Rome Total War 2

[Eldurian]

I'm actually really loving it. I like how combat can be very slow paced when your forces are dukeing it out head to head with similarly matched foes, but when you hit with the right unit from the right angle, enemies just start dropping like flies.

 

It also has my favorite naval combat. In Empire I would actually hold back my entire fleet except 1 ship, and fight with that ship, because of how ridiculously powerful micro-managing was, and how hard it was to micromanage multiple ships at a time.

[MasterAblar]

I actually don't mind the bigger map, but end of turn sequence is so annoying. I mean if you want to put 100+ factions in fine, but don't have it take forever to pass your turn. It was long enough in Empire, in this game it's just ridiculous. Apart from that I find the game pretty enjoyable, particularly the huge cash bonus when you accomplish the chapter objectives. Unfortunately Carthage got wiped out pretty fast by a bunch of African tribes so I didn't get to duke it out with them.

[Eldurian]

I've been ignoring Carthage so far. The tribes fighting each other to the north provided me an easy opportunity to step in an start taking their lands / turn them into client states. I figure I'll turn my attention toward Carthage once it stops being easy to take advantage of the chaos to the north. Though if the other African factions start fighting with them on my game....

[MasterAblar]

I'm finishing off the tribes in Spain at the moment. Then I'll either go East into Greece, or North in Gaul. Probably Gaul, but I'll secure the Adriatic Sea first. I'm getting annoyed with the earthquakes around Ariminium though. I've had to rebuild the damn thing like 3 times already.

[Gayden]

The AI... Oh the AI... Abandoning cities... Running in circles.. Flanking my cavelry with slingers in melee mode...

[MasterAblar]

I find it hilarious how on the campaign map, when the AI is almost wiped out he'll come attack your city, which you probably just took from them, and is still housing you're hugely experienced army,.... with pretty much the last remains of his troops, which may amount to 500 men max. Suicidal much?

[Werthead]

The Patch 2 notes are fairly substantial. Good news from the beta testers is that the patch does solve the end-of-turn delay issues.

[SBoydW]

Just picked this up the other day... It's been pretty fun. Still figuring everything out.

[Sherper]

NEVER TRUST [insert nation that betrayed you in your campaign here]. THOSE DIRTY CHEATING SCUMBAGS!

[Lanthirrhos]

I managed to not play during the horrendously buggy launch, and only started after a few patches. This has resulted in me enjoying the game quite a lot... mostly because crap works now.

 

Despite the launch, there is a lot that has improved this installment.

 

-Like the fact that AI factions actually do stuff all on their own. Rome was utterly destroyed by Cathage/Libya/Carthago Nova/Etruscan/GreekyBarbariansThatStartWithAnA. Pergamon wiped the Seleucids off the map all on their own, and Egypt fell to a couple of 2nd rate factions (Stupid Egypt should have accepted my trade agreements instead of hating me because I was Macedon). God I hated AI factions in previous games that would never completely destroy another faction.

 

-Diplomatic Transparency: Something else the series desperately needed. You know why people hate you now at least. A few of the new diplomatic options (like non-aggression pacts/defensive alliances) are good additions. @Sherper: I have yet to have a betrayal. Maybe you chose your friends poorly. : P I tried to scoop up all the reliable/loyal allies. Heck, Macedon's intro said that Athens would try and betray me and/or coerce Sparta away from me--they're both still my allies to this day.

 

-Province/Region changes are interesting. I lean towards liking them at the moment. I reduces the need to build the same building in every city and adds some nice stuff for completing the region. I also like the limitations placed on the number of armies you can field. It hasn't changed my play style that much ( I always ran around with only a few full stack armies), but it's nice to know that it's there and that I can't just spam max-stacks of troops at the enemy. Defending isn't too bad with army limits, as the garrison system is meant to delay the enemy until you have a legit army show up.

 

-Happy to see that battle markers are back. Wish General Speeches were still a cinematic though. I hate having to listen while the battle is rolling.

 

-Nice to see something besides military victories being added in... although I feel like they pretty much amount to the same thing at the moment. There's really no way to get any victory without a good amount of conquest. It'd be nice to see some more flexibility in play style in that regard, but I'll admit, Total war isn't really about the economy/diplomatic victories. Total War being the tagline for a reason.

 

I could list a lot more of what I like about this game, but I'll leave it at "I like total war games in general." and move on to a few things that I don't like. (I'll admit that they aren't huge things... Like I said, I tend to like Total War games).

 

-Navies. I don't mind naval battles, but I'm confused as to why one would want naval ships when your armies are converted into ships once sent out to sea. I'm assuming that dedicated naval units are a lot better than the troop transports of the land units. This would explain why I've gotten my arse trounced a few times, but I haven't checked the stats yet to confirm it. One the other hand, I've also had some success at using my land units at sea to board enemy ships and send them packing. Meh. I'm not sure that I like allowing the land armies to instantly convert into a navy (for free!!!).  It IS convenient... but it doesn't really track that well for me.

