Total War: Rome II

[I'm Murrin]

Carthage is "Hard", and I'm playing on Hard difficulty. The main thing is sending out an agent or fleet and getting as many trade partners as possible early on (non-aggression pacts will often tip the balance if they're not quite willing to trade). Of course you need a port town somewhere on the Black Sea, Mediterranean, or the north coast of Europe to really take advantage of that - otherwise you're stuck trading with factions that share a border with a road.

[I'm Murrin]

So there's now a "Blood and Gore" DLC. Basically, when fighting the soldiers bleed, and chop off limbs and heads. I do not think this was at all necessary.

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Maybe not. But I bought it anyway. (I bought Shogun 2's as well but that was cheaper.)

Due to my ongoing fight with Steam, that meant I didn't get to play much last night, what with the 150mb "minor" update that also rolled out last night, and then the servers being "too busy" to complete my installation. Which meant I couldn't play.

I did manage to get rid of most of the agents though. Then I took and lost and re-took couple of cities on a turn and turn-about basis with 3 or 4 of my biggest enemies.

As for the difficulty, this is still my first campaign so I suspect my early choices were not the best ones in terms of the new game mechanics etc. However, I don't really want to give it up and start again so I'll play it out. Holding 2 and 2/3rds provinces now and looking forward to some uninterrupted play for at least some of the weekend.

--A

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The weekend on which I decided to restart my Scythian campaign, and what a difference knowing the mechanics better has made. Now 70 odd turns in, and I hold 5 provinces and about 14 regions.

Used the confederation option much sooner and more frequently in this one. Still struggled with trade until I reached the barbarians in the west, who don't care that the Hellenes don't like me.

At war with Sparta, Macedon and Rome though. Amongst many others.

--A

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So, since I'm reading about bloody Genghis Khan, I feel, as I usually do when reading historical fiction, like playing Total War.

Turns out they rolled out a big update to RII, Emperor Edition, free to everybody who already has RII with all the updates, patches, freeLC etc. so far.

Started a new campaign and looking pretty good. And they're still scheduling patches.

Must say, their dedication to fixing this particular title has been little short of impressive.

Also, I see the next title has been announced: Total War:Atilla

Of course I will get it in the end. Not going to rush at all though. Maybe I'll pick up Fall of the Samurai while I wait.

--A

[I'm Murrin]

Is that a full title, or a campaign like Alexander and Napoleon?

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A full title. (Napoleon was a full title too btw.)

(The RII Empire Edition has a new campaign included in it too, the Imperator Augustus campaign.)

--A

[I'm Murrin]

I thought Napoleon was a smaller map with a narrow focus built using the existing Empire engine (although I hear they fixed its problems for that release). Yeah, different from Alexander, but not a full new Total War.

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Well, by full title I meant "standalone."

I really liked Napoleon, although the Peninsular War expansion was the best part of it. I actually still have it installed.

--A