How do you mean?

Been playing Rome, which is brilliant, but decided its time for a new game. Was going for either Empire or Napoleon, but couldnt decide, so i bought both. Though im leaning towards playing Empire first due to the size of the Campaign map.
There was a pack on Game.net, which was Rome,Medieval 2, Napoleon and Empire, for ￡15.Unfortuantly its sold out, but i still got E+N for ￡13

So I'm going to be picking up Rome today.

Can't believe how long it's taken me to finally get around to buying this game, after 6 years of Latin and a love of Rome that won't fade for a while.

Getting the complete edition I think as well, it's a great deal for $10 dollars on Steam.

Empire was broken IMO. It felt like a lousy BETA for Napoleon.

What I mean is that if you look on the campaign map for a settlement (town, large town, minor city, large city, huge city) of your own and you'll see some data about the settlement content of the people, tax+ trade income etc, but if you move any unit or agents into the settlement nor doing anything else in that settlement then you'll notice that the settlements data has change/updated. That was I referring too due the memory bug.

Why do you think Empire was broken and in what way?

Ive not looked too much into what mods are available yet, but for the people who prefer Napoleon, Does a modded Empire bring it close to (or above?) napoleon, or do you just prefer Napoleon outright?

Been reading about and it does seem a case of personal preference between them, but im also reading that Empire has bad ai amongst other bugs.
Im still leaning towards playing Empire, just due to the map size, but just wondering how much better the mods make it.

The bad AI really ruins it in my opinion. There is no pleasure to be gained from fighting battles as it pretty much a case of watching the enemy stand still while you pick them apart with cannon fire. Thats assuming they don't charge their general directly towards your line infantry, with predictable results. The battles become such a grind because the enemy Ai uses the same tactics over and over again (although to call them tactics is perhaps too generous).

Rome is currently installing. Really excited.

For a first time player, what's the best Roman faction to start with? I played a ton of Medieval, so I have some experience with Total War.

I really like playing Brutii because you can go kill the Greeks and Macedonians first. This leaves you with some of the wealthiest provinces in the game as well as a lot of good strategic options and natural defences. Once you take Greece the only way the enemy is going to attack is either through northern Greece, which is a front you can easily defend on account of the mountains and bridges, or they'll attack through northern Italy, which is unlikely due to the presence of other Roman factions up there. They might attack via naval invasion, but its extremely unlikely and can be dealt with by your navies. From Greece you can head north to fight barbarians, east to fight the seleucids, or you can hop on a boat and go straight for the wealthy Egyptian cities (although doing this could leave your forces a bit spread out.

I agree with Kaelin. Brutii have a tougher early game then the Julii, who steamroll the barbarian tribes once you start making Principes. However, the lands of Gaul are quite poor so Julii only get profitable if you can take all of Spain and even then they pale in comparison to the Aegean trade that the Brutii have access to. You'll have a harder time in the early game, but once the Greeks and Macedonians are down, you'll have huge income and control arguably the most profitable and defensible area of the map.

I disagree because there is a few regions that have a good income and will grow rather quick if you choose to play the Julii, so fighting the Gaul's doesn't mean that you need to conquer Spain to have a good income and besides the Gaul's army is easy to fight with the early Roman army rooster (Hastatii, Velites, Equites etc). You have both two wealthy cities within reach and here is more to http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1005000#post1005000.

I agree with Leonardo. The Brutii are way more powerful for reasons already mentioned, but for a first time player the Greeks and Macedonians are a pretty tough opponent. The Julii are much easier in the early game and are still more than powerful enough to fight off the other Romans factions in the endgame.

In comparison though, the Brutii are always richer in the end. At least that's what I've found in all my games.

True, they have a better economy than the other Romans. But actually, the game I got the greatest amount of gold was when I played as Spain. With massive focus on trade and farming, I must've earned 20-30 thousand gold every turn, with taxes at low and only a handful of cities. All this after 50 years or so in-game. It was qutie fun, especially how I could hire a crapload of mercenaries and destroy almost anyone, while my army of Spanish troops would wreak havoc in the other end.

It depends of what strategy you have for your game, because there is also the shrines for each Roman faction to take into consideration when you decide which faction you want to play the game.

