Rome II

[Gusington]

^That's next!

[Martok]

I like to play them and trample Westerners into dust.

By the by:  Assuming they all become playable at some point, which faction would you recommend first -- Parthians, Pontus, or Selucids? 

Death to the Green Skins..... we need Warhammer Total War.....


PE

I suspect we'll see that in the next year or two.  :) 

[Gusington]

Parthians, Pontus or Seleucids...of those three I would take Parthia first, because of their cavalry expertise and basis in Iranian/Persian culture which I have always found fascinating. Pontus and Seleucid culture only slightly less so.

[Sir Slash]

I could go for some Parthia-Total War.

[Nefaro]

Honestly I think my brother and I are going to play a Greek co-op game and conquer the world with our Hellenistic armies.  Prior to that I will play Rome and subject the world to Roman authority!

Yeah, it'll be difficult to not play as one of the Greek leagues/states.  It's probably a question of which one.  I wonder how well each of them are filled out, or if Macedon got some extra love, for example. 

The remnants of the successor states also use derived Macedonian style phalanx-based armies so those could probably be considered in a similar vein, albeit with a bit different flavor. 

Sounds like the Seleucids will be in.. but is their old rival, Ptolemaic Egypt, in there too??  Can't have one without the other!!

All this talk kinda makes me hope that Paradox will actually crank out a far better sequel to EU:Rome.  The original, like so many other Pdox titles released during that period, had many flaws and shortcomings that were never fixed.  But now that they seem to have pulled it things together, I'd like to see a much improved game based in the Successor Wars through Roman period.  Also with an improved character system (the first was really hands-off and behind the scenes).

[Martok]

Sounds like the Seleucids will be in.. but is their old rival, Ptolemaic Egypt, in there too??  Can't have one without the other!!

Ptolemaic Egypt is in as a playable faction, although no one yet seems to know how historically authentic they'll be this time around. 

[Martok]

Launching a seaborne invasion of a rebel-held town: 

[MengJiao]

^ video -- looks like a much better game than even Shogun2, which was a great game.

[besilarius]

Nefaro, if you need a Successor fix, the HPS title Diadochi Wars might scrtach the itch.

[Nefaro]

Nefaro, if you need a Successor fix, the HPS title Diadochi Wars might scrtach the itch.

Not really a grand strategy game.  Besides, I still have Alexandrian Wars and Greek & Persian Wars that aren't near completion yet.  Not to mention Punic Wars.   You see where I'm going, here.  :-\

[Bison]

I learned to really enjoy EU: Rome.  Warts and all.

[Nefaro]

I learned to really enjoy EU: Rome.  Warts and all.

My biggest complaints were the runaway world wars that would start, from the "cascading alliances" issue.  There was a patch that somewhat fixed that, a long time later, but it also created a bug that would make your game CTD.  IIRC, there is some manual modding you gotta do to fix that.

EU:R was rather boring overall, because all the character system events happened almost completely without any input from you, and the conquest side of things was rather simplistic.  I think a character system somewhat similar to CK2's could be used in such a setting, what with Roman patrician families and nobility in others.  At least, some more player interaction in the character system, because it was all pretty much running in the background.  The game felt pretty thin on gameplay, even after the expansion that added the mostly AI-run character system.  The political systems could've used more fleshing out, in conjunction, too.

Perhaps they can re-invent the EU:Rome concept some time in the future?  I have hope since they've done so well with their last two big titles.

[Bison]

The character system was an ad hoc addition to the game, which really only effected the senate and to a lesser degree your advisor.  I think had it been build into the game initially it would have had more depth and impact.  I still enjoyed it for what it was.

[RooksBailey]

I apologize if this has been posted earlier in the thread, but an interesting AAR of Rome 2 is posted on the official TW forums:

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/73722-Jack-s-Macedon-Campaign-Playthrough?s=4e6ff68b6ce84e18d653c188fa598adb

It looks like CA added a nice amount of CK2-inspired random events, skullduggery, and character traits! 

I think Rome II is going to make for a suitable tie-in to my (continued) reading of The House of the Wolfings.   :D

[Bison]

Wow.  Rome 2 is looking really fantastic.