Rome: Total War - The
Barbarian Invasion Extermination
I am (and would have been) the greatest emperor in the history of the Western Roman Empire. There is little doubt of that.
Rome: Total War – 276BC - 14AD. Take control of one of the great Roman families, conquer the senate and the republic and create your Roman empire.
Fast forward to 363AD, the Senate has lost its power and the empire has been split in two. The box proclaims “You were there for Rome’s glory. Be there for Rome’s fall.”
Not on my watch.
Enter the game and get to the faction selection screen. I scroll through them – Alemanni, Eastern Roman Empire, Franks, Goths, Huns, Sarmations, Sassanids, Saxons, and Vandals, all rated between easy and moderate difficulty. Only one is rated “hard” difficultly – the Western Roman Empire. Despite the lure of controlling Attila’s forces, despite the temptation to complete the Saxon conquest of Britannia, there is something I must do first.
I must save Rome and remake the Pax Romana.
Hard isn’t quite the most accurate description of the difficulty of the Western Roman Empire campaign. “Ball-breakingly difficult that will have you tearing your hair out trying to maintain order, save money, raise an army, defend your borders, and capture more provinces all at the same time” is more the order of the day.
I start the game, it goes to the campaign map and I can already see that most of my provinces are rebelling and I am losing hundreds of denarii a turn. My advisor’s icon is flashing so let’s see what she has to say:
“You have selected to play as the Western Roman Empire. Now, you’re in trouble.”
I scan my empire, look at my provinces, my garrisons, and I make a tough decision. Some cities just cannot be saved – including mighty Rome. I withdraw my forces from the cities, destroy every building that has any military use so as to deny the rebels use of them, and wait for the revolution.
It comes soon enough, but the rebel’s joy is short lived. My loyal forces march back in and lay waste to the rebels, exterminating them in their thousands. The city is now in back in Roman hands and the task of rebuilding can begin.
In a game that was as close to perfection as Rome: Total War was, you would expect an expansion to stick to the formula and Barbarian Invasion does this. Of course a few things have changed to reflect the changes in both the Roman Empire and the world over the past 350 years.
One thing is the way religion works.
In the original, each faction had its various temples it could build. All helped
happiness in your cities but each type of temple had a bonus that would help
with growth, trade, or military units. Temples also came into play with culture
penalties and though it would be hard initially to maintain order by destroying
an opposing factions temples (and thus losing any happiness bonuses) and
rebuilding my own in the city, in the long run it helped cut down on unhappiness
due to difference in culture.
Religion has been expanded in the Barbarian Invasion in the way it affects happiness. You have three religions in play – Christianity, Paganism, and Zoroastrianism and they all interact with each other the same way (but given my Roman Empire game, I will be focussing on Christianity and Paganism).
Again you have your Christian churches and Pagan shrines that give happiness bonuses and offer extra help to growth, trade etc. But it is more complex than that. Looking at my Roman Empire, most provinces were Pagan (i.e the majority of people in that city were pagan), so much like Julian the Apostate, I made the decision to change the official religion of the Empire back to paganism.
The “official” religion is whatever the religion of the faction leader is and mine was Christian. This caused some unhappiness in my pagan (a majority) cities. One of Christian cities had a Pagan governor. That was causing some unhappiness in that city but was also converting some of the population to paganism each turn.
There was not much I could do about my faction leader but it would be an easier task to convert my few Christian cities to Paganism than vice versa. I moved my general’s around to make sure only Pagan generals were governing cities. However, even having Christian general somewhere in a Pagan province would cause unhappiness – particularly if he had a high conversion rating.
I had to keep my Christians general out in the field away from my provinces (same with enemy armies led by Christian generals) to help prevent unhappiness and conversion, and I changed my faction heir to someone who was a Pagan. Though my Christian towns were being caused much unhappiness by their Pagan governors and the construction of Pagan temples, soon a majority were converted and most of my immediate happiness problems were solved.
One step on the road to victory.
The next step was to secure my borders and build armies to repel attackers. This is quite important as the victory conditions for the Eastern Roman Empire, the Alemanni, the Goths, the Huns, the Ostrogoths, and the Vandals, all require them to conquer Rome itself, with most of the other factions (both playable and unplayable) requiring other lands belonging to Rome.
