Rome total War

pavb2

Hi All

Having no knowledge of these games myself so any advice appreciated.

Looking to buy Rome Total War as present for nephew but which is best version or should I go for medieval version as playing as Ireland looked good or is there a compilation available.

Any help appreciated

Maximilian

I personally felt Medieval II Total War was better than Rome. Medieval had an expansion called Kingdoms which was pretty good.

I think you should be able to get a Rome TW Gold edition with one of the expansions included on the cheap. If your nephew has Steam you could buy it as a gift for him through that. Prices for the older games are quite cheap now.

Are you aware there is Empire Total War - the latest game in the series? It's due a patch soon which should finally fix some long standing issues.

pavb2

Thanks for help and link I think mega pack includes all but in what order would you rate games?

Maximilian

pavb2 wrote: »

Thanks for help and link so would you go for empire or total war mega pack?

Well Empire is the latest in the series, and probably the biggest TW game so far. It's been very buggy but there's a new patch due at the end of the month. It's hard not to recommend it. Kids tend to want the latest, newest games so maybe go for that.

I think though I still prefer the gameplay in Medievel TW because the period is more interesting. Empire is set at the time where men just lined up against each other and fired their muskets til all the other guys fell over. Also, although it has naval combat, it's not terribly well implemented I think.

In Medieval you have more varied options, more useful cavalry etc. It's an older game though, so the graphics aren't cutting edge or anything but still very decent considering. It will also run better, particularly on an older PC.

That mega-pack has Rome TW in it as well - seems like good value.

Sephiroth_dude

I would go for empire or else medeval.

Adamcp898

Personaally I thought Rome was the best and easiest to get into and it's also worth searching around sites like Amazon for the game because they're quite cheap now and that way you'd have a hard copy of the game

RDM_83

Having only played medieval 1 and Rome extensively I would say that though for the first days of playing Rome I thought it was superior but over a longer period I far preferred medieval 1 (particulary the Viking invasion expansion).

note though medieval 1 at present does NOT run on computers running the newish (ie post 2006) NVIDEA graphics cards, and as far as I am aware there is no complete solution (which is pretty terrible not too have patched considering the game is still being sold)
which leads to my quick question
would medieval 2 run smooth with 1 gig ram, 1.5 ghz dual core processor, NVIDEA geforce 8400M

Sand

Medieval 1 is not the option your nephew will want...thats purely for nostalgics thinking if it looked ****ter, it must have played better.

Pretty much, anything from Rome TW onwards will be acceptable in pure eye candy terms. There not much point in investing in the later TW games though, its just more eye candy and dumber gameplay.

Plus, endless promises to fix the AI.

Thinkingaboutit

Rome TW is excellent. Also countless mods. M2TW is enjoyable and not too taxing on a fairly recent system. And like Rome countless mods. Empire Total has factions which are a bit too similar, though I like the sea battles.

pablomakaveli

You can get Rome and its expansion Barbarian Invasion together as well. Should be cheap enough.

gaius c

pavb2 wrote: »

Hi All

Having no knowledge of these games myself so any advice appreciated.

Looking to buy Rome Total War as present for nephew but which is best version or should I go for medieval version as playing as Ireland looked good or is there a compilation available.

Any help appreciated

Get both. Total War Eras pack is quite cheap now. If you have to pick one, get RTW and he can always get M2TW later.

pavb2

Thanks lads got the TW mega path, I'm only playing Rome at moment but finding it a bit difficult to get into (lost most battles so far).

There are some good guides on the net but these seem extremely complicated and often contradict the advisor. Are there any simple strategies just to get up and running particular with spies,size and types of units etc or is it just perseverance?

Thanks

pablomakaveli

It usually best to try and conquer nearby rebel cities first because they are easier to capture. Try and send your diplomats to negotiate trade deals with other factions.

citizen_p

i got rome god for a tener
alexander is fairly crap but worth a go or two.....
bi and rtw both have good campaigns

and alot of ppl still play online on rtw....(me, ever since my graphics crd died and its all i can run)

m2tw is good also.....alot more pretty and "deep"

komodosp

Are there any simple strategies just to get up and running particular with spies,size and types of units etc or is it just perseverance?

The simple ones I can think of are...

Spearmen beat Cavalry (if they attack head on)
Cavalry beats Infantry (usually)
Infantry beats spearmen

Anyway, the advisor woman (in campaign) or man (in battle) gives decent enough advice on how to use different units like...

Try to have a wider front than oppposition so you can flank them... As soon as you get one of their units routing (so try and attack weak units like peasants with your heavy guys), that frees up your attacking unit to help out with another one giving a two-on-one advantage with that one, and you can get them routing... When you get a couple of them routing, it will weaken the resolve of the rest of their guys...

If they are stupid enough (and they often are) to send their general's bodyguard straight into the whack zone, get your spears after him ASAP. If you can kill their general, it will give you a huge advantage!

