Rome: Total War

Rome: Total War
Developer:	Creative Assembly
Publisher:	Activision
Release date:	September 22, 2004
Genre:	Real-time strategy
ESRB rating:	Teen (T)
Platform:	PC
Media:	CD

Rome: Total War (or RTW) is a grand strategy computer game where players fight historical and fictious battles during the era of the Roman Republic, from 270 BC to 14 AD. The game was developed by Creative Assembly and released on September 22, 2004. A demo of the game, which features a playable version of The Battle of the River Trebia, with the player taking the role of Hannibal, was released on August 23, 2004 and is freely available for downloading.

The game features large scale battles of ancient armies with thousands of warriors. The main innovation is a brand new high-quality 3D graphics engine that allows reproduction of large scale battles realistically. Another prominent feature is the integration of the strategic and tactical views - the landscape for the battles is the same as seen on that particular spot on the strategic map where the armies meet.

The player can take roles equivalent to those of generals such as Hannibal Barca, the brilliant Carthaginian general during the Second Punic War, the Gallic warlord Vercingetorix, and Julius Caesar. Among the playable factions are three Roman families (Julii, Brutii, Scipii), which are available from the start of the game, and the free Greek city-states, Carthage, Gaul, Britannia, Germania, Parthia and the successor states of the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt, all of which must be unlocked before they can be played with. Like Medieval: Total War, there are also many non-playable factions, including the Dacians, Numidians, Scythians and Armenians.

The gameplay is similar to that of its predecessors, Shogun: Total War and Medieval: Total War, although there are some additions like sieges and greatly improved city fights.

Thanks to the realism of both the simulation and the graphics, even before its release a preliminary but completely workable version of the game engine was used in two series of TV programs: Decisive Battles by the History Channel where it was used to recreate famous historical battles, and Time Commanders by BBC Two, where teams of novice nongamers commanded ancient armies to replay key battles of antiquity. The game engine was fine tuned specifically for these television shows by military historians for maximum historical accuracy.

Factions

Factions in the Original Game

When Rome is first installed, it will only allow the player to play as one of the three Roman factions: the Julii, the Brutii, or the Scipii. Over the course of a campaign as the Romans, additional factions will gradually be unlocked, up to a total of eight when the player wins the campaign. There are a further nine factions—Macedon, Pontus, Armenia, Dacia, Scythia, Spain, Thrace, and Numidia—which cannot be unlocked this way, but which play well if unlocked through a user-created modification. Two final factions, the Senate and Rebels, have special roles in the game, and as they are not meant to be played by users of this game, modifying the game to allow faction playability may cause instability.

Roman factions

Rome includes three playable Roman factions: the Julii, the Brutii, and the Scipii (in addition to the unplayable S.P.Q.R.). The three factions start out allied to each other and the Senate, and may not attack each other at the beginning of the game. Each Roman faction can also view the others' map information in real time, a benefit not accorded to any other alliance. However, the factions generally function independently, and a player controlling a Roman faction probably won't bother lending assistance to his allies.

All three factions receive missions from the Senate, but may choose to follow them or not at their leisure. Following Senate missions will increase the player's standing with the Senate, and players in good standing with the Senate will receive progressively greater rewards for completing missions. If one of the Roman factions is unpopular with the Senate, however, the Senate may begin demanding that the faction complete the missions it's assigned, and penalize it if it doesn't.

In addition to Senate standing, Roman factions must keep an eye on their popular standing. In general, popular standing tends to increase as a faction gains more territory—the public likes a conqueror. On the other hand, the Senate tends to get worried when a faction accumulates too much power. At a certain point, the Senate will inevitably request that the player's faction leader commit suicide. As with any Senate demand, the faction may accept or refuse—if it accepts, the faction leader dies and the heir becomes the new faction leader, buying the faction a few more years of Senate toleration before the demand is repeated; if it refuses, the Roman factions are plunged into civil war. The player may also initiate civil war once his popular standing is high enough by simply attacking another Roman faction.

