COH: Europe In Ruins

Its coming in September! (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/05/09/total-war-rome-2-release-date-september/)

/fangirl scream

Fucking Eh!

We need to code a persistant mod for this...NOW.

OH LAWDE.

let's hope they don't fuck it up like shogun 2.

Shogun 2 was the bed they did.

Edit. Best. Stoopid eyepad

The thing that always bothered me about Empire: Total War and Shogun 2 was that every decisive battle was always a siege, more than half of all battles were sieges and small scale sieges were not interesting, they were one big melee brawl, not as interesting as open battle.

That's what I like about Rome II, there will be fewer sieges but they will be much larger and have a bigger impact in the game. Regions will be grouped into provinces. Each region has a single administration center, into which the surrounding regions report. Hence it would be possible to take the smaller regions first, and tempt the opposing armies out of their castles to fight on the field.

Vet 3 Legions or better yet Praetorian Guards

I'll be in my bunk

Much like in real life in other words
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IO-CooA4_Y (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IO-CooA4_Y)

I do hope there's a pictish camapign. Id love nothing more then to unleash the great northern Celtic tribes of Scotland against the legion.

I'm kinda cranky atm that my Rome tw disc won't read in my disc drive even tho its brand new

I second this. Because Rome 2 wouldn't be complete without them  :-*

The Roman empire conquers pretty much all of continental Europe except the northern British isles.
How do they rectify this?
They build 2 walls and say the world ceases to exist beyond them.

Not to many places or nations can claim to have swallowed an entire legion without a trace

I honestly completely forgot about that. I had forgotten how we had royally fucked the Romans.

Maybe they finally understood that if they didn't actually invade any of our land, we wouldn't give a fuck. WE didn't care what you did to the English. No one does. If they say we don't exist and neither does Scotland, so be it. We an live with that.

But i really do honestly wonder how we managed to defend our land and no one else couldn't. I mean, we were just simple roving men, we weren't organized, and probably the least developed out of most countries at the time.

Well I think it had alot to do with logistics.

The sheer efforts needed by the Romans to get supplies and troops to that part of the world were astounding.

Also at the time "Englishmen" didn't exist.
They were descendants of the Saxon and Norman settler/conquerors who didn't arrive for around another 1000 year's.

The main inhabitants were druidadic picts and other Celtic people's.

I think it was more a numbers game that over came the Romans and their garrison of the isles.
The picts would kill more soldiers then they could replace.

Shocking that this wouldn't be the first time in history that a rabble of men would overcome a superior force in that part of the world :)

Mmmm Awwwwuuueee Yeaaaaa this shit so gonna make girl pissed at me :P

Pre-ordered as soon as possible ^^ Fap fap fap  8)

Hate to break this to you, but the main reason why the Romans never really bothered about Scotland was because it was just shit. There were no riches to plunder, no fertile land to farm, no large cities to conquer.

Same reason why no one bothers to "conquer" the Sahara, shit just isn't worth it for the e-peen.

The Romans didn't always conquer for riches or lands.
Often they conquered to do just that flex their muscles.
They prided themselves on being the pinnacle of military might in the world.

Saying they gave up on Scotland because there was nothing there is just wrong.
They wanted to and needed to pacify the local populations to colonize and settle the isles.
They gave up because they couldn't get any further, even after throwing and loosing an entire legion into the northlands.

And as for the sarhara conquering and settling it is not an option yes.
But controlling and policing the ivory and oil from it is an option.



And heartman you better be ready to sleep on the couch for that one
I know I am

Well that's exactly what I am saying, it's just too much shit to be worth the flexing. You can bet your ass that they would have tried harder if there was anything actually worth conquering or looting up there. Which is NOT the same thing as not trying at all, because they certainly did.

Very similar with Vietnam, the US could have won if they felt like absolutely obliterating their economy and drafting a very large portion of their population (I'm talking about millions upon millions of soldiers here). But did they do it? No, because the pathetic "gain" is just so immensely out of proportion with the cost.

lol I pre-ordered as soon as I heard  ;D ;D ;D

Werther there was worth in conquering it or not, fact remains that England was one an dpoasibly to my knowledge where they had a standing roman garrison, in the other provinces he ones responsible to hold the peace was the ruling ppl the Romans put in charge, oh and Jerusalem had a standing garrison as well

Favorte faction was the germania.

BERSERKERS RAWRGH.

although greece was pretty aesome.

Afaik Rome had standing armies in all of their provinces. It was only when the house of cards began falling apart that they were withdrawn/disbanded.

But most of those armies were more like the locals they came from, few of them were the typically imagined 'elite'. Those were kept for the frontiers. Generally the standing forces were poorly equipped and trained.

