Playing Rome Total Realism

Brilliant mod - although more like an expansion pack to Rome Total War. Map has been extended north to Scotland, now includes the Nordic nations and extended much further east. The map was extended east towards India. This shows the historical extent of the various eastern powers, such as Parthia and the Seleucids, the borders of which stretched far beyond the edge of Rome's campaign map.

The team has added loads more cities, meaning it takes longer to put down an area and keep it under your control, most notably in North Africa, though they did so elsewhere also.

The Mod also renamed several factions to improve historical accuracy, such as giving Spain its classical name, Iberia.

Egypt has been changed as well, with regards its units:One of the biggest changes was the portrayal of Egypt. Rome portrays the Egyptian faction more as the Pharaonic Middle-Eastern empire it was in the tenth century BC than the Ptolemaic successor state to Alexander's empire it actually was in the game's period (280 BC–14 AD). In short less chariots and more Greek looking in their fighting style.

New "Area of Recruitment" gameplay mechanic. In Rome, there was virtually no restriction on the units a faction could train in a given province- for example, Carthage could train exactly the same units in Carthage as they could in Spain. The exceptions were that Roman First Cohorts could only be recruited in Rome; Spartan hoplites could only be recruited in Sparta or Syracuse; and elephant and camel units could only be recruited in provinces that have those animals as resources. In RTR, the units that can be recruited in a province depend in large part on the province itself; Gallic infantry, for instance, can only be recruited in Gaul, but can be recruited by all factions. Still, all factions do have their own typical units that can be recruited anywhere.
The majority of the units on the tactical map have been given new skins, and several new units have been created. Two hundred new textures and models have been added in total. "Faction colors" have been removed. In Rome, armies were colour-coded by faction, for ease of playability: all of the Egyptian(now called the Ptolomeic Empire) units wore bright yellow clothing, Julii wore red, mercenaries green, rebels gray, and so forth. In RTR these colours have been abandoned, and most soldiers wear rather similar shades of grey, yellow and brown, the colours of undyed cloth. This reflects their probable historical modes of dress, as at the time, dyes for clothing and ornamentation were extremely expensive.

Another good touch is the additions to the tech tree, no longer can you take over a remote town and start cranking out legions. So the games of swamping half of Europe in twenty odd turns are gone. You soon find that attacking everyone means big problems with getting enough troops to the front.

Then we have the old one, two combo: spies and assassins. The spy is the hunter and the assassin is the killer. Sending an army to attack mine while I'm beseigning your city? I'll make you go through about two or three generals before they get there. Keep sending that diplomat asking me to give you back cities in exchange for a ceasefire? Yep, he won't be coming home either, leastways not outside of a box.

I'll be the first to admit I'm excessive when it comes to the assassin, I like to target faction members - prune their family tree and make things difficult for them. My other tactic is when plague breaks out in a city, start moving spys through that city, they catch the plague and then move them to enemy cities.

Instant reduction of their armies.
Latest version works with Barbarian Invasion expansion pack:

• Seventeen fully playable factions
• Two hundred new historically accurate army units
• Totally revamped combat stastics system
  
• New "Area of Recruitment" gameplay mechanic
  
• Comprehensive graphical overhaul of the front end
  
• Introduction video, faction elimination videos
  
• Redesigned campaign map
  
• Classical soundtrack conceived by a professional composer.
• Many new custom battle locations
• Additional historical battles
• Authentic battle formations and army deployments
  
• Enhancements enabling the AI to fight "smarter"
• Gloss textures enabling environmental reflections

http://www.rometotalrealism.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome:_Total_Realism**Playing(updated 26-07-07) Tend to play Rome mostly, when playing them you have to take out the Greeks to the south. Southern Italy is owned by them. This is not easy as you only have three cities that can make armies.

Once that is done I then take Syracuse and the other cities on the island off Italy, then turn north. Next the Gauls in north Italy get it, they are easy to beat it just that there are an awful lot of them, until the whole of Italy is under control.

Usually I then head west and aim for Spain. The Iberians are no real challenge, so long as you have a fairly large army. Then its time to head north and finish off the pesky Gauls. I try for an alliance with Germania, leave them for later on. Let them build up numbers and get some decent size cities first.

My next target is usually Illeria, and a trek south to the various city states of Greece. To be fair this is a walk in the park, they fight each other and as they just have phallanx troops not much of a challenge.

A few turns to build up a fleet and its pop an army on board and take the islands in the Med. They are worth it for trade and also as staging posts to launch invasions later on.

Tags:Rome total war
Rome total realism
Rome: Barbarian Invasion
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