The Julii start out in the northern portion of the Italian peninsula, and they usually focus on fighting barbarian tribes to the north. The Brutii start out in the south of the peninsula, and they usually focus on the Greek factions to the east. The Scipii begin in the middle of Italy, with one province in Sicily, and usually focus on fighting Carthage, Numidia and Egypt to the south. Other than that, the primary difference between the three factions is temple selection—all factions in the game can build any one of a few temples in their settlements, and each temple has a unique effect on the settlement. It's generally agreed that the Julii have the weakest temples. Each faction also has one or more unique units:

• The Julii receive middle-strength gladiators as units, Samnite Gladiators, and correspondingly are able to recruit them before the Scipii but after the Brutii.
• The Brutii receive the weakest gladiators, Velite Gladiators, but can recruit them before the other Romans can recruit their own. They receive no additional unique units, but their superior temples make up for the loss of a few rather specialized units in the late game.
• The Scipii can recruit special ships—Corvus Quinquiremes and Deceres—by erecting temples to Neptune. They have the most powerful gladiators (Mirmillo Gladiators), but receive them later than the other factions.

The three-faction Roman system in the game is entirely ahistorical. In fact, republican Rome was ruled exclusively by the Senate, which had much more power than is reflected in the game. Individual families might rule small provinces, but expansions to the empire would have been assigned to new governors, not left to the generals who conquered them. Generals, too, were selected by the Senate, and the roles of governorship and generalship were not conflated as they are in the game. The primary reason for the three-faction system is to simulate the civil war that resulted in the end of the Roman Republic. The names of the Roman factions probably derive, respectively, from Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus, and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major, each the most famous to bear his name, but why these three Romans were chosen is unknown to the public.

If the Senate faction is manually unlocked and played by a human player, its role in Roman policy is ignored. Senate missions no longer exist, there are no Senate officers, and there is no Senate or popular standing. If the player attempts to go to the Senate screen, which normally tells Roman factions about these four things, the game crashes.

The Roman factions can each recruit 32 or 33 different unit types.

• The combat infantry are Peasants, Town Watch, Hastati, Principes, Triarii, (Early) Legionary Cohorts, (Early) Legionary First Cohorts, Praetorian Cohorts, Urban Cohorts, Velite Gladiators, Samnite Gladiators, Mirmillo Gladiators
• The strategic infantry are Velites, (Light) Auxilia, Archer Auxilia, Roman Archers, and Arcani
• The fast units are Wardogs, Incendiary Pigs, Equites, Cavalry Auxilia, Legionary Cavalry, Roman Cavalry, and Praetorian Cavalry
• The mechanical units are (Repeating) Ballistae, Scorpions, and (Heavy) Onagers
• The naval units are Biremes, Triremes, Quadriremes, Corvus Quinquiremes, and Deceres

Barbarian factions

Barbarian factions have certain unique disadvantages. Unlike most civilized factions, they can't build roads more sophisticated than dirt paths, which inhibits their strategic movement. More importantly, their technology is limited to only three city levels, as opposed to five for civilized factions, and thus they tend to achieve their most advanced units quickly. Some players feel that this makes the barbarians boring, since they don't gain new units after a short while into the game.

Gaul starts out with a very large territory, but it's usually attacked by several other factions at once, including the very powerful Julii. Due to this and its disadvantages as a barbarian, it's among the more difficult factions in the game to play. The Gauls have good infantry and good archers, but little cavalry. The Gauls can recruit 11 different units. These are Warhounds, Barbarian Cavalry, Barbarian Noble Cavalry, Barbarian Peasants, Druids, Warband, Chosen Swordsmen, Naked Fanatics, Swordsmen, Forester Warband and Skirmisher Warband.

