Rome II

[Nefaro]

I don't blame you a bit.

Rome 2's combat system doesn't quite do justice to the strengths & weaknesses of various classical troop types so everyone does the rock-paper-scissors system so prominent in the TW games.

[MengJiao]

I don't blame you a bit.

Rome 2's combat system doesn't quite do justice to the strengths & weaknesses of various classical troop types so everyone does the rock-paper-scissors system so prominent in the TW games.

  Yep.  I don't blame the pike-and/or-pretorian people.  I would do it if I could.  Back in Multiplayer Medieval TW 1 I tended to field lots of elite Vikings and sort of actually do some tactical thinking.  Those were the days.
These days I've learned my basic online gaming weakness: I cannot sit still ( much less do some serious tactical thinking).  I'd rather lose 2 out of 3 games quickly and win a long crazy victory on the 3rd than build a lot of pikes-and-Pretorians and be pretty sure of getting at least a draw most of the time.  Even if I build the Pikes I still attack with them so it's kind of pointless not to just go ahead and buy the damned elephants.

[Nefaro]

Been meaning to ask..

When was the last official update after the Hannibal DLC?  I recall a small one afterward but last I heard the next was still in beta.

[Gusington]

I think they are up to 11...not sure what state it is in.

[Martok]

Yeah, patch 11 was the last official update.  Not sure when 12 will go "live", but it's still in beta right now. 

[Nefaro]

Thanks for the info.  Will probably wait to start my next campaign until at least Patch 12 goes live.

Although I was having some slow but steady success as Syracuse in the current version.

[Gusington]

Were you enjoying Syracuse?

[jomni]

Is is time to buy this? How does it hold up against shogun 2?

[Gusington]

IMHO Rome 2 is not as technically well put together as Shogun 2 or as pretty to look at, but it is almost as fun. Patches have brought the game a long way and some of the available mods are great.

[MengJiao]

IMHO Rome 2 is not as technically well put together as Shogun 2 or as pretty to look at, but it is almost as fun. Patches have brought the game a long way and some of the available mods are great.

  I think Rome 2 is one of the great gaming masterpieces of all time.  True, it has many deficiencies versus Shogun2 (which is a beautiful game), but it more than makes up for any of its problems by sheer ambition.  In many ways it does bring you a vision of the world that Rome faced and a world that had a lot of potential for stopping Rome short of dominating the Mediterranean basin.  I would have liked a more focused game set in an earlier period, but it is easy to see that such a game would have been hard to market.  So Rome 2 does make a number of compromises, but the DLC (such as Gaul and Hannibal) are more focused and uncompromising.
  Anyway, these days I'm trying to lead an elephant-free life in the Online Battles and I've had some luck with "Battle Realism" and "Extra Large Armies" of hordes of Steppe Barbarians, who certainly don't indulge in such things as elephants and artillery.

[Sir Slash]

I liked Shogun 2 better with one big exception-- the Realm Divide, which is almost a game-breaker. If you play on the harder difficulity level to get a more challenging game, it will kill you when it happens while playing on the easier levels to avoid it's effects makes the game less enjoyable, to me anyway. But Shogun 2 had more to do overall. More building and trade choices, and I think the AI was more aggressive. And the mods made the game better. The mods for Rome 2 seem to be about fixing what's wrong or too weak about the game. Rome 2 is more strategy-light in my humble opinion. But a great battle sim, maybe even better than Shogun 2. And unlike the guy I see in the mirror every morning, it's pretty to look at.  :P

[Gusington]

You're always a woman to me, Slash.

And I agree with Meng - Rome 2 is nothing if not ambitious.

[Sir Slash]

Thanks Gus... I think. I'd prefer "Lady" but will take anything positive.

[MengJiao]

Rome 2 is more strategy-light in my humble opinion. But a great battle sim, maybe even better than Shogun 2.

  I agree that Rome 2 basic vanilla is a bit lite.  The Gaul and Hannibal DLCs are less lite.  For battles (online multiplayer), Rome 2 is the
most fun I've had online in quite a while.  There's more variety than you'd expect.  It's true one sees a lot of Pretorians, but not quite as
many Spartans screaming "This is Sparta!" as you mow them down them with pointblank exploding ballista bolts as you might expect.
  For the Steppe-Barbarian-Minded, there are moments of gigantic glory as your armored horse archers obliterate your foes' skirmishers and cavalry by the hundreds in the first few minutes of the game.  I guess not many players bought the Steppe Barbarian expansion, eh?  Hmmm?
Apparently there is no movie about Steppe Barbarians.  Johnny Deppe Steppe Barbarian might be good.

[mikeck]

I think overall shogun 2 is the better of the two games in terms of quality and polish. For me, I prefer Rome just because I have little or no interest in Japanese history. It's certainly a great game though