The Rome Total War Expansion? What do we want?

[The Sword of Cao Cao]

Well we've all been talking about what we want for the next TW.. But the expansion is much closer. Here lets talk about what we want for the expansion. Naturally something about the Huns and Fall of Rome seems inevaitble. But does the majority of players really want that? I dont... Anyways lets get some ideas here nad maybe show CA.

I want an ancient Middle East type thing. like Babylon and Assyria, the Rome of thier times. Plus it would be great for the Rome expansion since Egypt and Numidia is in there! Why not concentrate on thier story? Factions and units would be awesome as hell. Here are some factions for the campaign.

Assyria
Israel
Nubia
Egypt
Babylon
The Phillistines/Sea Peoples
Moab
The Caananites
The Hyksos

Now it's sounding a bit too much like a full blown game. >.< Anyone wanna improve on the idea to make it more of an expansion? Or does anyone have any other ideas?

[Meneldil]

Well, I'm rather thinking about something with -as you said- Huns or Goths or other barbarian invaders, or an addon that takes place in Gaul, with Francs, Gauls tribes and the first of the caesars. We could even get a super asterix unit.

[TinCow]

Extension of the game into the Imperial Roman age. Either a continuation of it after you win the civil war, or a new 'campaign' starting as Caesar. Plenty of upgrades to units, new factions, new structures, etc. that can be put in for that.

Greece would also be a logical expansion.

[fey]

Well, since CA is (loosely) sticking to history, there's not much choice. In order for there to be interesting warfare, the factions have to be at least somewhat civilized. A mob-with-clubs vs another-mob-with-clubs fight has limited tactical possibilities :-)

I think there are two interesting expansions that could be made.

One is pre-Romans, focusing on the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and the rest of the Eastern Mediterranean crowd. Historically interesting, but probably not all that exciting from the point of view tactical warfare.

One is post-Romans, focusing on the Islamic conquest (basically, VIII century AD). The major players would involve the Arabs boiling out of the Arabian peninsula, Byzantium, Egypt, various tribes in North Africa, and dark-ages Europeans.

The Islamic Conquest expansion would tie in very well with the "invasion" theme of Totalwar expansions, would be a nice bridge between RTW and MTW, and would be tactically interesting as people will try to counter the presumably all-powerful Arab cavalry...

Fey

[Merlin271]

I've yet to get the game but from what I've read about the nature of it, perhaps a Third Century Crisis expansion could work.

A time when rival emperors were appearing with ridiculous speed all over the empire. Gordian for example had already been overthrown and killed by the time the Egyptians heard of his proclamation as Emperor. The player could choose from 3 rival potential Emperors (and so make use of the 3 faction system we have already)
The expansion could start in 235 AD At the end of the reign of Severus Alexander and end in 285 with accession of Diocletion and the establishment of the tetrarchy.

Each player would have their base in a seperate part of the Empire perhaps Gaul, Africa and the East. The object would be to capture Rome and eliminate your opponents while fending off increasing 'barbarian' attacks from those bordering the fragmented empire. The establishment of the Sassanid dynasty in Persia presented a dramatic threat to the eastern provinces. (This could take care of the invasion theme) This problem would be augmented by the fact that the loyalty of generals and their soldiers would be almost non-existent.

The utter chaos of the period meant that few ancient authors dealt with the period, this means that historical assertion over this period is hazy at best and so would give CA some flexibility if they have to ignore some inconvenient historical information as all information about the time can be undermined because nothing is absolutly supported.

The factions could be:
The 3 Roman rival factions
Various Germanian tribes
The Sassanid Persians
Northern British Tribes
And perhaps some Asiatic tribes from the far side of the Black Sea

[Doug-Thompson]

Either Alexander and the conquest of Persia, or Darius and the conquest of Greece.

Also, I'm sure CA will make more factions playable and give those factions more units, as they did in the last game.

[Orvis Tertia]

Wow, I'd like to see all of these ideas. How about just making them all into the biggest expansion pack known to mankind.

Another possibility would be the conquest of the British Isles. I always thought it was pretty interesting that the Romans stopped halfway and built the wall. Zooming in on the British Isles might be a neat campaign.

