Menion
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Reply 5 of 31 (Originally posted on: 08-27-04 04:05:47 PM)
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Check it out here.
In Rome: Total war, you play as the leader of one of the great military factions during the era just before the Julian family conquers the senate to become the first Roman Emperor.
The game is all about the struggle to become the master of Rome.
You can play (as far as I know) as the:
Carthaginians, The Parthians, Seleucids, Britons (still barbarian), Egyptians, Germanic tribes and others.
The goal of the game is to conquer the world of course, and the main part of the game takes place on the strategy map as an empire builder.
You make/train units, gather some basic resources, construct buildings suchforth and so-on.
However, the map is more like the Civ series in that you control an empire with more than one city across a territory.
The map will be divided into territories, once you conquer a city/region, a certain amount of land comes under your control.
However, the map is more real time in that you can decide to place a fort at a certain area on the map of your choice, not necesarily just an "item in a city".
When a battle takes place, the game stops and loads almost a completely different game, where you are now the commander of your army. You are taken up close and personal to the terrain upon which the battle will takes place, and it has a much more RTS oriented feel to it.
Units of men, usually grouped in 60-100 individual persons, are yours to command. They act and move as a group and you give orders to an entire unit, however, each man is controlled individually by the machine, so guys can get lost, separated from their formations and such.
However, you cannot take control of each man directly, more like real life.
The "units" you control are exactly whatever it is that you built on the strategy map, if you made two units of hoplites, then on the battle map you will have two seperate units of men. (Probably 60 men to a unit)
You give orders to the unit leader, and he gives the commands to the men, and then they do their best to do whatever your orders were.
Guys are killed on a one to one basis, and they also gain experience over time.
So, if you bring a unit onto the feild into a massive battle, and only one man survives the fight, odds are you have a pretty strong guy right there, you may consider making him a commander next time.
That kind of stuff.
SO, it's an empire builder on the strategy map,
an RTS on the battle map,
and an RPG on the character to character basis.
(Yes, it keeps track of the statistics for each individual person in your army)
The coolest part about the total war series is how real they seem, men get scared, they run away, they even get tired.
A unit of 25 heavily armored knights charging down a hill at 150 foot soilders may very well win, becuase the footies are gonna panick when that charge hits.
Noone likes to see the guy next to him explode under the hooves of a horse.
Also, like I said before but didn't elaborate on, any item in the Strategy map placed in or near the area a battle takes place will appear in person on the battle map.
SO, if you build a fort in one particular spot for whatever reason, and a battle takes place there, then you can opt to set up your men in the fort.
Each city that you have built that is besieged will come into the battle map with whatever buildings you constructed right there where you built them, everything from walls to towers to grocery stores.
If it gets torn down in the battle, guess what, it's gone on the big map when you return to that as well.
Another cool bit is that you don't have to micromanage fifteen cities AoM style. In AoM you personally controll the men building stuff and the placement of every building, in the total war series, the cities are represented closer to the Civ style, you just say "Build a wall around this city" and a few "years" (turns) later, one appears.
It only acts on a micromanagment basis during a fight.
Er.. there's a whole lot more but that's the best job I think I can do.
I have Medieval: Total War, Rome's predecesor.
IT ROCKS
Trust me, this is not a game to miss.
A picture gallery.
Strangely, these all seem to be screenies of the battle map, they didn't show the big strategy map here.
A good review.
Ok, that's good to know...
<@Logan> I spent a minute looking at my own code by accident.
<@Logan> I was thinking "What the hell is this guy doing?"
<andy> moo spelled backwards is moo
<andy> no wait
This reply was last edited on 08-27-04 04:15:59 PM by Menion.
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