Well I would like to say that I have started playing Medeval Total War 2 properly now. I'm currently playing as the English and i'm playing a couple of turns a night. Not sure if I will be able to get into it or not but just thought I would post here to say I have started. I've got the expansions as well because I got the game on steam. Not sure exactly how much is different from Rome but I will do my best. I'm thinking of getting Napoleon Total War also and working my way forward chronologically towards Shogun 2 (Which I have but don't play much). Perhaps if I try and look at them with fresh eyes I will be svcked in.

The only reason I am not playing Rome Total War is that it has stopped being fun for me somehow. I've sunk in 200 hours over the last couple months in it and just can't play anymore. Can anyone suggest mods?

My very favourite mod is Europa Barbarorum. I′m pretty sure I′ve made some posts about it already in this, or an older Total War thread, so you can look those up if you like. http://www.europabarbarorum.com/ It focusses greatly on realism and historical accuracy. Many people don′t like that, I think it′s fantastic.

Roma Surrectum II is very good as well, but only if you play the Romans. If you play as any of the other factions, the Romans get massive statbonuses to their units. This was done to make sure that they couldn′t get knocked out of the game early and that in any campaign there′d be a Roman empire. It also means that fighting the Romans is no fun at all, unless you′re some kind of sadomasochist.

There′s a Europa Barbarorum II in the works for Medieval 2 by the way. From what has been released so far it′s going to be amazing, but it doesn′t look like it′ll be released any time soon.

The difference between Rome TW and Medieval2 TW is a little different, because you have limited agents in-game meaning that you can't mass training agents. Another thing that's different is of course the merchants who you move onto a resource and let them stay there for several turns, but be aware your merchant could have been terminated by any merchants by just acquire the financial asset your merchant possess. That's the major differences between Rome TW and Medieval2 TW.

If you want to play the games in chronicle order you forgot Empire TW, because it was released after Medieval2 TW-Kingdoms but before Napoleon TW.

Thanks for the speedy reply Medivh, I actually am already playing with Europa Barbarorum and I agree with you it is great. Nice to hear that they are making an Europa Barbarorum II for Medival 2, I have high hopes that it will be awesome. I might steer clear of Rome Surrectum II as I am not really a fan of the whole OP roman things.

I learned about merchants the hard way! Denmark stole mine D:

Also I played Empire and I really really really didn't like it, so I was thinking of giving a miss

Is there a factor that effects how many agents you can have? Like a building or town level?

I still have not played Empire, Napoleon, or Shogun 2 (or 1). I own Empire but I just cannot bring myself to play it. I bought it in the store before I knew what DRM was. I didn't have the internet and I couldn't return it. Maybe I was just too pissed at that to give it a try later, or maybe it was the changes to the campaign map, or the fact that I hate playing with gunpowder in TW games.

Either way, I hated the decreased amount of micromanagement in M2TW from RTW. I was looking for more. It did some things pretty well, and the combat was improved for the most part. I don't have to guess that turn-based micro in the campaign maps of the newer games has decreased even further. I just hope that R2TW (if it comes out) is heavy on the campaign micro and AI.

Here's to wishful thinking.

Bad luck I would say if you lost of your merchants that way. In contrast to you I like Empire very much especially the sea battles and Napoleon is the game I can't play at all, because it's to difficult to get into the game without exhausting your self.

I think so the number of buildings also controls the number of agents. Even if you upgrade an existing building counts as a new building I think.

No problem, I enjoy promoting my favourite Total War mod everywhere I go.

What faction are you playing= I like the Ptolemies, Carthaginians and Saka Rauka most myself. I was actually playing a campaign with Carthage a few weeks ago (was planning my invasion of Italy), but haven′t been able to continue it since I′ve been on another PC for some time now.

I've been playing the Republic of Carthage in my latest game. Currently trying to overtake Italy, I've sort of teamed up with Epeiros to try and curb stomp the Romani, not sure how well it will work out yet. I love how it actually feels real rather than just arcadey.

Good luck! Its tough but it completely changes the dynamic of the game if Rome is defeated early. I did that in my Epiros game once, and its amazing how different things go. Namely Carthage and Gallic tribes being able to flourish

Imagine a game with total war depth where you start off in tribal age but advance up to the modern day, it would be amazing to see how alternate histories pan out, ie if there was no Rome or something.