Britannia starts out in control of the British Isles, with only a small foothold in mainland Europe. Its armies tend to include chariot archers, as well as frenzied swordsmen covered in intricate woad patterns, and units that hurl severed human heads covered in quicklime to demoralize enemies. The Britons can recruit 10 different units. These are Warhound, British Heavy Chariots, British Light Chariots, Barbarian Peasants, Druids, Warband, Chosen Swordsmen, Swordsmen, Woad Warriors, Head Hurlers and Slingers.

Germania begins to the east of Gaul. It will usually fight the Gauls and the British at the start. German forces include strong infantry, such as axemen. They also have several units intended to terrorize the enemy, such as the fearsome berserkers and axe-wielding night raiders covered in black war paint. The Germans can recruit 14 different units. They are Warhounds, Barbarian Cavalry, Barbarian Noble Cavalry, Gothic Cavalry, Barbarian Peasants, Berserkers, Screeching Women, Axemen, Chosen Axemen, Naked Fanatics, Night Raiders, Chosen Archer Warband, Skirmisher Warband and Spear Warband.

Spain begins on the Iberian peninsula. Its armies tend to be more cavalry-oriented than most barbarians, and it usually fights the Carthaginians. The Spanish can recruit 11 different units. They are Warhounds, Onagers, Round Shield Cavalry, Iberian Infantry, Peasants, Scutarii, Town Militia, Bull Warriors, Naked Fanatics, Skirmishers and Slingers.

Dacia relies mainly on heavy infantry. The Dacians can recruit 12 different units. They are Warhounds, Ballistae, Onagers, Barbarian Cavalry, Barbarian Noble Cavalry, Barbarian Peasants, Warband, Chosen Swordsmen, Falxmen, Naked Fanatics, Archer Warband and Chosen Archer Warband.

Scythia's forces are overwhelmingly composed of horse archers. Historically, the Scythians were a small tribe by the time of the game's start, and the Sarmatians had largely taken over the steppes. Then again, neither the Scythians nor the Sarmatians had any form of organized government, so the representation of either as a unified faction is ahistorical. Sarmatians do appear in the form of heavy cavalry mercenaries. The Scythians can recruit 12 different units. They are Warhounds, Onagers, Barbarian Cavalry, Head Hunting Maidens, Scythian Nobles, Scythian Horse Archers, Scythian Noble Archers, Scythian Noble Women, Barbarian Peasants, Axemen, Archer Warband and Chosen Archer Warband.

Other factions

The Greek Cities starts with colonies in Sicily and Asia Minor and territory in the Aegean Sea area. Its troop selection essentially consists of hoplites, although it has access to powerful missile troops in standalone battles (as opposed to the campaign, where those troops are recruitable by any faction as mercenaries). The Greek cities weren't unified during this time period historically—each was its own city-state, although most were allied with some of the others. The Greeks can recruit 14 different units. They are Incendiary Pigs, Ballistae, Onagers, Heavy Onagers, Greek Cavalry, Militia Cavalry, Peasants, Archers, Heavy Peltasts, Peltasts, Armoured Hoplites, Hoplites, Militia Hoplites and Spartan Hoplites.

Macedon's armies focus largely on the Macedonian phalanx and shock cavalry, including the Companion Cavalry used by Alexander the Great. In some respects, the Companion Cavalry are more powerful than even the powerful Eastern cataphracts. The Macedonians can recruit 14 different units. They are Ballistae, Heavy Onagers, Onagers, Greek Cavalry, Light Lancers, Companion Cavalry, Macedonian Cavalry, Peasants, Archers, Peltasts, Levy Pikemen, Militia Hoplites, Phalanx Pikemen, Royal Pikemen.

