When Caesar invaded Britain for the second time (having utterly botched the first) he realised he lacked cavalry to properly counter British chariots and, given that there weren’t that many Equestrians kicking about in northern Gaul, he had to recruit from local tribes. This is far more representative of the actual period that Rome II takes place in. The result of this is that rather than just steamrolling the map once you’ve got enough armies, the player is forced to wage war in methodical stages – actual military campaigns – and recruit tribal units to supplement the army as the Romans did. Barbarians aren’t going to immediately stand in for dead Roman legionaries and replenish your units, so you’ll need to wait for some Romanisation to occur, which can take a few turns to begin (though you can recruit local levies right away). The dynamic population of the original ROME returns and now includes different social classes, so to recruit Equites you’ll need enough Equestrians (the Roman equivalent of a knight). Troops need to be fed, so prepare to recruit and protect a baggage train if marching far into enemy territory or have a fleet supply the men by sea. I had to properly account for supplies, troop replenishment, the inevitable rebellions, not making everyone else hate me in the process, and not devastating the region beyond all utility as the Legio III Invicta trampled all under foot.ĭeI introduces and reintroduces a slew of mechanics designed to make warfare more historically authentic. Invading Iberia was not as simple as declaring war and sending in the Triarii. For the first time in far too long I found myself actually planning campaigns.
This mod is what I had in mind when I first heard that Rome II was coming all those years ago.It succeeds in portraying the military aspects of Rome’s expansion in ways that the base game could only aspire to.
After studying such campaigns, the shallow nature of Rome II’s warfare becomes a bit lackluster so I started looking at mods to make it more interesting and came across Divide et Impera. This is simply not how war was fought campaigns that relied more on improvisation than planning, like Caesar’s first invasion of Britain or Crassus’ disastrous invasion of Parthia, found themselves struggling if not outright failing. I find it excessively simplifies the expansion of Rome, which the game boils down to having a strong economy then simply colouring in the map. If, like me, you are a fan of detailed strategy and Roman history then you probably found Rome II a little disappointing and I’m not just talking about the buggy release. With the news that the Total War franchise is heading back to history I booted up what is, beyond any doubt, my favourite Total War game: Divide et Impera, a mod that totally overhauls Rome II and its DLC and turned it into a true successor to the beloved ROME: Total War.