Opinions on Rome Total Realism?

[econ21]

I happened to catch an episode of Decisive Battles on the History channel the other day - it was Romans defeating Macedonians - and it rekindled my interest in RTW. This time, I'm tempted to try the Rome Total Realism mod - partly because I appreciate historical realism and also because it may make my favorite faction (Rome) more challenging to play. What are other people's opinions of this mod? I looked at the website and liked what I read, but how is it practice? Sorry if this is an old topic.

[Zizka]

I like it a lot, it is different and very challenging. Playing the Romans in the Provincial Campaign I found myself the underdog fighting the Greeks in Southern Italy, some truely Heroic battles occured as I tried to defeat Pyrrus's Hoplite army. The carthaginians are a fun faction to play for once. There is almost no hope of holding on to Spain long if the spanish are agressive and taking Sicily is harder than ever, but once done provides you with an empire within an empire. Four cities already over the 6000 population mark and one lower in number.

The germans are neutered until they can get their cities larger, the barbarian factions get to build stone walls, but it takes forever to get a city that large. Overall, I would say that I couldn't really go back to normal RTW. RTR could be better, but then that is why the team keep updating, and with version 6.0 coming out within a week or two, it should get much better.

Also, the troops on the battlefield look nicer. More tribal shields and tatoos for the barbarians, the Roman shields are all Imperial design but still look very nice. the Hoplites look the same as ever, while mercenaries get a nice dull brown colour which is much better than the bright green.

The AI, apears better, but I am not certain. it is better at assaulting cities, but on the battlefield it still an do some crazy stuff, I am not sure it is RTR or the 1.2 patch.

[hotingzilla]

Where can I download this mod? and does it require any official patch?

[RabidGibbon]

http://www.rometotalrealism.com/


You can find R:TR here. It requires the 1.2 patch. I find it to be a great mod, and for me at least it has really boosted the life span of single player. Theres also a growing multiplayer community, with a great big tournament planned for when 6.0 is released.

[Dutch_guy]

when is this tournament , please some more info, I have always been trying to find people interrested in playing RTR MP in a form of a toournament.

On topic :

RTR is a great mod for RTW almost all units are reskinned and look like they should,also a lot of new units have been added.
It is far more realistic than vanilla RTW, you can't just bliz the map as the romans , you have to manage your provinces closely and bring in reinforcemens from your main city s . Also no building new units until you build buildings of your own culture.
And you can't wage a war on 5 fronts like you could in vanilla, even as the romans.

Playing some factions now is a real challange , Armenia as an example ;
You will have Parthia at your back from the start, they have 3 army's with catatanks you have 3 cats total ion your 1 army.... a real chalange that is.

ANd the Romans are far more interresting to play now, with the elephant army of pyrrus in south ITaly, and an uber-senate army to kill
ANd not to mention the bigger map , which I love.

So my advice : get it right now

[Count Belisarius]

RTR is, IMHO, the best mod out there, especially if you are lazy like me and do not want to learn to mod yourself. The folks who have developed it have volunteered countless hours of their own time, and the results are phenomenal. After installing and playing RTR, there was no way I could go back to vanilla.

You might consider reading up on the other 'major' RTW mod, SPQR, before you go forward. SPQR has a much faster strategic tempo than RTR, which makes for more fighting and less building. If fighting numerous large-scale battles is your thing, SPQR is the mod for you. SPQR has zero build times for most army units, which means you can generate a huge number of troops in a short amount of time.

For me, I enjoy the empire-building aspect of the game. For that reason, I think RTR is the best for its replayability, depth and loving attention to detail. The game is much more challenging than RTW, without being impossible. The only faction that I would classify as 'easy' would be the Ptolemaics and possibly the Macedonians. I am positively salivating over the HUGE RTR update that should be out soon.

[The Stranger]

i think it's great, and probably the only mod, that will ever be able to compeat with EB.

it makes the blitz strategie nearly impossible, cuz there are so many provinces, and though they reduced squalor, you can't just leave cities (of another culture) without a garrisson after capture.

i love the map, though i don't like sum skins. there units are stable. and it's great. but 6.0 is even better

[The_Doctor]

RTR is great. I cannot play RTW without it.

The combat is slowed down, so the battles last longer and you can use tactics.
new combat system, eg archers are weaker against armoured/large shield units.
Loads of new units.
They have gotten rid of the ahistoric units.
Rome is better to play, because they are not a super power.
Bigger map.

In the next version there will be:
New music
New voice overs for the Romans.
Area of rescruitment, you can train different auxillia in different provinces.
New factions
No senate

You should wait until the next version comes out.