[Thoros of Myr]

Wouldent invading the British isles feel a bit like VI all over again though?

I would like to see something like fey's proposition of post-Roman era that bridges the gap from RTW to MTW.

[The Sword of Cao Cao]

Wouldent invading the British isles feel a bit like VI all over again though?

EXACTLY!

Me? I still love an ancient Middle East thing. After all Assyria, Babylon and Egypt were the Roman Empires of thier time...

I kind of like the Dark Ages idea, but that would be too much like Medieval again.. Then again, we could get a Medieval Total War 2, with that kind of expansion, and thus not get a SEQUEL for a new game! Leaving room for China- Ooh! sorry shameless adveritising almost got me! Hehe..

[Orda Khan]

Fall of Rome and the Huns
We saw them already on Time Commanders....and I feel obliged to do a better job than those pathetic Cadet Officers

....Orda

[Lonewarrior]

A continuation until the fall of the Roman empire will be good, but first I must buy rtw. and play it.

[Apollonius]

Famous last words: "We just need to get up on top of this hill! Then we'll dominate the battlefield!" Those Cadet officers were one of the worst teams one the show (with the Telamon and Marathon folks running close behind), but at least they would have some excuse for lack of some basic tactical knowledge.

I especially like Merlin's idea for a Third Century Crisis expansion mod. This was certainly a decisive era in Roman history. The empire was quite literally brought to the brink of destruction during this period and was only brought back under control after many battles and great bloodshed. There was rampant inflation, plagues.. Emperors were being replaced at the rate of about one every two or three years (Emperor Valerian, after being captured by King Shapur of Persia, was said to have been stuffed - his body used as a throne-room trophy).. The legions were under serious pressure on the frontiers, and they lost just about as many battles as they won. Goths crossed over the black sea into Asia Minor and Greece, sacking several cities, Franks invaded Gaul and pushed all the way into Hispania before being dispersed. Dacia was completely abandoned. Breakaway provinces asserted their own authority and became semi-independent, or directly challenged Rome - like the western "Gallic Empire", or Palmyra.

Of course, all these ideas sound wonderful.. Whatever CA comes up with, I will certainly be interested in playing it.

[WarHawk]

I'd like to have actual Sea Battles in the expansion. To be able to play them out on the Battlefield.

[Lord Angelus]

I'd like to see the expansion focus on the switch from Rome to Constantinople during Constantine the Greats reign.
The expansion could focus on the fall of the western empire and all the religious,military and political reforms that went with it.This would also cover the rise and fall of different factions including the Persians,normans,venetians and the eventual arrival of new factions such as the arabs in Syria and the Russians in the North and the wars and to hang on to their land in the Balkans.
Recreating the struggles of the empire after the timeframe of Rome and trying to reinvigorate the ailing empire and return it to its former glory in the Byzantine era would be pretty exciting to me.

[Samurai Waki]

I wouldn't mind seeing a fall of rome expansion at all, I want to play as Belisarius taking back Rome and slaughering the Visigoths...and then seeing it all crumble with the invasion of the Longobards.

[The Sword of Cao Cao]

I'd like to have actual Sea Battles in the expansion. To be able to play them out on the Battlefield.

Possibly the best idea ever. Cept mine. :P

[Arakasi]

I would think that the two most likely options would be either an Alexander the Great mod or one centered in 200-450 AD dealing with all the eastern forces coming in such as the Goths, Visigoths, Huns and so on. Although all those troop types would be pretty similar. I guess the question is would an expansion involve a new map like Viking did for MTW? Since they did it that way last time I expect they would this time.

[lars573]

Well following CA previous logic for making an expansion pack campaign. It will probably be the persian invasion of greece with the miracle of marathon and the battle of thermoply and all that. That logic being

Mongol invasion (STW)- takes the start date back 250 years (1520-1270= 250)to the mongol invasion of japan under the Hojos.

Viking invasion (MTW)-takes the start date back in time almost 300 years (1087-791=296) and reduces the map to just the british ilses and makes a campagin about the pagan norse men raids into late dark age britain.

