Rome Total Realism vs EB

[Intranetusa]

Which is the better mod and which should I get?

Cuz I've heard the 2 have similar features, such as a new campaign map extending to India, and the new Egyptian-Pytolmic dynasty, and I've looked at the features. However, the RTR website doesn't give a detailed, indepth description of all the features.


Does EB focus more on the barbarian tribes & other factions while RTR focus primarily on the Romans???




Also, does Carthage get its legendary circular ports & huge naval fleet? (As it did historically)

[Orb]

I haven't actually tried RTR, but from what I've heard about it, I don't think I will.

EB has a beautiful and deep trait system, subtle interplay of nations and the Romans and Greeks receive as much attention as the barbarians.

[Geoffrey S]

A loaded question, requiring thoughtful answers and mainly boiling down to personal preferences. At the moment, for me EB in its current state is the preferred mod. I'm looking forward to trying RTR 7.0 when it's released; the current release though is also a definite improval over vanilla Rome and certainly worth trying.

Why not install both? It's a simple matter of copying your Rome folder, certainly so if you've got enough space. Both mods are definitely worthwhile.

[Kugutsu]

If you have the HDD space, install both and see which you prefer!

EB certainly does it for me. Incredible detail in all factions (not just barbarians), a unique traiting system that makes your family members into individuals, and generally an awsome gameplay experience all round. I can (and have) quite happily spend hours just reading the unit cards about the history and uses of the various units, which are an education in themselves.

Im afraid I cant comment on RTR, having never felt the need to try it after finding EB, but Im sure someone will be able to tell you how they compare.

[bovi]

Some people favor one, some the other. I've played both, and my choice is EB, but RTR has a lot of good in it too. Why not try them both, and decide for yourself?

[Intranetusa]

Can those of you who have tried both RTR and EB tell me the difference between the two??? (significant differences)

because I've read the description off of the EB website and this forum (and RTR site has no detailed description) and it doesn't really tell me much about either games.

[oudysseos]

I haven't played RTR for quite some time: since 6.0 came out in fact, and I never installed the PLatinum edition, but two cents worth is that RTR is great until you try EB. Many of the elements will be familiar: The Egyptians changed to the Ptolemies and so on. RTR also has a Zone of Recruitment element for mercs; I don't remember how well developed its faction recruitment was but I am sure it's not as advanced as EB.
What EB has much more of than RTR 6.0 is depth: RTR doesn't have all the units/buildings etc. in the correct native languages, or all of the faction specific wonders or really any of the role-play elements that EB has. Or the amazing latin, greek and celtic voice mods. It's an improvement over vanilla but doesn't go as far as EB. And the EB units are newer and prettier and as far as I can tell more historically accurate.
What RTR has that EB does not is a whole constellation of minimods that allows you to customize your install. There's a great 4 turns per year mod, an interesting naval mod, a polytheism mod that I wish EB would incorporate, a metropolis mod: you can really make the game your own, giving you lots of options if you're interested in the nuts and bolts of modding.
RTR 7.0 has posted some very interesting ideas that I'm keen to see the results of, especially their whole batch file/unlimited factions deal, but I am reserving judgement on it til it comes out as it might not work out quite so well in reality.

To sum up, EB trumps RTR in most areas and is definitely more challenging and harder, so if you want an easy intro to RTW mods, try RTR first and then EB. The hardest mod of all, for gameplay, is Arthurian Total War. Fantastic mod, fiendishly difficult to succeed at.

[Intranetusa]

thanks for the info.

Does anyone know which mod RTR or EB have the unqiue buildings?
ie. Egyptian pyramids in Egpyt or massive Carthaginian circular docks?

[Lovejoy]

Both are great mods.

EB
+Very historical
+Good skins
+TRAITS!
+Deap!
+Hard(er)
-Runs slow
-Still beta

RTR
+Tons of user mods, like imperator.
+Multiplayer community
+Some of the best skins ever.
+Runs fast
-Kinda easy

And both have there ups and downs. Play and love em both! :D

[Gazius]

RTR is what RTW should have been.
EB is the game that made me drop almost every other game. I might play a few others now and then, but I'm always back to EB. No other game can compare. RTR 7 may make a challenge, but as I see it:

RTR is a one night stand, EB is a happy marriage.

[GodEmperorLeto]

I'd honestly go with the whole "install and try both" idea, and decide for yourself. I mean, in some ways, you are comparing the two, and making them compete against one another. That's somewhat unfair. The guys at RTR have worked very hard to put out their mod, just like the guys at EB. Both mods deserve respect and appreciation. It is cheapening the work that the guys at RTR to say that EB is better.