But spartan,
How far will you go for rome?

I am gladiator

not a single step.

FOR THE GLORY OF SPARTA!

No, they had armies that went around pluggin leakes as it where, but standing ready close to rome, but Brittan and Jerusalm where the only 2 i know, (can be wrong ofc) that had a personal army dedicated to taht province

Big fan of the Germanic tribes TBH. AFAIK no one welse like's the barbarian nations but meh.

Sparta was really sick though.

I for one loved the barbarian invasion for RTW1
My butt whole clenched so tight with excitement a diamond came out.

New Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1SFI_2b4fuUr/)

Shows new campaign map looks gud

yah i still haven't actually watched any trailers or screenshots due to letting my expectations not get thrown into the dirt.

I'm exactly the same after the aliens colonial marines debacle.

It's released in two days. If you haven't picked it up yet, it's way cheaper on GMG. £28.99 compared to 54.99€. You'll get a steam key, the DLC and preload, exactly like steam. Also if you sign up, you'll get free credit.

www.greenmangaming.com/s/se/en/pc/games/strategy/total-war-rome-ii/?gmgr=tegigupa

gameplay video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9K2_6I4-L4

also gladiators wtf?

That gameplay video is terrible and not indicative of the final product. It's from an earlier build.

I was already shocked by the lack of high quality textures. But yeah it turns out it was a very early build.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RscVeOzPiZE

That was quite moving

Spearmen are not good on the attack. Someone should have told the AI. Also is there a way to free slaves? because they are never worthwile.

You can release captives after a battle, and in that way never accumulate slaves. The slaves in your cities will die off naturally.

Also, slaves are quite the economic powerhouse sometimes. They boost my tax income by like 11% in some of my settlements.

You're right. I underestimated how useful slaves can be for a higher level settlement.

Another question: How do I move my units around like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XEXBGOrh13I#t=315) and this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XEXBGOrh13I#t=402)?

You mean poorly? How do you move your troops poorly?


I don't get what your asking with those bad videos.

The only command I know is right click to move the unit or hold right click to set the formation. But he moves them around smoothly in the same formation and rotates them around etc. What key do I press to do that?

Groups them ?

no, he doesn't group them.

You use the group formations

So, how is it? I heard it was pretty dissapointing

Wait for 2 months before playing. Playing fresh releases in the modern days is like being a beta tester.

It's a little disappointing. I mean it's a a lot of fun and a great game but it has issues. It's definitely what I would call a rushed title. Meaning it could use some patches to be fully enjoyable. The two main issues are: the optimization is bad. I can barely run on low settings without lag. The siege AI is poor. When attacking it will suicide charge Spearmen and Horse Archers. I know the AI in previous total war titles is bad, but this is over the top. Then there are smaller issues: gimmicky abilities, capture the flag, combat is way too fast, torching gates makes siege weapons useless, javelins for melee units are automatically thrown, no family tree, one year turns.

But there are great things too. Large number of factions. Garrisons can defend against small armies. Sieges are great. In Shogun II or Empire you would just rush the wall and grappling hook up then melee brawl. In Rome II sieges have a lot more depth and tactics. Despite a couple of issues.

You'd think that after all these years of making Total War games they could no longer fuck up some of the fundamentals at least.

Give it time people, as always they are simply beta releases. Consider it beta and wait 1 or so year and it will be fixed to its norm level.

1 year? they're not going to release patches after a years time. I'd say wait 1-2 months roughly the time when they should have released it, then they will have fixed most of the issues. Because the feedback is massive.

Amazing Rome II screenshot. Caution: It may blow your mind!

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/902132806328367222/4668CC721158C1D937B33F4ED8504C5EC23E4652/

what is this visual poison you have used

That's how the game looks for me. I can run Shogun II on ultra settings but Rome II I can only run on the lowest settings.

Not sure why it's like that, I can run rome 2 on near-ultra settings, i just need to fiddle a little woth SSAO, distorsion and lower unit detail one step. That does it for me.

Yay sharing time!!!

First off thanks pony! That mod u linked fixed everything almost!

I'm running on ultra/extream pretty fraking awsome game overall but untill th mod I got it was as most ppl have said a optimisation nightmare.

Also the devs said that their would be more immersive charge tee development, but tb at the rate that everyone dies and no family tree as pony said its hard to get an in depth feel towards yor faction. Tbh it just feels like a tab where u watch your percentile increase and not really feeling a need to influence in anyway :-P

1 year turns are not that optimal but that will hopefully be changed, also the fact that you can't change battle difficulties during start of campaign but they've laid it so found about in aye should have to go Ito options/gameplay and their increase au to legendary in order to get head fantastic ai sneaky moves at least I've experienced.

