Barbarian Invasion web page

[NihilisticCow]

Sorry if you've already seen this, but at the .com a Barbarian Invasion page has been put up...

http://www.totalwar.com/community/rtwbi.htm

[Viking]

Nice!

A lot of interesting and new stuff there.
And I finally got confirmed that the Sassanids got elephants. Cool.

But what does it mean that you can recruit generals?

[Kagemusha]

I cant wait get my hands on those sweeet Vandals.Kill!Kill!Murder!Burn everything!Hahahaaa

[tibilicus]

At last the C.A announce it. And can some one tell me whats up with those strangely blue warriors...... They look like smurfs...........

[Strongsword]

Any word on the release date?

[Viking]

Any word on the release date?

August. Don`t know more exactly.

At last the C.A announce it. And can some one tell me whats up with those strangely blue warriors...... They look like smurfs...........

But they looked cool! Can`t wait to use them, probably as the Sassanids.
Along with the Vandals the Sassanids are my favourite faction,`can`t wait for either of them.

[tibilicus]

On another note i think the C.A are finaly listening.......... They have brung back civil wars and theres no senate !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I salute you C.A for giving me the civil war i wanted !!!!!!!!!!
Tibilicus

[Orda Khan]

I think we are going to be pleasantly surprised

.......Orda

[Mikeus Caesar]

This sounds like it should actually be a good game. And possibly even historically accurate. And without invisible aluminium armour.

[vale]

Yep, it is nice to have a few civil war sometime. This might be fun.

[Monk]

Looks like CA listened to us and are reintroducing Loyalty. should make for some interesting games. The new unit abilities sound great, could make battles...wait for it... fun . Provided of course the Ai can use them to their full effectiveness (fingers crossed).

The religion aspect sounds interesting for sure, we'll have to see what CA fully means by...

Barbarian factions can convert, opening up new parts of the technology tree in the process.

.

Does that include only religious buildings? or will their be new units that go along with it?

The horde feature sounds like it's shaping up. I was worried that it would be a little too easy to horde but from that site it sounds as if you need to be on the verge of losing to do it. Should be a good balance to the barb factions, considering they don't have a huge empire to fall back upon like the romans.

Ca can really pull off something great here, and if they do...they'll be my gods once more

[Orda Khan]

Sounds very reminiscent of the Buddhist/Catholic factions in STW and maybe new units or weapons to go with it. It all sounds promising

.........Orda

[Shambles]

Well it really sounds quite interesting,
I like the ideas behind it and, the new additions to units sound great,
I particularly like the Swiming part of it,
although im a little woried that heavy armourd units may also be able to swim.

The whole concept sounds great And it really does have some mouth watering additions,
I hope they fix the AI and atleast a few of the bugs, The load/save bug in particular.

also pagans were renound for having No fear of death which made them formidibale warriors,
I wonder if this will be true in the game :)

It may just win me over yet :)
But im nnot going to get my hopes up just yet
ShambleS

[bodidley]

At last the C.A announce it. And can some one tell me whats up with those strangely blue warriors...... They look like smurfs...........

They look like some incarnation of huscarls.

[scorillo]

i say it would be great in BI to have the option to see other`s faction battles..so u can sit back and relax watching a battle that u decide to watch...to bad the guys didn`t think about this

[Quietus]

A new campaign map - Europe and the Empire have changed after 350 years of Roman rule since the end of the main Rome: Total War campaign. The new map reflects the shifts in population and wealth that have gone on.

Any CA developer around to confirm if the provinces and city locations are still the same?

[Burnzy]

Looks better than I expected. Let's all pray the AI has been tampered with

[Oaty]

This means that there are plenty of new tactical tricks to discover, strengths to play up, and weaknesses to exploit!

Like we need anymore exploits in the game

[professorspatula]

Looks better than I expected. Let's all pray the AI has been tampered with

Well it better be 'tampered with'/massively improved. Otherwise I say we all form testudo and march up to the CA offices with our mice of fury to throw at their programmers, then capture and sell to slavery any of their employees that dare to fight back. Just like the Romans would have done.

