within, more or less, the current Total War framework. It's a question of game design and the perspective from which the game is played. Currently, the game is played from the perspective of a nebulous 'guiding spirit' of a faction, and it makes sense to spend money to recruit troops and build things. That can be abstracted easily. But as soon as you change the perspective to that of a family, then you have to consider if it's historically plausible. If your game is set in mediaeval Europe and your man is a minor feudal lord, then it would make perfect sense to spend money for your own troops, or, better, to spend money to increase your levy pool (see Crusader Kings). If your game is set in republican Rome, then it wouldn't make much sense, and it would make more sense if you had a mechanic to actually simulate the politics and business side (which you did suggest). The problem that arises then is how to incorporate this into the current game, and how to make the smaller scale business side relevant when you have control of a large empire. Personally, I think the closer focus on a family is a better fit for a game set in a feudal system, and I'd love to see a cross between Crusader Kings and Total War

Perhaps this thread can be turned to more constructive uses. How would you increase the depth of the campaign game while keeping in mind CA's stated objective of reducing late-game micromanagement?