Nevertheless, if EB is better, then that is simply because the guys here have gone so far above and beyond that it is incredible. But comparing the two is suggesting that the two are in competition, and I don't see it as such.

[Fondor_Yards]

This isn't the place to be asking this question. It's like going to boston and asking if they like the Red Socks or Yankees more. But as someone who played both , I have to say EB is better. RTR is RTW on steroids. EB is RTR on radioactive super godly steroids of doom.

thanks for the info.

Does anyone know which mod RTR or EB have the unqiue buildings?
ie. Egyptian pyramids in Egpyt or massive Carthaginian circular docks?

IIRC RTR only has the normal wonders in it. And considering it seems every other town in EB has a unqiue building, EB does.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I've always favored the old cake vs. pie comparison. But I'll admit in advance that I'm definitely a cake man myself, so I'm quite biased. They're both good, but by God, make mine cake!

[Marius's Mule]

I just installed EB this past weekend. I've been playing RTR. One thing i don't like about RTR, is that there isn't much variety in the Roman Legion. In Vanilla RTW, you had the Urban Cohort, Praterion Cohort, regular legionnaires, early legionnaires, and multiple cavalry, archer and artillery units. In RTR, you don't have Roman archer, so you have to hire Cretan Archers. There is also only two types of infantry after the Marius reform. You can train different types of units when you conquer other cities and installed the proper buildings so that kind of makes up for it, but it's not the same. Besides that, I love the game.

EB seems(remember..i've only played it this weekend) to be a good game. I played about 8 hours of it. Still trying to figure things out like how to increase the generals command ratings. I've had one general tearing up the northern frontier, capturing about 4 cities in a 2 year span, defeated multiple armies on the field, and he only has 2 stars, and they been pretty evenly stacked and i have demolished the enemy. Some things that are cool is the deep traiting system, although i wish their command ability would increase faster especially if they have good intelligence, charisma and varility, and how you can install different types of government. Although, i do find EB pretty easy. Last time i've check, my win loss record is around 38 - 1, and i think that loss was a navel loss. And i'm playing on VH/H. One more thing that seems to be a problem, is that the game runs really slow, and my computer isn't that old. I have a 2.66 ghz pent 4 computer, 512 mb ram, and a new graphic card which i can't remember how fast it is right now.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

With a 2.66 Ghz pent 4, you should think about bumping up to a gig of RAM. You'll notice a really big difference in EB if you did do that. I've got a 1.3 Ghz Athlon and a gig of RAM running in it - my battles are slow, but only because I insist on having huge sized armies.

As for command stars, what makes a bigger difference in battle are the morale bonuses. Check your general's traits out carefully and if he's really good and got lots of morale bonuses, or command stars for fighting in certain situations then you'll realize when and where are the best places to use him - on campaign or at home, defending or attacking, leading or accompanying, etc.

Finally, I think most team members expect 0.81 to be more difficult because of the financial situation. Mines got a little out of hand with 0.80.

[Olaf The Great]

Being the Pessimist I am, I usually compare the problems between the two,

EB
-Slightly slower if you have a bad computer(and) insist on large or huge battles.
-Traveling the Map can get a bit...Annoying if you're accustomed to traveling long distances with no rest(Migration)
If you feel that you need to Migrate, turn off the scripts.
-Harder(Bad or Good) In my opinion, good.
-If an enemies treasurey goes into the red, they gain vast amounts of money(has some bad things, like with Eperios, because of their elephants, their money goes into the red by the 3rd turn and because of the money increase, they start steamrolling) In my opinion, this is good for a military challenge.
-At its Current build certain factions don't ...Move..At all
1-Lustonann
2-Macedon(depends on Epeirotes and KH)
3-Sweboz
4-Sauromatae
5-Saka
6-Casse
In the next build it will be fixed, and if you decide to play as those factions, its not much of a problem.

RTR
-Its mostly an enhanced RTW
-No Scripts
-A bit..Easy(Good..Or bad) My opinion, Bad
-Trait system not complex
-Some factions are weak and are destroyed easily(Illryia)
-Some places on the map are much too crowded(Italy,Greece and Syria)
-Not as Historically accurate as they claim.

I prefer EB, my computer can take the game,the scripts are nice, Vibrant Faction colors, Historically Accurate and much more.

[Bar Kochba]

ask this question on the RTR fourms then compare notes

[Gaias]

I would have to say that RTR is how many people that play RTW got introduced to the game, and that EB is what is continuing their interest.

