Is Barbarian Invasion Worth It?

[PanzerJaeger]

I have long since lost my RTW CD code, but I saw the "Gold" edition in the stores for a pretty good price so I thought I might give it a try.

So does BI make the game better? Is it more balanced? Fun? Better? What about MP?

Thanks for any help!

[Avicenna]

Not sure about BI, haven't played it much and I don't play MP.

I can say though, that BI is quite a challenge for the Romans, especially the Western Roman Empire. The hordes are going to be entering your territory and pillaging, making for an interesting campaign for even the best player. Different goals for different factions are also nice.

[Cras]

the hordes do give a nice ring to it... they can appear any time and in quite a force on your borders...

[econ21]

There's the same thread topic in the Entrance Hall:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=62336

BI itself does not really alter vanilla RTW - the latest patch for vanilla is a available as a free download (although the latest patch is a good one).

What you get with BI is a fun campaign. It's rather large - a map the size of RTWs, 200 turns or so long, many different and varied factions. I find the combat better (archers and cavalry are less uber, you pick up less command stars, AI armies are bigger etc). Some of the factions are in interesting starting position, like the WRE.

[symball]

I found BI to be quite a different challenge, most of the marketing fluff (night battles + swimming especially) can be ignored as it doesn't change much but as has been mentioned the hordes add a bit of uncertainty and religion does make a real difference to your conquering strategy.

The main difference is the way that there are three very different campaign styles added- you have the barbarian/ easterner campaign where you build up in a similar way to R:TW, but you are likely to come up against one of the roman factions which are already much bigger and meaner than you. You have the horde strategy- roam around destroying everything until you find somewhere good to settle down- whereupon you lose most of your armies. Finally you have the roman factions, Already large factions but with different problems (ERE- huge distances between cities and at war with the sassanids, WRE- rubbish generals and no money + rebellion around the corner). All this + you have to watch out for the hordes- 3-4 stacks of troops turning up on your doorstep un-announced.

All in all I found it to be a breath of fresh air. Quite a different challenge and certainly enough to make buying it worthwhile

[TheViking]

after i got BI i havnt played RTW anymore, i started a new campaing twice but stopped played it quick both times and went back playing BI again.

IMO its worth to get it.

[Grumfoss]

I wholeheartedly agree with Viking,

Bi is a great game. I haven't played many games, but I won't be playing RTW Vanilla style for a long time.
Oh and yes those pesky Hordes are a real pain in the Beeehind!! several full stacks full of cavalry archers ouch!

[Viking]

I wholeheartedly agree with Viking,

TheViking.

But oh yeah, BI is better than Rome if you want a "challenge".

[Lanfire]

i really didn't like BI ... it actually sucked .. not that i don't like a challange. but it wasn't fun . stupid units..

but everyone seems to like it so give it a try.

[Grumfoss]

Sorry Viking

I mean't THEVIKING

[SpencerH]

I was gonna start a new thread but saw this one and thought I'd ask my question here (and I think it's a similar topic).

So I havent played RTW or BI for a while (CIV4 took precedence for a while ) but I thought I'd apply the patches and give it another try. Of course the patching process is totally fubarred despite that AFAIK I didnt do anything wrong. Anyway, it looks like I need to totally uninstall RTW and BI and manually clean the registry (thanks again CA ).

So heres the question, what patches do I install? Assuming you're in my situation (total re-install) which versions would you install i.e. which have given you the best play experience?

NB: I played vanilla RTW with some of player1's mods/fixes then BI vanilla before I stopped playing.

[player1]

1) Reinstall game
2) Install BI
3) Apply 1.6 patch
4) Then any mod or fixer you like

[SpencerH]

So you think 1.6 is the best choice?

[SpencerH]

I THINK I've finally managed to remove all RTW and BI files including from the registry except for these two "prefetch" files (whatever that is).

ROMETW-BI.EXE-169E61F5.pf

and

ROMETW.EXE-36006994.pf

I couldnt find any ini files that supposedly hang around after the 'uninstall'

Should I delete those files?

[player1]

So you think 1.6 is the best choice?

It IS better then unpatched BI.
And since it's only BI patch I would say yes...

[x-dANGEr]

And don't forget player1 Bug Fixer and the smal text thingy on www.totalwar.com for some temples problem..

[Helgi]

1) Reinstall game
2) Install BI
3) Apply 1.6 patch
4) Then any mod or fixer you like

I will try that, nothing else has worked and am hating 1.4, the people at sega need to be shot or beaten for putting out Gold already patched 1.6 and by putting on BI, knocking the patch back to 1.4

[player1]

And don't forget player1 Bug Fixer and the smal text thingy on www.totalwar.com for some temples problem..

note that thingy is not necessary if using bug-fixer