RTW: Some basic questions

[gmjapan]

If you dont want to play Romans in the new campaign, Greece was a fun campaign for me.

I normally play short campaigns but my recent full ones have been Greece and Carthage. As Greece I took all Sicilly and then stormed Italy from the bottom up!

[BRO,JD]

Thanks for the tips.

I finally won tonight as the Scipii in 208 BC. I could have finished about 7 years earlier but my Egyptian provinces went into big-time revolt and I didn't have enough troops anywhere near there to recapture them quickly.

I'll probably play as the Julii next. After a wide-ranging Med strategy full of open battlefields, a slogging match in Europe might be a different kind of challenge.

[BRO,JD]

What mods do you recommend? Why are the mods better than the "vanilla" version (which I already think is pretty great)?

[econ21]

What mods do you recommend? Why are the mods better than the "vanilla" version (which I already think is pretty great)?

I highly recommend Rome Total Realism.

http://forums.rometotalrealism.org/

This is a copy of a post I made the other day:

It's probably the most popular RTW mod (although not strangely not discussed much by Org members despite the endless grognard grumbling about vanilla RTW).

It started off getting rid of the "fantasy" units of RTW and gradually replaced virtually all the vanilla models with more authentic (and arguably better looking) ones.

It also slowed the movement speed and kill rates, and raised morale, so that the battles "feel" more like those in MTW.

It rebalanced the combat arms. Cavalry & missiles were somewhat downgraded in power (& cavalry raised in price), making heavy infantry more dominant than in vanilla. Peltasts and javelins in general arguably have more of a role in RTR than RTW.

It implemented a nice recruitment system whereby it takes years to train units in captured settlements. This acts as a break on player expansion.

There are also some changes to the strategic map: more provinces, more realistic starting dates and changes to the faction line ups (unified Rome, no British faction).

Naval combat was tweaked to be more decisive.

The main version is RTR Gold but it has recently been ported to 1.5 (RTR Platinum) so players don't have to put up with the save/reload bug, bugged charge stats and can control bandit/pirate spawn rates.

If you want to see what it is like, have a look at the "Will of the Senate" PBM in the Throne Room, e.g. the battle reports thread:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=65721

To be honest, I got very disillusioned with vanilla RTW - no challenge, didn't feel very realistic. But after finding RTR, I've become a fan of the engine.

Europa Barbarorum is another major "realism" mod that shares nearly all the above virtues and some more. But currently it crashes too much on my rig to be fun to play.

[Garvanko]

Rome Total Realism looks really interesting.

[Master_Thief]

I'm loving the look of Chivalry Total War. Haven't downloaded it yet though, as it sounds like its still pretty buggy. I heard that the campaign map in total realism has been reduced to constant seiges by the increased number of settlements. is this true?

[econ21]

I heard that the campaign map in total realism has been reduced to constant seiges by the increased number of settlements. is this true?

I'm not a fan of more provinces for that reason. I think BI did better by reducing them.

However, I would recommend the Metropolis mod for RTR. It strips most settlements of their walls and only allows the historically more significant cities to have stone walls etc. It's a not a perfect solution, but it speeds things up and leave your settlements rather vulnerable to the AI, adding to the threat.

In the Throne Room we are playing a mod of RTR platinum with the metropolis and naval mod, and most battles have been field battles so far (have a look at the Will of the Senate battle reports thread; also the First Consul's reports).

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=65721