Rome: total war

Introduction

Rome: Total War (often abbreviated to RTW or Rome) is a PC strategy game developed by The Creative Assembly and released on 22 September 2004 by Activision.The Mac OS X version of the game was released on 5 February 2010 by Feral Interactive.The game is the third title in The Creative Assembly's Total War series.

The game's main campaign is set during the rule of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire (270 BC – 14 AD),with the player assuming control of one of three Roman families; other factions are playable outside the main campaign. Gameplay consists of real-time tactical battles framed within a turn-based strategic campaign, taking place across Europe, North Africa and the Near East. On the large strategic scale, players spend each turn managing diplomacy, developing infrastructure, moving armies, and managing the population's growth and orderliness through taxes and gladiatorial games, among other tasks. On the smaller scale, real-time battles against enemy armies take place within or between cities, with the player commanding forces which can contain thousands of individual soldiers.

Plot

The player takes a role equivalent to the head of one the three great Roman houses at the time; the Julii, Brutii, and Scipii. Each of these factions have a different set of attributes, initial objectives, and a few initial provinces under control. Control of a province is given to the faction whose army is occupying the province's city. The ultimate goal is to become emperor by conquering 50 provinces, gaining support from the people, before capturing Rome itself, but a "Short game" can be used, in which you have to control 15 provinces and outlast another faction(s). Cities have a variety of buildings which may be built or upgraded, such as: temples, aqueducts and amphitheatres which increase the people's general happiness and wellbeing; markets and academies which respectively increase the city's financial contribution and likelihood of producing effective family members (see below); walls which make the city more resistant to assault by enemy armies; and barracks, archery ranges and stables which unlock new military units which may be trained in the city. The player's empire is expanded by training armies in friendly cities and using them to assault and occupy enemy cities (native mercenary units may also be hired by a family member outside a city). Controlling more cities brings benefits in its increased geographical dominance and increased income from the new population's taxes. However, more cities and larger populations become increasingly difficult to control, owing to local populaces being resistant to foreign rule, and the increased distance reinforcements have to travel. If a city's inhabitants are overtaxed, underdeveloped or unprotected, they rebel and become in effect their own faction - the player's control of the city is lost, garrisoned units are forced out of the city, and a hostile rebel army is formed in its place.

Gameplay

When the player's army meets an enemy army, a 3D real-time tactical battle is started, which represents the other half of gameplay in Rome: Total War. The strategic and tactical modes integrate in such a way that the landscape for the battles is the same as seen on that particular spot on the strategic map where the armies meet; for example, if the strategic map is hilly, and covered in snow, the battle map will attempt to reflect that. The game features a variety of units which are used in battle (most of which are unique to each faction), which may be broadly categorised into infantry, cavalry, archers, and artillery units. Each unit has optimal styles of use, opposing units against which it is vulnerable or effective, formation settings, defensive and offensive hit points, and arguably the critical component - morale. If a unit's morale drops too low, it becomes uncontrollable, and its soldiers will attempt to flee from the battlefield.The base level of morale of a unit may be influenced by factors such as the command experience of the army's general (and that of the enemy general), level of combat experience, and the nature of the unit itself. On the battlefield, this is further affected by such factors as the soldiers' level of fatigue, intimidation by the enemy army, whether it holds a tactically advantageous position relative to nearby enemies, the terrain type, proximity to the army's general, or the number of casualties already taken. Players may attempt to flank an enemy's units, focus their attacks on the enemy general, conserve energy by walking rather than running their units, or switch their archers to using the slower but more intimidating flaming arrows - all as techniques to gain the morale advantage over the enemy.

Each unit has a certain distance it can travel on the campaign map in one turn, with cavalry able to travel the farthest, and cumbersome artillery pieces having the most limited movement distance. Movement is increased depending on the type of terrain being traversed, the type of roads present, and, at times, the attributes of the commanding general.

Inconclusion

Rome: Total War is quite simply the best strategy game now available. A new standard has been set for the genre and the industry as a whole. No other game so expertly combines a cerebral challenge with visceral thrills.