 

-Agent Spam. I was mired in Aegyptos for 1/3 of my game because the darned Nasamones would spam 6+ Agents and all their actions at my cities/armies/agents at the same time--bribing them away, canceling their next turn(s), inciting rebellions, and destroying the buildings of my newly acquired cities (which already have a penalty for being newly acquired, and belonging to a different culture. They were so effective, that they delayed the completion of some starter level buildings for over 20 turns. I was not amused. This problem is exacerbated by not being able to kill agents--don't get me wrong, you supposedly can use your agents to kill enemy agents (depending on their level and attunement to Authority/Cunning/Zeal). However, in practice, a 95% chance to assassinate an enemy agent, only leads to the enemy agent being wounded or escaping 9/10 times. The last 1/10 is where you ACTUALLY assassinate the target instead of just wounding him or letting him escape. When you have a 95% chance of assassination success, and your target lives 9/10 times... that isn't a 95% chance of success. :P Just say'n. What it is... is ridiculous. This is my biggest beef with the game thus far.

 

-I also have a love/hate relationship with factions still being alive even though they have no cities left. Again with those pesky Nasamones; They hung around outside of Alexandria for ages after I'd taken all their cities with several rather large armies while I could afford to send troops after them due to the affects of the previously mentioned Agent Spamming. I like that they need to still be killed, but I also hate that they were still around. I might just be biased because I'm bitter towards them. :P

 

Anyone else have any likes/dislikes about this game now that it's been patched a million times?

[MasterAblar]

I find that Armenia and Seleucid always end up fairly powerful, whereas Parthia never gets anywhere. In the campaign I'm playing, Armenia, and especially Seleucid were dominating Asia. That is until I stuck a dagger in Seleucid's back . Egypt never gets anywhere though.

 

One thing I liked was that you could upgrade your troops to the next level. Shame it didn't go all the way with the Praetorian Guard and Praetorian Cavalry. Also are the velites all Rome have for ranged troops?

 

I liked the chapter objectives, but they're not very well balanced. I seriously tried to accomplish all the bonus objectives, but when I got to the last chapter which is essentially about the war against Parthia, there was no way I could accomplish all the bonus objectives. I already controlled everything south and west of Dacia, as well as all the coast between Pergamon and Egypt. That was more than enough land to accomplish the chapter objective.

 

Didn't really care about the navies. I really liked it in Empire though.

 

I loath agents. One of them more or less nuked my army and then somehow made it retreat into the frozen mountains where it of course lost even more men. 

 

I actually haven't been betrayed much by other countries. Not at all like Medieval 2 where any nation could stick a dagger in your back at any moment, something that is made only slightly less likely with alliances. Playing as France, I would seriously ally with literally every other nation apart from the Muslim ones for obvious reasons, including a double marriage alliance with Spain from the beginning. But seeing as you're surrounded by England, the Holy Roman Empire, Milan, Spain, Portugal, and possibly Denmark, with Sicily not far away either, it can get really bad, really fast, particularly if you go on crusades. Milan are the worst in my opinion. Bunch of treacherous bastards.

 

Also I hate sieges. They would probably be fun if anything but simplest orders didn't make your troops do the stupidest things possible.

 

That said I like the great variety of countries. Certainly different from the first Rome where you had like 20 at most. I enjoy the game overall though. Most of the annoyances were to do with completing all the bonus objectives, something I'm obviously not obliged to do.

[Sherper]

@Lanth. Well I can never figure out why Athens and Sparta hate me in my Macedon campaign.

I mean, I only sent 8 stacks of troops into their territory and annexed their cities. *sigh* Why can't I have any friends?

 

@Albar. Everything about the game is fine, though I do have a few nagging regrets over the tech tree design. (Feels a bit shallow to me.)

But the single biggest bug I have about the game, is the ridiculous end turn times. I would literally go and watch something with my other computer whilst I wait for the end turns to finish (which completely breaks immersion imo). other than that, a faithful sequel to the series. 

[Lanthirrhos]

Oh I forgot to mention the tech trees. I miss the character trees that were in Shogun. You could actually see where the upgrade paths would take you, and there WERE paths. I could just be missing it in Rome 2, but I haven't found it. All of the Tech trees are pretty basic. I don't feel like the trees add diversity to the game, they're just there to slow down your progress. Which... Well, I don't mind the slower pace really... but when you've added tech trees solely to slow the player down, you probably mucked up the design somewhere. Not that I have any better ideas. Meh.

 

Another thing about navies... we used to be able to capture ships in Shogun 2, correct? I wasn't having a fever dream while playing that game was I? I miss that functionality. Although I suppose with armies being able to turn into navies, capturing ships could quickly get out of hand. Although I'd think that would be up to the player. It's not like you HAD to keep the ships.

[Lanthirrhos]

@Sherper: Oh, I see.  You extended the Hand of Friendship and brought Macedonian Rule, Culture, and "Citizens" to the Peloponnesian Peninsula and the other Greeks threw a hissy fit. Doesn't really make sense to me either.

 

@Ablar: That's interesting. My Egypt certainly got annihilated, but so did my Seleucid Empire. I'm pretty sure my Armenia only has a couple cites as well. That said, My Pergamon Allies are beast. Might be why.

[MasterAblar]

Yeah, in one of my campaigns the Seleucid Empire probably owned a good 15 cities and had literally the rest of Asia at their back as satrapies. Then they declared war on me. For absolutely no reason. And I had barely set foot in Greece. I was NOT amused. Then again pretty much every country in the world declared war on me, which was really weird.

 

Egypt never does anything though. They pop up now and then after rebelling, and promptly get crushed whoever currently owns that corner of the world.

 

Armenia isn't necessarily the most powerful when I play but they're always pretty solid with about 8-10 cities. Sometimes more. They rarely get eliminated.