In RTW, the AI was a bit sh*t in defending cities... Ladders and Siege Towers are pretty much the best siege weapons, rather than rams and artillery... Once you get on their walls, you should have a pretty easy time taking the walls as they don't defend them that well, instead, retreating all their remaining men to the town square, giving you an opportunity to surround them...

Especially when they start sending out one unit at a time to try and counterattack.
All other things being equal you should easily be able to send two units onto the wall for every one unit they have up there, giving you the chance to sandwich and destroy each of their units.

The best use for spies I find, other than "discovering" the world, is trying to root out enemy spies in your own cities.

Also I've never managed to keep the Senate happy, even by doing every one of their missions, so I wouldn't worry about it...

Micky Dolenz

A question for total war players.

If you had to play any one of them again for the first time, which one would it be?

I'm going to pick one up today.

Maximilian

Medieval II is probably the best of the series. Still is as far as I'm concerned. Graphically hasn't dated much either. Loads of great mods for it too.

Micky Dolenz

Maximilian wrote: »

Medieval II is probably the best of the series. Still is as far as I'm concerned. Graphically hasn't dated much either. Loads of great mods for it too.

Couldn't pick up any of them ion my travels, will probably download it from a site you pointed out earlier in thread.

Thanks

pavb2

Bought this but program is slow and seems to freeze and jump a bit is computer spec too low
have Pentium 4 cpu,2.00ghz,1.93 gb ram, program is on ext 500gb hard drive

thanks for any help

BostonB

Whats the gfx card?

I loved shogun. The others didn't really grab me. I love all the Japanese stuff though so I'm bias. Also my machine wasn't really up to playing the later ones smoothly.

pavb2

Card is sis 651, Nec Multi sync lcd 1550v

dango

Of all the TW games I've played, I must say I really liked the one (name escapes me, possibly medieval total war) where each region had its own specific soldiers. In other games I find myself asking where are those pikemen when in switzerland and thinking some balearic slingers would come in handy for pelting the ememy from afar. I've always wondered why the other games stuck to a more rigid format of unit formation?

Dacian

My personal fav was the original Medieval. Just an uncomplicated game. Easy to start a campaign and get into it quickly. It was like a fav movie I re-watched regularly. It may be less varied than MTW2,with lower graphics,less 'reality' and simpler gameplay but I loved it. I constantly returned to it and Starcraft in moments of free time. It was less time intensive then MTW2. I travel a lot for work and often used these games to while away an hour or two on a plane.

Unfortunately I had to uninstall it about 6 months ago (Hard Drive space issues) 2 weeks ago I reformatted my laptop, after 2 days of updating Vista I decided to reinstall M:TW using my suddenly clean HD.

"Setup.exe has experienced a problem and is shutting down"

This happened with both copies that I have (Had them for LAN play) Gutted, sad really but still gutted.

Sasquatch76

As has already been mentioned, both RTW and MIITW have excellent modding support. If you have MIITW with the Kingdoms expansion in particular, you'll have something new to play for years to come.

Pyr0

Currently playing Broken Cresent for Medieval Total War 2, I'm really enjoying it. The campaign map starts from Constantinople and expands all the way to India, new set of factions with a huge variety in units. The AI is improved a lot and the general gameplay has been improved, nothing too radical.

They use area of recruitment in the mod which pretty much means you can only recruit your full pool of units in your starting cities and castles. When you capture cities or Castles of foreign armies you can recruit only 2-3 units depending on the area, the units would be local units too, for example if you are KoJ (Kingdom of Jerusalem) you'd have access to your heavy knights and infantry in your castles and cities (Antioch, Jerusalem, Acre etc) but as you move out an expand you'd only be able to recruit local arab units in the surrounding areas (basic milita archers, spearmen and in some cases, medium cav and infantry).

It adds a nice dynamic to keeping your heavy and experienced units alive, transporting them back to be re-trained and shipping them up front to the fight once again.

pavb2

Any one recommend the best guides to down load for the series?

Sasquatch76

pavb2 wrote: »

Any one recommend the best guides to down load for the series?

The entire TW series? Or specific games? Mods??

pavb2

Rome & probably medieval for now

Xios

A great tactic i found in Medieval Total War II was spies, send in a spy or 2 into a city before your army attacks, usually they'd open the gates and you can automatically resolve the battle to hastily take cities on the same turn. I've beaten MII:TW on Very Hard/Very Hard on a long campaign as France, i have to say, in open battles, cavalry are invaluable, engage the front line with infantry or heavy cavalry and then flank and rear the enemy with your spare cavalry units, use archers to tie down enemy infantry aswell.

The Highwayman

Rome Total War, love it, love it, love it.
Go back once a year and play it over. Next up Egypt
Maaaawwaaahhhaagghhh!!!! World domination

BostonB

pavb2 wrote: »

Card is sis 651, Nec Multi sync lcd 1550v

I'd say is your card anyway. I found Rome slow on my laptop and a 7900GS, so I've not bothered to get the later versions. I've stuck with with Shogun.

pavb2

Changed to net book now but still looking for good guide to Medieval 2 kingdoms if any one can help

Thanks