[MiniMe]

Mines got a little out of hand with 0.80.

EB vs RTR is like Argiraspidae Torakitae vs Spartans =)

The only reason to install RTR are their elephants skins and textures =)
Since EB team has a lot of things to do and they are not going to reskin their elephants in the near future, I’ve modded EB for myself, importing RTR Indian armored elephants and their crews in it (took some time, not only you have to copy their skins in EB folder, but also adjust many files, I’m a bit proud of myself actually, never modding anything before )

As for the rest… even if somehow RTR 7.0 is going to happen out of shining nowhere, the only reason I would install it is as a source of alternative skins and textures. And that's it.

[Thaatu]

EB requires more attention from the player, while RTR is lighter and more pleasing to the eye.

[kalkwerk]

Well you should play EB thats quite obvious.

Concerning RTR thats an excellent mod too, but you shouldnt play it without minimods, which there are lots of:

I suggest RTR AE (3.0 coming up "soon".) MetroNavalmod, ItalianInfantrymod, navigable rivers.
TFT - Play as Pompeius, Caesar, Crassus or Verchingetorix
77 BC Twilight of the republic (coming up "soon")
Imperator II - Rome centred mod with pretty hard first years if you are up to a challenge

All those are for PE 1.6 or 1.7.

[iamphet]

As other posters have noticed, there are a lot of mods for RTR. For completeness I'd recommend Extended Realism Mod for RTR. Together with Candearius' guide it adds role-playing flavour to the game.

[Shifty_GMH]

I played RTR Gold for several months before downloading EB .80. I would recommend downloading and playing RTR Gold first. Once you have completed a campaign then download and play EB. EB .81 will hopefully, (fingers crossed), be out shortly and is not save-game compatible with EB .80. RTR Gold is definately an EB light......but well worth playing. RTR 7.0 does look promising, but I read somewhere that it probably won't be released till Q2 of 2007.

I have not played RTR:PE. So i can not recommend it one way or the other.

[oudysseos]

Or rather than install all theos minimods to RTR, what with compatability issues and so on, you could just play EB. It's your one stop shop for gaming excellence.

[Birka Viking]

Well I havent played RTR for a very longtime. But from my experience with RTR I can only say this. What RTR did with the original Vanilla game, EB did with RTR.
Cheers

[paullus]

I'll add this:

I get better battlefield framerates with RTR. But that's partly because I have the graphics options too high with EB because a lot of the units look soooo good.

But I'd say it boils down especially to this:

If you want to learn about the ancient world (its a lot of fun!) then EB is the way to go. It has more and better information, and not just in the military sector, than in many layman's ancient histories, and is better in some areas than quite a few scholarly works.

And yet its tremendously fun to play...sweet.

[iamphet]

Or rather than install all theos minimods to RTR, what with compatability issues and so on, you could just play EB. It's your one stop shop for gaming excellence.

Yes. With RTR you can select which features you want, with EB you must use them all.

[Intranetusa]

Comparing the feedback, I'm gonna try EB first.

Is there any change to the difficulty setting on EB?
ie. Does battle AI on H and battle AI pm VH still give unfair advantages to the AI like it did in vanilla RTW? And how much harder is the campaign AI?

(I've read the interview of EB, it and wasn't very clear on this issue)


Also, I have barbarian invasions. Will installing EB delete my BI saved games or make BI not work?

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi there,
Fortunately the AI on the battlefield in Europa Barbarorum is slightly superior to that of vanilla. It seems to manage it's forces much better due to EB's formations and it also now seems to try flanking moves much more frequently. It is not brilliantly improved, but it still is much more challenging.

Sadly Hard or Very Hard on the battlefield still does give the AI insane bonuses. I think, however, that this problem is hardcoded. The best way to avoid this is to play battles on Medium or Easy. In Medium the AI gets no bonuses and neither do you, but on the contrary, in Easy you get bonuses and the AI gets penalties.

Luckily EB does not effect your Barbarian invasion installation. All of your BI saves should survive your installation. Good luck and enjoy your campaign. Cheers.

[ElectricEel]

Is there any change to the difficulty setting on EB?
ie. Does battle AI on H and battle AI pm VH still give unfair advantages to the AI like it did in vanilla RTW? And how much harder is the campaign AI?

The effects of difficulty levels aren't moddable, so no. I understand the recommended settings are Normal battle difficulty and Very Hard campaign map difficulty. The campaign should be more challenging than vanilla RTW.