Hey,

I own Shogun, Medieval, and Viking Invasion, and, in a week or so, I should have my very own copy of Rome. Sweet!

I've read a few posts in the Rome forums, and it seems that most peoples' complaints regard the killing & charging speeds, as well as cavalry units being overpowered, probably because spearmens' anti-cav bonuses aren't "working." Is this true?

And, if so, has anyone released a mod which lowers the killing & charging speeds, while also making the battle time limit appropriately longer? And is there any way to give spearmen & phalanxes a greater bonus against cavalry?

Also, are there any significant problems with the strategy map aspect of the game? I get the impression that Rome will be absolutely perfect once the real time battles are modded to be most realistic. What do people who actually have the game think of this?

Also, are units like screaming women, dogs, flaming pigs, and gladiators handled realistically?

Can screaming women actually engage the enemy? Or, more realistically, do they only strenghten their husbands' morale? Are they easily routed? And does their unit description still contain that ridiculous line which refers to them as "twisted cheerleaders", or something of the sort?

Do the units of dogs have human commanders, who show them the general direction of the ennemy and decide when to set them loose? Or do they unexplainably know what they are being ordered to do? Once they attack, can they, unrealistically, still be controlled? Are they in any way overpowered? Can they attack their own troops, if they come too close to them once the dogs have been loosed?

How are the pigs led into the field of battle? Before they are set on fire, are they being held in the arms of roman soldiers? Do they appear to spontaneously combust, or is there some sort of animation which shows how they come to be on fire? Do they eventually burn to death? Are they effective against anything other than elephants?

Does the gladiators' unit description do anything to explain why gladiators would be fighting in the regular roman army, for the romans? Or are they units that appear only in rebellions and civil wars?

Finally, does anyone here know anything about roman military history, and in particular about cavalry? I know very little, but I seem to remember that cavalry, until 400 AD or so, was not very effective (or not as effective as medieval cavalry), because european horses were very small and because iron stirrups either had not been invented or were not commonly used. (Stirrups prevent the rider from being thrown off his horse when he charges into the enemy). So, if this is true, is roman cavalry overpowered? I think that, historically, barbarian (eastern european, particularly?) & north african cavalry was more powerful than its roman equivalent.

Finally, I remember seeing pics of huge siege towers which frankly look quite ridiculous. Do these cost an extravagant amount to build? Or do they take many turns to construct? I remember someone who justified their existence in the game by saying that 30m siege towers were built at some particular battle, but did this happen more than once or twice in the history of the ancient world? Is their inclusion in the game a slight historical inaccuracy?

Thanks for any answers or comments.