Rome: Total War (PC)

...The family tree system in Rome: Total War is quite simple. Your family members marry over time, and then have children, and the generations continue. Your daughters may not be given control of anything, only the men of the family may be given a role in the Empire.

Each family member possesses certain traits, some may be highly bureaucratic and intelligent, some may see the bigger picture when it comes to policy making, rather than ...
...the new features introduced in Rome: Total War is the senate. The senate adds an aspect of chance to the game, each time you play the missions given can be totally different. Missions usually entail taking a certain city, or blockading ports, or establishing trade agreements with other civilized peoples.

Before I go onto to explain city development, I will first explain the aspects of diplomacy. Each major faction takes turns just ... more

The Total War series has represented an original and refreshing new direction for strategy games in general. The gist is quite basic, you command armies into battles, inbetween managing the cities, towns and settlements that make up your empire.

Introduction

In this, the third Total War game currently on the market, you take control of the Roman Empire as head of one of three different families. The northern, Gaul-bordered House of Julii. The southern-Sicily based Scipii, and the Brutii who are based in the east of Italy. In an intriguing addition you may also play as the Gallic empire actually defending your lands from the invading Romans.
The family tree system in Rome: Total War is quite simple. Your family members marry over time, and then have children, and the generations continue. Your daughters may not be given control of anything, only the men of the family may be given a role in the Empire.

Each family member possesses certain traits, some may be highly bureaucratic and intelligent, some may see the bigger picture when it comes to policy making, rather than nitpicking every triviality coming his way. Some family members may be quite mad, their relatively harmless eccentricity often developments into full blown insanity later in life. A very thoughtful element comes when you play as the Gauls, the Gauls possessed no central government and (contrary to popular belief) were quite peaceful people. Thus, instead of the jobs that come with the Roman senate, the Gauls are granted other traits like intelligence to compensate. Yes even your members fertility is a trait, meaning that some men could be unable to produce children, while others are able to produce several over the course of their lives.
Speaking from experience, the most children a couple has ever had during my campaign is five, most often only two or three children are born per couple.

Game Overview

The game begins during the 3rd century BC. You start with two cities, one being your capital. Aswell as this you are given one small army to command, commanded by the original head of the family.
As with many strategy games, time passes in turns. With each set during a 6 month time period, with half your turns being set during Winter, and half during Summer.

The seasons are more than just for show, in the northernmost provinces of Europe during the Winter months, snow covers most of the land. This can hinder your troops during battle somewhat. A similar phenomenon occurs in Summer in the hot deserts of Northern Africa and eastwards toward the Middle East.

One of the new features introduced in Rome: Total War is the senate. The senate adds an aspect of chance to the game, each time you play the missions given can be totally different. Missions usually entail taking a certain city, or blockading ports, or establishing trade agreements with other civilized peoples.

Before I go onto to explain city development, I will first explain the aspects of diplomacy. Each major faction takes turns just like yours. Some have the common decency to declare war prior to any assaults, while others (particularily the northern Europeans) will simply attack out of the blue.
So while your still cooking up plans for world domination, still lacking the forces sufficient to wipe out a faction you can employ diplomats.
Diplomats are able to bribe and provide incentives to other faction members, aswell as opening up trade agreements which can prove vital if you are to finance many of the diverse projects you'll embark on during the course of a game.
The city management or "campaign" segment of the game is fairly basic. Very basic infact. As mentioned you begin with only two cities, as you conquer foreign settlements you must first properly "integrate" the people to Roman culture. To do this, you must build a Governors Palace, a symbol of Roman power and dominance.

Once the palace has been constructed, you can commence work on construction projects, or (depending on the military facilities available) recruit new units for your armies, or indeed retrain your decimated divisions to bring them back to full strength ready to fight another battle or two.

The selection of construction projects is quite varied. A few structures solely benefit the military side of your empire (target ranges, stables, barracks, etc) while some are entirely trade or civilly based (markets, temples, sewers etc). Cities may also lay down roads, these benefit trade, and allow your army (or indeed enemy armies) to move faster. Not to mention city walls, which are vital during a siege, walls also make your settlement invularable to roaming brigands and small bands of warriors, due to the fact they can't construct equipment suitable for a siege.
Cities have a set rate of growth each turn, when a city reaches a certain number of citizens you may upgrade your palace to something even more lavish and controlling, eventually having a massive governing estate.

As a city upgrades, improved versions of structures become available. Roads become paved roads, paved roads become highways. Simple traders become markets, markets become forums. Ports become shipwrights, and so on.
As soon as your town reaches the third tier of this system, other more luxury buildings become available. These include Coloseums for gladiatiorial games, and Academies for education and administerative purposes, these are extremely costly, rightly so as as you open up trade and invest heavily in your economy cash does begin to pile up.

The other side to production within a town or city is the military. The military units available in Rome: Total War are vast to say the least. These too depend on the size of your cities, you must upgrade your military structures in order to unlock these new units, these include more advanced legions like Principes. Heavy cavalry units, and better forms of missile infantry. Also once a city is literally huge, you can create siege weapons like Onagers (The Roman variation of catapults) and Ballistas (A massive, crossbow resembling piece of siege equipment.
True to history, the military changes over time, pertaining to historical events. Gaius Maius reformed the Roman military making it much more fair towards the people, and also allowed for larger divisions to protect the Empires vast (and constantly assaulted) borders. This key event modernizes some units (archers become archer auxilia for example, and "age" ranked units are eliminated, replaced by the legions that so characterize the Roman empire.)

