First Impressions

[Jacque Schtrapp]

Obviously there is a lot of work left to do in order to get the game up to the high standards we all have. I'll just share some of the more odd things I've seen so far in my Roman Normal campaign 150ish turns in:

Carthage lost Alalia to the Italian Rebels, then blockaded their port for 100+ turns. If someone else blockades a port, you apparently cannot siege the associated city and capture it.... even when you ally with the blockading faction (Carthage allied with Rome, I know, I know). Even after Carthage was eliminated on land, there was still that lonely Carthaginian fleet dedicated to blockading those dastardly Italian Rebels.

Sparta hates the Delmatae. Hates. In fact, Sparta hates them so much, they've sent the worlds first 20 stack against the Delmatae which has sat beside their city for nearly 100 turns. Just to be certain they had the most lopsided victory in history, Sparta sent three full fleets as reinforcements. Don't bother with silly things like a blockade. I like to think their daily conversations went like this: "Good night, Delmatae. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning." ~ Sparta.

Instead of a flood of single spear unit armies marching everywhere, we now have a flood of armies compromised of just a general. It seems every faction, including the single province factions, recruit the maximum number of generals available at all times, even if they have no units to go along with the general. The they march those general units everywhere.

Where are the large armies at? I've begun auto-resolving battles because I've only had two encounters in 150ish turns where the enemy had enough units that I didn't have a 90% + chance of winning through auto-resolve. Most armies are 10 units or less, often of poor quality (especially barbarians).

I'm sure it is explained somewhere, but what is with clouds swirling around fleet, armies that appear shrouded in green or red mist, and cities that have a hammer over them when there is nothing to build, upgrade, or repair?

Unless there is some trick I haven't figured out yet, enjoy the never ending hunt for the general, admiral, spy, champion, diplomat, whatever that just leveled up and spawned the "Are you sure you want to end turn without promoting, backslapping, huzzah-ing <hard to find idiot's name here>?"

In the early game, you will struggle with food and money. In the late game, you will struggle with happiness. And it won't matter. Every region of my empire is at or near max unhappiness, despite building and researching every positive order tech/building/unit in the game. I get 1-2 rebellions or slave revolts every turn. Rebellions usually consist of 5 or so weak units that are simply annihilated by whoever is close at hand. And I literally mean whoever. All of my allies and factions with whom I've agreed to military access have sent their troops to the areas where I am having rebellions. In fact, even Sparta, will trespass onto my territory, defeat a rebel army, and re-embark leaving me to try and figure out why I'm getting a trespass message about a Spartan fleet well outside my territorial waters (I caught them and another faction actually trespassing to get at the rebels a few turns later). The AI factions evidently H A T E rebels with a passion.

I do not understand the political functions at all. In the beginning, I had to deal with numerous intrigues and plots. Lately... nothing.... for over 50 turns. At present, my sole family member has enough odd traits to reduce his gravitas to zero and I still have a 73% approval rating. Other factions with leaders who have gravitas in the 20s have dropped from the teens to single digit approval. I have 5 armies and six fleets, only one of which has the family scion and dunce leading it and yet my popularity soars. Real life politicians everywhere will be closely monitoring Rome II TW in order to find out how to accomplish this feat.

The diplomacy feature is wonderfully beefed up. You can form real, that's right, R E A L alliances and your massive behemoth of an empire will not get stabbed in the back 2 turns later by single province faction XXXXii. It still has it's quirks though. A dozen turns after meeting the powerful Seleucids, they tried to sell themselves to me as a client state. I refused and they tried again a few turns later. I've ended more than a few wars, where I was assisting an ally, by taking my ally's enemy on as a client state as part of the peace agreement. Big mistake. That simply begins the barrage of both the ally and client state asking me every couple of turns when I will pull my head out of the great beyond and assist them in making sweet sweet war upon their former foe. You will also get oodles of trade offers from factions on the far side of the world who would love to trade with you if only you honor them with 50% of your net worth (non-negotiable). Then there are the tribes on the Baltic Sea that want you to buy them as client states, or later in the game, try to give themselves to you for free as client states.

Lastly, major factions get murdered far too easily. Egypt died in the first 20 turns. Carthage, destroyed. Seleucids, annihilated despite having a dozen satrapies still in existence. Suebi, done for. All have re-emerged, but so far done nothing and usually get wiped out again. I can attest to that personally, Carthage is like a cockroach that you keep having to kill over and over again. The thing is, they lost to a handful of Iberian factions, most of which never had more than a couple of provinces.

Final Grade = Incomplete. Need improvement.