I have as of yet only played Rome/Juli but so far it's an awsome title that just needs some extra spit and duct tape^^

official statement:

On performance, we're looking into the issues that people are reporting and it is a large area of focus at the moment. We intend to keep patching Rome II until we're sure it's working well on everyone's machine.

AI issues and gameplay issues are also being looked at. We're taking on board all of the feedback we're getting at the moment and our development team are keen to resolve them as quickly as possible. To that end we're working around the clock.

Pretty shite game tbh really disappointed.

1. the map is way zoomed in in the other games you could see 3-7 cities or a quarter of Europe or something but this is so zoomed its like you can see 1-2 cities tops, really makes managing a bit more annoying.

2. it feels almost exactly like shogun 2.0 or something in terms of combat and ui all it does is put on reskins and and not optimize it.

3. combat feels clunky  as in most battles last 5 minutes and it's difficult to get a feel for what does what damage and the such.

4. most of the are the same which is a shame Rome 1 had a nice variety of units but i feel like it has no flavor or any sort of flair Rome 1 had units like the arcanii and different types of gladiator's and stuff for each of the 3 Romans.

 the celts had chariots and head hurlers and slingers . Carthage had sacred band cav and sacred band spears and elephants.

The Germans had axe specialist with Raiders and screeching woman who damaged morale and most of the units they had could make enemies flee.

ffs one of the factions has 3 units in every category with just standard units :p

The community on a whole hated units like the Arcanii and Gladiators from what i can remember, nearly every mod of the game removed them

The Arcanii, gladiators, headhurlers etc were pretty silly imo. It was like watching band of brothers and then a literal clown car with clowns would show up and kill everyone with inflatable hammers and oversized shoes.

Lol Aero, i dont agree at all spec in the unit category, i feel there are lots of unit typer and skins, even thou a Germanic youths do the same as roman velites still makes them different and yet kinda authentic, cause I mean the bow and arrow as not such a hudge funding in warfare in this time period and the skirmishes no matter sheer had spear throwing, and then all the factions still have chariots and sacred band, the bets do has chariots, and Carthage do had war elephants as Germanic have bloodsworn and bersrksers so yea can't see what you been lookin at really.

Ok so you don't agree that rome has a wider zoom and its way closer then necessary?.

(http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/7650/jdhx.jpg)

(http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/8854/ut8a.jpg)

I can see almost all of italy( i could if i changed the area)

where as i can hardly anything on the other picture. Is it truly necessary for a campaign map which is meant for strategic purposes to be zoomed in so you can see your units move across a board?. it would be like playing risk with a bunch of friends and sticking your nose into australia to make sure no one crossed the ocean.

Rome has elephants to for fucks sake  and guess what Rome has dogs and you guessed it another faction HAS SAVAGE DOGS EHRMAGHERD. Guess what 3-4 factions have chariots as a special type of unit.

Some factions are different parthia is pretty unique.

another note is it's totally unacceptable for CA to butcher this game with the stupid requirements by computers. i run a 1000$ rig i built last year and on medium/low it kicks my ass and turns take up to 2 minutes. i can run Coh2 on ultra everything without my water cooling fan buzzing but as soon as i turn on rome it sounds like some sort of dishwasher.

Also some of the gameplay demos and what not are totaly deffirent then the game it's self i for one hated the unit potraits in Shogun 2 and i saw a gameplay with actually potraits like the old rome or empire total war instead its just shogun 2.0

He fact that u cannot zoom out is in fact something I find gives the world a grander feeling because for som inexplicable reason causes the feeling of grandeur in the sense that he world is to large to be able to witness it in one frame.

I know Rome can have elephants and dogs but Rome does not have war elephants unles unless its visa mercenary units and also as I said factions have a similarity due to the fact when two tribes live close proximity they influence each other what ever also have the facts of ppl just regonizing that there where certain ways of having armies and equipment that where more effective Han other so they imitated those most effective.

I mean you still get gladiators, but yea it's cant be to unique and historically accurate. And tbh I still maintain that they have done a good Jobb of encapsulaiting the different factions cultures and era era related units^^

One thing is for sure. RomeTW I had way better musical score.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsuSGbw1zu0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKGO6AWoFXk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAlMaVYIzqw


Who the hell cares? the game has so many issues and this is what you complain about??? The campaign map has been that way since EmpireTW.

My 700$ rig handles Rome fine on Ultra its actually optimized alot better then COH 2 which is optimized to Nvidia and Intel Chipsets alone.

If you have troubles with framerate on a decent rig - turn on 'unlimited video memory' - this solved the issue for my friend on this computer.