The Seleucid Empire starts in the Middle East and Asia Minor, controlling Mesopotamia. Its main force is similar to that of the Macedonians, containing the same powerful Macedonian phalangites and shock cavalry (including Companion Cavalry). However, its armies can also contain hoplites, scythe-armed chariots, war elephants, cataphracts, and Roman-style legionaries, giving it the most diverse troop selection in the game. The Seleucids are quite possibly the strongest faction in the game, arguably superior to Rome in the quality and selection of troops. The Seleucids can recruit 17 different units. They are Onagers, Greek Cavalry, Armoured Elephants, Cataphracts, Companion Cavalry. Elephants, Scythed Chariots, War Elephants, Militia Cavalry, Peasants, Silver Shield Legionaries, Archers, Peltasts, Levy Pikemen, Militia Hoplites, Phalanx Pikemen, Silver Shield Pikemen.

Thrace is a quasi-barbarian faction, with both Greek and barbarian troops. Perhaps the strongest Thracian troops are Falxmen, who wield the rhompaia or falx. Thrace's starting position borders on Macedon, Scythia and Dacia. The Thracians can recruit 10 different units. These are Onagers, Greek Cavalry, Militia Cavalry, Peasants, Bastarnae, Falxmen, Archers, Peltasts, Militia Hoplites and Phalanx Pikemen.

Egypt starts in the Nile Valley and surrounding area. Its troops tend to be chariot- and missile-based. Egypt also has light phalanx spearmen. Egypt starts in a strong position, so they tend to grow early in the game, and are usually one of the great powers remaining near the game's end. The key to Egypt is to make heavy use of their superior archers. Without taking full advantage of their effect, the otherwise weak Egyptian army is at a disadvantage. The Egyptians can recruit 17 different units. They are Heavy Onagers, Onagers, Desert Cavalry, Nubian Cavalry, Egyptian Chariots, Nile Cavalry, Camel Archers, Egyptian Chariot Archers, Peasants, Desert Axemen, Bowmen, Pharaoh's Bowmen, Skirmishers, Slingers, Nile Spearmen, Nubian Spearmen, Pharaoh's Guards.

Carthage starts with scattered territories in North Africa, Sardinia, Sicily and the Iberian Peninsula. Its troops include a good mixture of infantry and cavalry and powerful elephants. Carthage is one of the more difficult factions to play, because Rome will always quickly declare war on you; your Spanish settlements are difficult to keep, and you always have to worry about Numidia at the same time. Survival is very difficult for Carthage, and it is almost always defeated early on the game when not played by a human. The Carthaginians can recruit 16 different units. They are Heavy Onagers, Onagers, Long Shield Cavalry, Round Shield Cavalry, Armoured Elephants, Elephants, Sacred Band Cavalry, War Elephants, Iberian Infantry, Peasants, Town Militia, Skirmishers, Slingers, Libyan Spearmen, Poeni Infantry and Sacred Band Infantry.

Numidia has speedy javelin-throwing light cavalry and other javelin-based units, as well as some light spear-armed infantry and their own legionaries. Numidia tends to declare war on Carthage early in the game. Numidia is a throw-away faction designed to be a place-holder to be defeated. It never survives until the end of the game, being destroyed by either Egypt or the Scipii. The Numidians can recruit 10 different units. They are Onagers, Long Shield Cavalry, Numidian Camel Riders, Numidian Cavalry, Peasants, Numidian Legionaries, Archers, Numidian Javelinmen, Slingers and Desert Infantry.

Armenia, like Parthia, focuses mainly on cavalry. Armenia is the only faction with cataphract archers. They also have their own legionaries. Armenia begins with control of the area connecting Asia Minor and southern Russia, near Pontus, Parthia, and Scythia. The Armenians can recruit 11 different units. They are Onagers, Cataphracts, Cataphract Archers, Horse Archers, Hillmen, Peasants, Armenian Legionaries, Archers, Peltasts, Eastern Infantry, Heavy Spearmen.

Parthia starts on the eastern edges of the map, with mostly landlocked areas. Its specialty lies with mounted units, particularly the fearsome cataphract-horse archer combination that it historically used to destroy the Romans at the Battle of Carrhae and which often dominates multiplayer battles in Rome. The Parthians can recruit 11 different units. They are Onagers, Cataphracts, Cataphract Camels, War Elephants, Horse Archers, Persian Cavalry, Hillmen, Peasants, Archers, Slingers and Eastern Infantry.

