Rome II General Info Thread

[Ninja_Khorin]

I don't have any problem with trading personally, it's hard, but it's mainly hard because no one likes me. Those that are neutral are far more open to trade, so I'm trading with 5 factions now. Didn't pay anything for it.

However, playing normal difficulty with Romans is waaaaaay too easy. Like Xant said, taking 1 casualty for every hundred of theirs. I gave up on velites, because they died too easily, now I'm rolling only principes and cavalry. Kills everything I've encountered so far, and I've fought Venetii, Etruscans and Carthage.

[Xant]

That's shameful. I can definitely confirm that you'd take much more losses than 10 with hastati in rome I.

Guess the romans are OP for now. They'll probably tone that down soon enough. So enjoy it while you can.

It isn't just the Romans, it's in general. Same thing in my Spartan campaign.

[Xant]

Also, what about ranged? Anyone getting good use out of them? I've started making pure melee armies because of the ridiculously low range of archers, and they don't seem very effective either.

[Jacko]

I have some OP slingers (6 with 1-3 gold chevrons), pretty decent if you can get them shooting the enemy. Battles are over way to fast (large battles versus AI takes 5 minutes).

[Xant]

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/77224-Multiplayer-Balance?s=b074d157e961697b7fcdaa45ec201cda

Overall this is pretty telling. Common consensus is basically that it's a melee blob fest with no real skill involved, heavy infantry overpowered and ranged underpowered. Oh well. Not that different from other Total Wars IMO. Only Napoleon has good, balanced battles with real tactics.

[War_Ferret]

Here  my pro rating: A weak 3/5, typical CA release. It's needs 6 month of patches and a lot of mod TLC.

Trading with AI is near impossible (like getting Trade Agreements withouth paying for it), though they keep insisting I Give them money, because, uh, they need it. Diplomacy broken, at least on hard.
Lack of (coffee) makes me post things I shouldn't. My game just broke because my opponent accepted joining my confederation (for the third time, insta kills it).

So then you'd say there is nothing so fundamentally wrong with the game design and balance that it couldn't be fixed with patches and (if necessary) mods? Nothing to stop it from eventually becoming superior to Rome 1 in every way? Only release problems?... In that case I might as well risk opening the box, I guess.

[[ptx]]

You might actually risk forming your own opinion? Sounds dangerous!

[Teeth]

Also, what about ranged? Anyone getting good use out of them? I've started making pure melee armies because of the ridiculously low range of archers, and they don't seem very effective either.

I have some slingers, they seem pretty effective at killing retarded defending AI which doesn't attack me when I stand halfway into their village slowly killing off the garrison. Kinda breaks my campaign, taking towns is piss easy because I can just let my 4 stacks of slingers kill off 1200 men. They do very well against high tier units as well, inflicting considerable casualties on them. Noticed this myself as well, I tried tanking their ranged with my most heavily armoured unit, but it got wrecked all the same. The game is more fast paced than MTW 2 though, so in field battles you barely get time to skirmish.

Not a multiplayer exper at all, but definitely thinking about using some slingers. They are dirt cheap and putting them a bit away on the flanks of my force while I protect them with some spears or screen them with cav might actually prove useful.

My main gripe with the game so far is that fatigue seems pretty much removed as a concept. Fights seem be over rather quick and running doesn't seem to tire my troops at all. Haven't payed too much attention to it, but I am not sure whether I have ever seen a not 'Fresh' unit. Haven't fought much quality units in my campaign yet though, maybe the fights last longer then.

Anyone used phalanxes in multiplayer? They don't seem to function as a good anvil anymore. Enemy units just bumrush them in the front, sustaining heavy casualties when they do but effectively wrecking the phalanx and finishing the fight very quickly with the result going either way. Maybe using the bracing ability might help though. Not sure if I am too fond of them so far.

[War_Ferret]

You might actually risk forming your own opinion? Sounds dangerous!

Lol, it's Mr Judgemental again ^^

Problem is, the moment I open that box, my 40€ stop being refundable. That's the "dangerous" part. After all I've read about the game, I am having my doubts. So I'm asking for opinions, which are free. Besides, I hate to buy full-priced games only to find out I totally disagree with the developer's design decisions. But then it's already too late and I actively supported them. If there was a demo, I'd say you have a point.

[Banok]

there may be balance and optimisation issues, but they will be fixed eventually and the game is really growing on me.

there are alot of important redesign of vs previous TW game mechanics, such as recruitment and public order. old public order system was completely broken and exploitable by what I called tax fluctuation. and nice additions like all the different types of buildings/cultures, its just way more vast. overall a inteligence balance of simplfying boring gameplay, ie managing recruitment from each town, controlling up to 15 agents. and adding complexity to interesting parts of the game, siege, buildings/tech, cultures, pollitics etc.

would take me too much effort to list and explain all the nice changes rome 2 has, id rather be playing. But I think eventually it will be impossible to go back and play older TW games.

there are of course negatives, for instance the victory conditions seem crazy high. you get choice but 110 settlements is a fucking lot! needs a "short campaign" option like in shogun. game also seems alot easier altho I'm yet to play legendary but I won't want to until short campaign because it will just be too much fucking effort to take 110 settlements off full stacking AI cheaters.

[Molly]

Lol, it's Mr Judgemental again ^^

Problem is, the moment I open that box, my 40€ stop being refundable. That's the "dangerous" part. After all I've read about the game, I am having my doubts. So I'm asking for opinions, which are free. Besides, I hate to buy full-priced games only to find out I totally disagree with the developer's design decisions. But then it's already too late and I actively supported them. If there was a demo, I'd say you have a point.

No worries, everyone except mighty ptx understood you just fine.

[Banok]

Lol, it's Mr Judgemental again ^^

Problem is, the moment I open that box, my 40€ stop being refundable. That's the "dangerous" part. After all I've read about the game, I am having my doubts. So I'm asking for opinions, which are free. Besides, I hate to buy full-priced games only to find out I totally disagree with the developer's design decisions. But then it's already too late and I actively supported them. If there was a demo, I'd say you have a point.

All PC games have demos bro. just checked already up on TPB.

kind of glad because my copy doesn't have DLC and I might like to try spartans and co at some point.

[[ptx]]

Lol, it's Mr Judgemental again ^^

Problem is, the moment I open that box, my 40€ stop being refundable. That's the "dangerous" part. After all I've read about the game, I am having my doubts. So I'm asking for opinions, which are free. Besides, I hate to buy full-priced games only to find out I totally disagree with the developer's design decisions. But then it's already too late and I actively supported them. If there was a demo, I'd say you have a point.

Ok, i didn't know this, i take that back, sorry.

I think it'll be worth the money, eventually, anyhow.

No worries, everyone except mighty ptx understood you just fine.

You seem to make a point of taking your hurt to other threads, whenever someone posts something you don't like

[War_Ferret]

All PC games have demos bro. just checked already up on TPB.

kind of glad because my copy doesn't have DLC and I might like to try spartans and co at some point.

Thanks for the tip, but my days of piracy are over ;)

However, if there should be some sort of hack to re-enable the cut out content (aka day one DLC), I wouldn't have a problem with that.

[Strudog]

im just annoyed i have to play in windowed mode, but also the fast pace battles are horrible, i used to play NTW3  a mod for Napoleon) some battles took up to 3 hours, now thats what i call a fun battle