The Case

It’s been a long time since Total War: Rome. The third instalment of the Total War series was the one that really got the franchise going. Excellent reviews, good graphics for the time and enough depth to keep even the Paradox crowd occupied for some time. It was a game that took hours out of our lives, as we conquered Rome, Carthage, Macedon or Egypt. With a few mods, the game is still alive even to this day. The Total Realism mod, greatly changing the game to something a little more historically accurate for the obsessed like me. Now, after many years, Rome returns. Has our wait been rewarded?

The Trial

’Get back into formation, Fabius, or do you want to die alone, you useless pleb? Quintus, hold the eagle high, I want these barbarians to see us. Hold the formation, men. Trust the Emperor and trust your sword. By Mars, this will be a good day’.

And with that, the battle commenced. The unwashed savages of the northern hills crash into the line of Hastati, hacking at the formation. But true Romans do not break easily. The line holds and to the rear, battle-hardened principes draw closer to the fight, ready to be unleashed to drive the scum back to whence they came. A few minutes later, the moment to strike arrives. The enemy skirmishers have been chased off by the auxiliary and now the Hastati can be relieved. The veterans of the Legio II Apollinaris march forward, drive themselves into a run and just meters before the unsuspecting Gauls that await the charge, they release a devastating hail of pila - shocking the enemy formation before storming deep into the disorientated barbarians, slaying them left and right. And with that, Ladies and Gentleman, Rome stands supreme once more.

It’s the promise that needs to be fulfilled with each Total War game, epic battles and a solid management system off of the battlefield. Without these two working in harmony, the game is no more what it should be and we saw some of the problems associated with that in Total War: Empire. Compared to the later Napoleon: Total War, which was something of a redemption for The Creative Assembly, it was probably the weakest title of the whole series. With Total War: Rome II, the developers took some risks (if one can call them that); they slimmed down some aspects of the game while adding depth to others. In many ways, the game is built more upon Shogun II than on the older Rome title, when it comes to the management of your empire and cities.

Indeed, it is here that we will find the first major change in the game. While in the previous Rome, each city was essentially a province by itself, this is not so in Rome II. Now, up to four different cities with the territory surrounding it make up for one province. With one city being the capital of the province, it has access to the most building options and strongest city defenses. You’ll still need to conquer the remaining territories to be in full control. These will then give access to several province edicts that can boost public order (which is now measured province wide) or the economy. It is a welcome change as it is not only an attempt to make this Rome distinct from the other, but it also proves to be an effective system. Placing strategic importance on key points of the map as well as giving you the option to deter an enemy by capturing his hinterland in order to cripple his capabilities.

How you manage your provinces will have a profound impact on the game. You can no longer construct every building available to your nation in every one of your cities. You’ll need to think how to develop your land best to meet the military and economic needs of your nations. A nice feature here is that cities will visibly grow on the campaign map, giving a little bit of feedback on their importance to you and your jealous neighbours. Managing your empire, you’ll find yourself questioning which kind of temple you should build or whether a city should be developed with the military in mind even though it is in a quasi-peaceful area, just so that it gives you the option to quickly build up reserves. As well as that, you’ll need to keep constant watch on your food supply because an army without grub will not fight as well and a populace without their bread will quickly put you to the torch. All in all, the new province system takes some getting used to and will strike Rome fanatics as a bit foreign. But taking the best of what they learned with Total War: Napoleon and Shogun II, The Creative Assembly managed to set up a sleek though intricate system that adds something new to the game flow.

Diplomacy, in itself one of the most dreaded aspects of previous Total War games, has also seen a revamp. While occasionally other nations will inexplicably cancel trade agreements and decide to act on rather bizarre lines of logic (in one of my playthroughs Egypt decided to basically declare war on all nations), the feedback on where you stand as a nation, when it comes to reputation and relationships with other nations, has vastly improved. Borrowing from Paradox, the game now adds or subtracts points from a relationship meter for each action taken between two or more nations then adds it all up to a grand-total. Cancelling trade-agreements with other nations might increase your standing with a third party and a long-standing treaty between you and another state will drastically increase the friendship between you. As well as that, cancelling various treaties will gradually lower your overall reputation, hampering future diplomacy. While all of this was essentially already present in previous Total War games, with Rome II the feedback has vastly improved and the easier to manage diplomacy map is a very welcome addition. However, in order to rule the world, diplomacy will not suffice and swords will eventually have to be drawn.

The battles, a trademark of the Total War series, have greatly improved. Not only has The Creative Assembly modelled the units more on their actual historical look (no longer do we see Hastati that clamber about armoured to the teeth like the later Legionaries) but effort has been put in to stripping down the cumbersome aspects of the first Rome and implementing new features. This effort paid off. Battles are more fluid, with the general giving his speech during the deployment phase instead of halting it. During the battle as well, the player will experience a much more responsive army. Roman soldiers will throw a devastating pila volley automatically just before their charge hits home. Should they be too close to the enemy, they’ll forsake protocol and immediately charge home. Remembering the old days in which sometimes the pilas would still be raised when the enemy was already amongst the legionaries, this is definitely a well-made system. The path-finding has been worked on too, with some minor issues still obvious (ladders during a siege attack), but many of these strike out only because of the general improvement. However, fleeing units will still run away in a comedic straight line but who cares about those cowards anyway?

Case Review