Matrix Games Forums

I am glad there have been many Rome games over the last few years. But... why does the game play always revolve around recruiting/buying small units of infanty/cav./missle types? Armies wind up being a band of all these little units like a bunch of chess pieces. The game play is centered around your little unit A against little enemy unit X in favorible terrain. Them you can buy a powerup/upgrade for unit A. The units have as much personality as a RTS game. It feels like panzer general.

Why can't we have a game set in the late Republic to early Imperial era [post Marius reforms] where you recuit whole legions? They serve for 16 or 20 years then you have to reenlist them. Veterens reup to a senoir 1st Cohort. Recruit an attach auxillary cavalry and infanrty. Ten cohorts of fun!! Maniples for everyone!!

I want a game where you manage a professional Roman army. Pay bonuses to keep the boy's happy. The real organization of Rome's miltary is much more interesting than the panzer general types of games we have today.

They were truly the 1st modern military. They had every think we think a professional is. From General Staffs [Paladium] to professional logistic support and professional NCO's, on and on.

While I appreciate the new Roman period games they don't do justice to the real Roman Legions.

Have you tried Rome Total War?Turn up the unit levels and you can have thousands of Legionarries running around!

Yes and RTW's AI is sooooooooooo great you'll never want to play another game in your life. (snicker)

ORIGINAL: andym

Have you tried Rome Total War?Turn up the unit levels and you can have thousands of Legionarries running around!

I agree the current games out there do not show how Rome was able to mobilize large numbers of Legions in a crisis stiuation like Hannibal invasion of Italy. He destoyed many Roman armies and they just kept rasing more, were he never got the support from Carthage to bring Rome to it's knees after each victory!

RTW allows you to build one unit per city and upgrade more units!

SkyElf I think you missed Ravinhood's sage insight.
 
RTW indeed has an AI opponent. An Artificial Idiot.

Rome has some rather good mods that allow you to raise legions rather than just a bunch of unit types. I too prefer to play when I am leading the XIV Gemina Martia Victrix or XX Valeria Victrix, rather than a group of random nameless "Romans".

There is for example Roma Resurrectum:

Roma Resurrectum

I still have an interesting game, with variations, called "The Great Battles of..." series. The Caesar version uses cohorts as separate maneuver elements, with the capability to move entire legions. It's an older game, but it offers some flexibility, and I still play it once in awhile.

The other games in the series involve the great battles of Alexander and Hannibal. I have all of them, plus several player-designed scenarios.

If you go to the Total war site  www.twcenter.net and look at some of the mods available im sure you will find it more than worth it.Theres always the instant battle option with maxed out values.

ORIGINAL: Adam Parker

SkyElf I think you missed Ravinhood's sage insight.

RTW indeed has an AI opponent. An Artificial Idiot.

LOL Adam Awwwww you gave it away.

Actually the best mod made for RTW I made it myself. I took out the 1 per turn buy system an allowed the AI to buy as many units as it wanted to per turn. I also elminated upkeep costs for all but the Roman troups and gave all regular units 7 to 10 hit points and archers and catapults unlimited ammo. I gave all leaders 20 hit points and had some hellofalong time good battles playing this way. I also turned OFF morale settings at the start of the campaign. No more of this running at the touch of a sword or spear, you actually have time to play tactically in the battles and so does the AI. You can actually sit back and watch the battle play out as well since it takes a long time to knock down 10 to 20 hit points on units. With Morale OFF you WILL lose lots of units playing on MEDIUM combat settings. This was one of the things in vanilla RTW I just could not stand going up against 3 to 1 odds and only losing 18 men. That was just totally rediculous. The other challenging feature of this mod is you have to really watch your population values, you can run out of population to recruit fast if you overextend yourself. This plays much like "Centurian Defender of Rome" now. I also gave Carthage 200,000 denari to start and with that kind of cash they can bust out into Spain and hold their own against Scipio. I give Rome itself 500,000 denari, because if you've ever looked at Rome as a player you will quickly find they don't have the funds or income to support much of an army. With the 500,000 denari it gives them enough cash to build up to be able to support the many stacks of armies they will put out on the map and by the time the civil war starts they will be ready for you.

The "Great Battles" series that KG Erwin is talking about are still IMO the best ancient "wargames" out there, and the only ones that give any real sense of scale to those battles.  They're a real pain to get running in WinXP though, and probably a nightmare under (awful) Vista.

ORIGINAL: Adam Parker

SkyElf I think you missed Ravinhood's sage insight.

RTW indeed has an AI opponent. An Artificial Idiot.

I was only making the point that you could not build a full Legion or Legions as Rome really did! I know that Ravinhood was saying a very poor A.I., but in most games it's the same thing over and over again poor A.I. programing that spoils a good concept!