MTW after RTW

[econ21]

Anyway I cant see myself playing many more than 2 campaigns in RTW until an expansion pack.

That would be a sad indictment of RTW if true. [Although, to be honest, I don't think I have played even one campaign of MTW solo to the bitter end, as I tended to lose interest when my faction became clearly the strongest.] I wonder if you have tried any PBMs in the throne room? They are what really gave MTW added life for me - maybe you should sign up for one of the RTW ones?

I found MTW a little too free-form - almost like a strategy game equivalent of the role-playing game Morrowind. You have great freedom and a pretty amazing world simulator, but can end up directionless and without sufficient hooks to keep you involved. PBMs get round that problem - the social aspect makes you care and there is definite end-point.

I've only played one RTW campaign so far - and it killed my computer midway through - so I shouldn't really comment. But I found it much more "more-ish" than MTW.

Partly it was the Senate missions - as Julii they seemed exceptionally well-chosen and well-timed, giving me a gentle nudge when things started to lag and giving nice rewards over short time periods.

Partly it was the strategy map - each army move is perhaps less important than in MTW and so it is less demanding (less chess-like). It has more of the Civ-like "one more turn" factor and less of the chess-like "my brain hurts" aspect.

And partly, it was a feeling that early dominance does not give the same benefits as in MTW. In MTW, I found that once you had absorbed an enemy faction, you were very hard to beat. This seems less true in RTW - perhaps due to squalor etc. Moreover, once the Julii have taken Gaul, there is still an awful lot to do. Other factions have more formiddable units (ok not hard given the poor Gaul line-up but nonetheless after the dross you fight in MTW on early, it was a great pleasure facing the Thracians fielding full armies with a hard centre of Phalanxes, flanked by lots of falxmen). Some factions - notably the other Romans and Egypt - do a decent job of keeping pace with you and make me suspect the Roman Civil War will be an epic.

Anyway, as I said, I probably haven't played enough RTW to reliably comment, but, at this point, it has fully lived up and indeed surpassed my very high expectations.

[Morindin]

That would be a sad indictment of RTW if true. [Although, to be honest, I don't think I have played even one campaign of MTW solo to the bitter end, as I tended to lose interest when my faction became clearly the strongest.] I wonder if you have tried any PBMs in the throne room? They are what really gave MTW added life for me - maybe you should sign up for one of the RTW ones?

Well its more to do with the fact that Im not really interested in many of the other factions apart from Rome (from a gameplay perspective). Barbarian factions are incredably uninteresting. Some of the non-barbarian factions might be worth playing, Carthage might be fun. We shall see though.

RTW PBE might be fun, but you cant really play the reign of your faction leader due to him being too long. Thats another thing, your faction leader doesnt seem to have the same impact as MTW. A low influence leader REALLY made a difference, whereas RTW everyone hates me anyway, and my faction leaders influence only seemed to impact the Senate rather than other factions. If your a hugely powerful Roman juggernaught you expect some people to bow to your will, but the diplomacy in RTW everyone treats me like im a 1 province nobody right until my armies burn their capital to the ground.

Im playing a MTW PBE right now with some friends who dont have RTW yet - yes its quite a blast. I might have a go at playing RTW PBE, right now my second long RTW campaign Im playing with heaps of mods to the game (Im trying 0.3 kill speed +4 morale, tweaked the ships, and battles are great!).

Oh yes Im having a lot of fun playing RTW alright. Its just after a while the bugs/unmodable design features really start to get you down and make you think 'what could have been'.

My major problem with my first campaign as the Julii was that you ended up fighting hundreds of barbarians that were basically only different colours, with the exception of conquering Greece/Macedonia. I also got sick of endless snow covered maps, and I couldnt really expand down into more "interesting" territory (and worthy foes) due to the other factions controlling it, and the fact they were just too far away.
Also as time goes on the Senate missions become more of a drag than anything, they're unrealistic and I pretty much ignored 90% of them towards the end of the game. At the beginning of the game they're great however.
Fighting the Romans was definately interesting and fun, apart from the fact they had pre-marius troops when I had stacks of Urban Cohorts. :)

[Medieval Assassin]

Agreed, as most people see the game in a shock and awe fashion right now, in another month, everyone will be past the graphics and will truely see all the bugs and missing gameplay, things that should of been, I for one font like how goveners are in RTW, titles were alot better.