Rome II

[Gusington]

Speaking of 1AD, what is the latest year that anyone has played up to? IIRC there is no hard and fast ending date, players can keep going as far as they wish. Is this correct?

[LongBlade]

Speaking of 1AD, what is the latest year that anyone has played up to? IIRC there is no hard and fast ending date, players can keep going as far as they wish. Is this correct?

Dunno. I'm in the tens of BC currently.

[Sir Slash]

I'm still at 190 BC as Rome. I don't know how long you can play. I don't recall a turn limit noted on the campaign start screen. And as the objectives evolve as you play maybe there's not a limit.

[Bison]

I'm waiting for the patches to taper off before I start a new campaign. 

[MengJiao]

I burned my yurt once while drinking coffee naked. Fortunately aloe helped immensely. I don't really see what this has to do with the game though. Anyway, for a re-start, I'm thinking of trying the Seleucids. They have a good starting position with 5 regions and several Satraps and only at war with 1 faction in the middle of Arabia. They should be an easy start with lots of like cultural factions surrounding them and sea access. So maybe I'll survive to the year 1AD. ;D

  I wanted to be the Seleucids, but after they wiped out Easy Pontus and nearly destroyed Easy Egypt -- I just want to wreck them.  I think I'll be Macedon after the yurt-burning pain fades away.

[Gusington]

Iceni. Definitely.

[MengJiao]

I'm waiting for the patches to taper off before I start a new campaign.

  I waited for the yurt-burning to fade and started a new campaign as Macedon.  Not a bad starting situation, nice location -- and after the usual early game food crisis, they have got rolling nicely.  I only have two personal objectives: destroy the Seleucids and destroy Rome.

[Marty Ward]

I have never played a Total War game. After reading the review here I think I may want to give one a try.

Which one would be better for a total noob to the series, Rome 2 or Shogun 2?

[undercovergeek]

I have never played a Total War game. After reading the review here I think I may want to give one a try.

Which one would be better for a total noob to the series, Rome 2 or Shogun 2?

as rome II goes thru the patching process and will become as stable as Shogun, i would say its just a question of your favourite time period

[Gusington]

You could try the original masterpiece Medieval: Total War if old graphics don't bother you.

[Sir Slash]

Did I say the Seleucids were an easy start? Well I should know better than to listen to myself. I start off at war with the Quidri and march my army down there and they offer me 6300 gold for a Peace Treaty. I accept and then look around the strategy map and everything east of my territory are my satrapices, from south of Parthia to the Indian Ocean. The only hostile power on my border is Egypt to the south. So I head my army down that way and the next turn all my satrapices to the east declare their independence and declare war on me. Six factions total declare war on me in one turn. Only the Medes in Mesopotamia stay loyal and I'm now at war with about the eastern third of the world. What'd I do to piss them off? Make peace with the Quidri? This is on the "Normal" difficulty level.I think the Seleucids are the new Ottomans in this game. :-\

[MengJiao]

Did I say the Seleucids were an easy start? Well I should know better than to listen to myself. I start off at war with the Quidri and march my army down there and they offer me 6300 gold for a Peace Treaty. I accept and then look around the strategy map and everything east of my territory are my satrapices, from south of Parthia to the Indian Ocean. The only hostile power on my border is Egypt to the south. So I head my army down that way and the next turn all my satrapices to the east declare their independence and declare war on me. Six factions total declare war on me in one turn. Only the Medes in Mesopotamia stay loyal and I'm now at war with about the eastern third of the world. What'd I do to piss them off? Make peace with the Quidri? This is on the "Normal" difficulty level.I think the Seleucids are the new Ottomans in this game. :-\

  That is odd.  Something like that must have happened to the Seleucids when I was the Parthinians.  I try to avoid having too many Satrapies or allies.  As Macedon at the moment I have one defensive ally (the Triballi) and a lot of trading partners.  I still got sucked into a war with Pontus which led to what looked like it was going to be a desperate river-crossing battle, but somehow things went well: there were two crossings -- a bridge and a ford.  I took the ford with the main force of hoplites and was mopping up when it seemed like a good idea to take the bridge as well since I could come at it from three sides.  That little operation got underway and I went cinematic with the javelin men who I thought were going to make a feint at the bridge and skirmish a little from across  the river.  Somehow the orders got mixed up and I found myself (and the camera man I guess) on the bridge with slingers slinging stones at us from two sides.  This didn't seem like a good plan so I took direct control and ordered a mano-a-mano charge against one bunch of slingers.  Off we went with a few unconvincing cheers.  The slingers routed and the battle ended in a big defeat for Pontus.

[Sir Slash]

To be fair, the campaign start screen said the Seleucids did have a diplomacy penalty with eastern factions. They all started with red faces but I never expected them all to rebel right away. I might be able to make peace with them but they're also at war with my loyal satrapices and that'd probably piss them off.

[Nefaro]

You could try the original masterpiece Medieval: Total War if old graphics don't bother you.

I wouldn't recommend such an old game as an introduction to the TW series.  Are you mad Gus?!  :-*

[Gusington]

Well...yes.

Marty could try Medieval 2...one of my top three games of all time. And mod the heck out of it.