Pontus's troops include javelin-armed cavalry as well as phalanx troops. Pontus' territories are located in the northern part of Asia Minor. As a result, the mountains surronding it form a natural defence against the north, south and east, with chokepoints easily blocked by temporary forts. The Pontics can recruit 13 different units. They are Onagers, Cappadocian Cavalry, Pontic Heavy Cavalry, Pontic Light Cavalry, Scythed Chariots, Chariot Archers, Hillmen, Peasants, Archers, Peltasts, Bronze Shield Pikemen, Eastern Infantry and Phalanx Pikemen.

The Rebels are a unique faction. Cities that rebel due to low public order usually defect to the rebel faction, and brigands of various kinds routinely appear under the rebel faction's control. Prior to the 1.2 patch, rebels would occasionally attack nearby armies, but never cities; as of the 1.2 patch, rebels will besiege cities as well on Hard and Very Hard difficulty levels. The rebel faction, if unlocked by modifying the game files, provides a unique (but sometimes buggy) game experience for the player.

Factions in the Barbarian Invasion Expansion

As Barbarian Invasion takes place 350 years after the end of the original game, factions and provinces are very different. The Senate has bene overthrown and Rome is now an empire ruled from Rome and Constantinople; Egypt, Greece, Pontus, Carthage, Gaul, Numidia, Hispania, Britannia, Dacia, and Thrace have been absorbed into the Empire; the Seleucid empire has collapsed; the Parthians have been replaced with the new Sassanid dynasty; Huns have invaded Europe; and the Germanic tribes have unified and strengthened to the point where they are now capable of inavding the Empire itself.

Playable factions

Eastern Roman Empire: Richest faction in the game, and equipped with heavy cavalry.

Western Roman Empire: Deteriorated, but still armed with powerful legions.

Huns: Excellent cavalry with high endurance.

Goths: Sacrificially kill captured enemies.

Vandals: Settled in Rome's former northeast African provinces.

Saxons: Settled in Rome's former British provinces.

Franks: Settled in Rome's former Gallic provinces; have axe-throwers and durable infantry.

Allemanni: Another Germanic tribe.

Sarmatians: Tribe living north of the Black Sea; excellent cavalry and woman-warriors.

Sassanids: The new ruling dynasty of Persia; the strongest power in the East, rivals with the Eastern Romans, persecute Christians, and only faction to use war elephants.

Non-Playable factions

Barbarians: Additional barbarian tribes will make an appearance, probably including Armenians, British Celts, and other German tribes and steppe nomads.

Rebels: There still will be rebels in conquered provinces; the player's governors and generals can now rebel against the player, and even unite with each other or name themselves rulers.

Rome Total War engine limitations

Before its release, RTW was marketed to potential gamers by proclamations of massive, real-time, fully three-dimensional battle scenes being completely accessible to the gaming community at large. However, some veteran gamers were disappointed with the hard-coded engine limitations that cut the advertised experience short. These limitations could theoretically be removed only by editing the program in assembly code, since the Creative Assembly hasn't released the game's source code. In a program of RTW's size and complexity, however, anything but the simplest change is almost impossible by these means.

Battles

Many factors are hard-coded into the engine, limiting the scale of battles. Individual units can only contain up to 240 soldiers, and a maximum of 24,000 individual characters can participate in one battle simultaneously. The engine itself, through extensive testing on the Total War Center (http://www.twcenter.net) forums, has been shown to handle only up to about 8,000 soldiers in a single battle before exhibiting slowdown, even on the most powerful of computer systems. (Large battles of the era routinely included tens of thousands of men.) Still, RTW can simultaneously render more three-dimensional soldiers than any other game as of March 2005.

