thinking about trying rome again

[Tristrem]

i've always loved mtw so I was one of those people who went and bought Rome the first day it came out. I was disapointed, and ended up putting Rome up on the shelf for some time now.

I want to try to give rome another chance now that the expansion is out. So my questions are:

1. What patch do i download for the original Rome game that brings it up to date?

2. Is the expansion worth the money now?

3. What would you recommend for mods?

4. What is fun, challenging faction to start as

thanks

[Braden]

The Barbarian Invasion expansion is certainly worth the money.

I believe the BI disc has all the required patches in it so no further upgrading is needed (but I've been out of the loop for a few months so I recommend visiting the official TW website and looking at the patches available, has full instructions in the FAQ)

- patch 1.5 was the last one for Rome as a stand alone game.

Mods - I recommend Rome: Total Realism but I would perhaps just start with some "skin" packs as even BI suffers from having the forces all dressed in the same colour (not very realisic or pleasant to look at IMO)

Rome: Total Realism appears to be also one of the more stable and widely used Mods available - which is always a good thing.

BI - the basic BI expansion adds a much improved level to the game. I personally found it FAR more challenging than Rome (even when patched fully). Due to the date that BI is set in there are few factions that have an easy time of it and even with the "easy" faction of the Eastern Roman Empire you'll have a very challenging and fun game initially.

For a first game with BI I would recommend the Eastern Roman Empire (starts off tough, gets easier quicker), or Western Roman Empire (starts of REALLY hard, gets better only later in the game once you take some rich provinces).

Obviously though, once any Empire reaches 35-40 provinces it starts getting easy but you can't avoid that (and the unrest issues appear to have been tweeked accordingly in the game).

All in all, I like playing Rome with Mods but BI I've kept as BI so far.

[econ21]

1. What patch do i download for the original Rome game that brings it up to date?

The patch is 1.5. If you have the BI expansion, you want 1.6.

2. Is the expansion worth the money now?

Definitely. It's a very substantial and varied campaign. I like the Roman factions, especially. Something about steming a tide of AI barbarians appeals.

Have a look at some of the PBMs we've run on it:

ERE (story thread):
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=55882

WRE (story thread):
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=60372

3. What would you recommend for mods?

If you did not like vanilla RTW, but did not try the two major "realism" mods - Europa Barbarorum and Rome Total Realism - then you really should sample them. EB has its sub-forum here, look at the previews:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=51037

It is currently on 0.74, which is for 1.2 RTW and IMO has a major CTD problem (to do with reinforcements and battles). However, 0.8 is imminent and will be for 1.5, avoiding the CTD too, hopefully.

The best RTR currently is the Platinum edition, which converts the mod to work with the 1.5 patch. You can get a taste of it here:

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

For BI, I really like Goth's All Factions mod.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=41879

There's also IBFD which shares many unit skins with Goth mod, although it crashes as WRE unfortunately (next version should avoid this, hopefully):

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=113

4. What is fun, challenging faction to start as In BVI

I like WRE - their first few turns are pretty wild, especially with some houserules. It's probably my favorite campaign in all the TW series, especially in Goth mod.

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

3. What would you recommend for mods?

I would recommend Lusted`s Terra Expugnandae 5.1
It works very nice whith patch 1.5, and it is very stable... large map, many many provinces, new units, new realistic skins, unified Rome, Bactria and Epirus added, realistic traits system, etc.... it is good to play it until comes the Europa Barbarorum 0.8 mod.

[Dutch_guy]

4. What is fun, challenging faction to start as

Well you should try starting with the Eastern Roman Empire if you just want to get a feel of the game, ERE isn't the hardest faction but you do have to worry about the hordes up north, religion and expansionist Sassanids to your east.

You could also try starting as the Huns or the Vandals, you'll find these to be considerably more challenging than the ERE. Your troops aren't of the highest quality and sieging settlements can be a costly enterprise - especially against the Roman crack troops, or the barbarian axe specialists.

Other than that, Braden and Econ gave some sound advise as well, especially concerning the Mods for BI.

[Bombasticus Maximus]

If you decide to go online with RTW then there is always someone to fight but most are the "no rules" kind of people...

[The Spartan (Returns)]

if you loved MTW, you will love RTR Platinum Edition.
but also check out EB when its at 0.8 and try RTG 1.0.

btw if i were you id play some RTW mods before BI.
it should get your stomach settled before BI because it becomes boring imo after a while.

[Glaucus]

I would get the installed, maybe the expansion, but definetly RTRPE. This RTR for RTW 1.5, rather then RTR for RTW with no patches. RTR is fantastic, and I would also recommend some mini-mods as well. The ones I use are Naval Mod, Metro Mod, Roman Leadership Mod, and Four Turns Per Year Mod (rather then 2 turns per year). Naval makes new lines of buildings for ships, and makes them more important (makes the game more historically accurate and better gameplay) Metro mod makes it harder for cities to upgrade, and also adds a new farming method with more lines of buildings also. Roman Leadership mod adds traits which add to your generals, so you can see how long he has been in service, with more years comes higher ranks, and higher ranks mean more bonuses. There is Tribune, Legate, Praetor, and Consul. All these depend on the number of years a character has served leading Roman troops. Once you get certain ranks you get avatars that let you track your legions and consular armies. Fantastic mod. Highly recommended, all.

If you do this, I recommend playing as the Romans first, they are in quite a different position since vanilla RTW. Then Macedon or Carthage are good also.