Medieval's Rome: Total War mod input thread

[Adrian II]

Now, I chose 295BC because the Romans defeated an alliance of Gaul, Etruscans and Samnites in that year (..)

OK, like I said it seems a good starting year. Usually, circa 300 b.c. is taken as the time when the internal organization of the Roman state and its numerical advantage made it inevitable that Rome would dominate the peninsula; even though the Romans might lose battles, they would win their wars. Besides, with the plebeian emancipation (lex Hortensia of 287) the 'classic Republic' was complete, with the plebeian element now definitely tied into the policy of conquest of the nobilitas. So far so good.

Now for the rest of the 'known world'. If we look at the wider picture, we are talking phat civs, not your isolated brutes on the British Isles or some Tarentians holding out in the South if Italy. You are not going to make the Jews or the Dumnonii a playable faction when we have, consecutively:

1. Seleucids in the central-eastern part of the map (roughly Nicaea and various provinces to the East of that). They should be rich, well-armed and well-organized because this was an empire stretching all the way to India. The Romans simply called it 'Asia' and for a reason. It's elite was gradually 'Asianized', but it's soldiery was firmly organized on a Greek/Macedonian footing and a very respectable opponent.
2. Ptolomaeii in and around Egypt, a no-brainer, very influential and possessing a Greek/Macedonian professional army not unlike the Seleucids, but with a weak and unpopular dynasty and stinking rich through excessive taxation and oppression (peasant uprisings are a must for this faction)
3. Macedonia of course. This would be pretty much in disarray in 295 as Demetrius took over and subjected both Macedonia proper and most of Greece, but only tenuously... Rather HRE-like, in M:TW terms.
4. Carthage, no surprise there either

With all due respect the rest of the barbs are small fry, unless you group them in two or three factions with some clout. My suggestion would be Celts (not to be confused with the largely mythical Irish-British Celtic civ), Germans and maybe the Sarmatians.

Since you have only 3 civilizations with their own tech trees, including the religous buildings that confer playability on a religion, this means that in practice you only have 3 effective religions, corresponding to three civilizations. One civ/religion would have to be Hellenistic (Seleucids, Ptolomees, Cathaginians, Macedonians). Another could be Tribal (Celts, Germans), and a third could be Roman-Italic (guess who?). Each would have its civ-specific tech tree. Hellenistic would have phalanx formations, chariots and elephants (the Seleucids right away, the Ptolemees and others later on) and kataphrakts. Rome would have more and more professional legions and specialist feoderati units, e.g. Cretan archers. Tribals would have their own horde-based tech tree with emphasis on material, agricultural and administrative upgrades, the development of specialist horsemen etcetera.

If you can extend the campaign map to the East, i.e. to include Iran and/or the Caspian Sea, you could introduce the Parthians in the role of the M:TW Golden Horde. The Parthians attacked the Seleucid empire in 250 b.c. and in your mod they could act as a factor that balances the huge might of the Seleucids and makes them less dominant at the start. This increases playability.

But this is all off the cuff.

Oh, and a practical question: can you introduce war oliphants and scythed chariots into M:TW?

I'll have to think all of this over a lot though before I start any actual modding.

I wise decision. And you're not alone, people are willing to think with you.