Long gone are the days of the mighty Roman Legionary Cohorts. Now there are two main divisions in the Roman Army. There is the limitanei – frontier and garrison troops meant only to delay an attacking army until the comitatenses can be brought up to do the hard fighting.
Each faction has its specific units and each faction has supporting missile and cavalry units. Though I greatly missed my Urban and Praetorian Cohorts, my comitatenses performed well against the barbarian Hordes. There are new formations, new strategies, and some light infantry and light cavalry units now have the ability to swim across rivers which adds a new dimension to battles where previously there was only one bridge to cross from one side to the other.
Some barbarian factions have the ability to, when their last province is captured, pack up their entire population and move as a horde to find new lands to settle in. As they settle in new lands, their horde units disband and return to civilian life, but until then, their horde units are some of the best available. Though losing these units in combat causes problems for when they decide to settle (less horde units means less population in towns and thus less people available for labour), that was hardly a concern when Vandal and Sarmation hordes arrived in my territory.
How could my relatively small armies repel such masses of enemies moving through my lands? How could my relatively basic armies defeat a force of far superior troops with overwhelming numbers?
By using the single best addition in The Barbarian Invasion – night battles.
Not only do the night battles look awesome with the flickering torches of your troops and those of the enemy in the distance, or the lights of a town below a starry sky as you scale the walls (though this can put some strain on older graphics cards) but they have an important strategic use.
When a general is experienced enough, he may gain the night fighter ability and can choose to fight battles at night (or if he is attacked at night and performs well be may gain it through combat). Any enemy forces led by a general without the night fighter ability will be at a disadvantage. This helps, but the night fighting ability becomes even more important (especially when fighting hordes) regarding reinforcements.
Any reinforcements led by a captain, or by a general who doesn’t have the night fighting ability, will not be able to find the battle at night and thus will not reinforce the enemy.
This allows you fight the barbarian hordes one army at a time and whittle down their numbers. As indicated by the title, my Barbarian Invasion became a Barbarian Extermination. By wiping out their generals on the battlefield and using assassins to execute heirs and generals inside enemy cities (thereby not running the risk of attacking their last settlement, missing one of their heirs and causing them to horde again) I crushed all who opposed me.
The Vandals, the Sarmations, the Celts, the Berbers, the Alemanni, the Franks, the Saxons, the Huns, the Goths, the Burgundii, the Ostrogoths, the Roxolani, and of course the treasonous Western Roman Rebels, all destroyed by my mighty forces.
Now came time for my total victory. It was tempting to continue north and conquer the Lombardi and have control of all of Western Europe. It was enticing to press into the steppes and subjugate the Slavs. And it would have been glorious to continue through North Africa into Egypt, slaughtering the Sassanids as I went. But no, my goal lied eastward from Rome, to the heart of the Eastern Roman Empire, to the Jewel of the East. Constantinople.
The Eastern Empire was currently undergoing its own civil war with the Eastern Roman Rebels. Initially I had hoped that both Roman Empires could have existed together as shining beacons in the West and the East, but it was not to be. Their cowardly attack without provocation on my forces valiantly trying to hold off barbarian forces from both our borders destroyed any consideration of a peaceful coexistence.
The Eastern Empire and their rebels will be united under one Roman Empire. My Roman Empire.
I assembled my best armies. Two pressed southeast through Dacia, two came east through Macedonia and pressed on through Thracia to the walls of Constantinople, as another army took the former Greek cities and travelled by sea, hitting Constantinople from the south.
Oh what a glorious battle it was. Such a sight to behold - my victorious troops marching through the streets of Constantinople. It was done. The divided empire now reunited. Victory!
What to do now? Carry on with the reformed Roman Empire and bring the remaining Eastern Empire provinces into the fold before pressing on against the Sassanids? Or do I take control of the Eastern Empire or the Huns and forge a new history?
But those are things for me to worry about. There is only one thing you concern yourselves with: Why haven’t you bought this awesome expansion pack yet?
And if you have, will you conquer the Roman world or will you save it?
To echo my review of Rome: Total War
Honour and Glory for Rome!
Were I in control of the Roman Empire there would be no muslim problem. My Empire would have crushed them the second they set foot in any land belonging to Rome and today's world would be a better place for it.
© by Tiberius Alatheus 2006