StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Being the cheapskate that I am I've waited until just recently to buy Rome: Total War after it's gone through several years of depreciation, it's quite enjoyable although at times annoying because of the absence of an idol unit key or something similar (hardly an original complaint, I know, but it is annoying). I'm nowhere near completing the single player campaign yet, so I may be jumping the gun in asking, but is it worth getting the expansion packs, Barbarian Invasions and Campaigns of Alexander?

Yup, mainly due to the amount of total war mods available for the expansions like LOTR TW and etc.

Barbarian Invasion is worth getting but I would skip over Alexander. But you'll probably be better off if you just look for the good mods, several of which take place in the same era that BI and Alexander take place in.

If you use BI, you absolutely have to get the Flagellum dei mod for it.

BI is good, because it's basically a whole new setting. And I like my Roman soldiers to be wearing pants instead of going into battle with skirts.

From what I hear, Alexander is a really limited game in terms of how it works. But those who have played it would be better informed than I.

As for Mods, meh, not my thing. I like vanillia well enough as it is.

Alexander was neat in terms of the narrative and the campaign; you really need to expand aggressively. But it is a rather limited game in scope.

I never got a chance to play Alexander - I bought it at the store, but by the time it came out Medieval 2 had already arrived, so I was distracted. Which reminds me, I still have to play the British Isles and American campaign of M2: Kingdoms.