Paradox's Upcoming Game - Imperator: Rome ...Excellent News!

[Jarhead0331]

I'm not begrudging you, bro...just busting your balls. Wait for it to go on sale if you can. No big deal.

[W8taminute]

Opinion on the game:Arch Warhammer's take on the game

On reflection, I thought I was being unfairly grumpy earlier but that review is damning. It's worth watching to the end.

I saw that review as well.  I like Arch and trust his judgement even when he gets overly excited about his opinion. 

Emnel (another guy I really like and trust) on the other hand has given some really great 'how to play' videos on Imperator. 

My take is to wait 'till Imperator is in the under 10 bargain bin.  By then it should be all patched up and quite nice.

[JasonPratt]

What little I've played so far, I've also enjoyed, though that might be due to having played it so little yet! -- I expected to get more done over the weekend, but in hindsight I don't think I touched it.

[ArizonaTank]

Does this game still have ping pong / whack-a-mole battles? One of my least favorite aspects of previous Paradox games was chasing defeated enemy armies back and forth over multiple regions. The enemy armies were often resilient down to just a handful of men.

While there are historical examples of armies chasing their defeated enemies down, there are also examples of whole armies shattering after one or two defeats. But regardless of the historical modeling, chasing a defeated enemy army down and fighting battle after battle, just is not very fun. 

[Ian C]

I'm not begrudging you, bro...just busting your balls. Wait for it to go on sale if you can. No big deal.

I understand. I guess I read it in a certain light. The cat shit in my slipper this morning and I wasn't pleased.

[Jarhead0331]

^Wow. You must have done something to really piss it off...maybe he is a big Paradox fan? 

[JasonPratt]

Alternately, the cat did it for the evlulz.... OMG THAT KNIT HELMET IS THE CUTEST THING!!! 

[bboyer66]

So far I am a little disappointed with this game. It pretty much is just a reskinning of EU IV with some non interesting mechanics thrown in(Trade micromanagement, and families). The main challenge I have found in learning the game so far, is just figuring out what the EUIV mechanic is re-skinned as. Moving armies and navies is exactly the same, and the enemy AI seems to perform adequately. Micromanagement of trade deals is monotonous, and gets boring real quick. The number of government officials and families is way too large for you to really care about any of them. You pretty much just start placing people in positions based on their stats, and replace them when prompted. Upgrading cities also becomes quite monotonous as you wait till you get enough gold, then go through your provinces one by one trying to figure out who needs building upgrades. Another problem is the number of city/provinces is getting ridiculous. Some times, less is more. This game should cut or merge the number of city/provinces in half. Especially since you have to do all the upgrades for them. Was hoping that battle detail, and battle options, would be given a major upgrade, but once again it is the same exact thing as EUIV , with less troop, and ship types. Not really getting much "Ancient" flavor either from this game. Lots of little nit-picky stuff (like ports not showing they are blockaded) need addressed as well. So to be honest, I just cant recommend this game in it's current form. EUIV with all it's expansions is much more fleshed out (Paradoxs expansion policy is a whole other discussion). Rome just adds lots of provinces and micromanagement, that is really not all that interesting. It can be fun when moving your armies around, and conquering your neighbors. But that was already done in EUIV. My recommendation is to hold off on purchasing, and get this game, and any expansions at a discount in the future.

[CJReich46]

Cute cat hat.  :)

^Wow. You must have done something to really piss it off...maybe he is a big Paradox fan? 

[Pete Dero]

https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/imperator-rome-pc/

For the next 20 hours 20% off with VIP access (just need to be registered).

around 32€ or $31

[mikeck]

I'm loving it. As far as it being a re-skinned EU IV...I just disagree. The trade mechanic is from Vicky 2 and far more complex than EU. And the military stuff where you set tactics for your forces based on composition and enemy forces isn't EU IV. I mean, it's ALL the same engine so in that way, EU IV is a re-skinned EU III.

