Rome II

[MengJiao]

The AI has certainly improved since last year.  Although they may have increased the income and/or army upkeep cheats that AI powers get as part of that.

  As the DLC Carthegenians looking at all the stuff Rome has, I think the AI is doing well.  I'm not sure if the AI is getting extra stuff or if that's just the way Rome is in 216 BC.  So far I've made progress against Rome by being as Friendly as possible with all the barbarians and the Etruscans and the Syracusians and drawing the Romans north or south alternatingly.  Looks like big battles are going to happen around Ancona soon.

[Sir Slash]

Anybody jumped onboard the Beta Patch 12 yet? And how many more you reckon are coming? :-X

[Gusington]

I may be jumping back in to Rome 2 soon to start a Spartan campaign. Didn't realize there was a Patch 12 out...

[mikeck]

Be careful of the betas...best give it a few days. Game is still good with 11

[Gusington]

My basement wifi internet is acting up so I have no choice right now anyway. But Sparta beckons...

[Sir Slash]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I saw that the late era Roman Civil War mod has been updated to Constantine The Rise of Christianity now and I'm really wanting to take it for a spin but it doesn't get along with Radious and don't know if Patch 12 will screw it up and I got like 8 different factions saves now. So I'll probably just wait. But.... it's calling my name and it's getting louder each time. :-\

[Gusington]

I really hope that there is a new version of Barbarian Invasion in the works.

[Martok]

By the by, here's a list of the changes/improvements for Patch 12: 

Technical and performance improvements:

Global

    Fix for squares appearing on certain areas of battle and campaign terrain when using NVIDIA SLI configs.

Battle

    Fix for UI-related crash in battle
    Fixed replay de-sync for siege battles initiated from the frontend (e.g. custom or multiplayer, not campaign battles).
    Fixed a multiplayer battle spectator crash, which occurred when a defending AI general was killed.


Campaign

    Reduced lag during AI turns in Multiplayer Campaign mode.

Modding

    Script restricted units can no longer be gained via technology upgrades. Removing a script restriction on a unit when the player has already researched a technology which would have allowed that unit to be upgraded will now allow the upgrade at the point the restriction is lifted.

Battle AI improvements:

    Fixed several battle AI issues in naval settlement assaults which caused disembarked units to go idle and not join the battle.
    Fix for a Battle AI bug where units could not find a path to a wall-breach, if a gate was captured before entering city.
    Various battle-map improvements to help the Battle AI use siege equipment more effectively.
    Fixed bug which caused the battle AI not to recognise breaches in some wall corner pieces.
    Improved Battle AI phalanx unit behaviour (ensuring pike units use their phalanx abilities when bracing).
    Battle AI no longer issues orders to units when they should be skirmishing.
    Improved the battle AI's spatial reasoning in naval settlement assaults. This applies to reinforcing or disembarked naval forces, when selecting positions from which to assault the settlement.
    Code fix to ensure that the battle AI doesn't try use its artillery to attack buildings that are outside of the main settlement.



Campaign AI improvements

    Campaign AI is now less likely to maintain long blockades without assaulting.
    Campaign AI is now less likely to move armies into proximity with superior enemy forces.



General battle improvements

    Improvements to certain units in unit groups who would fail to pathfind effectively when ordered to attack units in different areas (in very specific/rare cases on the battlefield).
    Various siege tower climbing fixes.
    Flaming and whilsting projectiles have been removed from elephant units.
    Fix for a bug where cavalry archers occasionally did not fire, despite being in range and showing the firing icon on their unit card.
    Cosmetic improvements to The Oracle of Amun Re.
    Shield types for Germanic Spear Levy and Spear Brothers have been corrected.
    The correct factions now have access to mountable artillery in Custom Battles.
    Improvements to siege vehicles to ensure men on the tower getting knocked into the air does not cause wall-docking to fail.
    Unit parts (armour, tunics etc) updated to offer greater unit variety.
    Various improvements to men climbing siege towers and ladders. Soldiers now climb towers more effectively without milling at the bottom.
    Siege engines will no longer get stuck on trees on the battlefield.
    Player-controlled ambushing armies can now use deployables in ambush battles.
    Naval units no longer attempt to reinforce ambush battles.
    Fixed a bug which prevented armies of only one unit from being able to hide on the battlefield.
    Fixed an area in the large Persian port where ships were not disembarking correctly.
    Increased the number of unobstructed walls in the medium and large Rome siege battle-maps.
    Fixed several cases where multiplayer battles could take place on very steep hills or mountains.
    Several battle map improvements to beach landings, improved terrain heights and collision with some battlefield props.
    Added new helmet variations and new Germanic tunics to Campaign Generals.
    Added new Eastern Horse and Hellenic Heavy Horse variants.
    Trees and units no longer clip through the ground near the Statue of Zeus at Olympia wonder on the battlefield.
    Altered ship-sorting priority when disembarking, in order to reduce shuffling around.
    An alternative bear pelt has been applied to Germanic Berserkers who don't wear helmets under their pelts, so the top of the hairline is no longer visible.


