Rome II

[Nefaro]

Patch 11 out today

??? 
Am i the only one who had no idea another patch was in the works.... Wasn't patch 10 released like, a couple of days ago???

So much for my DEI campaign...*sigh*

Yeah.. I had just added a small battle mod and started a new campaign a couple days ago.  Should've known they would release a big update as soon as that happened.

[mikeck]

Apparently it is a pretty big patch it had seasons and wonders but here's the stupid part:  instead of making it four times per year ( like everyone has modded it to anyway) they have the four seasons alternate year-by-year... So this year its summer, next year it'll be autumn,  the year after that it's winter time.

Of course they recommend starting a new game and apparently a lot of people are having difficulty starting the game up at all if they use any kind of mod. this is very very frustrating. they just released patch 10 a couple weeks ago!  I haven't even completed a full game with patch 10 yet and I have to start over?  Arrgghhhhh

[Gusington]

Hannibal at the Gates is out tomorrow IIRC...which means I have to tidy up my Shogun 2 campaign. Didn't take me long to miss Rome II.

[Nefaro]

Hannibal at the Gates is out tomorrow IIRC...which means I have to tidy up my Shogun 2 campaign. Didn't take me long to miss Rome II.

This also means there will probably be more patches afterward.

Think I'll do some AJE/BOR and HPS' Punic/Gallic/Alexandrian/Greek-Persian Wars until the smoke settles again.  Oh.. and Great Battles Collector's Edition. 

I seem to have plenty turn-based tactical computer games for the period.  :D

[Gusington]

^Which do you like best? I ask because my interest in ancients is just beginning and I don't have any ancients games besides Rome TW.

[mikeck]

Okay I installed the patch in the game starts but I can't run any of the mods I subscribe to them and steam workshop but none of them activate in the game including the four times per turn mod. I have it installed. Radious mods not activating (still have vanilla money and army allowances

Anyone else have this

Tried re downloading but the bar stays black and nothing gets downloaded...maybe a steam issue

[Gusington]

I have had that happen a few times before. I restarted my machine and then things started moving again.

[mikeck]

I restated steam. Now it can't get a connection. They need to get their &"$! Together. This "steam is down" crap is getting real old real fast.

Screw it, I going to play Dominions 4 and maybe command

[Gusington]

Did you restart your machine?

[mikeck]

Did you restart your machine?

No need. I just confirmed that steam is indeed down on that website so that's the problem; you can't load the mods up that Have updated

[Nefaro]

^Which do you like best? I ask because my interest in ancients is just beginning and I don't have any ancients games besides Rome TW.

My long-term favorite has been the Great Battles Collector's Edition (available at GOG).  The sprite art isn't as pretty as the Ancient Warfare series from HPS, but it's not puke-ugly so I'm fine with that.  It's big advantage is it's game system, which is based on a tabletop.  Since you don't have to mess with the game mechanics, it makes the Great Battles games very easy to get into as there are very few stat numbers and such to worry about.  It's focused more on moving, attacking, and trying to keep your troops ordered and in the fight.  There aren't many essential commands;  rotate facing, move, restore cohesion are the ones you'll use most of the time (along with a Group command of the same sort).  Each of your units are under the command of a specific commander and that is how turn activation is done.. per commander.. so there will be different sections of your army alternating movement with the other side's.  That may not be as evenly fluid as a WEGO system but it seems to make for more playtime and less long periods of watching or waiting for a turn to be resolved, as happens in WEGO systems.  It tends to flow pretty quickly without getting bogged down in minutae, but still captures the spirit of things admirably.  The CE includes the three original titles: Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar.   I've had a specific battle in the Alexander campaign crash a couple times but I may have forgotten to turn on XP or 98 compatiblity mode before that happened.  Doesn't matter as the campaign just runs you through some of the same preset battles that you can do individually anyway.