So applying similar logic to RTW 270 BC-250 years= 520 BC. This date corrisponds quite nicely to the persian invaison of the greek states. So a new camp map that focuses on the aegean and asia minor with more cities on it would not be out of the question and new factions consisting of the various greek cities as well. Another aspect of their X-pack logic is to choose a time when a completely different culture invades another. Like the Mongols in Japan or the pagan norse in britain.

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

A Fall of Rome and/or Alexander add on/s would make sense. I'd prefer the former though.

[DisruptorX]

Nubia

Nubian spearmen were my favourite unit in MTW (haven't used them yet in Rome), because they are like normal spearmen...but they are black. How cool is that?

[ShadesWolf]

Erm...... Sorry Guys, but this seems to be a quite silly thread

Rome is about the Rise of Rome, so the expansion will PROBABLY be about the fall of rome.

[DisruptorX]

Erm...... Sorry Guys, but this seems to be a quite silly thread

Rome is about the Rise of Rome, so the expansion will PROBABLY be about the fall of rome.

So visigoths it is?

[ranpiz]

haha i'm sure titles like Arab invasion and Islamic invasion would fly real well over in the marketing department.

[Samurai Waki]

Rome was already well done by the Time the Arabs arrived, I think the Arab invasion was around 600 AD the Fall of Rome was around 300AD to maybe near the end of the campaign you might see Arabs. I think it would more focus on the various nomads and semi nomads that moved into the area, I.E. Huns, Magyars(?), Visigoths, Goths, Berbers, Longobards, Franks, Saxons...and then the already disintegrated Western Roman Empire, would mostly be just Rome because by the time the Goths arrived Italy was just a bunch of city states vying for power. The Byzantine Empire would be the largest civilized contender...from Egypt to Constantinople. Also, a part of the expansion could focus on Charlemagne and the rise of the Holy Roman Empire

[Silver Rusher]

I think that the most likely one will be a Hunnic Invasion... basically around the fall of Rome, with many different factions and events, as well as many new units and a catholic rome.

[econ21]

Fall of Rome would be fun - I like turtling and having a game where one of the challenges was merely to survive, rather than conquer the world, would be fun for me. Of course, the competing barbarian factions would have more conventional strategic goals.

There was an old Wargames Research Group board game called Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and it was great fun. It was best multiplayer though, as the barbarians had to collude to break through the frontier but then fight over the spoils. The Romans had to hang tight and try to sow division amongst their enemies. They also had a predetermined event for the East vs West Empire schism.

[Ulstan]

(a) Imperial Rome (The Caesars) to the Fall of Rome
(b) Hellenic Total War (Greeks vs persians, greeks vs greeks, alexander vs everyone, etc)
(c) Medieval Total War 2 :)

[DisruptorX]

(c) Medieval Total War 2 :)

Why? MTW was perfect, there is no reason for another one.

[Ulstan]

I just want MTW battles on the RTW graphics engine :D

[Lord Angelus]

Rome was already well done by the Time the Arabs arrived, I think the Arab invasion was around 600 AD the Fall of Rome was around 300AD to maybe near the end of the campaign you might see Arabs. I think it would more focus on the various nomads and semi nomads that moved into the area, I.E. Huns, Magyars(?), Visigoths, Goths, Berbers, Longobards, Franks, Saxons...and then the already disintegrated Western Roman Empire, would mostly be just Rome because by the time the Goths arrived Italy was just a bunch of city states vying for power. The Byzantine Empire would be the largest civilized contender...from Egypt to Constantinople. Also, a part of the expansion could focus on Charlemagne and the rise of the Holy Roman Empire

The western half of the empire had fallen before the arrival of the Arabs but the term 'Byzantine' was just a term of convenience.The Eastern portion of the empire was still undeniably Roman and that did not fall until 1453.
The fact that the capitol of the empire was moved to the east was due largely to the fact that the western half had become of secondary importance to that of the East although under Justinian attempts were made to reunite the two halves.
In my opinion this would create a great basis for an expansion pack as this period is both rich in history and potential as well as keeping the Roman theme.
A campaign to both hold onto their territory in the East and the Balkans as well as the potential to reunite both East and West halves would provide a great challenge.

Regards..