A war of all against all.
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A new era was beginning. Finally, average PCs were becoming strong enough to allow hundreds of 3D models to be displayed on a single screen. They may not be as high resolution as a game that only displays a few dozen, but it was possible to do without much lag. The Creative Assembly took advantage of this and created a brand new engine to power its newest and most ambitious game in their flagship Total War series. This new game turned back the clock from Medieval, but kept the geography in Europe.
Mille viae ducunt homines per saecula Romam. A thousand roads lead men forever to Rome. This was especially true of the third game in the Total War franchise: Rome: Total War which released in September of 2004.
Rome is a seminal game not only in the series, but for the entire umbrella genre of strategy games, changing the entire dynamic of future games to be less of advancements from Shogun or Medieval, to using Rome as its benchmark.
Everything is in 3D, gone is the flat 2D styled campaign map, and in comes a fully 3D realized map with mountains, rivers, fords, plains, forests, roads, hills, beaches, ports, cliffs, deserts, and more.
The unit roster is much larger, and most factions are truly unique. There are 3 Roman factions that are all identical with technology, but many other factions exist that are unlockable. Some notable units include Carthaginian, Seleucid, and Parthian elephants. Some factions also include chariots, such as Pontus, The Seleucid Empire, Ptolomaic Egypt, and the Britons.
Overall there is just a much larger unit variety, and maps are much larger to allow for even bigger armies than the first two games could possibly allow!
The Pope is essentially replaced by Senatus Populusque Romanus, SPQR, the Senate and People of Rome. Many Total War fans just know them as Scumbag Senate. The focus on religion is completely gone from this game, which is rather sensible in comparison with Medieval, where Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Islam all collided to form easy excuses to go to war and ostracize an unruly king. This allows the game to focus more fully on war!
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Agents have been fairly simplified for this game. There are only 3 available to all factions, spies, diplomats, and assassins. Diplomats have had the most additions though, with many new options to give diplomacy a much larger role in the game. However, AI factions tend to be pretty dumb when it comes to handling diplomacy.
Trade agreements are the most lucrative, as you can make money off of them, they're most useful with your surrounding neighbors, as overseas trade is a long process to get running.
Fog of war becomes a big factor in the game too, with provinces being large and the player no longer able to just magically see not only their entire province, but have information on the surrounding ones, it helps to build some infrastructure like watchtowers and forts to see and block choke points.
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If its not apparent this game is seen as one of the greatest strategy games of all time not just because of its options, but its growth compared to its predecessors. Rome: Total War is what all sequels strive to be, and few attain, great advancement and growth in comparison to its preceding games.
Rome: Total War was not the first to receive support from the modding community, but its legacy is so long lasting that mods still trickle out for this game nearly a decade after its initial release. Some of the most beloved ones include Europa Barbarorum, Rome: Total Realism (not really realistic), and DarthMod.
Rome: Total War received not one, but two expansions. The first one, Barbarian Invasion, continues the tradition of some random place being invaded by outside forces. This takes place after the Roman Empire had been split into an Eastern and Western Empire. The player can choose to try and keep their empire intact while holding off the invasions of the 5th Century and look to expand their lands once they've been dealt with! Or you can play as some of the various invaders, such as the Franks, Goths, Huns, and others vying to expand their lands and place their foothold into the rich Roman world.
The 2nd expansion; Rome: Total War Alexander, is a recreation of the conquests of the legendary Macedonian king Alexander III. You get to control the living myth while he marches into Asia Minor and onto Achaemenid Persia to found many cities in his name and create the greatest empire in history to that point in time. It is a short campaign meant to challenge the player in a sort of blitzkreig of antiquity. How much can you conquer between Greece and India in 100 turns?
Medieval II: Total War
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Medieval II marked the first time that a setting had been revisted with an updated engine. The base of the game is built on the code of Rome, and the map is nearly identical, focusing on the later Christian and Muslim Kingdoms of Europe.
Crusades return and are just as annoying as in the first one. The Pope will always declare one when you're too small and poor to do anything about it. Scumbag Pope. Unlike the first Medieval this one goes late enough to allow for the discovery of the New World, and some weird movements by the AI have even lead to things such as the Aztecs colonizing Ireland.
As with the first Medieval there is a large emphasis on religion, with the vanilla game giving a few major religions to influence and change each faction's overall strategy. There are Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim factions, but there are still pockets of paganism in parts of Eastern Europe around the Baltic and Prussia at this point in time.
A few graphical changes allowed Medieval II to be the most cinematic in the series upon its release. Individual troops in the same unit will have different colored clothes, different designs on their shields, some might have beards while others do not, etc. Jeff van Dyck returns to lead the musical efforts of both Rome and Medieval II.
A couple of agents have been added from Rome, the only brand new one being the merchant. The merchant is able to post himself on a trade resource and generate money, he's also able to buy out other merchants but could be bought out himself. The Princess returns from the first Medieval, and can be used to broker an alliance or as a free diplomat in the early game. Priests and Imams convert a province to their respective religion, and can level up by prosecuting heretics who pop up in provinces with heretical thinking.
Medieval received one expansion, and it was a big one! Four smaller campaigns were added in Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms, these smaller campaigns are the British Isles in the 13th century, the Crusades during 12th century, the Teutonic crusades in the 13th century, and the Spanish conquest of central America and the southern United States in the 15th century.
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As a result of all the changes and the stability of the game after Kingdoms released, Medieval II has become the golden child of mods for the entire series still to this date. Some of the most notable ones include the direct Middle Earth conversion Third Age: Total War, the historical fiction of The Last Kingdom, Stainless Steel, the ever popular DarthMod, and Roma Surrectum, a remake of Rome: Total War using Medieval II's changes.
Next time: We colonize the Americas and India!
