Player from way back with ?'s, please

**WebOfComplexity** · 07-14-2018, 20:11

Hi there. I used to play Medieval1 and Rome1 pretty heavily back in the day lol. I'm 36 now and have been doing a ton of other things in life since I last played but a link to a free month of WoW brought me back to updating my PC, looking to buy a new gaming laptop because this one's old, and next thing I know...I've played 4 battles of Arena:TW aleady and have a Level 3 Germanicus with all level 3 infantry lol. Since I last played this great series of Total War, I've played years of Chess. It's clearly already helping out tremendously.

My question is this: For someone like me who's laptop right now, according to "canirunit", is more than good enough for Rome 2 - Where would I start with the series if I'm really looking for a heavy strategic and tactical challenge on the campaign map and battlefield RTS map? I'll obviously start out getting crushed but that's what I'm looking for.

Is Rome 2 a good start? I'm confused by what's come after it, too with all of these Kingdoms games, etc. I'll have to dig into what era they cover, etc. I know there's nothing on the Medieval front since M2TW and the other era that interests me most is the one Rome covers. If I just purchase Rome 2: Emperor Edition, should this be enough to get me started and serve as a good launching point right now? I know there's a lot of pay content you can buy on top of these things, along with DLC, but I don't know where to find any of it after browsing trough the totalwar website itself.

Thanks in advance for any and all help. I'm really happy to see the series and this community still thriving like this. It's been SO long and yet it's almost as if nothing has changed and everything has gotten better at the same time.

**Nigel** · 07-15-2018, 20:38

Hello and wellcome back.

I am myself a "recently returned" old boy. I got back into the series with Attila, which uses essentially the same engine as Rome2 but apparently with improvements. I can't judge myself, as I never played Rome2 - only heard that Attila would be the better game. What I can say is that I am having a lot of fun with Attila and that it seems a good game for getting back into it. There are various DLC, but also free Mods. And if you like the historical era of Rome, there is a "First Triumvirate" mod, which basically takes Attila back to the times of Julius Cesar.

Hope this helps.

**WebOfComplexity** · 07-16-2018, 00:22

Originally Posted by Nigel

Hello and wellcome back.

I am myself a "recently returned" old boy. I got back into the series with Attila, which uses essentially the same engine as Rome2 but apparently with improvements. I can't judge myself, as I never played Rome2 - only heard that Attila would be the better game. What I can say is that I am having a lot of fun with Attila and that it seems a good game for getting back into it. There are various DLC, but also free Mods. And if you like the historical era of Rome, there is a "First Triumvirate" mod, which basically takes Attila back to the times of Julius Cesar.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply. I would probably be able to run Rome 2 maxed out (or near) whereas I couldn't with Attila. This, however, isn't really a big deal to me and if I get back into things enough I can always buy a $500-$700 gaming laptop that will run anything today.

I see that Attila's gameplay/engine is very similar to Total War: Arena. I don't see a forum for Arena here. Do you guys play that at all? I would imagine Attila is where all the TW multiplayer is centered right now, other than of course Arena?

**hoom** · 07-16-2018, 04:55

Wow, new blood! Welcome

For the record both Shogun1 & Medieval1 are now available on Steam, patched to run on modern OS & cheap for that full retro experience. (personally I prefer the old-style campaign map with the simultaneous turns over the sequential type since Rome1)

Medieval2:Kingdoms is mainly of use for running mods like Europa Barbarorum2, Third Age etc.

I believe if you're running Arena OK then Rome II should also run fine.

Yes basic game should be a good start, probably I wouldn't buy it at the full price they're apparently charging atm, but then I've been playing since it came out... (Steam says 1400hrs)

The available factions is a bit thin in the basic game but does cover the main areas, a few notable absences but a few interesting quirky ones.
What factions are you particularly keen to play?

Aside from Grand Campaign the Emperor Edition has the Emperor Augustus Campaign which is a good intro to the Campaigns (major point is they are 4turns per year -> your characters stick around longer -> get ample time to rank up to max, tend to die off mid-tier in Grand Campaign)

The ingame info got a lot better last couple of patches but this site https://www.honga.net/totalwar/rome2/ is still very good for exploring what units are available for a faction & what buildings you need to recruit them.