After playing the original rome total war, I don't see why they changed so many core mechanics when they worked so well in the original. Why not just remake the game with better graphics and combat AI. The two things that can always be improved, add in some extra content and you have a great game. RTW and MTWII were the highpoint of the series. From there on it's goes down and Rome II is at the bottom.

Other than the shitty AI, I actually like all of the changes to the mechanics tbh.

I liked Rome, but honestly there was a reason the mods where so much better.

I'm probably biased here because of interest in Japanese history but I think Shogun 2 was the best. Unit pool to keep things balanced, enough clan variety for campaign. Besides, the dynamic between continuing to use Archers or getting Matchlock units is just so nice.

If they could have made Shogun 2 less of a Seige fest it would have been better, but for me it has the best Battles yet. I still have hope for Rome 2 though.

It's not so much change, more like removed and dumbed down features. So unless you think less is more it's really not better.


So? It's like that for every total war game. It's because they take the original concept and improve upon it. It was still a solid game, not much to complain about.


I agree Shogun II was good. It was a big step up from Empire. But siege battles were still awful and there was little unit variety. You say clan variety but they all had the same units.

Yeah and from a Balance standpoint, I like that they had similar units. Way easier to balance then Empire and Rome and Medieval and how screwed up they were for years.

Empire only had line infantry though, very little unit variety.

but thats how battles in the period were fought.
Cant fuck with history pony

It's crazy how armies are made up of relatively similar standardized units! Almost like it was organized and planned around their capabilities and requirements!

But military service, training, equipment, firing drills and formations differed a lot between countries.

That's why in empire if you noticed alot of the US infantry have slower reloads then the prussian/ british equivalent.

The long rifles are the slowest loaders in the game compared to windbusche from austria or ferguson rifles from britian.

That 'a lot' during that time usually meant how many men long was the line, how deep and thats pretty much the end of it.

In Empire there do seem to be certain elements in each individual line infantry batallion. Prussian ones have highest morale, Russian one the weakest etc.

That's not true.

The Swedish Caroleans had regiments of pikes and it was believed that rifles at the time were inaccurate therefor most of the training was focused on discipline and melee combat. Their battlefield tactic was offensive, they would march towards the enemy until they saw the whites in their eyes, then fire a volley and charge into melee. The idea was that God chose who dies on the battlefield therefor it's pointless to cower or retreat. This is in great contrast to the armies of Great Britain and France who relied heavily on prolonged musket fights. The Swedish Empire was also known to rely on german mercenaries during wartime.

The Russians had conscription and lifetime military service meaning their morale was lower and many infantrymen were in their 30s and 40s. They didn't have much shooting practice because their rifles were in poor condition and ammunition was expensive, like the Swedes their Infantry relied on bayonets and some men were known to never fire their muskets. But their main focus was artillery, the idea was that infantry in very large numbers can distract the enemy while the cannons win the battle. Russia's infantry is not entirely without merit however, they did have a proud guard tradition (elite infantry). The same cannot be said about their guard cavalry formation since they were mostly ceremonial and it is believed that rank was gained more for a man's ability in the Empress' bed than for any other consideration.

As for Prussia. The average time for military training of a regiment back then was 3 months. The Prussians had an entire year of training and they received the best equipment possible. Compared to their population they had a lot of troops but compared to other nations they had very few armies. Then we have Austria with their cavalry and light infantry and the Spaniards with their bayonets. The only countries that have a somewhat similar military force and battlefield tactic are Great Britain and France and even then they had regional regiments like Scottish, Irish and German regiments that were heavily specialized.

yes and again pony their is a limit to what the empire engine could handle.
also there is always going to be a compromise between historical accuracy and playability.

russians have the best melee. also i think they have a good amount of mods which added alot of new units i remember playing TAR mod and having probably over 15+ groups of infantry depending on which states you had and what not.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/darthmod-rome (http://www.moddb.com/mods/darthmod-rome)

http://www.moddb.com/mods/darthmod-empire (http://www.moddb.com/mods/darthmod-empire)

http://www.moddb.com/mods/darthmod-shogun-2 (http://www.moddb.com/mods/darthmod-shogun-2)

Pretty much the only way to play any of the total wars in my opinion. I really hope he comes back for R2, but oh well im sure someone will take his place.

It's ironic because darthmod changes very little compared to other mods. It's mostly increased unit sizes and improved graphics. There are better mods like Europa Barbarorum, Roma Surrectum II for rome and Imperial Splendour for empire.

dont forget realism mod ^^

Roma serrectum 2 was pretty awesome for rome.

http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/logo-en-ba212472f324afad604a74af6704b372.html