I haven't been able to confirm it myself yet but totalwar.com and twcenter.net have both been buzzing like crazy. Here's a little tidbit from a poster at totalwar.com.
Dont know if any1 else has posted this yet (my searches never hit anything) so I thought Id list a few details re the RTW expansion pack that is featured in the new issue of PC Zone (UK) that dropped through my door this morning.
1 - it's called RTW: Barbarian Invasion
2 - it is set in the years 364 to 476 AD, with the Roman empire split into East and West
3 - you can play as either "wing" of the Roman empire and start with a fully formed empire. Your object is simple - survive! The barabarian hordes and lots of rebellions to fend off it says.
4 - There are several barbarian campaigns - Vandals, Saxons and Huns are named
5 - There is a rival empire - the Sassanid from Persia
6 - the Huns have no settlements at all and start with "15 large armies" and have to sweep across the map
7 - there are lots of new units and tactics: a type of x-bow unit, Hun lancers, barbarian Golden Band (elite berserkers), mobile chariot artillery, the Shiltrom (a kind of barabarian phalanx), a shield wal formation, morale boosting druids and priests are all mentioned
8 - there will be spectacular night time battles where morale of the defenders will be lower at the start (tho attackers' morale can drop it seems if they don't break through!)
9 - river battles will allow some light units (inc cavalry!) to SWIM across and avoid "death at the bridge" nonsense of RTW
There is prob loads more but that's all I can see for now.
Says Autumn 2005 release.
And some pictures from the magazine article, I presume:
Woo! I finally get to fight the final battle of the Roman Empire! Fight inflation! Stop the flow of precious minerals to India and China! Keep the client kingdoms down! Balance corporatism with the falling sesterce! Defend the frontiers! Crush the christians! Attempt to build a stable government in the late Imperial period!
Ace Pace wrote:I'm intrested, but unless its something genuinly new, I'll pass.
Stark, WTF can you expect from that game, do you want it to grow bloated then crash like Moo3? Just let the game do what it does best.
I was just being facetious. But I bought Mongol Invasion: it was basically just a mod, giving the hordes free spawns all over the place. Rome is fun: I don't think having 'off mapedge' enemy spawns will improve it.
Ah BITCHES! Go for the Early Republic! Start out afresh in 510/390 and try to build you way to greatness across Italy.
Damn thunder cock obbling whore of babylon that the empire is stealing all the attention away from the Republic.
'After 9/11, it was "You're with us or your with the terrorists." Now its "You're with Straha or you support racism."' ' - The Romulan Republic
'You're a bully putting on an air of civility while saying that everything western and/or capitalistic must be bad, and a lot of other posters (loomer, Stas Bush, Gandalf) are also going along with it for their own personal reasons (Stas in particular is looking through rose colored glasses)' - Darth Yan
I'm hoping that with the amount of time that Activision has had, they've been able to do some massive retooling and improvements over the first. What I would want improved the most is the AI overall OR include a multiplayer campaign somehow; that can off set the unspectactular AI with a human mind.
I would also hope that the overall campagn map is improved. In the original, I never get the sense why I should be taking this city other than to deny it to the enemy. Was there really a strategic purpose in divertying 1000 troops to take a little town that was off to the corner of the map other than to keep it out of the enemy's hands? I just want some strategic purpose: capture so and so's naval base, capture so and so's grain supply, capture so and so's what ever.
Improved AI would be nice. While it's funny as hell to bait an enemy army into walking around the perimeter of your city while getting showered by arrows from its defensive towers, no human would ever be so fucking stupid. It creates a perverse situation where you actually want to keep weak garrisons in your cities because that way the enemy is more likely to take the bait and continue biting until they've lost most of their forces.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Vympel wrote:I knew it'd be Barbarian Invasion! Just like Mongol Invasion for Shogun and Viking Invasion for Medieval!
W00t! Late Roman units!
Damnit Vympel! I'm sure I predicted that would be the title on this very board!
Hey, you live in Queensland? Follow my WESTPAC blog in the HOS. Queensland, like, the Rhode Island of Australia, right?
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
Darth Wong wrote:Improved AI would be nice. While it's funny as hell to bait an enemy army into walking around the perimeter of your city while getting showered by arrows from its defensive towers, no human would ever be so fucking stupid. It creates a perverse situation where you actually want to keep weak garrisons in your cities because that way the enemy is more likely to take the bait and continue biting until they've lost most of their forces.
I second the AI improvements. Nothing is funnier than sitting with 300 troops seiging a town with 1500 troops and them doing nothing but marching up and down the wall. I loaded my archers and artillary with fire and watched hundreds burn to death.