**WebOfComplexity** · 07-16-2018, 19:38

Originally Posted by hoom

Wow, new blood! Welcome

For the record both Shogun1 & Medieval1 are now available on Steam, patched to run on modern OS & cheap for that full retro experience. (personally I prefer the old-style campaign map with the simultaneous turns over the sequential type since Rome1)

Medieval2:Kingdoms is mainly of use for running mods like Europa Barbarorum2, Third Age etc.

I believe if you're running Arena OK then Rome II should also run fine.

Yes basic game should be a good start, probably I wouldn't buy it at the full price they're apparently charging atm, but then I've been playing since it came out... (Steam says 1400hrs)

The available factions is a bit thin in the basic game but does cover the main areas, a few notable absences but a few interesting quirky ones.
What factions are you particularly keen to play?

Aside from Grand Campaign the Emperor Edition has the Emperor Augustus Campaign which is a good intro to the Campaigns (major point is they are 4turns per year -> your characters stick around longer -> get ample time to rank up to max, tend to die off mid-tier in Grand Campaign)

The ingame info got a lot better last couple of patches but this site https://www.honga.net/totalwar/rome2/ is still very good for exploring what units are available for a faction & what buildings you need to recruit them.

1) As for Medieval classic: I'll definitely pick that up. I, too, love the depth and strategic realism of Medieval. This is still one of my favorite games of all time.

2) I may jump in and go right for Atilla alongside Arena here. I don't need to buy Rome 2 to play Attila do I? That said, I see Rome 2 has much more DLC and I do want to play it simply to cover them material. Are the battle map engines similar between the two games?

The R2 Augustus Campaign, as well as the main game, are the material that intrigues me most. I like the medieval era a lot but also like the age of expansion covered in Empire. I never played empire or napoleon so I'll have to catch up on them at some point, too. Isn't there a new Rome 2 expac coming in the fall?

As for Arena: This is getting very good reviews as of their most recent patch and I'm telling anyone here who hasn't played it yet: Don't do anything else today if possible except install + play that. It's amazing, IMO and will be around for a long time. 38 battles played, 60% wins, level 5 general and level 5 principes, soon to be all level 6. The guys in game are telling me that's about as fast as you can level and at one point my teams won 12 in a row lol. I'm having a ball and can't wait to get into some really epic battles against the AI in my own campaigns.

How hard is the Rome 2 main campaign and Augustus campaign, etc out on the battlefield?

edit: I'd have to assume my pc specs would be fine for Atilla. I keep turning up Arena's settings and am not having a glitch or hiccup whatsoever now that I've updated and tweaked my graphics drivers, settings, etc.

**WebOfComplexity** · 07-16-2018, 21:06

Oh: One other thing - Will Rome 2 and Atilla auto update/patch to the newest version for me upon install? Same with DLC - it will auto update? I guess this is through Steam?

Thanks again, guys.

edit, yet another: I forgot to talk about factions, troops. It would definitely be best for me to use Rome first, ideally northern armies if it breaks down that far. It's basically step 1, the main game off the bat, and is in line with what I'm doing with my Arena army. This will be a good way to familiarize myself with everything again and is also in line with my current playstyle. I had to "modernize" my infantry at one point yesterday because as I hit level 3+ on the tech tree, enemy missile/ranged started becoming devestating. I have a lot of speed, missile block, and other abilities tied to non melee defensive and positioning skills now. At the same time, the army is as it should be for backbone infantry: Flexible in that in can provide all different roles - Main attack, main defend, ambushes, capping the base, etc. I'll unlock Armored Legionaries later today but right now, I have fully decked out level 5 principies, and my general is one battle away from level 6. I'm itching to upgrade from Germanicus to Scipio Africanus but then I'd have to spend a few days bringing Scipio up from 1-6. I'll do that at some point but I'm having fun leveling right now and progressing. I've read that a lot of people stay at a certain level due to being comfortable there and not wanting to invoke high unit costs, etc but ...I am not finding progression challenging nor grindy right now. As an old school Medieval guy, I know that if the masses complain (just enough) that the game is too hard, too grindy, and too strategically demading - it's absolutely my kind of game.