The HPS Ancient Warfare series is also enjoyable, despite also having an occasional crash during turn playback.  It's a WEGO system, so both sides' troops alternate attacking or moving in four different phases (IIRC) after you issue all of them orders.  There are more orders and intricacies in the game mechanics with this one so alternating between long periods of giving orders and a large period where the turn plays out.  A couple game options can help this but at the expense of missing what's happening during turn resolution.  The interface is also clunkier since you must click on each unit, then click it's newly popped-up info panel to bring up another order panel, and then click on the specific order, then click on the destination(s).  So there is a lot more clicking per order.  Couple that with noticeably higher unit numbers in many of the battles and it doesn't flow as smoothly between orders, action, and results.  I look at these things as the price to pay for having a more intricate underlying game system.  I think the game mechanics model this kind of warfare best of all I've played.  The rulebook also goes into a good bit of detail & numbers on the system, if you're ever curious as to the detail and the large amounts of modifiers and situations.  For all these reasons, it takes some learning to use your troops most effectively and to their strengths.

My big complaint about the HPS series is that their beautiful "3D view" units' sprite art can often be blocked out by terrain and other units in nearby hexes.  It's especially bad when you have units in trees or near buildings as you can't even see them sometimes.  I much prefer using the 3D view because it gives a nice big vista of the battle, but it really needs a mode where the terrain is just a flat graphic on each hex, instead of having height and blocking the view of your Pixelaires/Pixelanx.  Not practical in a hex-based wargame where you have many units and orders to give them every turn.  The 2D counter-like view can solve this problem but you're sacrificing much of the immersion that is an advantage of computer wargames.. the graphics and resulting immersion into the scene.

As for Alea Jacta Est and Birth of Rome, they're on a grand operational scale.  It's more about moving large armies across large distances on a large scale, managing your army supplies, and recruiting more reinforcements for the grinder.  You're managing whole wars and often multiple armies.  Much different than the individual battles in the others mentioned.  However it still plays much like a tabletop game, despite being WEGO.  A lot of people are rather confused with the AGEOD series' interface and this is another that uses the same one.  I think it's my favorite AGE game and if you can get the little light upstairs to flicker on, regarding the UI and game system, it is very enjoyable.  Fortunately these don't have the more intricate chain of command system that some AGE games do (ACW, Civil War 2, Rise of Prussia, etc) so they're a bit easier to learn.  Still, the unique game system and UI can be a hump for some people.


These are all 2D turn-based games (whether WEGO or IGOUGO) so if you require flashy 3D stuff, it may not be for you.  However I think their game systems better represent the historical situations better than an equivalent part of something like the Total War series.  There is room for each kind, of course, depending on your mood. 

[sandman2575]

here's the stupid part:  instead of making it four times per year ( like everyone has modded it to anyway) they have the four seasons alternate year-by-year... So this year its summer, next year it'll be autumn,  the year after that it's winter time.

wtf??  this is preposterous.  Modders were able to create a sensible seasons system, one that even had different effects for the seasons (i.e. harsh winter can affect morale and attrition, etc.).  Kinda depressing when the modders make the devs look like the amateurs...

[Nefaro]

^Which do you like best? I ask because my interest in ancients is just beginning and I don't have any ancients games besides Rome TW.

Here are some recent screenshots of the three, also.

I think the image host lowered the quality a bit, so they're not quite as crisp as normal.



Great Battles Collection - Hannibal




HPS Alexandrian Wars



Birth of Rome





Sorry for the somewhat OT.  Will create a new thread if anyone needs more info.

[mikeck]

Mmmmm, love me some AGEOD

Edit: if anyone had the problem I did where the game would launch but none of the mods were working, I found out what was wrong. When you click in steam to launch the game it brings up another Steam window with all of your TW games on steam, there is a big button that says "Play". Underneath that is another button that says "mod manager". I had to click on that, click the box that says "enable out of date mods" and then manually check each mod to turn it on. Not sure why but there you go

[Sir Slash]

Radious is working again but no other mods unless they're updated by the authors. All my fancy unit cards and 3D Buildings cards are dead. Glad I didn't have like a hundred mods installed. Nothing like this happened with the Shogun 2 or Skyrim mods. Makes me want to fire a Bee-Hive Catapault shot at somebody.