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Historical accuracy
While no computer game can claim to be entirely historically accurate many within the established Total War fanbase took issue with some of the blatant historical inaccuracies in Rome: Total War. Criticisms range from the obvious mistakes to the downright picky (certain players have complained about such things as small differences in the names of provinces or tiny deviations in armor or helmets). Some fans stipulated that the Creative Assembly was attempting to sacrifice historical accuracy to reach a wider market of gamers, and others accused the company of sacrificing strategic and tactical depth for eye candy and bigger battles to reach out to the gaming masses.
The major faction inaccuracies presented by the community stem from the portrayal of the Roman Republic as consisting of four separate political and military bodies, the New Kingdom style of the Egyptian units and buildings, and the unification of the barbarian tribes and the "Greek Cities" into single entities with one ruler as opposed to separate tribes or at most a loose alliance. In fact, Rome was more unified than any of the other factions portrayed in the game and certainly more centralized than the Gallic tribes or Greek city states. The Egyptians were a coherent faction during the time period of the game, but their armies would have been outfitted much like the Seleucid or Macedonian forces, owing to the Ptolemaic dynasty's descendancy from the Macedonian generals of Alexander the Great. Although the ruler was still referred to as Pharaoh, the Zulu-like Nubian Spearmen and the New Kingdom headdresses of the Nile Spearmen would have been considered anachronisms on the battlefields of the day, while chariots had disappeared from the battlefields of Egypt some 1,000 years before.
Certain units have also been criticized for being too fantastic and geared towards the younger RTS demographic as opposed to the traditional fanbase of Medieval: Total War and Shogun: Total War. "Incendiary pigs", for example, were indeed used to counter elephant troops, but it is grossly inaccurate to suggest that an entire unit was trained for that purpose; the only recorded use of such a tactic was by the defenders of Megara during the Wars of the Diadochi (see for example Aelian, de Natura Animalium book XVI, ch. 36). As mentioned above, eyebrows were raised over the inclusion of "Head Hurlers" as actual British ranged troops, Arcani as groups of elite, ninja-like fighters and the "Urban Cohort" (who in reality were just a combined night watch and fire brigade in Rome) as a superior force to the Praetorian Guard in terms of fighting skill. The impeccable organization of the German "Spear Warband" (a unit that can form a phalanx) also stirred a bit of protest from accuracy-minded gamers and history buffs.
The two most popular mods for R:TW, Rome: Total Realism and Europa Barbarorum, dealt with a number of these issues and historical inaccuracies. Changes included the removal of the Brutii and Scipii factions from the game completely, unifying the Italian peninsula under a single faction, "Rome." Patches were released to increase the number of provinces and cities, to remove certain ahistorical units and to modify existing units to look more realistic; for example, the Egyptian army has been completely revamped, and is now quite similar to the Seleucid and Macedonian armies, rather than the previous pharonic armies. The names of some other units were changed to promote both realism and variance (for example, "Greek Archers" were changed to "Toxotes").
Re: Too many mods are being made at once.
Re: Too many mods are being made at once.
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