But the trade, military stuff, and the character management is NOT EU. It's a mix of EU, CK and Vicky.

But, as I said before, if you don't like EU IV, I don't see you liking this one as the pacing and such is similar

[JasonPratt]

Rimmy, usually a humorous game player, takes time off from joking around to give his opinion that the 'mana' system defeats the strategic design of the game.

(There's still some humor on occasion.)

[bboyer66]

I'm loving it. As far as it being a re-skinned EU IV...I just disagree. The trade mechanic is from Vicky 2 and far more complex than EU. And the military stuff where you set tactics for your forces based on composition and enemy forces isn't EU IV. I mean, it's ALL the same engine so in that way, EU IV is a re-skinned EU III.

But the trade, military stuff, and the character management is NOT EU. It's a mix of EU, CK and Vicky.

But, as I said before, if you don't like EU IV, I don't see you liking this one as the pacing and such is similar

I love EUIV, this not so much. Trade is literally micromanaging what bonuses you get based on what item you want to import. It's not complex, it's just tedious. To make matters worse, you have to go back and choose imports over and over again as other countries are conquered, or whatever makes them cancel the trade agreement.  Not all that fun. Tactics are pretty much based on what units you have in your Army, so you pretty much just set it, and forget it.  The families and characters is what really separates this from EUIV and as I said before that just falls very flat . Too many families and characters to really care about any of them.  Select the ones with the highest mix of loyalty and rating and that is about it. 

[mikeck]

I'm sure anyone who has played EU or it's ilk knows this, but for others: keep in mind that you unlock many options as you advance in your various "tech" fields. This is particularly true with buildings and such I believe. So an initial play through may seem like there isn't much to do but eventually, things open up.

On another note, I took over a neighboring minor power. I had the options of killing, improsoning or banishing their noble families (among other options). I chose to adopt two of the families into my empire due to some pretty decent characters. Crucified the rest...obviously. Also tried to convince an enemy general to come to my side but I don't think his loyalty was quite low enough. I'm interers to see if he brings the army with him or just loyal units

That brings up another feature. As a general stays in command over time, certain units in the army will become loyal to him. Normally, that just means they can't be removed from the stack while he commands it; BUT, if his loyalty goes....or he gets a better offer from another empire, he can revolt and all those loyal units stay with him. So rotate leaders folks...don't be a Roman Consul and let your general conquer and reward units with wealth so they become loyal to him!

See!....there's cool stuff in there

[devoncop]

I'm sure anyone who has played EU or it's ilk knows this, but for others: keep in mind that you unlock many options as you advance in your various "tech" fields. This is particularly true with buildings and such I believe. So an initial play through may seem like there isn't much to do but eventually, things open up.

On another note, I took over a neighboring minor power. I had the options of killing, improsoning or banishing their noble families (among other options). I chose to adopt two of the families into my empire due to some pretty decent characters. Crucified the rest...obviously. Also tried to convince an enemy general to come to my side but I don't think his loyalty was quite low enough. I'm interers to see if he brings the army with him or just loyal units

That brings up another feature. As a general stays in command over time, certain units in the army will become loyal to him. Normally, that just means they can't be removed from the stack while he commands it; BUT, if his loyalty goes....or he gets a better offer from another empire, he can revolt and all those loyal units stay with him. So rotate leaders folks...don't be a Roman Consul and let your general conquer and reward units with wealth so they become loyal to him!

See!....there's cool stuff in there

I agree fully Mike.

I am having a great playground as Epirus at the minute (Macedon stomped me first attempt) and my defensive league has knocked out one of Macedon's allies this game and in a very tight battle Pyrrhus's own army managed to repulse superior invading Macedonian armies in the mountains passes Easy of the capital.

My Boetian allies intervened helpfully in the Macedonians rear and they are now in some difficulty and having to felt on mercenaries.....

It will only improve with patches.

Happy days.