[Divinus Arma]

It would be nice to see titles again. Titles were big with the Romans, so with the Senate gone, perhaps we may now decide who is a legate, tribune, consul, etc. This would play into loyalty big time.

Lets all pray for decent campaign/battlefield AI.

GRRRYAYAYYYYYHHHGGGGG!!!


Regards,
DA

[Captain Fishpants]

Any CA developer around to confirm if the provinces and city locations are still the same?

Province boundaries have been reviewed and changed. Then again, over 400 years the Romans reveiwed and changed the organisation of the Empire a few times.

Important cities - Rome, Constantinople, Ravenna and so forth - are where you'd expect, of course.

[Conqueror]

Shield Wall formation!
Converting barbarians!
Romans reverting to paganism!
Rebelling generals!

Ok now you can consider me officially excited Even if the campaign doesn't turn out so well, just think about how much MODs could be improved with these features.

[Blacknek]

Sounds promissing indeed.

Senate good bye, no Roman family-factions: good thing

The time setting at the turning time in Europes history after/at the end of the Roman empire is an excellent choice !

I like the idea of almost defeated factions becoming barbarian hordes.

And luckily there's always an invading force in history in almost every TW-time setting (Mongols-Golden horde-Huns) !

Calculating the experience with add ons of the older TW games, maybe some of us will go back to the mighty empire of Rome (or what will be left of it).

I think the features mentioned on the page are buy-worthy already IF (and ONLY IF) the battle-AI is tweaked seriously.
The correction of the major bugs in the campaign-map (especially the dreaded seadge-lift bug) are the expected minimum, if CA take themself seriously (what I think they do).

Let's wait and see

[Ianofsmeg16]

Whats great is it missed out the romano britons when i have a pic here

http://www.heavengames.com/gallery/RTW_XPack%40E3_2005/aae
also found this on that same site..
New factions can emerge from rebellious cities (Ostrogoths emerge from the Goths, for example) any proof of this?

[PseRamesses]

BI´s looking better and better by the day. What worries me though is the lack of information regarding battlefield- and strat-map AI. Is it improved or not?! This is the key-info I´m looking for to decide weather I´ll buy this expansion.

[The_Doctor]

What features will be in the Imperial campaign?

Most of the ones on the BI site should be on the imperial campaign.

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

There will be more than 10 new factions you know guys, its just that all of them won't be playable. Here's the evidence for my logic:

Quote from the official web page:

"Fortunately, you don’t necessarily have to play as the Romans! BI includes 10 brand new playable factions, (and some more that you’ll get the chance to meet during the game)"

Plus a quote from an article of some guy who played at E3:

The campaign map should swarm with interesting new adversaries. In addition to the eastern and western empire, some of the factions I saw listed on the custom battle menu were Celts, Huns, Goths, Germans, Franks, Saxons, Vandals, Sassanids, Alemanni, Romano-Britains, and Sarmatians.Only some of these, such as the Huns and Goths, will be playable, but others, like the Spaniards in the current version, will menace the empire’s borders at the game’s start (as with RTW vanilla, some light modding will make these factions playable). Adding to the chaos, still others will emerge when circumstances are right, so the strategic situation will keep a player on his toes, regardless of which faction he chooses. After all, even if you are a fierce Goth warlord, the sudden appearance of Saxons on your border should prove quite unsettling.

Plus a couple of interesting pics:



Note Romano-British.



Note 'Hounds of Culann' - clearly an Irish unit, so most likely there is at least one Celtic faction.



The faction select screen. No real purpose, just thought I'd throw it in.

But all of this COULD mean EMERGING FACTIONS! Just imagine the modding potential!

[Barbarossa82]

August? Yaaaay!!

[Viking]

The faction select screen. No real purpose, just thought I'd throw it in.

I thought they were going to expand the map.

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

Not expand it, just add and change cities that increased or decreased in prominence by this point.