Modification

Another manner in which the game was marketed to the computer elite and veterans to the Total War series was that the game was heavily, if not completely moddable. However, hard-coded limitations of the engine has held up these operations, as well as many other possible modifications and game improvements. The hard-coding of many aspects of the game has heavily limited the ability to modify several key areas of the game, such as the faction selection. Modification has also been held back by limited documentation—much information critical to modding had to be discovered by trial and error. Nevertheless, RTW remains a highly moddable game by most standards, even if it's not at the level of Half-Life 2 or certain other games.

The first mod for RTW was born long before the game was released, when some people who hoped for a historically accurate game were upset by inaccurate portrayals of barbarian factions. They formed a team, called Europa Barbarorum (EB), to gather information about the barbarians of the period in hopes of persuading the Creative Assembly to depict them more accurately. That bid failed when CA indicated that it had no intention of making the game absolutely historical. EB nevertheless continued to gather information, eventually including information about all aspects of the time period rather than just barbarians, with the intent of releasing a realism modification after the game's release. As of March 2005, EB has by far the largest staff of any RTW modification, although it still hasn't released an initial version months after RTW went gold. There are whispers of an upcoming public beta, but nothing has yet been confirmed.

After Rome was released, many other individuals and teams put together modifications for public consumption. Among the earliest major modifications to be released was Rome: Total Realism (RTR), which also sought to make the game more realistic. More recently, SPQR: Total War was released—originally it was labeled a realism mod as well, but it has since dropped that appellation. RTR is almost certainly the most popular "total conversion" mod by far (as opposed to those that make only minor tweaks), with almost 200,000 downloads of its then-current full version in the months of March and April alone—about 138,000 in March and 54,000 in April (both figures originally from [1] (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=24430), but now gone after a forum software change). Although the total conversion that could be considered to be the only one with any chance of approaching RTR, SPQR, keeps no figures on the number of individuals downloading it, the relative size and activity level of their Total War Center (http://www.twcenter.net) forums(Note: RTR Now has its own forums here (http://rometotalrealism.com) after diagreements with TWCenter staff) indicates that RTR is still probably well in the lead (RTR (http://rometotalrealism.com), SPQR (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=32)).

See also

• List of factions in Total War games

External links

• Official Game Website (http://www.totalwar.com/community/rome.htm)
• Official Barbarian Invasion Website (http://www.totalwar.com/community/rtwbi.htm)
• The Guild, an important unofficial Game Website (http://www.totalwar.org)
• Total War Center, another important unofficial game website, including many downloads (http://www.twcenter.net)
• Description of Decisive Battles (http://www.totalwar.com/history.htm)
• A wiki for the game (http://www.kanwei.com/romewiki/)

Mod websites

• Rome: Total Realism (http://www.rometotalrealism.com/)

Discussion for major mods

Parentheses indicate that the mod is unreleased as of March 2005.

• Rome: Total Realism (official) (http://www.rometotalrealism.com/phpbb2/)
• (Chronique de la lune noire (official; French) (http://forums.esprit-str.com/viewtopic.php?t=13868))
• (Europa Barbarorum (TWC) (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showforum=60))
• (Europa Barbarorum (the Guild) (http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=70))
• (Fall of Rome: Total War (SCC) (http://www.stratcommandcenter.com/forums/index.php?showforum=36))
• (The Hun Invasion (TWC) (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showforum=65))
• (LoTR Fourth Age: Total War (official) (http://www.stratcommandcenter.com/forums/index.php?showforum=31))
• (Punic: Total War (TWC) (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showforum=64))
• SPQR: Total War (TWC) (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showforum=61)
• (The Successors: Total War (TWC) (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showforum=67))
• (Troy: Total War (official) (http://s9.invisionfree.com/Troy_Total_War_Mod/index.php?act=idx))
• (Zulu: Total War (the Guild) (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showforum=71))
• (Middle Earth: Total War (Official) (http://www.metw.net/forum))he:רומא מלחמה טוטאלית