Quote Originally Posted by MadKow
Unlike many i don't dislike the tactical battles. I'll agree they could be more challenging but then again i'm playing on medium dificulty. But things like unit speed and kill speed are not half as bad as they felt in the demo.

The strategy side is great in many ways.

The one thing that keeps troubling me is a bit harder to pin down. It concerns replayability and the time frame. I'll try to explain.
In M:TW you had a dozen factions, 3 eras and 2 modes of play. That gave you lots of variants to play with.
Your dinasties could span for over 300 years and you would always have something to look for.
In Rome, Marius reform is likely to happen after what? 80 turns? when it happens you have a technological leap and Bang: end game. Everything is, in some degree, more of the same.

Now i have yet to finish a campaign. In fact i haven't even used the post Marius units a lot (never seen a Testudo ...) so it may turn out diferent. But it feels at this point that the mandatory "conquer all" victory conditions are less than suficient to make me want to try and replay RTW half as much as i did with MTW.

You know, as far as replayability goes, I think that you will be surprised. I think that because the strategic aspect is better, you have far more options available than in MTW. You can really play a diplomatic game, or a more economic game, or a straight-up crush everyone with extreme prejudice game. It's your call. And the different factions, each with a different starting position, building and unit tech-trees, augment replayability.

I'm on my second campaign, first as Julii (which failed when I started the civil war because I had neglected my economy), second as Brutii. I'm amazed at how different this campaign is, even though the culture is similar. I am focusing on a diplomatic game, isolating opponents from their allies, and then crushing them, instead of taking them all on at the same time.

Also, try the short campaign the next time. Then if you want to continue, you can.
-Sizzly