General Campaign improvements

    Newly formed armies now start with no action points and are unable to switch to the forced march stance until the following turn.
    Roman armies no longer feature Etruscan names.
    Greek 'Classical Heritage' faction trait now works correctly.
    Buildings at the beginning of Caesar in Gaul, Hannibal at the Gates and Grand Campaign have been corrected.
    Beasts of War DLC: Sobek Cultist units can now be recruited in regions containing minor settlements.
    The Ares Spear experience bonus is now being applied correctly to minor temples.
    A number of battle maps no longer feature snow during Spring, Summer and Autumn.
    Fixed an issue where an ambushing army would move at the start of the turn. Please note: Sometimes an ambushing army will move when it is discovered or you discover an agent or army that is standing on top of it. This is expected behaviour.
    When a general's unit is the only unit in a reinforcing army, and the general dies but the unit does not, The general will now die on the campaign map.
    Raiding will no longer cause negative happiness.
    Technology requirements for military ports have been altered. Tier II military ports either have no tech requirements, or the same requirements as other tier II ports.
    Corrected local traditions for Iberian regions in Grand Campaign to be Iberian instead of Celtic.
    Reduced the Siege Holdout Time Effect conferred by siege tower technologies.
    Political promotion positions for Syracuse, Arevaci and Lusitani factions have been corrected.
    Forming a confederation no longer causes rebel armies in regions owned by the confederating factions to be absorbed into the confederation.
    Fixed some terrain issues on the Hannibal at the Gates map.
    New Germanic trousers and tunics added.



Usability Improvements

Battle

    Fixed a rare bug where fire sound-effects would play after a battle had finished, and could be heard over the victory menu.


Campaign

    Reduce Slaves effect now displays the correct icon.
    Retreat button is no longer enabled on the pre-battle siege screen when forces are unable to retreat.
    Some typographical fixes in Incidents and Dilemmas.
    Tweaks to Egyptian and Carthaginian siege technology to more closely match the unlock order of normal Greek technologies.
    Fixed a situation where all new Carthaginian general or agent recruits had the surname "Gisco".
    Fix for some instances where a skull would appear on a unit card despite that unit not being dead on the post battle screen.
    Various improvements to battle-unit banner icons.
    Arevaci, Lusitani and Syracuse civil-war factions minimap and unit card colours have been corrected.
    Roman siege buildings are now unlocked by technologies in the correct order in Grand Campaign.


General

    Added a warning when loading replays from an older game version, to inform the player that results may be inconsistent when viewed in the version they are now playing.
    If the Twitch End User Licence Agreement (EULA) has previously been declined, it will no longer be displayed every time the game is launched. If the Twitch button is pressed when the EULA has previously been declined, the EULA will then be shown. If the Twitch button is pressed and the player is not signed in to their Twitch account, they will be taken to the options menu to sign in.
    Twitch streams will now be paused when the Steam overlay is active.
    The Twitch button will no longer display during Historical Battle frontend intros.



Balancing Changes

Campaign

    Reduced starting money of all minor factions in the Grand Campaign.
    Unit-balancing changes based on community feedback. Axe Warriors and Naked Warriors have also been added to the Boii unit roster.
    Reduced all technology-conferred ammo bonuses from 50% to 25%.
    Reduced General's logistics-conferred ammo bonuses from 25% and 50% to 10% and 25%.
    Hidden income bonus for African and Arabian factions removed.
    Reduced the amount of money that the Etruscan league start the campaign with.
    Added two extra Hastati units to Rome at the start of their campaign.
    The Ibossim region now belongs to Carthage at the start of the campaign.
    Unit-balancing changes. Axe Warriors and Naked Warriors have also been added to the Boii unit roster.

Battle

    Reduced the Carthage faction-trait 'Mercenary Upkeep Cost Reduction' to prevent over-stacking of the effect.
    Painted Ones and ambusher units have been given faster movement speed and more hit points.
    Fierce Swords morale has been changed to 60.
    Lusitani Spears and Lusitani Guerillas units' building-branches have been swapped, and Lusitani Guerillas are now available from level 2.
    Axe Warriors cost has been increased to 470.
    Sword Followers cost has been increased to 760.
    Bactrian Noble Horse melee attack and charge bonus have been reduced by 2.
    Noble Blood cavalry morale has been increased by 5.
    Veteran Spears hit points have reduced by 5.


Assembly Kit

    Fixed an Assembly Kit bug which removed Campaign victory conditions from Campaign mods.

[mikeck]

Has anyone tried out this mod?

steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=249694470&searchtext=

It mods the late Roman Empire 311ad. Can play 1 of 4 Romans, goths and a few others

[Skoop]

Haven't tried but it's on my list.  It's such a good subject matter I'm surprised it's not an official paid dlc.

[Gusington]

It will be, just wait a while.

[MengJiao]

It will be, just wait a while.

I'm playing Rome II online battles.  So far I've crushed the Spartans, been wiped out by the Carthegians and obliterated the Iceni.

I'm uploading a screenshot of the moment my Royal Scythians crashed into the Sworn Noble Swords and killed the leader of the Iceni.

I'm Meng on Steam and should be around off and on for a while.

[Gusington]

Obliterated the Iceni? INCONCEIVABLE.

[MengJiao]

Obliterated the Iceni? INCONCEIVABLE.

   Oddly enough that's my only big win so far.  In 2v2 games Last night my Parthenians vaporized the opposition one time (we started attacking and they left the game = a draw although they had had about 800 killed versus our 22 killed), almost beat the Spartans and Egyptians (our kill rate was about twice theirs, but we only had about 1700 to start with and they had that plus a vital 1000 or so left over, mostly Spartans) and was crushed very quickly by Pontus and Carthage.  Basically, I've learned that a player smart enough to pick the Carthegaians is easily able to beat me pretty fast.  Hard to say about Pontus since they seem to leave the game and leave the AI to wipe me out.  The AI seems to be better than the average player at holding off a cavalry attack, I think because if you try to survive against cavalry by keeping in some completely static formation, the cavalry will roll you up eventually whereas if you just go for a lot of scattered battles the cavalry cannot sustain the loses even if they are killing the defenders pretty fast.

[Gusington]

We will remember this.

My next campaign will be either as Carthage in the new DLC or Sparta in the main campaign.