Before all this expansion is possible, the city must first grow. Population growth is based on several aspects, the tax rate, certain structures (in particular farms), and of course the population to begin with. Rather than give you a straight estimate as to how many people will be born into your town each turn, the growth is expressed as a percentage. So if you wish to calculate how long it is before one of your towns advances a tier i'm afraid you'll need to do some maths!
The population can indeed revolt against your rule, this is particularily true in newly conquered towns, the people will not instantly become competant serving Romans. Revolts usually happen if a military garrison is too low, or if the Tax rate is too high. If your people are unhappy the odds on assassination attempts rises, due to discontent among the population. In my experience however these assassinations are rare, occuring mostly in newly conquered towns.

Finally, a huge factor of the city management sector is your governors. Inconveniently, these must be members of your family. So, it is possible you may end up with a completely duff manager for some of your towns, simply due to the personal traits and ineptitude of the given member.
Governors have a few effects upon your cities, notably the tax revenue gained, the more popular and influential the man is, the less likely the population will revolt in times of hardship. A governor is needed if your to build any improvements to the time whatsoever. So if your unfortunately short on male family members, you will have to wait till more come of age. This is one reason you'll want to limit your conquering to perhaps a few cities at a time. After all, the empire was by no means built overnight!

So you've got a few cities and have begun to amass a fairly decent army. Theres a particularily annoying settlement on the horizon, which occansionally sends out skirmishing forces which hinder your progress due to their rampant nature. What do you do....
Well, conquering that settlement seems a good idea, but to conquer, you must battle.

Battle!

Battle represents the more exciting part of Rome: Total War. As each really can go either way, even if your chances are looking good and you outnumber the enemy.
During a normal battle, you and the enemy face each other on the field. Your commanding officer (be him a Captain or a General) is usually situated at the back of your force.
He gives a rousing speech, then proceeds to deploy his army. Deployment has to be within an irregular shaped box drawn on the map, with your missile and siege units usually before your main lines of foot troops and cavalry.
So the battle begins, your forces march forward, the feet and hooves marching against the earth. The enemy draws closer, your missile troops commence to shower the enemy with arrows or stones. The distinct twangs of sinew bows and the crys of struck men makes battle a rousing experience.
Many of these skirmishes are reminiscent of a film such as Troy. When your lines finally meet, scores of men cross their swords and axes. Cavalry charge into whole divisions, decimating their ranks in one mighty blow.
The 3D engine makes these battles more real than ever, and whether your close up or zoomed out its certainly is a sight to behold...
Winning battles is based on a few things, the command rating of your General. The number of troops in each force, and which divisions happen to be facing each other.
Morale is a large factor, if you manage to slay the enemy General/Captain, the enemy's morale will be broken. Their troops will waver, and (provided you keep up the fight) may take flight from the battlefield.
Tiredness also determines how well your men fight, when the fight starts your divisions are fresh. But as you march/fight more they can tire, this of course effects their overall performance and chance to kill opposing forces.
Sieges are indeed possible in Rome: Total War, and can take place on a huge scale. Before sieges can commence the attacking forces must either construct siege equipment (battering rams, siege towers or just simple ladders) to allow a decent siege to take place. Of course, you could just take a few squads of onagers instead, though this can be ineffective against larger walled cities.
Sieges too are highly dramatic, its a gruelling experience as your armies slowly climb the huge stone walls, all the time being bombarded with arrows or burnt by boiling oil, finally clambering over and beginning to take the city, street by street.

Graphics

Rome Total War's graphics are revolutionary to say the least. The geography of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East is perfectly done. The land looks absolutely beautiful.
But its the battle system which really shines. Each and every man on the field is in full 3D. With literally thousands upon thousands of men able to take part in the combat all at once time. It really is movie-like in format, Rome: Total War is certainly the first game of its kind to acheive this outstanding, awe-inspiring effect.
Having said this, an extremely high-end PC is required to run these battles smoothly and without any lag. A good video card is mandatory if you want to witness battles in their full effect laden splendour, not to mention ample memory and a hefty processor.

Sound

Rome Total War showcases a few songs for both the Campaign map screens, and the Battle screen. These songs are reminiscent of the film Troy in that female vocals are sometimes used.
The battle system is truly where the audio shines though, with extremely rousing drumming soundtracks as you command your forces around the battlefield.
The range of sound effects is wide and impressive, from the cries of your general and soldiers as they acknowledge orders, to the sound of hundreds or thousandsof feet trampling the sound beneath them during a battle.
The campaign map boasts some excellent effects too, some involving events such as senate missions or building complete notifications, riots, etc.

Lifespan

As with most strategy games, Rome: Total War possesses a lengthy lifetime. With three different family houses to command during the main campaign, plus a "quick battle" feature if you don't have time to commence building an empire,
Multiplayer is also included, so if you ever grow bored of fighting the AI armies you can face human counterparts online, multiplayer basically involves a Warhammer-esque "cash for units" system. Each player is given a set spending limit to pick units from, this is useful in battle as it assists in providing balance for the game.
Historical battles are a great challenge if you've managed to crush your enemies in the campaign with ease, as they provide an immense challenge, whether it be surviving ambushes or just trying to take a town within a time limit. These battles too assist in extending the already bolstering lifespan of Rome:Total War. Put simply, Rome Total War is certain to keep you coming back for more action for a long time indeed.

To conclude, Rome: Total War is quite possibly the finest strategy game this year. If not THE finest game of the year. The rousing, dramatic battles and extremely well constructed yet simplistic gameplay is suitable for most gamers, be you a hardcore strategy game fan or just a casual gamer looking for simple fun.
Thus I must say that even if your unfond of strategy games I suggest you go out and buy Rome Total War as soon as possible if you haven't done so already. 

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